Chapter One
The girl watched avidly as a flame flickered softly on her palm, rising and shrinking in time with the girl's breath. It was hot, and the girl could feel that clearly, but it was comforting to her, the pain familiar after years of practice, barely pain at all. Besides, it's not like it burned her. When extinguished, her pale palm would be completely unblemished.
The girl's blonde hair fell in front of her wide, hazel eyes, ruining her concentration on the flame. It flickered weakly before snuffing out, and the girl sighed with annoyance. Her slender fingers, still warm from the flame, tied her hair back and then once again she held her palm out in front of her, trying to focus on the warm in her belly.
It was there, like it had been as long as she could remember; a strange fire that flared when she was angry or happy or excited, and shrunk to almost nothing when she was sad, taking all of the warmth in her life with it. Taking a deep breath, the girl, Quinn, imagined the fire as red-hot cords, coiled into a ball, tightly knotted in the usual excitement at this task. Summoning fire never got boring.
Quinn imagined a small cord of the fire slowly slither out of the knot, up towards her palm, spreading the warmth throughout her whole body. The warmth then turned to heat, painful, that was suddenly taking over her whole body. The blonde gritted her teeth and a few tears leaked out of her eyes as the feeling of being engulfed by flames overcame her, making it hard to breath and even harder to concentrate. The effort was killing her. Every bone, every muscle and fibre and cell in her body was on fire, but still her eyes remained fixed on her palm. It was searing hot, glowing faintly when suddenly, the pain stopped, and a small flame once again flickered happily on her palm.
Quinn sagged back onto her bed in relief and wiped away the hot tears on her cheeks. Twice. In one day, she'd summoned flame twice and through the complete and utter exhaustion, she laughed happily, the fire responding to the emotion and growing in her palm until it was almost too big for her to control. Taking a deep breath, Quinn concentrated the mental image of a small, manageable flame, and it shrunk accordingly.
For a few hours, Quinn Fabray played with the flame on her palm, moulding it into miniature fire sculptures and seeing how big she could get it without losing control and how small she could get it without it being snuffed out. The flame spoke to her with its movement and her mind could almost hear it speak, telling her how it loved being outside, instead of stuck in her soul and body, so restricted and unable to be in its true form. She stroked it gently with the fingers on her other hand, enjoying the tingling warmth and laughing as the flame curled affectionately around her finger. The fire was her friend.
A knock on the door hours after she'd summoned the flame brought her out of her reverie, and with a whispered apology, Quinn clenched her fist and let the fire seep back into her body. Once recovered from the feeling, she got up, wiped her forehead of the sweat beads the heat had given her, and opened the door to the smirking face of her only enemy on this continent- Santana Lopez.
Quinn stepped back with a gasp, her eyes becoming wide. Santana's eyes were burning with intensity as she strode into Quinn's room and closed the door behind her. The room, usually warm, become colder and darker with the ice user's presence.
In this world, there were people who could manipulate the four elements, a rare and secret skill that few but the users knew about. At any given time, there were only about fifty people on earth with this ability. Quinn had only ever met an air user and another fire user, the two passing though Lima by coincidence and finding her, and Santana Lopez, a water user who, as well as the ability to use water, was also born with the one- in- a thousand years ability to turn that water into ice, a skill water users trained for centuries to master, making good use of their extended lives.
The Hispanic girl wore her dark waves in a bun today; along with a curve-hugging white dress that made look irresistible, and Quinn, through her fear, had to stop herself from shivering in pleasure as those eyes, normally dark but temporarily ice blue as a result of recent ice using, burned into her own.
"Santana," breathed Quinn, "What are you doing here?"
The smirking brunette stepped closer to Quinn, her aura radiating a sharp coldness that made Quinn uncomfortable, the fire flare in protest. How dare this woman allow her cold to take over their warmth in their domain? Quinn's eyes flared angrily at this point, and the shadow of her inner flame could be seen by the other girl, which made her smirk even more. Suddenly, the room pulsed with hot and cold as the girls silently battled for control. It suddenly occurred to Quinn, as she sent out a flare of heat, that she was glad her mother wasn't home. In her moment of distraction at this thought, Santana quickly sent out a particularly strong and sharp wave of cold that knocked Quinn back onto her bed and made the dark haired girl laugh.
"Oh, Q, you shouldn't allow yourself to get distracted like that," she said, walking around the room with her fingers trailing over the blonde's belongings, leaving a hint of frost on everything she touched. Quinn glared at her angrily at Santana as she sat up, brushing herself off and covering herself in a blanket of warmth to combat the chill.
"What do you want, Santana?" she demanded. "You can't fight me, it's against the rules, you know that."
The darker girl snorted. "Oh yeah, preserving our kind, blah blah blah. But don't worry, blondie, I'm here with a proposition."
The fire was shouting at Quinn that there was something up, this couldn't be safe. Quinn agreed completely. She'd known Santana her whole life, and at the moment they attended McKinley High School together, and she knew this girl. She was always up to something, plotting and scheming and manipulating people's emotions.
"You're not trying to sleep with me, are you?"
Santana suddenly sat down on Quinn's bed, crossed legged, smiling fake-sweetly at Quinn. It was unnerving.
"Q, honey, it occurred to me that we this little rivalry of ours is stupid."
Quinn laughed humourlessly. "Santana, we tried to kill each other at the age of fifteen. Rivalry is a bit of an understatement."
Again, that smile. "Well, it's a bit silly, isn't it? I mean, I know that you fire users naturally hate us, but why? Hundreds of years ago, when there were more of us, that might have made sense, but we're depleting and personally, we have nothing against each other."
"Where are you going with this, Lopez? And we clash. Our auras are constantly battling each other. Fire against ice, if you will."
"I want us to be friends."
There was silence for a few moments before Quinn started giggling.
"Oh, Santana, what are you on?"
Those eyes slowly melted into their natural brown and for a moment, Quinn actually thought Santana was hurt. She knew her well (keep your friends close, your enemies closer). Something was up, that was sure, but maybe it wasn't a plan. Maybe she was, dare she think it, lonely. Maybe she was frustrated, as Quinn was; that she had to train herself with her abilities and that she couldn't talk to anyone about them and that she had to isolate herself from other people unless they noticed them.
Santana was silent, staring at Quinn with those hypnotising dark eyes, and she realized she was serious. Friends. Santana Lopez wanted to be her friend.
"Um..."
Tell me what you think? This is the first time I've done anything AU-ish. It's not going to be very long, three or four parts, but I'm only going to continue if the feedback thinks I should, you know? I've changed some parts of the Glee plot, like the Unholy Trinity friendship isn't exactly on. And you know, lots of things have been cut out, but you probably won't notice that much, because this is centred on Quinn and Santana.
So yeah. Feedback would be very much appreciated.