his mind looks totally fine, sophie assured linh for like the billionth time.

you're completely positive he's okay? linh asked again.

tam rolled his eyes. i'm fine, linh. geez, you're really taking this overprotective sibling thing to a whole new level. on one hand this was true, but on the other hand he just really didn't want sophie diving into his mind again. there were some thoughts he would rather keep to himself.

keefe smiled. his eyes were red-rimmed. thank god you're okay. he grabbed tam's hand & scooted an inch closer to him. tam blushed & looked away, his mind fixated on the fact that their thumbs were basically kissing. then he realized he was holding hands with an empath & blushed even harder.

biana glanced at them & snorted. took you two long enough, she muttered.

the room was filled with six elves: tam & linh for obvious reasons, sophie to read tam's mind, keefe because tam had needed to apologize for everything he'd done in the bangs-boy era a million times, elwin because linh was overprotective, & biana vacker because linh wanted her to be there. quan song had refused to come when all of the other elves would be there, & mai wouldn't go if quan wouldn't. not for the first time, tam wished there was some sort of permit for having kids, or forms you had to fill out like in adoption. that way, kids wouldn't end with parents like his & keefe's.

physically he's fine, elwin said again.

why don't you check one more time, just to be safe? linh asked.

keefe & tam both rolled their eyes & muttered, noooo.

biana smirked, grabbing linh's hand. linh. hon. chill. plus, those lovebirds really don't want to have to move again.

tam could feel his face heating up. l-lovebirds? what are you talking about? we're not--

biana & linh giggled.

--lovebirds, tam finished lamely. um.

okay, sure, if you say so, said biana. just know, you're not really fooling anyone.

biana & linh were at this point hysterically laughing, while elwin tried to cover up his snicker & sophie just looked utterly confused.

tam groped for a way to change the subject. um. linh. why don't you tell biana & sophie all about... princess purryfins? this was a pretty genius way to get linh to talk about something else; she was obsessed with the murcat.

linh's eyes became wide as saucers as she was struck with a brilliant idea. better yet, i'll go get princess purryfins to show to them!

a moment later, she returned with the murcat, blabbering like an idiot about how cute she was (but don't scratch her under the ears or she might bite you, & everyone knows murcat venom is a bitch to get out). tam stood up, motioning keefe towards his room. come on, he said. i want to talk to you.

keefe smiled: a real, genuine face-lit-up smile, not a smirk. okay.

a/n: that was kinda a filler chapter, but whatever cause it's cute & contains linhiana (& oblivious sophie). only two more chapters left! the last one is sorta like an epilogue, so really only one more. please vote and comment, & feel free to give feedback! also, if you see the word 'and' written out, comment and tell me so i can change it to '&'! i'm super excited to start working on the second book in the series. i bet you can guess the ship...