Warnings: GEN, AU, OC-centric
Author's Notes: this will be a short fic. i mean, this'll probably be the longest chapter. basically me trying to get back into the KHR grooves. enjoy! review appreciated!
1. WHITE
She wakes up in an old, brown tomb.
Lifeless. Barren. Complete with little dust motes dancing in the corners.
Aside from the distinctly lacking levels of oxygen, it's not a bad place to wake up. The warm light shining through the cracks in the walls makes for nice shadows. The ceiling has all sorts of ornate patterns carved into it. Quite fancy, really.
She sits up and swings her legs over the bed. Her body feels like an angry stampede used her as carpet material. She feels…not good. Tired. The world might start spinning soon.
"I –" she says, and stops as the sound grates over her throat like screeching metal. Like a dying horse. Like swords scraping together.
It brings back memories.
As tempting as it is to sit back and sleep for a while longer, she gets the feeling that her rest has already taken up a lot of time. Too much time.
Last time she was awake, this place was new and bright. No dust motes. The designs on the ceiling were fresh, and her friends dropped by sometimes with fruit and neat stories. Everything smelled like pomegranates and grass and laughter. That was before she fell asleep alone.
The air is kind of musty. It's gross. Unsettling. As if this place has been here for centuries.
She pulls herself to her feet and approaches the mass of rocks on the far end of the room. Her fingers tap across the crackly texture of it. There used to be an entrance here. The fact that it collapsed like this is surprising, considering that there shouldn't have been much burden on the frame.
This way is blocked, and she isn't strong enough to plow through it. Still, oxygen has to come from somewhere.
A flash of sunlight catches her eye. She leans over and sees how a bit of the room has crumbled away into a small crevice. Strange, how fragile the architecture has turned out to be. She catches the mild scent of dew and holds onto it.
It's a tiny space to crawl through. With a bit of pushing and pressing, she worms her way out, before resorting to breaking off pieces of the hole's edges to fit her legs through. The first thing in her line of sight is a massive wall of dirt, and a few clumps of grass on top of it.
Her breath blows through her lungs on butterfly wings. Light. Faint. Not as healthy as it should be.
She climbs to the top of the wall, taking great handfuls of soil along the way. Her eyes sting at the sight of the vibrant field, and the white spots of sunlight reflected off the trees. The sky is pure, ribbon-blue. Everything is made of color.
Nothing makes sense, because –
This isn't the same forest she fell asleep to.
She stands up and sways, not used to gaining her balance so quickly. Her toes tingle from the raindrops collected on the grass.
Her tomb will have to lie abandoned from now on. Something is incredibly off about this place. Her intuition hums with some terrible forewarning. She needs to explore. Find others. Find answers.
The next few steps are shaky at best. And they say naps are supposed to energize people.
This has to be some sort of joke.
She isn't taken off-guard very easily. Usually never. She likes to roll with things. But this is going too far, even for her.
The forest is almost completely gone now. It's still near the ocean, which is a relief – at least some things haven't changed – but still not enough to comfort her when she catches sight of all the emptiness. There's nothing, basically. Absolutely nothing.
She remembers there used to be farmland here.
The only spot of life on the horizon is a row of white squares, and some more little structures behind them. It takes her an hour to walk there. Closer inspection reveals one of the squares to be a house, although she's never seen anything like it. For one, it's huge – more than fifty hands high, she bets – and plain, with plants in pots scattered in the back end and a pair of bells hanging on the wooden structures out front.
Secondly, there's something else in front of it. Fairly large, but not in comparison to the house itself. White. Shiny. Metallic.
In the middle of inspecting whatever it is, as well as wracking her brains for some sort of memory of having seen it before, she catches sight of a person approaching from the side. An older woman, with a wrinkly, spotted face and kind, confused eyes. Gloved hands. Wispy yellow-white hair falling down her shoulders like a mane.
"Good noon," she says. "Is this your place?"
The old woman frowns, opens her mouth, and a string of random, complex syllables flow out. Different sounds, different accent, different everything.
"Sorry. Didn't catch that."
After a thoughtful pause, the woman ushers her inside.
The house is made of wood and marble. A part of their wall is made up entirely of glass, probably so they have a clear view of the sea. It has a homely feel to it, despite the empty space in each room and the fact that there are actually no more than three occupants.
The owner of the house is apparently the old woman. She has a nephew, possibly grandson, with messy blonde hair and blue eyes and too many freckles. The third person, a small baby girl, sits in her cradle next to the window and warbles out little songs once in a while.
She doesn't know what the old woman and the boy talk about, but most of it is arguing. Quiet. Apprehensive. They give her contemplative looks on occasion.
Eventually, the boy scowls and gives her a book, muttering up a storm in his language. She looks at the front cover. Unreadable.
When they give her expectant glances, she flips it open and brushes through the pages. Each one, she notices, has a different style of marks, or letters. Her eyes skim across each section until they settle on a few very familiar letters.
"Is this a kind of translation?" she asks pointlessly as she shows them the pages. They're filled with basic words and phrases, like 'hello', 'how are you', 'nice weather we're having'.
They snatch it out of her grasp. The old woman gives her a beaming smile and says, in a slow, heavily-slurred voice, "Hello, miss."
"Italian," murmurs the boy as his eyes flicker over the pages. "Language…Toscana?"
Their voices shape the syllables strangely, in contrast to how fluently they spoke their own language before. It startles a laugh out of her, even as relief floods through her bones. At least they're somewhere on the same page. "Yes! Yes, I speak Toscana!"
The boy flips through the book again and hands it to her. His hands are clammy. She looks down at the pages and finds an entirely new language – except some of these letters are actually kind of familiar. The curves and slants of them ring a few bells.
"English," she proclaims. Forcing the mesh of vowels and consonants onto her tongue is more difficult than necessary. Also troublesome. "I...know. Say…English. You say English?"
When she looks up, the boy has already run off somewhere. His footsteps make thumping noises against the ceiling above their heads. The woman sits them down on these large, squishy chairs. "What is…your name?" the housekeeper asks, stumbling over the sounds as she glances down at the book again.
She grins. "Jai."
The first thing they do after introducing themselves is take her to the bath. Jai finds herself in a plain blue room with a long white basin. When the old woman, Julia, turns the metal handle, water sprays out of the tube at the top of the wall. She has no idea how it works, but it's great. Really efficient.
When she comes out a bit cleaner and sporting new clothes, the boy – Devin – comes up to her. "Where are you from?" he asks in her language.
He probably spent a few minutes working out that single phrase. She respects the effort. "Italia."
"Not…country. Where is…house? Where is your home?"
Jai pauses at that. She isn't stupid. The dust in the tomb, the razing of that forest, all the things in this house that work in mysterious and mystical ways – it doesn't take much more than that for her to come up with an answer. "I no know."
"No know?" Julia motions both of them to the cedar table. "You don't know? You are…lost?"
"No, no."
Devin squints at her and says something fast. Then – "Your name? Last name?"
Jai thinks for a long time. The truth makes her a bit sad, but not too sad. Just kind of mellow. "No. No last name."
At once, Devin rounds on Julia. The woman frowns back, and they erupt into a flurry of fast words. Both of them have frowns on their faces now. Jai looks out the glass wall and sees three layers: the sky, the sea, and a long strip of never-ending sand.
In the end, Julia takes her up the stairs and into a small room. The cabinets have little seashells for knobs. "Rest now," she orders stiltedly.
Jai lies down and closes her eyes, and the ocean waves lull her to sleep.
Jai's best friend has become the book of Italian to English translations. She's willing to take it down to the beach and whisper sweet nothings to the front cover if that's what it takes to show her appreciation. Reading dictionaries in foreign languages is her new hobby in life.
After the housekeeper and the boy learn that she has no home, no relatives, and no last name, they let her stay. Devin gets hot-faced sometimes, usually whenever Jai's around. She doesn't really get it, but it's fun to see the look on his face. It scrunches up. Swells, too. Like a tomato.
She likes sitting on the squishy chairs – the couches, even though they're too comfy to be couches – and watching the ocean. Her body heals better this way. She learns how to say 'thank you' in English fluently, especially to Julia, who just smiles as if giving random people shelter is the natural thing to do. That's insane.
The housekeeper spends lots of time with the baby girl, singing and reading to her. Meanwhile, Devin takes walks on the beach and tends to the flowers. They have a pretty nice garden. Roses and magnolias and everything.
One time, Jai gets bored. She goes out the backdoor and kneels on the grass next to him. "Hey!"
Devin glares at her. His fingers are mottled with dirt, just like hers were when she climbed out of that tomb. "What?"
"Hello to you, is what." She watches him pat down a few ground creepers with more force than necessary. "You're…have fun? Having fun?"
He bites his lip. "Your grammar is horrible. I mean...bad. You…speak bad."
Jai laughs and pats him on the back. She takes great joy in making him miserable. "Give me book. Book to speak good. I learn just words here."
He rolls his eyes and mutters something too fast for Jai to pick up, but she catches a few things. Like 'stupid' – she knows that one. Also, 'police'. 'Turn…in'. 'Stranger'.
As the silly boy storms off, Jai looks down at the ground creepers and hovers her hands over them. A faint glow surrounds them, hot-golden-white and almost-pure and knocking her breath away as she expels them. At the same time, the leaves on the plants shiver as they move toward the light.
She retreats to the couch feeling utterly exhausted. It'll take years to replenish her Sun Flames at this rate.
It turns out that Julia's retired. She used to work in some sort of big business, which makes sense, given how big their house is. Devin, on the other hand, is still in school. He says he hates it. All of it. Students, teachers – England's entire educational system.
The little girl in the cradle doesn't know how to speak yet. Whenever Julia asks her to take care of the house while both of them are away, Jai likes to sit near her and show off what little Sun Flames she still has. The shimmery lights make her laugh.
Jai sings songs, too, which the little girl tries to mimic. Her burbling noises are high and off-key. Like bird song. It's pleasant to hear.
Most of the time, Jai reads her word books and grammar books with live commentary. "They put an 's' after 'lamp' for 'lamps', but not after 'sheep' for 'sheeps'," she tells the girl. "That doesn't make any sense. What kind of language is this, anyway? Don't tell me you're eager to learn all this when you get older."
The baby makes a face. Jai high-fives her.
Devin walks through the front door and finds them just like this. He makes a weird face and turns to leave, but then watches them for a while. He doesn't seem to want any attention, so Jai doesn't give him any.
Finally, she turns to stare at him. "What is her name?"
The boy stares back. "You don't know?"
"Hey, you talk too fast! I can never keep up and learn it."
"It's Kayla." He glances at the baby again. "We call her Kay."
Jai grins at both of them. Funny, how coincidences work. "Nice name! My…sister's name is Aiva. It sounds the same."
"Yeah, 'cause they rhyme." Devin frowns at her for the hundredth time in the past two days. "Before, you said you don't have any family."
She reaches down and pats Kay's head. "Aiva is dead. Besides, we were not...relative. We had no same parent." Her smile must look sad to both of them. "Kay and you are sister and brother?"
Devin clenches his fists. "Yeah."
Jai looks up and sees his face. Pained. Heart-broken. It isn't hard for her to put two and two together, especially since Julia is far too old to be a mother to this little girl, and she hasn't seen anyone who could possibly be their real parents.
She doesn't know what to say to this kid, especially when she's still trying to fit into a world centuries after she fell asleep, and everyone she used to know might as well be gone, too. It hurts. Hurts like fire.
"Aiva is dead for many years now," she says at last. Her own words seem kind of hollow. "It gets better."
The darkness in Devin's eyes says he doesn't believe it for a second.
One day, Jai feels good. So good, in fact, that she feels like taking a walk on the beach. Julia, being the lovely woman she is, makes Devin accompany her for safety's sake. Just in case Jai feels like crumpling to the ground halfway across the shoreline.
She doesn't bother bringing shoes. The sand spilling over her toes feels cool, and kind of comforting. She likes how the wind whips back her brown hair against her brown skin, likes how it makes her feel free for the first time in ages.
Devin leads her down to the water's edge, where she splashes water at him and laughs at his squawking sounds. They end up sopping wet. At some point, he decides to roll up his trousers, and they start searching for sand dollars in the greenish-blueish pools.
Jai stops to stretch, only to shout as a water sprays over her. She dives for the culprit and drags him beneath the waves.
Devin screams and kicks at her. "Stop! Stop! My clothes!"But Jai doesn't see anything particularly wrong with his clothes, so she grabs a handful of water and dumps it all over his face. Priceless.
He grabs onto her shoulders and dunks her into the pool. She snags a sand dollar on the way up and shows it to him. "Found one!" she crows, slipping back into her native language.
The boy makes a 'why' sort of gesture with his hands and dunks her again.
They stop when Jai starts gasping for air, and Devin is kind enough to drag her back onto the sand. She can't stop laughing. This is great. So is Devin's scowl. Immensely satisfying.
"It's been forever since I went to the beach," she tells him after a few minutes of basking in the sun.
"What?"
"Oh, I mean – I haven't been here in a long time. At the sea."
He wrings the water off a part of his sleeve. "You're getting too good at English, you know. It's like you're learning too fast."
"I'm a genius! Proud of me?"
The boy kicks sand over her feet out of spite. "As if, lady."
"I have more sand dollars, still." She takes them out of her pockets and counts them. "Ten total. You?"
He does the same, and smirks. "Fourteen, loser."
Jai sits up. Unbelievable. Incredible. "Really?" She laughs, even though her sides hurt. "Agh, how are you so good?"
Devin shrugs and spins one of the shells around his fingers. "I did this a lot with my dad. Collecting shells and stuff. Before Kay was born, and Mum was still pregnant."
"Mm-hmm." Jai doesn't see any darkness in him anymore – just nostalgia. She likes it better this way, just personally. "Hey, sounds fun! Your parents were good people?"
His smile is pure. Happy. Perfect. "They were the best. The best ever. Everyone loved them." He did too.
"Julia takes care of you now. Is Julia a good person?"
"'Course she is. I just…miss my parents sometimes." He leans back on his elbows and scowls at the air, like the entire atmosphere offends him somehow. "It's not like anyone can blame me for that."
"I'm not blame you. I mean, blaming you. So you know." She gives him her biggest, widest grin, before deciding to share a little piece of herself. It's an equivalent exchange, anyway. A balance. "I had a friend. His name was Faux. He loved the sea – made us go with him lots of the time. You do…remind me of him."
He gives her a puzzled look. "What kind of name is Faux?"
"Our other friends were Hatz, and Dineva, and Aiva, and…you know, we all have weird names." Jai laughs at the sky and closes her eyes. Her eyelids look red when the sun shines through them. "I liked them a lot. We were great together."
When she looks at Devin again, the kid is staring at her. He seems kind of troubled. "Are you still friends with them?" he asks.
Jai shrugs. "Yeah! We will always be friends, like your parents will always be your parents. But I don't know where they are. I can't feel them."
"Feel them?"
"Find them," she amends quickly. "I don't even know if they are alive or dead." It's actually kind of terrifying if she thinks about it for a while, which is why she usually tries not to think about it. Not at all. "Maybe they are hiding for a strange reason. I don't know!"
She lets her smile drop, since this is actually a serious topic. "I think I'm going to leave your house soon, Devin."
He shoots upright. "What? Why?"
"I'm feeling better now, so soon I'm going to travel." Jai watches the seagulls dive just above the waves. "I have to look for something. It's very important." Understatement of the century, really. She couldn't even begin to describe its importance if she tried.
Suddenly, Devin gets to his feet. He looks stunned. Betrayed. Angry. "You can't just leave," he says bitterly. "My grandmother's been taking care of you this whole time and you're just going to run off, just like that? Aren't you going to repay her?"
"Of course, yeah." Jai sits up and frowns at him. "I'm very thankful for you both. I will repay you. But why are you getting angry?"
He grits his teeth. "I don't know. It isn't right. You show up one day looking like a corpse without any sort of background or last name or anything, and now you're leaving before any of us get the chance to learn about you. It's just – not right."
Jai laughs at that. "You want to get to know me before I leave? Weird! You say before you don't want friends!"
Before his cheeks can puff up, she stands up and brushes the sand off her shoulders. "We still have time to have fun," she reminds him. This kid – what a moron, she thinks in a fond sort of way. "I am not all better yet. When I am, I will thank Julia in a nice way. Maybe I can heal Kay's sickness for you?"
Devin freezes. "What sickness?"
She laughs at his dumbfounded expression. "Don't be stupid! Kay has been sick for a long time. Did you not know, boy?"
He stares at her. Her laughter dies in her throat.
Oh.
He really didn't know.
"Kay has lupus," Devin announces as he files into the room behind Julia, the baby cradled against his shoulder. They just came back from the hospital. The appointment took too many hours to count. Their faces are tight with worry.
Lupus. Never heard of it. "Do you mean loops?" Jai asks, even though that wouldn't make any sense either.
"No, lupus. It's a disease that turns your immune system against you. Her body – " The boy chokes off a word. "Her body doesn't know what's good and what's bad for her anymore."
Jai puts down her book. "How is Kay?"
Julia eases herself down on the couch like her bones are failing her. She looks tired. Weary. Her mouth has turned into a small grim line pushing her face inward. "She – well, the doctor says she's holding up right now. The symptoms are very small, but they may or may not get worse as she grows older. I'll have to pick up the medication tomorrow." The old woman puts a hand on her shoulder. "Jai, how did you know Kay was ill?"
"I knew since I first saw her that something was wrong with her. I didn't think you wouldn't know." Jai glances between the two of them. "Can the doctors cure her?"
Devin collapses next to his grandmother. "Lupus can't be cured. Just treated." He scrubs a hand across his face. "This sucks."
Jai frowns and looks at bright, blue-eyed Kay. That doesn't sound right. "How is there no cure? If she was not born with this lupus, then there should be a way to make her better. There is always...many...cure for these things."
"Yeah, well, doctor says there isn't one this time," Devin snaps. He shoves his hands in his pockets with too much force. "How could we not have noticed? I mean, if you noticed, then – I mean, how were we supposed to – why does she have to be – "
With a smile, Jai pats the kid on the back. He looks like he's about to cry. Scream. Break something besides his own heart, seeing as that's smashed into pieces already. "Don't get angry. I knew because I could sense it. You couldn't have known at all."
Julia's eyes look up and pierce right through her. "What do you mean?"
She looks down at her hands. Her secret is supposed to be what it is – a secret.
But Julia and Devin are kind, wonderful people. She owes them this much, at least. "Can I see Kay?" she asks.
The housekeeper picks up the little girl and puts her in Jai's lap. Kay coos and grabs Jai's thumb, probably to stick it in her mouth. "This is our secret now," Jai says to all of them. "Please don't tell anyone."
Devin's eyes shine warily, and maybe with a mite of fear. "What are you doing?"
Jai puts her hands on Kay's shoulders and lets them glow with the light of her Sun Flames. To her right, Julia lets out this quiet sort of gasp as the fire shimmers and strengthens. Kay simply claps her hands delightfully and squeals.
Jai ignores all of it and probes around for the problem. Kai's life force is bubbly, like light and water at the same time. Light-water.
Neat.
She goes deeper.
The root of the problem is easy to find. It's the dark, murky spot festering in the middle of all the nice, peaceful energy. Feeling it now, Jai can see why the doctors would think it's incurable. This thing has the potential to spread across her entire body, like a plague. Nasty.
Before the strain on her own Flames increases, Jai simply sends her Flames inward until they close around the dark, surround it, and swallow it whole. When her Flames recede, the spot is gone. Vanished.
An easy procedure. She pulls back, and the light in her hands flickers into nothing. Kay flails in disappointment.
Julia and Devin stare at her.
"She's all better now," Jai says, patting the little girl on the back. "This sickness was very small, and easy to fix. It's good that we found it before it grew."
Kay makes unintelligible noises at them.
"Y-You – what?" Devin rises to his feet, as does Julia. "You cured her? Is that what – what you just did? She's healed?"
Jai grins at them. "It's great, you think?"
Julia's hands hover above her mouth. "I've seen that light before," she whispers. "A long, long time ago. Like sunlight and fire – it's the power to heal, isn't it?"
She leans forward. This is a surprise. "You know about the Sun Flame?"
The old woman's eyes glisten with stars. Her words come out jumbled. "My father's friend had a fire like that. They were both in dark, dangerous business – they made enemies, you see. I watched him heal my father's wound – it was a big one, you know, cut right through his torso – and I thought he was going to die, but he didn't. Oh, and I thought I was only dreaming at the time – !"
Jai gets up and wraps Julia in a hug. "You weren't, though," she breathes. "It was real. Kay is better now."
Devin looks like he can hardly believe it.
In the background, Kay starts to sing.
The next morning, they go to the hospital again, just to make sure – and they come back ecstatic. "The doctors had no idea what to say!" Devin tells Jai between each breathless laugh. "They thought it was a miracle! They told us their diagnosis was a mistake, and then they apologized – can you believe it?"
"Does this pay you back for everything?" Jai asks.
"Yeah, it does." The boy smiles back, looking truly at peace since he first introduced himself to her. "Thanks, Jai. I don't know how you did it."
That's the first time he's ever thanked her for anything.
"It's a secret, remember?" she reminds him.
They treat her much more warmly after that, which Jai didn't think was possible. They were already so nice already. But now Julia pulls her into one-armed hugs and runs a hand through her wavy hair, telling her she should tie it back more often (so she does), and Devin spends more time playing with Kay. He looks happier now.
Julia starts telling her about her father. "A very strict, no-nonsense man," she admits as she bustles about the kitchen. "Very independent. I hardly ever saw him, and when I did, he was usually with my mother."
"Did you love him?" Jai asks as she leans against the counter. Honestly, she would help Julia if she knew how to cook, but she'll probably burn off her fingers trying to work the toaster.
Julia chuckles. "Why, of course I did. I worried for him constantly. He loved me too, in his own, distant way. That was our sort of relationship." Her movements slow down. "My father lived a dangerous life. My mother and I knew how dirty his hands were. He lived in the 'underground', you could say, taking all sorts of jobs. At first we thought it was a gang. Then, the mafia. He never told us fully – it was too secretive for that."
She gives her a quick glance. "That's why I took you in when you showed up. I don't get along well with the police – I would never report anyone, that's for certain. I've known people from all walks of life, and so I gave you a room here." Her voice warms. "Even though Devin was so sure you were a criminal who would steal our lives and possessions."
"Everyone's a criminal, I'm sure," Jai teases. "Did your father's friend do the same work, too?"
"The one with the Flames? Yes, I believe so." Julia shrugs and shakes her head, like it doesn't bother her in the slightest. "My father didn't even look surprised at the sight of that kind of ability. Just stood up and brushed himself off. Not a scratch on him. I think he worked with more than one person like that – people with your power."
Jai doesn't know why Flame users would find themselves in organizations like that, but she'll take that in stride, too. Like, yeah. Neat. Right on. "Maybe that's where I should look, then. I should look in the underground."
Julia's keen grey eyes meet hers. "Devin mentioned you're leaving because you're searching for something. Is it your friends? Other people like you?"
"Yeah," Jai says. "Something else, too."
"What is it?"
Jai shrugs and breaks eye contact first. Julia probably wouldn't know about it, anyway. She's looking for something rainbow. World-balancing.
Rather important.
Jai feels great – ten times greater than how she felt when she first woke up. She wants to jump off the roof. Climb a mountain. Run twelve laps around the equator.
Devin doesn't want her to do any of that. He wants her to stay. "You can't even cross the border of any country," he argues as he does his homework on the living room floor, and Jai tries to tackle some more translations (like Spanish and French and maybe Welsh). The rain patters incessantly outside. "You don't have an ID or anything."
Jai makes disapproving sounds in her throat. "The people's law is for children. I can do anything, kid."
A pencil goes flying in her direction. He doesn't like it when she calls him a kid, so she does it more often now that she knows. She snags it out of the air and praises her own reflexes.
"How come you don't have an ID?" Devin asks. "Do people even know you exist? Because I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't."
"No, not many people know about me. I was born in a village. It was small and secluded, and there wasn't any electricity or technology like what you have."
"No kidding! You don't even know how the oven works!"
Jai makes a funny face at him. "I do now!"
"Only because Julia taught you!" He shakes his head. "Did they teach you your…your Flame thing in that village? Is that why you've never learned about modern stuff – 'cause people wanted to keep your Flames a secret?"
She shrugs. "Kind of. You're close."
"Why do people hide it, though?" Devin fiddles with another pencil. "If everyone knew about Flames, maybe everyone could be cured of lupus. And…and other diseases like that, too. If it can do amazing things like that, like healing – "
"Flames are dangerous," Jai says as she watches the boy for a reaction. "They can be. They have the potential. Flames can be used as weapons."
He gapes at her. "Wait, really?"
She sighs and lets the air deflate from her body like a balloon. There's no real harm in telling him this, so long as he keeps quiet – which he probably will, since he's smart. "This power is like a sword. You can use it for weird things, like cutting down trees and putting butter on toast, but it's real purpose is to hurt. It hurts and it can kill. Some people use it for good, and other people use it for bad. Do you see how that works?"
"So…So you can do other things besides healing? Does it burn like a real fire?"
"It depends, I guess. There are different types of Flames. Each person falls into a category. I use Sun Flames, which can heal and strengthen. Other Flames can destroy, or calm, or obscure…" Jai taps her chin. Devin's eyes are wide enough to use as dinner plates. "You have a Flame inside you, too. So does Kay."
"Us?" he squeaks, looking younger than he actually is. "Does everyone have one?"
"Yeah, even Julia! But her body is aging, so she might not be able to draw it out of her anymore." She laughs at the sight of his round, curious face. "Everyone has potential, you know!"
"How do you do it? Use it?"
"I can't tell you. You might use it for bad things. Not - " As he rears up to object, she slaps him upside the head. " – that I think you'll be a bad person, but people will hurt themselves if they don't know how to wield a sword!"
Devin scowls at her. Grumpy. Petulant. "But I want to know how to heal, too! Not hurt or kill or do any of – of that stuff, but just…help people, I guess. It'd be useful."
She grins and holds her face up with one hand. "You want to be a hero? But I won't be around to teach you! Besides, you can't use the Sun Flame. I can already tell."
"Oh." He droops a little. "You can?"
"Mm-hmm. Kay might be a Sun, though. It's not easy to tell for her. She could also be a Rain, or even a Sky – those are rare! You, on the other hand…anything but a Sun or a Cloud."
"What about Julia?"
"Storm. Definitely Storm." Jai watches the raindrops streak across the glass wall, like comets with watery tails. Poetic. "She could have been a great one, too! Her Flame was really strong once. It might have been passed down in her family."
"I don't know what any of this means – Rain, Cloud, Storm, whatever." Devin bites the inside of his cheek for a moment. "Can you do anything else besides healing?"
In truth, not much. "Hmm…I can make plants grow."
His face transforms. An accusatory finger gets thrust in her direction. "The ground creepers! That's why they're spreading out all over the place! It was you!"
"Ooh, I'm caught!" She bats his offending hand away. "I did that a while back. They look really nice now, don't they?"
"Yeah, we've got flowers blooming everywhere now. They're doing well. Julia's real pleased about it." He mimics her grin. "I can't believe that's 'cause of you. That's wicked. What else can you do?"
This kid doesn't look like he'll ever be satisfied. "When I'm fully recovered, I can teleport," she says, just to throw that out there.
"What? No!" His mouth makes a perfect circle. It makes her want to keel over and laugh forever.
"It's true, through!"
"How's that even possible?!"
"Neat thing about Sun Flames – speed of light. How about it?"
"But…But that defies physics!"
"Ooh, physics." Jai waves a dismissive hand. "Who cares? Flames break lots of laws about the world, all the time. You'll think it's insane."
"I already think it's insane!" Devin leans forward with stars in his eyes. "How does it work? How far can you go?"
She almost hits him on the head again. This boy is too much. "Sun Flames aren't meant to be used in that way, so I can't go very far, and it takes a lot of energy. The farthest I've ever gone is…a mile, you'd say?"
He scrunches his nose. "Disappointing."
She tries to glare at him and ends up bursting into laughter instead. She needs to work on that. Then, Devin's mouth twitches upward and betrays him.
What a moron.
"I won't be able to teleport for a while," she admits after her sides start to ache and the laughter dies down between them. "I used my Flames too much for too long of a time, so they're taking a really long time to regenerate. It might be years before I can use them like normal again."
Devin frowns and throws another pencil at her. She catches that one, too. "But you're leaving pretty soon, right? Why aren't you staying until you're fully healed?" he asks.
"Oh, my body's fully healed. My Flames, on the other hand, could take a decade at most to build up again." Jai rolls over onto her back and stares at him upside-down. His hair looks like a complete mess, especially from this perspective. He says he'll never cut it, though, 'cause he's stubborn. "For now, I'm going to start travelling. I'll learn more languages and technology along the way. It'll be fun."
"When you come back and visit, you'll teach me how to use my Flames, right?"
"I guess I can. Why're you so eager?"
He gives her the strangest look, like she couldn't have asked a more idiotic question. "Because it's cool! I mean, you can teleport! Even if I'm not a Sun, my Flames have be useful for something!"
Jai laughs at how rich that is. She remembers thinking the same way, too. "Well, these Flames aren't used for showing off, kid! That's your first lesson!"
He ducks his head down and sulks and glares at her, muttering under his breath. It makes her laugh even harder.
They go down to the beach again, to race each other on the sand and stare at the pink clouds and the gradient sky. Jai knows it's their last time down here. Intuitively, Devin knows it, too.
When a sense of finality starts settling between them, Devin tells her his parents died in a fire. "Some twisted guy set fire to the theater," he reveals. "They call it arson. Lots of people died, not just my mum and dad. It's…It was horrible."
Coincidences. Honestly, Jai thinks the universe has a shameful sense of humor.
It's an equivalent exchange, so she tells him about Aiva. Aiva and her friend, Enten. "They didn't go peacefully. They were sick, really sick. It was painful for everyone."
"Couldn't you cure them?" Devin asks. "You have Flames."
Jai shakes her head. "I tried. Lots of people tried. None of us could go deep enough. The lupus in Kay was like…a drop, compared to an ocean." She motions toward the sea. "I used to wonder, you know – maybe if I was better, if I tried harder, if my Flames could have done more – but those are just wishes, you know."
He digs his toes into the sand until he's buried ankle-deep. "I still wish I was there when it happened, in the theater. Like I could've saved them somehow." He peers up at him, strangely vulnerable. She doesn't like it. "Stupid, right?"
"Mm-hmm. Very stupid. You'd have died, and left Kay and Julia alone."
Devin slogs her in the shoulder. Ow. "I'm not an idiot, lady."
"You just sounded like one!"
"Only because you put it that way!"
She laughs and slings her arm around his shoulder. For once, he doesn't pull away. Achievement accomplished. "Hey, hey. When I leave, you should go to school and bring home all the friends you can get. Your house feels too empty sometimes."
He glowers at her. "Just because you like everyone doesn't mean I have to like everyone."
"Why not? People are fun! Life would be boring otherwise!" She grins at him and the glass waves. "Your sister would like the company."
Devin's lips twitch upward as he drags her arm back to her side. "My sister's one. She doesn't know how to like anything yet."
Jai pulls him out of the sand. His feet make a funny squelching noise.
"I'll miss you, you know?" she says, not being embarrassed by these sorts of things. "I won't forget you guys. I'll visit and bring presents and make sure Kay remembers me."
"Good, 'cause I hate goodbyes," Devin grouses, clearly embarrassed by these sorts of things. "You have to teach me about Flames, and help us with the gardening. I'll hunt you down and drag you back if you don't."
He smiles, and she beams back at him. They're happy. Bright. Like the sun.
"Sure," she says.
Since Devin hates goodbyes so dearly, Jai decides to leave while he's at school. Basically spare him the trouble. He'll hate her for it, she knows, but that's part of the fun.
Julia packs her bag for her. She stuffs it with clothes and books – mainly linguistics. "Take it, all of it," the housekeeper orders. "They've been rotting in this house for who knows how long. The clothes were all Gwen's – Devin's mother - but they seem to fit you fine. Those books belonged to my son. No, don't you dare shake your head like that, young lady – you will be taking these. I'm glad they're finally being put to use!"
Jai can't help but feel honored. Grateful. Things like this make her way too hopeful for her own good.
They say their goodbyes on the doorstep. She pulls the older woman into a hug and stores the lavender scent of her greying hair into her memory for the rest of time. When they let go, Julia has tears in her eyes. Jai doesn't, but she's close.
At Kay's small cry, Jai turns to the little girl and lifts her up. The baby waves her hands in the air and coos, her pretty blue eyes twinkling. She's happy. Precious.
Jai's intuition tells her right then and there that Kay is a Sky.
Jai feels like her heart is swelling. This, right here, right in front of her, is proof of everything she used to fight for. These are beautiful, wonderful people.
Even though she knows she'll see them again, there's still a lump forming in her throat.
She places a hand on Julia's cheek and kisses her forehead. Lightly. Delicately. Her Sun Flames rise up and warm every breadth of her body, and that warmth spreads across Julia's skin, even as the old woman's Storm Flames murmur and hug the light close, moving and thriving after what's been most likely years of hibernation and stillness.
People used to call this a blessing. A sacred thing. Jai thinks it's just gratitude.
"Oh, sweet girl," Julia whispers as her entire face glows with color. "I hope you find what you're looking for."
Jai hopes so too.
She walks away from the white house and the ocean and Julia and Kay until all four of them are little dots on the horizon, and keeps walking until only the sky lies ahead.
The Trinisette is there. She can feel it.
It's waiting.
. . .
Endnotes: hopefully this isn't one of those lame boring superpower oc fics and instead one of those heck yeah right on oc fics.
by the way, if anyone who reads this fic happens to be afflicted with lupus, i just want to apologize if i offend you or anything (hopefully this isn't the case) because lupus is a really serious sort of thing.
anyway, reviews are great! thanks for reading!