She looks up and smiles at Victor. “Hey, hot stuff.” She giggles, “See what I did there? Get it? Get it?”
Victor laughs as he shakes his head. “Funny. What are you doing here?”
“Well, I’m here in an official capacity,” Wren mentions as she sits daintily. “Since you’re finishing the first part of your training, I’m here to review the exam with you.”
Victor plops down on the stone bench beside Leo and gives him a confused look. “You didn’t tell me there was an exam.”
Leo places his napkin in his lap and piles food on his plate. “The exam is based on everything you learned in the past few weeks.”
“How come it’s taken you longer to learn Fire Magic than any of the others you’ve practiced?” Eddie comments as he stuffs his mouth full of food.
“I didn’t realize how intense Fire Magic was going to be,” Victor replies.
“Told you,” Leo remarks immediately.
Victor gives Leo a side-eye glare. “If my teacher wasn’t a dick about it, I might have been able to finish sooner. Or it could be because he wanted to be alone with me for as long as possible.”
Leo gives Victor a shit-eating grin without looking at him.
“You’ve been tough on him. Maybe I should have done that so you guys could have stayed longer,” Eddie winks at Victor.
“You’ll do anything to get me to stay with you,” Leo comments without looking at Eddie. He takes another bite before he continues. “And try to get me drunk from your tequila at the same time.”
Everyone at the table snickers.
“What does this exam entail, Wren?” Victor asks as he’s chewing his food.
“It’s the same thing Leo was doing with you just now. I’ll be calling out commands as you attack your targets. Then you will battle it out so I can see your fighting skills,” Wren explains.
“The targets will be moving as well,” Eddie adds with a mouth full of food.
Victor raises an eyebrow. “Moving targets? And a battle?”
“Well, if you had stayed longer, I could have shown you how to make moving targets with your Earth Magic,” Eddie winks.
Leo leans over to Victor, still chewing his food. “It’s so easy. You already know how to do it. Just flying chunks of earth in the air.”
“He doesn’t know how to make the targets walk,” Eddie grins cunningly. Everyone looks at him with skepticism. He leans back dramatically, clutching his imaginary pearls. “I’m sorry that you can’t fathom my awesomeness.”
“Victor did the same pose to me a few days ago. Is it a Mexican thing?” Leo asks with a mouth full of food.
“No, just a gay thing,” Victor responds.
Wren adjusts her glasses, then puts her clasped hand in her lap.
Victor is about to take a bite when he feels Wren’s eyes on him. “What?”
“I’m ready,” Wren responds.
“Well, I’m not,” Victor remarks as he puts another bite. “Leo hasn’t been feeding me because he’s a horrible teacher and won’t let me eat unless I perform an attack perfectly.” Victor looks over and sees Leo’s narrowed eyes.
“Keep it up, and I’ll make sure you don’t eat again for a week,” Leo declares.
Victor points his thumb at Leo with exaggeration. “See! This is how it’s been for the past week with this guy.”
Leo leans into his index finger and massages between his eyebrows. “I wouldsooolike to set you on fire right now.”
Victor leans into Leo and whispers, “I like it when you put your heat all over me.”
