Taube blinked his bright pink eyes slowly as the dark room faded into his vision. Then he carefully sat up, gently moving his wings out of the way. He looked around for a moment, staying very still as if listening for any sounds.

"T-Taube..?" A whisper made the fairy jump, then glance over at Oliver. He sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness you're ok! How are you feeling?" The fairy exclaimed suddenly.

Oliver's eyes widened at the boy's sudden energy. "I-I'm fine. How are you feeling?"

"Fine." Taube said, then stood up and started walking towards the staircase that lead up to the door.

"Uh- Wait! Taube there's no use. Neither of us can use our powers so unless you have super strength...I doubt it'll do much honestly..." he chuckled wearily.

The fairy glanced at Oliver, and for a moment questioned his decision, then continued up the steps to test his strength. Of course all he could do was rattle the wooden doors harshly then sigh in defeat and come back down the stairs. The fairy flicked his wings and paced around the dusty basement like a caged animal.

"H-hey Taube. Listen-"

"Oliver I know you're going to say that it will all be alright and everything will turn out fine and all that, but please,
don't bother. I know you're afraid so you don't have to pretend that you aren't."

The fairy's lisp was thicker than before, most likely because, though the boy was suddenly very panicked about this situation, he was weary and therefore not trying to hide it as well. So he continued pacing around like a caged animal, a nervous wreck, a wound-up toy whose clockwork innards were broken and couldn't do what it was made to do. And though Taube seemed as if he were about to explode with anger and fear, his wings were no longer shiny and no longer glowed their enticing pink along with his eyes. He was panicked, yet weary- and tired.

"I'm not afraid." Oliver said surely. Taube scoffed at this and then immediately felt guilty about doing it after the bug elemental looked down.

The fairy muttered a small apology before Oliver continued.

"I'm not scared. Usually I'm scared of everything but th-that's because I'm always facing it alone." He shrugged sheepishly, causing Taube to stop pacing and look at him, "So even if I'm down here, stuck in this old basement I've been in for the past few days...a-at least I'm no longer alone. At least you aren't alone. And you saved me, Taube! Nobody's ever done that before. I was dying and you used the last bit of your magic to save me. At first I didn't know why!" Oliver continued going on, taking his turn to pace around while the fairy stood by, awe-struck, having not seen the bug elemental ever before make such a powerful soliloquy.

"But now I do! Because just like everyone else, just like Maya, Max...and me- just like all of us, y-you were lonely too. Everybody's lonely and I've been lonely my whole life and the second I meet you guys, people who actually care about me and each other and not the fact that we're different elementals, I'm torn away! The second y-you meet me, I'm torn away! And I realized I didn't mind being alone and I wouldn't mind if I was going to die b-because at least somebody would be at my funeral-"

Taube cut Oliver off with a sudden kiss on the lips- causing the bug elementals face to go red as dead silence filled the dusty, dark room.

The two took a moment after in silence, not looking at each other, not looking at the floor- but eyes in another world. Silence and darkness.

"Stop trying to figure everything out." Taube said quietly, as a smirk slowly appeared on his lips, "I know you're just trying to figure out why you aren't scared and retrace everything that's happened, Oliver. You don't have to. All that matters is here and now- and how we're getting out of this situation...ok?"

Oliver blinked in stunned silence, then wiped his face and nodded.

"Er...w-we'll have to wait for a chance to escape...Maya and Max will be coming after us I'm sure. But in the meantime...a-are you any good at riddles?"