Simmer (9 page)

"Above you!" Luke shouted again and Kira
could not help but direct her next throw up into the sky, hitting
another of her grandfather's globes.

"Left, Kira. Come on!"

"Right!"

"Low! Move faster."

"Center!"

Luke continued to yell out commands and Kira
couldn't stop herself from following them. She wanted to do this on
her own. She wanted to lose to her grandfather on her own or win on
her own, without Luke telling her what to do. But, when someone is
telling you the right moves, someone who has been instructing you
for months, you can't help but obey — at least that's what Kira
told herself, because he was the only thing keeping her alive in
this fight.

"Your face! He's shooting for your face."
Luke blurted out again and Kira deflected the shot. His screams
were actually distracting her. Instead of watching her opponent to
judge his moves on her own, she was listening and waiting for
Luke's voice. Didn't he know it wasn't helping her? Wasn't her
grandfather annoyed?

"Above!" Luke screamed and Kira jumped out of
the way, letting the flames crash into the wooden floor and
disappear without leaving a scorch mark.

Kira sensed that Luke was about to shout
again, but instead she turned to him and yelled, "Shut up, Luke!
You're not helping me, okay. You are completely distracting me. I
can't concentrate on anything except for your voice!" Taking a
second to breath, Kira looked into Luke's shocked face. Complete
surprise and confusion covered his features. "Look, I'm sorry for
yelling," Kira apologized, "but, I want to do this on my own. So
can you please stop telling me what to do."

"Kira, what in the world are you talking
about?" He asked, concerned.

"What do you mean what am I talking about?"
Kira said, annoyed.

"I haven't said a word since you started
fighting."

"Luke, please. You've been screaming at me
for the past ten minutes." Kira said, looking around for her
grandfather to back her up. He was on his way over to the two of
them.

"Kira, why would I do that? I swear, I
haven't said anything." Luke stood his ground and Kira was the one
who was beginning to feel confused.

"But, I heard you." She said unsteadily.

"What's the matter?" Councilman Peters asked
as he approached. Kira noticed that he too had a fine layer of
sweat on his brow. It made her feel a little better, knowing that
he was tired too.

"Um, nothing. I thought I heard Luke say
something, but evidently he didn't." Kira said, not wanting to
fight in front of her grandfather. If Luke wanted to deny helping
her, he could go right ahead. But she knew what she heard and she
knew Luke had to be lying.

"Good, then let's get back to work. Luke, I
want you to fight Kira so I can observe both of your movements."
And with that, he walked over towards his chair on the Council and
sat down to watch. Luke shrugged and moved to the other side of the
platform while Kira tried to push her thoughts to the back of her
mind.

"Ready?" Luke called. Kira nodded and waited
for him to make a move.

After a few seconds of waiting for his move,
Kira sensed that it would be a center shot. Some instinct in the
back of her mind told her it was where he would go. So, almost at
the same time as he released, Kira did too. The flames met exactly
halfway between the two of them before vanishing.

Right, Kira thought and fired again. Now
above, she heard the whisper in her brain, telling her it was the
right move. She felt empowered, but exasperation was there too,
gnawing at her.

The more they fought, the more in sync Kira
and Luke's movements became, as though they were tethered together.
They fired at almost exactly the same time, meeting evenly with
neither gaining any upper hand.

Frustration was pushing even further into her
thoughts, but Kira had no idea why. She had no reason to be annoyed
— this was the best she had ever done against Luke. It was like she
knew his movements before he did. If anything, Luke should be
frustrated. He was throwing everything he had at her and nothing
was making it past her defenses. If Kira were Luke, she would be
confused, maybe slightly proud, but also ticked off that this was
happening in front of a Council member.

Kira glanced at Luke's face. Sheer
determination was visible in his narrowly opened eyes, but the
furrow of his eyebrows did read of slight anger. He was annoyed and
frustrated. But, why was she feeling that way too?

Kira traced the emotion back, searching for
its source, but it seemed like some sort of cloud in her brain,
something not connected to her body... almost like it belonged to
someone else. And what if it did? Kira looked back at Luke, letting
her instincts fight while her mind wandered. Could she possibly...
was it possible? Was she actually reading his mind? Or, were his
thoughts somehow invading her head and forcing their way
inside?

Utterly distracted, Kira forgot to fight back
and one of Luke's flames hit her smack in the middle of the face.
Whiplash ensued as she stumbled backwards, thrown completely off
balance as the fire forced its way inside of her skin. Normally,
she enjoyed taking in Luke's power. It was friendly and refreshing,
but she had been completely unprepared for the blow. And, as it
were, she was standing so close to the edge of the platform, that
the stumble sent her flying over the side. With a thud, she landed
on her back on a patch of not-so-soft grass.

Luke's face appeared above her as he leaned
over the edge.

"You okay?" He asked with lips full of barely
contained laughter.

"Yeah, yeah," Kira sighed and stood up,
rubbing her bum free of grass. Of course, she had to careen over
the edge of the platform with a massive crowd watching. She hadn't
noticed until that moment that half of the town had arrived in the
square to watch her practice. She looked around at smiling faces
and muffled laughter. Great, she thought, and placed her hands on
the platform to push herself back up.

"Up until a minute ago, you were performing
admirably," her grandfather spoke when she was standing again. "I
look forward to the trial tomorrow."

With a nod, he turned around and walked away.
The clicking of his cane against the wood reminded Kira that he was
an old man, but definitely one with spunk. She hoped he would
someday let her into his heart or at least over for dinner. Looking
through old photographs of her mother would be more precious to her
than he even understood.

"Ready to head home?" Luke asked. His voice
called her realization back into prime focus.

"Luke!" She shouted practically into his ear.
Startled, he jerked backwards.

"Jeez, you need to learn some volume control.
What's up?"

"Luke! I think something really crazy is
going on, but you need to hear me out first, okay?"

He nodded and walked over to their bags. "Is
this a 'let's go talk in private' conversation or an 'I'm so
excited I need to spill my guts right now' sort of thing?"

"The latter, so just sit down," Kira said and
placed a hand on his shoulder to force him into a seated position.
She remained standing but took the water he offered. The thud of
her sneakers against the wood as she paced was helping her think.
How to phrase this? She asked herself. Not one for finesse, Kira
figured the blurting it all out approach would be simplest.

"So... I think I can read your mind."

"Ha! Very funny. Can we go home now? I'm
beat." Luke started to stand.

"No, I'm serious. I think I've been hearing
your thoughts inside my head."

"Kira, come on. That's ridiculous!" Luke
laughed, but Kira thought he looked slightly worried behind his
calm exterior. Something about the smile in his eyes wasn't quite
like it normally was. The laugh lines weren't deep enough.

"No more ridiculous than being a human flame
thrower." She shrugged and watched as he sat fully down, settling
in to hear what she had to say. He shrugged back, signaling to Kira
that he was prepared to listen, even if she sounded like a mental
person. "I'm not sure when it started, but there have been times
when I've felt overcome by foreign emotions, ones that suddenly
seem to appear out of nowhere and take over my thoughts. Until five
minutes ago, I never realized that it only happened when I was
around you."

Kira thought back to the truth in those
words. Yesterday in Luke's room something had happened, the day
before during the fight and when he had walked into her room before
the party. Even earlier, Kira thought, when I first woke from my
coma, something was different, but I just didn't realized it. When
he came to visit, the few times Tristan wasn't there, Kira sensed
his emotions. She knew exactly when he was upset or angry or
hurting. Before she thought it was just because they were such
amazing friends, but it must have been this, some crazy psychic
connection.

"Luke, you can speak to my brain — this is so
bizarre," she said, still slightly in shock. After plopping down
next to him, Kira finally met his eyes and waited for him to speak.
Even though they were best friends, she would never want him to be
able to know her thoughts, something so private and so intimate.
Kira was perfectly happy being on the receiving end rather than
having all her secrets spilled.

"Okay," Luke said slowly, twisting around so
their bodies faced each other, knee-to-knee in an Indian style
position. "Let's test it. I'll think of a number and you
concentrate on trying to figure out what it is."

"I don't think it works like that," Kira said
skeptically. Something so superficial wouldn't work.

"Just try it, okay?" Kira nodded and started
to concentrate.

Focusing on Luke's forehead, she tried to see
inside of it. All she ended up doing was noticing that his hair had
gotten even blonder since they had come to Sonnyville and his tan
was darker too. Concentrate, she told herself and switched her
tactic. She looked into his eyes instead. Number, what number are
you thinking? Kira questioned over and over again.

After a few minutes both of them gave up at
the same time, breaking their contact almost perfectly in sync.

"Nothing?"

"Nothing!" Kira sighed and blew a stray curl
away from her forehead in exasperation.

"I was thinking of the number three, by the
way. In case that helps," Luke shrugged.

"It's not exactly mind reading if you give me
the answer," Kira joked and starting thinking of another approach.
"I think we need to try something with more meaning. I seem to only
pick things up when there are strong emotional investments
involved. Can you think of something you really want or a moment
when you were really happy? Maybe I'll get something from
that."

"Not completely sure that is something I want
to test," Luke said and leaned back on his hands.

"Come on, Luke. We need to know if I'm having
a moment of temporary insanity or if I can actually read your
thoughts. Wouldn't you rather know?"

His brows came together as he squinted his
eyes and worry lines appeared across his forehead. He closed his
lids and brought his fingers to the spot on his nose right in
between them, clearly in deep and difficult thought.

"Okay," he finally said, opening his eyes and
looking at her again. "Okay, let's try it out. I'll think of
something from when I was a kid and you concentrate on me. We'll
see what happens."

After a deep breath, Luke's face turned very
focused and Kira in turn concentrated on him, on looking behind his
features and into his thoughts. She met his eyes again. After all,
they were the gateway to the soul, right? That was how the saying
went, and what better way to read Luke's mind than peering into his
heart.

In the back of her own mind, a switch flicked
on. Slowly, she felt laughter tickling her senses, giving her goose
bumps. It was pure joy. Kira wished she knew what past memory he
was thinking of, what could have made him this happy. But, she
tried to stay focused and kept contact with his eyes.

The more the happiness spread, the more Kira
could tell it reflected in her own features. A smile gradually
spread across her face and, though she didn't see it, her eyes
began to sparkle, like twinkling stars almost too bright to look
at. But Luke never shifted his gaze. His thoughts, however, were a
different animal.

Kira sensed it, connected as she was to his
mind in that moment. Pure joy was still there, but it was now
rimmed with slight agony and something different, something Kira
couldn't place. Not nerves, but some sort of excitement that still
contained joy, just not one so pure and innocent. This emotion was
strung through with complications. Still though, it lifted her up
and made her feel light, like a floating bundle of happiness.

Kira began to feel almost drunk on the
emotion. She was getting lost in Luke's mind. The distinction
between what feelings were hers and which emotions belonged to him
was slowly escaping her. Was that her fear or his? Her hesitation
or his excitement? Slowly, like a whisper almost blown away in the
wind, two words streaked across her mind:

"Kiss me."

Her words or his?

Kira's eyes focused again on Luke as he sat
in front of her. His pupils expanded. They were deeper, more
thoughtful than she had ever seen them. He was leaning in now, his
eyelids slowly shutting, cutting her off from his soul and trying
to let her in a different way. Kira couldn't move, couldn't
separate her thoughts enough to know what she wanted to do. Those
two heartfelt words were still drifting in her head. He was coming
closer. Her life was in slow motion. He was only a few centimeters
away now. Her brain wasn't working. Did she want this? Did he want
her to want this? Were his thoughts keeping her from pulling away
or were her own?