“Nah,” said Birgit as she looked at me with a small smile on her face. “Don’t worry about it, you freakishly tall Greek man. I am not some fragile little thing. My parents are in town. They aren’t exactly my favourite people as you have probably figured out on your own, and I want to try and avoid them.”

Her parents? As in her Elemental powered parents? It wasn’t the most appropriate thing to do, but my not-so-inner hero fanboy came out and I let out an involuntary squeal at that.

It took a moment, but I realised my blunder and put a hand over my mouth. The glove’s texture felt rough against my lips, but I kept it there and hoped that my eyes would do a better job at conveying any sort of thoughts and emotions than my mouth apparently could.

Birgit burst out laughing at that, and that apparently was the push we needed to start talking like regular people. The air itself seemed to get warmer as Birgit’s mood seemed to get better, and I even started to ease into a relatively smooth conversation about meaningless topics.

Eventually the bus arrived, and we entered it alongside a few other people.

“And I am not freakishly tall!” I said to her as the driver tore our tickets in half.

“Yes you are. You are, like, taller than everyone I know.”

“Είπε ο γάιδαρος τον πετεινό κεφάλα. I mean, you’re nearly as tall as me.” I laughed at her, using Greek involuntarily.

“What did you say?” giggled Birgit as we made it to the back of the bus, where all four of the seats there were empty.

“It’s an expression,” I said to her, trying to remember its English counterpart. “Oh! The pot called the kettle black? Or something like that? Look, I’m not incredible at English. I only have a Lower, which is the second best degree you can get over here, and I am honestly kind of surprised that Jensen didn’t force me to take any lessons to compensate.”

We sat down at the two leftmost ones, putting our bags down at our legs and looking at the city flash before our eyes as the bus moved. Or at least, when it did move considering there often was endless traffic on the way.

“Interesting…” said Birgit as she looked out the window. “You know, you’re quite fluent in English. And we have a saying like that in Danish as well actually.”

After a few moments of silence I let out a small sigh and asked, “Are you really going to make me actually ask you what the saying is?”

“Man skal ikke kaste med sten hvis man selv bor i glashus,” she said, a smirk adorning her face.

“Man skal ikke kaste…med vis man selv bor glasus?” I said, and I probably terribly mispronounced it if I were to judge from Birgit’s expression and her visible flinching. “Maybe I will stick to Greek and English as my primary languages.”

“I think it’s better for all mankind if you do,” responded Birgit among barely contained laughter.

I let out a laugh of my own, and the dam seemed to break on her end and she legitimately clutched her sides with laughter.

“I didn’t think we would have an actual good time, but here we are,” said Birgit, sighing contently as she leaned back on her chair.

“Give it time. I’m sure I’ll figure out a way to make this awkward,” I said to her. I clenched my hands tightly together, the gesture somewhat audible due to the leather of my gloves rubbing together.

These damn things were the reason behind everything.

The reason I was so bad at talking to people. The reason I was either a ghost or some sort of social pariah to all of my classmates that actually knew me, even if Iraklis sticking by my side got a lot of them to leave me alone.

But they were also the reason I was able to be there. Why I was on that bus, at that exact moment, with Birgit next to me.

She was dressed simply, but the outfit was one that fit her. Not to mention her black hair which was tied in a ponytail, with streaks of blue throughout, matching her crystal blue eyes.

It was almost like her whole form was giving away her power once you found out what it was. A small smile decorated her face, and it was matched by the crinkles in her face and the content look in her eyes. And I had to admit, seeing that there brought a small smile to my own face.

Wait, what was I thinking about just now?

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I shook my head, looking down at my gloves again, clenching my fingers once more.

This was a rocky training partnership at its worst, and a friendship in its beginning phases at its best. And if I could set my decade long friendship with Iraklis in danger within a few minutes, then I certainly could ruin this in less.

We continued on in silence for the next few minutes. Occasionally the bus would stop, and a few people would enter it, most opting to stand instead of sitting, and even those that sat down sat in the seats in front of us. Most of them were just faces in the crowd, people that I didn’t know and most likely would not ever know.

But not all of them were.

From a stop a bit outside the city centre got on a singular girl that was our age. Maria Papadopoulou, the girl I had nearly killed when I was only twelve years old.

I took in a sharp breath, ducking so that I was hidden by the seats, laying my head on top of Birgit’s lap. Why did Maria, of all people, have to be the one to show up here, right when I was there, heading up to the university?

“What are you doing?” growled Birgit, lightly slapping the side of my head with her hand. It hurt like hell, but that was clearly a light slap of her calibre. And I knew that calibre well enough, having faced off against her multiple times.

“We need to get off this bus!” I said to her, I whispered as aggressively and loudly as I could without straight-up shouting, drawing the attention of some of the people in the bus, before they turned back to their own business.

“What? Why?” asked Birgit. She seemed to be as lost and confused as anyone could be in a situation like this, although she also was apparently ready for a battle as well, since the temperature had just dropped significantly.

“I-We-You see-” What should I say? What could I say?

That I didn’t want to face the one person I knew for a fact hated me with every fibre of her being? Or that I couldn’t even form a proper argument to stand up against said person because she was right.

I had ruined her life. The medical procedures she needed to get better, the time it took for her face to not hurt or itch.

The expense of all that quickly had overtaken the point of her parents’ incomes with all the meds needed to keep her alive and comfortable. Not to mention all the private lessons she needed to catch up to school.

I remembered that she had to work for a period to compensate, nearly dropping out of school before her family picked themselves back up and she managed to concentrate on being a regular teenager once more.

All because of me.

“Please-Please, let’s just go,” I said to Birgit, unable to keep my voice from trembling. “I can’t face her.”

I felt Birgit’s cool hands on my head once more, only this time they were going through my extremely short hair. It felt kind of nice and relaxing. I took a deep breath and sat back up. There was still time to leave.

And then I felt the bus start moving once more. Even worse, I made eye contact with Maria’s brown eyes, which narrowed down into little more than slits, before she stomped her way over to me and Birgit.

“Alexander,” she said curtly in Greek. “Why must I always see you where I go?”

The bitterness was evident in her voice, and I couldn’t say anything other than, “H-Hello Maria. It’s…good to see you?”

“I heard about you and Iraklis,” she said, sitting down next to me. “And you better get your little hero act together.”

“Excuse me?”

“He’s totally bummed because he thinks your friendship is somehow ruined,” she said, and the tone of her voice made it abundantly clear that she couldn’t fathom that idea. “So get your head out of your ass, and talk to him. You say you want to be a hero. Well this might just be the only chance you get.”

What? Was Maria actually giving me advice on how to make things better for myself and Iraklis? This had to be up there as one of my strangest experiences. And I couldn’t tell if she was lying or whatnot from her tone of voice, and I didn’t look her in the eye unless it was absolutely necessary.

I heard Birgit clear her throat before she leaned forward to get a good look at Maria. She was frowning deeply, and before I could say anything to stop her, she thrust her hand forward aggressively.

“I’m Birgit Stine Paulsen, we’ve met before,” she said in Greek as well, using a tone so sweet it couldn’t be anything other than fake.

“You can call me Maria. I’m sorry but I don’t remember you.” Maria shook Birgit’s hand, looking at me and Birgit, a questioning expression on her face. “I honestly didn’t expect him to find anyone else to talk to other than Iraklis; the guy honestly seemed incapable of holding a full conversation.”

That’s because of you and the rest of the people like you never letting me live that day down. That was what I wanted to say. But I couldn’t. I looked at Maria once more, seeing the scarred portion of her face, and I couldn’t bring myself to do anything of the sort.

“We didn’t really meet if I’m being honest,” said Birgit, and the bus’s temperature dropped significantly. She was in full fight mode and I had only seen her get like that when she was about to blast a giant wall of ice at someone.

“Oh?”

“When he was running away from you in what seemed to be a full-on panic attack,” Birgit’s tone hardened, only this time instead of getting higher, she practically whispered the words, her knuckles white from the intensity she held onto the empty seat in front of her.

Taking a deep breath I turned to Birgit, who was staring at Maria intensely. “Please stop, you don’t-”

“Don’t you dare judge me,” said Maria, punching the back of her chair and causing most people inside the bus to look back at us. “You don’t know what he’s done to me,” she added quietly, before she pressed the stop button.

“I don’t know you,” said Birgit with a shrug. “Hell, I don’t know Alex that well either,” she added and threw a glance at my direction. “But from what I see, you have no right to claim any sort of moral high ground over him.”

Before any of us could say anything, a large figure came over, standing in front of our seats. It was a big bald man, wearing a tank top and jeans, so large that he actually blocked the view of the entire front of the bus.