Disappearing

Kai

"I hear you're slowing turning into a Cyclonian…"

"Go away… I'm not in the mood to deal with you."

"You think you'll get away with these little trips off the Condor? They'll find out you're leaving at some point." Ace picked at a scabbed-over gash on his face, courtesy of Lora.

I pulled his hand away by the wrist, staring him down. "You think you'll get away with this? Ace, the only reason you're obsessing over me is because you're trying to replace Lora."

He retracted his hand from my grasp. "Since when are you such good friends with her, anyway?" With no response, the talon laughed. "Listen, kid, I'm not going to let this go…"

"What?" I looked at him sharply. "Ace, I'm a Storm Hawk. You are not on my team and I will never be on yours."

He watched me curiously, taking a seat beside me. "You, my dear… haven't seen the future…"

"And you have?"

Ace reached up, removing his beloved headgear. "Something like that," the man muttered, placing the glorified tiara on my head. I quickly removed it, daring to throw it into the clouds. Eager hands quickly retrieved it from my grasp. His brows tugged together as he looked at me, silently chastising my actions. He replaced the odd metal object to its rightful place and sighed, kicking his legs off the edge.

"Doubtful," I growled.

"I'd like to know who you're getting your facts from, kid. Love to give them a piece of my mind…" Reaching over, the talon stole more than his fair share of my fries, stuffing one into his mouth. "But don't worry, kiddo. Before long… you'll give up and see I'm right."

"My ass."

"Language…," he laughed.

"Fuck off," I retorted.

With a smile, Ace forced out another chuckle. "Defiant… This only proves my point, you know."

"Look… I'd love to stay and continue this little chat, but you're an asshole." I picked up my tray of fries and stood up, walking off.

"Whatever you say, Miss Fury," Ace laughed, saluting me.

I froze in my tracks, analyzing his words. "…What did you just call me?"

"You know, if you're really interested, you'll have to stay and continue this… little chat…"

After shaking off the initial shock and curiosity, I continued onward.

It didn't take long for him to follow after me, much to my dismay. "It's only been a week… and you're already letting this anger grow out of control… I could help you with that."

I took a sharp turn and faced him, my hand gripping the talon's neck. "Listen, Ace, I don't think this is any of your business, but if you would like me to make it your problem, it would be my pleasure." The markings slowly crawled onto his skin, threatening to boil his blood in an instant.

"All I'm saying is you're slowly losing yourself ever since that battle on the ship… It may not be any of my business, but whether you like it or not, it's your problem and you're going to need help. Could, uh… you… let go?"

Ripping my hand from his neck, I stomped off, cursing loudly.

ooo

"So, uh…," Aerrow began, poking at his food, "you didn't find Lora, did you?"

I shook my head, watching my shoes as they kicked through the air.

Aerrow pushed a fry from one side of the tray to the other, sighing. "You didn't look for Lora, did you?"

"Listen, Storm Boy…," I looked at him. "I know what happened between you and Starling… And I heard what Lora said. Neither… neither of them want to join… But you can't take that personally! Starling is a loner… she works better that way. And Lora…"

Aerrow nodded. "She doesn't work well with others… I get it… Kai, that's not why I asked about her, I… I'm sincerely afraid of losing you to Cyclonia."

With a laugh, I rolled my eyes. "I shouldn't be surprised, hearing this from the king of worry… Aerrow, if you were losing me to Cyclonia, I would've only agreed to look for Lora—"

"In hopes of running into Ace?"

I sighed. "No. I would've only agreed… because… Aerrow, that's not the point. Do I look like the kind of person that could handle being a Talon? You saw what the academy did to me!"

"I also saw what you did to those Talons…"

"That was a week ago."

"That was murder. Do… do you even remember any of it? I don't think I've ever seen anything like it from… from anyone in a Sky Knight squadron… Kai, you're a Storm Hawk. You're not supposed to be so brutal, you have to give someone a chance."

I ripped the tray of french-fries from his hands, standing up. "Oh? Kind of like you won't give ace a chance?"

"Kai, that's different."

"Different how?" I shouted back. "Those talons were Cyclonians! If I'm not allowed to show Ace any mercy, then they shouldn't be any different! If… if you wanted to show them some damn mercy… you brought the wrong person along for the job." I chucked the tray off the edge of the landing strip and trudged back toward the hangar door.

"If not Cyclonia… Kai, I'm going to lose you to the rage."

"Really?" I laughed. "Oh, sure, that's the biggest problem you have! Just call me Fury…," I chuckled. "Aerrow, look at yourself! Remember when we first met? That little voice in the back of your head that told you what to do? Don't listen to it! You're going to lose me to Cyclonia," I mocked. "Whoop-de-fucking-doo! What about me? What if I want this to happen?"

Aerrow stood up with a grunt. "Then get off my fucking ship."

I continued toward the hangar door. "Sure, Aerrow, I'd love to have another fight! As if this isn't the second fight I've had today! Awesome!" I threw my arms in the air, spinning around. "That reminds me…"

Aerrow's green eyes traced from the floor to my own.

I gripped onto the hangar door and smiled, "Happy birthday, you jerk." Just as I was going to slam it shut, the ship suddenly shook, throwing Aerrow off-guard.

"Would you two love-birds kindly get your mushy asses off my landing strip? I'd like to get the hell out of this talon-infested place," Stork muttered over the comm. system, only adding fuel to the fire.

With another short, wry laugh, I shut the hangar door. However, no matter how furious I was, I didn't have it in me to lock him out there.

Finn passed by, watching me curiously. "You all right?"

I flashed a cheesy grin, blinking a few times. "Peachy! Can… can I talk to you for a minute?"

Finn nodded, handing me what was in his hand. "Candy?" he asked quietly.

I shook my head. "I, uh… I had french-fries earlier…"

Finn chuckled. "Candy isn't filling…"

"Not in the mood, Finn."

"Ah… Where's—"

"Outside, and he's coming inside. We should get moving." I grabbed his wrist, pulling him through the ship.

Afraid, Finn began to pry his wrist from my grasp. "…You're not wearing those things…"

"They're a waste of time. I know the basics of how to control it, so why do I need those weird metal things?"

"You… you're still wearing them while you sleep, right? If you don't, you—"

I scoffed, "I could kill myself, I know." Pulling Finn into my room, I shut the door behind us. "Since when did you take Aerrow's place as Mr. Worry?"

Finn ran his hand through his hair, shaking his head. "We're all a bit worried about you, Kai… You're acting different. Did… something happen on the fishing boat we should know about…?"

I sat down on my bed. "Yes and no… but I'm not worried about that right now. Aerrow has this crazy idea that I'm slowly losing control."

Taking a few steps back, Finn slid down the wall, choosing a seat on the floor not too far away. "Like I said," he laughed. "You're acting different. None of us are all too sure how to act. With the Dark Ace showing up a little too often to pay you a visit… It's not too surprising where Aerrow could be basing his fears."

"Well aren't we Mr. Smart today," I laughed.

"See, that's what I'm talking about. Kai, you used to be such a nice person… Sure, you'd kick my ass if I stepped just a little too far over the line, but you were encouraging. Not defeating…"

I'd dragged Finn there to get some answers out of him, not to be confronted about something I had under control. I quickly decided it wasn't worth the waste of breath and stood up, walking toward the door. "Today's Aerrow's birthday…," I sighed. "I do feel kinda bad about yelling at him."

"Kinda? Kai, I could hear you in the kitchen."

"Okay… I really feel bad…" I tapped my chin. If we all wanted to survive on the ship together, I had to make nice with my comrades… Especially Aerrow. As distrusting as he was, Aerrow meant a lot to me and the feeling was beyond mutual. If I wanted it to work, I couldn't stay mad, I had to apologize. "Are we doing anything for his birthday?"

Finn shook his head. "We've never done more than a cake, and that's rare. Aerrow's never been one to celebrate anything more than a job well done. Piper did manage to make a nice cake… Maybe he'll want to celebrate with you…"

I leaned over, holding out my hand to help him up. "I'm not celebrating his birthday without my team. If I know Aerrow, as much as he hates celebrating, it would hurt more to know his team wasn't there. Now come on, I'm not leaving you in here. We're going to celebrate whether he likes it or not!"

With a smile, Finn gripped my hand and put minimal weight on me to stand up. "Now that is the Kai I know." He kissed my cheek, throwing an arm over my shoulder. "So, shall we decorate, or is that a bit much?"

I ducked, peeling his arm off of me. "Just get the cake… I'll figure out the rest."

Harmless, I told myself. Finn's just a huge flirt… he meant nothing by it…

ooo

"Have you come to yell at me again?" Aerrow muttered, raking his fingers through his hair.

I reached out, taking his hand gently. "Buddy, that will never fix your hair. Trust me."

Smiling softly, Aerrow looked at me. "What do you want, Kai?"

"I'm sorry about earlier… Really. Lately I've just been having these uncontrollable outbursts… You can only guess when that started," I laughed. "But know I didn't mean to hurt your feelings… I just needed to vent and you were the unfortunate person that had to endure it…"

"It's not entirely a happy event, hearing you yell… It's kind of disheartening. Makes me think twice…"

"About what?" I asked. "You don't trust me anymore?"

"It's hard to trust someone that has the mentality of a talon… and I know you aren't anything like them… I know that for a fact… But that doesn't change the fact that you're influenced by Cyclonia…"

I looked away. "This is just since the fishing boat incident, isn't it?"

"No… not just that. This is because every single crystal you've absorbed since this incident," she gestured toward all of the markings, "every last crystal has been Cyclonian."

"Not every crystal," I whined. "I stole a few cooking crystals from the kitchen and three fuel crystals from the boilers…"

Aerrow pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "The point is, the majority have been Cyclonian… and God only knows what kind of influence the Dark Ace's Firebolt has had on you…"

I stood in front of him, looking up at him with big eyes. "I'm sorry… I never meant for any of this to happen, Aerrow… I want it to go back to normal but you and I both know that's something of an impossibility… So I'm trying to make the best of it, and make it all up to you. So… what do you say? Celebrate your birthday with me… On a high note! We must be happy."

Aerrow looked away, laughing. "That face… Don't look at me like that; you know I can't say no."

"Please?" I pushed, wrapping my arms around him. "Please, please, please?"

"Only if I can have my present now…"

My eyes went wide. "P-present?" I… didn't even think to get anything.

Aerrow lifted my chin up to match my gaze to his own. "Well… not entirely a present… It's better than anything I could ask for."

Though I'm sure I was missing the point, knowing it was obvious, I still asked, "What…?"

Aerrow flashed a smile, leaning down to kiss me. "Best birthday ever," he breathed.

"Even after I yelled at you?"

"You're still here, and that's all that matters…"