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The cauldron bubbled dangerously as Shelby haphazardly added the final ingredients. Tortious eyed the potion warily as she carefully poured a small amount into a bottle, nearly burning a finger off in the process.
“Come on, Tortious,” she grumbled. “How bad can it be? I’m sure I got it right this time!” Shelby reached out to give him a bit of the potion, before he croaked indignantly and hopped away.
“Tortious, No!”
Before she could argue, he was out the window. Oh well, it was his loss. Her potion was finally finished! And she knew she’d done it correctly. She had followed every instruction on the page!
“Who‘ll try my potion now?”
Well, maybe she could try it herself. It was only a healing potion, really. Normally she’d have Tortious test her potions, as he seemed to be particularly resistant to them. But she didn’t need to this time. The potion was perfect, she just needed to test it before she could sell any.
“Down the hatch, I guess,” the liquid burned her throat uncomfortably and Shelby realized why Tortious was so reluctant to try any.
After a fit of coughing and a cup of water, she noticed there were no changes. What had the potion done, anyway? It certainly hadn’t healed her. Maybe she needed to wait a while, and then she feel the effects. It would really suck to have to throw the whole batch away now.
After an hour or so she started to feel some effects, but not the ones she was expecting. Her limbs felt heavy and sore. Her head was spinning and she had to stop making potions for the day before she passed out. Getting home was a struggle even though it was only a minute away from the shop.
Shelby stumbled through the door, nearly forgetting to take her boots off. As soon as she stepped in she nearly collapsed from the dizziness, and before she knew it there was vomit all over the floor. Yeah, maybe testing the potion herself was not such a great idea.
“Shelby?” an alarmed voice came from behind her.
Oh! How could she have forgotten? Katherine had agreed to meet today, since Shelby had a few potions she though would help her… problem.
Trying her best not to throw up on Katherine, she quickly turned around and nearly dropped her wand in a hurry to magic away the mess. “Sorry!” Shelby squeaked. She had to grab the doorframe to stay upright.
“Are you okay? No offense, but you look…. terrible.”
“Mmm… I’m okay…” her grip on the doorframe loosened and she felt herself nearly fall on to Kathrine.
“Obviously you’re not!” Katherine worried, helping her over to the table. “What did you do? Don’t tell me you stayed up all night again.”
What had Shelby been doing, anyway? Everything felt a bit fuzzy. “Tested… a potion,” she barely managed to mumble out a response. When had everything gotten so heavy? She tried to stand up before Kathrine immediately pushed her back down.
Wait, what was Katherine doing here? It had only just registered in her head that Kathrine was there. Did she come for potions? Wow, this was embarrassing. Shelby could feel tears in the corner of her eyes.
“Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
Shelby could only manage to murmur a few protests of “I’m fine,” and “It’s okay,” but Katherine wasn’t having any of that. Before she knew what was happening, Kathrine had scooped her up in her arms and brought her upstairs to rest.
With no more energy to argue, Shelby simply laid her head on Katherine’s shoulder, unaware of what she was doing. Katherine’s face flushed beet red and when she reached her room she was grateful to finally lay a disoriented Shelby on her bed.
“Stay awake for a few more minutes, Shelby, I’ll get you some milk,” Katherine took the witch’s oversized hat and tossed it over to the side, feeling her cheeks turn pink again at the sight of Shelby’s dark, messy hair. She looked pretty even with dark circles under her eyes.
A few minutes later, Katherine was back with a warm cup of milk in her hands. She found Shelby under a needlessly large pile of blankets.
“Shelby?” she asked tentatively. “I brought your milk.” Katherine was surprised to hear a sniffle come from the witch. She sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes to try to hide the tears.
“What’s wrong?” Katherine asked, alarmed.
“You’re j-just being so- nice.. and-“ Shelby covered her face with her arms. “I- I think the potion is- is messing with my emotions…”
“That’s alright, drink your milk and you’ll feel better when you wake up,” Katherine whispered soothingly.
Shelby took the cup and drank it through teary apologies and broken sentences. When she had finished, Katherine took the cup and set it aside.
“Get some sleep, okay, Shelby? You’ll feel better in the morning,” Katherine stood up to leave, but she stopped when Shelby tugged weakly at her sleeve.
“D-don’t go. Please.”
Katherine slowly lowered herself back onto the bed. She could stay a little longer. It wasn’t like she had anything to do the next morning, anyway.
…Okay, maybe she did, but it could wait. She didn’t really want to leave Shelby on her own right now, especially while she was still suffering the effects of the potion. Now Shelby was crying and pouring her heart out to Katherine, something about being rejected? She couldn’t really hear what Shelby was saying between shaky sobs. It made her wonder how badly Shelby had messed up that potion.
“You’re okay,” Katherine whispered fondly, carefully brushing her hair away from her face. “I’m right here, don’t worry. It’s just the potion.”
Eventually, her shaky cries were replaced with, slow, deep breathing. Katherine’s arm was under Shelby’s head and she knew she wouldn’t be able to free herself without waking Shelby.
Out of the window, the sun had set and the moon was just rising. Sighing, Katherine did her best to wipe a few drying tears off of Shelby’s cheeks and carefully laid her head on hers.
Now that she was no longer focused on comforting Shelby, Katherine was struggling to keep down the butterflies in her stomach. They were awfully close for “just friends”. Katherine felt her cheeks go pink again.
“Don’t think about that,” Katherine scolded herself. “Shelby would never want someone like me.”
Even so, she couldn’t help but wonder that maybe they’d be something more. But it was so dark and peaceful now that she could hardly continue to worry. She felt her eyes flutter closed until the two girls were fast asleep.