"Livy, fuck, you're alright-"
The sun-kissed woman took the smaller in her arms with a large, teary exhale. She's sure her wet cheeks were staining the light burgundy of Olivia's baseball tee, but that didn't matter much to either of them in that moment. They held eachother as close as humanly possible on the small coffee table, surely not meant to accommodate the both of them. Olivia let out a gravelly cough as she wiped the flowing streams from her friend's eyes.
"It'd take a little more than a couple burns to drag me away, hun."
Nis took a rough breath in before tangling her shaking hands in Olivia's shirt. "Did you –" A small, forced smile placed itself on her face, a nervous chuckle escaping through smoke-stained lips. "Did you hear all of that?"
"Hear what?" The confusion striped across Olivia's face appeared genuine, and that broke Nis just that little bit more.
She should be relieved. She should. She should, but for some reason, her insides are aching. Her fingers grip tightly at the loose fabric of the t-shirt before reluctantly releasing. "Um, no, nothing, it was nothing–" Her heartbeat felt like it was right beside her eardrums, torturing her with the loud thrum. She hesitantly pulled away, letting a crooked grin take over her face, contrasting heavily with the fresh tears falling over her cheekbones. "It was nothing," She pushed through the crowd in front of the door, the one they'd both forgotten stood there. "I promise, Olivia." Her voice was stern, unwavering as the name fell off her tongue like stale bread.
Then, she was moving. Moving too fast to see the shocked faces she passed, moving too fast to tie her boots, moving too fast to gather enough dignity to stop crying, moving too fast to close the door, moving too fast to control the throbbing in her chest, too fast, too fast.
But not fast enough.
Not fast enough to slow her thoughts, not fast enough to reach the bus stop before her smile dropped like a broken aircraft, not fast enough to rid the smell of rose perfume from her nose, not fast enough to stop thinking about her. Not nearly fast enough.
When she reached the blue-painted bench, her eyes were rimmed with red and her jacket was discarded, thrown in anger on some curb along the way. She placed herself on the chipped seat, her limbs too heavy to hold. She doesn't know how long she spent there, but it felt like weeks had gone by on that bench, feeling empty, aside from the dull ache in her legs. It was then that she decided to follow the nagging voice at the front of her thoughts, and pushed herself off the cursed seat. She crossed the street with her vision focused on the dirt trail on the other side, trudging along the same path she'd come along everyday after school, although without a familiar presence beside her. The same orchid-covered field she'd come to clear her thoughts.
"Kan, Kan Kipina. This is Corey," Kan gestured to the tall, freckled boy beside him. "That's Donnie," To the small, raven-haired kid up front. "And that's Donnie's dad," And to the lanky man with matching raven locks. "He saved you, more or less."
Olivia gave a smile of appreciation to the older man, tainted by the worry of her coffee-haired friend. "I guess I should thank you for that." She scratched at the back of her neck, before lifting herself off the small table with a grunt of struggle. "Nice place you got here, "Donnie's dad"."
River stepped to catch the woman in case she lost her unsteady footing. "You should – You should really rest, miss, you just awoke and you–"
"You're the guys people have been talking about at school, right?" Olivia held the maroon doorway for balance, pushing herself towards the light gray couch, making to retrieve something peeking out from behind it. She leaned down, coming up with a thick beanie that smelled strongly of smoke. "The elementals?" She tried to brush it off, but another reminder of her friend who'd burst out the front door a few minutes ago put a bad taste on her tongue.
"Th–" Kan's eyes grew big, gaze snapping to Donnie, to find his eyebrows pulled together in bewilderment. "They know about us?"
Corey let out a laugh, muffled by the hand that had instantly shot out to cover his own mouth. He attempted to explain his outburst, due to all eyes in the room drawing to him. "It's just," He snorted, transferring his palm to the nape of his back. "The elementals. That sounds like a – like a superhero team, or something, I just –"
Donnie landed a blow on Corey's right bicep, successfully shutting him up after his whine of "ow, shit,". He rubbed his arm with a defeated look on his features, sticking his tongue out at the shorter boy.
Olivia chuckled, giving the younger boys a faux scoff. "He's not one of 'em, is he? I'm scared of the kinda things he would do with that much power." The blue-eyed teen squawked, clearly offended at her statement, but on the other hand, he couldn't argue with it. "But, yeah. Something about a fight that went down in front of the building? That ring a bell?"
"One or two." Kan sighed, picking at his sleeves.
River returned with a glass of water, placing himself next to the woman. "Surely you must me worn out," He left the cup in the safety of her hands. "No human's ever survived the wrath of a Mencuri before."
"I don't – I don't really wanna talk about that," Olivia let out a nervous laugh, likely an automatic reaction, as she sipped her drink. "It's not everyday that you almost die at the hands of a real life supervillain, is it?"
Her eyes fall to the floor, her voice shifting to a quiet tone, soft smile still eminent on her face. "Could you take me home, please?"
School the next day was awkward, to say the least. Kan waited for Corey at the bike racks. Usually, the two would walk together. Especially recently, Kan having been staying over, but he had told Kan to go without him, not wishing for his best friend to be late. Let's just say, the last face he expected to see was the sun-kissed woman's, short haircut a mess of tangles, without a beanie to cover it.
"Hey, Goldie!" She waved as she arrived beside him, holding her hand out for him to shake. "I realized we haven't been properly introduced, so – I'm Ignis Cenere, but really, it's just Nis."
Kan was frozen in place, incredibly surprised by how drastically different this woman was from the one he'd seen yesterday. He took her splayed palm with a bit of hesitance, extremely confused. "Kan–? Kan, I'm Kan."
The girl lent him a crooked grin. "Well, Kan. You're the fella with the ligh.." Her sentence died on the tip of her tongue, and Kan followed her gaze to the other end of the sidewalk, where Olivia stood, speaking with a few girls that looked their age. Then, Olivia's hazel eyes caught a glimpse of the coffee-haired woman from across the lot. Her face morphed into one of fear, and she quickly bolted for entrance of the school. Nis' expression seemed one of utter hurt. "..She's avoiding me." Soft streams of white smoke flowed through her nostrils as she gripped the metal bike rack, her fists turning a shade that could rival the clouds. "She's avoiding me because of what I –" What I am. What I said. What I did. She grunted, choked and in pieces, likely attempting to seem more angry than broken. "I gotta go."
Nis used the top of her palm to wipe away the smoke under her nose, as if it were a nosebleed. Then, she left for the lot behind the building, a place out the back doors she knew she'd find a certain seventeen-year-old.
Just as she had thought, there Olivia stood, slumped against the rough wall of the highschool. Nis paused before turning the corner, willing her heart to stop drilling against her head. Once she gathered the courage she thought she needed, she confronted the darker-haired woman, startling the other into stiffer posture. Olivia backed away a few steps, preparing to flee away from the taller once more.
"Wait, Livy, just –"
Nis sighed, long and shattered. And then, Olivia couldn't. She couldn't lie to her, she couldn't run anymore, she couldn't put this off any longer. She couldn't. "I don't think you're a monster, Nissa."
The sun-kissed woman took a large breath in, interrupted by the tears threatening to show. "You said – You said a few burns wouldn't drag you away."
"I promise, it's not your fau–"
"Do you know how it feels? To have someone you care about unconscious in your arms, with no way of knowing if they'd survive? It fucking hurts." She, herself, didn't know if she was referring to the experience, or the sharp pain in her chest. "All I wanna do," She wheezes. "is hold you. Because, I almost fucking lost you, but I didn't, and you're here but I can't look you in the eyes without feeling guilty."
Olivia makes to speak, argue, but Nis quiets her with an extended hand.
"Could you do something for me, cariña?" Her voice came out slow, raw, and filled with emotion. "Hit me. Punch me, right here," She lied a hand over her stomach, covered by a thin, black tank top. "Kick my ribs till they're broken, tell me you don't care about me anymore, give me a black eye so I can look at it everyday, so it finally sinks in."
"What? Why would I–"
"Because then-! Then, maybe – maybe I could love you a little less."
Silence overtook them as wet trails made themselves known on the two's cheeks. Olivia took a step forward, Nis taking a shaky step backwards in response.
"I heard it." Her breath quickened. "I heard all of it, Nis, I–"
Nis let quiet weeps fall from her lips as Olivia got closer, her addicting rose scent flooding her senses with panic, instead of it's usual calming effect.
"I'm sorry, Nissa, I didn't mean – I didn't mean to hurt you, it's just that–" Olivia took a deep breath in, realizing a second before her hand made contact with her companion's face, that she had reached up to wipe the tears staining her tan face, filled with anguish. She dropped her hand with a wobbly exhale. "I'm scared. I'm so fucking terrified," Her chest moved with her nervous, wet laugh. "I don't feel the same way about a couple of boys in chemistry as I do about you, and that – that scares me more than anything." She feigns a smile, fresh tracks running down her face. "I'm not afraid of death. I'm not afraid of some psycho power-stealer. I'm not afraid of getting burned. But I'm – I'm afraid of falling in love with my best friend."
Glassy, brown pools meet hazel orbs in a frenzy of confusion, Nis' body wracking with her choked breathes. Because, how could she? How could Olivia love her? She couldn't, it can't be true, she's messing with you, you need to go, oh, god – Olivia's close enough to touch, her words hanging between them like heavy fog. Go, you coward!
"–But then I think about you. I think about your stupid beanie. I think about how your hands always seem to find my shirt when you're feeling nervous, your touch. I think about the way you looked at me after you burnt me, how regret clouded your eyes and all I wanted was see the warmth that always filled them again. In that moment, I would've sacrificed anything just to see the light come back." She raises a hand to Nis' face, centimeters away from holding her cheek. "I think about that time at the carnival, when we were thirteen, and you had never been. I got to watch you eat cotton candy for the first time, ride a rollercoaster for the first time, see the view from the top of the ferris wheel for the first time. And all I could think about was how much I wanna see that over and over again, how much I wanna see your eyes light up again the way they did that night, when you looked up at the stars like they were the most beautiful things that existed." Olivia decides it's worth the risk, and gently sets both of her palms over her best friend's jaw, twin streaks running their way down the two's faces. "I think about you. I think about you, and suddenly, falling in love isn't as scary anymore."
Olivia's hands fall to Nis' bare shoulders as she's promptly tugged forward, by the collar, into a teary kiss. She can feel long fingers tangling themselves into the sleeves of her shirt, and short hair tickling her eyelids. Somehow, it's all she could ask for. It's then she realizes that she could never leave Olivia, not till the day she dies. Because she loves her, too.
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