Michael POV
I stared at the crackling, dancing flames, sighing to myself. Luke, Nicki, and Rachel were all happily sleeping away while I sat there, just watching the fire and making sure it didn't die out. My thoughts wandered absentmindedly, as if I was walking through the forest and not following the suggested path.
"Are you still awake?"
I, startled, looked up to see Nicki rubbing his eyes and grinning at me. For a minute, I just stared at him before looking away, rubbing my neck and feeling my ears burn. I remembered the conversation that I heard earlier and I hoped he wouldn't ask me about it again. My chest suddenly throbbed in pain and I lurched forward, hissing in pain. He scrambled to my side but I flung out a hand to stop him. The pain was fleeting like always and I rubbed my chest, sighing in relief. Sometimes I got chest pains. Actually, now that I think about it, they've gotten worse lately.... oh well. It's not like it's anything really serious.
"I have insomnia, Nicki. Get off my back."
"I wasn't even trying to get on you. Can't I just be worried about you and not have you yell at me for being a dork?" He pleaded.
"Nah."
"You're impossible."
I smiled mirthlessly at him.
"And you're just now finding this out darling? Wow, that took you a while hm."
He blushed a deep brick color at my comment, fidgeting with his hands nervously.
"I-I-well, yeah!!"
"You're such a ding dong."
He and I then stared at the flames together, the pleasant silent calming me and him. The smell of smoke actually was soothing in a way to me.
"Hey, Michael?"
I looked at his deep, purple eyes.
"Yeah?"
"What powers do you have? Luke and Rachel have two, so-"
"I have two. Invisibility and fire, obviously." I held out my hand and made a tiny orb of fire. "The bad thing about my fire is that it comes from my own body heat. The colder it is outside, the worse my fire powers usually are. Then on my invisibility, I can't make another person invisible for a long time. Only for short bursts and that doesn't come often."
I closed my hand and extinguished the fire in my palm. He stared at me and I uncomfortably squirmed under his gaze. Despite the fact that he was such an idiot half the time, I realized that he wasn't stupid per se. Sure, he was a little oblivious to some important stuff, but that could just be his ADHD kicking in. Nicki wasn't dumb. In fact, I was pretty sure he was always thinking. I could practically see the gears turning in his head about ninety nine percent of the time. Besides, he had some pretty deep thoughts for being the same age as me.
Then again, he was also pretty stupid and impulsive in a battle.
Deep purple eyes stared at me. Out of nowhere, his eyes flashed a kind, happy, bright looking orange citrus color. I was taken back. He frowned and as fast as it had flashed, it was gone.
"What?
"Your eyes... they just changed color."
Almost out of worry or out of habit, he pushed his glasses up on his nose.
"My parents told me that. They say that my eyes are the way they are because my dad passed on some recessive gene to me, even though I'm not quite sure that's how genetics works..."
I hummed, staring at this little piece of his hair. It was literally like a spring, all tightly wound and curled up unlike the rest of his hair. I cracked a small smile and reached out, pulling on it gently. His face went a little pink and I tucked it behind his glasses.
"There. That lock of hair was getting distracting."
He laughed and Luke chucked a granola bar at us, grumbling about how loud we were before settling back down and going back to sleep. Nicki and I laughed as quietly as we could. When we stopped, I thought back to the time we were on the roof. His eyes flashed a lightning, electric baby blue. Didn't Luke say something about how Nicki's eyes turned yellow or something, when they met Rachel and they were fighting these guys???
"Nicki, are you saying that your dad's eyes change too?"
"... No? They were only saying that my eyes are PURPLE, because of the recessive gene..." He said confusedly.
"Oh... Well, your eyes change color. It's cool."
"Uh, thanks I guess."
I turned back to the fire and caught Nicki staring at me too. His thoughtful gaze made me feel embarrassed and shy.
"What are you staring at?" I asked aggressively.
"Nothing. I mean, you say my eyes change, but your right eye changes color too. I mean, yeah, it usually flashes between a glitter sort of gold and silver, but when you looked into the fire, they got this yellowish-orangish tint to them. They're really pretty."
I stared at him then squinted at him suspiciously.
"Are you hitting on me?"
His face went brick red.
"WHAT?! NO!" He whisper yelled.
"Good. 'Cause then I'd hit on you. Literally," I said coldly.
He reached a hand out and traced my scar on my neck. It was carved into my skin like a snake coiling around my neck. I absolutely abhorred it. Nicki's finger grazing over the scarred skin made me shiver a bit.
"A scar. Where'd you get it from?"
I gently pushed away his hand from my neck, because it was getting a little embarrassing to have him touching me like that.
"It's a long story that we don't have time for."
He checked his watch which was digital (how is that thing even lasting this long without being charged???!!) and feigned thoughtfulness.
"Well, it's about eleven o'clock p.m.. I'd say we have plenty of time."
I sighed, knowing it was useless to try to steer him away. Nicki was a stubborn guy. I mean, you'd think he'd be laid back but...
He's not.
If this was Luke or Rachel asking me, I'd be able to make them to leave me alone. Nicki was persistent.
It's sort of attractive.
Whoa, no, not in like... an attractive, loving way! No, like... you know, he...
Okay never mind.
"One day... my... friends... were out. They'd gone to get some food and scavenge around. I'd stayed behind because I wasn't feeling too good that day. Some guys came in and started harassing me. There was ten of them and one of me. I tried fighting them but I wasn't as strong as I thought I was," I said with a bitter laugh. "They decided that I was "cute" and that they'd brand me. Ridiculous idea, but they followed through." My fingers curled into fists and my nails dug into my palms, breaking the skin. I felt blood trickle down my wrists. "One of them had this pocket knife. Some held me down and then, they carved this into me."
I rubbed my neck absentmindedly, reminded of their stupid, smug faces. They thought I was hilarious and weak when I begged for them to stop. It was one of the most humiliating times of my life.
"What happened?" Nicki asked quietly.
I smirked at the last part of that memory.
"That was when I unlocked my powers. Fire just went aflame in my palm and their faces were priceless. They all scrambled away, screaming their heads off and running away as if their lives depended on it. Unfortunately, it scarred over and never faded. My scars never do," I said, my voice softening on the last part.
There was comfortable silence until Nicki spoke up once again.
"Were you scared?" He asked, voice so quiet I could barely hear it.
I gave him this sideways look and sighed, putting a hand on his knee. He jumped at the sudden contact and he looked up, our eyes meeting.
"I was absolutely terrified Nicki."
His eyes widened and it was actually comical, the way his eyes kind of bulged out of his head in shock.
"But... You're never scared! You fought against those guys. You jumped up to that roof like it was nothing!"
I patted his shoulder tentatively. I've had this conversation before and it made sense why people think that. Yet, he's got it way wrong.
"Nicki, the idea that someone is never scared is just ridiculous. Everyone is scared of something. Just because you felt scared going up against these guys who had your brother who outnumbered us outrageously doesn't mean you're a coward. There's a difference between being a coward, and being scared. Besides, I don't think you were a shrinking violet in that fight either you know. You stood tall and proud, and in my opinion, jumping down in the middle of that dangerous fray was a little bit of an idiotic move but..."
"But...?" He said.
"But, I actually respect you for it. Why would you even say something like that? That I'm never scared?!"
He looked at his feet, blushing.
"I guess that... you really do seem extremely brave all the time. I didn't wanna see like some sort of... wimp?" He said sheepishly.
"Well, are you scared?"
"Very."
"That doesn't mean you're a wimp. Cliche alert, but that only means that you're human," I said comfortingly.
There was a pause.
"What are you scared of?"
I glared at him, retracting my hand.
"Don't push your luck, wise guy-"
"I-I'm afraid of heights!"
I stilled at that.
"But... you were on the roof. You were fine-"
"I was pretending to be. And I didn't look at the edge, so I was mostly fine... But every time we had to go on a plane or something, I had to throw up," he confessed.
He kept ranting, even though I never asked him to.
"And I'm scared of... of..." he blushed. "Girls."
I couldn't help but laugh at that because... Girls, of all things?"
"But I thought you had four sisters!"
"That's different!"
"But you're talking to Rachel!"
"Yeah, well, if you pay attention, my ears are probably red all the time. I'm not scared of girls, but I'm more scared of... talking to them."
I smiled sweetly, in a sort of fake way at him.
"You're talking to me."
He spluttered around and blushed yet even harder.
"That's also different!!! You-"
"Nicki, I'm teasing you."
"And... I'm also scared of..."
The next thing that he said surprised me. And when he said it, it made me feel as if there was some sort of ticking time bomb in our presence.
"I'm scared of myself."