Disclaimer: I do not own Sky High or its characters, settings etc, all of which belong to Disney.

Chapter 4: Warren Peacemaker

Warren was beginning to wonder if he should add to the sign outside the Paper Lantern: Chinese restaurant and relationship counseling. After all, last year this was where he'd offered Layla a sympathetic ear and told Stronghold to get with the program. And now, almost every evening for four weeks after the anti-Simmonds Save the Citizen match, either Will or Layla would be there, seeking more advice than food from their favorite waiter.

And yet, they still weren't actually fighting as such. They were perfectly friendly towards each other, no undercurrent of tension or anything. They were still best friends; that much hadn't changed. It was just that the romance aspect of their relationship seemed to have fizzled, although they desperately tried to keep up the act for their friends, and also for one other.

Will and Layla were each afraid that they were the only one who felt that way, and that the other would be extremely hurt to find out they were no longer romantically interesting. Warren spent a lot of time wishing that there was some way he could tell each of them not to worry, that they both felt the same way, but without betraying their trust. All he could do was encourage them to level with each other.

Finally one afternoon after school they decided to take his advice and have a very honest discussion. But the truth often hurts, even if it's what you're expecting to hear, and neither of them ended up particularly happy campers.

The first Warren heard of the latest development was when he almost ran into a girl from Layla's hero support class, Kate, he thought her name was, coming out of the girls' bathroom. The concerned brunette told him Layla was in there crying her eyes out.

Magenta arrived on the scene just then and as she went into the bathroom she gave him a look that suggested she held him personally responsible for Layla's heartache. Her advice had been that it wasn't necessary for Will and Layla to actually break up. Instead they should just go for the on-again-off-again system that worked so well for her and Zach. Yeah right.

Despite their difference of opinion, however, Maj evidently told Layla that he was there. The tearful redhead came out of the bathroom and threw herself into his arms before he had a chance to say a word. He just held her as she sobbed.

"I don't know why I'm so upset," she sniffed when she could speak again, "I mean, it's how I wanted him to feel. I didn't want him to still be in love with me."

"Not nice to hear him actually say the words, though, right?"

"No. And Warren, I think I really hurt his feelings too."

That, at least, was something he could reassure her about. "He'll get over it," he said gently, "I'm not being insensitive. I just … know he'll be okay."

Layla pulled back and wiped her eyes. She sat down against the wall with her arms wrapped around her knees. "He's been going to you for advice and stuff too, hasn't he?" She looked up at Warren who nodded, reluctantly. She looked back down at her knees. "You could have been a little less subtle about it."

"Huh?" He sat down next to her.

"You could have just told us to break up and get it over with. It would have been much easier, you know, and this whole mess would have been over faster. Instead you were all 'Tell him the truth, Layla, you really need to be honest with each other'."

Warren took a deep breath. "So, you'd prefer it if I'd tried to run your lives for you?" he said a bit caustically, "Or, even better, if I'd just repeated to you all the personal stuff he'd confided in me? Oh and vice versa, of course, to make it fair."

She thought that through quickly. "Okay, when you put it like that, no. But still, oh, I don't know." She buried her head in her arms.

"You're gonna be okay, Hippie. I promise." He slid an arm around her shoulders and she gave him a wan smile before resting her head on his shoulder.

Magenta came out of the bathroom and leaned on the doorframe. She was about to make some sort of comment when something attracted her attention. Warren looked up as she cleared her throat, and followed her gaze. He caught sight of Will turning on his heel and stalking off at the other end of the corridor.

Warren and Maj shared a knowing glance. He gave Layla's shoulders a final squeeze and handed her over to Magenta's care, before heading off after Will.

He found him sitting on the front steps of the school, facing away from him. Warren walked a bit down the stairs and stood a few steps below Will, right in his field of vision, but his friend stared past his shoulder.

Warren was about to ask how long the childish silent treatment was going to last, when Will said, "So. Whose side are you really on, Warren?"

"It's not a question of taking sides, Will," Warren sighed, "You both wanted to talk to me about it, that's all."

Will looked at him and shook head in disbelief. He got up and started walking down the stairs, and the pyro fell into step. "It must have been really funny for you, knowing both sides of the story while we were going crazy trying to guess what each other was thinking."

"Try extremely frustrating. I just wanted to tell you to get it over with, but I couldn't."

Will sighed and looked away.

"Look," Warren continued, "I've been her shoulder to cry on. To make it fair, you can also –"

Will stopped dead. "I do not need a shoulder to cry on!" he snapped, incensed.

"I'm so relieved to hear that," Warren replied dryly over his shoulder as he kept walking, "but if it makes you feel better, you can hit me."

Will went from outraged to incredulous at the same speed he could fly. "You're offering to let me hit you?" He caught up with Warren quickly. "With my super-strength?"

"If it makes you feel better."

"It won't make you feel too good," Will pointed out.

"Yeah, but we worked out long ago that our powers protect us from being harmed by each other, so..."

"You're a really good friend, Warren, making an offer like that," Will said with a small smile. The two of them stopped near the buses. "Sorry I accused you of taking sides against me."

Warren shrugged it off, relieved that that little issue was cleared up.

And then Will hit him.

Ah. So this is what flying is like, thought Warren.

"You let him hit you?" Layla couldn't quite believe what he had just told her. "You actually offered?"

The librarian, Mrs. Jerome, looked at her sharply and she smiled sweetly in apology before turning back to Warren for an answer. She'd barely stepped off the bus that morning when she heard some insane story that Will Stronghold had hit his best friend and sent him flying, and he didn't even get detention for it. All of which, unlikely as it was, appeared to be true.

Warren looked up from his Hero History assignment research (The Greek Heroes – Super-Powers Or Super Myths?) and shrugged. "He needed to blow off some steam. It's only fair I should do something to help him too, considering I let you cry all over my leather jacket."

"It's waterproof," she pointed out as she sat down.

"And I'm Stronghold-proof," Warren countered.

"So am I, now." Warren gave her a look, and so did Mrs. Jerome, although for completely different reasons, so she added more quietly, "I'm totally over him."

He just kept looking at her with mild skepticism, waiting patiently for what he knew was the truth.

Layla sighed. Of course he wouldn't let her get away with it. "Oh all right, I'm not. But I will be."

Warren acknowledged her confession with a slight smile. She decided it was time to change the subject. "Um, where exactly did you land?" The rumor hadn't provided much speculation on that point.

"I didn't," he replied with a straight face, but his eyes were full of humor, "He was nice enough to come and catch me after I went over the edge of the school."

Layla was speechless, which was probably a good thing because if she'd able to open her mouth she would have been permanently kicked out of the library for yelling. She just shook her head and decided to leave him to his homework, while she tried to think up some appropriate revenge, uh, punishment for the two guys for freaking her out like that.

The next few months saw some re-adjustment for the group, but Will and Layla managed to go back to being friends remarkably easily. Possibly, Layla reflected, because that was what they had really been all along, underneath the distraction of that mutual crush.

By February 14, Layla had recovered to the extent that it didn't hurt at all when Will got masses of Valentines … especially when he invited her to help build a bonfire out of them in his backyard. Warren lit the fire and the three of them sat roasting marshmallows, possibly an unfair fate for the groupies' efforts (not to mention somewhat ungrateful) but nonetheless an appropriate way for single friends to celebrate the occasion.

Warren looked up at the sound of a scream, amused. Even if it was quite late after school and there weren't many students left in the library, there was no way Mrs. Jerome would allow that kind of noise in her domain. She still gave Layla an uptight look whenever she saw her, and that little 'disruption' had been months ago.

A moment later he saw the reason for the person's alarm. There was a ribbon of fire about two feet long and shaped like a slender dragon, darting through the air between the shelves at the far end of the room.

Whoa.

It was a flame construct, a non-living creature of fire that carried out the commands of the pyro who created it. This one's purpose, apparently, was to find someone or something. With each rippling movement of the fiery animation as it searched, the librarian shrieked and the few remaining students cowered and ducked under the tables.

Warren didn't move. It helped to be fire-resistant.

Plus, he was extremely curious. Pyro-construction was very rare, so rare that Mad Science didn't even cover the subject. The talent was basically a crossover between the internal and external pyro powers. The fire was created internally like a pyrokinetic, but the pyro had complete control over the flame construct, a characteristic more similar to a pyro-psionic. If there was a pyro-constructor in the school, why hadn't he heard about him or her?

The construct seemed to have located its target. Him.

He stood up and held out a hand to it, largely to encourage it to keep a safe distance from his books which weren't as fireproof as he was. The flame dragon curled up into a tight circle over his palm, and as it hovered there the fire transformed into a flickering image. In the flames he saw someone whisper 'Help'.

It was that girl from Layla's class, what was her name – Kate? Who would have thought she was a pyro, let alone such an unusual kind. And if she could create flame constructs, what the hell was she doing in hero support?

Not that any of that was actually relevant right now. The flames rippled, and the fiery image showed some more of the scene. Layla and the rest of their class were there too, along with … six figures in dark cloaks. One of them pulled back his hood to reveal a flame tattoo down the side of his sneering face.

Warren swore in Chinese, grateful that Mrs. Jerome, who was peeking nervously from behind the next shelf, had no idea what he had just said.

He had never met them, but there was no doubt who they were. His super villain relatives from the dark side of his family.

And they were in the school.

A/N: I probably will only be able to update early in November – sorry! Hope you can all handle the suspense until then… ;)