The rain intensified. Water started to seep into the cave. They moved deeper inside until they found a hidden, crystal-clear lagoon. Leonard stopped. A soft laugh escaped his lips —something that hadn’t been part of him for a long time. Expressing happiness as an adult had become rare.

Vin looked at him, surprised. To him, Leo lit up that cave.

But that smile faded.

“I remember the lagoon near my cabin,… I used to relax there. God! I’d love to bathe. I smell like rotten eggs… but… what if it’s contaminated?”

Vin, attentive, lifted his coat sleeve and approached the lagoon.

“What are you doing? Don’t do that!” Leonard panicked. “The water could be radioactive!”

“Do you want to stop stinking or not?” he replied sarcastically. “I just want to check something.”

He dipped his left hand into the water. His deformed arm softened, momentarily returning to its human form.

“When I touch clean water… I become myself again. For a moment.”

Leonard stared, fascinated.

“That’s… incredible! YOU’RE A GENIUS!” he exclaimed like a little kid receiving the best gift ever.

But Vin growled.

“Yup, sure. And you must’ve lived under a rock, apparently. This happens to all Rainbanes. How did you not know?”

Leonard laughed.

“Well, I woke up three years ago from my deep sleep —how was I supposed to know? Besides, when I was eighteen, no one knew that uncontaminated water could temporarily heal mutants.”

And in the midst of his excitement, he said something so innocently that it made Vin nervous.

“What if… we bathe together? Just to relax. I’m a mess!”

Vin was speechless. Despite his deformed face, he was taken aback.

“... Y-you go first, man. I need to make sure no one’s around,” he said nervously.

In response, aware of his awkwardness, Leonard corrected himself. “I mean… I… yeah. I’ll go first.”

Leonard waited until Vin stepped away, then quickly undressed, leaving his clothes aside and slipping into the water. It was refreshing —pure bliss. Slowly, he removed the bandages from his wrists. He didn’t just wear them for protection from Rainbanes —he was hiding several burns. He didn’t remember how he got them —maybe sometime during his dormancy— but one thing was certain: they hurt.

And then… as he bathed, he remembered his time as a student.

When he met Vincent Lyon. Back then, he was the new guy. An unsettling student. Quiet. He always stared out the window as if the rest of humanity didn’t matter. His dark eyes were intimidating. He had beautiful blond hair and an aura that repelled others. No one talked to him —there seemed to be no way to connect with someone like that.

Leonard had to sit next to him in class. They never spoke. He didn’t know how to —he was very shy, and Vincent seemed so distant from him.

But one day, things changed.

**

It was math class and Leonard hadn’t slept well, with an important test coming up right after. He nodded off now and then, tried not to yawn, but couldn’t help it. Vincent, on the other hand, stared intently at the teacher, taking notes with a straight posture and enviable confidence.

Leonard tried to stay awake and focused on Vincent, watching him out of the corner of his eye. But accidentally, as he nodded off again, he knocked his eraser, which had been near his left hand, and it bounced off Vincent’s arm.

The sleepy boy panicked, thinking the blond classmate would want to punch him at lunch. 

But to his surprise, Vincent just looked at him —seriously… and then, like someone completely different, he smiled.

“Here you go,” he said, handing him the eraser.

Leonard stammered an apology, his face turning as red as a tomato.

“I… I’m so sorry!”

Vincent, saying nothing else, placed the eraser near Leonard and stared out the window. His ears were red —just like Leonard’s cheeks.

To Leo, it was just an embarrassing moment. But to Vin —the human— it was something more. A feeling beyond friendship. And that gesture… was the beginning.