[ WP ] Two people discover a fountain of youth . The problem is that upon drinking the water you turn back into an infant . The two decide to take turns raising each other in order to live forever until one day one of them decides to break this agreement .

`` I ca n't do it any more.'' He said, staring at his wife, thirty years his junior, for the time being. He sighed. `` It does n't change anything.'' She looked at him expectantly. 
 
 `` But we have to continue!'' She pleaded, and he watched as the oh so familiar tears started to swell from her eyes `` If you do n't drink...'' He cut her off. 
 
 `` I'll die. Yes.'' 
 
 `` But no one will be here to take care of me!'' The central crux of the deal was there, in the open. He grimaced. 
 
 `` That's why.'' He could feel the frown forming as he spoke. He held back the words he desperately wanted to say. 
 
 `` You do n't care about me!?'' The volume of her voice was raising, as it did every time they argued. `` What about the time I spent raising you! The time I spent taking care of YOU!?'' His ears shut down, and he stopped listening. He'd heard it all before. A hundred time before. A thousand. The argument was always the same: he had to take care of her. His joints creaked and groaned as he shifted, the wrinkles on his face crashing against one another as the look of incredulity came across his face unbidden. She stopped, confusion on her face. `` What?'' 
 
 He sighed again, tired. He resisted his temptation to tell her. He'd said it before. It just made the argument worse, and always ended with him taking the drink, believing the promise she'd never kept, the thing she was trying to hang over his head at that very moment. The silence hung in the air like a stagnant bog, time seemingly frozen. 
 
 `` WHAT!?'' She screamed, breaking the fog over his mind, bringing him back to the present. `` If you do n't tell me...'' 
 
 He cut her off. `` No.'' the look of surprise on her face was worth the effort the word had taken to speak, and he found himself smiling. `` I've told you. You know.'' His voice faded as he spoke, the smile returning to a frown, his falling flesh and ragged jowls making it more obvious than he intended. The panic she responded with only made his scowl deeper. 
 
 `` But I'll take care of you! There wo n't be any problems!'' distress dripped from every word as she spoke. He could n't contain himself. A laugh came unbidden. At first even even he thought it was just his bronchitis acting up, but as it rose through his lungs, through his throat, he could n't contain it. A huge, roaring cacophony escaped him, the deep barks of a far younger man escaping from him. 
 
 `` Just like every other time?'' The toothy smile showed his rotten teeth, saliva doing its best to escape as the corners of his mouth drooped. Fear flashed on her face for the barest moment before anger replaced it. 
 
 `` That's not my fault!'' His frown returned as she spoke, the familiar path in the argument once again rearing its head. He stared at her, tired and sad. `` It is n't!'' she screamed again `` It's everyone elses!'' His face placid and unmoving, hers red and angry she continued `` We're better than them! What they do does n't matter!'' He just sighed in response, his sadness slowly, gradually, turning to disappointment. 
 
 `` How many times...'' He started, a cough interrupting him. The fit went on, and she filled a glass of the water to help him, but he pushed it away. `` How many times have we had this argument?'' His weary stare pierced at the glass in her hand. `` Do you even remember?'' 
 
 `` It does n't matter!'' she screamed `` Just drink!'' 
 
 `` No.'' He said again. He could n't stop himself. His side of the argument needed to be said, just like it always had. `` I have lived a thousand years...'' he whispered ``... and you have never once let me act like the child I am. I wo n't do it again.'' 
 
 She screamed in rage, and suddenly the filled cup was in his face, his body trying, and failing, to resist the younger womans assault. `` Drink!'' echoed through the clearing as the cup smashed over and over into his face, his frail arms doing their best to swat the glass away. Blood mixed with the water began to pour down his face as the cup splintered and shattered, ceramic pieces digging into his face. 
 
 As his arms fell, their energy sapped, the laugh returned. He was free. 
 

