The Elementals

I wake up to a knocking on the ice. I faintly hear Stella’s voice calling my name and I shift, letting the wall dissolve into snow that blows away into the wind.

“Coal! Tide!” Stella exclaims happily, staying outside, not bothering to duck under the ice. “We have a snowmobile a bit away.” She walks away, expecting to be followed.

“Flippers?” Coal shifts under me as I make no attempt at moving. I try to steady my breathing, pretending to be asleep because I don’t feel like walking and I don’t want to get off Coal. He sighs, but it’s more of an airy laugh, and then he stands, picking me up with him. I smile to myself.

“You’re a pain, you know that?” he asks in my ear, calling my bluff.

“I’m tired!” I whine in pathetic defense. He chuckles and doesn’t say anything more.

I grumble but stop bothering him. After all, he is carrying me. I push my nose into his collarbone, closing my eyes against the wind. I notice his skin is warm. Obviously it would be, but this doesn’t feel intentional. I go to question him about it, if he’s feeling okay but Audrey breaks my thoughts.

“Is she okay?” I hear Audrey ask worriedly. “Did something happen?”

“She’s fine.” Coal says, and he puts me down on the seat of a snowmobile. “Unless lazy is a health condition.”

“Hey!” I sit up, but decide to let the comment slide because I have a more pressing question. “Can I drive?”

“No.” both Coal and Audrey chorus.

“You can radio Owen and, Terra, and Steel. They’re on the other side of the mountain.” Audrey hands me a blocky looking walky-talky and starts the engine.

I hold down the button and the walky-talky crackles with static. “Hello?” I call loudly into the speaker. “Guys, its Tide. Coal and I are okay.”

There’s a silence, and then my ear is nearly blasted off with a string of words. “Oh my god Tide! You’re there! It’s you, you and Coal are there, we found you! This is great! Where are you? What happened? How did you survive? Where are Izila and the clone?” I can tell Terra is bouncing up and down with excitement, even though half the message is cut out because of bad reception.

“Um, Terra, slow down. Please.” I have to shout over the snowmobile. “Just get back to the base and we can talk then. Steel and Owen are with you right?”

“Yes, but –”

There’s static, and then the line goes dead. I wait for any more, but there’s nothing. I shrug, and grip Coal’s shirt as Audrey takes a hairpin turn. I feel his warm hand on mine, moving my arms around his waist. It’s like riding a motorcycle, but on a slippery mountainside that has many straight down drops, ridges and cliffs. You know, basically the same thing.

By the time we reach the entrance to the base, I can’t feel my fingers. I clench and unclench them numbly, trying to regain any warmth. I turn as the sound of another engine approaches. As soon as the other snowmobile stops, Terra leaps off and engulfs me in a hug, squeezing me so hard I can’t breathe. She has on a brown winter coat with fur around the hood, which I’m now choking on as she bounces up and down, chattering so fast I can barely hear her.

“– and we thought the clone was you again but then Caelum came up and kissed her and then Coal threw a plate at him and then they started fighting and Coal destroyed him and –”

Terra keeps talking but I tune her out and raise my eyebrows at Coal. He meets my eyes and the satisfied smile is wiped off his face. He shrugs and looks down guiltily, which makes me laugh.

“What?” Terra stops talking momentarily.

I shake my head, “Nothing. Let’s go inside, I’m freezing.”

As the others file into the tunnel, I wait and look at Owen. “Are your ears falling off yet?” I ask, because he looks like he spent an hour listening to elevator music non-stop.

He laughs shortly, which I wasn’t expecting, but then he shakes his head. “Does she ever stop talking?” his voice is hushed.

“So far, the only way is to feed her and buy earplugs.”

“Great.” he mutters sarcastically.

I pat him on the back. “You get used to it.”

“Really?”

I turn and smile evilly before entering the tunnel. “No.”

~

“So this place is totally covered.” Audrey says as we emerge into the main room. Rubble is still everywhere, but it’s more neatly piled together. “Top notch security, three more levels beneath this one, and a decades’ worth of food. Izila could’ve lived here without any human contact for a couple years at least.”

“Sweet.” I kick a rock across the floor. “Sounds perfect.”

“Yeah,” Audrey agrees. “It’s pretty great.”

“Where are Sparky and Maple?” I ask, over-protective parent mode kicking in.

“They’re asleep.” Audrey says.

It’s about then that I realize it’s midnight. I smile guiltily but I still need to know something. “What about the clone and…” I trail off, looking at Audrey expectantly.

“Level Two.” She answers. “There’s a bunch of cells down there.”

I nod. Definitely going to be avoiding that place. “I’m gonna go explore. You guys get some sleep.”

They all look beaten and worn. It’s hard to remember that not everyone is used to action and stress, 24/7. Come to think of it, neither am I, but I’m not tired at all. I really want to make sure this base is the best place to stay. I turn and start walking down a hallway.

“The staircase is this way.” Coal says and I face him. He’s pointing right. All the others have left, but he’s as wide awake as I am.

“I knew that.” I say and start down the steps. “So you threw a plate at Caelum, huh?”

“He started it.”

“By kissing the clone,” I say dubiously, though the entire thing makes me happier than I’m comfortable with. There’s a silence that answers my question.

“He had it coming for a while.” Coal mutters eventually. I look at him, doubt written all over my face and he looks away in annoyance. “He betrayed you – everyone – twice, he deserved to be decked.”

“But you didn’t know about the second time yet.” I argue, enjoying this.

Coal stops walking down the stairs and throws his hands up in exasperation. “Okay fine! He kissed the clone, which I thought was you at the time, so I threw a plate at his face. What’s the big deal?”

I keep walking. “You won.”

“Why does that surprise everybody?” Coal catches up to me, tone filled with annoyance.

“Caelum is gravity.” I reason. “How’d you beat that?”

“I was mad.” He says.

“Clearly.”

I skip the second level door, not wanting to bother with either Caelum or the clone for now, and head down to the third eagerly. I reach the door and push it open. The ceilings are much lower down here, and more dimly lit. I follow a hallway because I think I see the reflections of water on the walls at the end of it.

“Look!” I call as I emerge into a larger room with a circular pool filled with shimmering blue water. Coal catches up with me and starts backing out immediately before I grab his arm. “We should go in.”

“How did I know you would say that?” he mutters and shakes his head. “That seems like a bad idea.”

I scoff. “The water looks fine, stop being paranoid. It’s a great idea.” With that, I step back on my heels and take a running leap off into the water. Instantly, I’m energized, ready for anything. I’m completely wired, like I’ve had about five espressos.

“C’mon! It’ll be fun!” I say, resurfacing and motioning for Coal to join me.

He shakes his head. “Fun for you.”

I sigh and then flick my hand. A wave leaps up from the pool, rising over Coal and crashing on him, the force dragging him into the water.

His head breaks the surface, coughing and grumbling out half-hearted threats. I swim over to him, uncontrollably smiling.

“I was perfectly fine up there.” Coal says flatly. “You know, dry.”

I laugh. “But you’re so cute when you’re soaked.”

He recoils from the statement. “No. None of this…cute.” He says the word with distaste.

“But you look like a puppy!” I giggle and then on sudden impulse push the hair out of his face.

Coal’s eyes widen, shocked, and he forgets to kick and sinks under. I snicker, grabbing his arm and pulling him back up. His hair is in his face again, the loose curls weighed down by the water. I push it away once more, again noticing how hot his skin feels. Before I can say anything he smirks, meeting my eyes challengingly.

“You’re acting differently today.” He says, accenting ‘differently’ with a tilt of his head.

My heart gives a little kick. “Yeah, so?” I manage to say.

He moves his hands to either side of my shoulders, faintly brushing his fingers on my skin and sending shivers down my spine. We were already close, but now he’s barely two inches away. My thoughts are scattered, and it’s hard to string together a coherent sentence.

Coal smiles, “Nothing. Just that I’ve noticed is all.” He pulls away suddenly, swimming to the edge and getting out, sitting on the edge and flashing me a smirk as I’m left trying to remember how to breathe correctly.

My jaw is hanging open. I close it and sputter, “Why – you – what the heck was that?”

Coal tilts his head, eyes gleaming roguishly. “That, I believe, was payback.”

~

Payback? Payback for what? Was it for almost kissing him in the snow? Like, when I saved his life, again?

I sit in an old Victorian chair, pondering the event. It had been an hour since the pool incident and I still got confused when I thought about it.

We had scoured the rest of the base, finding only computers and scientific equipment. The only other notable thing was how much Victorian furniture was around. The room Coal and I were in right now on Level Four was entirely dedicated to the nineteenth century.

Coal is sitting across from me on a couch with fancy carved wood legs, absent mindedly reading an antiques magazine, though it’s obvious he’s bored out of his mind.

“Problem?” Coal asks simply after another period of dead silence, not taking his eyes off the pages. “You’re sulking.”

“Wha – I am not sulking!” I protest, though I clearly am: curled in a ball, scowling at my feet.

Coal chuckles at my reaction and I realize I shouted a tiny bit. “I’m not.” I say again more quietly. “I’m just thinking.”

“Well then, what are you thinking about?” He’s smiling like he knows something I don’t. I hate that smile.

I struggle to make something up because I definitely am not telling him the truth. “Um…chairs.” I blurt.

He raises an eyebrow, trying hard not to laugh. “Chairs?”

“Yes.” I sit up. “The um, design of the…dogs on the legs of that chair are highly skilled.” I say exaggeratedly, pointing somewhere over to the right. Coal stares at me. “What?” I demand testily.

“Those are eagles. And it’s a table, not a chair.”

I look at where I was pointing. It is in fact a side table, but in my defense the animals on the bottom could be lions for all I know. “Oh.” I bite my lip, knowing I’ve lost. “I knew that.” Coal chuckles again. “I did!” I insist, but he just laughs harder. “You’re an eagle.” I mutter, and he cracks up.

He knows. I can tell. He knows exactly what I was thinking about and he’s enjoying it. My frown deepens. He’s doing this on purpose. He did the thing at the pool on purpose too, the jerk. I hate this, not being able to tell if he’s joking or not. I need to figure this out.

I stand up, walk over to where Coal is almost dying of laughter, and rest each knee on either side of his legs. He immediately stops laughing and looks up at me.

“Hi.” Is all I say, because I’m carefully scrutinizing his reaction.

He blinks rapidly. “Oh, u-um, hey…”

I smirk at his loss for words. “How’s it going?” I trace my hands down to his and pin them to the arms of the chair, taking his pulse. My smile grows wider as I feel it spiking.

“Good. Everything is…good.” He trails off. “You?” he winces for a split second, mentally kicking himself for the question.

“Oh I’m good too.” I say, loving how in control of the situation I am. “I’m great actually.”

“Oh yeah?” Slowly, a smirk creeps onto his face, his eyes regaining the glint of self-confidence. My heart starts beating faster, recognizing the signs that he’s about to change things up. “And why is that, exactly?”

I narrow my eyes, because he’s turned the tables once again, but then I shrug lazily, leaning in closer till we’re almost touching noses. “Lately…things have been better.”

“What kind of things?” Coal’s voice is hoarse all of a sudden and he swallows, eyes trained on mine.

I grin deviously. “Certain things.” I say evasively and then I roll off him, curling up on the edge of the chair and observing my nails with indifference.

I sneak a glance at Coal without turning my head and see his grey eyes locked on me, brow furrowed in confusion. His jaw is slightly open, words on the tip of his tongue.

“What was that for?” he demands.

A smile slowly lights my face. Still not facing him, I say, “That, I believe, was payback.”

Before I’m even finished with the sentence I can see him close his eyes tightly and lean his head back against the couch, letting out a groan that sounds like I’ve just tortured him.

“What?” I ask innocently.

“You’re so…” he keeps his eyes closed, searching for the right word. “Difficult.” He says finally.

“I’m difficult?”

“Yes. Very.”

I scoff, “Says the guy who did the same thing an hour ago.” He opens his eyes and looks straight at me.

“That was different.”

“How?”

He raises his head pretentiously. “I wasn’t kidding.” He turns over so his back is to me.

I draw a blank for a second. He wasn’t joking, so that means he was serious. That makes me a little too happy. And he thinks I was joking? Sure, I was getting revenge for earlier today, but I couldn’t make my heart race that fast if I was running for my life. “Neither was I.” I whisper, just loud enough to be audible.

There’s a pause, and then he turns his head to stare at me but I’ve curled up too, pretending to be asleep. He rolls his eyes, but there’s a small smile on his face. And despite myself, there’s one on mine as well.