Chapter 7
Doesn't Matter, We're Professionals
Ness laid against the tree, napping. It was only until then that Lucas decided to wander just a bit closer to the boy, but still stayed near the stream. The water hitting the rocks rung in his ears, as he was tempted to touch the water for himself. There was nothing to do, other than wait for Ness to heal and get rest, which he was doing.
Lucas jumped every which way on the big rocks that lodged out of the stream of water. He perched himself upon one rock in particular that jutted out of the shallow stream, bent over, and stuck a finger in moving water. What started with a finger turned into a hand, then soon, both hands. The blond giggled to himself as he splashed and played with the water, enjoying the wet feeling.
However, the blond gasped slightly, when the water slipping through his fingers turned into small little flakes of ice as it went down the stream. He was only bewildered for a moment, but didn't know what to expect other than this happening. He sighed, feeling his PSI leak from his fingertips, and into the stream.
At least I'm not turning the whole stream into ice, Lucas thought on the brighter side. He wasn't so pleased that his PSI came and went as it wished. Though, in a short notice, a smile came onto his face. But… this is so cool…! The blond rapidly swished his submerged fingers around, making more and more icy flakes, and sometimes even cubes of ice. He picked once ice piece up, and did the first thing that came to mind.
He stuck the ice in his mouth. The small cube melted on his tongue, and he was enjoying every bit of it. Although, once he tasted the melted water in his mouth, he immediately spat it out. The river water didn't taste so good.
Afterwards, another idea popped into Lucas' head.
I should practice my powers! he thought excitedly, standing up on both feet, now. He struck a pose, then another, being fine with the second one more than the first. He stood firmly on the rock, with both arms held up in front of him.
He took a deep breath, ever so slowly, and swiped an arm through the air, hoping for something to happen. No dice, but Lucas wasn't done attempting, yet. He now held up his index finger, pointing it at nothing in particular, and flexed, as if forcing the power from his fingertip via muscular contractions. Still no dice.
A half hour later.
WHY WON'T THIS DARN THING WORK?! Lucas yelled internally, still perched upon the rock he was on. He was flapping his arms in the air weirdly at this point, not expecting anything else to happen from this point. He had already tried every arm movement, and also bothered to kick his leg in the air in the case that his bottom limbs would exude some sort of frosty power. He even made a gesture with his hand that mimicked that of spider-man's hand when he would shoot out his web from his wrist.
Lucas groaned aloud, then decided to stop standing, and finally sit down on the jutted rock. He was getting tired of trying to figure himself out.
How can I control this PSI thing if I can't even control my own feelings. Lucas grumbled, switching his gaze over to a sleeping Ness. The raven-haired boy napped peacefully, and had been napping for a few hours now. He was still a bit bothered at how resentful Ness was to him earlier; moreover because he didn't know a single soul that would get mad at another person for being nice. Lucas saved Ness from an alienated bear, carried him to this stream, helped bandage him, and gave him a blanket. The blond had no idea what he could've possibly done to get on Ness' bad side.
The blond pouted at Ness' sleeping, but also thought the way he slept was still peaceful… maybe even cute.
Cute?! Lucas argued with himself, What the heck am I thinking?!
Despite those fighting thoughts, the blond still found himself staring at Ness more than he should be. He was mean, but he was attractive at the same time; Lucas hated that kind of match-up. He found it stupid how some people could be jackasses and be hot while doing so; those were the types he thought that most girls would fawn over because they'd be too blinded by their good looks to realize how much of a jerk they were.
But Lucas was a boy; and he felt like he was staring at Ness the same way any other girl would if the boy went to a school. Because of that, Lucas could clarify his feelings at the moment.
Just don't stare at him, Lucas, he told himself, that good looking bastard.
He was unsure if he wanted Ness, or wanted to be him. Being Lucas, and being a boy, he figured he was just a bit envious of Ness' looks in the end. Nothing more.
To distract himself, he looked somewhere else; he stared intently at a stray rock in the river stream, but still found himself thinking of Ness. The raven-haired boy just acted so weird and mysterious. It piqued Lucas' interest to no end. He laid back on the rock, using his hands to prop him up from the back.
Caught up in his train of thought, Lucas didn't manage to notice that his hands, which were in contact with the rock he was sitting upon, began to turn the rock's outer surface into ice. When he started to feel that his bottom was getting a little bit more than cold, the blond looked below him, seeing the icy surface. He shrieked in surprise, hopping off the rock instantly and splashing into the stream that reached all the way up to his neck.
Lucas frantically ran towards shore, stumbling over the jutted rocks and pebbles as he neared where Ness was at. As soon as he reached the grass, he turned around whilst hugging his soaked self. He looked at the rock he was resting upon, which was now completely covered in ice. Lucas sighed, cursing his uncontrolled cold power for coming out of nowhere the majority of the time. However, he was too cold and wet to get distressed. A small whine escaped Lucas' pink lips as the blond soon found the water that still stuck to his body and clothes was also becoming a bit icy as well.
No no no no no! Stop it! Lucas hectically wiped his hands over his limbs in hopes to take off the growing ice flakes appearing there, but it was no use. He didn't give up, though. Small whimpers emerged from him as he felt the wetness disappearing, and instead, was being replaced with an icy cask. It was getting too cold for him to handle, and he was panicking at the possible thought of dying from the cold. It was as if he had been snowed upon heavily, and he did the first thing that came to mind.
"NESS!" Lucas wailed out, running over to the sleeping, blanketed boy, shaking him awake urgently.
It took only a little while to get Ness to respond. Eyes closed, Ness' brows furrowed. "Oh my god." He shut his eyes closed tight, still, as if he didn't want to look at Lucas. "You're so damn cold… what the fuck…" he cooed grumpily, "go away." He turned slightly.
"I-I'm freezing, Ness!" Lucas personally didn't know how to tell Ness of his fuck up without sounding stupid. This made the raven-haired boy open his eyes spitefully, staring daggers at the blond until he saw the icy mess that was his entire body. Lucas was even breathing white cold breaths that were visible to see.
Immediately, a smile crawled onto Ness' face before he bursted into a weak, just waking up from a sleep laughter.
"Pff… ahahahah!" Ness' laughs were contagious, but Lucas was too worried about himself to join in. The blond just got on both knees next to Ness, and whined at the reaction.
This was quite the sight for Ness, practically one of the funniest; he didn't see it coming at all. It didn't take him much thought to realize that Lucas probably fucked up stupidly, and that made everything all the more funnier to him.
"S-Seriously N-Ness, I'm f-freezing! H-HELP ME!" Lucas insisted, only a little brightened by Ness' happy looking expression. He couldn't get mad at him for some reason.
"And how do you expect me to do that?" Ness answered sarcastically, still enjoying himself.
"S-Set me on f-fire or s-something!"
"I really don't feel like helping you, though..." Ness stretched out his limbs from underneath the blanket. "Besides, it was your own fuck up."
"C-C'MON, P-PLEASE?!" Lucas pleaded, "I-I'M S-SORRY!"
Ness stared at the blond with disinterest for moment, but took the apology, and realized that he might be stalling for too long. "Meh." He shrugged. "Okay."
Lucas finally found himself in content that the raven-haired boy would help out. He stood up with hope as Ness did as well, flipping the blanket off to the side. Ness bent backwards weakly, still getting used to standing after the bear had hurt him like it did. Lucas, who was still frosted over, waited anxiously. His arms hugged himself, desperate for warmth.
Ness yawned, then faced the frosted boy. "Here." He held his arms out for Lucas, signalling a hug.
"...?" Lucas looked at him, confused. "W-What?"
"It's a hug, stupid. Want to melt off, or not?" Ness was impatient, his arms still hung out.
"O-Oh!" Lucas blinked awkwardly. He slowly walked into boy's arms. Being fully clothed, Ness was able to take Lucas into his arms without worrying about letting his naked skin hit Lucas'.
Already, the slightly shorter blond felt the automatic warmth that came with Ness as a whole; he buried his face into Ness' hoodied chest, as the raven-haired boy's arms wrapped around him in an embrace.
"Tell me when it gets too hot," said Ness.
"O-Okay." Lucas shook nervously, not from the cold, but from the strange contact Ness had offered to the blond.
Following after, he felt Ness' body slowly rocket up in temperature, slowing getting hotter and hotter. The sensation melted Lucas like an ice cube, but it simply felt amazing. The blond rose up his head from Ness' chest, and looked up at the boy. His gleaming violet eyes stuck to his, as he radiated a faint red glow. Lucas flustered, looking away the second he made eye contact.
"Is it too hot, yet?" Ness asked, wondering.
"Not really."
"I'm at 300 degrees," Ness warned, raising an eyebrow. His clothed arms wrapped around Lucas more in attempt to show him the heat.
"I'm okay," Lucas mumbled into Ness' chest. He also snuggled in closer to Ness on his own account.
"You sure…?" Ness made a small frown, looking down at the blond. "Want me to go higher?"
"Yeah."
With that, Ness skyrocketed his temperature even higher. The more he did, the more Lucas' body relaxed.
"So warm... " Lucas murmured softly. He felt as if he was going to melt into Ness' warmth.
"Funny," Ness commented, "you still feel like a wrapped ice cube to me."
The reaction was unexpected from Lucas; the blond just giggled at that. Ness shook momentarily, being caught off guard. He had thought he insulted the boy like he intended to.
At around 500 degrees, Ness stopped there, not going any higher in fear of burning the blond, or rather, his clothes after all the ice would be melted. The ice was stronger than it looked, and after a minute, Lucas was completely fine. Though, when Ness wanted to end the hug, the blond just stuck to him like a magnet.
"Um." Ness looked one way, then back at Lucas weirdly. "Let go."
"...Okay," Lucas muttered softly, slipping away from Ness. His cerulean eyes were half-lidded, staring dizzily at Ness; he wore a small, relaxed smile, as he stumbled backwards with horrible balance. His face was a delightful red from the risen temperature.
Ness pursed his lips together, trying not to pay mind to the euphoria he left Lucas in by just warming the boy up. He rolled his eyes subtly, taking a seat down by the tree he napped at again. He stared at the blond, who had fallen on his side a few feet off, facing Ness. Lucas was still in the state of being warmed, like a piece of clothing freshly out of the dryer. The raven-haired boy couldn't help but snicker a bit, but that was all he allowed himself to do.
"Hey, Lucas?" Ness asked from a small distance away.
"Yeah~?"
"...Did… you like that by any chance…?" Ness seemed a bit embarrassed asking.
"It was amazing." Lucas gave him a lazy looking smile. It was really warm earlier, but his icy PSI quickly took him back to where he usually is. The blond stood up on both legs, smiling fully now.
"Ah," Ness responded with no emotion in particular. He turned back to tend to himself, and flipped the blanket on himself again. "And one more thing."
"Hm?"
"How the hell did you get frozen over like that?" Ness spat out rudely and judgmentally.
"I fell into the stream… and all of a sudden I just started freezing." Lucas fiddled with his fingers. "I was trying to figure out how to use my powers…"
Ness scoffed lightly to himself, looking from Lucas, then to the frozen rock sticking out of the stream. The raven-haired boy knew that Lucas had managed to get some sort of PSI going, without necessarily being in danger. Maybe he was getting a bit closer to figuring out how to use his power? That possibility sent unpleasing chills down his back.
"I don't want to keep on helping you, just letting you know," Ness replied meanly. If Lucas got good control over his frost PSI, Ness won't have room to take control over the boy; Lucas would be stronger than Ness.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that." Lucas rubbed the back of his head guiltily. "Just wanted to figure it out quick in case another animal comes attacking us again. I don't want you to fight alone."
"Goddammit," Ness whispered under his breath so that Lucas couldn't hear. His expression softened. Lucas tilted his head.
"Whatever," Ness finalized, helping himself to comfort within his blanket. The blond only looked at him, disappointed that his goal to help out the fire PSI boy was denied. He frowned, and turned towards the river again for more practice.
As Lucas approached the river, he jumped from rock to rock like earlier, finding yet another rock to perch upon and practice his powers. He vowed not to mess up again. Ness just sat by the tree, spectating in interest.
Small grunts from Lucas was heard faintly by Ness as the blond tried his best again to make his power happen. Ness cringed at how horribly Lucas was failing at getting 'control' of his PSI; it was so bad that the raven-haired boy couldn't laugh at it, but wanted to instead look away.
"Ngh!" Lucas flung an arm out, trying to replicate the way he had attacked the bear miraculously out of nowhere. The blond didn't expect anything to happen, and nothing did. All he could configure was trial and error. He knew he wasn't doing something right.
Ness sighed, facepalming stressfully. Lucas really didn't have any sort of control over his power; he couldn't even make it come out. The raven-haired boy stared at Lucas, judging, and thinking he was a dunce on how he was approaching the situation. For some reason, he wanted to help the blond out, but knew it would make Lucas even more of a threat to him once he finds out Ness was basically using him the whole way through. Ness bit his bottom lip, getting irritated by the fact that he's even paying attention to Lucas at all.
The overall better choice was to let the blond stay confused with his PSI.
Ness clutched the blanket with both hands, only remembering Lucas' reasoning behind wanting to figure out how to use his PSI. It was for a good reason, Ness had to admit, finding himself drawn in by the blond's kindness, yet, repelled. It was a complicated process that he couldn't understand.
Resentfully, as if Lucas was his responsibility (which he kind of was), Ness got up and casually strolled over to the edge of the stream. He stood, one hand on his hip firmly.
"Lucas."
The blond got startled as he jerked his vision to Ness. Lucas got wide-eyed and a bit flustered, thinking that Ness was heading to sleep again, only to be wrong.
"What the hell are you doing?" Ness interrogated.
"I'm, uh-"
"You're doing it wrong," Ness answered himself. Lucas looked only slightly offended.
"I thought you said there was no right way to do it," Lucas pointed out. Ness just shook his head at the blond as he continued on.
"Ugh," Ness griped, "just take into consideration that it's not about what you do, but how you feel about it."
"Feel...?" Lucas' eyes widened. Also at the fact that the raven-haired boy was helping him out with this.
"Yes." Ness bit the inside of his cheek remorsefully. He couldn't believe he was helping Lucas with this of all things. He also didn't know why he was letting himself do so. Maybe it was to repay the blond somehow for saving him from the alienated bear.
"I don't quite follow..."
"Well, how fucking badly do you want to use your frost powers?"
"...It's... Eh." Lucas shaked his hand iffy for a medium measurement.
"Then you're not going to freeze anything. You could either desire to freeze something, or base it off any passionate emotion." Ness felt like he was giving too much info at this point. He brushed a hand through his black hair anxiously.
"What do you mean 'passionate' emotion though?"
"God you ask too much damn questions."
Lucas looked downwards, feeling a little bit stupid for not understanding. However, Ness rolled his eyes and still answered him.
"Look, you don't throw PSI around like it's nothing. Give it a reason to exist," Ness advised spitefully, "freeze something out of anger, sadness, frustration, anything."
Lucas looked like he was starting to get the gist, now, when Ness suddenly used his PSI. The raven-haired boy emitted the usual red glow, holding a palm open calmly in front of him for Lucas to see. In that palm, a flame erupted from the surface, and began dancing in Ness' hand beautifully. Afterwards, Ness dissipated the flame into thin air with the close of his hand.
Ness stared into Lucas. "I can do that because I'm angry. I'm getting so impatient at how slow you're being to learn this." The raven-haired kid stuck both hands into his pockets. "And I could stop it because there's no reason for me to use my fire anymore since I proved my point that you're slow."
"So basically..." Lucas pondered, "causation and closure?"
"Yeah," Ness approved, "and if you're wondering why your ice comes out of nowhere, well, it's clear that you're just confused. You don't feel at peace with your emotions."
Lucas' heart thumped at those words. He was pretty confused, himself. Ness wasn't wrong on that point. It's just... Lucas didn't understand anything. What he wanted out of life. He was missing so many things as simple as two parents being around him. Even the blond had to admit that he didn't know what to do about himself when he got back home, or back to town that is; since his home is clearly off limits probably even now, still.
"You're feeling lost," Ness stated out of the blue, "you're not going to get anywhere with that."
"What, how do you even know?" Lucas asked curiously. He was sure that he kept a neutral face the whole time.
Ness shrugged as if it was no big deal when telling Lucas, "I'm part telepathic."
Lucas immediately flinched at that and held his head with his hands. "NO! Don't read what's in my mind!"
Ness sighed. "Chill out. I can only detect emotion. It's pretty damn useless, so I don't go out of my way to find out how someone is feeling. Waste of my time."
He then turned his back to Lucas, heading back to the tree.
Well geez... That's harsh... Lucas frowned a bit at Ness' response.
Without noticing it himself, Ness just continued venting and complaining aloud, "Detect fucking emotions. How helpful. Simply the best thing to use when in danger. Now I could for sure know that the bear was mad as shit. Ugh." He was now folding the blanket and tucking it back cleanly into his backpack. "Reading minds would've been a whole different story. But no, I'm stuck with feeling others' emotions."
Lucas, on the other hand, got off the rock, came back to the forest floor, and stood a safe distance away from Ness.
"But that's so cool!" The blond's eyes sparkled at Ness, who stared back weirdly. "...I'm being serious!"
"Psh," Ness scoffed, "it's not cool at all." He looked away, not as much mad as expected to be. Ness was flattered just a little that Lucas admired a trait he was actually born with.
"Ah, but think about it!" Lucas grinned involuntarily. "You could read people's emotions and know who's sad or not, maybe even a girl's to see if she likes you!"
Ness couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the silly answer. "Oh really?"
"Yes! That sounds like such a fun power!" Lucas kept that grin.
"I guess so, haha." Ness flipped his hat onto his head, and slid the bill to his right. He wasn't mad at all in this situation, but enjoyed the genuine admiration. It was written all over Lucas' face, and Ness felt it, as well.
Lucas nodded at the reply, but said nothing after that. He just looked at Ness with subtle intent, wondering what he was going to do, since he wasn't going back to sleep, and was instead putting away the blanket. The raven-haired boy seemed to have packed everything up, ready to get a move on from this stream for the day.
Ness backed up from the tree he slept at, and went towards the water. He stood there, looking to and fro; a confused look popped onto his face. It was unsettling.
"What's wrong?" asked Lucas.
"I don't… know where we are…" Ness drawled out nervously, "aw shit… I'm hungry, too."
Lucas nodded, but wasn't as necessarily caring as much as Ness was about it. He was lost in knowing their own location, and always has been. He sympathized, however.
"So am I," Lucas inquired.
"..." Ness scratched at his black hair.
"What'll we do?"
"Er- I dunno. Follow the water?" Ness shrugged, casually responding, "it's better to follow it and go straight, instead of ending up walking in circles."
"Hm, okay!" Lucas agreed.
The afternoon was still young, and there was enough time for more walking. The boys were out of shape though, but had the energy to. Their clothes were blood stained where they've been attacked by the bear, and Ness' leg was still healing as well. The raven-haired boy made it seem insignificant though; he didn't want to appear to be weak in front of the blond. After all, the blond has gotten it easier; he could heal at an inhuman pace, which clearly came with his PSI. Ness found that really lucky.
"This stream," Ness complained, "is too fucking long." He chugged at his bottle of water as he walked. Despite him being a fire PSI user, he had to wipe beads of sweat off his forehead from overworking his body physically by trekking a long distance.
Lucas did the same, as he was running out of energy as well. He sipped at his water sparingly, following behind the raven-haired boy with a noticeable gap between them. Ness still didn't change his mind on letting him be directly by his side.
Like a symphony, their tummies rumbled one after the other. Ness was starving for something, and Lucas was starved to the point that his belly was pained.
Lucas breathed in, tired. "I'm so hungry."
"Ugh…" Ness groaned for the both of them. "Goddammit, I didn't expect us to get lost. Or be attacked. This threw us way off course." The way he had said it sounded apologetic.
"It's fine by me," Lucas pointed out in attempt to sedate the slightly grumpy Ness.
"It's not fine altogether." Ness threw an arm in the air with frustration. That seemed to be the conversation killer of the day.
They continued walking their tiring walk, until they've gotten a sign.
"NO TRESPASSING."
Literally a sign.
Both boys rose an eyebrow as they found their way to this after departing ways with the stream a little. The sign was on a tall, wired fence that had spiral barbs at the top. It looked daunting, but it also looked like a potential sanctuary to them; behind said fence looked like an orchard of trees, aka food. They stood staring, plotting what they should do next.
"Well," Ness started, "let's go." He neared the wired fence, and started to climb on it just a bit before Lucas lunged a hand at Ness' arm, pulling him back.
"No!" Lucas worried. "Don't you see that it says, 'No Trespassing'?! And there's barbs at the top!"
"So?" Ness sounded like he didn't care, which he didn't.
"We'll get in trouble!" Lucas argued, flailing his arms up.
"UNLESS there's more bears inside these fences, we'll be just fine. Besides, I'm hungry dammit. You can't stop me, blondie." With that, Ness continued to climb up, and rather fast. His fit, agile body brought him to the top, about to near the barbs.
'Blondie'?! Lucas fumed a bit at the racist insult, but Ness said it too silly to get seriously mad at. The blond just stared up at Ness, hoping he'd fail in some way shape or form with the barbs. However, Ness didn't, and literally placed his legs carefully in between the loops of the barbs. At one point, the raven-haired boy had to hold onto the barbs, but it wasn't much of a problem because he kept on those black leather gloves. Before Lucas knew it, Ness made it past the hard part, the barbs, and leaped off the fence the rest of the way and landed with his legs bent.
"..." Lucas stood, mouth gaping at how Ness made it over the barbed fence unharmed, and also at the fact that he jumped down the whole length of the fence itself.
"Welp." Ness unnecessarly dusted off his gloves. "See ya." He waved with a little smirk, walking away towards the nearby tree orchard.
"W-What?!" Lucas called out, hands on the fence. The trees held delicious apples, and Lucas could see Ness climb up one in the distance without much effort. Ness was far, but even there, Lucas could see him smiling smugly as he picked out 2 red apples. He hopped out of that tree and plopped onto the green, luscious grass the orchard was built upon, and started to walk back to Lucas.
"Yo," Ness greeted. He held one red apple in front of the blond, and bit into it.
Crunch.
The juicy crunch made the blond nearly drool at the sound and sight of the well grown apples Ness was holding. The raven-haired boy still had another apple, which Lucas thought was for him.
The blond smiled hopefully, saying, "Thanks, Ness!"
However, Ness didn't make any move to give the blond the other apple, and just stood there eating his own. This confused Lucas.
"Oh, this one's not for you," Ness told Lucas.
Lucas whined aloud, giving an angry look at Ness. "Then who's it for?!"
"Me." Ness smirked. "Or for you, when you get over the fence like I did."
"Ness!" Lucas said his name angrily, clearly knowing he was being teased, "C-Can't you just melt the fence off?!"
"I could've, but then I wouldn't get to see you climb the fence."
"You're so mean, Ness!"
"Did you just notice that, now?" Ness taunted evilly. He made soft chuckles, enjoying this moment a lot. Lucas just stood there, growing an embarrassed blush on his face. "Or are you just too scared of getting in trouble?" now Ness really was teasing. "That 'No Trespassing' sign is so scary."
"You're trespassing, AND stealing!" Lucas told Ness.
Ness bit his teeth into his apple more audibly. "I think it's *crunch* very *crunch* worth it."
"NGHGGH." Lucas held his blond locks in his hands from frustration, making Ness burst into a fit of laughter.
Ness had to stop eating his apple to avoid choking on the pieces since he was laughing too hard. "HAHAHAA! I swear- your reactions are priceless!"
"Screw you." Lucas' fingers tightened on the fence. Ness just laughed even more. Though, when Lucas heard the last thing Ness said, small butterflies traveled in the pit of his stomach. Now he was nervous, and hungry.
"Tell me," Ness interrogated, "how badly do you want this apple?"
"Very badly," Lucas admitted, not so drastically angry, "but you're not giving it to me!"
"Well, I don't feel you wanting it enough for me to give it to you," Ness stated.
Gradually, Lucas' soft anger started to get higher. Being teased for such an unnecessarily long time was started to bother the blond. He glowered at Ness, face red, only receiving an unhelpful smirk from the raven-haired boy. Not to mention, Lucas was tired physically, and mentally. His high tolerance levels were being beaten once again.
Ness watched with intent, still eating. Lucas couldn't do anything but just downright hate Ness right now. He got so mad and flustered at him that his ice powers began to leak out again. The ice flew from his fingertips, which were wrapped around the fence's wires, and froze the entire fence top to bottom, in a 20 feet spread.
Ness whistled, staring at the blue, frozen fence piece. It happened so fast, Lucas flinched, then backed away instantly from what he did. A few moments following after, the wires became brittle and collapsed downwards, making a rather huge entryway for Lucas to get to Ness, now. The blond awkwardly stepped over the pieces of ice, hoping not to slip, and went to the other boy.
Lucas received a pat on the back from Ness, which was a surprise.
"And that's step one to learning how to use your PSI," Ness stated, "hopefully that's enough to make you realize what it takes to use your powers." The whole time, he knew what he was doing.
"Step one?!" Lucas exclaimed, "I have to get angry like that to make something happen?!"
"No, but anger is the easiest one to go off on. It's the most unstable though, so I recommend learning to use your PSI because of something else. Maybe like happiness."
"Happiness…" Lucas muttered to himself, turning somber.
"Yes. Now say 'ah,'" Ness suggested.
"Ah?" Lucas did as told, leaving his mouth only slightly opened. "HCK—"
Ness stuck the other apple in Lucas' mouth.
"Good job," Ness told him.
Lucas' eyes widened, stupidly holding the red apple with his teeth and his teeth only. The redness of his cheeks that worn off earlier came back to him as he stared at Ness. The raven-haired boy's eyes glimmered its luminous violet, and returned the same gaze in return.
Ness smiled.
