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He made doors swing with abandon, he moved paint cans, floated pencils and even knocked a dust sheet off a sawhorse in a way that looked, he felt, extremely natural.

He was going to give those strangers of Nate’s a show.

Deniably, of course.

Honestly it was a pity that he was regaining control of his powers, only to have to limit them.

But Nate had rules, and Leo had agreed to them.

He was doing this for Nate, after all. Because he wanted to help Nate. That was the point of this.

And it was good doing things that had a point.

So he practiced.

And when Nate called on him, he was ready.

“We’ll be filming in the hallway,” Nate said, positioning his tripod. “I’ll be scraping wallpaper.”

“And what do you want me to do?”

“Whatever you think is best. I don’t want to know.”

“You don’t?”

Nate shook his head without meeting Leo’s gaze. “If I know it’s coming, my reaction will be off.” He looked around the hallway, at the closet, the stairs, the peeling walls. “It’ll be better if you surprise me.”

Surprise him.

Fine.

“I’ll do something subtle.”

Leo surveyed his options while Nate set up. The stairs were out—he couldn’t do anything with stairs. There were no paint cans around either… or dust sheets.

The closet door, then. It already hung a little crooked, so it drifted on its own sometimes anyway. The strangers could argue about it.

Perfect.

“Okay.” Nate rolled his shoulders and started recording. His voice changed a little, turning louder and friendlier. “Hey, it’s Nate. Today we’re finally tackling this hallway, and I want you to see what we’re dealing with, because whoever wallpapered this did not want it coming down.”

Leo positioned himself by the closet.

He did not have a heart, strictly speaking, and yet he felt like something was slamming in his chest, buzzing. Ridiculous. Was he getting stage fright?

Over a door?

No, he was not.

He drew himself up to his full height and glared at the door.

I’m so going to move you, and it’ll be so subtle.

While Leo was silently glaring, Nate got the scraper under a seam and pulled. A strip came away as he narrated the process, easy and unhurried. His back was to the closet. His shoulders were loose.

It was the perfect moment to strike.

Nate looked at the camera, said something about glue, and Leo pushed.