C17 Castaways

Country, 80s, classic rock, pop, country, pop, pop, pop. Why was there so much goddamn pop?

Giving up on a search for a decent station, Vinny slapped whatever preset button was closest and reclined back against his seat. They'd have very little luck finding anything but white-noise so far from the city, anyway. But silence was too difficult to cope with.

Jason had been okay—he was alive, at least. Shaken up, but otherwise just fine. Kailan's jolt had shocked him in more ways than one, and it seemed that every memory he'd had that night were gone now. Wiped from his brain like fried hardware. They were in the clear, but they'd both felt restless since the incident. There was always the possibility that those single sixty seconds would return to him. If that were to happen, god knows what Jason would do.

There was also the problem of Vincent's fire. In the moment when Jason had his grip on Kailan's throat, he had tried to spark a flame. Too pained to fight physically, he had sought to repeat his episode with Jahni. Anything to free Kailan from his grip.

It didn't happen, though. His flames didn't come the way they were always so eager to show. Jahni suggested that perhaps it was due to his injuries. His only advice was to find a place of tranquility and train the mind while the body healed.

So they waited until the weekend, packed their things and rented a car for the journey.

It was only a two hour drive, but already he was sick of the repetitive music and the artificial scent of pine. Not to mention the cramps in his legs that had been growing like weeds for the past ten minutes.

It had been so long since he'd driven a car, and Vincent wasn't exactly the safest chauffeur. Irritable, and bored of seeing the same hill-side scenery for the past hour, he had begun flying down the dusty dirt trail. It was a distance to his father's cabin, but it was the most tranquil of all the places he could ponder up. The farthest from humanity.

"I think you've been here once before." He leaned his arm out of the car window, the other grasping the steering wheel with lazy composure.

His cerulean eyes found Kailan in the passenger seat, his head rested against the window as he watched the trees pass them by. He spared Vinny a glance, but by the look on Kai's face, he couldn't recall.

"My fourteenth birthday," Vinny clarified. "We ran off without a word and nearly scared my nanny into cardiac arrest."

"I remember that." Kailan laughed, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. He hated long car rides, but conversation made it a little more bearable. "So what exactly do we plan to do when we get there?"

They soon came to a halt at a large metal gate.

"I guess we'll find out," Vinny said, reaching out of his window and pressing a few numbers into a small metal box. It screamed a swift beep and sent the gates folding inward.

Stretching onward was another endless dirt road, but they were gaining distance. Only another five minutes and they'd be at his family cabin; an extravagant log structure that sat atop a clearing, nestled in the midst of a beautiful hill-top view.

Once there, he parked the car along a stretch of gravel and snapped open the door.

"Missed this place," he said, tossing his keys in the air and catching them as he escaped the cramped confines of the vehicle. The sun was set high above, raining down rays of soft magenta and fiery orange lights; spilling like oils on a canvas of blue. So open. So infinite. For a moment, you nearly spot the amorphousfaces in the sparse and scattered clouds.

Kailan came to a stop beside him, breathing out a gust of relief. He folded his arms and let his eyes travel, scanning the lush land for as far as it met the horizon. He didn't remember the place too well and it bugged him, but he knew he had been there; the air tasted familiar. Fresh and sweet, like they were breathing in the backsplash mists of a raging waterfall.

He wouldn't lie, the land was beautiful. Far better than the dry deserts of Arizona. Hill upon hill, wave upon wave, evergreens soaked the acreage as far as the eye could reach. The whole world was stretched out in front of him, his for the taking. Not that he wanted it.

"I can see why," he said, tracing the outline of a hawk careening in the distance.

Vinny silently gestured to follow with the nod of his head, and they made their way toward the large four-bedroom cabin. The building itself was beautiful as well. Polished on a weekly basis by some of the poor unfortunate souls that were cursed to tend to Johnathan's outlandish bidding. Usually the cabin remained empty unless used by an associate of his father or Vinny himself. Granted, he had only visited the place once in the past year. There were one too many bitter memories and one too few reasons to make the journey. Until today, at least.

He didn't go inside of the cabin, but instead walked to the opposite side of the structure, where much of his time was spent on his visits. Greeting him was nothing more than a large hill with a very gradual decline. Or in his opinion: the best view money could buy. Only a few houses and farms invaded the valley far below. The rest of the world was blanketed in emeralds.

He took a seat in the grass and shrugged off his jacket. As much as he hated the sun, he couldn't be ripped away from the scenery.

Kailan had trailed a bit behind, picking his head up as Vinny spoke.

"I'll be honest. I really wasn't expecting you to electrocute the guy."

"Huh?" It took a moment to register the words, but when he did, he laughed and crouched down beside Vinny. "Man that was such a weird feeling when that happened." He fell backwards into the downy lawn. "But he fucking deserved it."

"Can't say I disagree. But I never saw you to be the one serving him justice," Vinny replied.

Kailan plucked a piece of grass from his side. "Guess I'm full of surprises," he said, rolling it between his fingers. "But you..."—he pointed a finger at Vinny—"you and that fire missile shit was weird. We're such freaks in general." He opened his mouth to speak again, but stifled his words with the bite of his lip and turned his attention forward.

A short silence followed, then Vinny spoke: "Well then, why can't you do it again? What's stopping you?"

"What do you think, Vinny?" His sigh carried the weight of the world. "I get that it's not like your fear of fire. But I've been terrified of storms since I can remember. Kudos to you working on yours, though." The last of it was spoken in a grumble, the edges of his lips drawn down.

"I'm still terrified. I keep thinking it'll happen again. That I'll burst into a human torch. That I won't be able to control it. Whether it was my fault or not, that girl died because of my fire." Vinny laid back against the earth, blocking the sun from his eyes with his forearm. "That's why I'm glad you didn't kill that idiot. You don't have to experience what I've spent the last three years of my life trying to forget."

"What exactly happened that night?" Kailan asked, his chin coming to recline on his knees. "I mean with me. When I first found out I was a Wicked, I was under a lot of stress. I don't really understand anything that happened that entire month, to be honest."

"I don't even understand what we are, Kai. Monsters, I guess." Vinny outstretched his arm toward the sky. He watched the silhouette of his hand, contrasting bleak and black against the light of the mid-day sun. "I don't remember what happened that night. I just know I can't go through that shit again. I want control over this fucking curse." He dropped his hand, scowling as it hit his bruised flesh. He held the spot of impact with a grimace and laughed. "I honestly can't believe nothing was broken."

"You're an idiot for even trying to fight Jason." Kailan held a small smirk, well aware that he had no room to talk. Still, he wasn't the one beaten into a pulp. "They actually taught us how to fight in that hell hole," he said. "Also taught us how to handle a gun, and even had a few lectures on the theories behind Wickeds. Why we're such threats and all."

"It's funny. The only people I've heard of Wickeds killing lately is themselves. Yet we're still a travesty to man. " Vinny sat up on his forearm, squinting from the sun and raising a brow at Kai to lighten the mood. "You gonna play a human bug-zapper every time I make stupid decisions?"

"Might zap you next time you do something idiotic," he replied bluntly, meeting Vinny's gaze. There was a slight tilt in his smile. "Honestly the most you do is sleep with girls, yet you seem to be a target for people's anger." He chuckled, "Fighting the football team and sleeping with their girlfriends... you're a fucking stereotype." He gave Vinny a light-hearted sneer, but the blond was leveled by Kailan's words.

Vinny's expression drained slowly of all joy as he eyed the rippling mountaintops in the distance. "I guess I am, aren't I?" Sex had become something akin to food. He needed it to survive, but it had lost all of its taste. It was bland now. Boring. And so bitter it left him feeling more and more ill each time he took a bite.

Sighing, he gestured to the open blanket of blue sky in front of them. "You should give it a try." It was his attempt at a change of subject, but as he looked to Kai, he wondered just what the boy was capable of. He'd never seen one of Kailan's storms. Not until the night he'd summoned one and shocked the ever-loving Christ out of Jason.

Kailan sighed, shifting a bit as his stare drifted in front of him. "I guess there's no harm in trying." He said this, but the idea made him nervous; anxious. He didn't want to accidentally call forth a raging thunderstorm. He rarely utilized his ability, after all. Who knew if he even had the reins to control it.

But Vinny was waiting, a comforting smirk on his face. If things got too bad, they'd go inside. There was nothing to fear and no reason to panic.

He let out a tense breath and stilled his body. His eyes were staring forward, never once acknowledging the sky, but slowly and surely, it was changing. Light gray rainclouds began dotting around them, spoiling the nice view.

Then a cold drop of rain kissed Vincent's cheek. His head snapped up toward the sky, and he watched in amazement as the once blistering sun was blanketed by a thin wall of foggy grey clouds. He ascended onto his feet, stumbling forward a foot or two, given his lack of attention to the declining hill around him. He was too entranced by the sudden overcast that dimmed the once nettlesome sunlight. It was almost like the dawning of an apocalypse.

He looked back over his shoulder at Kailan with a slack jawed expression, "Are you doing this?"

Kailan was silent at first. He was focused on his body's own metronome; the drum of his heart beat, the current of his breath, the tap of his eardrums—their tempo synchronized, like an orchestra without music. Of course, with so much control, a panic attack was unlikely. He was focused, nearly in a meditative state. As he opened his eyes to look at Vinny, the rain grew into a heavy downfall of water. They would be thoroughly soaked in no time.

"It sure as hell better be," he said finally, rising to his feet. He was going to be freezing soon, but this was what Vinny had wanted. And frankly, it was a milestone to Kailan himself. He wanted to retreat under cover, but he bit the bullet and grounded himself where he stood. Every second of it was unpleasant, but he remained by Vinny's side, watching him with a slight tilt of his head. Vinny was grinning—a sort of youthful smile that brought on a rush of nostalgia. Suddenly, they were sixteen all over again.

Fat droplets of water dampened Kailan's hair and roamed his face as he sneezed. Still, he was a bit surprised by Vincent's reaction. There was only one word to describe the way he looked in that moment: "Happy?"

Happy was an understatement. The fascination etched on Vincent's face was drawn alongside a vibrant grin; a broad smile that raised his features and summoned a plethora of dimples to dance along the canvas of his jaw. He couldn't hide his elation as a laugh leapt from his chest, causing his throat to bob and contract in its arched position. He felt revitalized, blissful. Despite all of the rainy days he spent beside Sage's grave, he had never seen anything quite as beautiful as Kailan's storm.

His attention finally fell from the tumbling grey clouds above him, and he rotated his broad shoulders to his friend, who was not so ecstatic. He was quickly becoming drenched, his appearance comparable to a cat who had fallen in a pond. He looked as though he desperately wanted to escape the very thing Vincent was so frivolously indulging in. He chuckled at the sight, shaking his jacket of rain and draping it over Kailan's head. He gave the ends a gentle tug under the boy's chin; a small gesture, but it captured Kailan's gaze like an anomaly in the stars.

His eyes narrowed as Vinny turned away. Wiping away the water that clung to his face, Kailan said something. Something that was washed out by the rain.

Orbs of water pelted his back, flushing his shirt damp against his skin, but it was only more enjoyable for Vincent. He had never seen so much rain at once, and as he stepped away from Kailan, it gave him the confidence he needed to sport a gluttonous flame from his fingertips. Like claws of light, they licked toward the sky, their hungers silenced by the heavy shower. For probably the first time in forever, he wasn't afraid of the fire. He let it consume his hand, dancing along the curves of his knuckles and half-way up his forearm. It didn't burn—it didn't even feel hot. It felt comfortably warm as he raised his hand to the sky.

His smile dominated his expression, and only grew as he watched the directions of the flames change on his whim. His mind would say right, and the flames would follow. Quickly, he'd change their course to left and the fire would whip at the air until the peaks of their flames pointed left. Holes were bored through their bodies with every splash of water, and it took more effort than expected to keep the fire alive. If anything, it only made him feel more in control. But he was growing weary, his energy draining like a bad battery. As soon as he released his focus, and relaxed the tension in his muscles, the flame disappeared, and each new drop of rain that blessed the flesh of his arm would quickly turn to a ghostly steam.

He was exhausted, and lowered himself to the ground, his body becoming flat against the earth's surface and his chest heaving with calm, heavy breaths. The excitement building inside of him slowly came to expire, just like the flames. He was much like a dog that had just played to its heart extent. He felt nearly as blissful as one, too.

All the while, Kailan watched. It was odd to him, that their powers only seemed to interest one another when they were together. Maybe they helped ease some sort of pressure; silence bad feelings. He didn't know, he didn't really care either. He was just glad to be able to see Vincent in this light.

Ever since he had arrived at the college, life with Vinny had been chaotic in the least. Right now, it felt calm. He made his way to Vinny's spot, sprawled alone in the rich green grass. "You're like a little kid," he said with a grin.

Vinny had to raise an arm to keep the rain from his eyes as he looked back to Kailan. "It's nice...." He trailed off, his attention traveling to the murky skies above. "That you can do this."

"Yeah, I guess so," Kailan replied, looking up at the muddy painting he had created. It wasn't nearly as draining as his squally encounter with Jason, so he felt he could keep the storm up for a while. He crouched down next to his friend, avoiding the wet ground all together. "Well, at least one of us appreciates it."

Vinny sat up, as difficult as it was, and looked to Kailan with a smile. "Just a little longer." His gaze met the horizon in the distance. Though it was fogged up by the rain, he saw it just as—if not more—breathtaking than before. "Just a few more minutes."

"Uh, sure." Kailan couldn't place a finger on what it was that startled him about Vinny's attitude. He hadn't seen the guy in three years, but he couldn't remember a time when he'd witnessed his friend quite like this. Happy for once. Kai turned his attention away, closing his eyes and sighing into his palms. He blew a puff of hot air into cupped hands, hoping that would help to rid him of the chills he was feeling. As he glanced over his friend once more, he couldn't help but think that storms weren't so bad if it meant seeing Vinny in such bliss.

Despite the chilly rain, and the bumps that tumbled down his arms, witnessing Vinny smile almost felt warm. It was a rare sight to see; something so genuine on someone so concealed and distant. Even when they were young, Vinny rarely smiled like that. The content expression on his face was nearly statuesque. Kind of beautiful, in a way.

The thought made Kailan stop. He had hardly moved an inch all this time, but somehow he still froze, blinking in a rush of apprehension.

"Fuck," he hissed under his breath, drawing his hands near his mouth to muffle the curse. Something sudden and unexpected was resonating deep inside of him. Something that definitely shouldn't be there.

Only five minutes later, the two had fled to the warmth of the cabin—though it was nearly impossible to pull Vincent away from the rain. Now they stood, dripping in the contemporary inners of the den.

"They only turn the heat on in the winter." Vinny leaned beside a large fireplace, fumbling with a dial. Luckily the thing started itself, and he didn't have to manually toss in a match. Even still, he flinched as he flicked on the switch, and flames grew to life behind the frosted glass. The sight left him uneasy, and he retreated to the opposite side of the room. At least the fire was contained. In that sense, he could breathe. Kailan looked chilled, after all. Vinny had really kept him in the rain for far too long.

"You, uh...." He scratched at the back of his head. He always felt too nervous for conversation when he was situated around a flame. It really made him a bust at bon-fire parties. "You should probably change into something dry. I can lend you some clothes."

"I'd appreciate that." It was amusing seeing Vinny fidget about so nervously, though his fear didn't feel much like something to laugh at. Vinny left the room in a haste, and Kailan snorted to himself, knuckles rubbing against the palm of his hand. It had been a while since he'd last been here; the place felt a bit smaller.

He decided to take a look around, hoping to resurrect some old memories. The hallway he ventured through was decorated with lavish paintings, and he found it strange that there was not one family portrait hanging on the walls. Normal families had them, didn't they? Yet he couldn't remember a single time he'd actually seen Vinny and his father in the same photograph. At least, not after the initial media died down about the god-giving deed he had done by adopting such a troubled little boy.

He cringed at the thought of all the old newspaper articles. The outlandish comments Johnathan Alexander had made. Remarks about his new son being 'misunderstood' by his previous foster homes in Ireland. "I plan to cherish my son, and give him the means to live an extravagant life," he had said. Vincent was granted an extravagant life. Eleven years filled with fast cars, expensive tastes and every material item he could ever dream of. But the one thing his father couldn't give him was an emotional connection. The one thing he couldn't do was grow to love his son.

It was something he didn't talk about a lot, but it was obvious to anyone who knew Vinny as closely as Kailan did. He was a wreck when it came to his father.

With the shake of his head, Kailan returned to the fireplace, holding his hands out to greet the flames. As he sunk to the floor and shrugged off Vinny's jacket, he was met with the heat of the fire, much to his enjoyment. With Vinny out of the room, Kailan deflated with a large sigh of relief. He couldn't stop his mind from wandering back to his little 'hiccup' outside.

He had no idea what it was that he had felt, but surely it wasn't anything to worry about. "I'm just happy to see my friend, is all," he convinced himself, the words becoming muffled as he cupped his hands over his mouth.

Three years before, it was easy to pretend he was a typical high schooler; playing games with the girls and just laughing off the notion he was anything but straight. But that very lie got him sent away, and he knew Vinny would ask about it one day.

It was hard, acting like nothing had changed since they were teens. With Sage gone, it just added to the weight. Now he felt a little part of him thinking emotions toward Vinny; emotions that shouldn't exist. "I'm just confused, it's nothing." He laughed at the flames, but the façade died out alongside his smile.

In all honesty, he felt sick to his stomach.