The moment they were outside the city limits, Azul spat ink onto the pulverized handful of shell-dust before the currents could sweep it away from them. Then he mashed the stuff into a paste and pulled Yuu close enough that he could work it into the bite mark beneath the collar of her blouse. Even surrounded by water, it was messy work. If Yuu had wanted to use this shirt for school later, then…well, he knew from experience that his ink was difficult to get out of human materials.

  “I’ll buy you a new one,” he muttered, being careful to work the paste into every indentation on her shoulder, and being equally careful to avoid looking at her face. He could practically feel her watching him as his fingers dipped beneath the fabric.

  It felt personal—intimate, even.

  Even though this is just a medical procedure! He told himself, gritting his teeth. In the words of his insufferable cousin, needs must.

  “If you would just stop wiggling—” he muttered, trying to focus. “I have to get this all the way in, if it’s going to work.”

  “Quite the choice of words,” Yuu said smartly, wincing when he touched a red mark close to her neck.

  “Eugh; it’s sticky…” he sighed, glaring at the paste. It needed to stay in the wound if this was going to work, and so far—

  Yuu was smirking, and he didn’t realize until she spoke, what that had sounded like.

  “Happens to the best of us,” she said smartly.

  “Yuu, stop moving,” he said when she winced again. “This…this would just go faster if you weren’t so tense.”

  She huffed, not stilling. “Azul, do you even hear yourself?”

  “If you don’t move, then I can do this without hurting,” he said, manfully ignoring the undercurrent of awkwardness that seemed to be hovering just below this conversation. Yuu, unfortunately, did not ignore it.

  “So you’re saying you need to be gentle?”

  Azul gave her a suspicious look. “…Yes.”

  The cheeky girl winked at him. “Never knew you had it in you.”

  His mouth fell open. “JUST WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?”

  Still smirking, she shrugged with her good shoulder.

  “Nothing, nothing. Keep going, doctor.”

  He scowled. “If you call me that again, you can wait until we get back to the cavern for this.”

  “Not my fault you’re so uncomfortable with proximity,” she breathed, leaning away.

  Unbidden, and entirely unwelcome, he felt a blush creeping up his neck.

  “I am not—”

  She leaned back into him.

  “Then why do you flinch every time I breathe?”

  He hated that his voice cracked when he responded,

  “BECAUSE YOU ARE BREATHING INTO MY EAR.”

  “So sensitive,” she teased.

  He groaned, trying to finish up more quickly. At least the paste was sticking in the deeper wounds. Yuu flinched hard.

  "Ow! Careful, Azul, you’re so deep in there—"

  He yanked his hands out from under her shirt. “No. NO. You can wait for the cavern if this is how it’s—”

  "What? You have to finish!"

  He pushed a finger into his temple, which had begun to throb.

  "WHY DOES THIS SOUND LIKE THAT?"

  Untempered, Yuu smirked again.

  "Like what, Azul?"

  "Yuu. I am begging you. Pick different words."

  Yuu, grinning: "If I must."

  "Wait, what does that—"

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She bend into him, whispering in his ear. "You’re so good with your hands, Azul."

  The blush was now creeping all the way up his face. Turning away from her as far as he could while gripping her shoulders, he did his best to—badly—hide it.

  "I walked into this, didn’t I?" he groaned.

  "Oh, Azul. You swam into it at full speed,” Yuu said sweetly.

  Azul took a deep breath, reminding himself that having to start this quest over if they lost the shell powder was not something he thought his nerves could take. Pulling her within reach one more time, he gave it another chance. Unfortunately, his tired brain must have been trying to shut down on him again, because what came out of his mouth was:

  “Yuu, if you keep wriggling on me, then this is going to be a lot harder to put in.”

  Only inches from his face, Yuu gave him an incredulous look.

  “Azul, you’re killing me,” she said through a laugh that she apparently couldn’t keep in.

  Azul’s words caught up with him a few moments later, and he felt heat rush all the way down the tips of his tentacles as he stammered, “Forget—forget I spoke. In fact, forget I exist.”

  Azul put the rest of his limited sanity into setting Yuu’s (still bleeding) wound with the black shell paste, and he could tell that they were both relieved when he miraculously finished the job.

  “Finally,” he grunted, when everything was set.

  “Now it’s done? Venom gone? That’s it?”

  Azul’s insides twinged a bit at the hope in her voice.

  “Regretfully, no,” he explained, still not meeting her eyes. “We’ll need to to back to the cavern for the rest of the instructions. Mother said the rest was more… magical in nature. This just means that we can even attempt the removal outside of the three-day parameter.”

  “Alright,” she accepted quickly. “And the memory potion?”

  He pulled the potion from the pouch around his waist, and offered it to her.

  Of course she’s eager to remember, he told himself. He probably should have given it to her before they’d left, but he’d wanted her to be focused on one goal at a time.

  And of course she’s eager to leave. To get back home, a more bitter voice within him added.

  Azul attributed both those voices to the delirium of fatigue and watched as Yuu uncorked the vial….and hesitated.

  “Are you…afraid?” he asked confusedly.

  Yuu shrugged, and though she was as nonchalant as usual, a more serious tone crept over the levity of her earlier teasing.

  “Well, if this goes wrong, I might forget my time here in exchange, right? I might forget you exists…”

  A snarl escaped him, unbidden.

  “Don’t joke about that, Yuu.”

  She smiled, just a little, though he couldn’t imagine why.

  “That matters to you, does it?”

  He refused to answer that question.

  “My mother’s brewing is…questionable in terms of ingredients, to be sure, but effectively speaking it’s the best in the sea or on land. It won’t misfire.”

  Probably, he amended to himself. After all, even his mother insisted on saying that nothing was perfect.

  Not now! He scolded himself. Now was not the time for guesswork.

  “Azul, are you holding my hand?”

  His hand had—apparently with a mind of its own—reached out and taken Yuu’s. Bewildered, he withdrew it, and himself, to a more appropriate distance.

  There was a flicker of emotion across her face, but she was back to herself shortly.

  “Alright. I trust you.”

  Azul faltered in the water.

  “You…do?” he asked.

  Yuu tilted her head at him. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “You shouldn’t,” he said quickly, mentally kicking himself immediately after the words had escaped. Truly, he must be tired.

  She shook her ehad at him, pearly fins flipping agitatedly beneath her.

  “Why do you always assume the worst?” she asked plainly.

  “Because that way, it hurts less,” he answered, quickly, and honestly.

  The first thing he was going to do when they returned was sleep for a week if this was how his mouth was going to behave on him, because now, Yuu was reaching for him, wearing an expression that he simply didn’t have the energy to decode. He pulled away, even farther, relieved when she hesitated.

  “Just drink it,” he said, ready to have this next debacle over with.

  Softer this time, Yuu said, “You’re not as bad as you think you are, Azul.”

  Then, she tipped the vial back, and swallowed the silvery contents.

  Azul watched her for one long, quiet minute.

  “....anything?” he asked at last.

  Her mouth twisted ponderously as she searched herself and shook her head.

  He lifted one brow.

  “Nothing at all?”

  “Well…” she hummed. “Nope. Not a—”

  Yuu’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she arched back in the water as her fins lost their balance.

  Azul caught her on instinct, and outwardly groaned.

  “Now’s not the best time for a nap, Yuu….”

  But of course, she didn’t answer.

  She was lucky he had so many limbs. It was going to be a long swim back to the Ashengrotto cavern.