Zander woke up around 10 am to quite an interesting system ping.
"New Quest Received: Mates for life. Phoenixes are mythical creatures that mate with their first love, for life. Despite being half human Phoenix, half Phoenix, you have fallen in love with another half human, half Phoenix. Convince her parents to move in with you. Quest reward: Instant Level Up and New Skill: Bind."
Zander re-read the quest three times and realized he hadn't been doing his daily quest and he had two stat points left. He decided to put them into energy.
Congratulations, your energy is now 220/220. Level 5 Rank: Infant Phoenix Experience 100/700.
Zander closed his system as Sophie was waking up. He sang happy birthday and gave her a big kiss.
"Thank you for such an amazing birthday and for last night," Sophie said blushing.
It was the first time a boy had seen her without a shirt on and their make out session was much more intense than usual. They didn't do anything inherently sexual, but the movements, even with pajamas on, sure felt great for both of them either way.
"Thank you for last night, that was an unexpected surprise. Your skin is so beautiful and soft," Zander said.
Zander and Sophie both realized they had texts waiting on their phones.
"Looks like Cyrus dropped off Claire and is going home to get ready for his dinner date," they both laughed.
"Speaking of which, I better get you home if Claire is home and I have to ask, have you noticed anything extra strange now that you have a phoenix inside you? It's like a third voice and it calls itself a system. It gave me another quest this morning and I was just wondering if you experienced anything like that?" Zander asked.
"No, I haven't. Sometimes I see the auras you were talking about. By the way you never told me what blue was," Sophie said.
"Oh, sorry, blue is animals. By the way we can usually see 1-2 seconds ahead by watching their life force. Try it out if you can. I found it easiest to do with animals. If you see a bird or something, see if the blue aura moves before the bird does and if it follows that path," Zander explained.
"Got it. I will give it a try but it's very come and go. I guess that makes sense as I'm a new human Phoenix," Sophie said with a laugh.
"The reason I asked about the system is the quest it gave me today I had to re-read like three times," Zander stated.
Zander read it back verbatim, leaving the reward portion out of it.
"Do you want me to move in with you or do you only want to do it to complete this quest you say you have," Sophie teased.
"I mean, you have a dresser, the master bathroom is yours and I was thinking about moving my room to my parents room and making my room into a memorial for them. I also did give you a key and a car so obviously I'd love for you to move in with me. It's just are your parents going to let a 17 year old move in with a 16 year old who's about to turn 17?" Zander asked.
"Well, they do trust me and Harmonia School of the Gifted is a good hour drive every day for my parents. I know my Mom is taking time off so we can spend time as a family, but maybe once they know who you actually are, it could work," Sophie said.
"So you're saying you want to live with me after knowing me for one week?" Zander asked.
"Says the one who asked me if I believed in love at first sight," Sophie teased. "Of course I do. I practically do anyway," Sophie said confidently.
"Well let's get you home. I'll drive to your house tonight. You said 5 o'clock right?" Zander asked.
"Yes, I'll see you soon," and with that they went outside and Zander teleported Sophie to her house, 3 houses down like he always did, and saw Cyrus and Claire pulling up.
"Perfect timing bro, hop in I'll give you a ride home," Cyrus said.
Cyrus and Claire made out for a good five minutes and Zander and Sophie were giggling about it and finally they both walked into Claire's, only for Sophie to do a 180 and head back to her house.
On the ride home Cyrus asked what had Sophie so worried, and he told him Claire wouldn't budge or tell him anything, which made Zander happy. He explained it all on the ride home, which Zander noticed did take quite a long time.
"Are you ready to meet Claire's parents tonight?" Zander asked.
"I'm so nervous bro, I'm not as calm as you. I mean I was literally waving like a goofball, I just can't believe they walked over and everything has worked out as it has. I guess Solace really does watch over us and does good for those who do good."
"Like I said just be yourself, and I definitely agree about Solace looking out for those who do well."
"What about you, how are you feeling about dinner?"
"I just met her Father and put her in charge of the hospital the other day and they have no clue who Sophie is dating, so I have this feeling they won't want me around," Zander said, remembering the first quest he received about impressing her parents or losing a level.
"I mean that's good though, right? They'll see you're a stand up guy who makes good decisions."
With a laugh, "I could always use the invitation to the Magical academy as leverage," Zander said with a laugh, only quickly realizing what a mistake he made.
"That was you?! I fricken knew it, I thought if anyone had enough pull to make that happen was the guy who was meeting with a lawyer! Cyrus exclaimed.
"Please don't share that with anyway," Zander said and before he knew it, Cyrus fist bumped him showing him the symbol of the white Phoenix.
"You've been my best friend my entire life and why would I want to tell anyone?" Cyrus said.
After Cyrus dropped Zander off, they wished each other luck.
It was nearly noon and Zander thought the next five hours wouldn't go quick enough so with his new found Phoenix strength and speed, he began packing up his mother and Fathers room at record speed. He neatly boxed up all their clothes and closed his eyes as he went through his mothers dresser and put her underwear and bras into a box he labeled, "moms personal stuff, never open."
After that he decided to move everything out of his room to his dads office, and then began moving his parents mattress, bed set, dressers and such into his room. As he freed up more space in his parents room, he started to skip the office, but he did leave all the pictures hanging up.
He decided to upgrade to a king size bedset and mattress, and teleported to a furniture store in capitol city and said he didn't need delivery and would take it with him. He teleported his dads truck, well his truck to the location and they loaded it up with the bedset and mattress, and he reassured them he'd be back for the rest in an hour.
He teleported back outside his house, teleported with the bed set and mattress and put on the new sheets and new pillows, some of which were rather girly to make Sophie feel more at home.
He returned an hour later and took home an entertainment center, which he set up in front of the bed set against the far wall.
He then teleported and bought a 70 inch tv for the entertainment center and moved the rest of the stuff from the office back into his room and shut the door.
All of his parents' things were in there, something he would keep and cherish. Just locked.
Before he knew it, it was 4:00 PM and his new bedroom had been put together on the third floor, with the master bathroom and the walk-in closet full of Sophie's things, aside from her dresser, which he setup on the left side of the bed, which is where she usually slept. He checked his system, as he actually felt some fatigue and saw his energy had dropped to 120/220.
"Must have been teleporting the cars and all the heavy stuff around all day, how does this even recharge? System, how do I gain energy?" Zander asked.
After getting nothing, Zander was just glad he was smart enough to teleport Sophie's car in front of Sophie and Claire's neighbors, which turned out to be about two blocks from Sophie's.
He texted Cyrus, "good luck,"
Cyrus responded, "you too let me know how it goes mine isn't until seven this wait is killing me."
He was glad he kept his mind occupied all day and quickly showered, got into his suit and played around with his hair and some product, having to wash it out twice, until he thought it looked nice enough.
He texted Sophie, "I'm on my way babe I love you," to which she responded with a smiley face and "I love you too babe!"
Zander teleported to Sophie's car, put it in drive, pulled in the driveway, quickly went and put a bow on it and had purchased her a bracelet, not as flashy as the necklace, but still cost around 2 grand which he wrapped up with a note.
He took a deep breath and reminded himself, "she's technically an adult now, she can do whatever she wants. Who cares if I lose a level."