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"Babe...." Teddy had spent a majority of the wedding thinking about how Billy had cast a spell on Chris, and how, he very well may have cast a spell on him. And now, at this wedding, things were feeling off. People were falling in love and getting married...and he didn't even know if his love for Billy was genuine or if it had been forced.

And Billy couldn't even be serious with him for a second. It was perpetually immature hijinks and pratfalls. They couldn't have a serious conversation, or cuddle, or do anything normal couples do. It was always sassy quips and ...why were they dating?

"I uh....I think we need to break up."

He said it over the food table, staring at a shrimp that was lying on a plate.

"I ...don't know what you can do with your magic...and ...I don't think we're right for each other. Sometimes...I feel like you forget about me, and I feel like you just...magic me along.

"I'm sorry. I know this is terrible timing...but...I don't know ...about us. And I need time. Whether you want to give it to me or not is up to you...but I need it.

"Don't worry about poofing me back to campus. I'll find another way back."

Teddy offered Billy a very awkward hug before wandering off, leaving Billy with the shrimp on the plate.

Billy was frozen. He just stood there ... frozen. Did Teddy really just...?

"Teddy..."

Billy watched as Teddy turned away from him and melted into the crowd, leaving Billy standing there like a little fool, holding his now ex-boyfriend's plate of shrimp.

Billy blinked and could feel the sting of the tears that started to develop in his eyes, knowing there were some who were watching him. It would have been impossible for the breakup to not have been noticed, as crowded as the reception was.

The plate of shrimp slowly slipped from his fingers and it hit the table, sending the remaining contents across a spot on the table's silk, wine colored cloth.

He looked back up but could no longer see Teddy. What would Teddy be doing now for the remaining few days of the holiday break? He was staying at his house, and his own mom was away.

What did he mean... magic him along? Teddy started acting weird and distant ever since he learned about the spell he had cast for Chris. Did he seriously just accuse him of ... manipulating him by magic in their relationship? That was ... that was perhaps the lowest accusation he could have ever made against him. Any mage at Hero High could likely be accused of the same thing were they in a relationship, but for Teddy to accuse him...

"Hi Billy." Billy's best friend, Kate Bishop, approached him in a fancy purple gown. "Who so...?"

"Leave me alone." Billy choked and left the table, leaving her standing there.

Sitting next to Teddy was Wally, who was smiling and enjoying the reception, but not dancing. He sat up higher so Teddy would see him.

"Hey Teddy." He put a hand on the kid's shoulder. "Saw your blow-up over there. Actually...think everyone did."

Sympathetic bro-pats on the shoulder.

"Breaking up at a wedding. Man, that sucks!""

Oh, woah. This was like one of those prom moments Wally read about, where one girl spends all her time in the bathroom comforting other girls whose hearts are broken.

How utterly un-macho! At least they weren't in the bathroom. Wally regretted a little bit turning down everyone's request for a dance...He had been waiting to give Cassie their first dance before everyone else.

No, no...that wasn't cool. A bro in need was a bro indeed.

"Hey. Hey man, chin up. I don't think Billy woulda done that to anyone. He's sort of goofy, but people think I am, too. And I'd never put a spell on a girl."

More sympathetic pats.

"But if it's eating you alive wondering, hey, taking some time to yourself is cool. If there's one thing I've learned the last couple weeks -" Wally thought back to his ex-girlfriend tearing up city streets with her magnetic powers... "It's that maybe we're all too young to know for sure what real love is, yet. Being a teenager is sort of like...adult practice, right? And practice makes perfect."

"You can do that? Go back in the closet? What do you do, like, tell everyone 'sorry, changed my mind!'?" Wally puzzled on this one. He didn't know a lot about being a gay dude, but he was pretty sure that wasn't how it worked. "Tell everyone that Billy's so sexy that he temporarily turned you gay?"

Across the dance floor, Clawdeen Wolf gave Wally another sad look. She'd been asking him to dance all night, and her date (some fire-headed guy named Heath Burns) looked like he had all the rhythm of a boulder. Wally gave her another sympathetic shrug.

"How about, just don't think about dating anyone for a little while? Get yourself in order. It took me a long time after my last girlfriend..." Wally shuddered. "-before I could feel like feeling that way about anyone. Just enjoy being you for a while!"

The wedding and reception had both been spectacular successes, aside from the random teenage angst moments and a touch of drama here and there that seems to follow wedding receptions no matter where they go.

It was now night in Maui, roughly just after 2am to be exact. In a private room in the hotel along the beach, Achilles and Patroclus laid beneath the covers, looking in one anothers' eyes as they listened to the crash of the surf outside of their open patio door.

"Thank you." Patroclus said as he ran his fingers lovingly thru Achilles' long, blond hair.

"What for?" Achilles said with a smile as he propped himself up on his elbows, chest-first on the bed. "Aside from the obvious."

Patroclus chuckled and rolled to his side and on his elbow. "Well, there is that, but I meant for everything. All of this. For today.""

Achilles nodded, "Well, perhaps you should give thanks to Princess Diana and those who planned the occasion. Cassandra's mother, Thetis, and Cassandra herself."

"I did." Pat noted. "At the reception. But this goes beyond that. I have to leave soon..."

"Patroclus..."

Pat held a hand up, insisting on finishing. "I have to go back soon, and you gave me the best way to take my leave. I ... I do not think I could ever forget what you did for me this day."

Achilles smiled, despite the ache he felt in his heart. He didn't want Patroclus to have to leave, knowing what it was that he would be going back to. Damned the timeline.

He leaned forward and the two shared a lingering kiss before Achilles laid back down and drew his soulmate into his arms against him.

"Good night." He whispered and Patroclus snuggled back against him with a smile.

"Good night."

****

Several hours later, the sun shining through the windows of the room and against Achilles' eyes drew him from his slumber, albeit slowly. He rolled over from his back to his side, eyes closed, extending an arm to Patroclus but found nobody there.

Achilles slowly opened his eyes and saw that Patroclus was not in the bed, and his spot was still warm and disheveled. He leaned up and called out,

"Patroclus?"

Nothing.

There was no sound from the bathroom, no shower running. The room was exactly as they had left it. Save for one thing.

On Patroclus' pillows there was a single, turquoise seashell.

Achilles reached over and drew it into his fingers. He picked it up and brought it to his lips and kissed it, eyes brimming with tears.

Cassandra could hear the click of the door's deadbolt turning back and the door slid open unabashedly. Achilles stood there in just a pair of pajama pants and barefoot, with his hand clasped shut.

He looked awful, as his eyes bore the tell-tale signs that he had been crying. He slowly opened his clenched hand and in his palm was that single seashell. He looked up from it to his sister and he bit his bottom lip.

"H-he... he's gone."

He shrugged, trying to contain his composure for his sister. His voice was raw.

"He went home."

He was the big brother, both literally as well as figuratively. He had to bend over to compensate for the considerable height difference but he felt no shame in putting his head on his sister's shoulder and allowing the emotions to run their course.

It had been too fast. It simply was not fair. The gods had gave their explanations in the past but none of that concerned him. Only Patroclus ... only he was Achilles' concern.

His body rocked slightly from the spasms of his weeping and his arms gripping his sisters body tightly.

"I, I knew they would take him back. I knew! Why was I not ready? Why did they have to do it now!?"

He sniffed back.

"So the gods said he could only remain for the holidays. We were wed! They could have changed their minds! I do not care about the timeline! They could have let him stay just a little longer! Their ... their lives are so long and full of boredom the only amusement it seems they get is at our expenses!"

Shocking.

Achilles had never ... never spoken ill of the gods before.