Seven

Adara stared at her lap, avoiding looking at Beck. She knew she screwed up with Gabe. After all, her best friend was in danger because of it. She probably had a gun to her head at this very moment.

She needed to learn how to control the raging fire that was her magic. One of the only people who could help her with that was, unfortunately, sitting right in front of her.

Adara glanced up to Beck. As if sensing her eyes on him, Beck lifted his head to look right back at her. "What is it?" he asked, slightly concerned but mostly annoyed.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked. "About...this?" She raised her hands helplessly.

Beck eyed her calmly. Always calm. "What is it?" he repeated.

"How..." she hesitated. Should she just ask? She didn't want to seem like a fool. Who knew, maybe this was common knowledge to the others like her. Adara decided to go for it. If she came off as stupid, oh well. It didn't matter what Beck thought of her. "How do you control your water so well? I mean, how do you know exactly how to use it?"

Beck barely thought about it for ten seconds. "Patience. So, so much patience. Not only that, but you have to accept it. You have to recognize the Ability- Fire, in your case- as a part of yourself. A more open, fluid, and capable part of your body."

Adara thought of the sporadic nature of her flames. And her having patience. Ha. The idea was positively laughable.

"What, if I may ask, triggers them?" Beck asked curiously.

Adara could only come up with anger, which most certainly would not be the answer he was looking for. "I'm not really sure," she lied.

He looked at her like she was stupid. She wasn't, she was just pretending to be. He rolled his eyes but patiently asks, "Well, when has it happened? When has your fire been triggered?"

No avoiding it now, she guessed. She pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, letting her chin rest on her knees. "What happened in the Science Wing..." she trailed off. She didn't want to explain the fact she destroyed part of the school because she lost control of her own emotions.

But maybe her fire was trying to protect her from Gabe. No- if that were the case, then where was it all the other times?

Beck's eyes were soft when she glanced up. It only succeeded in making her curl into herself more. She didn't like people who were always calm. They were artificial- fake. They constantly wore masks to hide the anger that they still felt, no matter how much they told themselves that they were immune. "That's why I'm asking, Adara," he explained. "To make sure that nothing like that happens again."

She still didn't want to tell him, but she supposed that she had to. "When that fire started," she began, "I was having a fight with my previously mentioned ex-boyfriend. Gabe. He had annoyed me during a huge and important test, and we got in a really big verbal argument about..." Should she really explain that? No, Adara decided. He didn't need to know about her relationship problems. He's only here because of her magic. God, that still sounded so weird to her. She wasn't supposed to have magic. "It doesn't matter what it was about. The point is that he was making me angry...and scared," she confessed. She hated telling people that. "The next time was today, with you. I was mad that you had found out. Mad at you and myself. But I was scared, too, obviously. I mean, we're illegal, right?"

"We are," Beck confirmed. He rubbed the side of his jaw with his knuckles. "But it's not like they're out actively looking for us. They leave us be, only interfering when we do."

Adara nodded understandingly. She was still unbelievably scared, though. He did nothing to ease it. Beck knew, and so did she, that the government was still a threat to her. She partially destroyed a school. That wasn't going to go over lightly with them.

"But Adara?" Beck said. She looked over to him. "Don't be ashamed. Everyone starts that way. Fueled by fear and anger, I mean. Even me. Even though we don't have to be on the run constantly, we're still afraid. One slip up, one tiny mistake, and we're done for. Sent into the government labs for testing, torture, and execution. Most of us cut ourselves off from the world for a few weeks before we're found by someone like us. I was alone, completely alone, for almost a month. I lived like a prisoner- worse than a prisoner. They, at least, get human contact. No one had seen me since I almost drowned myself. I was mad at my sister. So, so mad. I was getting ready to send out my college applications, and, before I could print anything out, she deleted all of it. Every piece. Water gathered around my head, and it became so dense that I couldn't breathe." He took a shaky deep breath, like the memory itself hurt him.

And who knew, maybe it did. Sometimes memories can be more painful than reality.

Adara saw that he wasn't going to continue. She didn't blame him. "You're so calm now, though."

He laughed quickly, just a short breath out of his nose. "Yeah, that's when my water works best, I think. The fluidity of it, maybe? Anyway, it's better for me to be that way. Whether it helps or not. It's destructive if I'm not calm."

Adara thought back on all the outbursts she's had. Even just in the past week, the number was concerning. There was hardly a time in the day where she wasn't annoyed at something or other. The prospect of taming herself was intimidating. "I don't think I could ever be as calm as you are now," she admitted.

"Well, who knows? Maybe anger is what works for you." Beck smirked and continued. "Or, hey, maybe you just need anger management classes."

Adara rolled her eyes and scoffed, thoroughly unamused. Anger management? Seriously?

Beck kept talking, "No, but really. Maybe a calmness exercise?"

He was seriously insane if he thought that she was going to do that. But sure, she'd humor him. "What do you have in mind?"

He smiled at her, and in it was the sadistic part of him.

Apparently his mask couldn't cover that.

"I propose this. You'd sit where you are, and you'd sit as still as you can. I'd sit across from you and throw little darts of water at you. You'd have to sit still. It'd just be working on controlling your impulses. It can't hurt you." She looked up at him disbelievingly. "I promise," he said.

Yeah, she thought. Because your promises mean anything to me.

But nonetheless, she said, "Okay." Why was she agreeing again?

She unfurled herself, planting her feet on the ground and her forearms on her thighs. Beck moved himself into his spot across from her. "You ready?" he asked. She nodded in response. She closed her steely grey eyes. Or did she need them open?

"Beck, please, just..." she took a deep breath and opened her eyes again. "Just please be careful. I don't want to do anything stupid."

He pursed his thin lips and repeated, "I promise."

Adara settled into the couch, waiting for the first hit of water. She didn't have to wait long. It struck her arm, little more than an annoyance. The small bit of water basically evaporated the second it hit her feverish skin. That was the worst part.

The droplet exploded and trailed against her skin in small trails, sending uncomfortable shivers up her spine. Beck threw more once that first had hit. They were slowly getting getting quicker, less time in between.

"I think you're doing this for your own sick amusement," she revealed. Soon after she said that, she felt a feeling build up in her throat. Just like the one with Gabe in the Science Wing. Her hands began to shake. "Beck." Even her voice was wavering, uneven. "I...I need you to stop. Now."

Adara heard him release an annoyed breath, but the drops stopped. Her shaking did not.

"You need control, Adara," he said, still as patient as ever. "Why are you avoiding it?"

That sent her mind reeling. She flashed back to the test, Gabe poking her over and over and over. Like those stupid water drops. It was a bad idea to begin with. But Beck's onslaught had started once again.

Thunk, thunk, thunk. Tap, tap, tap.

Her brain wouldn't move off of that memory, the sensation of the anger building up in her chest and rising to her throat, almost cutting off her breath.

"Surprise, surprise. Avoiding it again."

She wanted that voice out of her head. Now. It was going to drive her insane.

Adara looked to Beck for help. He needed to say something, anything. Replace Gabe's condescending tone.

She looked into his eyes for a split second before his blue eyes morphed into Gabe's livid brown ones. They darkened quickly. He was so mad. And at her. She had to make it up to him.

The pinpricks kept coming, making her feel like she was going to explode into a fiery inferno of rage. The feeling built up, almost to its full capacity.

This was over. No more. "Stop it!" She screamed. Not more than a second later, she felt her limbs seize up with fear. Don't talk to him that way, she told herself. You just killed yourself.

She clenched her hands, digging her nails into her palm.

"If you ever, and I mean ever, speak to me that way again..."

"Adara! Come on, focus on me!"

"...you'll regret it..."

Beck's hands were on her shoulders, but she could only focus on Gabe's voice. "You're okay, I promise."

"...I promise you."

Everything about Beck was disappearing. His voice, his eyes, and now his hands. She felt them like she did that day, tightening on her shoulders.

"Do you understand me?"

"I understand, I understand. Please, I swear!" she said pleadingly. Gabe's hold on her was beginning to fade.

"Good."

At that very moment, she exploded. All of her anger, every feeling she'd kept under lock and key, came rushing out.

Her inferno had begun. Her entire body exploded into the flames that she had unknowingly suppressed.

He initial force of the blaze had forced Beck's hands off of her shoulders. She almost wanted them back, if only because they rooted her. She was almost euphoric in her fire.

But she was also more scared than she had ever been.

She'd used her fire only twice before now. Those little bits of exposure had been destructive. What would this do?

She knew that her Element was fire, but it felt like she was drowning in Beck's water. The fear was crushing. The fear of the unknown, the fear of herself.

Then Beck's hands were on her back, standing her up and turning her around. But it was as if her feet were glued to the floor; she wasn't going anywhere.

He must have realized that because his hands came off of her back. For some reason, the idea of him leaving her alone to burn was almost worse than him showing up in the first place.

Adara felt like she was floating. Her feet came out from under her, and she was no longer standing. She wondered, for the first time, if maybe she wasn't immune to her own fire. Would she be burned?

She was moving away from her spot in front of the couch. And she wasn't dying, she realized, which was a plus.

But where was she going?

That's when she felt the pressure under her knees. And neck. Someone was carrying her. Well, not someone.

Beck.

She felt herself being set down, and then there was cool ceramic on the backs of her legs, and then there was water washing over her, and then she was sitting in the tub, finally back to reality, coming off of her high.

She exhaled sharply and pulled a breath back in. She held it. What did she just do?

She looked to Beck whose head was hanging. "Beck?" Adara said tentatively.

The man in question sighed. The sound was defeated, broken, pained. "What did you see?" Beck asked, voice shaking.

"It..." she paused. He didn't need to know. "It was nothing."

He laughed sharply. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard, grating on her ears. "You just set yourself on fire. It wasn't nothing."

Adara but her lip hard, almost to the point of drawing blood. "It was nothing," she repeated.

Beck nodded and his mouth drew into a tight smile. He obviously didn't believe her- with good reason.

She was about to drop her head in shame when she saw them. Beck's arms were covered in blisters, shoulder to fingertip. "Beck..." she whispered. "I...I made those." Maybe it was supposed to be a question, but there was no question in her words. "I'm sorry."

A small smile came onto his face. "It was nothing," he said, clearly mocking her. His blue eyes were closed, and Adara thought that it was in disappointment. "But Adara?"

"Yeah?" she replied. Then she realized- it wasn't disappointment at all.

Her eyes widened and they both said, "Clothes."

"Oh, god, Beck, I'm so sorry. Shit, how did I not realize? I'm sorry. I'll go...I'll go get something. Stay here. I'll get something for your burns, too." Adara stumbled out of the bathroom, almost slipping on the hard tile.

She made it out to the living room without incident. Then the television switched on. She looked down to make sure that she hadn't stepped on the remote. She was about to yell to Beck, but the box started speaking.

"This is a mandatory public announcement..."