Burning Slow

f****d up plans and that dumb game

"So let me get this straight- you're supposed to be dead but you're not and now, we're all f****d up?" James was sitting on the floor, his elbow on the table, waving his hand at the end of every syllable.

It looked silly enough to send his twin brother into a laughing fit. "I'm sorry, this always happens when he waves his hands." Jacob said between laughs.

"The whole thing I don't get is how we nor Astraea woke up at their ruckus hours ago- according to them anyways." Kenneth uncrossed his arms, leaning forward, ignoring Jacob who was trying to stop from laughing but failing when he looks at James. "No, I don't get how Astraea did not wake up being two meters away from them!"

"Truthfully," Nick glanced at his girlfriend who rolled her eyes at him, "she can sleep through a bomb explosion. I still don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"You guys do realize that we're going off topic, yeah?" Astraea narrowed her eyes at Nick.

"So the plans-" Ember was interrupted none other than trainer.

"Woah." Alex stumbled in the house, taking off the  special mask. "What the hell happened to you?" He was immediately by Ember's side, his eyes scanning her.

"As I was saying," Ember groaned, ignoring Alex, "Grace and I made all the plans, we knew what was going to go down but- it all got f****d up and I remembered her and Grace nor I knew that that would happen so the plans are now nonexistent. We need a new plan."

"Why make up a new plan? Why not just go through this head on?" Nathan suggested.

Ember's brows shot up. "Seriously? That's your brilliant idea? Go through the apocalypse head on?"

"The first time you guys followed this... plan- four of you ended up unconscious for almost three weeks." Alex cut in, adding air quotation marks around the word 'plan.'

All teenagers in the room narrowed their eyes at him, making him shrink under their gaze. "I see that I'm not needed here, I'll just stay with the other adult in the house and stay out of your way." He raised his hands in mock surrender, walking up the stairs.

"About that head on thing..." Rocco trailed off just as Alex disappeared upstairs. "I think we should try it."

Ember scoffed, leaning back on his chest, crossing her arms. "We need to be prepared if we're going up against the woman who gave me my powers- keep in mind this is the same woman who can also control the Earth and this woman won't die even if she uses her power. Aside from that, I'm handicapped. I can't use my power."

"What do you mean by that?" Astraea asked

-

Faith stopped in her tracks upon seeing a seething Ember, her fists glowing green.

"Afraid?" The girl chuckled.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Faith warned.

"If I get killed in the process," she panted, wiping away the blood that rolled over her eyes, "as long as I get Grace home."

Faith blew a raspberry. "You need your years, darling. This is not the final challenge. Go home, child."

-

"So yeah, that's what happened. Faith obviously knows what happens when I use my power. I wouldn't even be surprised if she knew everything about us."

A heavy silence enveloped the room, all of them trying to think of something that could potentially save the human race.

"Wait, wait." Kenneth broke the silence, his brows furrowed. "Alex and Greyson are scientists, right?"

"Greyson is. Alex is more or less a wannabe." Nathan shrugged.

"So that means that they've got connections with people with power? Not like our powers but people from the government and them and- I see from your faces that you get what I'm saying-" Everybody erupted into a fit of laughter, Kenneth frowning at all of them.

"Dude, you really didn't need to specify that Greyson and Alex have connections with people with power that are not like us." James laughed.

"Stop laughing, guys! It hurts to laugh, seriously." Ember exclaimed, clutching her stomach. She alternated between laughs and coughs, forgetting the fact that Faith practically treated her like a soccer ball hours ago.

"Oh my god, guys we get sidetracked with little things like all the time." Astraea wheezed from laughing so had, starting to hit Nick.

Nick's laughter ceased- turning into ow's." Ow, ow! Stop hitting me, woman." He yelled, which resulted into another eruption of laughter- Kenneth joining in this time.

They all eventually stopped laughing, ending with a couple more chuckles before going back to that slightly serious atmosphere.

"Where were you going with what you were saying, Ken?" Rocco brought back the topic, wiping the tears off the corner of his eyes, then resting his hand on Ember's stomach, gently tracing small circles. Although it surprised her, it also brought her extreme comfort.

"Oh, right. Going back to that, if we establish connections with those people, then we can keep track of a lot more ground, we can find out what things are happening in places and we might even be able to find more of us with powers."

"That makes a lot more sense than what I was expecting." Ember mumbled, hearing a snort from Rocco.

She ignored that, her eyes drifting over to Nathan- he was expecting this and was already looking at her. "Get Dad."

"On it." He answered before dashing up the stairs.

"We didn't exactly create a concrete plan, did we?" Rocco glanced down at Ember. "Do we try that head on thing?"

"Go with the flow type? What do you think, guys?"

"I think it's brilliant. We just do whatever we want and hope for the best." Nick shrugged, Astraea nodding beside him. "If we do have a plan, let's make sure that all of us are aware of it this time, yeah?" He narrowed his eyes at Ember. "I would also do this to Nathan but he's not here yet."

Ember rolled her eyes. "What about the others?"

"I'm fine with it." Jacob and James simultaneously answered.

"Yeah, what they said." Kenneth agreed.

Ember nodded. "Okay then. But if we're not going to have a general plan, should we plan for when we rescue Grace?"

"Where did you say that address was again?" Nick asked.

"Well, I wasn't kidding about the falling down the hill thing." She played with her fingers.

"Which would explain those tiny cuts." Rocco continued- everybody else, except for Nick- were confused about the hill thing

"Yeah..." Ember laughed awkwardly. "I couldn't walk properly because of this-" she gestured to the huge black-ish bruise forming on her right thigh that wasn't visible at all hours ago- "so I tripped and fell down the hill which added more bruises and stuff. Wait, no, actually my whole body just hurt a s**t ton and I would have passed out on their porch but the adrenaline was still going strong by then so I didn't, I guess."

"What hill are we talking about here?" Astraea asked.

"You were literally two meters away from them when they were having that conversation!" James exclaimed.

"I totally agree with Kenneth how you didn't hear them." Jacob continued.

"I was asleep! I didn't hear!" Astraea defended herself, quickly continuing. "So what hill?"

"Portaveno hill." Nick, Rocco, and Ember answered simultaneously. James and Jacob tensing at the name.

"The Portaveno- where only the prestigious of the prestigious people live in- village? That Portaveno Hill with the Portaveno Village?" Kenneth gushed, adding emphasis on that Portaveno.

"Yeah. That's the one." Ember confirmed, nobody noticing the frowns that was slowly etched onto the twins' faces at he mention of the village and Kenneth's description of the said village.

"Is it just me or did Nathan leave like ten minutes ago and he was just supposed to call Greyson and Alex?" Astraea pointed out.

"I'll check on them." Jacob eagerly volunteered, squeezing James' shoulder as some sort of comforting gesture before going up the stairs in the same fashion Nathan did.

Another couple of minutes passed and still, no men were walking down the stairs. 

"What the f**k is happening up there?" Ember exclaimed, getting a bit worried.

"Alright, I'll be back in a sec." In only milliseconds, Astraea felt Nick's arm dematerialize. She tightened her hold on him, stopping him, from his attempt on teleporting.

"What?"

"We agreed. No teleporting when it's within walking distance." Nick sighed, hanging his head. He walked up the stairs, grumbling to himself.

"Wait. You felt that he was going to teleport? Or you knew that he was going to teleport because he's Nick?" James asked.

"I felt it. You get used to it after five years of him attempting to teleport. Especially when he does it just to get the remote that's a f*****g meter away from him."

"That actually makes sense?" The remaining teens in the room laughed.

They fell into conversation, talking about nonsense things. They didn't notice that a half hour had already passed- and nobody still walked downstairs.

"Lemme check them this time." Kenneth stood up, stretching.

"Nope." Ember stopped him. "Rocco you check."

"Whaaa? You don't trust me?" Ember just looked at Kenneth, her eyes saying everything that needed to be said.

Rocco removed his hand on Ember's stomach, holding her shoulders and moving her away from his body. Both of them slightly shivered at the sudden lack of body heat.

"If you don't come back, I will f*****g kill you." Ember warned. "Oh, wait, no I can't. Astraea will put you in one of her dimensions instead."

"She won't do that."

"Oh, I will. You don't want to be stuck in a weird dimension with Nick, Jacob, Nathan and all the other weird things there, do you?" Rocco quickly shook his head.

"Good, then come back- preferably with the boys."

Rocco walked up the stairs, his hands stuffed in his pockets. All four remaining teenagers waited for him to be out of sight before looking at each other.

"You're seriously going to put the boys in a different dimension?" Ember asked.

"Maybe. Should I? Nick's already been to one before, he was all teary-eyed when I pulled him out."

"I'm suddenly glad that you stopped me. Knowing me, I wouldn't have come down too. Well, depends on what they're doing up there."

"You can only keep Jacob in one room if there's food that he can cook, he's strapped down to the bed or there's one of those old games like cards or something. Playing cards was his and Mason's favorite pass time."

"If that's the case, I feel like Rocco is just going to come down because he's afraid. I think if we hadn't threatened him, he wouldn't be coming down." Everyone nodded at Ember.

"Oh wait, speaking of Rocco. What was all that intimacy between you two awhile ago?" James asked, waving his finger at Ember.

"Honestly, I-"

"I'm back~" Rocco announced, walking down the stairs. Interrupting the conversation on purpose.

He stopped halfway down, seeing the disappointed faces of Astraea, James and Kenneth.

"Did I interrupt something?" He looked at each of them, confusions and anxiousness evident on his face- no signs of his previous action.

"Yes, you did." James mumbled.

"What happened to the boys?" Ember cut in before Rocco had the chance to ask.

"They're watching some sort of game. I think it's called socputen."

"That dumb game where the three players on a team have to arrange s**t in some kind of order within a set time?" Rocco nodded at Kenneth.

"It's decided. I'm throwing them in a different dimension." Astraea grumbled, standing up. "Why the hell would they be watching a dumb game?"

She stomped up the stairs, not leaving any room for argument.

"Well I want to see this." Kenneth jumped up, James following right behind him.

Ember started to get up and Rocco was immediately by her side. "You know, I can carry you to make it easier."

"Dude, I walked down a hill-"

"Rolled." He coughed.

"Walked down the hill-" she emphasized, narrowing her eyes at Rocco- "and practically ran the rest of the way to be back here."

"Alright, fine. Let me at least help you." Ember nodded, taking his hand.

Rocco suddenly stopped before they took the first step up the stairs. His hold on Ember's waist and hand tightening.

"What-"

"Can you... Can you never do that again? You're too f*****g idiotic for your own good."

"Did you really just call me idiotic?"

"I did. It's the truth."

"You're the idiot." She mumbled, starting to walk up but Rocco still wouldn't budge.

"Dude-" The man pulled her in his arms, his tall stature enveloping her whole body, as if protecting her from all the possible dangers.

"You need to stop cutting me off."

"You need to stop being reckless."

"Touche."

Rocco unexpectedly pulled away from their little moment, staring straight into Ember's eyes. "Are you still going to continue rejecting me?"

Ember paused for a while, looking at Rocco's green eyes, as if she would be able to find an answer within those green orbs. Her expression closed up, making the boy in front of her frown.

He opened his mouth to apologize but the sudden smirk on Ember's face stopped him from doing so. She cupped Rocco's cheek, the small stubble on his chin, tickling her palm. "What do you think?"

Rocco let out a sigh of relief, slightly shaking his head at Ember's antics. His green eyes lit up, a grin overtaking his features. He scooped her in his arms, a surprised yelp escaping Ember's lips.

She cleared her throat, feeling her heart beat speed up. "What are you doing?"

"Keeping you in my arms."