Title: Mutual Agreement

Author: 2pennies

Rating: PG

Fandom: Sky High

Pairing: Warren/Layla

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Sky High, the characters, or the creators.

"You're an idiot."

"Uh, you're welcome?"

"I can take care of myself."

"Yeah, tied up and hovering over a river of molten lava? Taking real good care of yourself."

Layla fumed, unable to come up with a retort. The two sat side by side nestled on the soft beach sand. The setting sun created sparkles along the gentle ocean waves. If Layla's mind wasn't preoccupied with the rush of emotions from the kidnapping-near death-rescuing events of the day, she would have thought it was sort of romantic.

"You knew it was a trap," she whispered. He stared into the ocean.

"They took me because they wanted you," she continued. Small flickers of light were forming in his fists.

"They knew you'd come for me."

Layla moved her gaze to her left to find Warren staring at the small balls of flames in his hands.

Though he would never admit it to anyone, especially to her, he was still fazed with fear by what had just happened. He had been late, like usual. He was supposed to meet Layla after school. She had promised to help him buy his mom a birthday gift, something extra girly that he wished she could just do without him. When he had rounded the corner to where she was waiting, he had found her being taken by one of his father's old arch enemies. Panicked, Warren called Will while running to his house – they couldn't afford to waste time. Luckily for him (and the fact that Will could fly faster than anything on the planet), the two had found Layla bound and unconscious at the site of an active volcano. Luckily for Layla, it was fortunate she had been knocked out and unaware of the gruesome, fiery beating Warren had punished the kidnapper with – she never handled blood very well. Will had taken the villain and his gang to the authorities while Warren had taken Layla to safety. He hadn't expected a round-of-applause-marching-band reaction from her, but he thought she would have been more thankful.

I mean, she could have…

"You're an idiot," he said this time, in a low grave voice. He moved his eyes to meet hers. Wide-eyed and innocent, she wore a look of confusion.

"I would always come for you."

He hated this – emotions and speaking of emotions and being so open with his emotions. But, she had to know. If it wasn't obvious from his every action, every word that he shared with her, he hoped that this statement would be obvious enough.

Her eyes warmed towards him, and she felt her own fire glow.

"I know you would. That's what scares me," she replied. This time, Warren was confused. "They wanted to kill you. They were actually going to kill – "

"Hey, nobody's dead. They didn't kill anyone. He barely even touched me," Warren stated. Layla looked back at the ocean.

"You could have died because of me."

Her voice was soft and trembling.

Warren let out a small breath. He understood how she had felt. She had been as worried for him as he had been for her. It was that simple.

"What am I going to do with you, Hippie?" he asked. He noticed the corners of her lips flutter at the old nickname that he only used now to lighten the mood. Taking it as a sign to continue, "I'm graduating from Sky High in a few months. You've still got a year left. How much more trouble are you going to get into while I'm not there? I know, I know, you can take care of yourself." Playfully glaring at him, she wondered how he always managed to change her mood with just a few words.

"It's going to be weird when you graduate," she replied lightly. Warren shifted uncomfortably.

"It's not a big deal," he replied. He saw that she was about to retaliate and rushed to continue. "Yeah, it'll be different not seeing each other at school, but it's not like anything's going to change."

He could sense she was waiting for him to delve a bit deeper. Defeated, he gave a disgruntled breath.

Stupid feelings…

"I like you. I care about you. I…want to be with you. None of that will change."

Layla couldn't help but smile at how uncomfortable he was and how his voice was barely above a whisper. Placing an arm around his back and scooting closer to rest her head on his shoulder, she wondered how often she could get him to tell her things like that. Sentimental sentences were rare coming from Warren, but whenever they did, she knew he meant every word tenfold.

"Thanks for saving me today," she said, closing her eyes against the setting warm sunlight.

The corner of Warren's mouth twitched upward.