Sudden Darkness.

Crackling fire.

Burning wood.

Smoke.

Water.

Embers.

Arms.

Bare Skin.

Warmth.

Sweat.

Heartbeat.

Coffee.

Kate was suddenly in her backyard. It was bright and sunny and beautiful and she was in her favorite place. There is this clearing at the back of her property in the middle of the woods that was the one place she could hide. The one place she couldn’t be found by the servants or her mother and she could just think and be alone. It was the one place in the world that she truly felt safe.

She lifted her head letting the sunlight flood across her face as she took a deep inhale of the beauty. The smell was probably one of the most fresh she had ever tasted. She smelt air, clean air, and the trees and the grass and…. Coffee? She looked down to see the source of the smell standing in front of her. Gawain. His sent was unmistakable. It was soup and coffee, two things she had grown to love the smell of thanks to the boy before her who stood with a silent smirk on his face that she couldn’t help but beam back at. This was her family and one of the only people in the world that she loved more than anything. He was her best friend. Her confidant. She truly didn’t know what she would do without him.

Kate looked up as the sky grayed above her in an instant. Before her she heard the sounds of Gawain coughing, it was soft at first but quickly it turned to violent bouts of hacking. All around them the air filled with smoke and the grass turned to fire burning everything in an instant.

“NO!!” Kate shot up in an instant before descending into a fit of coughing that she didn’t seem to be able to stop or control.

Through the blackness of the smoke and the heat of the fire he could seeing the sleeping form of Kate, the young fire elemental that he had met ages ago. The young woman was sleeping soundly, as if she he absolutely no idea what was going on around her room or what she was doing to the mansion itself. Jorge had raised his hands to splash her with water to wake her up, but he thought different of it. He really didn’t know how water was going to affect her, especially given her powers; it could wake her up and stop this or it could do far worse to her.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to make that decision. Just as the water elemental looked up and readied himself to send another wave of water at large blaze that was beginning to start up nearby, he suddenly saw that he was not alone in the room. Gawain had stepped out, appearing from a mirror and scooping Kate into his arms.

>> "Put the fire out Jorge, I got her."

He gave her a thumbs up. That was much better. Once he claimed the young woman and was gone, Jorge turned his full attention to the rest of the room. The blaze was still catching but now that he didn’t worry about her, he wouldn’t have to worry about holding back.

Though he hoped that she had a good dry cleaner…

Gurgling, Jorge suddenly reached out with both his watery arms and set streams and jets of water all over the room. Fires were soaked and petered out with a violet hiss. But over and over again he fire water and sent a wave through until every last bit of the blaze was gone. All that was left was a blackened room, soaking wet, and smelling to high heaven of smoke.

Jorge sighed though. At least it was over…he hoped…

Kate shot up with a yell and went into a coughing fit that matched his own. Gawain sat by the bed she was lying on and pulled the shirt off his face, rubbing the tears out of his eyes. When she woke, he turned and knelt up to look at her.

"It's okay" cough "Princess" cough "everyone's fine" cough "dammit" cough "Kate, are you okay?"

He looked her over, checking for injuries. The fire should not have affected her, but the smoke apparently did. He put an arm behind her shoulders to help her sit up. She did not have visible injuries. Good.

"I'll get ya to the" cough "infirmary. Jorge's putting out the fire."

Kate looked around the room franticly not sure of where she was or how she got there. She was looking for something familiar that would reassure her that everything she had just experienced was a dream. She still coughed and gasped for air the smell and taste of smoke invade her senses. The room was hard to make out in the darkness and she could barely hear over the blaring alarm. Everything seemed to be just a blur as her ears opened and she heard the voice of the man she had just witness die in her dreams. She looked to the source of the saddening sound and was shocked at what she saw. Kneeling next to her was Gawain, her best friend in the world, and he was alive and well. Or so he seemed.

She just sat there staring at him as he checked her over. He spoke but the words were lost in a jumble. She felt his touch and as he lifted her she launched onto him latching her arms around his neck and holding on for dear life as tears began to pour from her eyes and she both coughed and sobbed into his bare shoulder. She tried to speak but could barely breath let alone get out words.

Kate launched herself at him, and Gawain staggered to maintain his balance as her arms wrapped around his shoulders.

"Shhh, Princess, it's okay. You're fine. Everyone's fine."

There was a lot of sobbing and coughing, and he allowed her some time to calm down before he attempted to stand. She just needed a hug, a long one, so he hugged her, and after long minutes, he finally stood, lifting her up as he went.

"It's okay, Kate. Let's go see DocProf."

As he walked out of the room with Kate, there were students still lingering in the hallway. Some of them stared, and Gawain stared back.

"Get back to your room, or help cleaning up. Scoot."

They did. That was one of the perks of being a senior X-man. He carried Kate down the hallway to the Infirmary.

Kate could barely catch her breath as she held onto Gawain for dear life. She was so invested in him and the fact that he was there that she barely registered the movement as he lifted her to move her out of the room. She locked her ankles and pulled herself into him burying her face in his shoulder. She didn’t want to let go for fear that he would dissipate into the smoke around her. She never wanted the warm contact and caring hug to end.

Kate heard his words drift half muffled into her ears and shook her head still not taking her face out of his bare chest. He was warm from the heat of the fire and she could feel his heart beating beneath his chest. It was quick and frantic from the commotion but she didn’t care because it told her he was alive and that the horrible nightmare was really over. She hated sleeping and every day the dreams got worse and worse. She had truly gotten lucky tonight that there had been those there to save her. She wasn’t sure what was to come next but she knew that she was dangerous and in the back of her mind, getting ever louder, was a voice saying that next time there would be no one there to save her and everyone around her.

Kate buried her face further into the moist of Gawain’s chest, hearing him yelling at students to scoot. She didn’t want to think about those things. She didn’t want to be dangerous. She didn’t want to kill or maim or hurt. She wished with all her heart that she could just go back and stop this. Go back and trade places with her father therefore erasing all the pain she had caused and all the damage she had done. If there was ever a way for her to stop being who she was she would take it in a heartbeat.