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“I was out here to promote the Spring beginner classes starting up next month, but clearly you don’t need those,” she continued, giving Jamie another bright and contagious smile.

“Er, no, I guess not,” Jamie said, still looking shyly proud of himself. “But this was really fun, thank you for showing me.”

“Now hold on, just ‘cause you don’t need lessons, doesn’t mean I’m just gonna let you get on a bus and disappear,” Hazel said with a laugh.

“My place also doubles as a practice hall for some of the crews here in the city, and there’s a group I know who are looking for a new dancer to join their team, holding tryouts on Thursday.

If you have time, you should think about coming by, see if you’d be a good fit. ”

“You… want me to join a team for dancing?” Jamie asked in surprise.

“If you want to,” Hazel nodded. “It’s a lot of work, but you’ve got the talent.

The team’s in a bit of a tight spot; one of their dancers just moved away, which means they don’t have enough members for a comp they were training for.

Prize money isn’t too shabby, either; after the split with the others, you’d be getting a cool fifty bucks. ”

Jamie stared, his eyes wider than ever before. “I can earn money by dancing!?”

“Well, not a lot,” Hazel admitted. “But if you do well, you can get some nice pocket-change, yeah.”

Before Jamie had time to reply to this, their bus pulled up.

“Ah, this is our bus,” Jesse said. “Time to go, Jamie. But that’s a real nice offer,” he told Hazel with a smile. “We’ll think it over, thank you.”

“Do,” Hazel nodded with another smile, before turning back to Jamie and giving him one of her flyers. “And hey, even if you can’t make it, this was fun. Thanks for dancing with me. ”

Jamie smiled back. “Thank you for showing me how.”

They boarded the bus and found seats, Jamie still looking pleased and excited. “Do you think I should go on Thursday?” he asked them.

“Absolutely!” Austin said. “It would be a waste of your natural talents if you didn’t.”

“You were really good out there,” Jesse told him, though looking a little more wary. “I’m… just not sure if it’s a good idea for you to hang around with a bunch of strangers, though…”

“He’s eighteen or nineteen, probably,” Austin reminded Jesse. “He can handle being in a dance crew.”

“Yeah, but there’s still a lot that hasn’t come back to him yet,” Jesse argued. “And I can’t stay home from work and school forever. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to go with him on Thursday.”

“You could just get him a phone though,” Austin said, giving Jesse a pointed look. “Then he can call you if he feels there’s something he can’t handle yet.”

Jesse blinked as if he hadn’t thought of this, and then gave in with a nod. “Yeah, that’s actually not a bad idea.”

“You have to go away soon?” Jamie asked Jesse with a concerned frown—apparently having been too surprised to react to the news right away. “Why?”

“W-well, to earn money,” Jesse told him. “I’m not broke, by any means, but I’m gonna run out really soon if I don’t start earning more again before rent’s due. Besides, we’ll also have to buy more groceries eventually, and it’s also time you got some clothes of your own.”

“But…” Jamie said, his frown turning into a bit of a pout. “I like wearing your clothes.”

Did he now? How interesting.

Austin had to bite back a smirk as he watched to see how Jesse would respond, and sure enough the poor guy was getting flustered; his face turning red as he glanced back at Austin in clear embarrassment.

“Er, Jamie, it’s… nice, that you like my, um…

clothes,” he stam mered out quietly. “But wouldn’t you like to have some of your own, that actually fit you better? ”

“No,” Jamie said, more insistently now. “I want to keep wearing yours.”

“You hear that, Jesse?” Austin couldn’t help but tease. “He wants to keep wearing yours.”

“You’re not helping, Austin,” Jesse rolled his eyes as his blush deepened. “Jamie, the thing is, if you keep wearing my clothes, then I don’t get to wear them as much anymore. I don’t mind sharing, but the neighbors are starting to get pissy about how much we use the laundry room now.”

“Oh,” Jamie wilted a touch. “I hadn’t thought of it like that. I’m sorry.”

“N-no need to be sorry,” Jesse said at once, looking guilty at the sorrowful expression on Jamie’s face. “Let’s just… buy you some clothes too, okay?”

“Okay,” Jamie sighed. He brightened again then, though, smiling a little. “If I become part of a dance group and win a competition, I’ll have fifty dollars,” he said. “Then you won’t have to go back to work!”

Jesse let out a fond, surprised sort of laugh. “I wish it worked that way,” he said. “But I’m afraid fifty dollars isn’t enough to let me stay home. You can use it to buy other things, though.”

“Like what?” Jamie asked.

“Um, I don’t know off the top of my head,” Jesse told him. “Maybe a couple of CD’s and a player, like the kind Hazel was dancing to, or, um… a bunch of chocolate, I don’t know.”

“Alright,” Jamie decided with a smile, his brown eyes twinkling as if he’d just had an idea. “Then in that case, I definitely want to go on Thursday to tryouts.”

“…Okay,” Jesse gave in, seemingly unable to say no, and smiling back. “But don’t get your hopes up too much, okay? You’re really good, but that doesn’t mean you’ll for sure be picked. The group might choose someone else. ”

“If they do, it’s their loss,” Austin told Jamie. “Where did you learn to dance like that?”

Jamie gave him a look. “Are you trying to jog my memory again?” he asked. “Or do you also have amnesia?”

Austin had to laugh at this. “You caught me,” he admitted. “I’ll stop trying to trick you into remembering something, I guess, though you never know what might trigger a flashback. It could be really helpful.”

“Yeah, maybe…” A strange look crossed Jamie’s face.

Austin wasn’t sure how to interpret this, and made another mental note to keep an eye on it. But, perhaps he was overthinking things. Maybe Jamie just wanted to be more helpful, since Jesse had been talking about money? That didn’t seem quite right… but, it was as good a guess as any.

Still, most of the concerns Austin had been worried about had been dealt with.

Of course, the fact remained that Jamie’s memories were highly messed up for whatever reason, and while it was possible to have a normal conversation with him one moment, he lacked some very basic concepts the next.

Some of his questions even felt child-like, to be honest.

But Jamie clearly wasn’t taking advantage of Jesse’s trust, and he sure as hell didn’t seem any kind of dangerous. As weird as it was that he didn’t remember anything, and as unsettling as it was that he’d been found with blood on his hands… he seemed like a perfectly normal, fine young man.