The next few days were probably the longest of Tam's life. He avoided talking to Keefe as much as he could, except when checking on the shadows. As promised, Linh and Marella presented them with their 'Happy Shadow Thoughts' tunics, and Ro forced the hot pink one over Tam's head, refusing to let him take it off. Keefe was in hysterics until he fell asleep that night. When Elwin allowed Keefe to take a walk, Tam had to go with him, pink monstrosity and all, which was the main talking point as he and Sophie kept Keefe from falling over.

The day Elwin said Keefe could leave, with a weekly checkup, Tam almost jumped for joy. Finally, he could go home and enjoy the nice, quiet, solitude of his own room. He ripped the horrendous tunic off and was about to leave when Elwin stopped him.

"Tam, Keefe's going to be staying with you, Linh, and Wylie."

"You're kidding," Tam moaned.

"I know you don't want to, but Livvy and I are still unsure of Keefe's stability. We need you to make sure he doesn't combust or something."

"Fine," Tam sighed. "But he's not staying in my room."

Just Tam's luck, Keefe had to stay in Tam's room. Tam thought he was going to explode in a dark rage when Linh informed him of the arrangement.

"Come on," Linh sighed, exasperated. "Your room is huge. Keefe will be on the complete opposite side and I'll even put some curtains up for you. But no one knows what Keefe's new ability is and so far you're the only one who can control it." Tam almost hissed at her, but decided better and just glared.

Two weeks later, at Keefe's weekly checkup, Elwin announced Keefe could begin to try out and discover his new ability, under Tam's supervision. Keefe watched as the angst machine screamed into a pillow when he heard the news, trying hard to suppress his laughter.

Their first 'training' didn't get them anywhere. Keefe used ill-advised methods to try and unlock his power while Tam stood a minimum of twenty feet away from him and sulked the whole time before Ro got bored and made them come inside.

The next day, Linh and Marella joined them outside, trying to get them to work together.

"For me it always helps if Linh and I are in some form of contact," Marella said happily. "That way we can keep each other balanced."

"Easy for you to say," Tam muttered. Linh rolled her eyes.

"Tam," she said sternly. "If we don't awaken and train Keefe's ability soon we'll be completely unprepared for whenever the Neverseen decides to meet with us again. Just try it. We'll go somewhere else." She and Marella headed to the other side of Tiergan's home, motioning for Ro to join, to which she reluctantly followed.

"Great, I'm stuck alone with Tam," Keefe said sarcastically. Tam was shocked.

"You called me Tam," he gasped, a little too dramatically. Keefe's eyes widened as he realized his mistake.

"Oh, shoot!" he exclaimed. "That was totally a slip-up," Tam raised an eyebrow.

"And that previous statement was totally convincing," he replied. Keefe winced.

"I just thought we should make things a little more comfortable before we actually have to touch each other," he tried, shuddering. Tam wasn't convinced, but he decided to roll with it.

"Okay," he said, bracing for the awkwardness. "Ready?" Keefe nodded, turning to face the open sky on the horizon. Tam hesitated, then slowly lifted his arm and placed his hand on Keefe's shoulder. Nothing happened.

"That did nothing," Keefe remarked. "And I don't think either of us like why or the solution."

"I'm assuming the reason why is I was just touching your clothes, not you, and the solution is I have to actually touch you," Tam figured.

"This is too perfect," Keefe deadpanned as Tam grabbed his wrist.