Just as an introduction, the chapters from here on out are all shorts. They will mostly be unrelated to each other and will be updated as they come.

This space will be used less for notes and more for information, like for this short:

POV: Hale

Setting: Immediately after the last chapter of The Girl Who Played With Fire

I'd like to do more of Hale's point of view, so let me know what you think of this. If you have any ideas for prompts, feel free to let me know, and most of all, enjoy!

It feels like a thousand years since I visited Arashi. Even longer since I've been able to look up without feeling some sort of guilt. No one seems to recognize me as I step past the gleaming new store fronts, redone since the last attack. I don't blame them. So much of me has changed since I left, I hardly even recognize myself in the mirror.

A friendly voice greets me from outside a café. I pause, not really sure if I should answer, but then they speak again.

"Hale? Hale, is that you?"

I turn to face the person who'd spoken to me, realizing with careful analysis that it's an unfamiliar guy. He's older than me, one- two years tops. He approaches with a lazy stride and an equally casual grin.

"Wow, it's been forever, stranger," he reaches out a hand for me to shake. "How's it going?"

I take it carefully. "Good," I answer. "Sorry, but who are you?"

He blinks. "You don't remember me?" he chuckles. "It's Caiden, remember? Used to wail on you when we were kids."

"Oh," I blink back the dozen or so unpleasant memories that stir at the back of my mind. "Right. Caiden."

He grimaces slightly. "Yeah, I- uh- should probably apologize for that whole mess," he shakes his head. "Lot of things changed after the fire, including me. So, uh, no hard feelings?"

"None at all," I nod.

"Hey, why don't you come get a drink with me?" he pokes a thumb at a bar just down the street. "Relive the glory days, huh?"

"I'm uh, not old enough to-"

"Then something a little calmer. It's been a long time," Caiden says. He offers a grin. "Humor a childhood pal?"

I let out a breath and finally accept. It's not like I have anything else to do today except wander around stirring unpleasant memories that remind me of… I shove the thoughts aside. Caiden leads me into the bar with a friendly wave at the bartender and sits at an island built for two. I take the stool next to him as he orders a couple of drinks- a soda for me and a scotch for him. I can't help the incredulous expression that tugs at my eyebrows.

"Scotch? At this time of the morning?"

He chuckles as the bartender arrives with the drinks. "Only on special occasions," he halves the glass as I take a sip of my own drink. The caffeine burns my throat. "So what brings you back to Arashi after all these years, huh? Don't tell me it was the fond memories."

"Just, uh, sightseeing, I guess," I shrug. "It's… been a long time."

He takes another drink and drops the glass with a twitch of his neck. He coughs slightly as the alcohol burns his throat. "Yeah, it feels like forever even though it's only been four years," he looks at me with watery blue eyes. "You left after…"

I nod. "Yeah."

He sits back slightly. "I lost my sister in that fire. Thought about leaving, but couldn't," he shakes his head. "I wanted revenge for what Iris did to Karina, but in the end I realized I couldn't go through with it."

My hand tightens on my glass, and Caiden notes it with careful eyes. His gaze flicks back up to mine.

"You were close to Iris, weren't you?" he takes another drink. "You visited her and her dad often." He snorts a little. "Well, if he counts as her dad."

I swallow the lump that's settled in my throat. "Something like that."

Caiden chuckles a little into his drink. "I was the one who defended her when she showed up a couple weeks back," he shakes his head. "It was quite the sight. She obliterated Desmond from the face of the planet, saved our town, and then asked us to punish her for what she did four years ago. Russo was ready to do it too, but after seeing that look in her eyes… I couldn't go through with it."

His jaw shifts as he scrutinizes me. "Out of all the people there that had lost so much in the fire, I was the only one able to see how much she had already paid for what she'd done," he snorts lightly. "Well, me and her scythe-wielding boyfriend."

My jaw clenches imperceptibly at the mention of Cole. It's stupid, really, how angry I get just at the insinuation of his name or character- but here I am overloaded with testosterone and Grade-A envy in the middle of a bar just blocks away from where I'd first met Ash so many years ago. My hands tighten and Caiden lets out a sigh.

"I knew it. You're still in love with her."

I take a deep breath and relax my grip. "I don't know what you're talking about."

His watery eyes pierce into mine almost as strongly as Desmond's once did. Good riddance. "Don't lie to me, Hale, I know a lovesick boy when I see one, and you are head over heels."

"So what?" I glower. I'm starting to regret accepting his invitation. "She has a boyfriend."

"So what are your chances?" Caiden waves to the bartender to bring another round. "I met the man once. What's he like? How happy are they? What are your chances of replacing him?"

I take an impatient swig of my soda. "Personally, I think he's a douchebag, though plenty of people would beg to differ. They're disgustingly happy together, from what I've seen, and she hates my guts for helping Desmond-"

I blink, realizing all-too-late what's exploded from my mouth. Caiden gives me a sly smile.

"I was wondering when you'd realize that was half vodka."

I cough up the liquid I'd swallowed. Well, that explains the burning lump in my throat. "You dosed me?"

He shrugs. "I said I was taking you for something calmer, never said non-alcoholic."

"You slipped me vodka!"

"And for good reason," he leans forward and lowers his voice to a level that only I can hear above the hum of other patrons. His eyes flick carefully over my shoulders. "No one really remembers what happened when Desmond cast a spell on half the town, but I sure as hell remember seeing you skulking around. Now tell me, Hale, what exactly were you helping him with?"

I swallow the remnants of the scorching drink. "So what, you can kill me instead of-"

"I thought we settled this. I'm not looking for revenge, I'm just looking for answers," his eyes bore into mine. "I've spent too long mourning my sister's death to settle for some half-assed recollection and speculation. Just tell me what you were doing and I'll never speak to you again."

I clench my teeth. "Alright, Caiden, but I don't think you're going to like the truth any more than that 'half-assed recollection'."

He sits back. "Try me."

My hands clench and unclench in my lap, suddenly itching to scoop up another swig of the tainted drink. I take a deep breath instead. "First and foremost, you should know that Desmond isn't Ash- Iris' father. He's mine."

Caiden's eyes widen, but he doesn't interrupt. I continue. "He didn't tell me until nearly two months after the fire. I was living with my uncle when he came to visit. He said Iris' parents had killed my mother and he needed my help to make them pay for what they had done. I was pissed of course, but excited at the same time. I'd never had a father before, at least one I could remember, and here he was inviting me on an adventure to get back at the people who had murdered my mother. He spent the next four years molding me into his perfect soldier, teaching me all he knew and honing my skills until I was his in body and in mind. Then, he set me on Iris."

My eyes close and clench at the swirling memories, of seeing Ash's face after so many years… "I can't even describe how it felt to see her again, to have her so close and to know what Desmond planned for her," I shake my head. "I knew I had to keep her safe. From then on, I did everything in my power to convince her I was right, that Desmond's path was the right one. I used every tactic Desmond taught me and she thwarted all of them."

I shake my head. "All these years and all this time trying to save her, and suddenly I realized she'd already saved herself," my teeth clench tightly. "And embraced her new friends to boot. She hates me, loathes me probably, but she let me live. Desmond was psychotic, but I made my choices. If anyone deserved to be trapped in the underworld for all eternity, it's me. But she didn't."

I take another drink of the hard soda, finding some comfort in its burning taste. Caiden gives me an appraising look.

"Is that why you came back? To wallow in self-loathing?"

"Honestly, I wanted to see the damage I'd done," I growl. "Hell knows I deserve misery."

Caiden rolls his eyes, the complete opposite of what I'd expected. "You are a very unhappy drunk, aren't you?"

"I don't understand-"

"You, my friend, really need to get a slap of reality to the face," he shakes his head. "Trust me, self-pity gets you nowhere."

"Caiden-"

"No, I sat here and listened to your deprecating little speech, so now you can shut the hell up and listen to my advice."

My jaw snaps shut and he grins. "There," he takes another drink. "Isn't that better? No wonder you don't have any other friends. If I had to listen to that every time we brought up family I'd have run too."

He shakes his head. "Look, Hale, you're upset and angry with yourself. I understand that. Hell, there's a part of me that's pissed with you too. But dammit, man, you have to get over yourself."

"But-"

He gives me a look and I shut up again. "My sister died in the fire four years ago. She got stuck trying to escape her house and died of smoke inhalation," Caiden shakes his head. "She suffocated and I wasn't there to save her. I beat myself up over it for months, seething, thinking of finding Iris and ripping her apart for what she did. How Kim stayed with me through all that, I'll never know, but when she got pregnant… I reevaluated my anger. I realized being pissed at Iris or even myself wasn't going to bring Karina back. Just like that, I put away the anger and decided I was going to stop feeling sorry for myself and raise my kid the way I knew Karina wanted."

His gaze returns to mine. "What I'm trying to say, kid, is that you have got to move on. That's something half this town hasn't figured out. I'm surrounded by anger and grief, most of it directed at the wrong person. I say to hell with what Desmond did to you, to all of us. You have to take back your life. I have, Iris has- if you want any chance of winning her over, you've got to pull yourself together."

He grabs a napkin and a pen from a passing waiter and scrawls something down on it. He shoves the napkin toward me and I glance at the series of numbers scribbled crookedly across it.

"That's the address for Arnie's old shop in Ninjago City. He's been having problems since the fire and its looking to sell it for cheap," Caiden explains. "You used to make things, right? You made your own bow?"

I nod. "Took forever, but yeah."

"Good. Then you got some marketable skills," he says. "I can help you buy the shop. You pay me back, start a business, get your act together, and you just might convince Iris you've changed."

I clutch the napkin and fold it over in my hands. "Why do you even care?"

He takes a deep drink and grins. "Because I like to root for the underdog," he chuckles. "But even if it doesn't work out, there's plenty of other fish in the sea."

I let out a snort, and he rolls his eyes.

"What, you need proof, lover-boy? The girl I dated before Kim, Leah, you remember her, right? Tall, blonde, every man's dream?"

"I haven't been here since I was a kid. You honestly expect me to remember a girl you liked?"

Caiden pulls my drink away from me and continues. "As I was saying, I thought she was the one. I loved her more than anything else the world, I thought we were going to have kids, grow old, the whole nine yards," he shakes his head. "I proposed to her and you know what, she turned me down. Turns out she'd been dating my cousin on the side and was-ah- starting a family with him." He chuckles. "Needless to say, we broke up. Now, I'd known Kim my entire life but never thought of her as anything more than a girl I saw every once in a while on the street, but when she and I started working together… Well, the rest is history. Now she and I are married and have the prettiest little girl that I love more than anything else in the universe."

He sits forward. "Iris isn't the only girl out there, Hale. Hell, she might already be making a scrapbook for wedding ideas. But you know what? It isn't the end of the world. Fate has a funny way of throwing you curveballs."

"Yeah, Fate," I reach for my drink and he tugs it away. "I've had enough of that."

"Then not Fate," he says. "Just remember what I said if this goes south, alright? I'm sure there are other lovely girls out there who are dying to meet a guy like you."

He hands my drink back over and I take a grateful drink. My head is starting to swim, probably from the vodka, making it easier to accept Caiden's words. I give him a slightly lopsided smile and finally agree with him. I slip the napkin in my pocket and raise my glass in a toast.

"To screwing Fate."

Caiden grins and raises his own. "To screwing Fate."

As the world slowly fades into a semi-sentient blur, my mind mulls over what he said. Yeah, I can prove myself to Iris, show her that she was wrong about me. No, not that she was wrong. That I've changed. That I regret everything I did. I mean, if Caiden believed me, why wouldn't she? Why wouldn't anyone?

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll make the trip to Ninjago City and find that shop. I'll get my act together and find a way to make it up to her. Make it up to everyone. And although it makes me sick to think about it (part of that might be the alcohol) Caiden is right. Even if Iris is too far gone with Cole… Well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. For now I can lose myself in drinks and awkward stories with the guy who tossed me around as a kid. No, not that.

My friend.