Seonghwa arrived at the rendezvous spot at the promised time. In his usual stuck-up and awkward ways, he sat at the corner they preferred to it in and waited for the two other boys. When he spotted them coming in, he came over right away. The usual awkwardness in his face was underlined with unwilling happiness to see the two of them. His interest in where this evening would take them shone through the facade his drawn brows created.

When Wooyoung beamed at him, Seonghwa thinned his lips. Without comment, he stood to join them at the door. He carried a bag of food and wine under his arm. The bottle looked to be an expensive one.

Seonghwa caught Wooyoung's prying eyes. He hadn't dared to look at San yet and Wooyoung amusedly concluded the man's taste in people.

"Food for us?" Wooyoung asked as soon as they had stepped outside the inn. Without the stifling heat of the stuffy inn surrounding them, all of them let go of a relieved breath. The evening was pleasantly cool on their skin.

"My master suggested I share it with you." Seonghwa's stiff voice allowed no discussion. As before, Wooyoung wondered how much truth was behind that.

"What a kind gesture," San commented. Seonghwa nodded in his direction like a wooden doll pulled on strings. His eyes dodged Wooyoung's lover still. If he was pleased with their gratitude, he didn't show it.

With Seonghwa in tow, the group returned to San's home. Seonghwa tried hard to disguise the curiosity in his face but his appreciation when they didn't drag him off into some shady alley to steal his precious paint brushes still showed in minuscule reactions.

Once they arrived at the stairs leading up to San's room, San positioned himself next to the edge. With an elegant beckon of his hand, he gestured the other two to go first. Wooyoung smiled at his chivalry before he climbed the stairs. Seonghwa followed behind him.

Wooyoung shrugged off his coat as soon as he was inside. He threw it over San's drawer and rolled his shoulders. While he stepped up behind Seonghwa to take his cloak as well, the man still looked at the abundance of greens on San's balcony. San lingered outside to cradle an early flower in his fingers and checked on it.

Wooyoung's fingers slipped over Seonghwa's shoulders to lift his coat off him. The man startled, only hesitantly disconnecting his gaze from San. In the late evening glow of Florence, the man looked like Suusaandar. While Seonghwa was busy freeing himself from his coat, Wooyoung marvelled at San basking outside.

The moment broke when San turned to join them in the room.

"Make yourself at home, please." San relieved Seonghwa of the weight of his bag and set it down on his bed. The soft fabric of Seonghwa's brown coat matched the fur on Wooyoung's cloak. He left them in a heap on the drawer before he went to close the door. While he appreciated the nightly air, he would rather keep the secrets of their conversation inside San's room rather than careening them throughout Florence.

Seonghwa sat on the bed like a solid pillar. His brows drew together when Wooyoung flopped on the bed by his side. The shift of weight on the mattress forced Seonghwa to lean into Wooyoung's side. Before he could scoot away, San already dropped on his other side. He busily unpacked Seonghwa's bag to distribute the food between them.

"Don't be shy to start talking. We've become so close now," Wooyoung purred at Seonghwa. He took the glasses San handed him to hold them while the man poured their wine. After handing one to Seonghwa, Wooyoung toasted with him before he tasted the fruity liquid. Rich and delicious, the wine simulated his tastebuds. Wooyoung gave an appreciative hum.

"My master told me a lot that connects directly to what he told you last time. I hope you remember his teachings." Seonghwa played with his glass in his lap. He denied the food that San offered him, leaving only Wooyoung and San to eat. While they wolfed down their bread, Seonghwa tried to remember where he had to begin. Despite his snappish remarks, he picked up right where Leonardo had left off.

"The studies of the Philosopher's Stone that my master concluded focused on the effect of the potion. By finding out where in the body it had to work to stop the ageing process and uphold youth successfully, he tried to find the ingredients needed to create the stone."

Wooyoung knew how those studies looked. But he wouldn't point that out to Seonghwa. His help was fragile already.

"My master is friends with many travelling folks. Those who came from the East told him about the wonders of their remedies and how their people kept their livelihood for many years. And those from the west speak of a new world, rich of untapped potential and ingredients the rest of us might not have found yet."

Seonghwa sipped his wine to wet his lips. During the brief break, Wooyoung reached to dump the vegetables he didn't like on San's plate. In return, he received a tomato that he liked very much.

"My master concluded the ingredients must be dotted all over the world and that people are already built differently. Those in the east live far longer and healthier than us despite their smaller build. Those in the north are rough and pale with their bright hair and eyes. And those in the south are dark-skinned and have the bodies of hunters. My master didn't get to study all of them. But he is positive that if he combines the ingredients that give advantages to each of these groups, he can create a universal elixir that promises eternal youth."

Wooyoung hummed. The approach wasn't bad. It was more scientific and logically deducted than the others he had heard. Although if such a big effort went into creating the stone and the elixir, it was unlikely San stumbled upon it so casually.

"What if it's just one ingredient that includes the most effect but we consume it so sparingly it never released its full potential?" Wooyoung asked. If said ingredient was a plant or so, it was easier to believe San's accident.

"That would likely be mercury, the medicine of wonders. Although those who took too much of it fell ill, so my master assumes it has to be a combination. Of mercury, of whatever keeps the east to lively, of what makes the south so strong and the north so massive. Now that we discovered another part of the world, all the ingredients might finally come together. We are positive it has to be an elixir. The things processed by the blood and the stomachs of people promise the most effect. Age shows first in skin, and skin is influenced by the blood."

When Wooyoung and San finished eating, they set their plates down on the ground. Wooyoung leaned back against the wall behind the bed thoughtfully, while San crossed his arms.

"So what is the plan once Leonardo found it? He might need the rest of his life to explore bodies and alchemy in the way he described to us. Won't he be too old to try it out by then?"

Seonghwa shook his head.

"He might be, but there are always volunteers. We would need to hand down that research to know if people truly stopped ageing, but before my master finds the recipe he yearns for so desperately, he won't find his peace." Seonghwa reached for the wine when his glass was empty and refilled all three of their cups. San set the bottle back on his bedside table. In the scarce light, the liquid shone black in Wooyoung's cup.

"From there on, it's easy. Once we find out what controls the human body, alterations are a child's play. My master studied flight apparatuses, but he said we might not even need them if we could control the human body at will."

All of that sounded freakishly Frankenstein to Wooyoung. Again, those myths didn't circulate in Europe yet, but the same sense of unsettling overcame him. As if he was watching a horror movie uncomfortably close to the location it had been filmed in.

"So, that way you could rid yourself of any unnecessary diseases and weaknesses that befall our human fragility and exchange it for additional might. Doesn't that mean messing with God's creation?" Wooyoung diverted from the ingredients. Seonghwa wouldn't share what they learned so far, and Wooyoung was positive they were no good list. Mercury was very low on the list of things people should use as medicines. The Romans and their opium were better off.

"Depends on your viewpoint. My master said God gave us the ability to think and become mightier and stronger. That alone should allow us to make use of our capabilities." Satisfied with his answer, Seonghwa nodded to himself. His shoulders had relaxed under the pleasant warmth of the wine that loosened his muscles. His speech didn't slur yet, but Wooyoung wondered if he had already given away more than he should.

"The men from the church even help my master's research. They have supplied him with rooms and utensils as he does his experiments. Ah- Alchemy, of course."

Wooyoung glanced at San to figure out whether the clueless man discovered the hidden truth behind those pretty anatomical studies da Vinci left in his lifetime. How conveniently his job matched his interest.

San's eyes were watchful and closed off at the same time. He likely tried to piece together the information he got with what happened in his own past to make sense of it.

When Seonghwa reached for the bottle again, his movement was less precise, but San handed it to him either way. It was nearly empty by now, but San kept a little stash of other bottles in his drawer in case Seonghwa wanted to get more drunk.

"Would immortality also mean no injuries? Impenetrable skin that wards off steel and never dying of injuries?" Wooyoung's intrigue had Seonghwa grin. The immortality Wooyoung had experienced with San and the one people searched was usually the same. Not the thought of supernatural abilities, but a very human and restricted set of options, without getting taken down by age. Humans just wanted more time. And less fragility caused by nature.

"It certainly would be a wonderful addition. Maybe we know how to harden skin if we find what makes it soft. Although research might get more difficult, the more a human is to experience change."

More like getting too hard to stab with a scalpel.

The alcohol gleamed in Seonghwa's eyes as he looked into his cup.

"What else did he say... He said that if you two were willing to support his research, you should search not just here. The puzzle pieces are all over the place and he is positive that the last one is in that new world beyond the ocean. The last people of difference from there have to bring the last ingredient."

"What if one of the key ingredients was lost long ago? And sunk with an island?"

Seonghwa toasted to that. Wooyoung was reminded to drink the last sips of his wine that he had forgotten in his fascination with Seonghwa's tale. He shooed off a fruit fly that circled his cup.

"That's easy to find out. If nobody ever gets immortal beyond that time, it got lost; that might be the truth. But my master is positive that immortals are already among us. Ancient ones as well as those who only recently gained their full potential." With a grin, Seonghwa downed his wine.

Wooyoung exchanged a glance with the immortal on the other end of the bed. The talk about theories and alchemy was over. Now, Seonghwa's drunken blabbering hit uncomfortably close to home.

San pulled the glass from Seonghwa's hands to put it down next to the bottle. The confused noise the man made got stifled when San smiled at him. As if San were the moon, Seonghwa stared at him with big eyes.

"You helped us a lot. Thank you for taking the time even when you were against it."

Seonghwa's blush was visible even in the dim light of a candle that barely held on to its sad wax stump.

"I'm thankful as well. You two made it easier than I expected and I will be glad to relay the questions you asked to my master for further thoughts."

Their proximity to Seonghwa had him recoil into his arrogant exterior. Wooyoung had to smile when he jumped to his feet before San's shoulder could brush his.

"Either way. This is farewell. Use your knowledge wisely and make sure that it doesn't get into the wrong hands," Seonghwa said to himself. Still, Wooyoung and San nodded patiently.

Seonghwa fumbled with his cloak until it rested over his shoulders. His abrupt departure startled nobody.

"Then, goodbye and good luck."

"Have a safe trip home, Seonghwa," Wooyoung called back.

Seonghwa fled into the night without looking back and was too intimidated to demand a personal repayment.

With a glance at San, Wooyoung snickered. Both of them were wide awake and sober with their new information and Wooyoung already knew they would stay up all night to discuss it and write everything down.

For now, however, San just cupped Wooyoung's nape to pull him into a kiss that tasted of delicious wine.

Mission successful.