Author: I probably shouldn't be posting these as quickly as I am, but they're fun and short and I don't need to go over them with as fine a comb as my longer works. Oh, wait. As a semi-warning, there is a slash-esq tinge to this chapter. Not that Medivh cares about things like sexual orientation, but some humans do.

Disclaimer: I got into WoW too late to get Ate'ish. ):

~Antidote~

Medivh started in surprise as Khadgar yelped and coughed on the smoke that he inadvertently inhaled.

"Well, that wasn't supposed to happen," Medivh murmured as Khadgar hacked to get the foreign material out of his lungs.

"What went wrong?" Khadgar asked between spasmodic coughs.

"Probably the ratio of reagents. Or maybe the reagents themselves. It will require some—"

Medivh was cut off as he Khadgar collapsed on the floor.

It was oddly troubling to Medivh, who looked at the youth before him with an emotion that wavered between concern and contempt.

In the end concern won out and he knelt beside the fallen boy and poked him magically and physically; he was surprised at the effort it took for him to avoid being rendered equally insensible. Medivh tapped his fingers together in pensive agitation, a scowl forming on his face.

"You're still too useful to me, boy," he muttered aloud. Medivh reached out and gently placed his hand on Khadgar's forehead and closed his eyes, examining the structure of the spell gone awry.

He removed his hand after a minute and tapped his fingers on his thigh as he thought.

If I don't do something, he will die. But wouldn't that be a good thing? The one true obstacle would be gone. Garona will mean nothing; she's controlled completely by Gul'dan, beholden to him. She is disposable, and no-one would belive her anyway if she found out my little…secret.

Medivh cupped a hand over Khadgar's mouth, allowing him to capture a few weak breaths. Khadgar had been caught in the backlash by breathing it in—there was a strong liklihood that air would also factor in resuscitating him.

The stale air swirled in Medivh's hand, and he could see flecks of the smoke and magic in it. He poked and broke it into its component parts, eventually stumbling upon uncommon focus, a particular reagent, and Medivh's demon-tainted magic as the cause for Khadgar's state.

All things remedied easily enough. It would just be a matter of how to administer the antidote in sufficient quantities.

Medivh paused, sighed, then picked Khadgar up with both magic and physical force. Since he couldn't clearly recall where Khadgar's room was (it didn't matter to him), he teleported them both up to his own chambers.

I have four hours, Medivh thought. And finding a new apprentice would be such a hassle. The hour of my death is coming, and no-one but Khadgar will be able to succeed.

Medivh thrived on challenges, so set to work immediately.

Creating the antidote was, as he had expected, not terribly difficult. The hardest part was separating the power of Tirisfalen from Sargeras' taint. Distilling it into the focus of restoring Khadgar's health and weaving in the correct opposite reagent took about an hour. Trapping it in vapor form was a little harder, but didn't take much more than an hour as well.

But, how to administer it? He isn't breathing deeply enough to be able to absorb it on his own, Medivh thought as he stood over the unconscious, pale, wheezing young man.

He knew the young man's hourglass was running out quickly, and he knew he was being stupid and missing the obvious solution.

Forcing this quickly into him will probably be ineffective. It needs to be a steady stream, the same strength as a long deep breath.

He had a few tools that could probably accomplish such, but he'd have to dig through his storerooms (and perhaps his reverse Tower compartments) to find them and he didn't have the time or motivation.

An idea unfolded in his mind that had its merits. The magic could be preserved, he could time the breath right, and it couldn't hurt him.

Might as well, he thought with a shrug.

Medivh propped his apprentice up against the headboard and sat beside him. He placed the bottle he had the vapor contained in against his own lips, unsealed it so that he held the air in his mouth, and then pressed his lips to Khadgar's, breathing into him. Once he was sure the vapor had transferred, he pulled away, stood up, and walked over to his desk to make notes and wait.

He knew that he wasn't wrong, and the antidote would work. It was simply a matter of Time.

He heard his apprentice's breathing slowly even out into a normal rhythm and looked over to see Khadgar giving him a bewildered, dazed look.

"Master?" he croaked, coughed, and then said in a surer tone: "What happened?"

Medivh shrugged. "An experiment went wrong, you suffered the consequences, I found, made, and administered the antidote."

Khadgar hummed and ran a hand through his tousled hair. "And you had to kiss me to administer it?"

Medivh shrugged again. "It was the simplest way."

"You couldn't figure out anything else?"

"It worked, did it not?"

Khadgar shifted uncomfortably. "It did."

"Then why bother complaining about the method?"

"Because…because…" Khadgar trailed off. "You wouldn't care anyway," he concluded weakly.

Medivh finished jotting a note down before he said, "It is because we're both men?"

Khadgar flushed as Medivh grinned savagely.

"Ah, Young Trust," Medivh said condescendingly. "I suppose that there are still prejudices and misonceptions I have yet to rid you of."

"And I suppose that you're the very picture of tolerance," Khadgar drawled and sat up straighter.

It seemed to take him a moment to register that he was in Medivh's bed, and the master mage couldn't stop from cackling at how the poor boy's ears turned red.

"Oh, you are too much fun," Medivh snickered.

"What, are you…?"

Medivh tapped the feather of his quill on the desk. "Are you?"

Khadgar took a moment longer than appropriate to respond. "I've always been too busy," he said eventually. "And no-one has been able to match me in terms of power and intellect."

It was easy to read the unconscious confession that Khadgar was making:

Not before you.

Medivh sat back in his chair and stroked his beard, keeping his face unreadable. "So, tell me, what do you think went wrong in our experiment?"

Khadgar blinked, then forcibly shifted his thoughts. "Well, because it failed in such a spectacular fashion, that meant we were close to accomplishing our goal. I would first start with changing the reagent, since that is the most controllable of materials."

Medivh nodded absently. "What would you substitute?"

Khadgar frowned at the sheets, seemed to re-realize he was sitting in his master's bed, and quickly slid off the piece of furniture. He composed himself, and walked to beside his master. "Well, there are a number which we could substitute."

"But each could potentially yield a completely different response."

"Yes, well, you do happen to have a rather expansive stock," Khadgar drawled, which made Medivh fight back a smirk.

"You shouldn't take for granted what I can provide for you."

"Yes, master."

"But, do go on. Let's see how inventive you can be."