The lonely girl made her way into their daily routines more often than not, Lily was short for Lilith and the parents who gave her the name were clearly not in the picture often, no adult supervision explaining the girls' antics. Her time spent invisible skyrocketed, only a blanket would signal her position. Some days the blanket would join her, others only her clothes would be visible. Celeste’s own flames would fight with her sometimes, not fully listening and more of a bother on her off days. The consistency was something that came with time, and Lily was improving with every day that passed. I

Letting her join information missions was more of Jack’s idea, but she found herself asking the mostly silent girl to join her for today— a goon slipped up about important files that would help with finding certain individuals. They moved in mostly silence, the little movements from the invisible girl followed her movements and about 30 minutes into tracking different addresses, did the girl start to fill the silence. 

“What do you think of when you use fire?” They made their way to a ladder, Celeste making quick work launching herself up, the patter of Lily’s movements echoed behind. “How much I want to make fire.” The slight glare from across the rooftop didn’t go unnoticed. 

“Make fire?” Celeste made her way across each of the edges, mapping their next route as she continued, “yeah, but I know it’ll happen so I just call it? It’s hard to explain, I feel it. And when I want it, I know it’ll be there.” The edges of her palm sparked with her power, warming her hands in the chilled air. 

“Huh.” The voice came next to her, no other indication on where she stood. Lily continued, the voice moving forward slightly. 

“After I started using it daily, from the moment I woke up, I forget that I even have a visible body.” They made their way to the edges of buildings, docs absorbing the impact as they continued. “But it’s really no different, no one really sees me anyway.” There was no tone difference as she spoke, but Celeste could feel the attitude change. She stopped in the middle of a restaurant rooftop, clashing plates and laughing people filled the air. She made her way towards where she heard her land, her hands quickly fingers her shoulders. 

She stared at the empty space for a couple seconds, “dude, shut it off her a sec.” Blue flickered into view, her wraps covering every part of her face except her eyes, bright and wide. 

“I see you. Jack sees you,” she paused as she saw the sprinkle of tears on the girl, and her hand tightened, god she was not good with this stuff. 

“Have you eaten yet?” A small shake came from her, “alright go ahead and sit here, let me get you something.” Her soft voice flew as Celeste made her way down the buildings, her hands unwrapping her covering, “I’m vegetarian.” 

She was back up in 10 minutes, a to go bag falling in front of the girl who sat hugging her knees. She looked up like a lost puppy, so Celeste sat, unwrapping the food and eating her fried rice. “I’m not the best at talking, but by all means tell me anything, I’m a listening ear.” 

After the first bite of food she was off, the food fueling her usual quiet voice as she started ranting about everything, starting off with her parents.. How they never call her anymore, only on special events that only last at most 20 minutes, how school left her lonely and no amount of bad grades concerned her parents enough. She would get lost in her own explanations of different people who never gave her the time of day, how she first used her invisibility to rob a candy store, the task easy before the guilt settled in. 

How everything seemed lost, the ability she had more of an enabler to her own thoughts, until she started explaining how she first saw them. “You guys were so cool! The amount of control and ease you had with your powers, I’m still getting better but,” she let her fork lay on her half-eaten rice, blue orbs looking in the distance, “but I don’t have a flashy power, I can turn invisible, and that’s it. I’m not strong like you; I can’t manhandle any bad guys; I can’t trap anyone with metal— I can’t do anything worthwhile.” She went back to stirring her rice, moving the different vegetables to the side before taking a bite. 

Celeste had stopped eating a while ago, her attention focused on the girl, and she licked her lips before looking in the distance, the words falling from her mouth. “You act like I was always good with my flames, they actually used to burn me slightly, but the more I used it my skin learned to deal with the heat.” The sun set a while ago, the night sky lit up by the moon, at its first quarter phase, “My flames can do a lot by themselves, but I worked on everything else— manhandling bad guys takes a lot of work.” Red eyes met blue, and she could see a braid on the girl's hair coming undone. Her pants slid across the rooftop as she motioned towards the piece, fingers brushing through the light blue locks as she restarted the braid. Lily remained silent as she let her fix the braid. 

“What I’m trying to say is, you shouldn’t just give up, you can’t throw punches well? Either build your strength or find something else, but you have something I can never truly accomplish 100%.” She was tying the end of the braid, Lily’s gaze on her food as she mindlessly stirred, “I do?” 

“Yeah, sneaking is something that I still have trouble with, and even then if I’m out in the open it’s no use.” She was moving on to fix another braid, “you can be anywhere at any time, and no one would know you’re even there. Everything else you can work on, but that is something you already have.” 

A small laugh came from the other, “you know, for someone who says they're not good at talking, you always manage to say the right thing.” After the braid was done, she was getting up, dusty docs squeaking as she jumped up. With a swift turn she was looking down at Celeste, a huge smile on her face, the missing tooth still apparent as she continued, “alright, I’m fueled and ready to do something. Where was the place?” 

Celeste was stunned by the sight slightly, who would’ve guessed her life would lead to finding people that shared her struggles and entrusted her with feelings of all things. A smile grew on her face, “actually.” She pointed below her, “it’s here, they got the documents in their office, and an invisible girl could grab it with no problem.” Lily jumped slightly, already blending in with the background. A laugh was heard behind her, “I’ll be quick!” She was off down the ladder, the background noise from below fading as she remained seated. 

Untouched food glared at her from the floor, so she resumed eating, as she let her thoughts wander on the 14 year old who managed to wedge her way into her life. With all the annoyance and clumsiness from the other she was glad to call her a friend. 

———

Finding themselves in an alleyway beating up criminals was more of a weekly occurrence, Lily hiding in the shadows as she watched and made sure no strays left the scene. Jack made quick work of apprehending every person Celeste took down with her punches, his metal wasting no time latching around limbs and knocking weapons out of hands. No cheating! If anything the weapons only made it more fair when against fiery movements, but Celeste didn’t mind when it ended their fights faster. 

Of course the alleyway effect, as Jack liked to call it after Lily mirrored his first meeting with Celeste, and an unfamiliar voice rang through the hall as she punched the last guy towards the ground, creaking pipes trapping him on the wall. 

“Well, what do we have here?” 

A curse was already leaving Celeste’s mouth, as she laid her eyes on a woman, a tail swayed behind her as she walked forward, cat ears— yes those were indeed cat ears, twitched as metal continued creaking. 

“Let’s clip the pleasantries, I’m Camille and I want in on whatever this is.” Canines showed in her smile, as she looked upon Jack and Celeste, and a new thorn in the redheads' side grew stronger.

“You gotta be kidding me.”