Also, before you read this, I should tell you that this is pretty much all dialouge practice. Not a lot of action happens. Enjoy.]
"Mistia, you can see him now."
Mistia looked up from her seat and stared at the nurse, searching for something on the nurse's face to tell her that he was alright, that everything had gone well with him and Bair. But rather then letting anything away, the nurse stood there with her face stoic and unemotional. With a sigh, she bit her lip and murmured a, "Yes, thank you."
She rose from her seat and hesitated, her hand on the handle. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, then opened the door in a rush.
His back was to her. He was dressed in the uniform white outfit, the outfit that was said to 'calm patients down and bring them to understanding.' But he didn't seem to be understanding anything. His whole body was tensed, and his head was in his hands, undoubtedly still trying to recover from his last visitor. Bair must have given him a hard time, Mistia realized knowingly. She closed the door slowly behind her.
"Fredrick."
"Mistia." He didn't move a muscle, and she could understand why. His voice still had a tint of anger in it from his encounter with Bair, but it was still so weak and dry. It broke her sensitive heart in two.
"Fredrick . . ." She stopped. What was she to say? Everything was wrong, inappropriate, and in his state, he would disregard it all in a matter of moments.
"You didn't have to bring me here," he said darkly.
Mistia looked down, awkwardly fumbling with the sleeve on her jacket. "We had no choice."
He stood up and turned in one quick movement, so fast that the chair tumbled to the floor, making Mistia start. "No choice? What are you talking about? You didn't have to bring me here. It's pretty much out of your way!"
Mistia stared at him. His eyes were not the sweet, soft, gentle light brown they usually were. They were dark, hard, impassive.
She bit her lip and backed up as he came closer, face ablaze with anger. "Why do you hate me so much to bring me here? Why?"
"We don't hate you, Fredrick, you're our friend. That's why we brought you here. To get you help!"
"I was perfectly fine before!" By now, he nearly had her pinned against the wall. Mistia's heart was in a race, and by it had already jumped in her throat.
"F-Fredrick..." she stuttered, fighting to make her words audible. "S-stop it... t-this isn't l-like you..."
He stared at her, his face still cold and hard, until her terror of him broke through and slowly, somewhere, his real personality began to take over. He carefully walked away, sitting back in the chair. "You're right," he said, his voice sounding more defeated than ever. "I'm sorry."
Mistia took deep breaths, putting her hand over her thumping heart, and slowly approached him. "Fredrick... I..." She paused, looking down. "I want to know why."
He sighed heavily, obviously expecting this question. "It's a long story."
"I've got time."
Fredrick turned in his seat to look at her, his eyes sad and broken. Mistia's heart ached, and she slowly pulled up a chair lingering in the side of the nearly empty room and put it across from his.
"My sixteen birthday," he mumbled, bending his head down. Mistia's eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to intervene, but he only rose a hand. "Please, let me finish. Anyway, my sixteen birthday happened recently. You didn't know, and Bair's too forgetful to remember." He let his head rest in his hands once more, staring at the ground. "All day I was happy. Bright as the sun itself. I let go of Bair's and Emmy's teasing, and let myself enjoy the day. You remember that, don't you?"
Mistia nodded, and said hoarsely, "Yes."
"But, by the end of the day..." He took a deep, shaking breath. "By the end of the day, it was over. It hadn't... it hadn't happened. There was no change what-so-ever. That's when I lost it."
Mistia slowly put the pieces together. "That... that was the day I found you crying, wasn't it?"
"Yeah."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I couldn't. I tried to so many times, Mistia, I swear." He looked up at her, the softness that she had grown to love in his eyes. "I was too afraid of what you would think of me."
"I wouldn't think any different!" Mistia replied, shocked he would say such a thing. "I never would!"
"You're thinking differently of me right now," he said softly. "I can feel it in the way you're looking at me."
"Not because you lost your powers, but because of..." she tampered off, and looked down, clearing her throat. "Because of what happened. Dear Lord, Fredrick, you have no idea how much you scared us. How much you scared me. Why would you... why would you...?"
"Why would I attempt to commit suicide?" he said loudly, making her shutter. "Just think, Mistia! I'm useless to you now!"
"No you're not!" She looked up at him, her eyes shining with tears. "How could you think such a thing? You're not useless, not by a longshot."
"Oh yes I am! Everybody hates me. No"--he held up a hand as Mistia tried to cut in--"it's true! Bair's always hated me, and Emmy... oh, Emmy! I've loved her since I was little and she still hardly looks my way. I have no real close friends--"
"You have me."
"--and the one thing I could do well," he continued, pretending she never interuppted, "is magic, and I lost that!" He pounded his fist angrily on his knee and looked away. Mistia fought against tears but lost, letting them roll down her cheeks.
"Fredrick . . ."
"And now, I'm standing in way of an almighty Bumble and her calling, making her backtrack just to save her stupid friend."
"If you were stupid I wouldn't be here right now."
"Yes you would. You have a kind heart, Mistia, too kind for your own good."
She wiped her tears away. "Fredrick . . . I know you don't think it's true, but we do need you. You're smart, and you know everything about magic that people like Bair, or... or me... will never understand."
"You're a Bumble. As soon as they lock you up in magic school you'll learn everything in a blink of an eye."
"M... magic school?"
He turned to look at her. "Yeah. Didn't they tell you? They're taking you to a school to be educated."
"... Educated?" Mistia stood up, shocked. "But... but there's a war going on! They need me now! There's only twelve of us, and I can't depend on the other eleven! Not to mention that we don't even know that all the Bumbles have been born yet--..." She watched Fredrick's expression change, and sat back down immediately. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that."
"Don't be sorry. You're entitled to worry."
"I know," she said awkwardly, "but we're here to talk about you, not me."
"You need to know more?" he asked thickly.
"Yes, I do." Mistia looked down. "You still don't know how we caught you, so I suppose I should start there. It was Bair who figured it out. She went talking to Emerald, and then Cameron and Rouge... we figured out you were going to... to throw a knife and, using a portal, go from one side to the other, and... you would end up on the wrong side of the knife."
"So you closed the portal," he finished.
"No. We were too scared you were already in there and we would have lost you forever. So we searched for you. When we found you--"
"I had already stepped in the portal."
"Yes. And you know what happened then. But... we were wondering... how...?"
"Oh, simple. First I had to get at least the first portal open, which was simple enough. At the time I made the connecting portal far away, and I told Rouge and Cameron they could 'hang out' in the forest if they opened through the portal and when through, so they easily did. But next I had to enchant the knife so it would go slower, and I would of course have time to portal from one side to the other. The only way I knew how to do that was with a potion, which could only be made by a witch or wizard." He looked at her sheepishly. "Remember when I gave you that recipe for you to make me some tea...?"
Mistia's eyes widened and a hand flew to her mouth. "No, you didn't!"
"Yes," he responded guiltily. "You made the slowing down tea with your own hands."
"I thought there was something odd about it," she mumbled.
"So, I dipped the dagger in it--oh! I've forgotten to mention how I obtained it. It was at the last town we visited."
"But... that was months ago!"
"Yes, I know. I had thought it would come in useful for self defense, in case I couldn't find my wand fast enough. Of course, being a Bumble, you wouldn't understand." Mistia shifted awkwardly as he continued. "So, anyway, I dipped it in the potion and threw it. Since you can't go in a portal alone, I took a caterpillar that Cameron had found on his expedition with Rouge and went with it. I threw the dagger before hand. And then--"
"Then Bair found the dagger going and screamed. We came running. We saw you, and..." Mistia looked down so he wouldn't see her tears. "Were you trying to scare me? Fredrick, I... I thought... we were too late..."
Mistia felt strong arms close around her and let herself cry, putting her head on Fredrick's shoulder and wrapping her arms around him too. "Promise me you'll never try to hurt yourself again, okay?"
There was a pause. "I promise."
"Good, because . . . I don't know what we'd do without you." She pulled away from him and looked in his eyes. "I'd be long dead by now."
"That's not true."
"It is! You're thorough, you know what you're doing. Heck, you even took every logical step in planning your own death! Not that I want to see you do it again."
Fredrick stared down at her. "You're the only one who feels this way, Mistia. Bair told me she'd kill me myself if I couldn't die on my own."
Mistia's frown broadened. "She didn't mean that."
"Yes she did."
"No, she didn't." Both Mistia and Fredrick jumped and turned to see Bair, leaning against the white door, watching the conversation. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her hair was a mess.
Fredrick looked down guiltily at the looks of her. He cleared his throat and said, very awkwardly, "Hi Bair."
"Hi." She looked over at Mistia. "Can I talk to him alone?"
"Of course. Take all the time you need." Mistia smiled at Fredrick, then got up and gave Bair a clumsy half-hug before stepping through the door and closing it. She wiped her tears away, and walked around the room, remembering back to all the times she had talked to Bair about Fredrick.
"So, do you like him?" she had teased, waiting to see Bair's angered response.
"Are you mental? I wouldn't like him if he were the last man on earth!"
"Of course not," Mistia had agreed. "You would love him."
"Liar!"
"You wish!"
Mistia grinned at their childish conversations. She had always known that Bair had loved Fredrick, and his near-death experience only made it more true. She stood there, fumbling with her curiosity, until she finally just pushed back the blinds and peeked.
Bair was sitting in the chair she had just been in, kissing Fredrick. Smiling, Mistia released the blinds and walked away and out of the room. Fredrick wouldn't need her anymore. In fact, he wouldn't need anyone anymore. And tonight both she, Bair, and Emmy could all rest easy, because they knew Fredrick would no longer take his life.
Spoiler
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