Missing You

Eli

The slugs of Eli Shane stood in two teams on opposite sides of their master's bed playing catch with a slug-sized ball (made out of Spinner's webbing for an occasion like this). Banger tossed the webbed ball towards the Joules who caught it in his little arms with ease. The ball was thrown at Doc but the throw was miscalculated and flew towards to edge of the bed. Burpy, being closer to the incoming ball, dove towards the edge for the silky object. He caught the ball but lost his footing then fell off of the mattress and into the opening of Eli's duffle bag by the bed.

The other slugs were a little concerned. They hopped over to the spot Burpy had just fallen off of. Burpy shook off the dizziness he got from the fall when he saw something from the corner of his eye. Curious, the orange slug made a grab for the strip of film that was twice the length he was and climbed out of the duffel bag.

A few other slugs too were curious about the strip. They jumped down from the bed to join infurnus in front of the strip. The crowd of slugs saw four vertical photos of what looked like Eli as a twelve-year-old and some other human that none of them could recognize.

Joules leaned towards Burpy, "Who is that?" he said in their slug language and pointed at the unknown person standing next to Eli. But Burpy didn't answer his friend. He had this dazed look on his little face like he was lost in thought. Joules waved a little arm in front Burpy's face but got no response. He looked to the other slugs and shrugged, they were equally as confused as he was.

After several seconds Burpy snapped out of his trance. Before any of the slugs could confront him Burpy rushed to the door, dropping the ball as he did so.

Joules went to pick up the ball of web. All of the slugs were confused and curious, but not curious enough to check it out. So they proceeded with their game, on the floor this time.

Burpy searched his master throughout the Shane hideout. He found Eli sitting in front of the computer reading an article that contained a list of phobias. He cocked his head to the side and gave a puzzled chirp.

There's a phobia for cheese? What?

Burpy shrugged it off for now and waved the photo strip in front of Eli's face.

"Huh, oh, hey Burpy" Eli said, "whatcha got there?"

Eli took the strip Burpy held up for him. A small smile spread across his face, his grayish-blue eyes lightened at the pictures, but mostly of the person that was next to the preteen version of him.

The boy had brown hair, blue eyes (not the same shade as Eli's) and lighter skin than his companion's.

The first panel showed them both making funny faces at the camera. The second panel would have been a formal picture of them smiling with an arm around the other if they hadn't made mock bunny ears with their fingers behind the other's heads'. Eli chuckled. Third panel contained a surprise kiss from the brunette. In the fourth Eli is shown to have given into the kiss and wrapped his arms around the other's neck.

The blunette looked at Burpy to see a glum look on the fire slug's face.

"You miss Maxwell don't you?" Burpy nodded jumping onto Eli's shoulder and nuzzled his cheek. "Yeah, I do too."

"Who do you miss, Eli?" Trixie asked walking up from behind her leader.

Eli turned to her, "Him," he pointed to the brunette in the photo. "His name is Maxwell McGrath."

Trixie looked over the four panels, giggling at the last two of the boys kissing. "What? Was he your boyfriend or something?"

"Maxwell was more than that," Eli said retrieving the photo strip from the red-head. "He was my first love. He was also the only person up on the surface I've told about Slugterra."

"Really, he's the only one who knows Slugterra's existence?"

"Well, as far as Burpy and I know, yes," Eli's gaze went back down to the forever still moment of his past lover.

Trixie chuckled as her own eyes gazed at the two kissing scenes, "Well you better not let Kord find that."

"Why," Eli questioned quirking a brow.

"Because you know how jealous Kord can get," she said, "remember last week when we went to the mall that one guy kept eyeing your butt and Kord punched him in the gut."

"In that guy's, and my, embarrassing defense," Eli's cheeks were dusted a slight pink, "I might or might not have sat on a bench that used to have a "wet paint" sign on it. Luckily it was mostly dried out but some of the paint still came off on my pants. I didn't find that out until mall cop said something about it."

"Yeah," Trixie said inwardly laughing as she replayed that scene inside her head. "We probably should have told Kord that."

"I should have told him," said Eli, "I thought about it, I don't know why I didn't do it."

"So, what are you reading?"

"A list of phobias," Eli replied.

"Why," Trixie scanned through the list. "There's a phobia for cheese?"

"And hair," the blunette pinched in. The two friends looked at each other before bursting out laughter.

Max

Max plopped himself down onto the couch as he let out a tired groan. "Man, I'm beat Steel."

"Yeah," the ultralink said halfway hanging off the back of the couch, "so am I."

"I'm so tired, I don't think I'm gonna be able to get off this couch for the next week or so," complained Max.

"I'm so tired, I don't think I can link myself properly to you," Steel too voiced his complaints.

"I'm so tired, it's gonna take severe cramps in my bowels to get me to use the bathroom,"

"Ew," Steel meakly said, his disgust barely audible. "I'm so tired, not even a recharge of your TURBO energy would get me off the couch cushion."

"Would you two stop your complaint contest," Max's mom, Molly McGrath, interrupted the two as she walked into the living room, holding an orange small shoe box in her hands. She looked down at her son then at the ultralink. "What's wrong with you two?"

"Huge-" Max grunted.

"-disturbing," Steel grumbled.

"-confusing long day," they both finished at the same time.

"What happened, exactly?" Molly questioned.

"Don't…have energy…to explain," Max mumbled into the arm of the couch.

"Well, I think I found something that would perk up your mood," Molly set down the shoe box in her son's lap.

"I doubt it," the muttered words escaped his lips until he realized exactly what the box was.

"Mom," Max's eyes were wide in surprise, "where did you find this? I thought we lost it in one of the moves."

"I found it just before we moved here," said Molly, "I've been meaning to give it to you for some time but I kept forgetting. So it's been in my stuff for a while."

Max quickly sat up from the sudden burst of energy. Despite the twinge anger he felt that his mother had kept this from him that emotion was overpowered by joy. "Thanks."

Steel got his second wind from his curiosity. Not with the box, however, but Max's excitement for the box.

"Um, Max," the droid said, "what's so special about a box?"

Max opened the lid to the shoe box and showed the contents to Steel, "This is."

There were several random things in the box, a VHS tape, a small baggie with clumps of navy blue hair in it, a worn black and blue striped notepad, and an eye patch.

"Uh, it looks like junk," Steel said not getting the point of the items.

"Steel, these are memories I have of my cousin Elliot," Max retorted.

"I don't see how a chunk of hair in a plastic bag is considered a memory," Steel questioned.

"I was nine, Steel," the brunette defended. "Besides, Elliot was the one to suggest it. He thought it would help me remember him better than...never mind. The point is it was not my idea."

"Okay, okay," Steel said in defeat, deciding he didn't want to get into an argument with the human.

Max rummaged around the shoe box before he pulled out a wallet sized photo and held it up for Steel to see. "This is a picture of me and Elliot the time we last met." the picture showed a younger version of Max, about 13-years-old, and a 12-year-old boy sitting sideways in Max's lap. Elliot had navy blue hair, grayish blue eyes and darker skin than Max's. Max had his arms around the boy's waist as Elliot had his arms around Max's neck. Even though they were smiling in the photo Steel can see there was a hint of sadness in their eyes. Though Steel felt some sympathy for young Max and this Elliot character, there was something that bothered Steel a bit.

"Max," said a slightly uneasy Steel, "you and Elliot look a little too, what's the word, affectionate."

Max let out a nervous laugh, "Um, yeah, Elliot was also my boyfriend for while." Steel's optic widened.

Max couldn't help but laugh at Steel's expression.

"So you were in an incestuous relationship with your cousin?" Steel said in disbelief. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised since you and Forge have thing going on."

The brunette's laughter was brought to a halt.

"Hey," Max's cheeks turned red from the blood rushing to them, "there is nothing going on between me and Uncle Ferrus!"

"Oh yeah? Last Christmas-"

"We were under the mistletoe!" Max interrupted with a retort, not wanting Steel to finish that sentence.

"The tradition of standing under a mistletoe is to give a kiss," Steel said, "not a love bite. Besides, during your make-out session you moved out from under the mistletoe, . In fact you two were so into each other I'm just surprised you didn't start dry mating."

Putting the shoe box on the ground, Max groaned as he drag a hand down his face. Christmas had been here two weeks ago, and for the lack of villain activity Uncle Ferrus has decided to throw a Christmas party at N-Tek. The event that Steel was talking about happened at the cafeteria. Forge and Max had bumped into each other under a mistletoe. It was pretty awkward. Some people noticed them just standing under the mistletoe then started to chant, "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!". Not knowing what to do they gave into the pressure and pressed their lips together. There was a round of applause and cheers then everybody went back to their own business. However, Forge and Max kept kissing, it had went from chaste to frenching in less than ten seconds. To make things more unfortunate, a random worker had recorded the whole scene on their phone, then posted it on Youtube. It didn't get too many views but it was still very embarrassing. And it didn't mean anything. They were just caught up in the moment is all.

"At least you're at the appropriate age for it," said Steel. Max looked a at the robotic alien with a glare in his eyes.

"Umm...what was the eye patch for?" Steel suddenly decided to change to subject back to Max's cousin. "Did you and Elliot play pirates or something?"

"Well, you see," Max sat up straighter as he began explaining to a relieved Steel, "there's this anime called Black Butler and Elliot looks just like-"

Max didn't get to finish talking when his phone started blaring an emergency alarm ringtone Steel still hasn't changed for when Forge Ferrus calls or messages them.

"Ugh," Max groaned. "What does Uncle Ferrus want now?"

"He wants us at N-Tek," Steel said, more like a question then a statement, as he read the text.

"Can't it wait until tomorrow," Max whined, pulling the hood of this jacket over his head and buried his face into a couch pillow. The 16-year-old was in no mood to be at N-Tek, or anything to do with the organization for a while.

"He said there's something very important he needs to tell us," Steel said, his voice never losing its quizzed tone. "Something about 'Slugterra'?"

Within nanoseconds Steel had said that Max was up with renewed vigor. "Then we need to leave now!" Max said with urgency as he ran towards the front door. "Be back later mom, bye!"

"Hey," Steel called out chasing after Max, "wait for me! And what's Slugterra?"