AN: Hurrah, I'm, back. Drabble, one-shot, whatever you wish. Inspired by newtypeshadow's profile stating that everyone should write this. It's sort of ambiguous and combines my first ever fan fiction slash and a theme of unrequited love (unrequited love, not stalking). Anyhoo, please leave a review.
They all know it's there, but nobody ever talks about it.
They don't say anything because they're afraid. Or because they never knew before. I've always known. But I've known him for a long time.
Well, maybe known is too strong a word. But I've watched.
I've watched him for years, in the shadows. Isn't that my gift? I remember the first time I saw him. His first power placement. The only time he ever powered up without having to defend himself.
The flames snaked up his fingertips, licking his wrists, growing with intensity, light, life, until I was afraid he would make all the shadows disappear and I would be left as just a wisp of smoke. But we always covet what we can never have and that light, life, I have always wanted for myself.
Hardly anyone noticed him during his second power placement. Except for when he flipped Boomer off and said he didn't need to show what everyone already knew. I wonder if, sometimes, during our first year at school, he didn't really want to graduate. If that was the reason he failed everything on purpose.
He picked a fight that day. The first fight he'd ever picked; he'd always been provoked before. Maybe it was that wanting what you could never have element. Maybe he just needed the confrontation. But the life he invoked that day was stronger than anything I'd ever seen. I almost disappeared.
Is what they say about opposites really true? Because that is what they are. Or maybe they aren't so different; and drawn together for that reason.
I was the first to know.
I was watching.
They stood behind the gym, where no one would ever care to look. They touched each others' faces, and I knew. They fought it, I'm sure, but it won in the end. Love always does; a constant we've all been taught to rely on, no matter how dire the situation.
Perhaps I didn't love hard enough.
They hesitated. Then one pulled the other closer; tilted his head up, tilted down, fighting themselves and what was not themselves, until, at last, they met. They knew it was a mistake, but a mistake rightly made.
In that moment, I became only a pair of eyes, watching, witnessing, reaching out for love I could never claim.
Soon they weren't careful enough.
Soon people knew and they began walking together, stealing glances and secret smiles when they thought no one else was looking. Just like all the others who are young and in love.
But I was watching.
And everyone knows it's there, but nobody, besides me, ever talks about it.