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[anequal]

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[phoenix_temple]

I'm already scared. Look over there. [He's making her nervous.]`

[anequal]

[He sighs and nods and turns the way she told him to look.]

[phoenix_temple]

[She takes a deep breath when he turns away and makes a kind of squeaky noise. Pain of any sort kind of makes her head rush cold and the blood makes her vision go fuzzy for just a second.]

[anequal]

[He counts to three.]

All right to turn around yet?

[phoenix_temple]

Um. Still bleeding. I'm good. I will be okay. Just. One second. [No her voice does not sound squeaky.]

[anequal]

[... He backs up, still facing away.

And reaches blindly to put a hand on her shoulder.] Breathe.

It's okay. You're okay. Breathe. What's the magic word?

[phoenix_temple]

Don't... look, don't tell anybody, okay?

[anequal]

My lips are sealed.

[phoenix_temple]

[She feels really really dumb doing this but she's dripping blood onto the tile now and she really can't keep this up. So she takes another shaky breath and mumbles what feels like the dumbest spell in the history of ever because it makes no sense--]

H-healing winds!

[And the bathroom is taken up by a gust and she is not okay with feeling like every part of her belongs with this magic, or like every inch of her is being welcomed home into powers she's supposed to have. Or like she's being comforted. By wind. This is not okay in any way shape or form.]

[anequal]

[Magical spells are really straight forward. Anthony's a little bit really startled by the wind but he keeps his hand on her shoulder and stands close to her.]

Good. You're doing it. How's the hand?

[phoenix_temple]

[Yeah a little. She's staring at her hand.]

Turn around.

[There's still a little blood on the knife, and on the floor, but none on her hand.]

[anequal]

Holy shit.

[He leans in to take the knife from her and pat her shoulder (gj girl gj) and take a look at her hand.]

Holy shit.

[phoenix_temple]

You could probably stab somebody and I could bring them back.

[She's shaking a little.] Oh my god, what am I supposed to do about this?

[anequal]

[He places his hand over hers and squeezes it and pulls her close with the hand on her shoulder.]

Don't. You don't need to do anything if it scares you. Use it to help yourself if anything happens. Use it carefully, so people don't realize you're in the network. And call me if you need help.

For now, you can control it. The spell keeps you from using it accidentally now that you know you have it. Don't describe it on the network in case that lady from the police gets nosy about things.

Right now you need to get up and walk with me to the couch and I'm going to give you chocolate.

[phoenix_temple]

I can't just not use it. [She is staring very intently at his hand on hers.] I can't. It's not fair and it's not right. Somebody talked to me about volunteering at the clinic.

I mean it might put me at risk, but--is it better to take a chance and maybe save people? Or let people die or suffer? That guy--the one who looked really old? He said her compassion was her source. Maybe she was a terrible person, but if the reason she could heal people was because she was compassionate, then why should I have the power if I don't actually use it?

[anequal]

It's not your responsibility, Anais. Come on.

[He tugs on her, pulls her to her feet and steers her clear of her own blood, dropping the knife in the sink to wash later. He takes her to the couch to sit her down and hands her a cushion before grabbing his bag, dragging it over and shoving a handful of Hershey's Kisses in her palm.]

You might have the power but that doesn't obligate you to do anything if you don't want to. If you don't use it? Then that's your choice. It's your life, and it's already getting pushed around by whoever that other girl was.

[He sits down next to her.] The only thing that's not fair is if someone makes you think you're a bad person for doing something you don't want to do because they think it would be useful or convenient if you did.

[phoenix_temple]

[She sits. She looks so very frazzled. Her hair is coming loose of it's clips and honestly she just wants to go back to pretending this never happened.]

I just spent two weeks freaking out not knowing what to do with this. And I mean--I keep hearing about people getting hurt or dying. And I think about it like... what if before I had this, what if my mom was hurt, or my sister, or you? And nobody helped, and one of you guys died?

What if you never pushed me out of the way of that car? Or if Marina had let me get stabbed?

Everybody has somebody who cares about them. Not using this... even if I'm scared or it gets me caught, it's not right to be selfish about it.

[anequal]

I told you: Use it when you want to.

[How does he even. He only knows how to comfort friends two years younger than him. He puts an arm around her shoulders to pull her closer and pats her head.]

If you want to use it to help people, then I'm not gonna tell you no. I'm just gonna tell you to be careful. If you want to protect your family with it, it's your power now. Nobody should boss you around about it. If Billy Bob on the street gets hurt and you don't want his girlfriend Mary Jane to lose someone important to her, then that's still your choice.

I'm just saying that if someone says it's your obligation to do it just because you have it even if you don't want to because you can get caught and it's dangerous? Then they can fuck off.

[phoenix_temple]

[This is new and part of her is embarrassed by it.]

... The guy who stabbed Marina totally saw me. If no one's knocked down my door yet, I'm probably safe, right?

[anequal]

[pat pat pat.]

Yeah. I think so. If you start to see anyone weird around the place, tell me and I'll come help.

[phoenix_temple]

Hey. Thank you. For showing up. I mean--you totally didn't have to but you did. It means a lot.

[anequal]

Haha. Well, they say when you do something dangerous always have a friend with you. It's no problem. Eat your chocolate.

[phoenix_temple]

[She eats one omg omg.]

It's not your responsibility, though. You could've just said no. Thanks.

[anequal]

You're welcome. For the record, you're always welcome to call me over.

[phoenix_temple]

And you can come over when it's not a minor emergency...

[... That sounds dumb. That implies he'd want to come over.]

I mean. If you want to come over. When I'm not totally freaking out so you can stop thinking I'm a total freak of nature. Like--what I'm saying is my mom won't care if you come over if you want to hang out or something--!