Sorry for not updating, but for an excuse, I give you a super long chapter!

Love, Rey

Tam POV

Alvar's turquoise eyes searched the room, and then settled on us. I wasn't in Keefe's lap anymore, but since we were both very...very EMBARRASSED that something might've almost just happened that both our cheeks were lollipop red.

"Who're they?" Ruy peeked his head over Alvar's shoulder. "Oh. Hey Tam. Hey Keefe."

"Wait, you guys live here!?" I exclaimed.

"Uh, this is weird." Alvar chuckled to himself, "We don't live here."

"Yeah. It's more like..." Ruy scratched his head. "We should probably just show them, right?"

"Well, it's easier than explaining." Alvar debated, then turned back to us two, "You guys like to party right?"

. . . . .

"So, you turned my house into a nightclub." Keefe stated, astonished by what he was seeing.

Whatever used to be level 69 ("Really mature, guys" - Keefe), was gone and replaced by a huge rainbow colored dance floor and five big disco balls, and hundreds of neon lights dangling from the roof that seemed to go up for floors and floors. There was a bar, a restaurant, a clothing store, basically a nightclub with a mall inside of it.

"No, it's a gay nightclub." Ruy corrected, "Me and Alvar run it. Basically all the queer elves go here when they have nowhere else to go and just party themselves out."

"That's cool. You also know that you don't own Candle Shade and could get in huge trouble for having this, right?" I asked, trying to yell over the music.

"Well, sometimes you have to make a little trouble." Alvar shrugged.

"Yeah, but this is a LOT of trouble." I added.

"What? The music's too loud." Keefe yelled.

"Let's go into the meeting room." Alvar suggested. "Follow me."

We made a beeline through the dance floor, but it was a hard route to travel. Multiple bumped into me and almost made me knock over, but Keefe was really in trouble. A boy had hooked his arm into his and pulled him into a dance. Of course, Keefe is a natural-born dancer and he was totally into it, until the guy started getting handsy. His face turned red and I felt super mad (for no reason whatsoever because why should I be mad?), so I walked up to the guy.

"Hey dude, I'm trying to dance here." Drunk. So drunk.

"He doesn't seem to appreciate the way you were dancing with him." I said, swallowing a lump in my throat. I had to be brave.

"He can talk for himself, right babe?" He looked over my shoulder (well, it wasn't hard he was super tall).

Keefe had a calm expression on his face, like nothing happened, "Tam, it's fine-"

"No it's not. Drunk people don't get to harass kids. It's a law," I added under my breath, "Most likely." I then continued, "You're just a pathetic weakling who doesn't have control over himself and drinks to escape the inescapable reality of his depressed life."

A moment of silence.

"Woah." Keefe awes, probably because I never do anything to stand up for anyone unless they're special to me. Like Linh. I mean, Keefe's not special to me or anything, that's a stupid assumption.

"Okay whatever, dickhead." The man eases away into the crowd, as Alvar, shocked, waves for us to follow them once again.

We travel behind the bar, ("Aren't we minors?" I asked, and Keefe responded with a wink, "They don't need to know that,") and into a back room that led down a narrow hallway.

"I've never seen you act that way." Keefe commented quietly.

"Yeah, are you two dating or something?" Ruy asked.

We both turned red and started stuttering so much that Ruy just rolled his eyes and said, "Never mind."

We continued down the hallway, neither me or Keefe making eye contact. Though I did glance up at him a couple times, he never met my gaze. Thoughts of him and that man made me furious, and thoughts of Ruy's question made me...feel feelings I'm sick of feeling.

Third door to the left, Alvar pulled out a chain of keys and flipped through them before pulling out a rainbow key. In the dimly lit hallway, Keefe and I looked up at each other, both excited to finally get done with this mission. Then, we heard the satisfying click of the door, and then the unsatisfying look of Alvar turning around to face us with his arms crossed.

"Sadly, we can only let one person go in at a time in here with us." Alvar said.

"Okay, lemme go first. They're my pranks." Keefe attempted to go around him, but Alvar didn't move.

"We can't, unfortunately. It only let members of the LGBTQAI+ community in."

"It?" I asked, skeptically.

"C.H.A.D. Calculative Homosexual Analyzer Device." Ruy explained confidently, "C.H.A.D won't let a straight and/or homophobic elf descendant in there. Tam told me already he's gay-"

"I did this when?"

"-You can just tell- and since Keefe's in love with that Barbie girl, he's not going in there unless he wants to be shot by a bunch of tiny red lasers, courtesy of Dex Dizznee." Ruy continued explaining. Ruy pulled out a fidget spinner from his pocket, "So, Keefe, you can play with this human toy until we're done. AND we all know that this could keep you occupied for hours, so don't act so disappointed."

"Well, he's got me there." Keefe said disappointedly. "I mean, you can remember everything I need to get right?"

I thought for a moment, "Is there unopened slime?"

"Yes." Keefe replied.

"Are there stink bombs that could explode any minute?"

"Yup."

I asked my next question carefully, "So you're telling me that if anything went wrong that the whole place would go up in flames?"

"Possibly." Keefe thought for a moment, "Actually possibly leaning towards a most likely."

"Fuck no." I shook my head.

"Fuck yes." Keefe gave me a thumbs up.

"This is so much more than I signed up for, Keefe!" I groaned.

"Well, only one of us can go in there." Keefe shrugged, trying to hide that he was very much annoyed about how this infiltration was going.

We both looked at each other for a moment, knowing that I was incapable and unwilling to go and get him a bunch of shit that I shouldn't have to get, and that Keefe would be bleeped to death if C.H.A.D got its hands on him.

I thought of a quick lie, "I think it'd be better if we just told them so we can get the supplies."

"Tell them what?" Keefe asked innocently.

"You know, that we're dating?" I gave him a look that read, just fucking play along or ill impale you.

"You guys are dating?" Alvar looked shocked, in utter disbelief.

"I knew it!" Ruy exclaimed, then did a little victory.

"Yeahhh, we are." Keefe looked very awkward as he grabbed my hand, "We're like, super, gay."

"I don't buy it." Alvar murmured.

"Why not?" My palms started sweating. If this went sideways, we might get kicked out.

"Well, you're not the most romantic bunch in the batch." Alvar explained, then an idea hit him, "Have you even kissed?"

Invasive question, but one that was necessary to answer.

"Loads of times. When you caught us in the closet, we were kissing." Keefe said quickly.

"Uh huh." Alvar looked at us like we were obviously criminals trying to convince a cop that we didn't just escape jail, "How about you kiss right now?"

"Kiss?!" I couldn't hide my surprise with that one. I gave him a look that read, we're toast.

But of course, Keefe, didn't look my way.

"You're sick, Alvar." I was about to pipe in and agree but Keefe continued talking, "Sick to think we wouldn't kiss for you guys!"

He looked so nervous when he turned to face me, though I shouldn't make fun of him because I knew that my face must've been the same shade of red. If only we could talk by ourselves, make fun of how stupid this whole thing was, maybe not kiss? But that would be in a different universe, and instead of being born in Perfect Happy Land, I was born here. So, gathering up all the courage I could muster, I closed my eyes, and kissed him.

Ooooooo, first kiss!!!!!!!! Sorry, I'm excited too <3