LOG - Kevin, Ryoma, Tomoka
Who? Ryoma Echizen, Kevin Smith, Tomoka Osakada.
When: Backdated to October 24.
Rated: PG-13 for violence.
Summary: Enter the young American pyromaniac! Ryoma sucks at understanding. Kevin sucks at controlling his powers. Tomoka sucks at timing.
Ryoma sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets and heading off the Ryuhana campus, taking his time on the way to the park. Really, he didn't know what was up with Kevin - first showing up out of nowhere, then accusing Ryoma of essentially ruining his life by not being there and claiming to be enemies now. What the hell was up with that? Ryoma had considered Kevin a friend, sure, but only in the sense that they'd been in the same class and hung out sometimes. They didn't even have many similar interests - Kevin was like his old man, always playing tennis and always trying to get Ryoma to do the same. As time had gone by, they'd spent less and less time together anyway - Ryoma had started getting headaches around Kevin and, well, he guessed he knew what that was all about now. Sure, he felt bad about Kevin's mom, but it wasn't really any of his business in the end and he'd had to move anyway. He couldn't have been expected to do anything more, halfway across the ocean and only 12 years old at the time.
He sighed again in frustration, and realized he was approaching the park by now. It must be nearly five - he strolled a bit up the entrance path and looked around for Kevin's bright blonde hair - not too many Japanese had that, and there also weren't many people here at this time of day. The park technically closed at dusk, which would be soon; Ryoma didn't care about rules like that, but at least it would give them more privacy.
***
The pain in Kevin's half-burned hands wasn't fully gone despite him following Miss Nanako's and Saeki's pointers on how to make it vanish, but at this rate, he was practically welcoming it. He briefly thought of an old, slow song by U2 that his mother liked to listen to in her last days, something by the lines of "You said when it hit you, you don't mind... because when it hurts you... you feel alive...".
The park had a small tennis court, which was practically a blessed sight for him. Without thinking twice, the blond young man walked towards it - and to his luck, it was empty. It would've looked almost like a part of a ghost town if not for the two or three abandoned tennis balls lying on the corners.
"... Bono, you bastard. You hit it right on the nose when you wrote that part of the song", the American murmured bitterly.
He had known that he was a selfish SOB upon talking like that to Ryoma. To the only person his age that could, in a sense, understand him. All the other kids would either pick up fights or be shit scared of him... Hell, even his teammates were like that. Ryoma wasn't like them; that was the main reason why he tried to attach Ryoma to him by the hip, why he cherished so much how he was by his side when his mother died, and why he was so hurt when he and Ryoma finally lost contact.
Now one of the most important persons in his whole damn life, along with Kevin's poor mother, was claiming that their friendship was nothing to him. How on Earth could he damn know what it exactly was, and say it so easily? It may have not meant much to Ryoma himself - but damn, it meant more than the world to him, Kevin Smith.
Another reason why he fought so hard to be a top tennis player was to travel around the world and find his old and only friend in the world. Apart of showing to his goddamn father and to everyone else that he was stronger than they thought...
And he lost it all when he was just about to grasp his dream. Now, at least until Mr. Sakaki and the Brotherhood reached their goals, he'd have to put his tennis objectives in standby. And it hurt him even more than the injuries in his hands.
Kevin absentmindedly walked towards the balls, and after taking his bandages off (he didn't even stop to look at his injured palms and wrists), he grabbed one of them from the grounds. He stared at it for several moments... and before Kevin knew, the small and round tennis implement was nothing but a handful of fire. He didn't care about the pain in his hand... it was almost hypnotic. Tears were rolling down his flushed cheeks, but he didn't feel them.
"Fuckers", he mused, the sort-of amusement that he had felt upon his odd talk to Yamato through the Big Spam Post disappearing completely. "Someday, Kevin Smith will beat you all. You'll all know about me. I swear you will... specially you, Ryoma".
***
And there was Kevin, standing (predictably) in the park's small tennis court, back turned to him, holding something in his hand. Ryoma made his way up to the court, remaining on the other side of the fence and staring through the chain-links at the other boy.
From the back, at least, Kevin looked exactly the same - longish blonde hair, regular build, still taller than Ryoma. He was definitely a mutant, though, and his power felt... hot. Blinking a few times, Ryoma toed the fence, making a bit of noise to let Kevin know he was there.
"Hey, m'here," he said, voice flat and bored, though inwardly he had to admit... he really had no idea what Kevin wanted. Yes, he knew that Kevin obviously felt like Ryoma had abandoned him and was exceedingly angry about that fact, but Ryoma... really didn't know what Kevin wanted him to do, now that they were both in the same place again. Apologize and be his friend? It wasn't that simple - and besides, he'd said they were enemies. Be his enemy, then? None of this made sense.
***
Kevin was barely aware of an outer presence. It came from far, far away.
As someone with the basic body of a human, plus his mutation, he had five senses. All of them were centered on the burning ball in his palm. It was odd, too - the explosion had injured his arms and they still hurt, but with his blaze of his own, he felt practically no pain. And his sense of smell wasn't telling him that it was due to his nerves being too burned up to even feel anything, either.
It felt good... oddly good. Kevin still loathed how his powers came out, in front of people who he thought of as decent enough and later abandoned him without a second thought... but now that he knew where they came from, they were a sort of emotional release. The blaze was starting to melt the pain away.
His eyes stared at the burning ball... his fingers gripped it and felt the heat... his ears heard the noise that the fabric made as the fire engulfed it... his nose felt the burned plastic smell that the air brought him... he could almost taste the material that was dissolving into flames.
However, Kevin didn't notice something else. The hot air surrounding him was causing a sort of thermal updraft that had him practically levitating over the ground. His body was slowly losing contact with the court floor, as the warm winds made him practically defy gravity...
"Hey, m'here...", he vaguely heard someone else's voice as Kevin started to levitate, but he was too engrossed at how whatever was left of the tennis ball in his hand was burning up at the American's command, to switch his attention to whoever was talking to him.
***
Watching Kevin, it really didn't appear as though the other boy was paying him any attention at all - did he not even realize Ryoma was there? Ryoma kicked the fence again, a little harder. "Oy." Kevin just continued standing there, back to him, not making the slightest indication that he'd noticed someone standing less than two meters away from him.
But, wait. Ryoma looked - really looked at Kevin - and realized... he was starting to... levitate? What the hell? The boy's feet were only just barely touching the ground. The American was giving his full attention to something in his hand, and now Ryoma smelled the distasteful odor of burning plastic in the air - and suddenly felt a blast of warmth, much warmer than the cool fall evening air. He blinked, his face feeling warm, like he was standing beside an open fire.
"Hey," he said, much louder than before, and in English this time - maybe that would get through. "Kevin - what the hell're you doing? Do you wanna talk to me or not?"
***
The feeling of freedom and warmth was flowing through Kevin's veins as the hot wind was taking him farther from the ground. He was now aware of it. Forgetting about the burning ball in his hands (the flame was dying, anyway, since his powers were focused more in the hot winds), the American closed his eyes and allowed the wind to blow with even more force, taking higher and higher.
"Freedom... Feels good... Forgetting about this shitty situation I've been in...".
However, spending several days in an hospital and going in and out of medlab took their toll soon. All of a sudden, when he was already floating four or five feet above the ground, Kevin started feeling dizzy. Oh, no, not NOW!
"Hey!"
Now he heard it. Ryoma's voice...
"Kevin! What the hell are you doing...!"
It was still coming from quite a distance, but at least Kevin knew it was real.
He stared at the fence. Yes, Ryoma *was* really there...
"Do you wanna talk to me or not...?".
"Ryoma...!" he tried to speak. Images of their common past crossed his mind: meeting each other, studying, PE class, going to the beach, hanging around, being by Kevin's mother's side in her last days...
And that was the last thing Kevin knew before he passed out and fell to the ground.
***
Oh, just great. Kevin landed in a heap on the court - Ryoma kicked the fence one last time in frustration and jogged around the side and onto the court through the gate. "You idiot," he said as he neared Kevin's unmoving form, "You tell me you want to talk to me and you pass out when I get here. Great. Just great." Squatting by the other's side, he rolled the other boy over. Out cold.
"Shit." Ryoma sighed. "Kevin. Hey, Kevin." He shook the blonde, hoping that would be enough. "Don't make me dump water on you - idiot." Kevin wasn't waking; Ryoma stood and stalked over to the water fountain he'd passed on his way to the court, cupping both hands and carrying a bit of water as best he could back to the court, where he dumped it in a small splash over Kevin's face. "You gonna wake up or not? I'll just leave you here otherwise." The other boy was not his responsibility, and he was not going to play mother to him just because he'd overexerted himself doing something stupid like that. They were just lucky there wasn't anyone else around.
***
"Where... where on Earth can that guy be...?"
Tomoka stopped running towards the park's gate to regain her breath, and stared around to check if her classmate was in her immediate surroundings. Noticing Ryoma's absence, Hanamura-sensei had asked the girl to go looking for him... to no dice.
"Echizen! Echizen-kun!," she called out loudly. Some people looked at her funny, other frowned (since when teenage girls are that loud?), but she didn't even aknowledge any of them. After straightening her miniskirt, she resumed the search for Ryoma, hoping that nothing bad had happened...
"Ew! What's that?!"
When Tomoka reached the surroundings of the tennis court (she knew the place rather well, once or twice Katsuo and Kachirou had brought her and the girls here in the middle of an outing), she could feel an horrid smell. Like burned plastic, or leather.
Then, she saw her friend. But he wasn't alone.
"What the...?! Echizen!"
***
Ouch, dammit... What the Hell was that? Who on Earth turned his switch off? And who did it in mid-air, for fuck's sake...?
Kevin was vaguely aware of someone shaking him and calling out to him in English. He hadn't heard someone speaking in his mother language for several days, and while he has secretly yearned for something that made him feel less loss in this country of strangers... it suddenly felt wrong. Along with the water that someone was splashing on his face. This seemed to practically evaporate as soon as it touched his skin.
With eyes half-open, he could see Ryoma hovering over him. Saying something about dumping him there if he wasn't waking up...
All of a sudden, Kevin found himself blasting the other away with a gust of heated wind that he produced out of sheer reflex. He also heard a feminine voice calling out for Ryoma in Japanese, but he didn't care.
Ryoma looked at Kevin in confusion as he slowly got to his feet. He was haking, still dizzy and weak, but with his hand slowly catching fire again.
***
Before he knew what had happened, Ryoma found himself stumbling back against the chain-link fence of the tennis court, shoved by a gust of hot air that made his skin feel tight. He stared at Kevin as the other boy got up, one hand already sprouting small flames, wondering what was wrong with him - fine, Kevin could be angry, but that did not translate into burning Ryoma to a crisp. As if Ryoma would let that happen anyway -
"Kevin. What the hell are you doing?" he asked the other boy, still speaking in English, planning (unhappily) to drop his shields and synch him if need be - at least then he wouldn't be as likely to get hurt. But Kevin's power looked pretty explosive, and even if Ryoma could get a handle on it within a few minutes (which was not something he could take for granted)... that would still be a few minutes, at least, during which he might burn up both of them and the park trying. Not something he -
Another voice in the distance interrupted his thoughts, just as another mutant barely crossed the boundary of his power's perception. Fuck, he thought - it sounded like Tomoka, and now he couldn't drop his shields without synching both of them. No way, no way in hell.
"Stay out of this," he whispered to himself - maybe if Osakada didn't see them, she'd give up and go away. He didn't need her seeing this - and he didn't need her powers in the way. "Kevin, stoppit," he said again to the boy in front of him. Shit, and he was already backed up against the fence. He had nowhere to go.
***
Tomoka couldn’t get any closer to the tennis court, because the heat was unbearable. And unnaturally high. The thermal sensation was okay until she had entered the park, rising gradually and quickly as she neared to the court...
And the boy who was in front of Echizen was the source. Even from the distance, she could see that his left arm was on fire. What on...?
Tomoka was ready to get closer and help Echizen, but then she remembered his powers. His ability was to synch with mutants and use their skills as his own. What if he was planning to fight the other guy back *by synching him*? Getting closer would be a big no-no, for she'd only be a nuisance, and if he synched the two of them...
Oh, shit. And Tomoka had no current way to contact others: she had left her cellphone in the dorms, there were no phone cabins nearby, and she was too far from the Ryuhana camps to concentrate her thoughts and try to contact any of the psychics there.
The girl hated to recognize it, but she was unable to do anything but watch.
* * *
Kevin looked at Ryoma with glazed eyes, his arm slowly catching more fire. It was a good thing that he was wearing a sleeveless shirt and his bandages were thrown on the ground somewhere; if those caught fire, he'd be a full-body torch just like Johnny Storm. And even when he was sort-of immune to that direct heat...
He stared at Ryoma and tried to speak. "You..."
The mix of emotions was overwhelming him too much, as well as an increasing sensation of fear. He had liked the sensation of freedom that both the fire and the warm air had brought him, but...
He then saw a girl around their age, standing not too far from the fence. She seemed to know Ryoma, since she was calling out to him by his Echizen surname. Surely one of the Ryuhana kids, maybe one of the two girls he had talked to through journals...
Kevin fell to his knees, the fire in his arms dying. He braced himself, shaking and surrounded by the hot air.
"You..."
He stared at the other kids with rage. Ryoma was grabbing his left shoulder (surely Kevin had injured it when he threw the Japanese against the fence with the sudden air blast), the girl was just looking at them in horror. And the more shocked they both looked, the bigger his anger and frustration became. But he somehow didn't want to kill either of them with his powers... yet.
"I'm out... of control...!" he yelled in English, trembling from head to toe. "Ryoma! If you and your little girlfriend don't leave... I...!"
Kevin remarked how serious he was with a last wind gust. Then, he closed his eyes and decided to momentarily shut himself off from the rest of the world. Ryoma could leave... he should... otherwise he would really go haywire and not care if he could kill both of them.
***
Damn - looking down, Ryoma realized that his sleeve had caught and torn on the fence and he'd scraped his shoulder. "You always gotta do things the hard way," he spat, only to get knocked back by another blast of heat, hotter this time; he covered his face, hissing as the heat burned his shoulder and turned the skin red-hot. Shit, Kevin was super-heating the air and it was as good as getting knocked around with strands of flame. "Stop doing that, you idiot," he said, then glanced back to see Osakada just... standing there. She was still close enough for him to synch if he dropped his shields. Damn. "You're too close, Osakada," he told her, voice tight, hoping she might get the idea and back off.
He took a breath. There was no way in hell he was going to leave Kevin to melt a pretty little crater in the middle of the tennis court. He was still synched to Hanamura - maybe he could use that to his advantage. He'd been practicing manipulating the density and shape of his shields (something she could teach him, as long as he was using her powers) and pulled them in tight on himself, making them harder, hoping that would keep him from getting burned again. He took a step forward.
"Shut up and calm down," he said flatly to the other boy, walking over to stop before him. The heat was nearly unbearable - it was like being too close to an open flame. "M'not leaving you to self-destruct or something stupid like that. "Calm down or I'll make you." He could always put another shield around the boy and cut off any air until he'd either passed out or put out the flames. Though that wasn't a particularly palatable option.
"You're too close, Osakada..."
Realizing that the only way they'd come out of this situation relatively unharmed would be to step aside, Tomoka started to walk back as quickly as she could. If Echizen was going to synch the other boy, she'd be only a nuisance. On the other hand, if the blond ever tried to play dirty, she'd throw the rest of her precaution aside and try using her powers from there. Or check if someone else was hiding in those shadows; no way that odd foreigner was alone, if he was such a powerful mutant with such dangerous powers...
Besides, she'd be of even less help if she ever collapsed thanks to the goddamn heat.
With her fists clenched, Tomoka left the place, searching for whoever was with the gaijin. Because no, she was *not* calling Hanamura-sensei. To have others listening to the conversation and later asking? No way. She and Echizen would answer whatever question the redhead headmistress had for them - but in person.
***
The wind started to slowly, very slowly, cool down. Kevin wasn't too sure if it was because he was starting to regain control of his powers, or because he was too tired to use them well. He had thought, *really* thought, that he was going to lose it all and blow up the whole park. The idea didn't sound so horrible to him for a moment... not only himself, Ryoma and that girl would perish, but they'd take some of those fickle, traitorous humans with them to Hell.
"Don't get any closer...," he heard himself saying. "I'm not going to blow you, her or myself up now..."
He closed his eyes and extended an arm, remarking on how he wanted Ryoma to leave him the hell alone. "Just leave me here and go back, Ryoma. But..."
The wind dissipated finally, and when Kevin opened his eyes, he finally was able to stare right at Ryoma's face.
"But I don't think I need to tell you what I may do to you and your people next."
Everything else had been said already in his actions. Whether Ryoma had less guilt than Kevin thought all those years, or Kevin was the only one to blame in reality... pheh, there was nothing they could do to change their new positions in life.
And he himself, Kevin Smith, wasn't sure if he wanted them to change.
Osakada was moving out of his range - finally - but it looked like Ryoma wasn’t going to have to synch anyone after all, which was definitely for the best. He watched Kevin warily as the other boy stared at him intensely. Why was he so damn bent on revenge? Ryoma just didn’t understand, but then, he guessed it wasn’t his place. Let Kevin think whatever he wanted - as long as Kevin didn’t hurt him (again), Ryoma wouldn’t have to do anything in return.
“Do whatever you want,” he said lowly, “but don’t expect me to sit there and take it.” He turned and left the tennis court, casting one last glance back at the blonde. “And next time you say you want to talk… I expect you to talk. Not go up in flames.” He wasn’t any closer to understanding Kevin than he had been when he’d gotten here - in fact, he probably understood the other boy less, now. But that was for dealing with later. Right now he had to deal with Osakada - and his throbbing shoulder.
He found her near the entrance to the park, keeping what seemed to be a wary watch. She stared at his shoulder, eyes wide, and as she raised her hands to inspect it, he sidestepped her and began walking home, expecting her to keep up. He figured he might as well make things clear before she started asking questions. “I’m not going to the infirmary. And nothing happened. I don’t know why you’re here and I don’t care, but don’t go blabbing about it, all right?” He figured she’d probably keep quiet about it, but it was best to let her know that’s what he expected.
The girl wasn’t exactly in the mood for arguing with him since she would’ve loved to be left out of the whole deal, herself. It did suck to be reminded of how inexperienced she was in regards of her powers, and how useless she was in a real life-or-death situation.
“Well, whatever you want,”, she told him when she managed to It’s not like I’m going to mention in front of anyone that a foreigner almost blew us up just after the Earthquake that almost destroyed the school, eh?.”
Tomoka had her school sweater still tied around her waist, and she quickly took it off. She then tossed it towards Echizen, who caught it with his non-injured arm. “You don’t want Niou-sempai and the others to ask about how you got that injury? Put it on, and give it back tomorrow...”
With some help from her, he slowly put on the sweater, and they walked back to Ryuhana in silence.
***
Kevin went through the nearby streets in a sort of slight daze, kinda like in the hours after his powers manifested themselves in front of his tennis team. He barely paid any attention to the persons who looked at him and mumbled in Japanese.
Well, shit. He shouldn’t have even agreed to meet up with Ryoma in the first place. They both literally blew up whatever was left of friendship between them - if it ever existed, now that he thought of it.
With a bitter smile, Kevin looked at the hand that he used to burn up the tennis ball. He had managed to semi-bandage it, but even then the docs would ask what the hell happened and why did he use his powers before he was fully healed. And Miss Nanako would surely scold him for not taking care of himself…
Funny, she was Ryoma’s cousin, but even then Kevin cared about *her* opinion about the deal and not about the doctor’s.
As he continued walking back to the Brotherhood house, he remembered the last words of the song that his mother liked to sing. He sighed and sang quietly to himself…
Just the bang… And the clatter… As an angel… Hits the ground.
PD: Kevin tag, please?
When: Backdated to October 24.
Rated: PG-13 for violence.
Summary: Enter the young American pyromaniac! Ryoma sucks at understanding. Kevin sucks at controlling his powers. Tomoka sucks at timing.
Ryoma sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets and heading off the Ryuhana campus, taking his time on the way to the park. Really, he didn't know what was up with Kevin - first showing up out of nowhere, then accusing Ryoma of essentially ruining his life by not being there and claiming to be enemies now. What the hell was up with that? Ryoma had considered Kevin a friend, sure, but only in the sense that they'd been in the same class and hung out sometimes. They didn't even have many similar interests - Kevin was like his old man, always playing tennis and always trying to get Ryoma to do the same. As time had gone by, they'd spent less and less time together anyway - Ryoma had started getting headaches around Kevin and, well, he guessed he knew what that was all about now. Sure, he felt bad about Kevin's mom, but it wasn't really any of his business in the end and he'd had to move anyway. He couldn't have been expected to do anything more, halfway across the ocean and only 12 years old at the time.
He sighed again in frustration, and realized he was approaching the park by now. It must be nearly five - he strolled a bit up the entrance path and looked around for Kevin's bright blonde hair - not too many Japanese had that, and there also weren't many people here at this time of day. The park technically closed at dusk, which would be soon; Ryoma didn't care about rules like that, but at least it would give them more privacy.
***
The pain in Kevin's half-burned hands wasn't fully gone despite him following Miss Nanako's and Saeki's pointers on how to make it vanish, but at this rate, he was practically welcoming it. He briefly thought of an old, slow song by U2 that his mother liked to listen to in her last days, something by the lines of "You said when it hit you, you don't mind... because when it hurts you... you feel alive...".
The park had a small tennis court, which was practically a blessed sight for him. Without thinking twice, the blond young man walked towards it - and to his luck, it was empty. It would've looked almost like a part of a ghost town if not for the two or three abandoned tennis balls lying on the corners.
"... Bono, you bastard. You hit it right on the nose when you wrote that part of the song", the American murmured bitterly.
He had known that he was a selfish SOB upon talking like that to Ryoma. To the only person his age that could, in a sense, understand him. All the other kids would either pick up fights or be shit scared of him... Hell, even his teammates were like that. Ryoma wasn't like them; that was the main reason why he tried to attach Ryoma to him by the hip, why he cherished so much how he was by his side when his mother died, and why he was so hurt when he and Ryoma finally lost contact.
Now one of the most important persons in his whole damn life, along with Kevin's poor mother, was claiming that their friendship was nothing to him. How on Earth could he damn know what it exactly was, and say it so easily? It may have not meant much to Ryoma himself - but damn, it meant more than the world to him, Kevin Smith.
Another reason why he fought so hard to be a top tennis player was to travel around the world and find his old and only friend in the world. Apart of showing to his goddamn father and to everyone else that he was stronger than they thought...
And he lost it all when he was just about to grasp his dream. Now, at least until Mr. Sakaki and the Brotherhood reached their goals, he'd have to put his tennis objectives in standby. And it hurt him even more than the injuries in his hands.
Kevin absentmindedly walked towards the balls, and after taking his bandages off (he didn't even stop to look at his injured palms and wrists), he grabbed one of them from the grounds. He stared at it for several moments... and before Kevin knew, the small and round tennis implement was nothing but a handful of fire. He didn't care about the pain in his hand... it was almost hypnotic. Tears were rolling down his flushed cheeks, but he didn't feel them.
"Fuckers", he mused, the sort-of amusement that he had felt upon his odd talk to Yamato through the Big Spam Post disappearing completely. "Someday, Kevin Smith will beat you all. You'll all know about me. I swear you will... specially you, Ryoma".
***
And there was Kevin, standing (predictably) in the park's small tennis court, back turned to him, holding something in his hand. Ryoma made his way up to the court, remaining on the other side of the fence and staring through the chain-links at the other boy.
From the back, at least, Kevin looked exactly the same - longish blonde hair, regular build, still taller than Ryoma. He was definitely a mutant, though, and his power felt... hot. Blinking a few times, Ryoma toed the fence, making a bit of noise to let Kevin know he was there.
"Hey, m'here," he said, voice flat and bored, though inwardly he had to admit... he really had no idea what Kevin wanted. Yes, he knew that Kevin obviously felt like Ryoma had abandoned him and was exceedingly angry about that fact, but Ryoma... really didn't know what Kevin wanted him to do, now that they were both in the same place again. Apologize and be his friend? It wasn't that simple - and besides, he'd said they were enemies. Be his enemy, then? None of this made sense.
***
Kevin was barely aware of an outer presence. It came from far, far away.
As someone with the basic body of a human, plus his mutation, he had five senses. All of them were centered on the burning ball in his palm. It was odd, too - the explosion had injured his arms and they still hurt, but with his blaze of his own, he felt practically no pain. And his sense of smell wasn't telling him that it was due to his nerves being too burned up to even feel anything, either.
It felt good... oddly good. Kevin still loathed how his powers came out, in front of people who he thought of as decent enough and later abandoned him without a second thought... but now that he knew where they came from, they were a sort of emotional release. The blaze was starting to melt the pain away.
His eyes stared at the burning ball... his fingers gripped it and felt the heat... his ears heard the noise that the fabric made as the fire engulfed it... his nose felt the burned plastic smell that the air brought him... he could almost taste the material that was dissolving into flames.
However, Kevin didn't notice something else. The hot air surrounding him was causing a sort of thermal updraft that had him practically levitating over the ground. His body was slowly losing contact with the court floor, as the warm winds made him practically defy gravity...
"Hey, m'here...", he vaguely heard someone else's voice as Kevin started to levitate, but he was too engrossed at how whatever was left of the tennis ball in his hand was burning up at the American's command, to switch his attention to whoever was talking to him.
***
Watching Kevin, it really didn't appear as though the other boy was paying him any attention at all - did he not even realize Ryoma was there? Ryoma kicked the fence again, a little harder. "Oy." Kevin just continued standing there, back to him, not making the slightest indication that he'd noticed someone standing less than two meters away from him.
But, wait. Ryoma looked - really looked at Kevin - and realized... he was starting to... levitate? What the hell? The boy's feet were only just barely touching the ground. The American was giving his full attention to something in his hand, and now Ryoma smelled the distasteful odor of burning plastic in the air - and suddenly felt a blast of warmth, much warmer than the cool fall evening air. He blinked, his face feeling warm, like he was standing beside an open fire.
"Hey," he said, much louder than before, and in English this time - maybe that would get through. "Kevin - what the hell're you doing? Do you wanna talk to me or not?"
***
The feeling of freedom and warmth was flowing through Kevin's veins as the hot wind was taking him farther from the ground. He was now aware of it. Forgetting about the burning ball in his hands (the flame was dying, anyway, since his powers were focused more in the hot winds), the American closed his eyes and allowed the wind to blow with even more force, taking higher and higher.
"Freedom... Feels good... Forgetting about this shitty situation I've been in...".
However, spending several days in an hospital and going in and out of medlab took their toll soon. All of a sudden, when he was already floating four or five feet above the ground, Kevin started feeling dizzy. Oh, no, not NOW!
"Hey!"
Now he heard it. Ryoma's voice...
"Kevin! What the hell are you doing...!"
It was still coming from quite a distance, but at least Kevin knew it was real.
He stared at the fence. Yes, Ryoma *was* really there...
"Do you wanna talk to me or not...?".
"Ryoma...!" he tried to speak. Images of their common past crossed his mind: meeting each other, studying, PE class, going to the beach, hanging around, being by Kevin's mother's side in her last days...
And that was the last thing Kevin knew before he passed out and fell to the ground.
***
Oh, just great. Kevin landed in a heap on the court - Ryoma kicked the fence one last time in frustration and jogged around the side and onto the court through the gate. "You idiot," he said as he neared Kevin's unmoving form, "You tell me you want to talk to me and you pass out when I get here. Great. Just great." Squatting by the other's side, he rolled the other boy over. Out cold.
"Shit." Ryoma sighed. "Kevin. Hey, Kevin." He shook the blonde, hoping that would be enough. "Don't make me dump water on you - idiot." Kevin wasn't waking; Ryoma stood and stalked over to the water fountain he'd passed on his way to the court, cupping both hands and carrying a bit of water as best he could back to the court, where he dumped it in a small splash over Kevin's face. "You gonna wake up or not? I'll just leave you here otherwise." The other boy was not his responsibility, and he was not going to play mother to him just because he'd overexerted himself doing something stupid like that. They were just lucky there wasn't anyone else around.
***
"Where... where on Earth can that guy be...?"
Tomoka stopped running towards the park's gate to regain her breath, and stared around to check if her classmate was in her immediate surroundings. Noticing Ryoma's absence, Hanamura-sensei had asked the girl to go looking for him... to no dice.
"Echizen! Echizen-kun!," she called out loudly. Some people looked at her funny, other frowned (since when teenage girls are that loud?), but she didn't even aknowledge any of them. After straightening her miniskirt, she resumed the search for Ryoma, hoping that nothing bad had happened...
"Ew! What's that?!"
When Tomoka reached the surroundings of the tennis court (she knew the place rather well, once or twice Katsuo and Kachirou had brought her and the girls here in the middle of an outing), she could feel an horrid smell. Like burned plastic, or leather.
Then, she saw her friend. But he wasn't alone.
"What the...?! Echizen!"
***
Ouch, dammit... What the Hell was that? Who on Earth turned his switch off? And who did it in mid-air, for fuck's sake...?
Kevin was vaguely aware of someone shaking him and calling out to him in English. He hadn't heard someone speaking in his mother language for several days, and while he has secretly yearned for something that made him feel less loss in this country of strangers... it suddenly felt wrong. Along with the water that someone was splashing on his face. This seemed to practically evaporate as soon as it touched his skin.
With eyes half-open, he could see Ryoma hovering over him. Saying something about dumping him there if he wasn't waking up...
All of a sudden, Kevin found himself blasting the other away with a gust of heated wind that he produced out of sheer reflex. He also heard a feminine voice calling out for Ryoma in Japanese, but he didn't care.
Ryoma looked at Kevin in confusion as he slowly got to his feet. He was haking, still dizzy and weak, but with his hand slowly catching fire again.
***
Before he knew what had happened, Ryoma found himself stumbling back against the chain-link fence of the tennis court, shoved by a gust of hot air that made his skin feel tight. He stared at Kevin as the other boy got up, one hand already sprouting small flames, wondering what was wrong with him - fine, Kevin could be angry, but that did not translate into burning Ryoma to a crisp. As if Ryoma would let that happen anyway -
"Kevin. What the hell are you doing?" he asked the other boy, still speaking in English, planning (unhappily) to drop his shields and synch him if need be - at least then he wouldn't be as likely to get hurt. But Kevin's power looked pretty explosive, and even if Ryoma could get a handle on it within a few minutes (which was not something he could take for granted)... that would still be a few minutes, at least, during which he might burn up both of them and the park trying. Not something he -
Another voice in the distance interrupted his thoughts, just as another mutant barely crossed the boundary of his power's perception. Fuck, he thought - it sounded like Tomoka, and now he couldn't drop his shields without synching both of them. No way, no way in hell.
"Stay out of this," he whispered to himself - maybe if Osakada didn't see them, she'd give up and go away. He didn't need her seeing this - and he didn't need her powers in the way. "Kevin, stoppit," he said again to the boy in front of him. Shit, and he was already backed up against the fence. He had nowhere to go.
***
Tomoka couldn’t get any closer to the tennis court, because the heat was unbearable. And unnaturally high. The thermal sensation was okay until she had entered the park, rising gradually and quickly as she neared to the court...
And the boy who was in front of Echizen was the source. Even from the distance, she could see that his left arm was on fire. What on...?
Tomoka was ready to get closer and help Echizen, but then she remembered his powers. His ability was to synch with mutants and use their skills as his own. What if he was planning to fight the other guy back *by synching him*? Getting closer would be a big no-no, for she'd only be a nuisance, and if he synched the two of them...
Oh, shit. And Tomoka had no current way to contact others: she had left her cellphone in the dorms, there were no phone cabins nearby, and she was too far from the Ryuhana camps to concentrate her thoughts and try to contact any of the psychics there.
The girl hated to recognize it, but she was unable to do anything but watch.
* * *
Kevin looked at Ryoma with glazed eyes, his arm slowly catching more fire. It was a good thing that he was wearing a sleeveless shirt and his bandages were thrown on the ground somewhere; if those caught fire, he'd be a full-body torch just like Johnny Storm. And even when he was sort-of immune to that direct heat...
He stared at Ryoma and tried to speak. "You..."
The mix of emotions was overwhelming him too much, as well as an increasing sensation of fear. He had liked the sensation of freedom that both the fire and the warm air had brought him, but...
He then saw a girl around their age, standing not too far from the fence. She seemed to know Ryoma, since she was calling out to him by his Echizen surname. Surely one of the Ryuhana kids, maybe one of the two girls he had talked to through journals...
Kevin fell to his knees, the fire in his arms dying. He braced himself, shaking and surrounded by the hot air.
"You..."
He stared at the other kids with rage. Ryoma was grabbing his left shoulder (surely Kevin had injured it when he threw the Japanese against the fence with the sudden air blast), the girl was just looking at them in horror. And the more shocked they both looked, the bigger his anger and frustration became. But he somehow didn't want to kill either of them with his powers... yet.
"I'm out... of control...!" he yelled in English, trembling from head to toe. "Ryoma! If you and your little girlfriend don't leave... I...!"
Kevin remarked how serious he was with a last wind gust. Then, he closed his eyes and decided to momentarily shut himself off from the rest of the world. Ryoma could leave... he should... otherwise he would really go haywire and not care if he could kill both of them.
***
Damn - looking down, Ryoma realized that his sleeve had caught and torn on the fence and he'd scraped his shoulder. "You always gotta do things the hard way," he spat, only to get knocked back by another blast of heat, hotter this time; he covered his face, hissing as the heat burned his shoulder and turned the skin red-hot. Shit, Kevin was super-heating the air and it was as good as getting knocked around with strands of flame. "Stop doing that, you idiot," he said, then glanced back to see Osakada just... standing there. She was still close enough for him to synch if he dropped his shields. Damn. "You're too close, Osakada," he told her, voice tight, hoping she might get the idea and back off.
He took a breath. There was no way in hell he was going to leave Kevin to melt a pretty little crater in the middle of the tennis court. He was still synched to Hanamura - maybe he could use that to his advantage. He'd been practicing manipulating the density and shape of his shields (something she could teach him, as long as he was using her powers) and pulled them in tight on himself, making them harder, hoping that would keep him from getting burned again. He took a step forward.
"Shut up and calm down," he said flatly to the other boy, walking over to stop before him. The heat was nearly unbearable - it was like being too close to an open flame. "M'not leaving you to self-destruct or something stupid like that. "Calm down or I'll make you." He could always put another shield around the boy and cut off any air until he'd either passed out or put out the flames. Though that wasn't a particularly palatable option.
"You're too close, Osakada..."
Realizing that the only way they'd come out of this situation relatively unharmed would be to step aside, Tomoka started to walk back as quickly as she could. If Echizen was going to synch the other boy, she'd be only a nuisance. On the other hand, if the blond ever tried to play dirty, she'd throw the rest of her precaution aside and try using her powers from there. Or check if someone else was hiding in those shadows; no way that odd foreigner was alone, if he was such a powerful mutant with such dangerous powers...
Besides, she'd be of even less help if she ever collapsed thanks to the goddamn heat.
With her fists clenched, Tomoka left the place, searching for whoever was with the gaijin. Because no, she was *not* calling Hanamura-sensei. To have others listening to the conversation and later asking? No way. She and Echizen would answer whatever question the redhead headmistress had for them - but in person.
***
The wind started to slowly, very slowly, cool down. Kevin wasn't too sure if it was because he was starting to regain control of his powers, or because he was too tired to use them well. He had thought, *really* thought, that he was going to lose it all and blow up the whole park. The idea didn't sound so horrible to him for a moment... not only himself, Ryoma and that girl would perish, but they'd take some of those fickle, traitorous humans with them to Hell.
"Don't get any closer...," he heard himself saying. "I'm not going to blow you, her or myself up now..."
He closed his eyes and extended an arm, remarking on how he wanted Ryoma to leave him the hell alone. "Just leave me here and go back, Ryoma. But..."
The wind dissipated finally, and when Kevin opened his eyes, he finally was able to stare right at Ryoma's face.
"But I don't think I need to tell you what I may do to you and your people next."
Everything else had been said already in his actions. Whether Ryoma had less guilt than Kevin thought all those years, or Kevin was the only one to blame in reality... pheh, there was nothing they could do to change their new positions in life.
And he himself, Kevin Smith, wasn't sure if he wanted them to change.
Osakada was moving out of his range - finally - but it looked like Ryoma wasn’t going to have to synch anyone after all, which was definitely for the best. He watched Kevin warily as the other boy stared at him intensely. Why was he so damn bent on revenge? Ryoma just didn’t understand, but then, he guessed it wasn’t his place. Let Kevin think whatever he wanted - as long as Kevin didn’t hurt him (again), Ryoma wouldn’t have to do anything in return.
“Do whatever you want,” he said lowly, “but don’t expect me to sit there and take it.” He turned and left the tennis court, casting one last glance back at the blonde. “And next time you say you want to talk… I expect you to talk. Not go up in flames.” He wasn’t any closer to understanding Kevin than he had been when he’d gotten here - in fact, he probably understood the other boy less, now. But that was for dealing with later. Right now he had to deal with Osakada - and his throbbing shoulder.
He found her near the entrance to the park, keeping what seemed to be a wary watch. She stared at his shoulder, eyes wide, and as she raised her hands to inspect it, he sidestepped her and began walking home, expecting her to keep up. He figured he might as well make things clear before she started asking questions. “I’m not going to the infirmary. And nothing happened. I don’t know why you’re here and I don’t care, but don’t go blabbing about it, all right?” He figured she’d probably keep quiet about it, but it was best to let her know that’s what he expected.
The girl wasn’t exactly in the mood for arguing with him since she would’ve loved to be left out of the whole deal, herself. It did suck to be reminded of how inexperienced she was in regards of her powers, and how useless she was in a real life-or-death situation.
“Well, whatever you want,”, she told him when she managed to It’s not like I’m going to mention in front of anyone that a foreigner almost blew us up just after the Earthquake that almost destroyed the school, eh?.”
Tomoka had her school sweater still tied around her waist, and she quickly took it off. She then tossed it towards Echizen, who caught it with his non-injured arm. “You don’t want Niou-sempai and the others to ask about how you got that injury? Put it on, and give it back tomorrow...”
With some help from her, he slowly put on the sweater, and they walked back to Ryuhana in silence.
***
Kevin went through the nearby streets in a sort of slight daze, kinda like in the hours after his powers manifested themselves in front of his tennis team. He barely paid any attention to the persons who looked at him and mumbled in Japanese.
Well, shit. He shouldn’t have even agreed to meet up with Ryoma in the first place. They both literally blew up whatever was left of friendship between them - if it ever existed, now that he thought of it.
With a bitter smile, Kevin looked at the hand that he used to burn up the tennis ball. He had managed to semi-bandage it, but even then the docs would ask what the hell happened and why did he use his powers before he was fully healed. And Miss Nanako would surely scold him for not taking care of himself…
Funny, she was Ryoma’s cousin, but even then Kevin cared about *her* opinion about the deal and not about the doctor’s.
As he continued walking back to the Brotherhood house, he remembered the last words of the song that his mother liked to sing. He sighed and sang quietly to himself…
Just the bang… And the clatter… As an angel… Hits the ground.
PD: Kevin tag, please?