Nine

Ace’s first thought when he heard that Hibis had cut her training short by sending Alistair to the infirmary after a brawl was that Hibis wasn’t taking this seriously. Kaden exists to help out in the medical first aids. Why did he need Hibis to even tag along? It didn’t make sense…unless the girl had developed a small crush. That only sent his heart and mind spiralling even more.

He needed Hibis to understand that his parent’s prophecy and vision was at stake, and whatever enemy he needed to uncover was almost in front of him. Ace grumbled in frustration. Why did he even need her anyways? Nothing made sense.

His next thought was to get her away from Alistair asap.

“Hey,” Max nudged the boy. “You alright?” Ace jolted out of his thoughts. “I’m…fine,” he hesitated, then sighed. He had better get Hibis to return to her work station. Max trailed after Ace, who took off towards the infirmary in quick strides. The chubby boy had a hard time following along as he stumbled on his feet to catch up to his boss. “You seem to be dwelling on something. Is it because of what I told you? Is it about Hibis? And…ah,” Max coughed awkwardly. “Alistair?”

The words made Ace stop abruptly, leading Max to halt at the last minute and almost sending himself flying off his feet. “No!” He hurriedly shook the thought away, grimacing at the mere vision of it. “It’s just, I really need to know about my parent’s prophecy and Hibis is just wasting time dawdling with…her infatuation or whatever.” Ace fiddled with his pockets, glancing away from Max as his cheeks flushed for unbeknownst reasons. The asian boy smirked as he finally fell into step with Ace, grabbing a hold of the packet of popcorns at the Lounge along the way.

“No way. I’ve seen the way you look at her and talk to her. You’re probably the infatuated one,” Max snorted, passing a stunned Ace a piece of popcorn, then walking away, leaving Ace to gather his own thoughts.

Max could have been right, Ace thought. He didn’t know why he felt fuzzy all the time he was around her, or why he was jealous of the sudden quality time she was spending with Alistair. Besides, it’s not like it’s true she has taken a liking for him. Maybe she just cares for everybody. Either way, he couldn’t fall for her now. Not when he had just met her, not when he had a mission. Distracting himself was just plain wrong.

~

Hibis settled Alistair on the examination bed slowly as he thanked her, before leaving his side to study the X-Ray machine in front of the boy that Kaden was peering into. “Can’t you just use your X-Ray vision for this?” She asked him as he looked down at Alistair’s spinal cord.

“No. My element rate is only 5.6. It isn’t high enough to see better details, such as the ossicles. Besides, in missionary bases I don’t help out with first aid much, only for scanning through walls. Thus, we end up using this,” Kaden gestured to the bulging technology.

“I made it myself!” Alistair piped up from the bed before frowning. “I hadn’t intended to use it.”Hibis laughed at how quirky and calm he still was after injuring himself, not badly, but horrible enough. “What do you need me to do?” Hibis asked Kaden, and she went ahead to the medicinal cupboard, just as the boy had instructed her to. “Just some herbs. Do you know what to get?” He piped up from pressing several buttons.

“Yep,” she hummed as Hibis busied herself to grab the ingredients and materials.

Gathering Calendulas, Alistair watched Hibis grind them to make an ointment before rubbing them on his wounds with care before pouring bark oils on his cheek. Her eyes locked with the boy who stared up at her with silent admiration. “You’re so good at this…” the boy breathed, dreamy as he leaned into the palm of her hand, setting it aflame.

Hibis eyes widened and she looked away, the compliment seizing her heart and making it skip several beats. “My mother taught me. She taught me a lot of things.” The girl beamed with pride at the thought of her mum.

“Your mother seems to know a lot of things. Do you know where she learns them from?”

Hibis shrugged. She had never thought of that. “I’m really not sure, and she has never told me before. She just seems to have a gift of knowledge.”Now that I think of it, Hibis thought, it’s really strange. She couldn’t have gotten it from scouts either-she didn’t mention participating.

Alistair’s eyes twinkled. “I’d love to meet your mother one day.” Hibis smiled back warily. Kaden glanced in front to see the both of them smiling at each other and said, rather factually. “I thought you were Ace’s girlfriend.” At the mention of Ace’s name, both teenagers turned to look at the young adult in slight shock.

“N-no! We really just met a few weeks ago…We’re just friends,” Hibis blubbered at Kaden,whose eyes still darted between the two. He nodded. “Ah well, I do still ship you with A-oh, Nevermind,” he quickly looked away from Alistair’s stormy glare.

Just when things started going south, a girl stalked in. Hibis mouth went agape at the sight of her high heels and electrifying green hair that sparked out fuses. The girl held her head high and didn’t seem to notice the two teens in the corner as she headed towards Kaden. “K, dear, you’re going to make me fix the machine again if you keep tapping at the micro glass like that!” She chided to the man, making him look small.

“I know I know, lever’s on top instead of sideways…” Kaden groaned and adjusted his position. The girl nodded firmly, a smile peeking out from her rosy red lips before she turned to acknowledge Hibis and Alistair. “Oh,hello! Who are you two lovebirds?” She teased with no sign of embarrassment as compared to her boyfriend, who was having trouble trying not to look embarrassed as the tips of his ears blushed red.

Hibis waved the thought of Alistair and her together away, and introduced the both of them. “I’m Hibis, with the element of flight, and this is Alistair, my colleague.” She paused, then added. “You know, you’re very sassy. I like that.”

The green haired girl boss blinked, then laughed as she processed the words with ease. “Thank you very much dear, I see you’ve met my idiotic boyfriend Kaden…my name’s Embry, with the element of electricity. A pleasure to meet you,” she replied, striding forward to clasp Hibis’s hands and giving her a firm handshake, sending out static electricity passing through the two. Hibis jumped as the sparks ran through her, yet Embry gripped onto her hand anyways, oblivious.

Kaden stood at the machine, standing still, as if thinking back at something with his mouth grimaced. “Uh, Embry, could you help me examine Alistair? I’ll have to take Hibis for screen testing.” With that, he hurried forward and led her away from the two other people, who watched them scuttle away, speechless from the sudden change in Kaden’s demeanour. “See you later, Hibis!” Embry called out at the last minute before she turned back, tutting “He’s so strange.”

The man led Hibis behind solemn blue curtains to reveal a pad attached to the floor. Kaden gestured to Hibis to take the stand, and went ahead to the controller to set things up. “Stretch your arms out side to side,” Kaden instructed without looking up, his lips still frowning.

Hibis did as she was told, still puzzled by their sudden departure, then remembered what she wanted to say at first. “Embry…she’s eccentric,” the girl said, and watched as Kaden’s frown turned to a small smile that made his cheeks turn pink. “Yes…that’s why I love her.” He suddenly cleared his throat and looked up at Hibis with seriousness on his face.

“Alright, scanning. So, could you tell me what’s going on with you and Alistair?” He raised a brow, as if in the few minutes they had met each other, he already knew everything. Even Hibis couldn’t get the question, it startling her so much she could barely hold her simple position. “Excuse me,” Hibis stuttered. “Nothing is happening between us. Why would you think that?” Despite having nothing to hide, the girl’s cheeks turned red. No doubt she was thinking about when she first met him.

“You shouldn’t like him a lot. You still have Ace to think about. From what I’ve heard, he’s seriously into you. Alright, turn to your left.” Kaden waited for Hibis to turn 90 degrees before scanning her and babbling “If you don’t like him back, he’ll seriously be crushed. Poor boy’s been lonely most of his life. He always keeps his feelings to himself, mostly, and everyone adores his workmanship, but dude’s always alone. I-don’t you want to be the one to brighten his life?” He said the last sentence so fast slight smoke seemed to billow out of his nostrils as he stared down at the marble floor.

Hibis was stunned. She didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how this escalated, didn’t know how Ace could have been like this before she met him. The silence between Hibis and Kaden was so long that the only thing that was interrupted was the beeping to signal that the screening was over, and with that, Kaden collected the results and beckoned Hibis out.

As Hibis left the infirmary, she thought about what Kaden had said. To be the one to light up Ace’s life? What did that particularly mean? She didn't know how she felt about Ace, and it was a little too fast…

She came here to learn and explore about herself, to help Ace with the rescuing of peace for elemental people. It wasn’t for love.