"It's driving me nuts," Eugene continued his tantrum. He leaned on the sturdy table next to Varian, where the alchemist had piled a bunch of chemicals onto.

"She even considered wearing shoes! Can you believe it? Shoes, for crying out loud!"

His little rant had been going strong for quite some time now and there seemed no end in sight.

"Are you listening?"

"Yeah, yeah. Shoes bad," Varian replied. Carefully he adjusted the flame under one of the bigger cylinders. He stuck his tongue out in concentration and Eugene would bet his mind was a million miles away. On the plus side, the liquid he obsessed over steamed calm and steadily, which was hopefully what its supposed to do.

"She ordered a 6 feet tall ice sculpture for a guy she never met! And guess who had to carry it all the way into the castle?"

Varian tilted his head. "Max?"

"Yes. But I still had to be there," Eugene complained. "This minister-dude better be worth the trouble!"

"He - Please don't touch that," Varian scolded as Eugene reached for a yellow flask. The captain rolled his eyes and took the blue one instead when the royal nerd wasn't looking. In it was a slimy substance. It reminded him of his face moisturizers.

"Worst of all she is making me dance in this stupid parade! Left, right, left-left - and don't forget to smile!" He mimicked Rapunzel's voice while flapping his arms to an imaginary rhythm. The goo changed ever so slightly in color. "Don't get me wrong I am a flawless dancer, but no one can make folk-dance look good." It also started to turn more fluid. "I bet she has a song prepared for him. She's totally going to sing while showing him the wonders of Corona."

"Hmm," Varian frowned, displaying the first speck of sympathy for his plight. "She does tend to hyper-fixate on things." The pot called the kettle black.

"And all because of a stupid review." As the thief swung the substance in his custody especially rough the blue morphed into a warm glowing gold. "Nobody cares about this rando's opinion. It's not as if that many citizens can read anyway."

"Probably something that should be addressed," Varian muttered inaudibly.

"I don't like seeing her so worried," Eugene sighed, finally revealing the crux of his problem.

"Want me to dazzle him with my inventions? He'll li-"

"NO!" Eugene yelled in panic and startling Varian with his sudden outbreak.

"Oops."

A huge amount of purple stuff had spilled into pink stuff, creating a very repulsing-looking brown stuff. Not good.

"That was a bit much," the teen admitted.

"I mean, why not save that for next year?"

Eugene blinked as the alchemist shut the Bunsen burner off and started to clean up - Ruddiger was helping too. In quite a hurry he took the flask out of Eugen's hand and replaced it with a pair of goggles, before reuniting it with its friends to the other side of the lab.

"You're sure?" He asked over his shoulder.

The brown mixture he'd been working on hissed at them.

"Yes. Definitely yes." Eugene moved discreetly away from the table. "I was thinking more along the line, that you, my friend of chaos and destruction deserve a break. You know a weekend off." A biting stench filled his nose that drove yet again tears into his eyes. "Or better a week."

"But -"

"Ahahah. Listen buddy, when was the last time you actually had a vacation?"

"Uhm, never."

"See! Why not start now?" Just then the thing was forming bubbles and Eugene put his goggles on. "How about a visit to Old Corona?"

Varian winced at smoke emerging from his latest creation. "Maybe."

Ruddiger chirped. The critter was waiting at what he deemed a safe distance. Eugene followed suit and prayed that he was right.

"Good old Quirin must miss you terribly," the captain pressed on as he ran over to the raccoon, who scratched at two pairs of adorable earmuffs. The glass was trembling and he was sure he already saw one or two cracks in it.

The alchemist on the other hand stepped frantically on a petal hidden in the ground. A banged-up iron wall slowly crawled out of the stone, splitting the lab in half. Unfortunately, Varian was still on the wrong side to operate his construction.

Eugene rushed forward and in the nick of time, he pulled him back to safety. An explosion like no other washed over them. The captain of the guard closed his eyes. Heat gnawed at his skin and the world was shaking. For a second he feared they still wouldn't make it. And then it was over.

Something moved and Eugene's eyes fluttered open. Instinctively his arms had closed around Varian's slim frame, shielding the kid from doom and death. Varian looked a little confused at him, but Eugene wasn't ready to let him go just yet. It started to get awkward.

"I'll think about it," Varian said as he twisted himself out of Eugene's grip, face a tad paler but thankfully unharmed.

"Perfect," Eugene laughed as he bathed in the relief of, well, not being dead. "One thing's done and a million left to do. At least we have till tomorrow before the fancy-pancy ambassador arrives."

Varian frowned. "Is that so? Usually, he participates in the banquet."

"What banquet?"

"The one before the evaluation."

"Oh. Oh no."