Chapter 3

Yuu's eyes flick between the stalls of food hungrily. There are people everywhere in the packed area and stalls lining every free inch of the outside perimeter, all selling fresh food that makes his mouth water. This isn't the type of area he usually frequents, it only makes his stomach ache more when he's surrounded by food, but this time it's different. Someone brushes against his back and he flinches, ignoring the look of disgust he receives. That touch probably hurt him more than some dirt did the other person. He's not oblivious to the suspicious looks he's receiving, but for once he doesn't care. Mikaela said they were getting food here, so he can try whatever he wants.

It all smells delicious, the air a mixture of sweet desserts and savoury grilled foods, but what he really wants are the little cakes with the delicate frosting designs on top. Cakes are a luxury that he's never had the fortune to try more than twice in his life, but he's pretty sure he has a sweet tooth and he's badly wanted to try one of those fancy desserts. Maybe one with a strawberry on top too, just the thought makes his heart speed up with excitement.

Mikaela smiles in amusement at how excited Yuu is, it's both endearing and a little sad. He's well aware that he could have been Yuu if he didn't have any magic. Although he is curious about Yuu's circumstances, what happened to his parents? How long has he been alone? But they're not close enough that he can comfortably ask questions of that nature.

He trails after the raven haired boy, careful not to let the crowd separate them too much and to always keep him in sight. Some of the stall owners are shooting Yuu wary looks as he passes, no doubt making sure he doesn't try to make a grab for anything at their own stall. If only Yuu had taken a bath or at least attempted to try and clean himself up, instead the minute Yuu saw he was awake, he'd thrown off the blanket and demanded food, so here they are.

Making Yuu bathe isn't a priority...yet. Let him do what he wants for now, if Mikaela pushes him, he may decide it's not worth the trouble and leave. Maybe when Yuu looks less like a walking stick, he'll be more interested in being clean.

He does a quick mental count of the coins in his pouch, he did well last night despite his shift being cut short and not receiving his regular pay for the night. That combined with what he already had, if he plans carefully, should last him through the winter even with an extra person.

"Yuu-chan, what do you want to eat?" He questions, reaching forward to grab Yuu by the shoulder and slow him down.

"Cakes!"

"Cakes?"

"Yes! With strawberries on top."

He smiles at the sparkle in his eyes and can't help teasing him a bit, "That's not food, you need more than that. How about some of those curry buns?"

"Cake." Yuu fold his arms and glares at him defensively, "If you had paid me, I could have bought my own cakes."

Mikaela rolls his eyes, "Are you still talking about that? Let that go already." He pokes Yuu in the back and his hand is quickly slapped away, but he hands over a few silver coins anyway. "Buy what you want and me some curry buns." Yuu's eyes light up once again and he wastes no time darting off directly to the sweets.

Walking away from the busy section of the food area, he wanders until he finds a semi isolated space with fewer people and lays down to wait. By his plan, if they leave now, they can probably get in a good month's worth of traveling before the weather changes too much to travel safely. A month should put them right in the middle of the Glacial Steppe, not the best place to stop since Winter will be the worst there. But, once it's over, there's only three weeks until they reach their destination versus waiting and arriving six months later. They can do it.

He glances up when a warm bag is dropped on his stomach and looks over to see Yuu sitting a safe distance away from him, still untrusting of him. "I spent all your money."

"I figured you would." Mikaela opens the bag on his stomach, curry buns, then looks at Yuu's hands, nothing but sweets. Expensive ones too. "You have a sweet tooth?"

"Maybe," he shrugs. "It's not like I had a chance to eat many before."

He sighs and hands Yuu one of his buns, "You need to eat at least one of these too."

"No thanks."

Mikaela grabs his wrist, ignoring how quickly Yuu stiffens, and wraps the other boy's fingers around the bun, "Eat it."

They stare at each other in the suddenly tense space before Yuu jerks his wrist away and Mikaela lets him, content as long as he's still holding onto the bun. His eyes watch as Yuu scoots away from him a little and takes a bite of the bun, eyeing him warily the entire time.

He nods in satisfaction and returns to his own meal, blatantly aware of the fleeting glances Yuu keeps sending his way.

"If you want someone to bring you food, you should stay in one place," Yuu states, finally breaking the silence. Apparently the other boy's decided to let it slide.

"I knew you would be able to find me, you seem to have a knack for finding 'trouble.' Right?"

"I'm starting to wish I never saw your shirt."

"Too late for regrets now," He stands up. "I have to go, try not to attract too much attention."

"Go where?"

"I have something to do."

"Do what?"

Mikaela gives him a disbelieving look, "Things."

"Like what?"

He snatches a sweet from the pile in Yuu's lap, "Mind your own business!"

"Hey, that's mine!"

"Stay out of trouble. I'll meet you in front of the inn a few hours."

Yuu bristles at the command, "I still don't need to hear that from you."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You saved me, so on and so forth."

"And don't forget it!"

"I doubt you'll ever let me." Yuu nods and busies himself selecting a new treat, done with their conversation now that he's established himself. Before he leaves, Mikaela produces a single blue spark of magic and he brushes his fingers over Yuu's head with the slightest touch, depositing the spark and watching as it travels across his body until it embeds itself unnoticed in Yuu's skin. Just a single spark is all that's needed to make sure he can find Yuu again.

He heads outside of the city, stopping to collect a bucket of water before finding a secluded area to practice. So far, mastering the magic that will enable him to breathe underwater has not come easy. It's why he'd been at the stream when he first saw Yuu.

The only way to access the Mage's Kingdom is by water or air, both extremely efficient ways of keeping away outsiders. There's no way he can go by air, so water is his only option. From what he's been able to research, it seems there's a pool outside the valley with a long underwater cavern that ends inside the city. It's at least two miles long, so once you start swimming, you'll drown long before you reach either end if your magic isn't strong enough. And if Yuu stays with him all the way there, he'll be responsible for both of their lives.

Taking a breath, he plunges his head into the bucket, willing his magic to only allow the oxygen into his lungs. Blue sparks disperse into the water around his head and it seems to work for a few seconds. Then he takes a deeper breath and water fills his lungs. This is impossible without proper guidance! Mikaela pulls out gasping, choking up water through his nose and mouth, resisting the urge to kick the bucket over.

Instead he shoots out his frustration in a blast of fire against a nearby tree. Mollified for the moment that he's not completely useless, even if uncontrolled blasts take almost no effort. Mikaela looks down towards the bucket and concentrates, focusing until the water bubbles into a boil.

He smiles in satisfaction before abruptly realizing he's just set the water he was using for practice to boiling.

"Think!" He chastises himself aloud, then kicks the bucket over, letting the scalding water seep into the ground. Snatching the bucket up, he returns to the city boundaries to refill it before setting up for practice again.

Mikaela sets his jaw and drops his head back in, he has to get this, it's the only way.

~~~~~
Yuu wonders if the innkeeper will let him in alone if he manages to make it back as another heat flash passes through his body, the same way they have been since he finished eating. He wouldn't put it past someone to have poisoned those sweets he ate and unfortunately he ate a lot.

Grimacing, Yuu takes another breath as more beads of sweat accumulate across his forehead. He thinks he's probably stupid to be walking when he feels like this, but he'd tried waiting it out and all he'd gotten for his efforts was an itching under his skin and the uncontrollable need to move.

And Mikaela, that useless blonde, is nowhere to be found when he could actually use some help. Yuu gasps when one of his legs gives out, sending him stumbling to his knees. He groans in frustration, this is ridiculous. He's not this weak!

Using the wall as a brace, he's almost back to his knees when a shadow covers his face. He already knows this won't be good. Two guys looking a lot tougher than he probably looks right now are standing over him and he can't help wondering how many times he's going to have to fight people in this city. At this point, he's pretty sure he'd rather a small village, less food and all. At least there, there aren't so many people waiting to attack the minute you look vulnerable.

"Give us the bag."

"I don't have any money."

"That's not what I said."

Yuu grips his bag tighter to his side, "I don't have any money," he insists.

"Look kid," the bigger one says with an annoyed sigh, "You already look like you're about to die, so just hand it over. Besides we saw you with that blonde guy earlier, eating all those sweets. You can't afford those with no money."

And suddenly Yuu's furious at Mikaela and at himself. Mikaela can be excused for not understanding, but he should have known better than to put himself in the spotlight like that. He'd been an orphan for years, he knows how things work. No doubt there were plenty of people watching them eat and while they wouldn't go after the blonde because of his obviously higher status, Yuu was free game. He knew Mikaela was trouble! And he let himself be dragged along, forgetting all precaution and every instinct he'd gained over the past eight years.

Yuu clenches his fist, ready to win or die trying, and starts to get to his feet when a foot slams into his stomach and he really starts to regret all those snacks. A hand quickly reaches into his pocket and Yuu smacks the offending arm away receiving another kick in return.

"Hold him down."

The blunt command puts Yuu's fight or flight instinct into high gear and he immediately swings out a leg, catching the pickpocket in the shin and pulling himself to his feet, still wheezing from his aching torso. There's no way he's going to get his ass kicked just laying on the ground.

He shakes away the numbness in his right fist and takes a breath as his eyes struggle to stay focused through the haze in his vision. He's aware of the rivulets of sweat dripping down his body and burning his back, the venomous looks directed towards him, and the fact that if he doesn't hold it together, he might not survive this.

The first fist comes sailing towards him, he's too slow to dodge and it catches him in the face. Pain blossoms across his cheek and in the next second, his fist feels like it's on fire. Searing pain in his veins that consumes his entire forearm, almost crippling him.

He doesn't have time to dwell on it when a second fist is coming towards his eye and on some instinct of self preservation that he didn't know he had, his own fist swings forward and connects first in a burst of green sparks.

Yuu stares at his fist in horror, pain momentarily forgotten. A scream and the smell of singed flesh brings him back to the present where the other boy's hands wave uselessly in front of the ruined half of his face.

Memories from his childhood come back and he finds himself involuntarily apologizing, "I-I'm sorry!"

Awareness dawns in their eyes which quickly fades to fear mixed with disgust. He follows their gazes back to his fist to see a few more green sparks flitting around his skin. This hasn't happened before! Usually he can stop it, never in his eight years has his magic broken free from his control.

As they run from him, panic sets in when he realizes the burning sensation is steadily creeping up his arm, in just a few a seconds there's pain from fingertips to shoulder and Yuu desperately struggles to contain it. Each time he tries, the fiery sensation comes back stronger than before and emerald eyes widen with the knowledge that it's not going to stop. Yuu cries out, flailing his arm in the need to do something, and his heartbeat goes triple time. Despite his rising body temperature, Yuu breaks out in a cold sweat, and the last thing he remembers is pain pulsating towards his heart before his mind surrenders.

~~~~~
Mikaela stands in front of the inn, impatiently drumming his fingers along his arm. Where is Yuu? He can't say he's surprised the black haired boy is late, but it's been almost an hour and he's already annoyed from having to fend off several advances. Apparently standing in front of an inn alone can only mean you're there for one thing.

He closes his eyes, enough waiting. If Yuu isn't here soon, they won't be able to leave at sunrise. Mikaela concentrates, using his senses to seek out that tiny spark of himself that he attached to Yuu, and lets himself be guided towards the pull. He weaves throughout the crowd and realizes he's heading right back to where he left the other boy. Has Yuu been there eating the whole time?

His magic pulls him towards another building and the first thing he sees is Yuu's skinny ankles poking out of his too short pants. Mikaela comes and stands over with a sigh, noticing the awkward position Yuu's laying and the tense expression he wears in his sleep. Either he's having a nightmare or Yuu got knocked unconscious.

Mikaela drops to his knees and props Yuu's head up in his lap, grimacing at the clumps of dirt he can feel in Yuu's hair. He draws the spark back to himself and tilts his head curiously. There's something different about it. When he transferred it to Yuu, it was a part of his own magic and now it feels almost foreign as it assimilates back to him, as if it mixed with something else. He glances back down at Yuu in speculation, hmm…

Yuu shifts and blinks up at him confusion, "Mikaela?"

"Mmhmm."

"What happened?"

"You passed out." Mikaela answers and lifts his hand to frown down at Yuu. "Your hair is filthy by the way. It's gross and full of clumps of dirt and oil."

"Well, don't touch it then!"

"You are taking a bath when we get back," he continues on. "Even if I have to drown you."

Yuu grunts and sits up, glancing around the corner they're in and his eyes widen then fly down to his arm when he remembers what happened. It doesn't look burned and he flexes his hand to be sure there's no damage. "Thank you," he breathes.

"Are you okay?"

Mikaela's looking at him weirdly and he quickly drops his hand, "Y-yeah I'm fine."

"Do you remember what happened?"

"No," he shakes his head quickly. "I started to feel dizzy then everything went black."

"Right."

Yuu ignores the other boy's skeptical look and stands up on shaky legs, "Let's go."

Mikaela escorts him back to the inn, likely to make sure he doesn't pass out again and it annoys him, he's not weak. It was a one time thing, he doesn't need to be treated like he's delicate. He thinks the blonde will leave once they reach the entrance, but he doesn't. Instead, he follows Yuu all the way to the bathing room, only departing when he's inside the room.

"I'm going to get supplies, so we can leave in the morning. We've caused too much trouble here."

Yuu nods and strips down once he's gone, eager to get it over with before someone else comes in. The first bucket of water he dumps over his head feels refreshing, even as he struggles to hold in his gasp of pain when the warm water rolls down the lacerations on his back. He cranes his neck backwards to see the discolored swollen ridges on his back and he curses quietly, they're not healing yet.

Careful to keep the soap away from his back as best he can, he quickly scrubs it through his hair and around every part of his body before rinsing himself off and escaping back to their room.

He has to admit, being clean again feels nice. He hadn't realized just how filthy he was until the dirt was gone, but his head feels much lighter now. It's been a while, things like that just don't seem to matter much when you're always hungry. But now that he's clean and not hungry for once, he's left to wonder, Am I dying?

His magic has never gone out of control like that before. It resisted him with more force than he knew was possible, ignoring what he wanted and guiding his fist to cause pain. Almost like he was possessed… No, Yuu shakes his head. He won't go down that path, he's not evil. All those earlier symptoms that came before were from too many sweets and it made sense that he'd be weaker when he was sick. That's all it was, he tells himself. He was just too weak to properly control it.

He'll just have to do better. He told Mikaela he didn't remember and he has a feeling the blonde wouldn't appreciate being lied to, but he also doesn't want to be thrown aside just yet. If he can just hold it together until they get to somewhere safe where he can start over, it'll be fine, just long enough for him to make an identity as something other than an untrustable street orphan.

Sighing, he searches through his bag for his last remaining decent shirt before shoving the soiled one to the bottom of the bag until he has a chance to wash it. At least this one isn't stuck to his back. Now the only thing inside is two gourd canteens, his shirt, an extra pair of pants, and a few bronze coins he decided to keep rather than return to Mikaela. Scanty possessions, but all his.

Shutting the door to their room, he decides he'd rather go help Mikaela than stay there alone and brood. It doesn't take long to locate him, his blonde hair makes him extremely noticeable wherever he goes and Yuu comes to stand by his side only to be used as a packhorse.

"Here," Mikaela slides a heavy bag onto Yuu's shoulder and dumps three tightly bound woolen blankets into his arms. "Carry these."

"For how long?" Yuu questions, eyeing the various supplies Mikaela has beside him.

"Until winter's over, obviously."

"It's not even cold yet."

"Yuu-chan," he explains patiently. "It's better to be prepared than caught off guard."

"Yeah, but-"

"I don't think we'll encounter another city where we can get all these things again soon, we need to gather supplies."

"But, why do I have to carry them all?"

"Because now I need twice as many and you're not paying for anything, are you?"

"..."

"Exactly! So, just carry the bags and be glad I'm taking care of you!"

Yuu glares down at the blankets in his arms, "Just where do you expect us to be during Winter?"

"Who knows? We may get caught in a blizzard while walking, weather changes suddenly," he answers vaguely.

Yuu makes some snarky remark, but he's no longer listening. Instead he's quickly running through his mental list to make sure he hasn't forgotten anything. Blankets, warm clothing, sturdy shoes, eight weeks worth of dried food, that should be the bare minimum that they need to survive because the less things they have to carry, the better.

"Hey Mikaela, can we take some sweets before we go?" Yuu asks as he takes in the choice of food Mikaela's loading them up with.

"No, not this time. Sweets won't last and I have to plan carefully."

As his eyes once again roam over all the supplies Mikaela has picked out, Yuu starts to get the niggling suspicion that the blonde has not been entirely honest with him. "Mikaela, how far are we going?"

"Not that far."

"Then why do we need all these supplies?"

"I already told you, it's better to be prepared."

"For what?" Yuu presses.

Blue eyes pin him with a look, "We're going to see the Mages," and Yuu feels his stomach drop. That's the last place he needs to be.

"You never said that!"

"You never asked," he counters with a shrug.

"What do you want to go see those jerks for? They've never helped out regular people like us."

Mikaela gives him a speculative look, "I have my reasons, but...if you really don't want to come, you don't have to."

Yuu glances away from the other boy's pleading gaze, already knowing he doesn't really want to separate just yet. Mikaela might not be the best company and a little too forward for his liking, but he also seems to genuinely care and that's a rare thing. He can count the amount of people he's cared about on one hand. Besides...he's bought enough food to last weeks. It wouldn't be so bad to see where they go and he can always ditch him when they get close to the Mages anyway. It's actually a win for him whether he follows through on the whole trip or not.

"I may not go the whole way."

"That's okay, I don't mind if you only come half way."

He sighs, agreeing with a slight nod, and Mikaela breaks into a brilliant grin full of delight before reaching over to squeeze him into a hug and rub his cheek in Yuu's hair. "You look and smell so much better!"

Yuu flushes and squirms out of the blonde's grip, ignoring the heat in his face from the pleasure Mikaela's smile brought him, and scowls over at him, "I didn't do it for you!"

"I know, but I can still appreciate it."

He reaches out to ruffle his hair and Yuu expertly evades his hand, "Hands to yourself, you kumquat!"

Mikaela laughs and grabs him by the strap on his shoulder, dragging him down the street, "Come on, squeaky clean, we've got a long way to go!"