#dacd

“Mother, do I really have to?”

“Jimmy, we’ll not have this conversation again. You know I’m doing this for your own good.”

“But I don’t even know this ‘Thomas Barrow’. How am I to know if he’s—”

“If he’s what?.”

Jimmy gave his mother the same look of disdain that he had become famous for around the village. “If he’s, I don’t know … What if he’s boring? All of your friends are old and boring; how am I supposed to know if this man is any different if I’ve never met him?”

“Jimmy!” His mother raised her voice and glared at him. “Do you know how many young men your age want the opportunity to work in the castle of Camelot? You should feel blessed.” She tied up the last of Jimmy’s supplies into one of his rucksacks as a small smile crept over her face. “And trust me when I say that Thomas is nothing like any of the village friends I have around here.”

Jimmy rolled his eyes and started picking up his bags. His mother had gotten him this opportunity to work in the castle of Camelot, where the king lived, on the condition that he lived with a mentor who would teach him the rules and ways of the castle. And that mentor happened to be a physician by the name of Thomas who worked with chemistry and potions to heal people. And that, unfortunately for Jimmy, was all he knew about the man he was to spent the next … however-many  years with.

“Now,” his mother said with a hint of sadness in her voice, “you be good, alright? And Jimmy, please, no matter what... don’t let anyone see you use your magic at that castle. You know what they do to sorcerers there.”

Jimmy nodded. He had been born with the ‘gift’ of magic, which was also known as nothing but a ‘birth defect’ to the king and the rest of Camelot – a birth defect that was punishable by death if one was found using it. So Jimmy was always careful not to be seen using magic. He barely used it at all unless he absolutely had to.

“Goodbye, Mother.”  Jimmy cleared his throat as quietly as he could. He’d lived with his mother since he was born twenty-two years ago and had never lived elsewhere, and now he was about to move in with a strange man who his mother knew, but he did not... Also, he would miss her. He had always been very fond of his mother and now it was up to him to take responsibility for himself.

“Goodbye, Jimmy. I love you, okay?” His mother sniffled into her handkerchief as she watched her son leave the house for the final time.

Camelot wasn’t far from Jimmy’s village. It wasn’t a particularly long walk to him, only half a day’s worth, although in the sweltering heat, and with the added weight of all of his belongings, Jimmy found the walk almost torturous. Once the sun began to set Jimmy found himself at the castle of Camelot, dripping in sweat and gasping for air.

“Excuse me!” Jimmy called out to the guards standing at the main door of Camelot. “Could you please direct me to the physicians quarters? I’m Jimmy Kent the new physician’s assistant.” The guards both looked him up and down and then exchanged brief glances before pointing the directions to him.

Once at the physician’s quarters, Jimmy knocked on the door and wiped the dripping sweat from his  face. “Come in,” said a soft voice from behind the door. Jimmy put his things down and opened the door to see a tall, dark-haired man standing over an alchemy set .

“Umm ... I’m J—”

“Jimmy Kent?” the dark-haired man said as he glanced over at Jimmy. “Yes, I was expecting you today. I’m Thomas Barrow, the king’s physician.” Thomas walked over and held his hand out for Jimmy to shake.

“Oh ...” Jimmyextended his own hand and shook the other man’s without realising what he was doing aseyes his darted over Thomas, who was much different to how he had originally been thought up in Jimmy’s head. Jimmy had expected someone old with a croaky voice and distasteful clothing, but was instead met with a handsome man who couldn’t be much older than Jimmy. He haddark, well groomed hair, very pale skin, icy blue eyes and a fashion sense that insulted Jimmy’s shabby clothing. “So you’re my mother’s friend, then?.”

Thomas chuckled. “Well, yes, but that’s not all I am,” he said with a hint of cheek. “Now follow me, I’ve got to show you to your room.”

Thomas lead Jimmy behind a door and up a few stairs to a small room with a large single bed and all the basics of a tavern room. “You’ll be staying here. It used to be my room, but I figured that you wouldn’t appreciate having to sleep on the bed in the alchemy room... especially after what your mother’s told me about you.”

Jimmy looked at him and pouted with annoyance. “What’s she told you?”

Thomas smirked. “That you can be quite the complainer, sometimes.”

Jimmy glared as Thomas gestured with his head for Jimmy to follow him to the bedroom’s cupboard,which held a range of different cleaning supplies. “I doubt your Mother has told you much about what a physician’s assistant actually is,” Thomas said. “So, I’m going to tell you. You’ll be expected to keep the room in the best shape possible. Any spills must be cleared immediately and all used mixing bowls must be washed up and dry by the end of the day, along with the dishes and anything else that may get dirty. And maybe in a few weeks I’ll allow you to assist me with potion making.”

Jimmy didn’t respond with words at first, but rathernodded quickly in irritation. He’d never in his life been told to work by anyone other than his mother, and he hated it already.  “Okay,” he said, his voice sounding more monotonous than it ever had before.

Thomas stared at him “So, you’ve got all that?”

“Yeah.”

“And you won’t ever need to ask me what to do? You’ll remember it all?”

“’Course.”

Thomas narrowed his eyes at Jimmy. “Right, then.” He walked towards the alchemy room and Jimmy followed behind until they reached a small table and chair set on the far side of the room. “This is where we’ll eat. Breakfast is at seven, lunch at twelve and dinner at six. We’ll take turns with the cooking; one night I’ll cook, and the next night it’ll be your turn. I’m not your mother, so don’t expect anyone else to cook if you’re simply ‘too lazy’. Got that?”

Jimmy’s nostrils twitched at his new mentors attitude. “And what if I can’t cook, sir?”

“What do you mean, ‘can’t cook’? You’re an adult.How can you possibly not know how to cook?”

Jimmy didn’t respond with words, but rather with a rage-filled glare. He’d never worked a day in his life, let alone cooked, and now he was expected to do both.  “Well it’s not like I’ve ever been taught, is it? I’m not old bachelor...” He made sure to look Thomas up and down as obviously as he could. “... like you.”

A smile crept over Thomas’s lips. “Well, unluckily for you, you’re on cooking duty tonight... so you’d better learn quick. Now get to work, there’s bowls to be washed.” And with that, Thomas returned to his alchemy set and continued with the work he was doing before Jimmy’s arrival.

Jimmy sighed. He knew this was a bad idea from the start. He knew he couldn’t work for someone who he didn’t know. He loved his mother, but what was she thinking? He went back to the other room and grabbed the cloth and some kind of cleaning liquid from the cupboard. He walked over to the alchemy table to collect the bowls, noticing Thomas’s obvious attempts to completely ignore his presence.

The room was deathly quiet, like a battlefield once war was over, nothing but silence, and it stayed like that for the next few hours. Jimmy continued to find parts of the room that weren’t completely clean; whether it was a curtain that needed dusting or a spot on the floor that needed mopping, it was enough to keep him busy until the moment Thomas told him to stop for lunch. Jimmy washed his hands clean of any dirt he may have picked up during the cleaning and sat down at the dining table. Thomas put a bowl of some kind of stew down in front of Jimmy. “You still have to cook tonight, you know? I wasn’t joking around.”

“Right, sir,” Jimmy said sarcastically and dug his fork into a chunk of meat the bowl in front of him.

“And you can stop calling me ‘sir’. You sound like an idiot.”

Jimmy huffed furiously and made eye contact with Thomas, who was already looking at him with the same distain. “But you’re ‘in charge’ of me, right? So doesn’t that make you ‘sir’, sir?”

Thomas laughed sarcastically. “Your mother was right about you, wasn’t she? You’re quite proud of yourself... which is funny, when there’s nothing about you to be proud of.”

Jimmy slammed his fist down on the table. “You don’t know the first thing about me!”

“Oh, please. I probably know more about you than you do. Spoiled little boy who’s only ever lived off  his mother’s money, first time out of home, never worked a day in his life. Well, welcome to your new life, Jimmy Kent. Your mother’s supported you enough, now it’s your turn,” Thomas said with a smirk.

“How dare you!” Jimmy yelled, and suddenly his boiling hot stew was all over Thomas’s front, but Jimmy hadn’t touched it. It had been an outburst of magic, caused by a surge of strong emotion.

“Ahh!” Thomas cried out and pulled his hot-stew-covered top off before glaring at Jimmy with the smallest hint of fear in his eyes. 

Jimmy ran out of the room as fast as he could.  He pushed past everyone that got in his way, whether guard, knight or civilian until he was outside of the castle and in the outskirts of the village. Eventually he found a tree to sit under until he could think of something to do. He couldn’t possibly return home already – hismother’s disappointment would be unbearable – andhe certainly couldn’t return to the castle. Camelot was no place for sorcerers.

That night was the coldest Jimmy had ever felt. It would have helped if he’d bought his clothes with him, because all he had to sleep in was a thin shirt, pants and raggedy shoes. But still he managed to sleep under the tree, far from Camelot, and the castle that surely would be the death of him if he was found.

      “Jimmy!”Thomas knelt down beside him.  “I’ve been looking for you all night!”

Jimmy gulped audibly and pushed his back up against the tree as hard as he could. He looked up to the sky. It must have just reached dawn because the sun was still rising. “Why?”

“Because you’re my employee and you just... ran away.”

“It’s not like I’m your employee anymore,”  Jimmy whimpered.

“Oh, shut up. You think some spilt stew is going lose you a job?” Thomas stood up and pulled Jimmy up with him. “Now come back before you freeze to death.”

“But, I used mag—”

Thomas slapped a hand across Jimmy’s mouth. “Shh! Don’t say it out loud, ever, do you understand? You mustn’t use it, talk about it or even hint about it... ever, or it’ll be the death of you.Okay? Now come on.”

Jimmy’s eyes widened, but he wasn’t sure if it was in panic or... something else. The sensation of his rather handsome mentor’s hand pressed against his lips and the way he stared into Jimmy’s eyes with desperation made his stomach flip. “I—”

“It’s okay, really,” Thomas said kindly, and looped his arm around Jimmy’s to lead him back to the physician’s room.

Once back at the room, Thomas pointed Jimmy towards the food on the table that he had prepared for dinner in the younger man’s absence. All Jimmy could do was mope apologetically as Thomas sat him down. “Now, don’t think this is going to happen all of the time, because it’s not... next time you skip out on the cooking, you’ll be doing a year’s worth.”

Jimmy looked up to Thomas, who was still standing behind him with his hands firmly on Jimmy’s shoulders. “I—I’m sorry,” he said.

Thomas took his hands off Jimmy’s shoulders and walked to the other side of the table where he took a seat. “Don’t worry about it. I could see by the expression on your face that you didn’t mean it.”

Jimmy was slightly shocked at his mentor for forgiving him so easily even though he had committed the foulest crime known to the kingdom and all surrounding villages. But, instead of going on about it, he returned his attention to the meal in front of him. Once they’d both finished, Thomas asked Jimmy to wash up, to which Jimmy obliged without a second thought.

Thomas opened up the wardrobe in the corner of the alchemy room where his clothes were, pulled out a bed shirt and loose pants, and began undressing, right in front of Jimmy. First, he pulled his coat and shirt off to reveal a beautiful, porcelain-coloured, slightly muscular figure. But what affected the aesthetically pleasing body of his mentor was a red tinge over quite a large proportion of his body, mostly on his pecs and abdomen. A burn, Jimmy realised,and his stomach lurched. “Oh!” he gasped loudly.

Thomas turned around to see his employee’s eyes open widely in horror. “It’s gone down a lot. I used a potion to help with burns. It’s nothing compared to what it was before.” He smiled as calmly as he could, before changing into his night shirt and covering his burnt torso.

“I’m sorry... I didn’t mean it, really. It just happens sometimes when I get... emotional... I would’ve nev—”

Thomas shushed Jimmy midway through his sentence. “It’s fine, okay? Just... don’t do it again.”

Jimmy nodded and dried the last dish with his towel. “Will that be all, Mr Barrow?”

“Yes, you can retire for the night. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

      The next few weeks were trouble-free and flew by incredibly fast. Jimmy had no problems with his mentor since the first night he’d gotten there, which they were both very thankful for.  They spoke often; sometimes about their childhoods, sometimes they joked about other servants in the castle, and sometimes their conversations went deep and they spent hours delving into each other’s pasts.

“Jimmy?”

Jimmy turned to face Thomas who was standing at the bookshelf running his finger along the top shelf. “You know, I let you get away with a lot.” He held up a dust-covered finger. “If it was my mentor seeing this, he’d punish me for it.” Thomas looked down at his finger and frowned as if he was remembering something. “Or rather, he’d punish... someone else.”

Jimmy watched Thomas. “What do you mean, ‘someone else’?” 

It was Thomas’s turn to return Jimmy’s gaze now.  “I was mentored alongside another ... a Ms O’Brien.” He sighed. “Who is, much to my dismay, coming to Camelot tomorrow.”

Jimmy put the duster down. He felt another in-depth conversation between the two of them about to come on. “Why don’t you like her?”

“It’s not that I don’t like her... It’s that she doesn’t like me. Despises me, rather.”

“Why?”

Thomas shook his head and wiped the dust off his fingers. “Jealously, I assume. Our mentor had a soft spot for me rather than her, and she didn’t like that. She tried getting me into trouble a lot, but she never succeeded... or maybe my mentor just  liked me too much to listen to her.”

Jimmy nodded. “So why’s she coming here, then?”

 “She works as a maid for one of the daughters of another king, and the whole family are coming to visit tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Jimmy said, but his attention was solely focusedon Thomas’s eyes. They were so blue. Sometimes he found himself just admiring Thomas’s features, and the eyes were one of Jimmy’s favourites … that, and Thomas’s lips …Before he knew it,his eyes had  drifted to them. They looked so pink and soft …

“Jimmy?” Thomas said, and Jimmy immediately averted his gaze back to Thomas’s eyes as soon as he saw those perfect lips mouth his name.

“Yes?”

“Just wondering where you went then.” Thomas smiled and Jimmy swore that he saw a blush cover  his mentor’s cheek.

“Tell me more about you? Well, I mean, if you want …  I didn’t mean to sound like I was nagging, or—”

Thomas laughed and gestured towards the table for them both to sit. “Well, what is it that you want to know?” he asked, taking a seat as Jimmy took the one next to him.

“ How old are you?”

Thomas grinned and leaned in closer. “How old do you think I am?”

Jimmy tried to hide the blush that stained his cheeks as he also leaned closer to examine Thomas’s features. “Uh...  well, you can’t be over... thirty?.”

Thomas bit his lip and leaned in even closer. “Thirty two.”

Jimmy’s eyes widened. “Really? But you look so young, there’s barely a mark on your face!”

Thomas smiled “Then you haven’t been looking hard enough.”

“Oh, I’ve been looking!” Jimmy said before he realised what he was doing. “I—I mean … um …” Jimmy sighed and buried his face in his hands.

Thomas burst into laughter and tried taking Jimmy’s hands off of his face. “What was that?!”

Eventually Jimmy gave into Thomas’s hands and lowered his own, still intertwined with his mentor’s. Thomas’s smile began to fade the longer that their hands stayed touching. “Why’ve you been looking?”

Jimmy’s eyes involuntarily ventured to Thomas’s mouth again, and once there, they became fixated again. “I can’t... say.”

Thomas was just about to speak when loud knocks were heard coming from the door, so instead he got up to greet the person at the door.

“Mr Barrow, you’re needed in the council room right away! The members from the other kingdom have arrived early and they’re all waiting for your presence.” Before Jimmy could say another word, Thomas was out the door.

Jimmy sat at the table for a few minutes, trying to gather his thoughts. He looked at his hands, hands that had just been touched by Thomas. Thomas had changed so much since the first time they met – ormaybe it was Jimmy who had changed, he couldn’t decide – butall he knew was that Thomas and himself had become incredibly close in a very short amount of time, and that touch, much like a chemical reaction, had changed Jimmy’s thoughts completely.

He heard footsteps coming from the other end of the hallway and jumped up. He hated being caught not working by Thomas, so he went to take Thomas’s clean and washed clothes to his cupboard. But there was something odd about the person who was now outside the door of the alchemy room. He thought the footsteps had sounded much lighter than Thomas’s, and now he could see the shadow of two feet standing outside of the door. The person was turning the knob very slowly as if to check if it was locked.

That can’t be Thomas,Jimmy thought, putting the clothes down and going to hide behind the curtains to spy on whoever it was trying to silently break in. Just a second later the door opened and in stepped a woman, about forty, with a curled brown fringe and an angry expression on her face. She snuck in and took a few seconds to look around the room before heading straight to Thomas’s wardrobe and stopping at the pile of clothes Jimmy had left on the floor. She picked up Thomas’s most expensive coat, the one he wore around the king and in any important situation. The woman then pulled a bottle from her pocket and started sprinkling something onto the inside of Thomas’s coat as she spoke an enchantment aloud, and before Jimmy knew it the coat washung back up on Thomas’s doorknob and she was gone.

Jimmy stepped out from behind the curtains and went straight over to the jacket to examine it, but when he took it off the wardrobe’s doorknob and touched the inside he yelped and threw it to the ground. He could hear the skin on his finger sizzling like it had just had corrosive material poured over it. He ran to where the pails of water were kept and washed his hand until the pain started settling down, but when he pulled it out of the water his finger was covered in large blisters. “Argh!” he cried out, holding onto his hand.

It’s been poisoned,Jimmy thought, but was quickly distracted by the sudden crashing noises and yelling from outside the hall. Jimmy swore he heard the same woman’s voice that was just in the room before, but she was shouting a different enchantment than the one she had said a moments ago. Her voice then turned to a quiet whisper that Jimmy couldn’t hear properly.

After that it was silent for a minute, and when Jimmy thought it was safe to do so he used an incantation on his blister to heal it. He focused on the injury and spoke the words as if directly to each blister, but before he could heal his whole hand, Thomas violently entered the room. He looked directly at Jimmy, and realised what he was doing with an anger Jimmy had not seen before.

“Thomas!, I need to te—”

“Don’t!”  Thomas yelled. “I saw you with my own eyes! I told you never to use magic here, and what to you do?”

“Thomas?”  Jimmy stood up and looked at Thomas with confusion.

“I saw you! Don’t try to deny it, Jimmy!”

“But, you don’t understand—”

Jimmy’s voice was cut off as Thomas slammed him into the wall.

Jimmy gasped.“What are you doing?!”

“You can’t be trusted.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Let’s just say... my eyes have been opened.”

 “Thomas ... please …”  Jimmy whimpered.

For a millisecond Thomas’s old self seemed to show itself on his face, and it almost looked like he felt bad, but the expression was quickly replaced with that of repulsion as if he had no control over it.

“You’re fired, Jimmy. Leave. Now.”

“What? But—”

“No excuses!” Thomas roared, and went to Jimmy’s room where he grabbed Jimmy’s clothes and threw them at his employee. “Get out!”

Jimmy looked at him angrily. “You... you bastard.”

“Out!” Thomas yelled, and pushed Jimmy out of the door.

Jimmy stumbled and hit the floor outside of the physician’s room. He looked down the hall where he caught the excited gaze of the woman with the brown curls. She smirked at him and disappeared in a cloud of coloured dust as Thomas slammed the door behind Jimmy.

He stood up and dusted his pants off. He couldn’t believe Thomas’s reaction to his magic, especially after the first night when Thomas had seen him use a spell much worse than a healing one he’d used a few minutes earlier. Jimmy picked up his bags and made to leave the castle for good. He was halfway down the hall when he heard a door open and saw Thomas step out with the coat that had been enchanted in his hand. Jimmy went to run after him, but an invisible force stopped him and he was thrown in the opposite direction. The woman from before, the one who had smirked at him, stepped out from the nearest door to Jimmy as Thomas disappeared around the corner on the opposite side of the hall.

“Where do you think you’re going, kid?” She spoke with a deep and annoyed voice.

“To help my friend. Who the hell are you?” Jimmy spat.

“O’Brien. Pleasure to meet you. You’re a fellow sorcerer, I see? Isn’t it just horrible how we’re treated here?” she whispered from behind Jimmy.

“You … you’re her.”

“The one and only. You know, I was once a good friend of your mentor, Mr Barrow. Until I realised he wasn’t like me. He may know how to fix a potion, but he’s nothing compared to us! We have the power to rule the world, you and I, and obviously people like him can’t understand us – as you could probably tell from your Mr Barrow’s reaction. So, how about we take a stand together?Cast a few spells? Rule the world?”

Jimmy just gaped at her, horrified. “I’d never...I couldn’t, I was told to never use magic... and that wasn’t Thomas! He wouldn’t react like that! You … you must have done something to him... in the hallway …”

O’Brien stared at him. “Are you sure about this? We could accomplish anything we wanted.”

Jimmy gritted his teeth and stood tall. “And end up like you? A bitter old crone who can’t let go of a childish grudge?” He narrowed his eyes into his famous disdainful expression. “I’m better than that. Thomas is better than that.”

The woman continued to stare at him, but this time it looked as if she was trying to contain something within herself. Her face turned red, and even as he watched, she began to tremble. She looked like a kettle that was about to boil, and he half expected to see steam start pouring out of her ears.

Then, just as he was about to speak, there was a loud pop, and she was gone.

He stood for a moment, stunned. But she showed no sign of returning, and he had no time to waste.

      Jimmy pushed past the guards and members of the council in attempt to get to the jacket before Thomas put it on, but was held back by two knights. King Grantham stood up. “What is your reason for being in here?” the king shouted as the room went silent. “Guards, remove him.”

Jimmy looked at Thomas, whose expression was one of absolute horror.

“No, you don’t understand! You need to let me go, I’m here to save him!”

“Who?” the king asked.

“Sorcery has been used, sire... on Mr Barrow, the physician! I watched it take place myself.”

The king took a few steps towards Jimmy. “Are you telling me that you were involved with sorcery?”

“No, it wasn’t me! I took no part, I just saw it happen.”

“Then who was it that you saw committing the crime?”

“It was Ms O’Brien, the maid.”

The whole room stared at each other in confusion. “There’s no one by that name at Camelot.”

“No, she was visiting, with the other family.”

The other king stood up. “Son, the woman you speak of hasn’t worked for my family for five years.”

“But... I saw her ...”

“She’s dead, boy. Burned for sorcery,” the king said solemnly.

Out of the corner of Jimmy’s eye he could see Thomas about to put on his jacket. But before he had the chance to, Jimmy used his magic to pull the jacket out of Thomas’s hand and toss it onto the floor on the other side of the room.

Everyone gasped in shock.

“Traitor!” King Grantham shouted. “Take him to the Dungeon, immediately!”

Jimmy struggled against the knights who had him by the arms. “No!”

And then the room went silent – everyonehad suddenly become frozen in place, except for himselfand Thomas. He pulled his arms out of the frozen knights’ grasps.

“O’Brien poisoned your jacket! If you put it on or touched the inside it would have burned you to death... I’m sorry for using magic, but I had to... I had to save you.”

Thomas looked at Jimmy silently for a few moments before stepping towards him. “You need to know that what was said in the physician’s room ... it wasn’t me. I was under some kind of enchantment... I’d never—”

“I know,” Jimmy bit his lip. “I know you wouldn’t. But we’ve got bigger problems to worry about,  now that I’ve been found out.”

“Why the hell did you do that? I’d rather you let me burn, than get yourself into this much trouble.”

Jimmy looked at the ground silently for a few moments before he whispered: “You know why.”

Thomas bit his bottom lip and looked down at Jimmy. “I think I know how we’re going to get out of this.” He took a deep breath and looped his arm around Jimmy’s shoulder. “I know a potion.”

They went straight to the physician’s room  and Thomas began pulling out different bottles from every corner of the room  “Jimmy, grab the book on the top shelf.”

Jimmy used his magic to move the book from the shelf to the alchemy table and Thomas started flipping through the pages until he stopped about mid way and shouted for Jimmy to come and help him. 

The next thirty minutes were a blur of bubbling liquids and smoking powders and the sharp smell of chemicals, until at last Thomas poured the finished potion into a large jar. “Now all we’ve got to do is pour a small amount of this into the mouths of each person in that room and they’ll forget the last hour of their lives.”

“You’re  incredible.”

Thomas turned his head to look at Jimmy. “Excuse me?.”

“You heard. You don’t even need magic to do amazing things. You just... do them.” Jimmy blushed.

Thomas hugged Jimmy into his chest for a moment and then released him. “Let’s go erase some memories.”

Jimmy smiled and they went back to the council room, Thomas’s arm around Jimmy the whole time. 

The potion was a purple colour, and shimmered with yellow flecks when moved; it was almost too pretty to be used, but Jimmy had to. They went around to each of the members of council and poured the tiniest amount onto their tongues.

Jimmy stepped back to watch, but nothing happened. “Why are they still frozen?”

Thomas stared at him. “You’ve got to reverse the spell.”

“What spell?”

Thomas barked out a startled laugh. “You didn’t even know you were the one who froze them?”

“I—I didn’t mean …” Jimmy stuttered. “I don’t know what to do!”

Thomas gently pulled him aside. “It’s alright, it’s simple enough. But you’ll have to do it. You’re much more powerful than me.” He brushed Jimmy’s hair back to whisper the incantation into his ear. Jimmy tried to concentrate on his words rather than the brush of Thomas’s lips against his skin.

“Alright, have you got that?” Jimmy nodded solemnly, but Thomas stopped him again before he could speak. “But you need to be out of this room as you do it, or the potion won’t work.”

Jimmy nodded and walked over to the door he stepped out and stood back a few meters. “I’ll see you back in the room,” he said, and then spoke the words of the counter-spell.

      Jimmy waited in his room for a good twenty minutes before Thomas stormed in.

Oh god... not again …Jimmy thought in horror at the memory of Thomas’s reaction when he’d entered the room with that same intensity previously.

“Thom—”

Jimmy was cut off by Thomas’s lips when they crashed onto his. Thomas pushed him back onto the bed without breaking the kiss and Jimmy stifled a moan when he felt Thomas’s body on his own. Thomas kissed him hard, barely giving either of them time to breathe. It was full of passion and excitement. Thomas gripped onto the collar of Jimmy’s shirt hard, pulling on it as his tongue delved deeper into Jimmy’s mouth, until he ripped it and pulled back. “I—I’m so sorry.”

Jimmy chuckled and held onto the two sides of his ripped shirt. He began tearing the fabric slowly while grinding his erection on Thomas’s.

Thomas moaned at the sight of Jimmy’s bare chest and the sensation of their fully erect cocks pressing against each other. “Jimmy,” he whispered. Jimmy ran his hands down Thomas’s back until he reached his pants, his hands slid underneath the material and he began pulling them down, sliding his hands down the side of Thomas’s muscular thighs as he did so. Thomas’s mouth gaped, and Jimmy leaned up and pressed his cheek against his mentor’s flushed face. He kissed him on the earlobe and then moved his head higher and whispered, “Take mine off.” 

Thomas gulped and trailed his fingers down Jimmy’s naked hips until he reached the top of his pants. Thomas started moving down Jimmy’s stomach, licking and nipping at parts of Jimmy’s body that made him gasp for air. Once he reached Jimmy’s pants he slowly pulled them down to reveal Jimmy’s hard cock. Thomas licked his lips and quickly pulled his shirt off, he leant down and teased the tip of Jimmy’s cock with his tongue before taking all of Jimmy into his mouth. Jimmy hissed and gripped the sheets with tight fists.

“T—Thomas,” Jimmy gasped.

Thomas looked up Jimmy, who was now even more flustered than Thomas was before.

“Thomas, I want you...inside me.”

Thomas sat up but kept stroking Jimmy’s cock with his hand. “Are you sure?”

Jimmy could barely speak, but managed to say, “Yes, Thomas, yes.”

Thomas bit his lip. “If you wish.”

Thomas sucked on his fingers, then ran his hand over Jimmy’s balls and kept moving down until he was circling Jimmy’s hole with wet fingers. He brought his fingers to his mouth again and made sure to moisten them as much as he could. And with a nod of approval from Jimmy he inserted his fingers into Jimmy’s tight hole in an effort to stretch him for what would come next. Jimmy contracted around Thomas’s fingers and released a loud groan, his hands gripped hard onto the bed sheets until his knuckles were white. “Ahh... Thomas ... mmm …” Jimmy gasped for breath. “I need you, I need you inside me, now, please …”

Thomas licked his lips and retracted his fingers. He moved up Jimmy’s body until their naked chests were level with one another. Thomas leant down and kissed Jimmy passionately. “Are you ready?” Thomas asked with his mouth on Jimmy’s.

Jimmy nodded and Thomas moved his hands down to separate Jimmy’s thighs and then moved into position. “I’ve wanted you for weeks,” Thomas whispered, placing the tip of his erectionat Jimmy’s entrance.

Jimmy’s hands clutched onto Thomas’s back. “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted you,” he said, and nodded for Thomas continue.

Thomas slowly pushed himself into Jimmy’s tight hole and loud groans escaped both of them. Thomas winced in pleasured pain as Jimmy’s fingers dug into his back. He looked down at Jimmy, who felt his cheeks flush as his eyes fluttered shut. Thomas pushed in even further and Jimmy gasped.

“Yes, ooh, Thomas, yes …”

“I’m going to move now, are you okay?”

Jimmy opened his eyes and pulled Thomas down to meet his lips. They kissed for a moment before Jimmy pulled back. “Do it, Thomas. Please.”

And Thomas obliged. He moved inside Jimmy and they both moaned in pleasure, Jimmy’s eyelids repeatedly fluttering closed of their own accord, and he unintentionally released small consistent moans every time Thomas moved.

When Thomas was sure that Jimmy was fine, he picked up the pace and started moving harder and faster. He was beginning to get close; Jimmy could feel Thomas’s thrusts stutter slightly every time Jimmy’s arse constricted around his prick. Their gazes met for a moment, and the look of pure lust in Thomas’s eyes said it all. Sitting up suddenly, Thomas looped his arms around Jimmy’s thighs and pushed them upwards so he could go deeper. Jimmy widened his eyes in surprise for a moment, but then gave into the feeling of Thomas’s whole, hard cock inside of him. Once the pace was at its quickest, Thomas’s groans became louder as he became closer and closer.

“Jimmy, I’m going to—”

Jimmy clawed at Thomas’s back. “Do it,” he moaned.

Thomas thrust into Jimmy one more time and then came with a loud groan. He fell onto Jimmy, gasping, eyes closed. Jimmy’s hands stroked Thomas’s back, and he glided one up to Thomas’s neck and rubbed it gently.

“Did you?” Thomas asked, slightly out of breath.

Jimmy chuckled and nodded. He turned his head and kissed Thomas on the neck and then trailed them all the way up to Thomas’s lips. “Definitely.”

      Jimmy made dinner that night. He’d learned how to concoct his own simple stew, and if Thomas was tired of this simple fare, he hadn’t said anything.

As they sat down to eat, Jimmy asked the question that had been burning in the back of his mind for the last few hours. “So, if O’Brien has been dead for years, who did I see poison your coat?”

“Oh, it was O’Brien, all right,” said Thomas around a mouthful of stew. “Some sorcerers, if they become powerful enough, and don’t care about the consequences, can learn how to leave their own body and stow away in someone else’s. That poor maid. O’Brien must’ve been hiding out inside her since her own body was killed. But by the time they all arrived here, she was so bent on getting revenge on me that her old self started showing through. I’d recognise that hideous hair anyway.”

Jimmy returned his smirk. “She’s gone now, though, right?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see her grand exit. She exploded, you say?”

“Yeah. There was a sort of loud pop, and then she was gone.”

“Hmm.” At the sound of a tapping on the door, Thomas got up. Jimmy began to clear away their plates, but stopped at the sound of a familiar voice, and looked up to see a young maid standing in the doorway.

“His Majesty is leaving in the morning, and he wanted you to have this small token of his appreciation for your kindness during his stay.” She held out a small box, and Jimmy suddenly realised whose voice it was.

“No, Thomas!” Without thinking, he smacked the box away from the maid’s hands, without moving from his place on the other side of the room. “It’s her again! It’s O’Brien!”

The young maid’s pretty face rapidly started to morph into O’Brien’s bitter features. Thomas jumped back as if he’d been burned, and began frantically looking around as if for a weapon. He spotted the stew pot, still simmering away on the fire, at the same time as Jimmy.

Neither of them would ever know who had started it, or even exactly what they did, but a second later the pot was flying across the room. It sailed through the doorway, knocking O’Brien off her feet, and then upended itself over her head.

She screamed as the hot stew dripped down her face, and this time she did appear to have steam coming out her ears. She even seemed to be emitting a faint whistle. Thomas took a few rapid steps backwards, grabbed hold of Jimmy and shoved him behind himself.

It wasn’t a pop this time, but more of a violent thunderclap, and suddenly the entire physician’s quarters were covered in stew. At least, it looked like stew.