--fitz vacker--

Tam came back to the hot tub in a bright pink hoodie. He tried to keep his face nonchalant and his eyes narrowed, but when everyone cheered and started to compliment how the color brought out his eyes, (especially Keefe, trying to keep joking around but was seriously swooning) you could see the twinkles of happiness lighting up his face.

I couldn't blame him. It's a nice feeling, to be welcomed and accepted. Tam and I have one thing in common: we seldom get that kind of feeling in our lives. So when we do, it's extra special.

"So, I get to ask someone now?" Tam asked, the twinkles in his eyes gone but still lingering around in the air.

Everyone nodded. He looked around and everyone seemed to be holding their breath, praying to not be noticed. Or maybe that was just me.

"Uh, Linh!" Tam said after a while. Everyone but Linh let out breaths of relief.

"Uhm, dare?" Linh said, fidgeting with her thumbs. Well, her thumb. She was still holding hands with Marella in the water. Her eyes held a frantic manner to them. kind of like a please don't torture me, beloved sibling. Being Biana's brother, I could understand the feeling.

Choosing to go easy on her, Tam decided to give her a pretty tame one. "Braid Marella's hair!"

"My hair's already braided, genius," Marella retorted, holding up her free hand to twirl one of her blonde braids with her finger.

"Dye her hair then," Tam said. Linh smiled, but it faded quickly.

"Wait, but I don't have an elixir!" Linh said. She turned to Dex expectedly. He sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Why does everyone expect me to bring elixirs wherever I go?!" Dex complained. "My name is Dex Dizznee, not Potion Boy."

"Can you go get some?" Tam asked him. Dex groaned.

"Fine." Dex stepped out of the hot tub, droplets of water dripping down his torso. "Which colors?"

"Dark blue," Marella said instantly. "Or a dark red! Oh, maybe neon green? Do you think I could pull off light pink? Golden for highlights of course...maybe an orange too."

"The whole rainbow it is," Dex muttered.

"I'll go, if you really don't want to," I offered. Dex shot me a grateful smile, wrapping a towel around his shoulders.

"Thanks, but it's fine," he told me. "I've already gotten out of the pool anyway."

"Fitz and Dex can both go," Biana interrupted. "Dex could use some extra hands, right Dex?"

Dex blinked. "Uh, yeah. That would be great."

"Great!" Biana exclaimed. I glared at her, but she pretended to not notice. "Bye, guys! Make sure to be back soon!"

Screw you, I transmitted into my sister's head. She only smiled.

***

Slurps and Burps was as bright and colorful as ever, if not even more so. Juline was out in front of the store with a ladder and some vibrant buckets of paint, working on the paintjob of the front. She didn't seem to be trying very hard to paint the wood neatly, but she definitely seemed to be having fun, especially since Kesler was behind her, making enough jokes to make her dangerously close to toppling off the ladder. Their happiness seemed to illuminate the otherwise bland buildings in Mysterium, making the city feel a little less depressing. Looking at the couple made my mind remember awkward, formal dinners at Everglen with my family, where we wouldn't even smile. And the way Kesler's gaze drifted to Juline's lips made my heart ache in more ways than one.

"Hello, Dex," Juline said absently, only half paying attention. "Oh, and Fitz." She resumed talking to Kesler, taking a bucket of bright red paint and pouring it on his head.

Dex caught the wistful look in my eyes. "You okay?"

I forced a smile. "Yeah, fine." Dex raised his eyebrows, but said nothing more on the subject, walking into the store and into the backroom where Dex and his family made the elixirs. The dim room was lit up by glowing potions of all sorts of colors and a golden lantern shining on the ceiling. Shelves and tables crowded the room with only a trashcan and a small amount of floor space to accompany them. Dex grabbed several potions from a wicker table and carefully, one by one, lifted them with telekinesis. First a sparkling fiery orange, then a glowing neon green, then a pale blue that looked like it was pulsing with frosty air.

"Can't put these in a bag, they'll get broken one way or another," Dex muttered to himself. I stayed silent as Dex set the neon green one down and sprinkled a small jar of charcoal-ish powder into the potion, still balancing the other elixirs in the air. "I used to have this leather tote for elixirs, but whenever I placed it down on the ground a little too hard the glass bottles cracked and then boom, hard work: gone. Now I just do it this way. Helps me practice my telekinesis, too." His eyes flickered back to me. "Sorry, is this boring?"

"Never," I reassured him, cracking a small smile, but it faded away quickly as I reviewed the details of what Dex previously stated. "But I thought leather was supposed to be, y'know, cushiony?"

"Not that kind apparently," Dex grumbled, taking the potion and sprinkling in a bit of glittery silver dust. "Triplets bought it for me, but I think they just took some cardboard and dipped it in milk."

I snorted. "It's the thought that counts."

"Not if someone gives you cardboard for the holidays, Wonderboy," Dex countered with a smile on his face, dimples on display, and I felt my heart stop beating for a couple seconds. To my dismay, Dex's periwinkle- no, forest green now- eyes were trained on the potion now, not on mine.

"Can I do anything to help?" I asked. Dex nodded, eyes focused on the charcoal powder in front of him.

"Get me that brownish liquid near the door," he said. He closed the lid of the green elixir and shook it, swirling the black charcoal around in a frenzy. Peeling my eyes of off him, I grabbed the ingredient Dex wanted- a rather disgusting brown concoction with the consistency of water. Just out of curiosity, I unscrewed the cap and sniffed the potion, smelling a mix of public human bathroom and burnt waffle.

Dex looked up from the potion he was handling when I couldn't suppress my gag. "If you need to throw up, for the love of Apollo do it in the trash can," he said, a trace of amusement in his voice. "Don't need another chore to complete." With that friendly suggestion, I stood over the trashcan and threw up what was left of the food I ate on the boat. Then I did it again. And again.

"God, what was in that stuff?" I muttered after I was done, head reeling. Footsteps came over to where I was kneeling over the trash can and I felt a warm hand on my shoulder.

"You okay?" Dex asked me. I grimaced and nodded my head, heaving myself onto my feet.

"Sorry, that was gross," I said. I grabbed a spare washcloth on one of the tables and wiped my mouth. Dex only shook his head, smiling adorably, and I felt my face heat up as I became very aware of the feeling of his hand on my shoulder.

"No, it's my bad. I should've warned you. That stuff might be the worst stuff we have in stock at the moment." Dex wrinkled his nose at a greenish yellow concoction stacked on one of the shelves. "Okay, maybe we have worse. But still. Not your fault." Dex's gaze drifted to his hand resting on my shoulder and his face blossomed rosy pink, the warmth of his touch disappearing as his hand retreated to his side. "Sorry, I-"

"No, it's fine," I said before I could change my mind. Dex's eyes widened, but I bit my tongue so I couldn't take it back, even though the doubts were starting to pour inside my head and I was starting to wish I was never born.

"Wonderboy, I was wondering if you wanted to..." Dex trailed off. My heart felt like it was going a hundred miles per hour. "Like, go out with me?"

"I'd love to," I said, in a voice a bit too high for my liking. Dex didn't seem to notice, only grinning at me with adorable dimples and the potions in the air illuminating his face in a million different colors and my heart was racing because oh my god, right now, it's happening, because Dex is looking at me like I'm the only thing that matters in this world, and oh my god-

"I would kiss you right now, Wonderboy, but you just threw up and I think you should brush your teeth first." Dex gestures to the trash can and I blush in embarrassment.

After Dex directs me to a bathroom in the backroom where there should be an extra toothbrush I vigorously scrub my teeth as fast as I can, counting down the seconds until it's been two minutes. Then, I race back to Dex and place my lips on his because I feel like if I don't I might just collapse on the floor.

All the potions in the air come falling down on us and it's still his lips on mine.