Then he can make his way across, trying not to have too much of a spring in his step, but oh, what does it matter? There's a boy waiting for him.

He offers Haru his arm. "The entire school will be absolutely certain we're dating by lunchtime, by the way."

"They will be so well informed." Arm in arm and across the ice.

...he was kind of not expecting that response. Not quite.

"I-I guess they will be."

"- what, are we not - I mean I guess the witch and the dinner were sort of all one date but -"

"I mean, I'd like to be if you'd like to be? Just, it's a bit fast, and I thought I—would be too presumptuous if I said we definitely are—" You are a clown and a simp but hey it seems like now you are DATING HARU so. Nyeh.

"We can be dating."

"Okay." Eeeeeeeeeeee what is wrooooong with hiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmmm eeeeeeeeeeeeeee~

"Oh you're cute."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he says, still grinning.

"I'm talking about you being cute!"

"Am I allowed to kiss you here or should we be more decorous than that?"

"Oh, why not, it's not like anyone doesn't know I'm gay."

"I don't know, maybe you don't want word of it to reach Ren," he says, not that that's stopping him from leaning over to kiss Haru.

Kiss! "She knows!"

"Did you tell her about how you got this absolutely insane boy show up out of nowhere to take you on a date on a Tuesday, then?"

"I did not mention time travel."

"I suppose that part would be pretty concerning. Have you told her about the magic otherwise, yet?"

"Yeah! I showed her my costume and everything."

"It still sounds a bit crazy that she's just okay with it. I mean, my old man wouldn't believe it but he sucks..."

"She's very cool. I'd want to think about it a bit more before trying to tell Charlie, though, like, if this had happened while I was at his place I would've, still."

"Yeah. I guess she'd be one of the Cool Anime Mums™ some protagonists have."

"I don't watch a ton of television..."

"Oh, you know, whenever there's YA stuff going on, either the protagonists gotta hide their magic from everyone or they have a cool supportive family that's okay with it and there's, like, some types of characters that are more common than others. Ren sounds like the Cool Anime Mum™ type."

"I bet she'd be pleased with this assessment."