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“You have to be super careful, though. Let’s put on the rest of our gear first! And we don’t want to light anyone on fire, even if they’re grumpy and mean to us! So let’s hand the kitty to Orin and you can come watch until I get things started, but then you’ll have to sit with the kitty, okay?”

“Okay! Orin, you better protect Senor Fluffybottom with your life .”

“Oh yes, I very much will,” Orin says as he takes the cat and goes to sit down. The lab part is split from the classroom by a door, leaving Orin just on the other side of the door.

“I’m going to watch you so closely,” Finn tells me. “Like I even remotely know what I’m looking at.”

I grin at him. “I can teach you.”

“No, I think I’m okay. I’d rather not be bestowed with that knowledge, thank you.”

“Good point.”

The professor comes back with the materials, and when I assure him I don’t need anything else, he leaves while looking confused. Claude is up close, though, making me wonder if he knows some of what I’m doing.

Once everyone nearby is geared up, I set them to work helping me prep the station.

“I know I’m supposed to be making sure he’s not creating a weapon of mass destruction, but he could be making a bomb for all I know,” Ender says. “Mads, are you making a bomb?”

“I can make you one if you’d like.”

“You say that as though it’s something romantic.”

“Depends on what you find romantic,” I tease before hesitating.

“What’s that look for?” Ender asks as he walks over.

“Just… thinking.” I smile at Ender. “Come be my assistant.”

“I’d rather not. Finn would love to. He loves butting into things,” Ender says.

“Yeah, only things that won’t get me killed,” Finn comments. “And I know you’re over here like ‘I need this much of this’ and like… I’m used to measuring flour for cookies, not… this.”

“Says the man who coerced his way into a vampire unit,” Alexei grumbles.

“While we work, what if we all say something fun about each other so we can become friends? That sounds fun,” I say as I hunt for a scale.

“That does sound delightful,” Claude agrees.

“I can’t deal with more than one happy person in my life at a time,” Marcus says.

“What category do I fall in, then?” Finn asks.

“You’re normal happy. Claude is happy, happy. And I’m afraid Mads is too.”

“I apologize that the ‘happy, happy’ role has already been taken. What role should I fill instead?” I ask as I snag the scale and hurry back.

“Ooh, when I met you, I just thought you were suspicious. You should fill the suspicious role,” Finn decides.

“I can do that. I will be suspiciously standing over here and creating fun little bits!” I declare.

“I thought you were the suspicious one, Finn?” Alexei asks.

“I’m not suspicious!”

Marcus shrugs. “You’re pretty suspicious.”

“You too? I thought we were like… bros for life,” Finn says.

Marcus grins. “Doesn’t mean I can’t be suspicious of you.”

Finn laughs. “If anyone is suspicious, it’s you.

Come now, my bitey crew. Let’s see what we can figure out about Grady since we’re evidently not much help here.

Marcus is just over there glowering at the measuring thingy and Alexei is using what looks like a very expensive beaker as a fidget toy,” Finn says as he shepherds everyone but Ender toward the classroom area where Orin and Senor Fluffybottom are.

“Does that mean I can finally take these glasses off? I clash so badly,” Claude whines as he trails after him.

“You definitely clash but I don’t think it’s the glasses,” Alexei mutters.

“What was that, my one true love?”

Alexei sighs.

“I said, ‘You are a beautiful being. And I wish I had even a quarter of the fashion expertise you do,’” Finn says while trying his hand at a Russian accent in a poor attempt to sound like Alexei.

“Oh honey, Alexei, my love whose voice weirdly got a bit squeaky, why didn’t you say so sooner?” Claude asks.

“NO! Don’t listen to him,” Alexei protests.

But of course Finn’s not done. “There is nothing I’ve ever desired more in my life than to have you teach me the ‘wonders of the wardrobe.’”

Alexei slaps his hand over Finn’s mouth. “Do not listen to him.”

“Oh honey… my heart! My fragile heart! I’d love to teach you my ways. Oh. My. Goodness. Would everyone else like to know? Maybe we could stop all of this life-threatening stuff and become models! That sounds delightful. Marcus?”

“I would rather walk around naked than become a model,” Marcus says.

“Honey… I feel like my brother is being awfully mean. I’m so glad you love me and are willing to embrace my clothes.”

“I embrace every part of you,” Alexei says, sounding a bit like he’s not quite so sure he wants to join the model life either.

“Then does that mean you’ll let me dress you for our next date? Nothing would make me happier.” It’s obvious Claude knows what he’s doing as he cons Alexei into what looks like a scarring experience.

“Nothing would make me happier as well,” Alexei replies with much dread. Claude doesn’t care. It’s become clear he’d feast on that dread if it meant dressing his partner up.

“Alright, you two colorful lovebirds, let’s get started and stop screwing around,” Finn says.

Marcus looks at Finn in disbelief. “Weren’t… weren’t you the one who started… never mind, honey.”

“Never mind is right,” Finn says, looking quite proud of himself.

They disappear through the door, leaving only Ender. He slides onto a stool and stares at what I’m doing. “Do I really have to watch? I can already tell that you’re doing something different than what you did before.”

“Oh? You think so? That’s weird. Very weird. Maybe it’s just because the items are in a different form.”

“Or maybe because you’re making something else. Whatever you made before, you had to move quickly. Here, you’re letting it rise in temperature before cooling it.”

“I had very little time before.”

“What are you making?” he asks.

“Magic.”

“Oh wow. And what does this magic do?”

“Like magicky stuff. Like… whoosh and wham and pow.”

“Oh wow, I’m totally convinced you’re not doing something nefarious,” Ender says.

I smile at him. “You’re cute, you know that?”

Ender looks skeptical. “You apparently have a thing for half-dead, half-asleep men who haven’t had the chance to bathe or sleep or really just… exist in days. I’m supposed to watch you,” he says as he slips off his chair onto the floor. “But I will watch you from down here.”

“I don’t think it’s safe to sleep on the floor next to someone making… antidote.”

“Why’d you hesitate?”

“That’s what it’s called: …Antidote. It’s like a pregnant pause to build up the anticipation.”

“Just don’t blow everything up. Rylee is here.”

“Oh, the only reason I can’t blow things up is because Rylee is here?” I tease.

“Correct. Give me something for a pillow.”

I look around then decide that my shirt is the only thing suitable and pull it off.

At least it’s the clean one Katherine gave me and not the bloody one I left behind in the car.

He raises an eyebrow. “There are like five aprons right there that you could have given me. I thought you were all about safety.”

“When I see an opportunity to flirt with you, I will do anything, even say ‘fuck safety,’ to accomplish it.”

“It’s not my fault when you burn your chest hair off.”

“Joke’s on you, I have very little to burn off,” I inform him. “Would it help if I tucked you in?”

“It would help if you finished quickly so I can get to murdering.”

I stop what I’m doing and walk over to him so I’m standing over him. “You adore Rylee, don’t you?”

He stares at me like he’s not planning on answering because he knows where I’m going with this.

“If you adored her so much, why would you risk your life, and in turn, risk hers? I may be wrong, but I believe you might be our best bet at stopping him. If you die, what then? Who protects her then? Fighting isn’t always the only way to get answers.”

“You think I should have a heart-to-heart with him?” Ender asks.

“Oh… no… I was thinking more like…” I eye my concoction. “Things that explode.”

“So you really are making a bomb.”

“I would never,” I say. “Get some sleep. If it’ll help, you can hug my ankle. I shouldn’t have to move too much, but I might drop something on your head, so it’s kind of an ‘at your own risk’ type of situation.”

“I’m not touching you.”

“You slept so soundly when I held you on my back.”

“Because I was in the process of dying .”

“You squeezed me close and whispered, ‘Mads, I think this might be love.’”

“Are you sure I didn’t say, ‘Mads, I think I might be dying’?”

“You know… it could have been, but I’m sure it was the love one.”

“Finish working and stop fucking around.”

“I’m not fucking around. It needs to simmer for a bit.”

“Simmer? You making fucking soup?”

“Sure. That’s what we’ll call it,” I say. “Soup.”

Ender sighs and keeps watching me for about two more minutes before he just falls asleep. And I’m left to make whatever the fuck I want. I mean… really… would any of them even realize what I was doing?

I smile, pleased with myself.

“Ennnnder,” I call as I stand over him. “It’s time to wake up. That sounds fun, right? I’ve finished making ‘Soup’ and ‘…Antidote.’”

“Hmm…” he grumbles, evidently not impressed with Soup but that’s because he doesn’t realize what Soup does.

“I think we should tell the others we’re done so we can get going,” I say as I drop down to my knees and straddle his waist.

He probably had been planning on ignoring me and continuing to sleep until that point. The second he feels me sit down on him, he opens his eyes and looks up at me.

“I’m also quite tired and have stood for a very long time so I really would love to sit… even if just for a minute,” I say, planting my ass right on his thighs.

“You normally sit on people?”

“I didn’t want to get my trousers dirty by sitting on the floor.”