A/N: PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!!! I HAVEN'T UPDATED FOR SO LONG!!!!!!! I'M SO SORRY!

1/10/2018

"Why am I feeling so..." Keefe trailed off, eyelids barely holding themselves open.

"This is not how it's supposed to work! The elixir isn't working!" Sophie's breathing became heavier as she felt the walls closing in on her and the ringing in her ears echoed and beating of her heart speeding, speeding, speeding up faster and faster and faster. She felt her vision blur with tears, red rimming her eyes. His eyelids were shut now, and she was on autopilot, fingers locking around his wrist to check his pulse. Weak. Too weak. He had shallow breaths, his chest almost stagnant. From the corner of her eyes, she saw his finger twitch. Twitch. An excruciating cry escaped Keefe's lips as he bolted straight up into the air, and Sophie felt a throbbing pain in her forehead as Keefe's eyes shot open. His hand went up to his forehead.

"Hey, what was that for?" He frowned at her, his lower lip sticking out in a little pout.

"It's not my fault you had to get stabbed and we bumped foreheads like in those stupid cliche movies," She muttered.

"Ohhhh, like a human movie? I've always wanted to watch one." He pondered. Sophie snapped out of her reminiscing about human movies and her gaze focused back on the wound. It was healed. Just an unfortunate side effect came with it, apparently.

"At least you're okay, for now," She reminded him, her legs sore from sitting on her shins. The pressure was released from her legs once she stood up and lent a hand to Keefe as he stumbled to his feet, knees wobbly and trembling. "You'll probably have a nasty scar if we don't get you to Physic fast enough though,"

"Why not Elwin?" Her head felt spinny. Was that a word? The author doesn't know.

"The Black Swan is here. It'll be easier access her." She lowered her head to ensure there would be no more stupid injuries like a concussion from bonking her head on the exit of the cave. She didn't. Luckily. Not yet.

"That makes sense." Most of his weight now leaned on her. His wound may have been healed, but it drained energy from the rest of his body according to the Black Swan. It's no surprise the elixir didn't always work as expected. She couldn't help but glance down at the star shaped star on her hand. She wrapped her arm back around his waist to support him better as their shoes sloshed in the snow. Minutes later, they reached the clearing.

"WHERE THE HECK HAVE YOU BEEN SOPHIE ELIZABETH FOSTER?" Fitz tackled her with a hug and she fell back into the snow, releasing her grip on Keefe and feeling cold slushiness creep down her back. "We had no idea where you went!" His teal eyes shone with worry.

"Hey, can you let me breathe?" She choked out. It was nice that he had worried. It shone in his teal eyes, and she smiled a little, feeling a blush creep up on her cheeks. He let go of her, standing up and holding a hand out. She accepted gratefully.

"I thought you were..." She trailed off, not being able to finish her sentence. She gestured to his head.

"Physic fixed me up." He smiled his movie star worthy grin, looking straight into her eyes.

A groan brought her back to reality from staring into his bright teal eyes.

Ragged breaths came from Keefe whose hands were pressed tightly against the jagged edges of the rock face. She hadn't realized her hands were around Fitz's waist until she had to untangle them from him.

"Stupid elixir," She muttered under her breath. "Again?"

His breaths became a bit more stable once his eyelids fluttered shut and when she grabbed his hand, his eyes shot open.

"We've got to get you to Physic," She told him.

"I know." He whispered.

"She's- she's over there," Fitz stuttered while pointing to her, who bore a jeweled mask in the shape of what appeared to be a moonlark.

Warmth emanated from his waist to her arm as her eyes roamed the scene. The fighting had stopped. But the shields that Dex has fashioned were up. Physic was healing a couple of elves on a stretcher as she handed elixirs to Linh who then distributed them to everyone else. After a minute of waddling, they reached Physic who greeted them with a loud but enthusiastic, "WE WERE LOOKING FOR YOU!"

Sophie mocked her and screamed back "WE HEARD THAT, KINDA LIKE HOW THE ENTIRE ELVIN RACE HEARD WHAT YOU JUST SAID!"

"I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HEAR ANYMORE BECAUSE OF YOU TWO!" Keefe yelled before cringing from hearing the soft echo that repeated of his own voice. It was quite creepy, better than the best Polyglot could mimic.

Physic cracked a smile, before glancing down at the blood staining their clothing, which Fitz hadn't noticed, causing them both to forget.

"I... didn't see that happen." She noted.

"Not too many people did," Sophie reassured her.

"How'd this happen?"

"Stabbing in the thigh. Sophie forced the Infamous Elixir down my throat," He sighed, but not before shooting a quick glare at her. She only gave him her sweetest, most innocent smile back before sticking her tongue out at him.

"What, did you want to die?"

"She was right to do that," Physic told him. "You're lucky she had some on hand. I thought you would have used it up by now." She laughed bitterly, dead serious. "It's some powerful stuff that still needs a lot of editing to the 'recipe'. Were there any weird symptoms? I've been meaning to test out more stuff on that bad boy." She explained while Keefe and Sophie shared a glance. She heard a soft sigh escape his lips and couldn't help burst out laughing. Hysterical, euphoric giggles flew out of her mouth, as inextinguishable as Everblaze. She heard Keefe double over in laughter as well, his head hanging over the floor, his hands placed securely on his knees. She held her stomach tightly and continued their endless giggles even though she was sure Physic was wondering if the two had gone insane by now.

"Weird," Sophie panted, "symptoms?"

"Yes." Physic's voice had a small edge of annoyance to it.

"Too many. Way too many." Keefe added.

"I can tell, judging by your reaction to that very simple question." She looked a tad bit frustrated, but even a blind elf could see that she was faking it. She wore the facade like the mask on her face. One corner of her mouth turned up into a smirk.

"Well," Keefe accentuated the "e" sound, "that elixir does need a ton of work."

"You're probably exhausted from fighting, being stabbed, taking that elixir, and laughing for that long, so here you go. It'll help with the fatigue," Physic handed him a coral colored liquid in a small tube. "and these two will help with doing some repairs." The lime green could be seen from miles away, the concoction staying perfectly still, clumping to the inside of the tube. Another had a golden wheat color paired viscous consistency. She couldn't help but think of maple syrup. But the facial expression he made while drinking it proved that the "potion" was more foul than she would have thought.

"That's... gross."

"Well," Physic continued. "at least the Moonlark's stuff will be better tasting - and smelling - than yours." She smirked.

"Whatever." He waved the comment away with a flick of his hand.

"Here. A better tasting one that helps with fatigue," Keefe glared at Physic as soon as the words slipped out of her mouth. "And wash it down with a bottle of youth. You too, Keefe." The cold smooth glass of the vial contained an cobalt blue liquid. It was pressed against her lips, the refreshing liquid sliding down her throat. She wished the sweet honey flavor would never end as she tipped the rest of its contents into her mouth. A puff of air that she released was visible in the chilly atmosphere, and she hadn't realize that everytime a fleck of the white gold that fell from the sky landed on her bare skin, a small shudder racked through her body. The rough cork from the bottle of youth stained her fingertips with dusty molecules, the deep tan color reminding her of a desert when the sun was at its zenith, high in the sky. It would shine on the fine sand that would be swept and carried away by desert winds, the sand scraping along your skin, an ember bursting into a flame everywhere it touched your skin. It made a Pop! sound as soon as she plucked the cork from the bottle and downed the rosy elixir.

"You guys are healed!" Physic proclaimed. "And maybe try to explain to the angry mob of friends behind you two."

"Hey..." Keefe started, head flipping around to find Tam, Linh, Dex, Biana, and Fitz.

"What happened? You don't just run off like that!" Biana tackled her with a bear hug, arms wrapped tightly around her shoulders. She rolled her eyes and rolled her finger next to her temple, sticking her tongue out.

"Yeah, I don't know what happened. Nobody told us," Tam remarked, motioning to himself and Linh. "We didn't see it."

"Of course you two didn't," Keefe teased.

"And?" Tam challenged.

"Well it's because obviously-"

"Obvious that you-"

"Why don't you just-"

"Why don't you just-"

"You're so-"

"I bet your more-"

"And I hate how you-"

"I'm sure you do you little-"

"How can I hate someone so much-"

"When you have the biggest cruuuuu-"

"Shut. Up." Keefe's hands were clenched tightly into white knuckled fists.

"On someone else who is totally oblivious about it." Tam finished, a sly smirk on his face. Sophie raised her eyebrows while Keefe's nostrils were flared, mentally shooting daggers at Tam. A soft sigh came from beside Sophie, but she didn't bother turning around and searching for the culprit. Biana released the pressure from her arms around Sophie and eyes the two boys carefully.

"Would you two dimwits stop bickering for a second?" Sophie interjected, making the two teenage elves quiet down again. They shot each other glares that could have killed a puppy. She didn't even know what they had said, nor cared.

"I wonder who it is." Biana responded dryly, staring at her shoes.

Sophie was the only one who had her brow furrowed in confusion, and Dex scoffed.

"What?" She turned her focus to the strawberry blond haired boy whose eyes were rotating in a circle, smoother than a clock could have done. She felt her teeth grind against each other, felt her veins tense up in her forehead, felt the headache starting to build up in the bridge of her nose again, the pain making her vision go blurry. White hot dots specked her eyesight as she stumbled backward, forcing her eyes to shut, letting her fingers massage her temples slowly, painfully. The pressure forced her to spring her eyes open again as she sucked in a deep breath through her mouth, the chilly air making her throat go dry even though bile was still buried deep underneath the surface. Her shoulders relaxed, the headache dissipated as quickly as it came, and what felt like an hour was just one fleeting moment in time where an ache sprang through her head and stopped within the blink of an eye.

She knew it had looked normal to her friends.

Just a second where she took a step back, massaged her temples, and went back to normal.

But to one elf, it wouldn't feel normal.

That's why she caught the excruciating look in Keefe's eyes as he glanced at her quickly, giving her a quick nod. She would have to explain later.

"This innocent thing is really getting old," Dex muttered under his breath. Sophie only caught the words "innocent" and "old", the meaning not quite worming its way into her brain. She only shook her head silently in response, inwardly repressing a sigh.

"Okay...?"

Biana cupped her hand to Dex's ear. "That's what I mean." Small giggles flew out of her mouth as she backed away, laughing. Dex did the same, hands on his knees as the chuckles racked through his body.

"Why are..." Keefe started.

"Now you know how I felt when you did that." Physic patted his back. He scowled, taking her hand off of his back.

"Okay then." Linh finished as Dex and Biana finally had gotten ahold of themselves, no longer acting like psychotic maniacs.

"I need to talk to Foster. Of course, who wouldn't wanna talk to the Keefster?" Keefe looped his arm through mine and skipped away, which proved difficult with the snow and all. His elbow bumped into her rib cage, a feather tickling a brick.

"Sorry," He murmured, removing his arm from hers and letting it rest around her waist.

"It's fine." She whispered back. His fingers danced around her appendix area, lightly tapping and spinning. One second her head was brushing his shoulder, the next she was spun in a swift circle, back to a rock face, chest to chest with Keefe. The warmth from his chest immediately heated herself from the cool atmosphere and she let herself sink into his embrace - but only for a second.

"So Foster... What the heck just happened?"