Chapter Two: Waving Through A Window

"Keep your witch breath away from me!" Gael shrieked with a laugh. He dodged under grabbing hands and hopped away, just out of the girl's reach.

"Witch?" The girl gasped in mock offense. She rose a hand to her heart and swooned. Her mouth twitched upwards slightly but the girl forced it down. "How dare you. That is no way to speak to a lady."

"A lady?" Gael mocked. "I don't see one here."

The boy let out another shriek of laughter when the girl threw herself at him. The two children gasped and giggled as they fell into the muddy ground. The struggled on the ground for a moment, neither able to get a stable footing on the slippery surface. Lanky arms swing in all directions but their slight luck eventually ran out causing the playful kids to fall to the ground in a mess of limbs.

"For a ballerina, you're not very graceful," Gael gasped.

"M' not a ballerina—"

"Yet."

"Stop it, Gael. We both know no school will accept me."

"They will." The children lay quietly side-by-side for a moment. Hands tightly intertwined between them as they watched the sky change colors. The slight blush on their faces from exertion and laughter lingered as their breathing finally evened out.

"Do you— do you really think so?" the young girl asked, almost hesitating in fear of her friend's response.

"Yeah. I do. One day. When that happens every school in the whole world will want you. I know it."

"...What about you? What will you do?"

"That's easy! I have it all planned out."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. When the war is over I'm going to build a house." A snort reached the boy's ears. He frowned. "What?"

"Nothing bad," the girl laughed. "I'm just surprised."

"Why?"

"That's my line! Why do you want to build a house."

"Well, why not? I think I can build a great house. A beautiful one. I'll even make you a room if you'd like. You can come to visit after your recitals!"

"Will it be big? Your house?"

"It'll be… enough."

"Enough? How big is enough?" Gael only laughed, ignoring the girl's question as he carefully stood. The boy held out a hand for his friend, a happy grin underneath the splattering of mud covering his face. "Gael."

"You'll have to wait and see, May. It'll be perfect. Just… enough!"


As it was, confusion and nervousness were the foundation of Gael's emotional range. He was doing better, of course, but a handful of months were not enough to heal the wounds left behind in the teen's mind and heart. Isolation from the outside world had helped, if only a little. He had given himself time to adjust and adapt to this new age as best as he could. It was not a perfect system or approach by any means but it was the best Gael was able, and willing, to do.

His team and friends would have given him plenty of grief if had they seen him act in such a way. Captain Harvey even more so as the man had basically instilled every survival tactic and plan of action he had in Gael. Every possible scenario, every mock battle, and fight analysis in his hand and yet Gael had been thrown for a complete loss at the situation at hand. Though to be fair, Captain Harvey had never mentioned time-travel in their lessons but he had given Gael plenty of advice if they were ever separated or lost. He had followed those directions to the T.

Be cautious.

Be aware.

Keep low.

Stay safe.

Those four rules had been cemented into his head these last couple months. He held onto Captain Harvey's teachings closely. The man was smart and had taken Gael under his wing. Kept him safe and, most importantly, alive. Following the man's advice, a few words given over half a century ago kept the teen from completely losing his mind. It was difficult, yes. There had been moments where Gael considered finding someone he could trust and come clean. The idea was thrown out when he quickly realized there was no one Gael knew well enough for him to trust. The Yamamoto's clearly didn't like him. His teachers were all still new to him. The detective he had met half a year ago was nice enough but Gael had only spoken to him twice.

There was no one.

It was Gael's fault, however. He was the one who decided to keep away from others. He had a couple of chances since his arrival to find help. It was his own fear that held him back. At the time, Gael had no way of knowing how people would react to the truth. Opinion on enhanced had been rather negative in his time. Better than when superhuman individuals had first emerged but still not the best. Of course, the police officer with a cat head had tipped him off that something was different but it had been far too early for Gael to lose his bit of anonymity.

The teen's bout of shell shock also had a large hand at how he handled that situation.

But Gael couldn't keep living the way he was. Going through the motions, unaware and uncaring, felt wrong. It had hurt him more than he had thought it would. It was quiet and dull. Sometimes, he could hear the voices of his friends pull at him when no one was around. Phantom touches pressed against his back and shoulders, often shaking him into consciousness late at night. He could hear Sargent Grimes' boisterous laugh and Sargent Kelly's off-key singing. It was maddening and nearly brought him to his knees more times than he could count.

But… he could handle it.

The hallucinations were pushed aside. Gael forced himself to keep moving. To learn the names of streets and familiarize himself with current pop culture. He listened to the Yamamoto's radio whenever he had the chance to. Daily news and world happenings at the expense of his foster parent's company were well worth the new information gathered. He rode the train for hours, no destination in mind but rather using the time to watch people go about their days. He was inspired by them the most. How easily they seemed to keep moving the way they did, uncaring of their world around them as Gael's sanity, as fleeting as it sometimes felt, crashed inside him.

Gael felt as though he was doing rather well keeping himself together. He had survived the most difficult part. The first couple months of this new time were hard; It had only gotten easier since then.

But now, in his third week of school, Gael felt it was as good as time as ever to keep the momentum going. He was going to live and make the people he left behind proud. The first step was always the hardest to make. Overthinking the situation would only cause him to stumble. With that in mind, Gael pushed aside his fears, gathered every drop of confidence and farce charisma he had inside him, turned to his desk neighbor and said:

"Your hair is nice." His classmate (Shinsou, he reminded himself) startled at the sudden sound of his whispered voice and Gael cringed. His hair was nice? It was the truth, for sure. The vivid purple was really neat but that really wasn't how Gael wanted to start a conversation. Why couldn't he have mentioned the weather or something less embarrassing?

"My hair?" The teen drawled. A dry look set in his face as stared down at Gael with eyes that matched the shade of his hair before turning away, uninterested. "Thanks. I guess."

"You're welcome," Gael muttered. His face currently resembled a chili pepper and his nerves had been shot but Gael was not about to quit now. He had just decided that morning he was going to do this. The Hispanic teen was not about to let the other boy's dreary attitude intimidate him from making friends. And gosh dammit, he fought in a war! Gael could very well handle starting a conversation with a kid his age.

Take two.

"So," Gael started with a small, nervous smile. "Brainwashing, right?"

"Don't start," his neighbor snarled quietly. "It's a shitty villains quirk, I know."

Gael flinched a little at the anger in the boy's low tone. Warning bells rang in his head, urging him to abort his current path. It was dangerous territory, Gael could feel it but the teen couldn't find it in himself to abandon the obviously heavy topic. Gael had known plenty of people who disliked or outright resented their enhancement. It was easy to feel contempt for something that put you against the world. But Gael hadn't even considered there would be people in this time that still felt like that. Especially someone so young.

The teen quickly looked up at their teacher and relaxed when he realized she was not paying attention to them but to another one of their classmates. He then turned his attention back to the purple haired boy and frowned. It was a very useful ability. Plenty of applications but useless if the user had such little confidence in themselves. Though to be fair, Gael didn't know the other boy well enough to make assumptions.

"It's not shitty," Gael whispered back before he could stop himself. He felt the need to fix his mistake and try to end this conversation without the other teen full on hating him. It was unfortunate that Gael was not one for pretty words. Though he lacked eloquence, Gael's cheerful demure and naive optimism really paid off in times like this. It was his own form of charming charisma that had gotten him this far in life. Shinsou finally tore his eyes away from his work and glared at the foreign boy beside him. He opened his mouth to argue but Gael shook his head and cut him off. "It is not a shitty quirk. It's not a villain quirk. Any quirk can be a villains quirk, depending on how you use it."

"Easy for you to say. Your quirk—"

"Can be used to take out cities with the right conviction. Anyone can be a villain. Just like anyone can be a hero. It's all a matter of choice, Shinsou."

"Tch," the boy huffed. "Even if I wanted to be a hero, I couldn't. My quirk isn't a flashy one."

"I don't think flashiness is a requirement to being a hero. If it was, maybe we can find you a cape like that boy from 1-A. One of those will definitely get everyone's attention,"

The surprised snort that came from the other teen made Gael grin in satisfaction before he continued; He motivated now with the small show of positive reaction. "I actually had a friend with a mental quirk kind of like yours."

"Yeah?" Shinsou asked, intrigued.

"Mhm. If she breathed on someone she could force them to sing."

"...What?"

"Like a spontaneous musical number. Of course, they didn't dance and sing. We never did find someone with a dancing quirk."

"You're shitting me."

"I'm completely serious," Gael said with a quiet laugh. "It was really neat. Useful, too. One breath and she would have someone singing their hearts out for an hour. Stunk when it was used on you but on others? It was the funniest thing in the world."

"I bet," Shinsou chuckled as he moved back to his worksheet. "Though I don't see how our quirks are related."

"She made people sing what they wanted to say. What was on their minds. For example, in a fight she would use her quirk and her opponent would be forced to sing their intentions. Be it an attack strategy or motive. Plus, singing and fighting is difficult. Trust me, it's exhausting. She also used it as a weird form of a truth serum. Her quirk took away a person's free will. And like you, she wanted to use it for good. Believe me when I say that she had every opportunity in the world to use it for her own gain but never considered it."

"I'm guessing she used it on you a lot," Shinsou replied, his voice slightly strained. Gael laughed, surprised at the sudden onslaught of happy memories. The warning look their teacher sent him forced him to bite back his giggles as he nodded slightly to his desk neighbor.

"Oh yes," he said with an easy grin. "She once forced me to give a presentation in the form of a ballad. That's actually when I realized I have a rather nice singing voice."

"You don't say."

"I do say," Gael agreed before turning serious. "You have an incredible ability. Only a moron wouldn't see that."

"Vega," Shinsou started. Gael instantly turned to the other boy, his expression pulled into a concerned grown at the sound of the boy's odd tone. "Shut up."

Gael laughed quietly before turning back to his own work. He deserved that. Gael was starting to sound way too sentimental, even to his own ears.

"and," Shinsou started again, a slight blush accompanying his tiny grin. "Thanks."

SUCCESS

Gael's heart felt lighter as he turned back to his school work. He felt accomplished and although the small success would seem trivial to most, Gael felt he made a huge step that morning. He left Shinsou alone for the rest of class. The foreign teen did not want to interrupt his classmate's education, after all. He remained quiet for the rest of his morning lessons and for the first time since his start, Gael felt the confidence to actually be present in school. Before, Gael practically ghosted through the school. Silent, but friendly. That one conversation, his first show of breaking from his shell, had done wonders for him. The surprised and astonished looks he got from his teacher and classmates when he rose his hand to answer a question had made his stomach revolt in terror but he didn't back down.

Starting today, things would change. Gael was finally going to live.