A/N: Sorry about the delay, the hustle and bustle lasted even longer than I suspected. A lot longer. Uhh... I may have to cut back to one chapter a week now that school's started. I'll try for more, but one a week's sort of all I can guarantee. Sorry about that. ): Anyway, here's this one!

Chapter Four: The Chapter with Slightly Thickening Plot.

Under normal circumstances, Nita would have tried to help. She would have thought of some spell to catch him, or to soften his landing, or she would have run to try to catch him herself, or at least try to soften his landing with her body. Under ordinary circumstances, she would have been concerned for this random stranger first and herself second. And it wasn't exactly because she was concerned for herself, even, that she found herself clinging to Kit damsel-in-distress-style before she had time to think. Really, it was worse than that. It was a twisted romantic image her brain somehow managed to come up with, probably planted there by too many Disney movies.

At any rate, when the body came flying through the air at them, Nita lunged for Kit, who lunged for her (so at least that worked out), and they clung to each other for protection or something. Meanwhile, the flying body fell to the ground three feet to their left.

Fortunately for everyone concerned, he bounced. Into the air again he went, and then on down the street, boing, boing, boing, each bounce getting shorter until he rolled into a sort of ungraceful heap of long limbs and garish fabric, just outside of a sparkly pink café.

"Wow. Guys, what just happened?" Carmela's voice broke through the stunned silence from behind the pair of wizards.

Nita and Kit regained control of their reflexes and sprung apart, blushing. Since neither of them felt like addressing their unusual reactions at the moment, they went unmentioned. Which isn't to say that Carmela hadn't taken note, just that she wisely remained silent on the subject. Well, more for blackmail purposes than politeness, but still.

Kit busied himself with consulting his manual for the answer to Carmela's question, concentrating hard on the words and blocking out his horror and embarrassment at what he'd done. Or hadn't done, really, because in ordinary circumstances, his reaction would have been the same as Nita's would have been.

Since looking in her manual would be a bit redundant and Nita was never one for being redundant, she focused her attention on the man down the street. She would have gone right over to help him, covering her embarrassment with philanthropy, but a whole herd of people seemed to have come out of the sparkly pink café to assist, and he was standing, talking, looking angry but unhurt. He was in good hands she was sure, and her help there would be redundant as well.

"Hmm," said Kit, "it doesn't say anything about the ground or people being bouncy..." he hopped up and down, and suddenly it was as if he were jumping on a trampoline. Yet the ground didn't appear to be moving at all.

"That's weird..." said Nita. She took a step, and it was as normal as walking on earth. She stomped down hard, and all she got for her troubles was a painful foot. She jumped, both feet leaving the ground, and when she came back down, she bounced back up again. "You'd think the manual would mention something like this."

"Unless it's new." Kit had finally gotten control of his bouncing and resolved not to let both feet leave the ground anymore.

Nita lost track of her concentration for a split second at the peak of a bounce. Suddenly, she was overcome by an overwhelming urge to bounce over to Kit and give him a hug. So she did. "I'm sure you're right," she said, her bounces slowly losing their spring as she approached him. "You always seem to be."

Carmela snorted, but neither of them noticed. Kit, caught up in the tone he'd never heard her use and slightly entranced by her approach, had lost his focus on their situation as well. "Oh yeah?" he said. She came to a stop in front of him, no longer moving vertically or horizontally.

"Mm hmm."

His hand drifted forward to touch her side, pulling her a few inches closer. "Well I think you're always right," he said. There was a strange sort of playfulness that Nita dimly recognized as similar to the tone he used when he was teasing her but very, very different. "How can I always be right when you're always right?"

"Must be we're both always right." She inched closer and slipped her arms around his waist. Neither was particularly aware of how ridiculous their conversation was getting. Carmela watched in interest, wondering when they would snap out of it and go back to their usual selves. Their reactions would be spectacular. It was about time they got together, she thought, but she hadn't thought it would happen anytime soon.

Then she realized where they were and why they were acting that way. And more importantly, what it meant for the rest of the world and entropy and all that wizard stuff. "Kit!" she cried. "Nita! What are you doing‽"

They didn't hear her.

"How about when we disagree though?" Kit murmured, oblivious to the world around him.

Nita giggled. "When have we ever disagreed?"

Carmela tried hard not to laugh at that blatent untruth, realizing this was not the time for mockery, this was the time for saving the world.

"CHRISTOPHER RODRIGUEZ, LOOK AT ME RIGHT NOW!" He heard her this time, and reluctantly pulled his eyes from Nita's and turned to his sister with "must you?" clearly written all over his face. Then, as if suddenly hit with a figurative eraser, his face quickly changed to more of an "oh crap!" expression and he jerked himself away from his friend.

Nita, still under the spell of the love spell, looked offended for a split second. Then she too took on the "oh crap!" face, though hers was accompanied by very red cheeks. Oh no wait, Kit's were reddening too. Basically, they wore identical expressions of mortified horror.

"Uhh..." Kit tried desperately to come up with an explanation.

Nita didn't even try. "Sorry, 'Mela. Thanks for saving us," she said. Then, to Kit, "This is why we brought her along. Apparently."

Kit wailed a little in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Neets," he said quietly. "I didn't think that was going to happen, I thought I'd be able to..." he cut himself off, realizing that if he kept talking, they'd wind up mashed together again, caught up in the spell a third time. "We gotta concentrate," he said instead.

"Right, let's see if we can find Filif, or some indication of how to fight this thing, or something," said Nita, all businesslike again. "Just keep thinking about the Lone One. We can get through this."

"We always do..."

A/N: Wow, I have nothing to say here... Weird. Oh! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'll get around to replying individually sometime, but there's so much busy here right now that it may be a while. Don't think that that means I love you any less than I did at the beginning.

And, as always, spelling, typos, facts: if they're wrong, let me know!