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[hider=Underneath the Sycamore by Death Cab for Cutie][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNmzXCGFHYI[/youtube][/hider][/center][hr]

Two days later, Aaron still felt low. He woke up, did his usual morning routine, and locked himself in his workshop for three hours. Lily hadn't returned his calls. He tried to throw himself into his work, floating each candle individually between his hands and molding it by feel into the shape he desired. He completed the candles for three chandeliers, two candles decorated with an image of a rooster, and a set for a nearby church. At lunch, he ate in his workshop. Katie knocked on the door, but he didn't answer. He could hear her standing outside the door for a few minutes. Then she walked away to greet a customer. Aaron sent an email to his therapist. 

[i]Dr. Wright, 

Things have gotten bad again. Do you have any openings for next Monday? 

- Aaron[/i] 

At two PM, Aaron came out of his workshop and manned the cash register. He didn't talk much. He could tell after a while that the regulars knew when he was in a bad mood. He wasn't sure if that uplifted him or depressed him further. There were very few people that had come in today, given the gloomy weather on a day like Wednesday. Anybody outside their homes were likely at work or at lunch, so every time a door opened and the bell rang, Aaron would peek out from behind the counter. This time, he saw the familiar face of the blonde Polish girl who had helped him three nights ago.

Andrea was pacing through the small store, taking in al the smells and appraising all of the handiwork placed on the shelves. All of the colors and scented oils were almost dizzying, yet she also found them relaxing to a degree. She looked back down at the watch on the underside of her wrist and picked up the pace to the counter where she found Aaron sitting behind the register. She greeted him with a smile that looked only relieved.

"Oh, Andrea!" Aaron said. "I-I didn't expect you to come in!" He almost looked shocked, like he was going to fall off of his stool, prompting lighthearted laughter from Andrea.

"Cześć!" She said with a wave of her hand. "I wanted to check in on you after... you know."

"Oh, yeah, right," Aaron replied. "It's been tough. I'm not too, uh, good under pressure, if you couldn't tell." He smiled a bit and looked down at the cash register. 

"No?" Andrea joked, looking slyly down at the man his chair. "Why don't you tell me all about it?"

Aaron visibly tensed and closed his eyes. He sniffled a bit, but he could keep it under control. In the moment Aaron's anxiety began flaring up once again, Andrea just smiled and put her hand up reassuringly, "I'm sorry, I was just kidding. You don't have to worry about it."

"I guess you deserve to know, considering you had to deal with it," Aaron said. "I uh, actually do you mind coming back into the workshop?" He pointed towards the wooden door behind the counter. "I'd rather not...you know, let the whole world know." 

"I, ah... sure." Andrea agreed. Though it wasn't without some nervousness; while she did help him a few days back, she still had only just met him. Still, he appeared harmless and didn't seem to bear any ill intent toward her - and perhaps he deserved to be treated with understanding. Perhaps her trepidation was also just from her own... [i]experiences.[/i] She looked back down at her watch anxiously. Musing with some awkwardness, she said, "Just so you know, I can't stay too long. Maybe fifteen minutes left? I actually took my lunch break to come here."

"Oh, uh, yeah. Of course," he said. He opened the door and walked in, Andrea following close behind. He realized that maybe a young woman would be nervous walking into a back room with a strange man. He tapped his fingers on the table and thought of how to speak. It was tough talking about his anxieties, especially with people he didn't know too well. [i]'I need to do this. I can't just keep being afraid.'[/i] 

"So basically," he began. "I, uh, have this thing called...panic disorder. When I'm outside around lots of people, I tend to, well, not do so well. I start having the kinds of symptoms you saw the other day, like, no I don't need to list them. You get the idea." He paused a minute. This was tougher than he thought. "It doesn't help either that I have, y'know, I'm not the same as most people." He couldn't push himself to blurt out about his abilities. That was too much, perhaps. 

"You feel like there's a crushing weight on your chest and you can't breathe." She said. "That the room got ten degrees hotter and that the whole world is staring at you? All of your thoughts come out at once?"

Aaron's mouth hung agape. 

"Uh, yeah," he said. "It's like that. It's, well, it's exactly like that." 

"I,um... I felt it. You know..." Andrea pointed between him and herself. "I felt a lot of it."

"Oh, is that how that works?" He asked. "I didn't want to pry. I wasn't sure what was happening." 

"Oh no, it's fine!" She said in trying her best to resassure him. "It helped you, didn't it? And, like, I like to think I'm pretty good at handling that sort of thing."

"You helped a lot, yeah," Aaron said. He paused and looked down at his hands. They were getting a little cold and small cracks formed on his knuckles. He clenched his fists a bit and the cracks disappeared. "So you probably figured this out too, huh?" His skin bubbled a bit at the mentioning. 

"At first, no." Andrea admitted. "I knew you had a power, I just didn't know what. Now that your head is clear, I can tell that you're made of wax. You know, not nearly enough metahumans use their powers to actually make something of themselves. It's either fighting [i]this[/i] guy, or comitting [i]that[/i] crime... I'm glad you got find something you love out of it."

"I can't hurt people," Aaron said. "I absolutely hate seeing people get hurt. When I was at the Academy, most kids around fantasized about being super heroes or RAVEN agents. I didn't want any of that. I stayed away from them and worked on my art. Now I have this shop, and every day I do work that makes me happy." Aaron lifted his arms up and bubbles of glowing red wax lifted away from his skin. It floated between his hands, changing shape and color as he stared down at it. He stood up and more bubbles floated off of him. They hovered in the air and then began orbiting him like moons around a massive planet. He brought all of the bubbles together into one large orb between his hands. He hadn't showed off in years. It was actually quite fun, so fun that he forgot the door was open. He brought most of the wax back onto his skin, and it solidified. What remained he stared down at until it morphed into a birdlike shape. 

"Wax is quite delicate," he said. "It can melt and break easily, but when some time and effort is put into it," he finished a beautiful eagle and it floated into the air. "It can become quite beautiful." 

"I went to the academy, too." Andrea said absentmindedly as she pleasantly stared at the wax sculpture. "I also went to a real college. I can tell you from experience that their curriculum wasn't that great. Half the purpose of the academies are to serve as pipelines to DOVE and RAVEN. Don't get me wrong, the Academy - they've done [i]wonderful[/i] things for me, but... they got me into thinking that being an intern for DOVE was my best option and now I'm not so sure."

"You seem to be very good at it," Aaron said. "I was in a bad place and you gave me the support I needed to hold myself together. There's a lot of people in this world who could use that, especially people like us." The eagle floated down into his hand. He focused hard to try and make it move, but to no avail. He hadn't yet mastered making wax objects move like animals. 

"My time is almost up." She said after short while. "I might just buy a couple of candles on my way out, Aaron. They're goreous."

"Uh, thanks," he said. "I appreciate that. I work hard on them. Would you like to keep this?" He held the eagle out. 

"It's lovely," said Andrea, but her hands were held out in refusal, "but like you said, you work hard on them. You know what they say how if you're good at something, never do it for free?" She could have rolled her eyes for not following her own advice. She patted her pockets and continued, "Besides, all I can spare to spend is on some of the little ones and I don't have a lot of space in my apartment anyways, so it works out."

"Oh, alright," Aaron said. The eagle melted back into a ball of wax. "So, what can I get you?"