She turned her head slightly, giving him a wry grin. "Well," she said. "I didn't believe you yesterday. So we can just call it even."
"But this was physical," he said, shaking his head before his expression turned playful. "I don't consider it even until I get punched the face."
"No one's going to punch you in the face," she said as they entered the lab. "You're too quick for them."
"I would never!" she said. "I have yet to be acquainted with my loopy self, but I know she would never hurt you." Phos was looking through a microscope when they approached him, and he looked up with a small grin that quickly changed to a look of alarm. "Hello, you tw- What happened to your face?" "Eloquent as always, Phos," Poppy said flatly as she sat on the stool across from him. "I had a little incident. It doesn't matter." He frowned before reaching under the counter and sliding the container holding the bruise salve to her. "Stay here," he said. "I'll go get your medication."
"I hope he doesn't think that I did it," he said half-jokingly. "Speaking of loopy Poppy, I'm pretty excited to meet her."
She frowned at him. "He would never think that," she said. "And I've never met Loopy Poppy before, so we're both in for a treat."
She frowned, looking increasingly nervous. She unscrewed the lid of the ointment and began dabbing it on her face tentatively. "Maybe it's not such a good idea."
"It's for the dreams. I think you should do it. It's only a temporary side effect, anyways," he said reassuringly. "It's not that bad."
She finished smoothing away the ointment with a frown when Phos returned, holding a small bottle of white, translucent pills. "Okay, Pops," he said. "Take two of these with water, okay? Only two." Poppy's fingers closed around the bottle. "Thank you, Phos," she said. "You're a lifesaver." He shrugged smoothly. "I'm just curious to see how well they work."
"Yes, well," he said, waving a lazy hand. "We'll see. Good luck with that, yeah?" "Thanks Phos," Poppy said, grinning at him. She took Francis' hand, and they left, Poppy clutching the pills in her hand.
She gave him a look as they got outside the door. "You keep getting hurt," she said, frowning at him. "You bring it on yourself."
"It's not my fault I get hurt. It's normally other people. Not me." He raised an eyebrow and unlocked the door, opening it.
