Viper was irritable, and so was Renato.

"The magicals are in an uproar over something. There's so much gossip about Potter possibly being in the country that any information we get could be hearsay or inaccurate," said Viper.

"Where does that leave us?" asked Verde.

"It's impossible to get anything worth using here, and I doubt Lal will want to go anywhere near Hogwarts. Especially with her condition," said Viper.

Renato turned to Lal with an irritated look.

"You're not pregnant by that blond idiot are you?"

He narrowly dodged her foot in his face.

"Of course not!" she said with a flaming red face.

"She has PTSD, you idiot," said Viper. "Likely caused by the war and the events at the final battle."

"What in god's name made you think I was pregnant?" demanded Lal angrily.

Renato smirked at her and Colonello.

"You're unusually close to him and you hate sharing a room with anyone. And you don't even register his presence in your personal space, to the point he openly shares your bed at night. What else am I supposed to think?"

Lal snarled and looked ready to rip him a new one. Colonello quickly trapped her in his arms.

"Easy..." he said soothing. He turned to Renato. "You're a bit of an asshole, aren't you?"

Skull snickered, before hiding behind Fon when Renato turned to glare at him.

"Look, can we just get this stupid assignment over with?" demanded Lal.

"Alright miss fan girl... where does the trail lead?" demanded Renato. He was getting sick of all the dead ends as well.

"The last known location of Potter was somewhere in Venice. There was an attack and she almost got arrested by the Italian magical police, and after that she disappeared off the grid completely," said Lal. "And because of so many inquiries, they made it public record."

"Will it actually lead to anything?" asked Renato.

"Not really. Her vaults were all sealed and only someone with her bloodline or her personal magical signature can get into them, so even if you did try to track her down in Italy there's no guarantee she's there. Odds are she went completely non-magical and went into hiding. And considering how much practice she has at evading attention by now..."

"Any record we get will be completely useless. Che..."

Renato looked pissed. He hated failing a mission like this, but with so few real leads, and their initial source ruined beyond usable recognition they had to declare this one a bust.

Viper was very unhappy.

"So we're not getting paid?"

"How much were these guys paying you to find her anyway?" asked Colonello.

"Hang on, I think I still have the paper he sent us..." said Skull.

It took a few seconds to register the "payment" for "finding" Potter before they immediately declared the mission over.

Apparently the man who recruited them wanted Potter to act as their Sky, but had been as unsuccessful finding her as they were. The payment, as ridiculous as it sounded, was the possibility of being given a Guardian bond.

Needless to say Viper was very angry at being duped like this, and even Renato couldn't complain about the failure.

Skies had been trying to pull him in for years. And he had little doubt Potter would fail just as they had. So why drag someone who clearly went into hiding for damn good reason into their world?


The first thing Colonello said, once she was safely in her apartment off base was "I won't tell them the truth about why you deliberately stirred up that hornet's nest."

Lal blinked.

"What?"

His eyes were flat.

"Come on Lal, really? A 'Potter fan girl'? No fan would dare consider the cupboard a viable place to look or redirect the searchers to something they definitely wouldn't like to find. And I know you were faking it at that weird house, besides leaving such an obvious calling card."

She froze. No, no, no! Not when she had managed to trick Renato and the others to the point they quit trying to find her!

Colonello was quick to wrap his arms around her, his soothing presence only slightly dampening her obvious panic attack.

"Shh... it's okay. I'm not going to tell them the truth. As far as I'm concerned she can stay missing. My partner is Lal Mirch, not some famous figure that deserves to rest," he said, kissing the top of her head gently.

"How?"

"You can fool some almost strangers, but you can't fool someone who has held you repeatedly through multiple nightmares and flashbacks," said Colonello simply. "All I had to do was put the little things together to figure it out... the fact you walked right into that house without waking anyone up and didn't properly search only cinched it."

She was about ready to cry. If anyone knew... she'd never have a moment's peace!

And then the worst happened. The part of her that she had kept under tight control, the fire that she had desperately kept under lock and key slipped.

She tried to push Colonello away. She didn't want him to be exposed to that part of her!

"Shhh... I'm right here and I'm not leaving. No matter what you say or do, I'm staying by your side."

No! She couldn't let that orange fire taint him, like it had so many others! That flame had lead most of her friends to being tortured or worse, to sacrifice themselves for her with a smile on their face. She refused to let that horrible fire hurt him!

But the orange flame she had kept shoved beneath her Cloud and Mist secondaries would not be denied. It wanted this, regardless of how she felt about the matter.

Lal tried desperately to push him away... but it was too late. The cooling feel of Colonello's Rain flames and the scarred ball of Sky that she had shoved so deep that it was almost sealed collided.

And his flames were eagerly accepted by her Sky.

This time she didn't bother trying to hold it back. She was openly crying.

She was terrified of losing him like she had so many others.

Colonello had never felt what it was like to feel Harmony. To have a place where you were accepted unconditionally and would always have somewhere to call home. No wonder Skies were so sought after, if this warm feeling in his chest was what harmony felt like.

He knew Lal was scared. Hell, she was terrified of it.

Who could blame her? Anyone who bonded with her during the war ran the highest risk of capture, torture and almost certain death! Hell, he could only guess that she had lost Guardians before, like her Godfather. It would explain why there was so much damage on top of what the old goat and the dark lord had done to her.

It was no secret they were Skies, and there was generally only a few select reactions to a young Sky in the territory of an older one.

The two major ones being Resonance... or attempting to annihilate the weaker Sky to keep them from taking the stronger Elements.

Colonello held his new Sky close, letting her cry it out.

Lal was in no condition to return to work. And honestly, he had no idea how to hide he was now a Harmonized Rain. Fortunately Lal already had an idea of how to get people to mistake his new status as her Rain for something else entirely.

He took the head slap with the ease of long practice, before choking on his coffee.

"If anyone asks, your Flames were a perfect match for mine and they ended up mixing," she said flatly.

Colonello, once he cleared his airways, looked at her incredulous.

"Wait, are you telling me that our cover story will be that we're Flame compatible?"

There were almost as many fairy tales about two Elements being Flame compatible to the point they were soul mates as there were about Skies and their Guardians. A sort of consolation prize for the Elements who had yet to find their Sky.

The thing was, such stories were usually the result of the Flame users being lovers at the same time.

Lal was honest to god blushing.

"It's the simplest explanation I can think of that will keep everyone from guessing the truth, and no one is really likely to question it," she said not looking him in the eye.

She wasn't the only one blushing. He had been trying to lure Lal into a date for years. To say they were Flame compatible was something he never would have considered.

"Wait, what about your policy never to date students?"

"You're almost finished with training anyway, and you were assigned my permanent partner. You just need to get through one last test and you'll no longer be a student, but a colleague."

Colonello perked up.

"Hey Lal... if I get top grade on that final test... will you go out with me?" he asked. You could practically see the tail of a dog wagging behind him.

"Don't be stupid!" she said yelling, embarrassed.

"Aw, come on! Don't be so shy, Captain!" he said laughing.

She threw a shoe at him.


Lal looked at the board with a somewhat horrified expression on her face.

"What's with that face?"

"I told that idiot if he managed to match my scores on those tests I'd go out on a date with him to shut him up."

Greg looked at Colonello's scores. Then at Lal Mirch who had a pole axed expression on her face.

Then he started to laugh his ass off. Looks like her little motivational methods had finally backfired on her! At least her professional reputation was safe.

Technically he was no longer her student, after all...

Colonello practically bounded up to Lal with a monumental grin on his face.

"Well?"

She flushed, before storming off. Greg was still laughing, but he threw an arm around his new colleague.

"Congrats rookie, you're now one of us."

Colonello perked up, and then he saw his scores.

"So why did she look so shocked?"

"You managed to match her scores. I believe she made something of a bet with you about that?"

Colonello blinked, before a wide grin came on his face.

Lal had jokingly bet him that if he managed to match her scores on the exams she would go out on a date with him for real.

And considering she never went back on her word... he had some preparing to do.


Later that evening...

Colonello stared at his now former teacher who was in a stunning dress that only accentuated her curves and showed off her physique without showing off her scars. Mostly to avoid the civilians from gawking at her. She was even wearing a light amount of make up!

"Well are you going to stand there staring?" she demanded blushing heavily.

"Wow... you look absolutely hot, kora," he said with seriousness.

Lal flushed even darker, her face a solid red. Colonello chuckled and kissed her on the cheek.

It was perfect. Though one thing stood out to the blond during the entire date.

Lal had never had a real man to take her out on a proper date before. Considering most of her teenage years were spent just surviving, and then she spent the next almost nine years trying to reinvent herself only to be held back by the level of trauma in her soul.

Seeing the normally tough woman trying to hide her real feelings was so damn cute he couldn't keep his eyes off her. But he kept his hands to himself, never straying from the safe areas and making sure his movements were visible and obvious. A few stray kisses were acceptable... being too handsy was not.

The fact she invited him to her apartment after was icing on the cake, even if they didn't do more than cuddle after a particularly heavy make out session.

If he wanted her, he could wait. He knew she was worth it. She would always be worth it.

When news spread about Lal and her new colleague being Flame compatible, the response from the higher ups was rather expected.

She was being given the chance to leave with their blessing, complete with a rather nice severance package.

It wasn't like they were kicking her out, far from it. It was more of a "give our new trainers a chance" type of thing. She would always be welcomed back with open arms, and she was in a bit of a rut.

That and they were not so discreetly encouraging her to explore this new bond with Colonello without distraction.

At this point she didn't even try to tell the blond off for moving into her apartment. She was so used to him being there that she found his presence soothing, even before flames were brought into the equation.

So as she relaxed into the couch, watching a movie she was only half paying attention to, Colonello decided to try and bleed off some of the nightmares she kept having.

"So... you want to talk about it? Why you're so afraid of your own Sky?"

Lal tensed, but simply hit mute.

"Every time I've seen orange flames, it's always followed by unimaginable pain and feeling as though someone's trying to drown me with their soul."

Dumbledore in particular was bad at flaring his Flames when she tried to rebel against him, and the less said about how much damage Voldemort took such pleasure in inflicting on her, the better.

Colonello grimaced.

"How bad?"

"From what the teachers told me when they found out I was Active, Dumbledore was consistently trying to force me into being his Guardian when I challenged him. And Voldemort simply took advantage of the damage the old bastard left to make my life hell while he tortured me."

Colonello's arm was around her before she even finished. Like always he made sure she knew exactly what he was doing.

"It wasn't until I found out that sometimes Skies will attack a younger Sky to get rid of them that I realized I was simply Discordant when it came to them. And when everyone I bonded with died during the war..."

Colonello winced. He had suspected as much, but to have it confirmed. No wonder she had locked her own Sky away.

"You're not going to lose me, Lal. I promise you that," he said, kissing her forehead.

She leaned into him, tears streaming down her face. Memories of those she had lost, of all the pain she went through during her teen years... it hurt. It hurt like hell.