"Did things wind up okay with Ax last night?"

"I think so. I went to bed pretty soon after we talked. You want your pancakes nowish, or when everybody else wakes up?"

"Eh, I can wait, unless they take forever."

"You and Ax friends now?"

"Good question. Maybe I'll ask him."

"I dunno about that, kind of a heavy question, 'are we friends'."

"How else am I gonna find out?"

"Ob...serving? If friend things happen?"

"'Friend things' is kind of different for everybody, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"And with most people I can guess, but him I don't know well enough."

"I took it as a pretty encouraging sign when I brought him the stars and he told me this was a kindness and asked me about the water thing instead of going to Bella about it," offers Andi.

"Yeah, that does sound encouraging. He told me he liked 'em, too."

"The stars? Yeah. I'm glad they help, being claustrophobic doesn't sound fun."

"Yeah, I bet it's not. I get some of it when I morph Andalites, but I'm pretty sure starting out human makes a difference. Not to mention starting out me."

"You're, what, particularly un-claustrophobic?"

"More like - on most things, I can get pretty damn uncomfortable before it really starts bothering me."

"...If you aren't bothered by a thing how is it even technically uncomfortable?"

"Mmm... you'd call a papercut uncomfortable even if it wasn't that annoying and you could mostly ignore it, right? I feel that way about a broken arm. I just have a really high tolerance for unpleasant shit."

"Oh. I guess that's handy."

He laughs. "Damn right."

"That's not how come you're bitey-critter-bait, though, right, that's a different thing?"

"Yeah, mostly. I mean, maybe I wouldn't get so much out of being mauled by bears if I got more upset about pain, but who knows?"

"Not me, I do not know."