Private Finished Digging Up Old Wounds

James sighed and Jae scrabbled to deduct where he went wrong. Did he say the wrong thing? Maybe it was too hypocritical of him to expect James to open up when he, himself, had a history of bottling his emotions. Perhaps, but Jae felt he could open up to James. Even after accidental mind control and accidental forest fires, they were still friends. So, Jae pushed when he should have listened to his instincts and shut up.

Fear flashed across Jae's face. He heard James yell, and saw the fireball building in the teen's hands. Several thoughts collided at once, too fast for Jae to properly process.

The fireball flew in an arc towards him, almost in slow motion. Jae moved, agonizingly slow, in time to turn away from the fire and save his face from harm, but not fast enough to entirely avoid the flame. Burning, sizzling pain brushed down his shoulder and arm as the hit knocked him back. Jae hit the ground with a heavy thud.

Jae's senses were overwhelmed. The heady smell of salt and fish, the crashing roar of waves and underneath that the crisp coolness of freshwater trickling out of rocky springs. The ocean covered him like a heavy blanket until he Jae was all but certain he were water. He was salt and wave, stream and spring. Yet it was the burning pain in his shoulder that kept him grounded. It hurt so much that Jae couldn't have turned into a puddle of water.

Time was fuzzy and Jae was unsure how long he laid on the ground, writhing in pain. At some point the pain lessened but Jae couldn't be sure through the assault on his senses. Then, like the end of high tide, the feel of the ocean faded away. Jae woke up in the school infirmary, an iv in his arm and his shoulder bandaged. It looked like he was going to be okay. . .but what happened to James?