[IC] Those Closest

[Midna-Phobia]

As Kaya continued to dodge and avoid Ashley’s attacks she was beginning to become aware that she was going to have to do something. The match wasn’t going to end until one of the parties was considered incapacitated and that didn’t sound overly pleasant to her. She wasn’t going to hurt Ashley, that went without saying. But she could think of plenty of ways to incapacitate her. She just needed a few seconds. All her Alchemy relied on her having some kind of alchemic circle drawn and activating it. However things like that took time. If they were rushed then there was a chance it could backfire on her.

Ashley probably knew this; she wasn’t giving her much time to do anything. Small ice particles continued to be fired at her and Kaya continued to dodge as best she could. A few passed far too close for her liking, grazing her arms, legs and face and leaving small red marks as blood pooled to the surface. Taking a risk she quickly made her mark in the ground at her feet, they were in some weird, rocky dirt terrain so she was easily able to draw things without the need of a marker. It was quick, Kaya having done it with her foot as she moved around. Hopefully Ashley hadn't even noticed it.

Bryant would probably recognise this circle. It was one she used to heal him, a kind of variant to her usual alchemy that acted very differently to the normal stuff and could be used in very unique ways. Moving with a lot more intent now she quickly rushed at Ashley, which seemed to catch the girl off guard and the two moved to a more close range fight, Kaya only lingered love enough to make her marks before retreating, Ashley seeming to prefer to fire at her from a distance rather than give chase.

Once back at her original location she quickly placed her hands on the first mark, causing a small explosion right beside Ashley, sending her sprawling to the ground. Taking a moment Kaya took out a pen and quickly drew something down on her hand. As the other girl began her composure Kaya placed her hands on the ground, which began glowing and sparking before the earth around Ashley began moving and changing, growing around her to encase her in a kind of hardened dirt cocoon where only her head was visible. Looking back as she was declared winner Kaya simply stood and left the arena. This was about as stupid and pointless as she had expected it to be.

[Kaore]

Bryant was glad that Kaya hadn't been hurt. He was also quite impressed a t what she had done to her opponent. It was very cool how she had trapped the girl in earth like that. And she didn't even seem to be trying very hard. What could she do if she actually tried to figth back? He bet she could be amazing.

As she came closer he wondered if he should congratualte her. He knew she thought this was a waste of time and energy but she had done well. She could get mad at him in either situation and he wasn't sure what he should do. Eventually he decided that it would be better to congratulate her he smiled.

"Hey Kaya. Good job out there." He said calmly "I know you don't like doing this kind of thing but you did well. Your plan was great and you pulled it off wonderfully. She never saw it coming."

He meant every word he said. She knewhe wasn't the type to flatter someone and was quite truthful about his opinions.

[Midna-Phobia]

Kaya looked to Bryant as he congratulated her and she blushed slightly before shrugging. "Thanks." She said, deciding to just accept the compliment rather than try to dismiss it. She had done a good job, as stupid as she thought the exercise was. "I had an unfair advantage though. Ashley had never seen me use my powers. I've had years of watching her fight to know how she was going to act." She also knew how Cody fought and Bryant too but she'd never offered to give him any advice. He fought off instinct and feel. A methodical approach would just mess him up.

As they made their way back to the benches she paused besides the teacher who had just instructed the next pair to get ready. "If you make me do that again I'll be lodging an official complaint." Kaya warned before she moved to sit down, wiping off the pen from the back of her hand. She had been lucky. Too many things could have worked against her fighting Ashley. As much as she had a plan, a strategy and was able to roughly predict the other girls movements there were so many things that could have disrupted her plan. It was nice to hear Bryant say she'd done a good job though, it didn't happen often.

[Kaore]

"Hopefully Mr. Steele understands that you don't like to participate in this class." Bryant stated.

He was now trying to work up the courage to invite Kaya out to eat burgers after school got out... not like ona date but as friends. He'd like it if she would go on a date date with him but he didn't think she liked him that way. She would probably prefer a smarter more normal person to date instead of someone with powers. He could easily see her going on to live a normal life out of highschool instead of going on to become a hero.

The thought made him depressed. He would be a hero that traveled around while she would settle down into a normal life... without him. He didn't think he could ask her anymore. He was far to down to even try. Why did he have to think about that! It didn't help him gain confidence! It did the opposite! Now he just wanted to go home and be by himself... maybe play a video game or watch some of his anime dvds.

[Midna-Phobia]

Kaya pouted slightly at the remark. "Oh he better understand." She knew enough that she was certain she could get him removed from being their teacher of he continued to force her to fight. Usually Kaya didn't use her intellect for evil, but when the situation presented itself where she was being forced to participate in activities that were against her beliefs then it became a very personal matter and there were no limits. There was a loud shout from the crowd as something obviously violent happened and she turned to look to Bryant, who seemed zoned out and kind of sad looking.

"Hey... You okay?" She asked gently, placing a hand gently on his shoulder and attempting to look into his eyes. "What's got you looking so sad? Worried I could maybe beat you in a fight now?" Of course she could never bring herself to fight Bryant, fighting itself went against her beliefs but to fight her best friend... Never. However she doubted her lame attempt at a joke was helping. She never had been exceptionally funny. The strange thing it had been so sudden too. He had seemed happy when he'd congratulated her on winning. What was he thinking about?

[Kaore]

"I'm fine and if I lost to you I wouldn't be upset." He told her "I'ld be proud. Your not a fighter but I am. If you beat me then that meant you were very good at planning things out on the fly."

He would never fight Kaya. If she had been selected as his opponent then he would have forfeit before even going into the ring... that or simply left the class for the day. He never wanted to see her hurt and it would kill him if he was the one who hurt her.

"Just thinking about... stupid things. Future stuff thats not important." He explained "What we're going to do after we graduate."

He began trying to work up the courage to ask her again. Just because she wanted a normal life didn't mean she wouldn't want to be with him. He would most definitely be around more often then her father was. He'd make sure to come back to her and spend large amounts of time with her... and their kids. He wasn't sure if the thoughts of him having a child with Kaya brought a blush to his face but he hoped it didn't.

[Midna-Phobia]

Kaya looked at him curiously. “That’s not stupid at all.” She said, thinking she was being supportive and helpful. “I read something once… ‘the future is as close as tomorrow’ or something like that. I guess what they were trying to say is don’t dismiss the future because you think you’ll never get there. It’s only a year left until you graduate… you’ll be surprised how quickly the time passes.” The second part of his statement made her frown slightly and she looked to him again. “Do you know what you’re going to do after you graduate? Have you really thought about it?”

Personally she knew exactly what she’d like to do. It didn’t mean it was going to happen, not without a lot of work certainly and Kaya was also aware that plan will change and was very open to this fact. If something came along that veered her off the path she had set out for herself then she’d happily let it lead her astray. Worst case and it didn’t work out she could return to her original path later. Best case she found something that made her even happier. She figured it was important to take things in life as they came. Who knew, maybe today’s fight was the start of something and she just didn’t realise yet.

[Kaore]

"Time moving quickly is the problem." Bryant replied calmly "I know what I want to do in the future... what I want to be my future."

He wanted to be with Kaya. And he wanted her to want to be with him. He didn't really know what Kaya really wantd though and that was what made him so indecisive. He thought sh ewanted a normal life but he wasn't sure... maybe he should ask her?

"I'm going to be a Hero. But I want to have a family with someone I truly love with all my heart. I want to be there for them instead of being gone all the time like your dad is. I'll be there for them!" He said resolutely before looking at Kaya "What about you? What do you want for your future?"

Would her words give him some kid of hope that he could have his dream? Or would she dash them without even knowing it?

[Midna-Phobia]

Kaya quickly held up her finger, giving Bryant a look that was partially glare partially something else. “Seriously, quit dissing my family. I know they’re not perfect, but they could be a lot worse. Say anything bad about them again and I may have to renounce my vow of pacifism to kick your butt.” Her tone wasn’t threatening, but it was serious. Having that out of the way she shrugged slightly at his question to her. “It’s nothing fancy.” She dismissed casually. “Just… promise not to laugh okay?” She asked, giving him another serious look. This was a really personal thing for her, it’d hurt a lot if he made fun of her dreams.

“I’d really like to teach alchemy. I mean it has so much potential! And I don’t even mean for fighting super villains. Think about what it could do for the medical industry! Construction! A competent alchemist could create a building in a day with all the materials provided.” She understood why it wasn’t taught, alchemy could be used for a lot of evil. But without the materials provided there would be no way someone would just be able to stumble across those kinds of things. And, as far as she knew, her family was one of the only alchemists left in the world.

[Kaore]

"Sorry sorry!" He said quickly "I'll try and avoid talking about your old man!"

He wouldn't talk about her father anymore since he wasn't sure he could keep his disdain for her father down. He smiled though when he heard what her dream was. It didn't preclude the possibility of them having a possible relationship. It made him feel more confident and he took a deep breath.

"Hey Kaya." He said with a false tone of confidence "Would you like to get a burger after school?"

How would she react? Would she reject him or accept his invitation? Would she be happy he asked or would she be uncomfortable with the thought? Would she think that he wanted to go out as frineds or as something more? He most definitely wanted something more then a relationship as friends.

If she said yes then he would have to try and keep his emotions in check, otherwise she may realise how exstatic he would be. It would be difficult since he usually wore his emotions on his sleeve but he was sure he could do this successfully.

[Midna-Phobia]

“Damn straight you will.” She said with a gentler smile, having resolved the issue. His second question surprised her a little, because usually they just hung out at each other’s houses after school. However it wasn’t such a strange request that she really had to think about it. “Sure, sounds nice.” She said with another gentle smile. “Oh hey, that actually reminds me, my mum is going out of town this weekend for a business thing.” She then quickly pointed at him with a threatening look, warning him not to say anything bad about her mother because of it.

“Anyway, she won’t be home Saturday night, so do you wanna have dinner with me somewhere? I still can’t cook to save my life and there’s this cute little café place a couple of blocks away from my house?” She asked, either way she didn’t overly mind, she just didn’t really feel like sitting at home on her own on a Saturday night. “I mean… we don’t have to go out if you don’t wanna, I can order pizza or something.” She also offered.

[Kaore]

Bryant was ecstatic, on the inside, at her accepting his invitation. He wondered if she would want to do anything with him at a later date. Then she asked him to go to dinner with her. Was this an invitation to go on an actual date? Or was it just as friends? He assumed it was just as friends judging by her comment on her mother leaving town.

He had no problems against that. He just didn't like how her father was rarely around his family. Her mother was around almost all the time and he knew her quite well. He liked Kaya's mother and her mother was friends with his own. HE would never speak poorly about Kaya's mother.

"Unlike your dad I actually like your mom." He told her in a matter of fact tone "And I wouldn't mind going to a Cafe with you for dinner on saturday... do they have good food?"

He had an idea about what Cafe she was talking about, they did live next door to eachother after all.

[Midna-Phobia]

“Mum and I go there on Saturdays for bunch.” Kaya informed him with a small smile. It was this weird little thing they’d done for a long time, since she’d graduated primary school really. This was probably going to be one of the first Saturdays they wouldn’t have brunch together in a long time. “I’ve never really had dinner there before… but yeah the food is usually really good.” She said with a happy tone. She was glad, secretly, that he’d agreed to go out with her. It wasn’t like a date or anything, but it was nice to know he was happy to do things like this with her.

In all honesty she didn’t really see Bryant as someone who went out to fancy places where you had to dress up nicely. He seemed like someone who would be more comfortable going to a burger place or ordering pizza in. So she figured he was only doing it to make her happy, which was still a really nice gesture. “Oh that reminds me I’ve got another bunch of flowers for you to take home when we’re done with the burgers.” She informed him. Her mother ran a florist, a very fitting job for someone with plant powers. Some may call it cheating, her mother referred to it as ‘natural selection’.

[Kaore]

His mother would be happy to get those flowers. She enjoyed gardening and things like that which he could understand due to her love of nature. She often ordered flowers for her garden from Summers, Kaya's mother, flower shop. He would haappily go with her to the cafe for dinner on saturday.

"I would be happy to eat with you on saturday!" He said happily,

He wondered if he should dress up a bit for the meal. He wouldn't normally do so but this was Kaya he was talking about. She had asked him to go to nice cafe and he would dress accordingly. If it had been for any other reason other then eating with Kaya then he wouldn't bother dressing up. But that was still a week away so he could decide what to wear then. That was when the bell rang signalling the next class.

"Hey Kaya... what class did we have next?" He asked sheepishly "I kind of... forgot."

[Midna-Phobia]

Kaya rolled her eyes as she stood up, helping Bryant to his feet before scooping up her own books. “Seriously? You expect me to know what class you have next when you don’t know it yourself? They gave you your class schedule on a piece of paper this morning during home room. Don’t tell me you’ve lost it already?” She sighed again, rolling her eyes once more. “You’ve probably got another elective, I know I do. Probably metal work… shop or something like that?” She asked, taking a rather educated guess. The class rosters were pretty much the same as last year, some people just had a subject or two less.

Kaya herself wished she could have picked up a class or two but her schedule was already full and that had been after she’d had to let go some of the classes she’d wanted to do. She had advanced chemistry herself. It was a shame, she sometimes thought to herself, that Bryant and herself had turned out so differently. She didn’t like him any less for it but sometimes she wished she had someone in class who wanted to be her partner because they actually liked her and not because she was smart or someone she could have intellectual conversations with.

[Kaore]

Laughing in embarrassment Bryant quickly began searching through his bag. He had only looked at the schedule once before classes started and when Power Practical came around he got so ecited that he ha forgotten what came next. Finding the sheet of paper he looked it over and saw that he had Metal shop next followed by Advanced Martial arts.

The school itself wasn't an ordanary school and, while it did have normal students, it also had the 'Hero School' which was a secret to evryone but a few special goverment agencies. They had a powerful psychic who could alter the memories f anyone who found out about the secret part of the school.

"I have Metal Shop followed by Advanced martial arts." He told her "After that I have Hero Morality."

He understood the purpose of that class but he wasn't exactly good at it. It said that killing should be avoided at all costs but, in his mind, it was often unavoidable in a heated fight. Villains weren't held back by such morality most of the time and he felt that he shouldn't be either... at least in some aspects.

"Hero Morlity sucks." He muttered "I get the point but it just makes things harder most of the time."

(Thinking of doing skip ahead to either the Morality class or the end of classes.)

[Midna-Phobia]

“If I had any classes spare you know I’d join you.” She informed him earnestly. Kaya often wished she had more classes with Bryant, but classes that were relevant to her and her future came before spending time with friends. Besides, she got to see him enough outside of school; they lived next door to each other for pity’s sake. “Anyway I’ll see you after school kay?” She said, giving him a small smile as she quickly headed off towards her next class, quickly disappearing amongst the crowd. The last part of the day went quicker than the first part had.

She was contently sitting outside, on the stone guard on one side of the steps leading up to the building. She figured this was as good a place as any to wait for Bryant; it was about where she usually sat anyway. Despite all the noise it was nice to be able to watch all the people as they passed. There was a group kicking around a football, a group or girls walked past her giggling like lunatics. Things like that. Normal things. She doubted she’d ever wish to be normal, especially since her abilities were so easy to control. But it didn’t mean she wanted an extraordinary life either.

[Kaore]

(I just remembered that he used his powers in a hallway earlier. Gonna say that was part of the secret school underground.)

Bryant was now rather angry as he stomped out of the front door. He got into a heated debate in his Hero Morality class with his teacher about how to deal with rapists. He wanted to hurt them and possibly just kill them but his teacher insisted that he should just disable them and leave them for the Police. Bryan almost got a detention for that but managed to avoid it by finally deciding to stop arguing.

As he moved outside the crowd of students moved aside to let him pass, afraid of the fierce scowl on his face. He saw Kaya and made his way over before sitting down rather heavily next to her, grumbling angrily about stupid teachers and cursing under his breath. He had tried to calm down several times for the rest of that class as well as on his way out but only succeeded in making himself angrier.

[Midna-Phobia]

“Hey!” Kaya snapped instantly as Bryant started mumbling and cursing, whacking him gently on the shoulder. “You’re not allowed to be like that now.” She hated when he got in moods like this and had told him before that she had no interest in being around him when he was like that; it sapped all the fun out of everything. Rolling her eyes with a groan she slipped off the wall and pulled the boy with her. “Come on, school’s over now. You promised me burgers and I am not going to sit there and listen to you complain the entire time.”

Taking the boy by his arm, wrapping her own around it she began leading him off towards the burger place. “Besides, teachers aren’t as smart as they like to think they are.” She tried to console him as they walked, not bothering to let her arms drop until Bryant seemed satisfactorily calmed down. “I’ve corrected mine a bunch of times.” She still wasn’t entirely sure what had gotten him so aggravated in the first place besides ‘stupid teachers’. It could have been any number of things really so for now that was all she could offer him in terms of solace. Talking about it would probably only make it worse anyway.

[Kaore]

He took a deep breath to calm down andfinally succeeded. He always was always able to calm down from even the most serious of rages when around Kaya. She just seemed to ooze a calming aura that affected him quite strongly. He just couldn't stay mad around the girl and he believed that was a sign.

"Sorry Kaya." He said after a few breaths "I'm not doing well in Hero Morality. The teacher doesn't understand that in a fight its either you or your opponent. Also some crimes deserve worse punishments."

He wouldn't just kill a common criminal unless aid criminal was threatening the life of an innocent and even then he'd just be aiming to disable. He wanted to be a hero... but he suspected he wouldn't be a great hero due to his convictions.