Turns out, sensing your own mana is kind of tough. When it exists in your entire body, you can’t just focus on a single part of yourself to find your mana. You have to be able to differentiate between mana and say, your blood. Or your skin. Or your appendix. It’s not easy. 

It’s like trying to find the difference between your bone and the marrow within the bone, but you can’t use your eyes and also it’s still inside you. Liz told me that it is a whole new sense that I will have to develop in order to even really start anything else. This is the bar of entry, and until I get through I’m stuck here.

I sighed as I slumped myself into the couch cushion. “I didn’t think I would be up against a road block this early on.”

From where she had sat and patiently instructed me on the opposite end of the couch Liz said, “That isn’t uncommon for a Were. Most people would think ‘oh cool so I can shapeshift now.’ In truth, there is a lot more that goes into it.” 

She was silent for a moment before she shook her head and continued, “Once you get this down though, it won’t be as hard. Most things will come with practice and a little experimentation. For most other people who can use magic, it’s way easier because they can use a focus or have a core in their body that acts as a convenient place to point their attention. They can’t use that mana as easily though. They usually have to give it shape with some specific practice or incantation, while a Were can just will the mana to do what they want.”

So, I basically have a big hurdle at the start and then an easier time afterwards? That doesn’t sound terrible. Still, it’s kinda frustrating.

“Well,” I bemoaned while standing up, “It’s not like we’re in a rush or anything.”

“Nah,” said Liz calmly while also taking my queue to stand. “Once my mom and dad come back with that friend of theirs to make sure nothing weird happened when you awakened we should be fine. We’ll go at whatever pace works for you.”

My chest went from a little tight to a little fluttery between the first and the second sentence. A dirty mind is no help when you are trying to talk about important stuff like my health and the future. This is just the magical equivalent of a doctor appointment and therapy.

“Thanks, I appreciate it…” I muttered with a dusting of a blush on my cheeks. “Anyways, I’m gonna go ahead and get dinner started. Shouldn’t take me all that long. Maybe thirty or forty minutes?”

I started walking towards the kitchen while thinking about dinner. Pasta and chicken was what I had planned, and that’s what I set my mind to. Not anything to do with Liz in the slightest. Nope.

“Do you need a hand with anything?” A voice came from behind me where I stood in front of the fridge. 

Argh, my plan has been foiled! 

“Um,” I replied dumbly as I turned to face Liz. “Not really? You can help if you want, but I can handle cooking pretty well.” I didn’t want to outright reject her, especially if she was the type to feel weird about someone doing stuff for her without pitching in herself.

“Yeah, I can’t let you do all the work for dinner. My mom would kill me.” Liz said with a laugh. “I’m used to helping her around the kitchen, so just tell me what needs done.”

“Sure… Well, I guess you can start by getting some water boiling while I gather all the ingredients?” I asked more than told.

“Sure thing.” Affirmed Liz as she went to work filling up the pot I pulled out from one of the cabinets.

As I got out all the stuff for making dinner, Liz got the stovetop going. Soon enough, food was cooking and pleasant smells filled the air. Standing next to Liz in front of the oven as the both of us each worked on a different part of the meal caused her unique scent to mix with the smell of cooking food. It made me feel… cozy. Comfortable in a way that felt as if this was where I belonged in this moment.

Liz had a smile on her face that was warmer than the heat coming from the oven, and I started happily humming along to a wordless tune while I stirred the sauce. Occasionally I would give Liz some instructions, but for the most part she already knew well enough what she was doing.

Soon enough, the food was ready and the table was set. A chicken tomato pasta with a side of greens was served up, and Liz and I each used a bit of dressing on the salad. Liz used ranch while I used Italian. We each also had our chosen drinks on our place at the table. Cranberry juice for me and milk for Liz.

Steaming plates of tasty food bid us to each take our seats across from each other, though before we dug in Liz spoke up, “Thank you for dinner Sam.” 

Blushing a little bit I responded, “You did plenty of work yourself. I should be the one thanking you. Plus you paid for the food.”

“And you planned the meal. So, thanks.” Liz stated firmly.

I really didn’t feel like I could win this argument, so I just blushed a little more and took a bite of the chicken. It turned out really well. A simple dish, but cost effective and yummy. Also very good at providing a distraction from Liz’s very compromising smile. 

Woe is me, for I could not stay captivated by poultry forever. Especially when a really nice girl on the other side of the table is trying to get my attention.

“So, what do you want to do after dinner?” Asked Liz in between bites of meat and pasta.

It wasn’t that late in the day. I did work tomorrow, but I still wouldn’t have to go to bed for another two hours or so. That said, I didn’t really have a whole lot that I would usually spend the evening doing. Reading, watching some videos online, maybe even watching some anime if there was anything this season that caught my interest.

I didn’t really have anything concrete so I just went with, “Nothing in particular. Why do you ask? Did you think I needed to spend more time on practicing sensing mana tonight or something?”

Liz shook her head and gulped down the food she had in her mouth before responding. “No, nothing like that. No need to bash your head into a brick wall and start getting frustrated with it right off the bat. I was thinking we could wind down for the night. Play a board game, watch a movie, just do something relaxing before bed. What’cha think?”

A movie night with Liz… Why is it that I can’t think of a way that I wouldn’t like that? No arguments come to mind against it, and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even want to try. Or, well, I think that just means I’m excited for it? Yeah, that’s probably what it is.

“I think I would like that. After all of this supernatural stuff, it would be great to just sit down and watch a movie. Did you have anything specific in you wanted to watch?” I took a drink from my cup of juice and savored the sourness that came along with the sweetness of the cranberry.

“Nope, I’ll let you decide.” Liz answered simply while wearing a pleased grin for some reason.

“Hmm, I’ll figure it out while we clean up after dinner then.” I decided not to argue against her decision to foist responsibility of picking a movie onto me, seeing as how most of the less important arguments have gone hugely in favor of Liz.

We mostly worked on polishing off the food from there on out, settling into a comfortable silence. The both of us did end up going back for seconds even though the plates that we served were rather generous portions. That increase in calorie requirements sure made a difference. I wonder how that worked since apparently we didn’t need to eat, but eating made things easier on us? 

Pondering on that for a bit got me nowhere, so while Liz and I were starting to clean up I decided to ask about it. “So Liz, why is it that Weres don’t need to eat while also needing to eat to make things… easier or something? I don’t remember exactly what you said before. Sorry.”

Liz shook her head from a little bit to my right next to the sink where she was working on drying the dishes I had finished washing. “No worries, I don’t expect everything to stick the first time. But the reason is that either we need to eat or we need to go out and bathe naked under the light of the moon every week or two. That can be tough since privacy can be a lot harder to come by in this day and age compared to in ages past. And it does have to specifically be moonlight so if it’s a cloudy night then it won’t do you any good.”

I was blushing pretty fiercely at the thought of Liz and I having to go out and be naked under the night sky. “Okay, why those two things though?” I stammered, trying to find the connection between the two and not imagining Liz in her birthday suit.

Disregarding or oblivious to my inner struggles Liz answered the question calmly, “It all comes down to nourishment and mana. Your body needs mana to work, but it can make pretty much everything else out of mana so the only thing that you really need is mana. The most direct way, and the most popular a long time ago when ample food was not so easily available, was to simply take in the moonlight rich with mana of our attribute. That’s actually what started the folklore about witches dancing in the woods. It was Weres trying to gather mana. They didn’t really have to sit motionless to do so, so a lot of them made it a festivity. There are a lot of bits of folklore that call things witchcraft when it is really something else. Witchcraft is just a really easy umbrella term that the mundane masses used to refer to the supernatural and oftentimes vilify it.”

Liz seemed pretty zoned out for a moment in thought and then came back to the present and went back to drying dishes and talking, “Anyway, that leads to the other method of gathering mana which is processing food into mana. It’s not very efficient, hence the somewhat large portions needed. It is a lot more convenient these days though compared to a long time ago when a lot of people would struggle to even have enough to get by. Not to say that people don’t have it rough today, but that the average person is much better off than in a lot of points in recorded history.”

Wow, ask and you shall receive. I feel like Liz is a walking font of information. I’ll have to remember to get her to talk more about stuff like this. It’s really nice hearing her talk about these things since it’s clear that she really takes a lot of effort to learn it and seems to enjoy talking about it.

“Oh, and that would also be why you don’t have to use the bathroom.” Liz interjected into the silence. “Food is converted completely into mana. Therefore, no waste product. Don’t get yourself all worried about that if you thought something was off.”

Wait… Okay that’s kind of weird that I didn’t notice that. I haven’t had to go since I woke up in Liz’s bed. Multiple meals, an entire roadtrip, and like a day and half have passed. At this point it feels kind of silly of me, but in my defense there really was a lot going on recently.

“Based on the look you have, I take it you didn’t notice?” Liz prodded at me with a smirk while I had stopped moving my sponge in thought.

I blushed and scrubbed the dish in my hand held extra thoroughly. “No…”

Smiling a little wider at my expense, Liz sighed playfully. “Well, now you know. Use the extra free time that it gives you wisely.”

Humming to myself in thought, I got back to washing the dishes in earnest. I suppose that really would give me some extra free time. Maybe not a whole lot, but certainly an amount that would add up over months and years. Oh! And I am also saving a lot of time by not having to moisturize or shave. Wow, maybe that will start adding up quicker than I thought.

Losing myself to the possibilities, Liz and I had finished up in good time. These things really go a lot faster when you have someone to do them with you. 

“So, did you decide on a movie?” Inquired Liz as we found ourselves in the living room.

A grin spread across my face. “So, I was thinking about the story you told me about the famous Count, and that got me thinking about a movie that I had seen a lot of trailers for recently. The one with the guy that stole the declaration of independence? A comedy about vampires seems like it could be a really good time. Especially now with the knowledge that vampires actually exist. I’m sure whatever happens in the movie will be even funnier because of that somehow.”

Liz laughed, causing me to giggle along with her. “Okay, that sounds pretty fun. I’m down.”

The both of us agreed that we should change into some more comfortable clothes for lounging while we watched the movie. I changed into one of the oversized shirts that I typically wore when I was feeling lazy and a pair of comfy pajama pants. I took a moment to admire how cute the girl in the mirror was, which was me I reminded myself, before meeting Liz downstairs. 

Liz had opted to not change pretty much anything at all. I suppose she was just wearing sweats and a tank top anyway. I’m pretty sure that she didn’t have a bra underneath her top now though, which was not good for my attention span around her. 

Thankfully, that problem was quickly remedied with blankets that I pulled out of the closet in the living room. Liz got one and I got the other. It wasn’t really that cold, but it was cool enough that I enjoyed bundling up with something soft and warm.

Soon enough our eyes were on the TV and I opened the streaming app that the movie we wanted to watch was on. I bought it with the card that I had saved there and hit play. 

A couple of times in the movie Liz laughed at something that I didn’t understand, but she quickly explained it and we went back to the show. With those moments, I learned that vampires are pretty different from how they are portrayed in most folklore and pop culture. 

We were enjoying the movie, but I could also really feel the sleepy coming on. In the second half of the movie I started yawning. I was pretty sure I could make it to the end though, so I didn’t say anything. 

Soon enough, I could feel the climax of the story starting to get close. There must have only been like twenty minutes left. My eyes were awful heavy though… And this blanket is really comfy. This is one of the ones that my mom made. 

Maybe… Maybe I’ll just rest my eyes for a moment so I can make it to the end.

I let my body sag a little more into the couch. My eyes drifted shut and the sounds of the movie and Liz’s occasional laughter dimmed. So close to Liz, her scent really is nice…

………..