"A break? I just started," Gene says, hands still braced on his knees, but he sees the wisdom in her words. It'd be folly to push himself too hard.

Growing, changing...he couldn't have finished his Shadow test if he hadn't. He would have been lost to the Shadow Realm, and deservedly so. But now...now he was a person rather than a tightly-wound coil of anger. That had to be worth something. Apparently, it was.

"Yeah," he says, and looks up. "Sugar might help. Do you always keep those on you?"