Quantifying

Prez didn't want to speak to them when they got back. When they approached him, he barely acknowledged that Snow Queen had evolved into a glaceon, just said he needed time to think. "Think about what?" Aether asked, but Prez shook his head and walked away.

Kyrie frowned at Snow Queen. "Wasn't Prez supposed to be first?" they asked. "What happened?"

"I'll find him," said the Digital Age. They spread their wings and flew off without waiting for Kyrie to approve.

"Well, okay," Kyrie said. "We can still do his ceremony tonight, but wow, we've had really bad luck with this ceremony thing, haven't we?"

Aether looked at Snow Queen, but ze didn't seem bothered. Ze walked away to chat with Dame, and Aether was left alone.

He sighed. Hopefully Prez wasn't too mad.

---

Prez didn't come out for his evolution ceremony.

He wasn't missing–he had shoved himself behind the couch and refused to budge. Kyrie and Digital spent about twenty minutes trying to coax him out before they both gave up. "That's okay," Kyrie said. "We can try again another day."

Aether approached the Digital Age afterwards. "Hey," he said, "how mad is Prez?"

Digital tilted their head. "Mad?" they said. "He doesn't seem mad. I think he's just sad."

"Oh." Aether stared down at the floor. "I… I think that's our fault."

"Maybe you should talk to him," said Digital.

"He said he didn't want to, so… I dunno."

"Could you ask again?"

Aether hesitated. "I guess I could," he said. "I… I will. Thanks, Digital."

He walked towards the couch and poked his head behind it. He could only see Prez's back. "Hey," he said. "Do you… still need to think?"

Prez didn't respond.

"That's fine," Aether said after a long silence. "I… I know we messed up."

His ears twitched at that. "You messed up?" Prez said. "You didn't mess up. I did."

"Huh?"

Prez slowly turned his head to stare at Aether. "I haven't been a good friend," he said. "I was so worried about my evolution ceremony that I didn't realize. I don't deserve to evolve."

"Hey, hey, hey." Aether squeezed behind the couch with him. "So you had a fight. It's fine, these things happen. Look, I'll talk to Snow Queen, and ze can talk to you, and you can sort things out, alright? Then you can evolve with a clean conscience or whatever."

Prez looked back at the wall.

"Aw, come on. What else is going on?"

"I wanted to do something special together when we were all evolved," Prez said, "and now I'm worried that won't happen."

"Hey, buddy, pal, good friend of mine." Aether managed to get close enough to Prez to nuzzle his tail. "Oof, how did you get in here? You know how Snow Queen is. Ze cares about you. You made zir mad, ze needed some time to cool off, and now you can make it better. That's not gonna happen if you keep hiding from zir." Aether's ears twitched. "And ze should apologize to you, too. Even if you were a little rude, you had first dibs on evolution. You were gonna be an umbreon, right?"

"Espeon, actually."

"Oh, right, I wanted to be an umbreon." Aether pressed his nose into Prez's back. "Well," he said, his voice muffled, "the sun's set, so we can't do your ceremony, but we can at least smooth things out with Snow Queen."

"Are you sure ze still likes me?"

"Of course! I definitely do."

Prez shifted position. Aether backed up as the other eevee slowly turned himself around. "Thank you, Aether," said Prez. "I wish I could express how much you mean to me. I'm sorry if I make you feel like… like you're worth less than infinite."

"Infinite, huh?" Aether said. He wanted to crack a joke, but Prez's words felt warm in his chest, and seeing his kind eyes made Aether want to press against him and cuddle him behind the couch forever.

The warmth grew into something more. Aether's body started to glow.

"Oh, no," he said out loud, and he mentally pushed the feeling back. "Sorry, Prez! I'll hold off, and you can still get second dibs."

Prez nuzzled Aether's cheek. "Go ahead," he said. "I'll join you and Snow Queen when the sun rises."

The wet nose against his fur felt like magic, and Aether was overcome with his evolution.