w h e r e a r e y o u ?

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(set sometime after Cole becomes human again)

Cole was fairly sure this was a good idea.

But he was running out of chalk and his fingers were getting sweaty.

This hadn't been his usual climb, but he'd wanted to push himself hard. If anything, he could argue that it was training for having actual, solid fingers again. He found a good hold for his right hand on the jutting outcrop and hung there for a second, twisting around to use the rest of his chalk.

From there, he had to use a lot of his upper body strength, lots of swinging and praying that the rock wouldn't crumble when he was this high up. No, Cole wasn't afraid of heights but he was afraid of the roaring river crashing beneath him.

He wasn't exactly sure as to why Sensei Wu had given him a week off, but from the array of pitying looks the others had given him around the monastery he could guess why. Sure, he'd dropped a few expensive looking things and had walked into walls and doors but he was getting there okay?

Cole grunted, feet scrabbling around to find a hold-this particular climb was made up by a series of extremely smooth rock with few grooves and crannies. Finally, he managed to shove his toes into a tiny hole, and started climbing again with new found energy. The sun was beginning to set, and a chill was working its way down to where Cole was clinging onto the mountain of rock.

At last, he managed to reach the peak in time. It wasn't much of a peak, it wasn't pointy at all, just flat rock and a few boulders of the same red-brown mineral. He leaned up against the biggest rock, stripping off his sweat-soaked singlet and laid it over a nearby boulder to cool off. Unbuckling his chalk pouch, he set it on the ground and activated his lava punch with a little trouble - first try, his fists missed each other completely. As the glowing veins appeared along his arms, Cole pounded a small rock into fine dust, watching the glow fade out before scooping the makeshift powder into the bag for the climb down.

The sun dipped down just below the trees, the top burning a yellowish orange, brushstrokes of orange and pink blending into a beautiful ombre above it. The cold breeze was welcome, even in just his shorts he was still running hot. His fingers traced in the leftover dust of the rock, drawing patterns and swirls absentmindedly. Like always, his mind wandered to his mother, the exact reason he went climbing (Well, also to let off pent up anger by bashing a rock).

In all his years (god, that made him sound old), Cole still wasn't sure why his mother had left. A large part of him suspected that she hadn't meant to get pregnant, gotten scared and ran off, leaving his father, Lou, to look into the future and decide that Cole was going to become the greatest Royal Blacksmith that had graced the earth. If his mother had told his father that she was an earth elemental, then Lou decided that a dancing career would be the furthest thing from that.

Then Cole had disappointed him.

The face Lou had made shattered Cole's heart. He would never be good enough for him. And despite the fact that Lou had openly said that yes, he approved of Cole being a ninja, but he could see the disappointment lingering in his eyes. Whenever Cole found the time to visit, Lou would always hover around his dancing trophies and awards, casting gloomy eyes at the practicing students he'd tutor, and then back at Cole.

And then there was his mother. Cole had decided, years ago, that if she didn't want to come looking for him, then he wouldn't go looking for her either. Well, that had been a big, fat, lie. In his first year of being at the 'dance academy', he went searching for his mother. The problem was, at the time he had no idea that his mother was an earth elemental, he didn't even know that he was an elemental. It had been a goose chase, a wild goose chase that ended up with him going nowhere and his father showing up to watch his first performance. Cole had become excellent at coming up with excuses, little things like, oh, I have four assignments on the history of blah blah some dance term, or, man, I twisted my ankle bad and you know how important ankles are.

Cole wanted to cry right there and now, but his stupid pride was sure that somehow someone would see. But that was Cole's problem. He was always too aware of everything, too noticing, too scared to mess up again, because somehow it would end up being his fault. It didn't help that he had no one to talk to properly, he was one too bottle everything up and then explode because he didn't know how to explain his feelings.

He often took to wood chopping, the simplest of activities which allowed him to get his anger and unsaid feelings out. One day, he'd decided to try and carve something out of an end bit, and had ended up with an exact replica of how Rocky had been when he was younger. Cole was also sure that he certainly didn't get that skill from his father, Lou was graceful and all but dropped his muffins ten times a day. Which meant it led back to his mother. Of all the things, Cole had never divulged the fact that he often carved little flowers or ducks to calm himself down, because he knew the others would bully him into showing them his craft.

Cole's heart tightened and twisted, his gut doing the same. If it wasn't for the others, god, then where would he be?

He was ready to give right up, try to forget his parents and pretend to move on like he'd done countless times before. Then the rock beneath him shook, two heavy footsteps landing behind him. He yanked his singlet on, already moving into an attack position. His hands felt empty without a weapon. He whirled around, froze and felt his brain numb and his body lose any feeling whatsoever.

What was she doing here?