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Claire started going to her classes and pretended that she was still mad. Her anger and frustration had vanished as soon as John had, but she had no way of knowing if his had. She had no way of getting in contact with him and no way of knowing if he would ever want to see her again. John Allerdyce was known for his temper and grudges. She regretted her words and wished she had held her tongue. Somehow in the excitement of having him back and not wanting to lose him again she had lost control and allowed herself to argue with him.

Big mistake.

As much as she wished she could be mad at him for being so stubborn she knew that his temper was one of the things she liked about him. Not that that made much sense, even to her.

She allowed herself to become friends with Bobby and Kitty. They were kind and their smiles sincere, something she hadn't seen in a long time. Kitty lived in the room next to Claire's and came over to study with her a few times. She gave Claire a strange blue candle that smelled of daisies, but it was a well meant gift and sealed their friendship, gaining a place next to Claire's window.

"Not that any of us like to talk about it," Kitty started gently while studying a few nights after Claire's argument with John. "But do you have any family or anything?"

"I lived in foster care for most of my life, me and my brother." she admitted.

"Yeah?" Most of the kids at the school were really touchy about their past since a lot of them had been kicked out roughly by their loved ones.

"Yeah. We were sent to different families but managed to stay in touch until a few years ago."

"What happened?" Kitty asked, interested.

"His letters stopped all of the sudden." she said solemnly. "I tried to go to the address he used for the return address but the people said they had never heard of Jimmy."

"I'm so sorry Claire." Kitty said.

"It's not your fault Kitty," she smiled and stared out her window. "I just wish I knew if he was alright, even if I don't know where he is, just knowing he was okay..." she trailed off.

"I understand." Kitty offered. Claire smiled at her and they went back to studying.

When Claire wished Kitty a good night, she went and immediately climbed into the shower. She took at least two showers a day, having been deprived of hot running water for a year now.

She let the warm water run over her head and drench her to her toes. She pretended it was washing away her problems, rinsing her of her mistakes, her anger, her sadness, and leaving her the Claire of yesterday. The Claire who wasn't a mutant but a normal kid.

Claire shrieked when the water suddenly went from warm to scolding. She jumped around trying to get out of the way but slipped, pinning her right leg underneath her. She turned off the water and sat at the bottom of the tub, allowing her skin to recover.

She inhaled sharply as she tried to stand. When she had steadied herself she wrapped herself in a robe the school had given her and stepped out of the shower. She glared at the shower for doing something like that to her and wondered what could have caused the change in temperature.

She limped into her room and began gathering clothes to change, drying her hair as she went. She dropped all of her clothes onto her bed and untied her robe to get dressed.

"You don't want to do that." her slightly open closet stated. Claire jumped a foot in the air and clutched her robe to her in surprise. She marched over to her closet and flung it open.

John stood next to the empty hangers, smirking at her.

"JOHN!" she nearly shrieked his name in a mixture of horror and fury. She stomped over to her bed and scooped up her clothes, then continued into the bathroom, mumbling furiously.

John winced when she slammed the door shut. He could hear her talking angrily to herself behind the door. After a minute she opened the door, fully clothed and absent of her previous anger.

John leaned against the wall and Claire sat across the room from him on her desk. They sat in an awkward silence for sometime, taking turns avoiding eye contact and examining every aspect of Claire's room. After several minutes Claire finally humbled herself enough to speak.

"I'm sorry John."

"Yeah, it was partly my fault too." he admitted.

More silence followed.

"So, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I came to find you." he told her, playing with his ignitors. "I got back the day after you left. Spyke told me you had freaked out for no reason and headed South so I figured you probably came here. Spyke isn't the most reliable guy to listen to and figured there was more to the story."

"Oh." She was a little disappointed. What had she wanted him to say? 'I was worried and had to find you?' 'I couldn't stand not being near you?' It was moments like these that she realized how delusional she was.

"So what's up with that kid with wings?" John asked, pretending to be less curious than he was.

"Warren? We met when I first got here."

"Yeah?" John left his leaning position and came and leaned on the desk next to Claire. "Where'd you two go?"

"Really high and then really low." she said, making John laugh.

"You afraid of heights?" he asked.

"No! Why do people keep asking me that?!" she smiled.

"When he put you down you looked like you were ready to drop to your knees and kiss the ground." he smiled back.

"Well I'd like to see how you'd be a thousand feet in the air with nothing between you and falling other than your grip!" she said, a little defensive.

John flicked his ignitor and a small flame came to life in his hand. The two of them gazed at it while it leapt around his hand.

"Does it ever burn you?" she asked.

"Never." he stated calmly.

"Is it warm?"

"A little, yeah."

"I'm jealous of your power, John." she smiled.

"Yeah?" he smiled too.

She reached out and pretended to try and touch the flame he held. He flicked it out and pulled back his sleeve. He slipped off the straps that wrapped around the fingers and wrist and removed the ignitor from its ever-present place in his hand.

Claire had never seen John without his ignitors, somehow she had imagined them surgically attached to him. She was amazed that they could be removed and even more amazed when he handed it to her.

She managed, with his help, to get it onto her hand. She entertained herself with flicking a few small flames into life but soon got bored since she was unable to do anything like John was doing.

Claire was satisfied with sitting silently and soaking up his presence. The wonderful smell of campfires that lingered with him, the familiar entranced look that he gave the fire. As he continued to stare at the fire she found herself sinking deeper and deeper into those eyes. The fire was no longer in his palm but had danced its way into his dark eyes. The fire had lit the way into his soul and she couldn't help but wish to step inside of it, even for a moment.

He broke his gaze and locked eyes with Claire, who tried not to be embarrassed or look like she had been staring at him.

But she could see in his eyes that he knew. In his eyes she saw all of those times that she had secretly stared at him and times that he had stared secretly at her.

She tried saying something but her lips found no words as he leaned forward and kissed her.

Claire broke her lips away from his. The direct skin contact was taking her into his memories. He leaned in and kissed her again. The memories she saw came and went rapidly, changing each time.

John was holding her, his hand, touching her cheek softly.

John ran his hands through her hair, his smokey smell enveloping her.

Claire broke away from John's lips and his memory. The scent of John was unusually strong. She looked at John, bewildered by his memory and his smell, her throat scratching painfully.

John ripped his eyes away from her and spun around like lightning. John had been blocking her view but now Claire could see the curtains of her window roaring with flames that soon reached the ceiling.

John threw his hand into the air and, using his powers, put the flames out in seconds. Claire coughed for a minute, trying to clear her throat. Apparently John's ability caused smoke not to bother him, since he seemed unaffected by the small black clouds that were slowly disappearing.

John walked over and opened the window to help with the circulation and came back to Claire as she stopped coughing.

"Are you okay?" he asked, the panic beginning to subside.

"Yeah." She smiled, her lips still tingling from their kiss.

John went over to the curtains and examined the damage. "Claire?" he turned toward her holding the candle Kitty had given her.

"Why did you leave this burning so close to the curtains?" his expression said he doubted she could be that stupid.

"But I didn't!" she exclaimed, confused. "I haven't even burned it yet." she walked over and took the candle from him, a thought forming in her mind.

"Maybe it was me." she said after a moment of thought.

"What do you mean? Do you not remember or something?"

"No, my power." she turned and looked at his confused expression. "You can't create fire, right?"

"Yeah." he confirmed, somewhat reluctant. He didn't like to discuss this major weakness.

"And my power makes strange reactions with other people's abilities." she paused, and felt her face grow hot. "Especially when I touch them."

"So your power lit the candle?" he said, understanding creeping into his features.

She went to explain it more, but didn't manage to form the words. There was a mischievous cloud of smoke hovering near the ceiling, the breeze from the open window blowing it closer and closer to a smoke alarm above her door. She stared as a red light began blinking rapidly and a loud shrieking siren began to bellow from the small device, calling the entire school's attention to her dorm holding Magneto's right-hand man.

She jumped at John but he was already half way out the window when she got to him. She stood next to the window watching him climb down the drainpipe when Kitty phased through her wall. Claire shut the window with a snap.

"Claire! What's going on?!" Kitty yelled above the alarm.

"My curtains-" she yelled back.

"Wait!" Kitty walked over to the alarm, ripped it off the wall and removed its batteries. Both of the girls sighed in relief at the silence.

"Now, what were you saying?" Kitty asked again.

"It was my curtains." Claire stated, pointing at the once green curtains.

Kitty went over to examine them. "That candle you gave me. I guess I put it to close to the curtains and they caught on fire." Claire lied. She felt a pang of guilt. Kitty was her friend.

Kitty picked up the blue candle that had melted into a strange blob and then looked up at the black marks the smoke had made on the ceiling above the window.

"It looks like it was pretty big." she stated, more to herself than Claire.

"Yeah."

"How did you put it out?" she asked curiously.

"Water." Another lie. Another bad lie. Suddenly Claire remembered the ignitor attached to her hand. She stuck it in her sweatshirt pocket, knowing Kitty would recognize it.

"Really?" Kitty looked at the dry bed that was beneath the window and the dry curtains.

"Yeah, I smothered it with a wet blanket." This wasn't going well.

"Oh." Kitty didn't seem convinced.

The door flew open. Logan sniffed the air and looked around quickly, his deep breathing telling them he had run a fair distance. Claire sighed in relief at the interruption. Soon Storm whirled into the room. When she saw the fire had been put out she examined the two girls to make sure they were okay.

"I guess we're going to have to get you another room, Claire." Storm announced.

Claire followed Storm to her office and got the key to her new room, claiming she was wiped out from the excitement and would answer questions later. Storm gave Logan a look to shut him up and he snarled at her and left in a bit of a huff, not believing the story he had heard from Kitty.

Later that night when the murmur of voices throughout the mansion stopped and there were no more footsteps in the hallway, Claire creeped out of her room and out onto the grounds. It had rained recently and the moonlight illuminated everything so it sparkled like diamonds. She breathed in the clean air and began walking toward the forest to look for John, ignitor strapped to her palm.

Join us next time for the next exciting chapter of SHE FEARS HUMANS, MUTANTS FEAR HER. Lol. Review please!