((Thank you all, I'm humbled by your kindness. I'm trying to be online more, but I do always seem to have stories banging around in my head. I am working on New Adventures-I feel like I kinda softballed the ending there, I did what I wanted to with the story BUT it wasn't nearly as grand as the story or you my readers deserved/strong. Who wants a a follow up to New Adventures, and for me to keep that series going?))

G is for Gifted
For as long as he could remember, with whatever name he happened to be wearing at the time, people always seemed to think the same thing. That he was "GIFTED". Never one to pretended to be something he wasn't; after he became Oliver Davis, he agreed with the smiling faces and nodding bobble heads. He knew he was gifted.

He was gifted with a twin brother, one of the very view people he loved on this planet. He has a perfect face; or so he was told. He was gifted with a sharp mind and keen intellect. Silly girls insisted he was gifted with "lovely eyes" and "beautiful lips".

"But he was also cursed. What some viewed as a gift; his most exciting one at that, was truly a curse for him.

His PK. He had all this power and barely a learner's permit when it came to using it because his "gift" or his "curse"; as he preferred to think of it most of the time, was so barely explored because of the very real chance it could kill him. It could kill those he held dear. He could never just let go and enjoy life, he had was cursed and thus needed to remain constantly vigilant.

Gene had understood his gifts and his curses. Looking at the people assembled around him in his hospital room in Japan he realized for the first time in a very long time he didn't feel cursed or alone.

He had used his curse, and not in a controlled setting with cameras, monitors and trained scientific observers but in the field, on the fly because he had had been faced with the very real possibility that his colleagues, his friends...his MAI could be hurt if he didn't.

When he heard the frustration in her voice it was the last bit he could take. He watched those who depended on him be battered and attacked, he saw their way out close and then he saw the real fear in Mai's eyes. He had tried to rally the troops as it were, but they had nothing left in reserve. Mai's verbal lashing had been unnecessary, he knew what he had to do and it had nothing to do with pride and everything to do with survival. Just not his survival. For a moment he thought of a world where Mai did not exist and he knew that he wasn't cursed. He was gifted; he had the power to save the girl he loved and his friends.

So without a second thought he broke the chains inside of him.

Naru tried, as he did everyday, to feel something from Gene. While he couldn't he did feel something else. A purity, a gentleness, a emlove/em so true he knew it was Mai. As he sunk everything he had in him into his strike he reached out for that ray of hope that was Mai Taniyama.

The deed done and his friends and girl safe he tried to hold on but he just couldn't. His last clear thought before he fell was that Mai looked really pretty with the sun glinting from her hair.

Days later when he woke and saw her eyes filled with pain and concern he felt gifted. Gifted that this lionhearted girl cared about him. Gifted that he had friends; who while most knew nothing of the real him, followed him into the fire over and over again.

Gifted to be alive.
Looking into Mai's eyes for a moment he resolved to tell her how gifted she truly was one day soon as well.

He was gifted to have her in his life.

Gifted to love such a fierce creature. She gifted him with a smile then set about making his tea.

He was truly gifted in this life he thought to himself..