19.

Music drifted in the air as Elliot and Sheree walked into the M-Week festival. Elliot scanned the booths and games that were scattered throughout the campus and Tried to decide what to do first.

"You see anything you like?" he asked Sheree as he fought the impulse to take her hand and drag her over to the nearest booth.

Sheree slowly looked around the area. She didn't show any reaction to anything she saw. She began fiddling with her braid as she looked. Elliot watched her indecisiveness until he could no longer stand it. He finally gave in to his impatience and grabbed her hand. He was marching toward a game where you won prizes by throwing balls at pictures.

"Elliot, look" Sheree said loud enough to stop him in his tracks.

He looked at her and realized he was holding her hand without any consequence. He pulled away to do a happy dance, but Sheree took his hand again before he could.

"Don't let me go," she said in a voice that was a little louder than a whisper.

Her desire to make contact with him excited Elliot more than any of the games at the festival. Sheree's soft skin against his, and the light vibrations their skin made when it touched, were welcome feelings. He locked his fingers in hers and walked slowly to the game booth. The game was called Meteor mountain. The balls were decorated like meteorites and the goal was to knock down pictures of a mountain. It was supposed to represent the meteorite impacting the mountain that housed the university's dungeon.

"What do you clowns want?" Rayne asked as they walked up to them. She was holding three balls and glaring at Sheree.

"Can I help you with something?" Sheree asked and returned the look.

Rayne didn't answer right away, instead she stepped eerily close to Sheree. Sheree stood her ground, but still didn't let Elliot's hand go.

"I heard about what happened between you and my boyfriend," Rayne said. It was a hot and sunny day, but the temperature seemed to drop as she stared down Sheree.

"I, actually apologize for that, Albert," Sheree said and looked at Albert.

When she spoke Albert and Elliot's jaws dropped in unison, neither of them thought they would live to see the day she did that.

"It's not a big deal," Albert said slowly as he processed the apology.

"I should have apologized days ago, but I was in my feelings and forgot," Sheree said. Her flat, monotone made the occasion feel oddly businesslike.

Rayne hadn't counted on her actually apologizing. She wanted Sheree to be a jerk, so she could hate her.

"Thank you for apologizing to him, but that don't change anything. I'm still gonna beat you in the tournament," Rayne said.

"Of course," Sheree said.

Sheree was so happy to have Elliot back, she didn't care about anything else. She really wanted to run back to their room and spend as much time as they could cuddling in Elliot's bed naked. She would settle for holding him for now. Oh god am I in love, she thought as she hugged his right arm.

"Are you okay?" Elliot asked her as Rayne began throwing balls at targets.

"I just missed... this, she said quietly.

Elliot took a chance and kissed her on her forehead, when she didn't react negatively, he smiled and left well enough alone.

"So are you two official?" Albert asked as they walked to the next booth.

"We're not neck hickey official," Elliot said and looked at Rayne.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," Rayne said with a resolve as solid as steel.

"Ooo I love these games, I'm the best at these," Albert said. They were standing in front of a machine that measured the strength of your punch.

He hit the machine with a massive right hook, the electronic meter beside them beeped rapidly as it calculated his punching power. After a few seconds the meter flashed the number 8,510. Albert flexed next to the ridiculously high number as Rayne snapped a picture of him on her phone.

"Hey, watch this," Elliot said and flicked the machine with a single finger.

The machine beeped like it did when Albert hit it, but then it started to smoke and the word error appeared on the meter. The owner of the machine came running over and tried to fix it as the group walked away.

"I've seen you lift weights, you're not that strong. So what the hell was that?" Rayne asked as she glanced back at the poor man trying to salvage his ruined machine.

"My real power shows up when I hit things, I'm only technically a herculean," Elliot said rubbed his pendant.

"So sex with you could be life ending," Rayne asked and laughed.

Elliot and Sheree both stopped walking and stared at each other. It had never occurred to either of them that that might be a problem. They didn't have any immediate plans on sex, but they both assumed it was going to happen eventually.

"Wait, you got freaked out by that idea, you totally wanna do me," Elliot said and smiled widely.

"If I was considering it, I'm not anymore. I have no desire to be crushed or sent through a wall or something," Sheree said sternly.

"You're a telepath, just make us float while we do it," Elliot said and gave Sheree an idea.

They spent the next few hours walking from booth to booth with Rayne and Albert. Elliot, trying to upstage Albert and eat as many different foods as he could. Albert, trying to upstage Elliot, and impress Rayne. Rayne, making comments that made everyone either cringe or burst into laughter. Sheree never relinquished her hold on Elliot. She knew she missed his touch but even she didn't know how much she did. She didn't know how long they were going to be able to touch and she planned to spend all of the time they had touching. She knew people who saw them would think she was an average lovestruck teenage girl, and she didn't care to disprove it.

When night fell, the moon sat gigantic in the sky. It made the perfect backdrop for Sheree's idea.

"Hey, kiss me,"she said and gave his arm a quick yank.

Elliot leaned in and placed his lips on hers. Sheree put her arms around him and pulled him close to her as he did. Elliot put his arms around her as well and continued the kiss. It was a slow passionate kiss that made up for the days they had been unable to touch.

"Don't let me go," Sheree said when Elliot finally broke the kiss.

He looked around and realized they were hovering about 12 feet off the ground. He hugged closer to Sheree.

"Oh god, we're floating!" was all Elliot could manage to say as he panicked.

"Well, you told me I did something like this when I confronted Josh, the truth is I don't remember anything that happened in the woods. So I thought it would be nice to do it again, but with you, it's another first we can share," She said.

"You're amazing!" Elliot said and kissed her again.

Yeah, I'm amazing and completely in love with you, Sheree thought as she returned his kiss under the light of the beautiful moon.