4

I stared at Aiden. What was he saying?

Was he willing to try again?

The thing was, I'd been blind by love, and I refused to be any longer. It was one of my flaws. To be passionate. Everyone had a flaw. Everyone loved something or someone.

But here, I was being stubborn. I didn't want to go in these circles. What I wanted was to be free of all these questions and get ready for a mission. In a few hours, Mindbenders would be releasing an all out attack and I needed my friends, not Aiden.

“Well, out with it, “ I say, wanting to get this over with.

“Kyden, you know we've been friends for a long time and I know you like me and I do like you a little but I want to stay friends. I know I've been a jerk to you many times, and you've been ignoring until now and I just haven't been a true friend like we've always been. I just want us to be us instead of all these complications. I don't want these obsticales and I want a stong relationship between us before anything else happens. I do love you, but as a brother only can. I want that love to be stronger before we continue this relationship.”

Ok.

Wait, what? Was he saying, he wanted a relationship? He said a lot. I needed to take it all in.

Ok, he wants us to be strong as friends, then become a couple.

He knows he's been a jerk but he wants to basically make it up to me.

He wants to be a true friend.

No complications between us.

He loves me as a brother can.

He wants to continue our relationship.

Eventually, I realize he's waiting on a response. So I do something I can't comprehend.

I stand up, right in front of him.

And I kiss him.

It shocks him as well as me and lasts three seconds at most.

When I pull away he stares at me.

“I'm sorry, I just.... needed to do that. I want us to be more, but your hearts so big. All you do is sit around, not making moves. I don't see the point of moving on right away. I'll wait. I need to make sure you won't hurt me, that I can trust you in this.”

He nods and smiles weakly. He hugs me tight.

I feel love for him again and hug him back. We stay like that.

We know our relationship is broken and it'll take some fixing to get under control so we can be, us

Finally we split apart and he gestures to door, lettting me go, first. I do and what do I see?

Tate, Nengyan, and Maya listening in on me.

“Guys! What are you doing?” I whisper looking back. Aiden seems to be lost in himself so I close the door behind me and usher everyone back to my room in a hurry.

“Why are listening in on my conversation when you should be getting ready for the all out attack and calling Avani, Silver, and Kamon.”

“Sorry,” Maya apologized. “Tate wanted to make sure you were ok and made us all come and check on you.”

Tate's face went red easily. He always got embarrased easily.

“Well.... yeah, “ he admitted. I chuckled. Nengyan looked at me.

“So... battle. Mindbenders. Bad. How long do we have?” he asks.

“About five hours,” I tell him. Everyone nods in response. Aiden takes this moment to walk in.

“What's happening?” he asks.

“Mindbender battle. Five hours,” Maya tells him. He nods and looks at me. I look away.

“Ok, I'll call Avani, Kamon, and Silver,” Tate anounces, leaving the room. I breathe and rub my hands on my pants. There's a huge amount of teention in this room and everyone knows it. Nengyuan whispers somthing in Maya ear. She giggles and they leave the room to do who knows what.

That just leaves me and Aiden.

And he seems to have an excuse.

“Well, I better go practice my Firebending. You know, for the fight. So, yeah, bye.”

He leaves, closing the door behind him.

“Bye,” I whisper.

I sit on the floor, wondering how this will play out. Will everything be in favor of us? Will we win? What happens if we die?

I shake my head of these thoughts and grab my hoodie to cover my face. I walk out of my room to the front door and out to town.

But not before Aiden can join me, along with Silver. Her platnium blonde hair falls in its usual ringlets down her back.

Her grey eyes are happy. She seems more bubbly than usual. And yet, I don't see Avani and Kamon in sight.

“They're with Maya and Nen,” Silver says, as though she's reading my mind, or my face. I nod.

“Where are you going?” Aiden asks.

“Just to get a bite to eat,” I tell him.

“Mind if we join you?”

“No, not at all.”

“All right then, let's get moving.”

We keep going to a resturant I know. They follow, I lead. I think of other way to solve problems.

Everything this becoming difficult now. I was trying to buy time at this point.

And I was doing a poor job of doing so.

Going through crowd after crowd brought on tension. It was getting difficult to breathe. I don't know how to easily get out of this.

Some people are looking at the damage we'd caused yesterday. Others, the damage caused by Mindbenders and Firebenders weeks ago, and today even.

We eventually make our way inside the resturant. The Fire Grill.

“This is it, huh?” Aiden asks.

“Pretty much,” I say, letting out a breath I don't know I'm holding. Silver smiles.

“Well it's lovely anyway,” she says. She makes everything good out of the things that may be bad.

I nod at her and walk up to the front counter. An older woman, most likely non-bender, is there. She smiles at me and I do the same.

“Table for three, please,” I say sweetly. She nods and leaves me for a moment.. I feel a hand on my shoulder and slowly turn my head to look at the person touching me.

It's Aiden. He gives me a sad smile and rubs my arm. I sigh as I feel his hand leave my arm and caress my cheek. It makes me shiver and I turn to him.

“What are you doing? I thought we were going for friendship now.”

He shrugged. “I don't know.”

“What does that mean?”

“That I'm doing my best!”

“At what!”

“Being a—“ he stopped and sighed, his eyes closed. Our arguments had been getting louder, attracting the attention of a few tables nearby. I knew he was at breaking point and was just trying to cool it down before he did something. I backed off and decided to find Silver.

“We can go if you want,” whispered to Aiden before I went to find her.

She was in the long hallway, just outside the doors to the exit of the mall.There was a boy, with dark hair and a look that said bad boy on him. He was talking to Silver and she was pushing him away. He wouldn't listen. I walked over before things could happen.

“Silver.”

She turned to look at me and she tried to run toward me.

But the boy grabbed her arm.

“Leave me alone you Mindbender!” she screeched. But the hallway was soundproof and no one would hear her.

I had to help her. There was a chance, he could destroy her mind and allow it to cave in on itself.

He could do quite a bit.

But most likely he was making her feel terrified which would block bending.

I had no choice but fire. I had to help her. I wouldn't get help in time.

Within a snap decision, I flicked my hand out to him, with no other thought.

Hewas taken aback and let go of Silver. She fell to the ground in time to dodge my fireball. It did however catch up with the fleeing mindbender.

He wouldn't win and he knew it.

Tumbling to the ground, he made incoherent noises.

I have trounle knowing what to do, but the boy rises coughing, just as Silver rises to come to my side. I see the boy is burned and his eyes show fear.

Which is good. He should be afraid.

I smile as the boy continues to run. I'll let him go.

He's lucky.

I turn my head to Silver and she's shaking with fear. I softe my eyes and take her into the resturant.

Aiden is just then coming out as I open the door.

“We need to go, now,” I tell him. He sniffs the air carefully.

“What happened that you had to use fire?”

“Long story short, a mindbender boy was trying to hit on Silver in a sick twisted way and I had to use fire to save her.” He nods, closing his eyes.

“Let's just go,” Silver says quietly, still shaking.

I nod and we leave the mall. The walk home is silent and I catch Aiden stares at me but pretend not to notice.

Silver continues to stay silent, not looking at us. She seems lost in herself.

I wouldn't blame her.

That Mindbender could have easily killed her. We could be walking without her now, but I saved her. And I did.

We'll be home soon.

The walk back seems to take longer than the walk here.

But we make it and Tate comes out to greet us. Then he sees Silver.

“Sil, what happened?”

She shakes her head and continues inside the palace.

“She had a sick interaction with a Mindbender. Enough said.” I tell him slightly.

He nods sadly and goes into the palace as well. It leaves me and Aiden together instead.

“We have about 4 hours and 28 minutes til they start arriving,” he says. I nod.

“Yeah.”

“How did you know about this attack?”

“I've known for a while about it.”

He nods in an understatement and we go inside.

Maya and Nengyuan meet us at the front.

“Everyone's in the top training room,” Nengyuan tells me. I nod and we begin up the steps until we reach the top hall. I quickly open the door to the training room which is luckily close by the stairs. As soon as the door opens, I rush of wind blows into my face and I stop in my tracks.

“Sorry,” Tate says putting his hands down. I take a breath and close my eyes

“It's okay, Tate,” I tell him stepping in the room. I then open my eyes to see Kamon Avani and Silver practicing their bending skills.

“Nice work guys,” I say to them. “Let's keep it up.”

Aiden grabs my hand and takes me to the firebender's part of the room.

“What?” I ask him angrily.

“We need to fight each other. There will be other firebenders. We need to fight against them.”

“You and Maya can handle them,” I say snatching my hand from his.

“And what if we need you?” he says with force. I sigh, giving in.

“Fine!” I yell. I create a fire ball with one hand and throw it at him. He dodges it with ease.

“Maya! Come on, we need you.” She nods and separates herself from Nengyuan who continues to train as with with Avani.

Maya circles a ring of water around her and as she does, I go for a cheap shot and blast fire in her direction. She seems uneasily but it doesn't completely show as she raises a wall of water and all the fire turns to steam.

“Why did you do that!?” Aiden yells at me.

“Oh please like those firebenders are gonna wait? I'm doing this to help her. I'm doing this to prepare her!” I blink and I see a rope of fire heading toward me.

I hop out of the way as it blasts against the wall.

“What the hell Aiden!” I shout at him. He smirks at me.

“I'm doing this to prepare you,” he says repeating my words.

It's on then if he wants a fight.

A fight he won't win.

Ok, ok. That's exaggerating a bit.

Carefully, I calculated his movements and inhaled. Fire coursed through my lungs and I quickly blew a breath out.

He didn't see it coming.

The force blew him back and he had burn marks and scrapes from his fall on himself. Maya quickly rushed over to heal him but he raised his hand toward her

“After,” he said. He rushed to his feet, growing a fireball and running towards me. I knew this. It was like a bomb and when he got to me, he would hand it off as the temperature grew incredibly hotter, making it explode in my hands. He was closing in and I had to move and avoid that had off.

Or I could cool it down.

“Maya!” I yelled. She understood immediately and threw her water at Aiden. He was too occupied and focused on me to notice much else.

The splash put on him made him fall to the ground quickly and shake. I let go of a breath I didn't know I was holding and ran over to him. Nengyuan Tate and Maya were there in seconds.

Silver and Kamon came too. Kamon couldn't be bothered.

“Aiden?” Maya breathed staring down at him. His eyes were squeezed tight and he was shaking crazily. “Aiden, I'm so sorry. I was scared you would kill her and I just had to help.”

“I-I-It's ok Ma-Maya. You w-were just he-hel-lping.” He looked at me.

“Hey?” I said with a weak smile. He smiled back.

“Sssssorry, I go-got mad at how e-easil-ly you-u besssted me. I ha-ad to sh-sh-show you u-up.” I lowed my hand to him and he took it pulling himself up. He held me by the waist.

“Alright guys! Now that that's done, let's get back to work. We have a while. And we need to prepare,” Tate said pointedly to Aiden and I. He stared at us with an annoyed look until we broke apart.

What was with him?

I readjusted my position and practiced control of my bending.

This should be pretty interesting.