In Love With The Royal Science Expert

The Doom Scale a.k.a. Part One of the D.S. Story-line

A/N Why is one repeated line that takes up, like, five seconds of time so iconic?? Because it's Varian, that's why, lol. At this rate, I'm pretty sure he could say just about anything and it would work.

______ sat on a chair beside Varian as he worked on his Alchemy. She was almost falling over from fatigue as she watched him, because it was late at night. Her eyelids slowly closed, then quickly fluttered open as she fought the urge to sleep. Her boyfriend glanced over at her, and smiled.

"_____, why don't you go inside and crash for a while? I'll be working a little longer than I thought tonight."

"No!" She said suddenly {and loudly}; more of a ploy to wake herself up than to be heard. "No, I wanna stay with you. This is...{yawn}...this is your passion, and I want you to be able to share the things that are important to you." She shook her head to make herself more alert.

He chuckled. "And I appreciate that; believe me." Turning to her, he brought one gloved hand up to her face; gently brushing it. "But I know you; you'll be dragging along tomorrow having stayed up this late."

She yawned again, stretching this time. "I've made up my mind. It's decided. It's set in stone." She said; or at least, that's what she was trying to say. Her words got all distorted, almost like she was drunk. "I'm staying up."

"Y'know, I'm a little worried that I could understand that." He said, chuckling. 

She rolled her eyes and smiled. "What you should be worried about is handling dangerous chemicals in the middle of the night when you're tired. Aren't you worried that your mind is going to be so tired, you'll mix up the chemi--what's that?" She pointed to a label on a vial.

"Oh, that's my system." He said, glancing at it.

"DS 3?" She asked, thoroughly confused. "What system is that?"

"I-it's just a little thing I made a couple of years ago...it's nothing, re--" He started to say, blushing a little.

She caught his reaction and started beaming. "Wait; did you make up a name for it on the spot and act all dorky about it?" She asked, interrupting him.

He scratched the back of his neck. "Well..."

"I knew it!" She said triumphantly, then groaned. "I hate it when I miss your dorky moments."

Chuckling quietly, he shook his head and gave her a sideways look; and then went back to his work. "This moment wasn't the best one, though."

"Why?"

"Well; mummies came to life, tried to kill me and our friends, and didn't stop until we gave them back a treasure." He glanced over at her 'say what, now?' face. "It's a long story. But--" He held up the vial. "That's where the Doom Scale came from."

"Oooh, The Doom Scale." She said, emphasizing the words in a goofy way. "And that's a 3. What is that?" She asked, taking the vial from his hand.

"Oh, that's just bath bomb solution." He said, shrugging it off.

"And that's a 3?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "How dangerous are your baths?"

He rolled his eyes, chuckling. "That's practically harmless. Now a 6, like this one..." He said, picking up another vial with more care than he did with the bath bomb. "...this is more dangerous."

"What'll it do? Blow dust in your eye?" She sassed at him playfully.

"Very funny." He said, nudging her arm. "No; it'll explode, and if you're too close, it'll hurt you."

"OOOOHHH,  what's this?" She asked, picking up a sphere with black, glittery liquid in it that said 10 written on the edge. She'd always been a sucker for glitter.

The combined look and words that came from Varian made it seem like he was going to have a heart attack.

"______! Don't TOUCH that!" He said; gingerly, but quickly, snatching it from her hands. "That's the most dangerous one of all my alchemical solutions! If even just a little of it gets on you, I don't know the extent of its harm!" He carefully put it back on the shelf she'd gotten it from.

Her eyes went wide. "Dang, it must be dangerous if you're doing your 'Exasperated Alchemist' routine on me." To the best of her knowledge, he'd never done that with her.

He softened and turned to her. Brushing the hair out of her face, he looked into her eyes. "Well, I haven't fully tested it yet, and I don't want you to be the guinea pig on this." He rested his gloved hand on her cheek.

She felt something tingle where his hand was, and she shivered. Instead of the happiness she always had whenever he usually did that, she felt...something else...and she could've sworn it was getting stronger. It felt like...

"Ugghh! Get your hand off my face!" She yelled, knocking his wrist away from her.

"_____? What's wrong?" He asked, worry crossing his features.

"From now on; no more brushing my hair out of my face, Varian! In fact, no more of this boyfriend/girlfriend-y stuff either!"

"What?" He asked, his eyes getting wide. "Please tell me you're joking here, _____. I was just trying to protect you."

"Why would I joke about a thing like this?" She asked, anger swelling inside her.

"...Because it's April Fools Day, I hope?" He said, looking more and more depressed as time went on. "Did it really bother you that much that I told you not to mess with that solution?"

"Guess." She told him, and walked out of the lab.

Now all alone, Varian stood with shaking knees and heavy breaths. "Why? Why did she suddenly turn like that? She's seen me on worse days than this." He asked. Tears were beginning to form in his eyes and he started bringing his hands up to run them through his hair in distress.

At the last second though, he stopped and; blinking in suspicion, he brought his hands near his nose instead. After a sniff, a sudden burst of realization hit him like a sledgehammer. He picked up the sphere _____ had picked up earlier and noticed there was a hole in it. Looking at his right black-gloved hand, he saw a barely perceptible glimmer of light.

The flashback of his hand on her bare cheek and then of her raging out flashed through his mind.

"Ohhhh, this is worse than I thought." He said, swallowing hard. "This has gotta be an 18 on the Doom Scale."

A/N: I know, I said the name of the book is "In Love with the Royal Science Expert"; not "Hating the Royal Science Expert", but I guess you'll have to read the next part to find out what happens next. ;). {Sing-song voice} Cliff-hanger!!!! :)

Also, this is my first time doing something like this; so I apologize if it's not the best.

P.S. 1115 words