This chapter's actually rather Timmy-centred, which is something I don't do often enough.

Chapter Nineteen – Shadows in Bloom

Sky, Brandon and Timmy's dorm room was very still and quiet despite the fact that all its occupants were present. That was, of course, until Brandon – who was fed up with studying and frustrated by personal problems – snapped and threw the text book he was reading with unnecessary force at the wall, making people on both side of it jump.

"I am never going to remember any of this crud!" Brandon raged uncharacteristically.

"Brandon," Sky started gently so as not to aggravated his friend further. He had used this tone plenty of times before – though almost exclusively with Riven – so it felt odd to be using it on his best friend and countryman. "Just relax. They're just final exams. Nothing to get stressed over."

"Whatever," Brandon grumbled moodily, lying back on his bed and covering his eyes with his arm. Sky and Timmy exchanged a concerned look, but any chance of getting their normally cheerful and optimistic friend to open up was ruined when the door to their room snapped open to revile the two boys who resided on the other side of the wall that Brandon had just thrown his book at.

"What the hell's going on in here?" Riven demanded curtly enough for Helia to think he deserved a sharp elbow to the ribs.

"Nothin'," Brandon snapped back just as curtly, only no one dared to jab him in the ribs.

"Okay," Riven said, dropping it for now. With a loud sigh, Riven leaned himself up against the door jam and got himself comfortable. "Have you heard anything about the end of year examinations? You know, the missions?"

"All junior Red Fountain students are all sent out on field missions for their final examinations," Sky said.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious. I go to school here too. I know how it works. I was asking if you if you had heard what the missions are going to be."

"Well, I heard Doc got in a few vaccines for diseases that exist in tropical regions, so I'm guessing a few squads are going to be sent on missions in rainforest or swamp environments, and the Q-Master was pulling out some of the snow gear that's usually used in the freshmen snow trip so we might have a few arctic missions crop up too," Timmy told them.

"So it's either humid, muggy rainforest and swamps or freezing our butts off?" Sky thought out loud, not sounding too thrilled about either option.

"You are such a spoiled prince," Riven muttered with a roll of his eyes.

"I don't care what mission we get. I just want this school year to be over already," Brandon grumbled from his place still sprawled on his bed. "I'm sick of exams, I'm sick of worrying about mission and I'm sick of just sitting around waiting for Lord Darkar to make a move. Why can't our mission be to go to Shadow Haunt and take that creep out before he tries to steal the last two pieces of the Codex?"

"Because it's an examination, not a suicide attempt," Sky pointed out bluntly. "Besides, he's not going to get his hands on the last two pieces of the Codex. One's hidden in Pixie Village where only the pixies, Layla, Ms. F, Saladin and Griffin know the location of and the Winx Club won't let him anywhere near Alfea's piece."

"Yeah, because they did such a fantastic job stopping the Trix from taking Cloud Tower's piece," Brandon growled sarcastically.

"Now Brandon, that's not fair."

"Whatever," Brandon mumbled, rolling onto his stomach and picking up another text book.

"They did their best to stop them but – "

"Dude, just drop it. I'm not in the mood."

"But you can't blame – "

"Sky, seriously, I'm trying to study."

Brandon's sour mood continued with seemingly no end in sight, and when coupled with the usual stress of exams and the mind numbing act of studying, it led to a very unpleasant environment to live in. Mentally, emotionally and physically tired, Timmy found himself distancing himself from his friend and spending more time alone studying or just getting away from it all. Timmy had never been as enthusiastic about levi biking as some of the others were, but recently it was coming a common occurrence for him to just pull on his helmet and ride out his stress. He normally never had any real destination, but rather let the roads of Magix take him where ever they wanted him to go.

And today, he somehow found himself at the gates of Alfea.

Leaving his helmet with his bike at the gate, Timmy strolled causally through the grounds with the idea of spending sometime with Tecna. Their friendship had been rather strained this year and he was hoping that they could work past it. Tecna, however, was making it extremely difficult for him by ignoring the instant messages and emails he sent her and generally avoiding him whenever she could. Timmy couldn't deny that he was hurt by her cold shoulder, but he was hopeful that they could fix it. If only he could find her.

Timidly walking up to a short haired fairy that he knew was in Tecna's class – in fact, he was pretty sure that she room with Layla – Timmy tried to get her attention so he could ask if she knew where Tecna was, but the fairy was more interested in the story she was telling her friend than even acknowledging him. "So I'm IM that guy I met in Magix last weekend, and get this – "

"Excuse me girls," Timmy interrupted delicately, but he saw the fairy's eyes flash in annoyance. "You don't know where Tecna is, now do ya?"

"Yeah hi. Right in the middle of a conversation here," Layla's roommate pointed out rudely instead of just answering him. "Oh, but maybe your lack in social skills is why Tecna dumped you."

"Huh?" Timmy said dumbly, shifting his glasses. He could have pointed out that he and Tecna weren't technically dating so it was impossible for her to dump him, even through that hadn't even happened, but he was too shocked to even focus his mind to come up with such a response. He had never actually spoken to this fairy before so he had no idea where she got off being so rude to him, and he also never really pictured himself as being interesting enough for girls to gossip about. Embarrassed, Timmy turned and walked away from the girls who had broken out into peals of laughter at his humiliation. "Lack of social skills? I said excuse me, didn't I?"

In his opinion, he wasn't the one who needed to improve his social skills. Sure, he was shyer than Brandon and Sky were and he didn't get much entertainment out of stirring up conflict like Riven did, but that didn't mean that he was a social misfit. He always made sure he minded his manners and believe that if you couldn't say something nice, then you shouldn't say anything at all. That was just the way his parents had raised him. Also, with two sisters it wasn't like he could get a word in anyway.

Timmy was still somewhere between embarrassment and confusion when he managed to spot Tecna walking with Flora. Swallowing hard, Timmy tried to stop the nervousness in his stomach as he ran over to the two Winx Club members.

"Hey. What a coincidence," Timmy greeted lamely. Flora smiled warmly at him, but Tecna didn't look too thrilled with his presence, causing Timmy to lose his nerve and he fell back on his usual plan whenever Tecna made him feel uncomfortable; he talked about computers. "I mean, I was just doing some IT work for Faragonda and I just happened – "

"That's nice," Tecna cut him off, no more interested about talking to Timmy about computers than she might have discussing the latest fashion trends with Stella. Without a backwards glance, Tecna marched past them in an effort to get as much distance between her and Timmy as possible. Flora gave Timmy a quick apologetic and sympathetic smile before she quickly followed after her friend and Timmy let them go without chase.

"Oh boy," he sighed. "I'm no good at this."

He had only half been lying about helping Ms. Faragonda with some IT work, and it only took him ten minutes to fix the computer issue that had been annoying her for most of the school year. She probably could have gotten one of the fairies from Zenrith to fix it for her, but she had asked Timmy since the program that had been giving her grief had come from is home realm of Windox, so he had been able to interpret it like it was his native language since it pretty much was. When he was finished, Timmy roamed the halls of Alfea in the hopes of running into Tecna again, but whether it was from her avoiding him or just because their paths never crossed, Timmy couldn't find her. Not that he'd have a clue what he'd say to her if he did.

"Maybe Bloom's got some advice," Timmy thought out loud. He was pretty good friends with all the Winx Club girls, but it was probably Bloom that he felt most comfortable around, and that included Tecna at this particular moment in time.

Timmy found Bloom in her dorm room, accompanied only by her bonded pixie Lockette. Despite the fact that there was no obvious danger, Bloom had transformed into her winx form and she seemed to be surrounded by a pillar of black smoke. Timmy figured that she must have been studying for her exams like everyone at Red Fountain were. Lucky for them, none of the boys had to study magic.

"Hey Bloom," Timmy greeted cheerfully. "I was wondering if you had a second for a guy in need of some advice?"

"Sure Tim," Bloom grinned, but for some reason her smile looked more like a wild animal baring its fangs than its usual friendliness. Her voice also seemed to lack her usual pep. Instead, her voice was lower and hinted at a tone Timmy had only ever heard students from Cloud Tower use. "Come on in. It's about Tecna, right?"

"That's right. How'd you know?" Timmy asked and for some reason that question made Bloom chuckle.

"Oh Tim, you're pretty smart about most things," Bloom noted, twirling her finger around to stir up smoke. "But when it comes to Tecna, you don't know which way is up."

"Oh!" Timmy gasped. Before he knew it, the black smoke surrounded his body and Timmy was suddenly thrust into the air where he was left levitating upside-down. Timmy was shocked enough at suddenly having his feet higher than his head, but what was more shocking was that Bloom found it so entertaining that she cackled as if she was one of the Trix Sisters.

"Do you know what I mean?" Bloom asked tauntingly.

"Well, I'm not sure," Timmy confessed. If this was the way Bloom taught, there was no way he was ever going to ask her to be a study-buddy with him. "But . . . er . . . can I please have my shoes on the ground again?"

"Sure Tim, whatever you want. Here you go," Bloom said, flicking her wrist again. It suddenly became clear to Timmy that he hadn't been clear enough with his request when Bloom spelled his shoes onto his hands so that they were closer to the ground like he asked, but he was still hanging upside-down with a painful amount of blood rushing to his head. "Is that better?"

"What is this?" Timmy asked, looking stupidly at his shoed feet. He had only known Bloom just over a year and a half, but he was pretty sure that he had a clear idea of Bloom's personality, and this wasn't normal. Sky had told him of a time last year when he and Bloom had snuck into Cloud Tower and read a book that the Trix had planted which told them that Bloom was a witch. Timmy had actually laughed out loud when Sky had told him about that, but if Bloom had been acting the way she was right now at that time last year, Timmy may not have found it so unbelievable.

"Why are you acting like this Bloom?" Lockette asked, her tiny body and voice trembling. "Put him down."

"Oh, you mean drop him just like Tecna did?" Bloom laughed callously. As he hung there like some slaughtered animal left to bleed, it occurred to Timmy that there was something very wrong. Not just in the way Bloom was acting, but also in the way that she looked. It had been bugging him since he had entered the room, and it finally occurred to him what it was; her eyes had changed. Bloom normally had blue eyes that were both pale, though not chilling like ice blue eyes, and soft and deep, though without darkness, or at least that was how Sky had once described them. But now they were pale with an element of darkness in them, and they certainly weren't blue. They were a wicked golden colour and her pupils were thin slits like that of a cat.

Something was seriously wrong.

Timmy's only ally that that moment, Lockette, flew over to him to offer what little help she had for him. "Hang in there Timmy."

"I don't think I have much of a choice," Timmy pointed out pathetically.

"Hey Timmy, lets go find Tecna," Bloom suggested, heading for the door and spelling Timmy along with her.

"Whoa!" Timmy gasped as he was suddenly hurled backwards and collided with the door on the way out. The wind was knocked out of him and he was developing a headache from being upside-down for such a long amount of time, but without the help of magic there was nothing he could do

But even those with magic were helpless to stop Bloom. "Are you okay?" Lockette asked as the travelled down corridor in search of Tecna or where ever Bloom wanted to take them.

"Whoa!" Timmy gasped again as he watched the floor move quickly beneath him. He was starting to feel really sick.

"Quit your whining," Bloom ordered harshly, not slowing in her pace.

"Put me down," Timmy ordered, but Bloom simply ignored him. Timmy knew that the only way he was going to be able to get out of this situation was if someone else intervened. Unfortunately, they had not come across anyone yet. "Somebody help!"

Timmy didn't know if they had heard him calling or if it was just a matter of coincidence, but a moment latter, help came in the form of Musa and Layla walking around a corner.

"Musa!" Timmy called, his voice a combination of urgency and relief.

"Timmy?" Musa gasped, shock at what she was seeing. Even with all the random and unexpected things that came with being a teenager growing up in a realm full of magic, there was no way Musa could have prepared herself for the astonishment that followed coming across having your normally pleasant friend tormenting another one. The shock left Musa stupid and she said the first thing that entered her mind. "Are you levitating?"

"Are you trying to impress Tecna?" Layla asked, unable to even consider the possibility that Bloom would behave this maliciously. The grin on Bloom's face, however, was proof enough that it was more than just a possibility; it was a reality.

"Yeah," Bloom smirked, her cat-like eyes glowing. "He's kind upset because, well, she's been treating him like dirt."

"Bloom," Lockette gasped as she watched Bloom conjure up a spell to torment Timmy further.

"Oh no. Now what?" Timmy groaned as he felt himself moving again. Before he could even realise it, Timmy found himself getting dumped head first into one of the large pot plants that lined the corridors of Alfea with only his legs sticking out the top.

"Timmy!" he heard Musa, Layla and Lockette exclaim, or at least he thought that was what they said. He had potting mix covering his ears, and everything they said sounded distant and muffled.

"Somebody get me out of here!" Timmy cried, trying not to gag on the dirt that ended up in his mouth. He really wished he could say that this was the first time he had ended up in a situation like this, but unfortunately one of his older sisters had a strong interest in archaeological history and had master several sand and soil manipulation spells which she had often used as a child to bury her little brother in the garden whenever she felt like it.

Timmy had no idea how long he stayed stuck like that, but just when he felt like he was on the verge of suffocating, he felt himself being lifted carefully by the ankles by some magical force out of the pot. Coughing, Timmy struggled to grasp his surroundings, but he could tell that he was being gently lowered to the ground and as soon as he was able to remove his filthy glasses and blinked the dirt out of his eyes, he could see the blurry form of a man standing over him. And even without his glasses, he knew who it was.

"Are you alright?" Professor Avalon asked, looking the teenager over carefully.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Timmy assured him, cleaning his glasses and slipping them back on his face. Suddenly, he could see the paladin a lot clearer. "Where's Bloom?"

"She's sitting over there," Avalon answered, pointing to the fairly that was slumped against the wall. She had transformed out of her winx mode and she appeared to be unconscious. "As soon as I got here I had to hit her with an energy absorption spell. It managed to drain her of her power to the point where we could help her and try to figure out what happened to make her act this way. And also allow us the chance to get you out of that pot plant."

"Yeah, thanks," Timmy mumbled, utterly embarrassed. "Will she be okay?"

"She'll be fine. The energy absorption spell acts just like a sugar low. Provided Bloom takes it easy when she first wakes up, she'll be back to her usual strength within the hour," Avalon assured him before returning his attention back to treating Timmy. "Now, stay seated until you fell better. Don't try standing too soon. Miss Stella?"

"Yes Professor?" Stella, the only other fairy that Timmy could see, responded.

"Would you please take care of Timmy while I try and wake Bloom up?"

"You got it," Stella saluted, walking over to sit by Timmy while Avalon moved over to Bloom. "You okay, Timmy?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Timmy said again, rubbing the top of his head. A large amount of soil slipped out of his hair. Looking down at himself, Timmy saw that his upper half was absolutely filthy and he was sure that his face wasn't fairing much better. "I could do with a shower, though."

"I think you'll have to go back to Red Fountain for that," Stella grinned before spelling up a moist facial wipe. "But hold still. Let's see if we can't get you a little bit clean up before you go."

"Where did Musa and Layla go?" Timmy asked as Stella scrubbed his face like she was his mother.

"They went to go track down Tecna and Flora. They think it's best for all of us to watch Bloom for a little bit, just to make sure she doesn't slip into that crazed state again."

"That sounds like a good idea."

Timmy was silent as Stella finished cleaning him up. He had decided that as soon as he was able to stand, he was going to make a break for it. He had already made a fool of himself in front of Tecna once today. He wasn't about to do it again.

"There. You're done," Stella told him, sitting back to observe her handy work. "You still need to have a shower so you can wash you hair, but at least now your face doesn't look like you've tried to find out what it's like to be a carrot."

"Thanks Stella. Would you be able to give me a hand getting up?"

"Sure," Stella said, gripping him by the arm. With Stella's help, Timmy managed to get back on his feet. He still had a headache, but he figured that would fade once his blood started circulating normally again. Timmy started brushing down his clothes just as Bloom started to come around.

"Wha . . . W-What happened?" Bloom asked, clutching her head. She did look very weak, but Avalon had assured them that she would be back to her full strength shortly.

"Bloom, you need to tell me; do you remember anything about what just happened?" Avalon asked gently, his steel blue eyes serious and probing.

"What are you talking about? What happened?" Bloom asked, looking about her, utterly confused. "And what am I doing out here? I was just in my dorm. Timmy? When did you get here?"

"Alright Bloom, I need you to listen to me," Avalon said and then he slowly explained to her what had just happened.

"I did what?" Bloom asked as soon as he was finished. She had paled slightly as her professor had been talking, and when she had heard about what she had done to Timmy she looked as if she was going to throw up. "I feel so embarrassed. I don't remember any of that. I tried to see if my powers were stronger cause of the regression, but that's the last thing I remember."

"Sounds like you have a case of a rare magical virus known as Fargmistingson," Avalon told her. "You might have picked it up from those trogs in the Under Realm. I'll need to research the correct healing spell."

"Well, I'm going back to Red Fountain," Timmy told everyone. He still wasn't feeling one hundred percent, but he knew that Musa and Layla would be returning soon with Tecna and Flora, and he really didn't want to run into Tecna right now. "I hope you feel better Bloom . . . for everybody's sake."

"Hey, if I said anything too harsh, I'm really sorry," Bloom apologised, and Timmy knew that she meant it.

"I know you didn't mean it," he told her, but he knew she was going to feel guilty about it for the next few days. The best thing he could do was keep positive and hope that she realised he was okay with it. Grinning, Timmy rubbed his hair again and this time several leaves fell out along with a small amount of soil. "See you later."

"See you later Timmy," everyone called after him, and with that, Timmy fled Alfea with the knowledge that he couldn't have humiliated himself any better that day if he planned it.

"Timmy, what happened to you?" Sky asked, his blue eyes looking at his friend with deep concern. He had noticed a change in Timmy over the last few months, but it was starting to become really obvious lately. He had been very quiet recently, which really wasn't that unusual for Timmy, but Sky had noticed that his reserved nature now seemed to be more withdrawn if anything, which wasn't normal.

"Oh, nothing that hasn't happened to me before," Timmy assured him, and if he knew his sister at all, it probably wasn't going to be the last time it happened either. He was aware of the fact that Sky was still looking at him, but he averted the princes blue eyes by removing his glasses and pulling his shirt up over his head, all the while trying to ignore the soil that came spilling out of some hidden fold in his clothing. He had been finding countless stashes of soil just like it all afternoon, so he was eager to hit the showers and clean himself off.

Unlike Alfea and Cloud Tower who all had private bathrooms attached to their dorms, Red Fountain had always supplied its students with communal showers, making shower time an unexpected social event. As freshmen's, many had originally found it to be rather awkward and embarrassing but they quickly became desensitised to it the point where it was commonplace to see students walking to and from the shower block wearing nothing but a towel (1).

In the old fortress, the shower block was nothing more that a bunch of shower heads sticking out of a wall, but with the new campus, they had upgraded the block so that they now had individual stalls with walls that reached from about mid chest height down to the floor. The teachers said it was so that the students would be allowed a little privacy, but everyone knew it really had to do with Doc complaining to Saladin about the amount of concussions he had to treat each year when students slipped over and cracked their heads on the titles while playing soap soccer.

By the time Sky and Timmy stripped off and made it to the showers the rest of the squad had reserved for them, their friends were already well into their cleaning routine, particularly Brandon who had put a ridiculous amount of shampoo into his brunette hair and was working up a lather so that it would stand up on end.

"Look Riv, I'm you," Brandon announced as soon as his hair was completely vertical and styled into a large spike as Riven usually wore his.

"Yeah, ya funny," Riven said sarcastically before sticking his head under the running water so that his hair fell directly in front of his face. "Look, now I'm you."

"You should keep it that way," Brandon advised, rinsing the shampoo out of his hair. "It's better. We can't see ya face."

"Is that why you keep your hair that way?"

"No. I do it to tease. The world wants more, but I just won't give it to them," Brandon grinned, rinsing the suds out of his hair. Riven rolled his eyes and then went about simply ignoring the squire. His hair was now an incredibly dark shade of burgundy and had fallen straight down by his cheeks, changing his appearance entirely.

"So, did I hear right? Did Alfea lose its piece of the Codex?" Helia asked, rinsing the conditioner out of his long dark hair which with the weight of the water made it all the more longer.

"Alfea lost their Codex?" Riven repeated, snapping his head up. "How?"

"Did the Trix show up or something?" Brandon asked, slicking his fringe out of his eyes and leaving his entire face exposed for a change. "Seriously, I've never seen this Darkar guy. He's always getting the witches to do his leg work."

"The Trix didn't get it," Sky answered simply, sticking his head under the stream of water. He had gotten a magic message off Bloom that simply read; Icy spelled me. Darkar has Alfea's Codex. I gave it to him. He hadn't had a chance to talk to her yet, but he planned to give her a call as soon as he was showered and had given her time to have dinner and go through her own nightly routine.

"What happen?" Helia pressed lightly.

"Icy spelled Bloom when they were at Cloud Tower, and she turned to Darkness and gave up Alfea's piece of the Codex," Sky said as quickly as he could and tried to ignore the shocked expression on Brandon, Riven and Helia's face. Timmy was oddly quiet and kept his eyes downcast.

"You're kidding!" Riven gasped, his violet eyes wide.

"Bloom? Darkness?" Brandon stuttered. "No way!"

"My god," Helia whispered softly. "Is she alright?"

"I dunno. I haven't talked to her yet," Sky answered. The conversation kind of died at that point as it dawn on everyone the gravity of the situation that was now facing them. Lord Darkar now had three out of four pieces of the Codex, and he had achieved that by manipulating the strongest fairy at Alfea.

"Bloom, are you sure you're okay?" Sky asked again, his phone held up to his ear. He was alone in his dorm so he was able to get all protective over his girlfriend without any of his friends tormenting him about it which he was very thankful for. Bloom had been pretty depressed throughout the call, but that was no surprise given everything that had happened that day. Bloom had dedicated herself all year to trying to protect the Codex from Lord Darkar, so to suddenly find herself as the one who handed it over to him was more than she could bare.

"I'm fine," Bloom said, even though she sounded anything but. "I just can't believe that I gave Alfea's piece of the Codex to Lord Darkar like that."

"You didn't mean to Bloom. You were spelled."

"That doesn't change the fact that Lord Darkar is now one piece of the Codex away from getting the Ultimate Power," Bloom snapped with sudden heat that vanished just as quickly as it appeared. "I'm sorry, Sky. I didn't mean to snap at you like that."

"I know you didn't. You've had a rough day. Do you want me to go so you can try and get some sleep?"

"No. I like listening to your voice. It makes me feel better," Bloom admitted. "And after the day I had, I need all the cheering up I can get."

"Fair enough," Sky laughed. "Anything I can do to help."

"Is Timmy still mad at me?"

"Timmy? No Bloom. He was never mad at you, and even if he was, he's not the kind of guy who holds grudges," Sky assured her. He had managed to drag out of Timmy what had happened at Alfea earlier that day, but even then Sky's understanding of the details were sketchy at best. All he knew was that at some point, Bloom had turned on Timmy and he had ended up with a pot plant being dumped on him or something like that. "Timmy's pretty much the rock of our squad. There's always been fights – me against Riven, Brandon against Riven, me and Brandon against Riven – and Timmy's our referee, or peace keeper if you will. It's not in his nature to hold anything against anyone."

"I know, but Timmy been having a pretty hard couple of months recently."

"He has?" Sky blinked. He had always thought he was pretty good at being able to read his friends, so the very idea that something was going on with Timmy that he hadn't noticed was something that the prince had never seen coming.

"Yeah, you know with all that stuff that happening between him and Tecna, or not happening would probably be a better wording of it."

"Him and Tecna?" Sky repeated, feeling incredibly stupid. "Is it not working out between them or something? I always thought they got along really well."

"They do . . . as friends. They're just having a bit of trouble making that transition to 'more than friends' is all and Tecna's getting a little impatient about it all."

"Oh, okay," Sky said, trying not to sound too shocked by it all. How the hell did he miss that? Timmy was having girl issues and no one had noticed. Sky suddenly felt so guilty that he felt nauseous when he thought about all those weeks when Timmy had sat around and listened to him bitch about Avalon and whether or not Bloom had a crush on him, and now that the roles had been reversed and Timmy had needed the support there was none to be found. Brandon was still suck in his pool of misery thanks to whatever was happening with him and Stella, Riven was always off with Helia these days and Sky had been caught up in looking out and supporting Bloom that he had neglected one of his best friends. Looking back on everything, Sky realised that Timmy hadn't been as confident in his studies had he had been the pervious two years. He was still acing all his theory work, but the practical side of his studies wasn't as good as it had been in the past, like he had lost his confidence or something like that, and Sky couldn't help but notice that his grades had started to slip ever since the day the Trix stole Red Fountain's piece of the Codex and Timmy had froze up in front of Icy. Darcy's non aggression spell had been on him at the time, but Sky could easily picture Timmy over analysing the situation afterwards and placing the blame on himself. Just the thought that Timmy was thinking he was somehow less fit to be a student at Red Fountain and for Sky to have missed that was enough to make the prince want to be physically ill. "Look Bloom, I better let you go. You've got classes tomorrow and you've had a pretty full on day. You need some rest."

"Yeah, you're probably right. I'll call you sometime tomorrow?"

"Yeah sure. Night Bloom."

"Night."

Red Fountain library was rather dark and ominous, but the lamp that Timmy was studying under was bright so Sky managed to find him easily. Late night study sessions weren't unusual at this time of year, and there were a few other students huddled under their own lamps as they made an attempt to cram that little bit more information into the heads before the examination period started.

"Hey man. How's it going?" Sky asked casually, leaning calmly up against the table Timmy was sitting at. Timmy glanced up at the prince from the thick text book he was taking notes from for a second before turning back to his studying.

"Yeah, not bad," Timmy answered automatically, flipping a page over and scanning his eyes over the text. "Though I'm starting to think Brandon might be right about us never being able to remember all this stuff them expect us to memorise."

"Afraid Marcus might steal your place at the top of the class?"

"Hn. He wishes," Timmy smirked, jotting down another note that might come in use to him in the future.

Sky grinned, knowing full well that Marcus was trying to beat Timmy in this year's examination just as he had tried in ever other exam in the past. It wasn't so much the insane amount of hours Marcus put in studying each year that was amusing, but more so the way the rat face boy sulked for weeks afterwards that entertained the prince and the rest of his friends. Timmy of course was completely humble about the whole thing and publicly didn't approve of the delight others took out of Marcus's failure, but Sky knew he secretly enjoyed it just as much as the others, if not more so. Sky tried to keep the smile in his voice as he asked again, "So seriously, how you going?"

Timmy looked up from his studies once again, but this time he held Sky's gaze for longer than a few seconds. "I'm fine," Timmy assured him and there was no evidence in his face that suggested he wasn't telling the truth.

"You sure?"

"Yeah," Timmy nodded before awkwardly turning back to the text. Nothing seemed to make Timmy feel more uncomfortable that being the centre of a persons attention.

"Just making sure," Sky smile warmly, clasping Timmy on the shoulder briefly as he pushed himself off the table to leave, but before he left he added, "You're a good hero, Timmy, and you deserve to be here just as much as the rest of us."

"Um, okay?" Timmy replied uncomfortably, trying to sound like he had no idea what Sky was talking about.

"See ya man," Sky smiled one last time before leaving his friend to study in peace. Timmy watched him go before sighing heavily and returning his attention back to the text he was reading through.

(1) Nothing like communal showers to make you feel more comfortable about forfeiting your sense of privacy

Next Chapter: The First Charmix. We're going to the Resort Realm people!

TBC.