Almost Friends

[Arihant]

"Madeleine..." he said, musing for a moment while quite aware, on another level of consciousness, that he was butchering the French - it was French, wasn't it? - name with his odd accent. Not quite English, not quite Indian... At least he hadn't managed to pick up any German inflections while on his travels. That... might not have sounded the best.

Of course, this was beside the point for now. What he was really concerned about was...

Well, Kira. He stifled the annoying voice in his head that protested about this concern for a moment while he actually tried to do with it. (And to be honest, that little voice was airing his views rather too often for Ari's taste recently.) Why did she look so... so wistful? Was that it?

No. No, you stupid boy. She's probably just tired. And you're probably not helping.

"Is she a friend of yours?" he asked, and then something occured to him. "Or do you do that whole departmental rivalry thing?"

He'd never been in a proper school before, after all. (His primary school hardly counted.) How was he to know?

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Kira chuckled. Departmental rivalry? That was a gem.
"We've had our ups and downs," she said, with a slight smirk. "But... actually, she's engaged to my cousin, so I'd say I know her pretty well."

[Arihant]

He raised his eyebrows. Engaged?

OK, wow. This... this was just a grammar school, wasn't it? He knew they were in the war, and that emotions did tend to run high when one's beloved was in danger of their lives, but... They were still all kids, weren't they?

That was another reason he didn't feel he fit in with these people. He looked and acted and felt so much older.

Well, older than most of them, that was. Some of them... some of them did look haunted. Some of them had clearly lost people. Loved ones.

But he was pretty sure that it wasn't their faults. Unlike himself.

He shook himself out of his dark reverie and, smiling and trying to mask his surprise, said - "Well... My congratulations to your cousin, then."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Kira had read it all in his face easily enough. Surprise. Skepticism. It was the same reaction, no matter who you were. Even if you'd seen Madeleine and Lee together; knew all they'd been through; knew how in love they were...
Doubts always lingered.
But, if Kira was honest with herself...
... maybe she always knew this would be the inevitable outcome. She'd talked about it with Jude, when Maddeleine was in the coma. She knew how in love Lee was.
And Madeleine had triggered him, after all.
Not their friends, not their family, not Kira...
Madeleine.
"I'll tell him for you," she said softly, "but... em... Warriors, then?" A grin flashed across her face. "What kick-butt powers landed you with Madeleine's lot?"

[Arihant]

Oh God.

Oh God.

Oh God.

What did he do now?

Well, if he was going to listen to Nurse Gornray then he should tell her. He should. He really really should, but...

Was he going to stay? He still didn't know. He... he was growing more and more sure that he wanted to, but - Well, he had bloody responsibilities, didn't he? And if he stayed here it could... it could happen again.

And then what would happen? What would he do?

Nothing. That would just be... it. The end. How the hell could he possibly manage to go on if he... If he...

He couldn't think about it anymore.

But maybe... maybe he could tell her one. He had to tell her something, after all. It wasn't all bad... Well, it wasn't great. But it wasn't all as terrible as he often thought of it to be.

"I'm kind of... enhanced, I think," he said, very slowly and hesitantly. This was it. This would decide whether... whether he stayed or not. He didn't know why it was so important how she
reacted, but... Well, it just was.

" I can't be hurt - or at least, I haven't since my powers... manifested." He didn't know if that was the right word, but it worked for him. "And I'm stronger and faster than I used to be, but I'm not really sure to what extent." He looked down to the ground, feeling unusually... exposed. He'd never told anyone that before. And he'd even... he'd managed to maintain eye contact.

But he didn't want to see her reaction.

He wanted to say more - how it seemed he had been built as some kind of weapon, how that those aspects were the least of what he could do, how he wished, more than anything else in the world, that he could be normal - but he couldn't.

The words stuck in his throat, and he couldn't go on.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

It reminded her forcibly of Jude... just sort of... physically enhanced rather than in terms of his senses.
Kira analysed it in her mind; processing just why this made Arihant such an appropriate Warrior. Well, it was obvious, really- he couldn't be hurt. It was the perfect mechanism of defence. And it would've been dead handy for a Spy too; instead of having to mess around with bulletproof vests.
Wait... it did apply to bullets, right?
"What else?" she asked slowly, still trying to guage the value of this power.

[Arihant]

How did she know there was more?

What a fantastic spy she was, he thought bitterly. Was she psychic? A telepath?

Anything was possible here. They already knew so much... Everything. And they'd told him that- that- he'd have to tell them. Warn them.

But he couldn't make the words come.

"Nothing... terribly interesting," he answered, unable to keep her gaze. "I'm not tremendously special."

At least that was true. His power didn't make him special. It made him... He didn't know what it made him.

A murderer.

"What are yours?" he asked, trying to turn the subject back to her. Well, that was it. Clearly he'd have to leave.

He couldn't stay if he didn't warn them.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Not terribly interesting?
Kira highly doubted that. She had a knack for this stuff, after all. Arihant just smacked of someone with a story to tell; and she refused to believe that he didn't have some sort of story to tell.
There must be more than meets the eye...
Otherwise, why would he have tried to shrug her off like that? Because that's what he was doing; he'd moved the topic on, and away from himself, and it made her suspicious. Why wouldn't he want to talk about something as basic as his powers?
Well, she'd humour him for now...
"Hypnosis, shadow control, water and super speed," she replied. "Super speed came as an extra with this Head thing. We were given extra powers."

[Arihant]

"That's... impressive," he said, meaning every word, but he sounded so quiet. He was ashamed of himself, that was why. He couldn't tell her. The words wouldn't come out. And now, he didn't know, she could try to touch him, she could do anything, and how could he stop her? How could he stop any of them?

No, he'd have to go. There was no place for him here.

"How do they do that? Give you extra powers, I mean."

It seemed rather unfair that they could give a select few more powers, and yet they still claimed to be unable to take his away.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"I'm not overly sure..." she said slowly. "They opened a box... and; it hit us. This... magic. I don't understand it all. Macy would though- she's Head of the Academics..." she trailed off, hoping to go back to him. "What's your elemental power?"

ooc: Soz it's so short...

[Arihant]

Elemental power?

That must have been what she meant when she said water was one of her powers, he realised. Earth, water, air, fire... And he had none of them.

They must be commonplace, though. He could tell from the way she asked him. Probably everyone had them - everyone who had real magic, that was, and he doubted there was anyone else here who was masquerading as he was. He couldn't... couldn't do anything. He was just a freak. Freak of nature.

"I don't..." He paused for a moment, wondering if he should lie, but he decided he would be easily found out if he did. "I don't actually have one, I don't think."

I don't think. Honestly, he sounded like such a fool. Why couldn't he just say something and be done with it? No, no, he always needed some way to dig himself out of any holes he chanced to make. That was the way he worked.

Despicable, really.

"Do most people have them?" he asked, wanting, rather perversely, to know how much of a misfit he really was.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Do they?
The question confused Kira; because, really, she didn't know the answer. Perhaps it was just some strange assumption people made... maybe just one she made. She knew lots of people with elemental powers, after all... like... like Jack and Will with fire; her and water; Macy with ice; Jude and Ailith with metal; Madeleine with air; Lee and Ellie with earth...
Well, the list went on a bit.
"A lot of people do," she frowned, "but... I don't know. I don't think it's necessary. Like... like right-handed and left-handed people. It becomes elemental and non-elemental people."

[Arihant]

"Oh," he answered, not quite sure what to say next. What did he say to that? From the way she said it, it sounded like being non-elemental was about as unusual as being left-handed - what was that again? 1 in 10 people, or something - and probably more freakish.

OK, so it didn't sound freakish from the way she said it, but Arihant did have an unfortunate tendency to view anything he could (or could not, for that matter) do as being freakish. Anything associated with him was freakish by default.

Well, anyway, he could hardly feel left out or anything. Not really. He didn't want more power, after all, what he wanted was to just get rid of his powers, but of course that was impossible. The one thing he wanted more than anything else.

Of course, he didn't deserve it.

"What other kinds of powers are there?" He found himself questioning her out of no conscious wish to do so, but clearly on some level what she told him was very interesting. And clearly on that same level, he was also extremely rude, because it was so obviously unfair for him to question her so much when he couldn't truthfully answer her.

But it wasn't like he could take the words and shove them back in his mouth or anything. He could only justify himself.

"Sorry, it's just... Well, I've never been anywhere like this place before." Understatement. "Or met any other people with... with powers or anything. It's pretty... fascinating."

God, he was so pathetic.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Kira smiled at him. She couldn't help it... there was just something so... so sweet about the way he was asking questions; how awkward he seemed about them.
"Don't apologize," Kira said softly. "You're absolutely fine. Ask me anything you like, I grew up in a magical family and a magical neighbourhood, so I'm... well, I guess I'm a pretty good person to ask questions."
Or she should be.
"There's... well, there's like mind powers," she frowned a second, "there's a technical name for it... but I've no idea what it is. That basically covers people with things like telepathy, telekenisis, projection- powers that work solely via the mind, there's nothing physical about them, see?"
Probably not. It wasn't a very good definition. She bet Lee could do it better.
"Then there's sort of... I don't know, physical powers- you know, like you've got. Where you're enhanced in one way or another. I think that counts as stuff like... oh, I don't know, having wings, or having colour-changing hair, or super-strenth. It's all to do with how magic has affected your body physically, see?
"Then... there's sort of... senses. Like super-hearing, super-eyesight or whatever. It's a small grouping, but it's still its own little grouping, which is nice. There's lots of other kind of... genres and sub-genres and things... I couldn't name them all; but I do know," she added with a grin, "there's a nice little category for those powers that don't seem to fit anywhere- the miscellaneous category."

ooc: I wonder if that's the proper use of the the term 'miscellaneous'?

[Arihant]

Wow.

Clearly this magic thing was a lot more complex than he'd imagined, then. He didn't know why - he'd always pictured magic as some wild, uncontrollable force, something that had to be captured and bent to the person's will, something that...

Well, something that couldn't be defined. It was strange to hear such miraculous and diverse powers cut down to sections and sub-sections, like... It reminded him a bit of the periodic table, actually, nerd that he was. Of course, in that case, he'd be shoved in with the alkaline metals or the halogens, something dangerous and unpredictable - it wasn't that his personality was naturally like that, but his power... Well, his power had kind of forced him to be.

But she was being so nice about it. He didn't know why - God, he didn't know anything. But it was just - He'd had friends in India, but in Austria, he was fairly sure that he hadn't spent more of three hours out of four years talking to people. At least, not face to face. His computer mending service had been mostly conducted over the internet - he had wanted it to be as faceless as possible. And people had responded to all his efforts to alienate himself, they'd treated him warily - they'd treated him how he deserved to be treated.

But she- she was trying to help. She was smiling at him. Smiling. It felt so strange - but...

He didn't want to admit it to himself, but he knew that he liked it.

He really infuriated himself sometimes.

"Does shadow control -" he stopped himself. He was intrigued, but... He shouldn't have been. He should just leave now - he should, he really should, but-

"Does it fall under miscellaneous or mind powers?"

He didn't know what it was about the shadows, but they did... They were fascinating.

But hell, it was all fascinating. That was no excuse!