James’ drifted back to consciousness. Groaning from the aching in his back, he heard the crackling and popping of a campfire, the warmth nearly lulling him back into sleep. Where am I? His memories flashed back to the fight. His eyes shot open, bolting into an upright position, causing the pain in his back to throb, groaning worse than before. His eyes darted around in a panic. A girl with light brown, neck-length hair, soft freckled features, and baby-blue eyes stared wide at him from the other side of the campfire.

James blinked at her through blurry eyes, his head spinning and dizzy, believing he was hallucinating. When he could see clearly and confirmed she was real, he had so many questions but no words came to his mouth, he was speechless. Looking down, he was covered in makeshift bandages made out of ripped shirts soaked lightly in blood. Looking back up at her, he got a better look at her expression. She was straight as a board and tense, her eyes wide and scanning for any sign of a threat. James was confused as to why she was so scared.

“Are you okay?” James said softly, trying to reassure her. She took a second to respond, nervously licking her lips.

“What–what happened out here?” She said, her voice shaky from fear. James scanned his surroundings, the light of dusk reflecting scenes of devastation. Uprooted trees, charred vegetation, the complete absence of all greenery; leaves and grass alike, all burned. They were surrounded by a desolate wasteland.

James sighed. She’s terrified about why some naked man is lying in some destroyed forest, he thought. He didn’t even know where to start explaining this all to the girl. He had questions of his own, why was she out here? Why would she help him despite being so frightened? This situation made little sense to him. He would wait to ask. She went out of her way to take care of him, the least he could do was answer her question.

“It’s a long story. A bear destroyed some things precious to me. I got pissed and wanted revenge, it controlled the earth element and put up a hell of a fight. The destruction came from my attacks.” Shaking his head in embarrassment and disappointment, he realized how careless he was, again. He should’ve found a way to fight the bear without so much devastation. How can he defend anyone if it would result in this? His head dropped as he realized how much he let his emotions get the best of him. Once again he nearly got himself killed, and it was from his attack no less.

“Overdid it a bit.” James immediately realized how foolish of an understatement it was.

She looked at James, her furrowed brow and wide eyes displaying her skepticism and fear. Seeing his red face of embarrassment, she was inclined to believe him. She wondered how it was possible to cause this much destruction. What attack could do this? Such a powerful person so easily embarrassed? He made no sense to her.

“My name is James by the way. James Braddock.” He took the uneasy silence as a chance to introduce himself and looked at her expectantly, waiting for an introduction.

She was still frozen in thought, unable to make heads or tails of him. She didn’t catch the cue to introduce herself. Her fear he’d hurt her made her narrowly focus on signs of aggression. Even the gangs back in her city couldn’t cause this much destruction, most she’s seen them do is raze a building or kill someone by piercing an earth spike from the ground through their heart. This level of destruction looked like a warzone. If he did this and wanted her dead or to do something worse to her, he could. Even knowing that she couldn’t leave someone injured when she knew she could do something about it.

“Thank you for taking care of me by the way. You didn’t have to do that, means a lot to me. Can I ask your name?” Still sensing the tension, James spoke softly trying to make it clear he wasn’t a threat to her. He didn’t want her to be afraid of him, her fear reinforced to him how careless he was. He dropped his head in ashamed appreciation.

She looked at him thoughtfully. The ruined landscape reinforced to her that he was the one who did this like he said he did. If not, she didn’t see how he would’ve survived. She was uncomfortable that she was sitting in front of the person capable of such destruction, fidgeting as she ran her finger over the scorched uprooted tree she was sitting on. She looked at James, seeing his thoughtful downcast face.

He didn’t need to fake being kind for protection or some selfish ends if he was this powerful, he’d just take whatever it was he wanted as the gangs did in the city. His dynamic demeanor and the contradiction of how powerful he must be and the embarrassment and shame he was showing made her take the risk to trust him.

“Gracie, Gracie Caddel.” She said smiling. She stood up and reached out a hand over the campfire, the tension and fear gone from her face. James smiled brightly in return, gently leaning forward and shaking her hand. James noticed her soft, small hands compared well to her youthful innocent face. A girl like her didn’t belong out here alone.

“Well Gracie, if you wouldn’t mind I have questions of my own. A lot actually, but I won’t get ahead of myself. What are you doing out here and why did you help me?”

Gracie’s smiling face shifted to a serious, solemn frown. Her eyes displayed a distant hollowness of remembering something traumatic. She sat back down, angling her body and face away from James.

“I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer, I won’t be offended.” He mentally reprimanded himself, curiosity getting the best of him again. But he couldn’t help but feel even more curious.

After a moment her eyes blinked the hallowness away, coming back to the moment. She locked eyes with James, a determined look meeting him. “It’s okay. I come from the city. Dahlonega actually. The city is in ruins. Nearly everyone died–” Her voice got shaky, tears welling up in her eyes, looking distant again. James looked away from her out of empathy, giving her space to process her emotions. After a moment, she wiped her tears and continued.

“I watched as both of my parents died in front of me. I had no idea what was going on. The storm didn’t affect me like everyone else. As everything was crumbling around me, I ran to what’s always been my escape, the forest. I spent all day and night there, returning when I got too hungry. I’ve been hiding from the gangs on the street, my water and healing abilities did little to protect me. I helped people when I could, but I felt so vulnerable that I rarely had a chance to. The gangs were everywhere stealing from people, killing over every minor thing. I could barely even find food.”

James' eyes opened wide in horror as she was no longer able to hold back her tears. He wanted to do something to help her situation, hug her maybe. But he only just met her, he was afraid he’d only make her feel worse and it would be misplaced. She cried for a moment, eventually composing herself enough to keep talking. “I’m such a mess, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say that. You’ve kept going despite what you’ve witnessed and been through. You took care of me on top of all the problems you already have. I think that sort of strength and compassion is far more impressive than my own,” James meant that. His struggles have been a cakewalk compared to what she’s been through. He only felt shame for what he’s done with his powers. He’s destroyed a huge section of the forest and killed an animal in revenge, who has he helped? Just the opposite, he’s only harmed.

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Her face lightened a bit with a contrasting smile to the tears going down her face. She felt foolish for getting so emotional. She had only just met James and was terrified of him moments before, now she was crying and venting and taking comfort in his presence. Realizing she hadn’t answered his question she continued her explanation.

“A lot of the survivors suddenly came down with a fever and a cough, and I went out into the forest to find some herbal remedies, my healing abilities only worked on physical injuries. I wasn’t able to find any, so I went deeper into the forest. That’s when I came across you and the destroyed landscape. I was initially terrified and wanted to run, but the pain on your face reminded me of my own. I couldn’t live with myself if I left you there. I healed your leg but I wasn’t able to completely heal your broken ribs or gash on your back, I’m sorry.” She looked down in failure, feeling like she didn’t do enough.

“Gracie, I’m going to ask something selfish of you, please don’t take it the wrong way. I want you to know even if you’re slightly uncomfortable you can say no.” James gauged her anguishing eyes, every moment of desperation she’d experienced flashing through her mind. She looked up at him with curious, cautious eyes.

“Can I give you a hug? It’s the only thing I can think of to make you feel better.” Her eyes opened in unexpecting shock, scanning his face for his intentions. She only saw deep compassion and concern. Truth be told, she was so scared until now that she didn’t realize how badly she wanted the connection, any sort of feeling of acceptance from somebody.

She quickly nodded, not wanting him to stand up and injure himself more she quickly walked over, sitting down next to him beside the campfire and hugging him. She burst into sobs even more, her pain from the past few days raw, finally feeling safe to let them out. Gracie was so glad she helped him. She wasn’t alone anymore. She had someone to talk to, someone to protect her. James held her in silence, letting her get all her emotions out.

This moment spurred something deep inside of him. She was depending on him, she was vulnerable and had nobody. She went out of her way to help him, she didn’t have to nor should she have given her situation. James had a debt to repay to her, not helping her wasn’t an option.

James recalled her story as her head rested on his shoulder. Gangs littered the streets, and she didn’t even have access to food. Anger flashed through him, remembering the scene of his crushed cans of food at his camp. He was careful not to show it and frighten her. If it wasn’t for that bear, he could’ve fed her. His jaw subconsciously clenched and his teeth ground, the anger from before threatening to come out.

Gracie detected this change in James, swiftly standing up and backing away in fear, wide-eyed panic tracing her face. What did she do? Did she get too close? Did her tears bother him? The possibilities were spinning through her brain, she no longer felt safe.

“I’m sorry, you didn’t do anything wrong. I was thinking about how you said you were hungry, the bear destroyed all of my food and I felt angry I couldn’t give any to you.”

Her face relaxed again, her panic easing. She felt foolish for her hasty assumptions. Sitting back down beside him, his anger he couldn’t feed her reassured her more about her safety with him. She felt helpless like she needed to depend on him. Like she was taking advantage of his kindness. She shook her head.

James didn’t know what to make of it. He could tell she wasn’t fearful, her face relaxed and she sat next to him. But there was a change to her separate from her traumatic past few days and fear of him. He decided to leave it be. He suddenly wondered, where was the bear? He could skin and cook the meat. Realizing the sun had set, he would have to wait for the morning.

“Tomorrow I’m going to find the bear and skin it. For food and make some clothes out of the pelt. By chance do you have a knife?” James realized after the fact that could’ve been taken in a bad way. He looked at her to gauge her reaction. She seemed thoughtful, looking toward the tree. James looked in the direction and saw a bag on the ground. He relaxed, realizing she was most likely thinking if she had one or not.

“I do, but it’s small and dull. I don’t think it would skin very well.” She said a bit disappointed, her stomach was growling at the thought of some real food. She hoped he didn’t notice, both out of embarrassment and not wanting to make him feel any worse about not having food. All she had the past two days since this all started was a can of ravioli and some noodles she ate dry, not feeling safe to have a fire to warm it up, worrying it would attract the attention of the gang or someone else with bad intentions.

James sat thoughtfully pondering his options. He had a hunting knife, but he didn’t know if he destroyed it in anger when he lost control of his flame at his camp or even if the bear demolished it like everything else. He didn’t remember seeing it in the rubble. He also flew pretty far from camp to get to the bear. He would need to see if the knife she had would work to choose if it was worth going back to check or not. He could fly there, but he couldn’t leave Gracie alone or trust himself enough to not burn her or crash land while carrying her in flight.

Gracie watched him in thought, she couldn’t help but notice the intelligence in his deep, serious eyes. The sort of look reminded her of a deep philosopher or professor, who had confidence in the inner workings of his mind. She scanned him over under the reflection of the campfire. His short messy black hair a void on his face, highlighting his blue eyes and sharp features. His tall, muscled frame complimented his aura of controlled power. She couldn’t take her eyes off him despite feeling like she could be caught staring at any moment.

“Can you show me the knife?” James looked up at her, the sudden shift scaring her out of her daze, and feeling stupid she didn’t look away sooner. Clearing her throat she quickly walked over to her bag and pulled out the knife, handing it to him. Both out of a display of trust and the simple fact he didn’t need a knife to hurt her if he wanted to.

James looked over the knife, turning it over in his palm. It was a short, pink blade with scuffs on the handle indicating that she had used the knife for a while. He ran his finger along the edge, it wasn’t sharp, but it also wasn’t dull. He concluded that if this blade couldn’t cut the hardened pelt, his knife wouldn’t do much good either. He decided he’d give a good report to her, her expecting eyes making him not want to upset her.

“It should work, the blade isn’t all that dull and it’s not overly short. Thank you. We’ll leave first thing in the morning to find the bear.” His voice was growing hoarse and he realized how thirsty he was. He realized he hadn’t drunk anything since the day before. He was so occupied in the conversation between Gracie and him. This was becoming a pattern for James, he gets so busy he forgets about the need to drink or eat.

“By chance do you have water?” James felt bad to ask, she had done so much for him as it was.

Her eyes spread wide, feeling she had failed him by not offering it sooner. “I’m so sorry! I forgot!” She rushed over to her bag again to pull out her water bottle, half empty quickly handing it to him.

The desperate, emotional display bothered James. Why was she so panicked she didn’t offer it sooner? Was she still afraid of him?

“Grace, you’re okay,” he held up his hands in a calming motion, “you didn’t know.” He said in an attempt to calm her. He didn’t understand her reaction. It was just water, it wasn't a big deal to him. She cut her eyes, embarrassed again.

Looking down at the water bottle seeing it half empty, he allowed himself to only drink half the remaining and handed her back the rest. He wouldn’t bother to ask if she was thirsty and if he could drink the rest, given her previous desperation he feared she’d only lie to him. She’d let her think he got his fill.

“Thank you, I’ll refill it in the morning at the stream and boil it. Thanks for what you’ve done today, Grace. I owe you.” He laid down to sleep pulling his blanket closer, careful to not hurt his wound. He suddenly realized Gracie didn’t have a blanket, sighing at how awkward this might get. He was completely naked under it but they didn’t have a shelter to stay warm with.

He decided to not make a big deal out of it and just face away from her and not show his awkwardness, he didn’t mean anything by it. She needed to stay warm, it could rain again. If she felt uncomfortable she could just leave, but he didn’t think she’d choose to come under it given her anxious state.

“I’m going to bed, goodnight.” She was still sitting upright, her face unreadable. Mostly seeming reflective and hopeful. He scooted to the side as far on the other end of the blanket as he could, laying the other side over her lap, and rolled over. Falling asleep in seconds despite having slept all night and day. His body was in repair mode having such deep injuries.

Gracie was still embarrassed from the desperation she showed with the water bottle, her embarrassment stacking with being under the blanket with him. She was turning bright red. She resisted the urge to slap herself, feeling juvenile.

What is wrong with me?! Pull yourself together! She yelled at herself internally. She planned on not sleeping with the blanket, staying close to the campfire to keep warm instead. James' thoughtfulness kept surprising her. He was the complete opposite of the brute she would expect to cause such a devastating scene in the forest. She lay down and got comfortable, this was the only time since the space storm hit and the introduction of elemental powers that she felt safe at all. She closed her eyes, a soft smile on her face. She fell into a deep, relaxed sleep.