"So, where are you trying to go?" Zander asked as they strolled down 2nd Avenue, several streets away from Stars High. The moment Zander made it clear the buses weren't due for two hours, Juliette insisted they waited at the bench.

But, Maiya had other plans.

Where Zander thought he'd left her beside Juliette, she would suddenly appear behind him, nearly startling a quiet yelp from him. More than once, he caught a hushed whisper from Juliette, indicating to Maiya that she shouldn't do things like that, but the moment Juliette caught on to Zander trying to listen in, she'd clam up.

It was fair though. He understood the strange revelry and secrecy that occurred between friends. He was much the same way when Samuel and him used to joke around, but it was never quite to this degree.

It's almost as if these two were keeping secrets. Girl secrets.

"Do you remember when you and Nero would get into so much trouble?" Juliette's soft voice barely brushed Zander's ears.

"Yes?" Maiya's more callous voice nearly made a bird take flight.

"Well, this is what you are reminding me of. You are dragging me into trouble even though I had nothing to do with it."

"Just because you couldn't defend yourself against Mallory doesn't mean I have to go down with you."

Zander slowly turned to look at the pair who instantly quieted. "Mallory? I don't recognize that name."

"Just one of our friends," Juliette answered sweetly.

"She is not my friend," Maiya grumbled.

They were as strange as they were dressed. More than once, a car had been passing by and slowed to stare at the pair, undoubtedly raising an eyebrow at Zander for not dressing like he'd emerged from the dark ages too and spoiling the fun.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Maya's sweet voice sounded as she skipped up to walk beside him. "Do you know of any baby showers happening nearby?"

"Baby—?" Zander had to physically stop himself from walking to understand what just came out from her mouth. "Did you just say baby shower?"

"Yes."

"Why are you interested in that?" Zander shuddered and resumed his pace.

Juliette skipped so that she walked on his other side, her pointed leather boots trampled the grass as her short legs struggled to keep pace, "We read about it," she half explained. "Why are they a thing?"

Zander tried his best to remember what exactly happened at those.

"When someone is expecting a baby..." he started out slowly.

"Oh, so it's not fully alive when they throw them outside?" Maiya's innocent face could have convinced Zander the world was collapsing in half.

What the fuck?

"No," he answered. "A bunch of friends gather to celebrate and give the person gifts—why am I answering this? What do you want from me?"

"Information," Maiya answered darkly. "All of it."

"What she means to say is—" Juliette interrupted, "We're curious about where you're from."

"Well... this is Star Haven," Zander gestured to the neighborhood. "It's the same as any other town."

"Star Haven," Maiya repeated, then shot Juliette an indecipherable look. "We're safe from the stars."

"Or the stars are safe here," Juliette glowered.

Zander stopped walking again, "What are you two on?"

"The ground, hopefully." Maiya quirked a brow. "You?"

"Not enough caffeine to handle this bullshit," Zander shook his head and resumed walking.

Juliette bounced to keep up, "Where are we going?"

"Wherever you want to go—"

Maiya's cold fingers curled around his arm, startling him. "Do you have any in-laws?"

Zander tore his arm from her, "What? Why would I have those?"

She shrugged, "In case your family consists of a bunch of criminals."

"My family is not a bunch of— where are you guys from?" He shot both of them a bewildered stare. "Or are you making it your mission to confuse the hell out of me? Am I being recorded?" He scanned the sidewalks both in front of and behind the trio, but spied no one.

"Do you have a betrothed's cousin who's baby shower we can attend?" Maiya's wide, silver eyes pinned him in place.

"Do I have a betrothed?" Zander began backing away from them. "I think I've made a mistake. It was nice meeting you guys."

Juliette cleared her throat, "I'm sorry for my friend's behavior, but if you could so nicely point us to the highway."

"FOR WHAT!?"

She blinked, her gentle brown eyes seemingly lost and equally confused. "For travel?"

"TO WHERE?"

Maiya swooped in and looped an arm through Juliette's elbow, "We have no idea. We're not here for a long time, we're here for a good time."

Zander pinched the bridge of his nose, "My God. That's what people say when they're about to make bad choices."

Juliette huffed, "Maiya, if there's any advice in the world for you to take, it's that."

"Make bad choices?" she inquired.

Zander dropped his head into his hands. "You two are too much. Where am I taking you too?"

"I told you, the highway," Juliette insisted.

"You. Are. Not. Hitchhiking."

Maiya spoke this time, "What's hitchhiking?"

"Okay, that's it!" Zander stormed ahead, "I'm taking you to my house so I can introduce you to a thing called the internet. Since you are so annoyingly good at keeping your weird monk characters up, I'll play pretend. Okay? Okay." He didn't know how possessed the patience to listen to their rambunctious chatter for the last twenty minutes, but it was certainly wearing thin.

Maiya's quiet voice rang through the lull in the conversation, "I take it you're not betrothed?"

"NO."

⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

Zander might have answered so many questions, he wasn't sure anymore what information these girls now knew about his personal life. Are you engaged? No. Are you kidnapping us? No, but I wish someone else came to finish the job. You never answered, do you have any in-laws? I did too answer, and no, I don't, because I am not engaged.

How? You're so stunning to look at—this was Maiya's comment—to which Zander had to freeze and slowly process her words. "Did you just objectify me?"

"I'm objecting to you not being engaged. Do you need some help?"

Zander's cheeks were afire as he unlocked the door to his house. "No, I don't need help getting engaged. I would need a girlfriend first."

"Are you courting anybody? Because I think they'd be very interested in getting engaged with you," Maiya commented.

Juliette snorted, "Are you trying to set the poor guy up with someone?"

"I'm just saying, if he's single, then we might have a little spare time. Right, Z?"

"What?"

Maiya's icy eyes melted as the strange silver hue glinted in the afternoon light, "If you're ever up for a good romping—"

Juliette's loud groan of disapproval cut Maiya's words off.

Thankfully.

Though, Zander had never felt more seen or embarrassed.

Did she just offer to—?

Why?

They had to be pranking him. That was the only explanation for all of this nonsense.

He opened the door for the strange duo and waited with bated breath as they examined the bland living room. A few stray cans of spilled beer littered the carpet and coffee table, but he was more impressed that Summer had managed to clean it so well before school this morning.

She was a force to be reckoned with.

Zander was confident Summer would be able to keep up with Maiya and Juliette's bickering when she got home from school.

If they were still around, that is.

"Wow. It's so..."

Zander tensed.

"Ordinary," Juliette finished. "I was expecting something— Oh. What is that?" She pointed at the TV in the middle of the wall.

"A TV—Where did you guys say you were from again?"

"Glasden. You wouldn't have heard of it," Maiya piped in.

"Jos Vargu," Juliette said softly as she prodded the screen.

"Since you're so intent on pretending to be monks, here," Zander tossed Juliette the remote and instructed her how to turn on Netflix. "Why do you want to get to the highway so bad?" Zander glanced at Maiya curiously and watched as she opened the kitchen cabinets and withdrew a box of cake mix.

"I don't know," she answered. "I want to see more of this world."

"I'm going to ask again and please be honest with me," Zander leaned against the back wall, "Are you high?"

"Like on canash?"

How. How am I going to deal with these two? And why? Why did I decide to deal with these two?

Maiya tore open the box of cake mix and upended the powder into her mouth. She immediately started coughing. Her commitment to the bit was strangely enduring. Zander quickly looked away from her.

Juliette put on a documentary about cats. "It's talking," she said, mystified. "Are they stuck in there? Or is this like a portal call?"

"Portal call?" Zander inquired.

Juliette clamped her mouth shut.

"Portal call?" he repeated.

Juliette shrunk beneath his harsh gaze. "You guys don't have magic in this world, do you?"

"Magic?"

Juliette went as pale as a ghost.

Then, Maya started coughing, spewing puffs of cake mix all over the kitchen floor.

"Dude," Zander chastised, "My sister was going to make my brother a birthday cake."

"But look who didn't say anything until after I started choking on it," Maiya huffed. "That's on you for being irresponsible."

Zander's eye twitched. "I need you guys to answer some questions for me," he pleaded. "I answered all of yours, so please, be fair."

Juliette drew her knees to her chest, "Fine. But you only get four questions."

Maiya licked the cake mix from her fingers, "This tastes shitty."

"That's because you're supposed to bake it," Zander shot her a look similar to the one Juliette was sending her.

"'Kay," Maiya bounced over the back of the couch and leaned against the arm heavily, "What do you want to know?"

Zander thought carefully about all the strange things they'd mentioned and tried his best to filter the most important questions first. "Where are you actually from?"

"I told you, Jos Vargu," Juliette folded her arms. "You're down to three."

Maiya hesitated, "Another world."

"Thank you," Zander sighed. Then paused. "Wait. World? As in not from here?"

Maiya cowed beneath the daggering glare Juliette sent her, but nodded anyway. "I was doing some research and accidentally opened a portal to your home world."

"Portal," Zander stated.

"Yes," Juliette replied. "Two left."

"That wasn't a question," Zander protested.

"True. I didn't hear a question mark," Maya defended.

Juliette rolled her head on her shoulders, "Fine. Three. Go."

He couldn't believe he was entertaining this. "If you're actually from another world... Do you have any place to stay the night?"

"The side of the road would work," Maiya shrugged. "Nothing I'm unused to."

Juliette huffed, "Two."

Zander thought more carefully about his next question, then recalled something he'd overheard them talking about from the restroom. "I heard you guys say... erkain? Arcane? What does that mean?"

Maiya flexed her fingers as if this were an everyday occurrence. "People who have powers. That's us," she pointed between her and Juliette. "Then there are the ruere. They don't have powers but have strengths in other ways. Like you and that cute dimple on your face."

Zander burned with embarrassment, but he continued on. "So, if any of this is true—which I'm hoping it isn't—are you looking for something here?"

Maiya and Juliette shared a look, then answered at the same time, "No."

He couldn't wrap his head around it.

Then an idea occurred to him, "Okay. Prove it to me. Prove you have magic and I'll help with what I can."

"No more questions?" Juliette raised a delicate eyebrow.

"No more questions." For now.

Maiya grinned as evil as a villain possibly could, then... disappeared.

He'd blinked and she was gone.

Juliette didn't bat an eye at the space where Maiya once was, but Zander was beyond bewildered.

Maiya was... just gone.

Then he felt a ghostly finger touch his shoulder blade and he jumped forward, nearly careening into the couch.

"That's just one of the things I can do," Maiya shrugged with a mischievous smile. "I can also kill people if I touch them. Or bring them to life if I try really hard. Soul shit, you know?"

Zander's heart stopped.

Maiya had touched him on more than one occasion and now he was suddenly unsure if he wanted her soft fingers trailing along his skin again. Hell, even the way her steely eyes roamed over him felt as if she were thinking of a million ways she could kill him.

Zander felt more intrigued than scared.

"And you?" Zander cleared his throat and turned to Juliette who held up both palms in the air. A small flame flickered to life as if she had lit a match with nothing more than her thoughts. Then in her other hand, a small, floating ball of wavering water gathered, drawing from the humidity and gathering in its liquid form. Her forehead turned white and a bead of sweat gathered at her temple before she released her hold on the water, evaporating it in an instant.

"I was an Alethia-erkain first," she said apologetically as she gestured to the small flame. "I haven't quite mastered the Haciel-erkain side of me yet."

Maiya dropped an arm atop her friend's head and pretended to rest against her, "But that's still pretty impressive. Remember when you used to burn yourself all the time? Or even when you set my entire village on fire?"

Juliette flamed with embarrassment, "I remember."

"Good. 'Cause I'm not letting you forget it." Maiya smiled up at Zander, "We're still students, so don't expect us to put on a show or anything."

But, of course, Zander wasn't thinking of that.

He was more or less mortified that nobody had noticed the front door opening nor the large, lurking figure standing in the doorway.

"What. The. Fuck."

**A/N! OOOO WHO IS THIS STRANGER!!!???

Fun fact time! This entire story was actually based on an AU idea! My best friend and I are working on one of those "real stories" I mentioned last time and I couldn't get the buzz of inspiration out, so BOOM!!
And the prompt? What if Maya and Juliette switched worlds and ran into Zander on Earth?
I never expected this to make it beyond chapter five.
Lesson to take away? Don't ever give up! I know finding the motivation to write is an absolute pain, but never give up! Sometimes it helps to find a friend to hold you accountable for writing a chapter every week!

Do you have any goofy AU ideas based off of a primary story you intended to write too? Please share them! I'd be very interested to know how these changed for you too!!