“It was important enough for you to wanna talk to me, so spill the beans.”
He placed his chin on his knees and summoned his courage to speak. “Do you remember, on the cruise ship before Decimus died, when we shared that room together?”
“Yurp,” I popped.
He spoke slower now, lower. “Do you remember when we touched hands?”
The memory had been distant to me for some time but rushed back like a tidal wave when he said this. I felt a rush of adrenaline fill me as the memory did in fact return to me, and all the weird feelings attached to it came with it.
“I… yeah, I do,” I replied, not taking my eyes from the television. My breathing picked up with worry, but I tried to keep it steady enough for the conversation.
“Well, um… I haven’t really been able to shake that off, even though it happened so long ago. I replay it over and over in my head. That feeling… it wasn’t normal, right?”
I gnawed on the edge of my blanket as I thought of how to respond to him. Finally, I came up with, “No, it certainly wasn’t.”
He could sense I was uncomfortable and started to smooth my hair back. Each time his hand connected with my ear a sizzling, electrifying sensation scattered through my body, lighting my nerves up wildly. I wanted to flinch against it, but somehow, it was a homey feeling.
I sat up abruptly, which made him jump a little. “Your book… you think, we, um…?”
“I-I didn’t say all that!” He threw his hands up innocently. “I was just looking into the theory is all!”
I held my hands up to him, which made his shoulders sink. “Well, let’s try it, then.”
“Try?”
“You know, the thing. What does your book say to do?”
He tucked more hair behind his ear before clearing his throat loudly. “It says that when you connect hands and focus your energy, if you areParticeps Potestatis, that you will feel a shock, like electricity. It will grow more intense as you explore this connection, and when you contract, it will subside with age of the partnership.”
“I see. Well!” I jerked my hands again. “Come put those puppies up here, sugar.”
He giggled at what I said before slowly raising his hands and placing them against mine. We both closed our eyes, and the moment we did, our fingertips bubbled with electrifying energy. It shot through my arm and up through my neck and face, flooding my entire body with a breathtaking, exhilarating feeling. Ptolemy felt it, too, based on how he gasped when it entered his system.
When it was over, we opened our eyes and stared at one another blankly for a moment. He found his voice first, thankfully, as mine was nowhere to be found. “That was, um… wow.”
“Yeah, wow,” I echoed.
His lilac eyes burned with love and excitement. “Does that mean… I mean, I guess it does, huh?”
“Well, fuck!” I declared, which made him jolt with worry.
“What’s wrong?” he moped.
I threw my hands up and slapped them onto my lap. “Guess this means we gotta date now, too!”
“Wait, WHAT?” he roared.
I took his shoulders and shook him hard. “Ptolemy, almost allParticeps Potestatisend up together! That means we probably will, too!”
“Whoa, hold on a second here, we are moving way too fast!”
“Do you like me?” I blurted.
He stammered like a broken record before his lips finally settled. “I mean, yeah.”
“You think I’m hot?”
“Xena, really?”
