"Dad?" Storm said as he entered the kitchen, with his bag slung across his shoulder.

Gray Fullbuster (who was shirtless of course) was frying up some sort of clumpy concoction over the stove.

"Morning." The man said as he eyed whatever he was cooking.

It was unusual for him to see his dad at this time in the morning. Usually he'd still be asleep or at work already.

"I uh... decided to take the day off today." Gray said, answering the question Storm was just about to ask.

"Cool." Storm shrugged as he approached his dad's side. He looked down at what was on the stove and frowned. "What the hell is that?"

"Pancakes."

"It doesn't look like pancakes."

"Okay, it's just unspecified food then I guess."

"It tastes nasty. I'd hardly call it food."

"Fine, it's something that's mildly edible."

Storm stifled his laughter at his father's obvious struggle to cook food. "Where's mom? She could make actual pancakes that didn't look like clumps of coal."

Gray sighed. "She wanted to stay in bed a little longer today." He said, furrowing his brows and looking more frustrated than usual. "Also, you can stay home today too if you want."

"Nah I gotta help someone at school today. There's a test and she's gonna fail without me." Storm said, packing his bag with actual food that was edible.

"You sure?" His dad was looking at him now, an unusual intensity hidden behind his somewhat calm demeanour.

Storm frowned. "Yeah..."

His father paused for a moment before shaking his head. "Okay, have a good day."

Why was his dad actually so weird today? Something was off and Storm had no clue what it was.

___________

At school...

Storm stared blankly at the girl in front of him, wondering how he even got in this position.

With a nervous laugh, he rubbed the back of his neck. "Come again?" He asked, maintaining a friendly aura.

Still holding the piece of paper out to him, the girl's cheeks went pink. "It's my number. We should hang out sometime..." She said, anxiously.

Storm stared at her again in disbelief. He was pretty sure he had never met or talked to the girl before and yet, for some reason she was interested in him. Over the past month though, he had noticed ever since he had changed his attitude to be more positive, girls seemed to notice him.

He took the paper from the girl. "Sure... but I'm pretty busy after school so I don't know if I'll be free any time soon."

With a smile, the flustered girl just nodded. "It's okay, I'll wait." She stared at him for a few moments before quickly scurrying away.

"This is so weird..." He said, with a sigh as he tucked away the number into his bag.

Storm didn't necessarily mind the attention. It actually inflated his ego a bit... But deep down, he knew they were just interested in the part of him that he found hard to keep up sometimes.

"Ice Princess!"

Storm sighed. "I really hate that nickname." He muttered under his breath.

He turned to see to a pink haired girl running towards him. When she finally got in front of him, she was huffing and heaving, trying to catch her breath.

"What took you so long? I said to be here earlier." He chastised, looking down at her with arms crossed over his chest.

"Geez calm your tatas, I had to run all the way here." Nashi panted.

Storm just rolled his eyes at her. Even with his attitude change, she was still annoying to him. But maybe just MAYBE, she grew on him a little bit more than he was willing to admit. He opened up his bag and pulled out a sandwich, handing it to Nashi.

"What's this for?" She asked, quizzically.

"You shouldn't be taking exams on an empty stomach." Storm informed her casually. "And I'm assuming you skipped breakfast like usual."

Nashi opened her mouth to argue (just for the sake of arguing) but just shrugged. "Thanks." Her face lit up and lips curled into a smile that reminded him of sunshine and just genuine happines-

Ah shit...

Quickly Storm whipped around, not liking the feeling of heat rising to his cheeks. "Cmon, let's get to the library. We'll only have half an hour to revise before the exam though." He said, stuffing his hands in his pockets and walking in the direction of the library.

Nashi quickly sped up to his side, carefully peeling the plastic wrap from the sandwich. "You know, if you were this nice to me from the beginning, I wouldn't have threatened to beat you up lol." She said, with her usual upbeat attitude. "Or make a vow to totally punch you in the face after graduation." She added, laughing to herself.

"Yeah yeah whatever." Storm muttered. "Did you go over the notes I gave you?"

Taking a bite of the sandwich, she nodded. "Yeah and I tried to do the problems as well." A dark aura emanated from Nashi now. "But then I got every single one of them wrong."

"Oh Mavis..." Storm rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Teaching Nashi was by far the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life.

"Hey, don't look like that! I tried!" She barked seeing his frustration. "I just don't get why circles need pie and why they called it pie because I really like pie and when I see it I get hungry-" She started rambling on and Storm just took a deep breath.

To be honest, he did find Nashi's commitment to studying admirable. He was glad she had grown from someone who absolutely hated class work to someone who put so much effort into trying to understand the criteria.

"I'm proud of you, Nashi." Storm said, with an amused chuckle.

The pink haired girl froze in her spot, choking on her food. "Ack!" She started coughing abruptly.

Storm's went wide eyed in panic as he patted her on the back frantically. "Chew your damn food!"

Once her airways were free again, she pushed him away. "Then don't go saying crazy stuff like that. It caught me off guard!" She sputtered.

When Storm saw the pink tint on her cheeks , he couldn't help but feel a bit accomplished on the inside.

"I'm just glad you're not wasting my time." He said, as they continued walking.

Nashi was silent for a moment, running a hand through her hair. "I'm doing it because I want to prove you wrong." She said, oddly in a quiet voice. "I'm gonna graduate this year."

Storm had forgotten that he said that and he didn't like the guilt he felt in his stomach.

Returning back to her more confident self, Nashi clenched her fist in front of her. "And also this is the last time I get to prove that I'm the best damn dragon slayer any school has ever seen." She declared with her signature grin. "Both can't happen if I keep failing classes."

Storm looked at the ground with furrowed brows. He couldn't remember the last time, he felt passionate about something like Nashi did about school. After his sister died, everything felt so meaningless and there were so many nights where he felt like whatever he did, none of it mattered in the end. And so in a way, he envied her.

"If you get a C or higher, I'll show you something cool." He found himself saying to Nashi without thinking it through properly.

Nashi raised her brow at him. "What's the something?"

"You'll find out if you get a C or higher." He said.

"Just tell me now!"

"Why? Don't you think you can get a C?"

"No, I-I can totally do that!"

"Then I'll show you when you do." Storm said with a nod.

___________

After a half an hour of going through math problems, Storm was confident that Nashi wasn't going to fail. She definitely wasn't going to ace the test but he could see her get at least a passing grade.

Well... he was hopeful she would get a passing grade.

The rest of the school day went by monotonously. He couldn't help but feel his friends were being extra... mindful around him.

"Storm, wait up!" Rose had called out to him when he was walking through the corridors.

"Ahh okay?" He said halting his step until she was by his side.

Now, Storm considered Rose a friend. Being best friends with Hunter since middle school meant they saw each other a lot, especially during sleepovers over the Fernandez household. But outside of those times, they hardly conversed, mainly due to her not having the time and him making no effort whatsoever. So it was strange for her to just call out to him randomly.

The red haired girl was clutching her books to her chest. "Where are you off to?" She asked.

"To the library. I have a free period." He answered nonchalantly. He was planning on taking a nap in one of the non-fiction aisles no one ever goes to.

"Well, I'll walk you there." Rose said. It came out more like a demand than she probably intended.

Storm shrugged it off and just continued walking with her. "So how's you and Gale? You guys dating yet?" He casually said, without putting much thought into his words.

Her eyes darted to him with a fiery glare that made a shiver travel through his spine. "Come again?" She growled through a twitching sinister smile that Storm knew not to trust.

The Fullbuster chuckled nervously, putting his hands up in surrender. "I-I m-mean, the weather is really nice today am I right!?" He stuttered quickly changing the subject.

Rose sighed, letting her anger dissolve into more of a flustered state. "Sorry..." She muttered to him. "Alexis keeps bringing that stupid idea into my head and I'm starting to... I don't know."

It would take an idiot to not see that Rose and Gale liked each other. Which would probably make the both of them idiots since they were oblivious to that fact. It was pretty ironic to Storm seeing as they were two of the smartest people he knew.

"Even though I like that you're happier than usual, I'm here for you if you ever need it." Rose suddenly said, changing the subject entirely away from her.

"Uh yeah thanks I'll... um remember that." Storm said rubbing the back of his head.

That was a weird thing to say out of the blue, he thought to himself. It was a few minutes of comfortable small talk before they had arrived at the library.

"Thanks for walking me here." Storm said with a smile to which Rose just nodded.

"It's alright. I just wanted make sure you were okay." With that, Rose was already off to wherever she was going which Storm noted was in the direction they had just came from.

Weird...

___________

"Frozen yogurt for my favourite Fullbuster." Alexis cheered as she handed the delicious dessert to him.

Ignoring the fact he was probably the only Fullbuster she knew, Storm took frozen yogurt rather excitedly.

"Thanks Lexi!" He said, with a bright grin.

Alexis wasn't a stranger to randomly getting everyone a snack at the Magic League classes so he thought nothing of it. What wasn't particularly normal was that look she was giving him. It was the same kind that Rose was doing earlier.

"If you need anything, just let me know okay?" She said cheerfully wrapping her arms around him in an impromptu hug as he tried to pry open the frozen yogurt cartoon.

"Yeah I will..." He said with hesitation that seemed to melt away when he shoved a spoonful of the yogurt in his mouth. "Man, this is good."

Alexis just nodded and withdrew her arms from him, just leaning against his shoulder now.

"Did you get me anything?" Hunter questioned. He was sitting below Storm and Alexis on the bleachers.

"Nope." Alexis answered curtly, her bubbly attitude not faltering for a second. "Unfortunately you're not my favourite Fernandez."

Storm snorted when Hunter rolled his eyes in annoyance. Guess he wasn't so used to being second place.

"Alexis!" Principal Dreyar called out.

"Coming!" The blonde chirped, quickly going to her father's side.

And so the two boys just watched as Gale was getting ready for his up and coming practice match. He was sparring with Rose who certainly was not going easy on him. Storm had lost count of how many times Gale had fallen on his ass thanks to his reluctance to touch Rose in an awkward way that would give him the upper hand.

"Hey Storm, you're good right?" Hunter said looking up at him with furrowed brows.

There it was again. That look that told him that he was missing something.

Storm blinked. "Yeah..." He said, poking at his frozen yogurt now. "Why're you asking me something like that?"

"Cause you're my best friend and I care." Hunter simply said as he resumed watching over Gale and Rose's sparring.

Storm was silent, still utterly confused as to why everyone was acting so strange.

Now that he thought about it, even Gale had opted not to bury himself behind books during the day like he usually did. The iron dragon slayer was just always by his side and when he wasn't Hunter was there and when he wasn't, Rose had suddenly popped up.

Before he could think further about the weird predicament, Nashi burst into room, racing directly to Principal Dreyar, a sheet of paper in her hands.

"Look look look!" Nashi shouted excitedly, shoving the paper in the man's face.

Principal Dreyar and Alexis who was beside him at the time, looked at the paper intently. Even Gale and Rose has taken a moment to see what the fuss was about.

After a few seconds of reading, a grin spread across Principal Dreyar's lips.

"That's what I'm talking about Nashi!" He gave Nashi a fierce high five as the pink haired girl jumped with excitement.

"She got a B-." Alexis whispered to Gale and Rose and then suddenly they were clapping and joining in on Nashi's excitement.

Because no one had really expected her to pass the first time.

"I got a big brain full of knowledge." Nashi said smugly. She turned to Storm, pointing her index finger right at him, eyes just as fiery as they always were. "Ice Princess, you owe me a surprise!"

___________

"Ugh a park at this time of night." Nashi groaned. "Who the hell puts a surprise here."

Storm ignored her constant complaining as he quickly texted his mom that he might be home late.

After magic league training and everyone else had gone home, Storm and Nashi has found their way to an empty park not too far away from school. All so Storm could show her the cool thing that he promised.

"You aren't going to like murder me or something?" Nashi said, glaring at him suspiciously with her arms crossed over her chest. "Cause I'm warning you. I'm not going out without a fight."

Storm tucked his phone away. "Just be quiet and watch. This will only take a second."

Nashi grumbled something on her breath  before watching Storm hold his hand out to the star-lit sky.

Storm didn't really know why he was doing what he was doing. Especially to someone like Nashi who wasn't all that important to him. But all he knew is that it felt like the right time for it.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Ice make... snow." A small blue magic circle appeared from his palm and out of it shot out a flurry of snowflakes into the sky which slowly floated down on top of the two of them.

"Wow..." Nashi watched with wide eyes. She was in complete awe as she watched the snowflakes glisten against the moonlight. It almost felt magical, like it was Christmas time again. "This is awesome."

Storm smiled up at his creation. He'd actually forgotten how much he loved using his magic.

"Who taught you how to make snow?" Nashi asked, trying to catch a handful of snowflakes.

"My sister."

And just like that the realisation hit him like a ton of bricks.

Everything suddenly made sense.

It made sense why his dad had decided to stay home and his mom was still in bed when she always cooked breakfast.

His breath caught up in his throat as panic spread throughout his body.

It made sense why no one had left him alone. Why Rose had approached him in the hall and walked him to the library even though her class was in the opposite direction. Why Alexis had just gotten him his favourite snack and not anyone else's. Why Gale had decided to ditch books for the day and hang out with him. Why Hunter- scratch that, ALL of them, had asked him if he was okay.

"Hey, Ice Princess? Are you alright?" Nashi said noticing that he was acting weird and breathing way too fast.

All the emotions Storm had shoved down or hidden behind a fake smile for the past month suddenly burst out and he couldn't  control the tears that spilled over his cheeks or his erratic breathing.

"I forgot. How could I forget?" He growled, putting his hands over his eyes.

It was the anniversary of his sister's death... and he had forgot.

Nashi had no idea what was happening. One minute he was fine and the next he was sobbing. She put a hand on his shoulder and Storm instinctively leaned into her warm touch.

"It's okay... you're going to be okay... everything's fine." She found herself whispering to him while slowly wrapping her arms around him.

She hoped she was saying the right thing. But for now, all Nashi could do was hold him tight as he cried.

____________

Kinda rushed the ending ngl so sorry if it's hard to follow (also haven't written in a while so it's sloppy)

Umm not that it matters but this may be my favourite chapter so far 🥺👉🏽👈🏽

Next chapter will focus on a different character, probably Rose or Hunter

#unedited