The three of them made it back to the castle without incident. They stood a few yards from the main gate as Deejay and Elizabeth prepared to say their goodbyes. When they stopped back at the ship, Deejay had removed his ruined hoodie and bandaged his arm. The t-shirt he was wearing underneath read “Have fun storming the castle”. I'm pretty sure it was a coincidence.

“Regardless of the circumstances,” Elizabeth said to him, “you did protect me today. I owe you a debt of gratitude.”

“Hey, no problem. I was more than happy to do it. I'm sorry if I kind of got you in more trouble, but if I hadn't gotten involved when I did, I never would have had a chance to talk to you.”

“It's okay. I'm glad you did.” She smiled at him, still blushing slightly. “It's strange… Even though we’ve just met, I feel so comfortable talking with you. You're not like any of the princes I've met.”

“Heh, yeah, I get that a lot. Well, I'd love it if we could talk again sometime.” He leaned in close and put his arm around her waist. “Maybe next time I could show you around my castle, and you can show me a little of that gratitude you were talking about.”

Deejay's hand started moving further south, but Ty grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back.

“And that’ll be enough of that,” Ty said. “Can we hurry up, please? I want to get out of here before the guards see the two of us.”

“Alright, alright…” Deejay straightened his shirt and smiled at Elizabeth. “Well, could I at least get a little farewell kiss from the beautiful princess?”

“You’ve got 3 seconds. No tongue.”

“I wasn’t asking you, Ty...”

Elizabeth giggled. “Of course you may… my brave knight.”

“Oh brother.” Ty face-palmed, a gesture of exasperation he had long since developed strong muscle memory for.

Deejay and Elizabeth shared a brief kiss, then she waved goodbye and walked up to the gate still beaming, where a very confused guard let her in. Ty and Deejay walked away, back toward their ship. Deejay had a mischievous smirk on his face. More mischievous than usual, in fact.

Ty realized after a few moments that Deejay seemed to be muttering to himself. He wouldn't tell me what he was saying, but whatever it was put Ty on edge. He glanced at the blood that had started trickling down Deejay's injured arm.

“Hey,” Ty said finally. “You feeling okay?”

“I'm fine,” Deejay grumbled, only it didn't sound like him.

“Okay... I was just wondering, have you kept up on your medication today?”

Deejay turned to him, his face caught somewhere between frustration and confusion. “What? Shut up, I told you I'm fine.”

“Then show me.”

“Ugh, fine. Look.”

Deejay rolled up the sleeve on his uninjured arm, revealing a square silicone patch stuck to his skin. The patch was a vibrant red color. His expression softened, and he bit his lip sheepishly.

“Uh... Oh. Oops. Sorry, uh... I could swear I put on a fresh one this morning. Maybe all the activity today burned it off a bit faster than usual. Okay. No problem.”

“You do have more, right?”

“Yeah, of course. In my coat pocket. And there's some stashed in the ship for emergencies. And I've got more in my room. And if any of that runs out, it's easy enough to synthesize more in the lab. Really, I promise, I'm on top of it.”

“I sure hope so...”

–

Ty and Deejay returned to the ship and took off for home a few minutes later. Deejay got a fresh medication patch on his arm, this one a bright green color with a cartoon spider in the middle.

“Feeling better?” Ty asked as he piloted the weird spherical craft into the sky.

Deejay nodded, offering a cheerful grin. “Much. Good call, man. I'm going to have to figure out a more obvious warning indicator for these things. Maybe I could hook a chip up to it and have it beep in my comm when it's almost depleted. Can't remember the last time it happened, but hey, better safe than sorry, right?”

Ty smiled, relaxing a bit. “Absolutely. You should work on that when we get back.”

“Sure thing.”

The two of them fell silent for a beat, listening to the quiet hum of the engines, until Deejay spoke up again.

“Hey by the way, something’s been bugging me.”

“What’s that?”

“Well I was just thinking… if I took the ship here by myself, how did you get here? I mean, we only have the one ship, so...”

“Hmm? Oh, never mind that. That’s just a plot hole.”

“You're... kidding, right?”

He was.

Probably.