Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) - By Paula Flumerfelt Page 0,29
her fingertips out to touch it. “It’s warm…did you make this happen?” Her gaze was locked with his, sharp and confused.
Mathieu was shaking slightly. “I d-don’t know…I might have. I just…wanted to protect you…” He said it lamely, still a few feet from her.
Avian lifted her eyebrow. “Can you control it?”
The truth was, he did know what it was and he could control it normally. His panic had just loosened his hold on it. It was energy that both lived inside of him and that he drew from the world around him. Normally, he could focus it down to a small barrier between him and others if a fight got serious, but it took effort and concentration that he generally couldn’t devote while fighting. This explosive, protective nature wasn’t usual for his energy. “Eh…”
Demetri looked between the two of them. “I think we’re done for today, Avian...” The man said. Demetri was smart enough to know when his cue to leave came up.
She nodded in acknowledgement, her gaze not straying from Mathieu. As soon as Demetri walked away, she let her hand drop from where it had been touching the warm energy. “You didn’t answer me, Mathieu.”
He pulled the energy back into himself and closed his eyes. “Yes, I can control it…”
“But you didn’t mean for that to happen.” She asked, looking for clarity.
“I panicked. My control of it isn’t always the best when I get emotional. It could tell you were going to get hurt and reacted appropriately.” He tried to shrug it off, make it no big deal.
Avian was perhaps too smart for her own good, Mathieu decided, if the comprehending look in her eyes was as dangerous as he though.. “Then you need to practice with it. That’s what Professor tells me about my inability to keep my mouth shut. Practice.” She closed the distance between them and touched his shoulder.
Mathieu recoiled. “You d-don’t think I’m a freak?” He’d always held onto his energy tightly, scared that the people who saw it would think he was a freak and try to abandon him, or worse, kill him. But here was Avian, hand on his shoulder after having just seen him stop a man easily three times his size without touching him.
“Of course not! Honestly, I think it’s kind of…pretty.” She flushed and wrinkled her nose, eyes soft. “Everyone has something they’re ashamed of or something that they hide from everyone else. It happens. We’re only humans. Flesh and blood. We make mistakes, we feel ashamed. Don’t worry about it.”
“Avian…” His eyes welled up, his hand reaching up to lay over hers. Now he was the one being emotional; he didn’t feel like an idiot as he might have if she hadn’t just lain to rest one of his biggest fears.
She smiled. “Let’s go get something to eat. Food always makes me feel better.” She patted her tummy and he realized that she was speaking from experience: her weight was something she was ashamed of.
As soon as she was out of her whites, he took her hand and walked beside her.
~*~
After having eaten their hearts’ fill, they still had nearly ten whole minutes to just sit and talk.
“You sure get that stuff. The academic side of it, I mean. The way you absorb information…”
She sipped at her minty, fruity concoction. “Yeah, well. I grew up alone, reading a lot. I have a pretty decent foundation of knowledge to build from, even if what I know is completely useless. Most of what they say isn’t important anyway.” She fixed him with a look. “Mathieu, I know that in the grand scheme of things, I can’t teach you many things, however, I can teach you one thing. Ultimately, the majority of what people say is a load of crap. In order to succeed at life, you need to hear what they aren’t saying. You get it?”
“No.”
She sighed. “It’s like this. If some lady is talking about how much she misses her husband because he works so much and they hardly spend time together anymore, she doesn’t miss him. They fight a lot is why. She’s mad because he always escapes to work before she can win an argument. She hates that she isn’t the most important thing in his life anymore.”
“…I wouldn’t get that at all…”
Grinning, she thumped her glass onto the table. “Always remember, it’s the things they don’t say. It’s what they’re implying. By the way, we better get going, or we’ll be late for lessons.”