Lurking

Author: Seth

"Sneak about the subject all you want, but you can't hide forever."

Night quietly slipped over the Ginsenkei compound, swiftly enveloping the entire garrison in a blanket of darkness. Something a certain creeping figure was trying to take advantage of.

'Almost there…' The shady individual thought tiredly. 'Just need to get a quick dressing on the wound, a change of pants.' A hand drifted down and gingerly felt the thigh high gash that had ripped the left pant leg open. 'The mission report can wait until tomorrow, and I can make a little side trip to burn these while I'm at it.'

Quickly stealing down a side passage, the night time spectre soundlessly slipped into the infirmary, finding the area deserted but also, and more importantly, a fresh roll of bandages and a bottle of antiseptic placed on an out of the way table in the north-western corner of the room.

The young assassin had an agreement with the medic boy. They both had their own way of doing things, and he'd let her take care of herself so long as she actually sought out professional medical attention when she required it.

Silently cleaning and dressing the wound, wincing only slightly when the antiseptic touched the raw flesh, the returning killer carefully replaced the supplies and padded off towards her room.

Pausing seven feet from the door, she quickly went over her 'mission plan' as she would have to pull every step off flawlessly if she hoped to make it to bed undisturbed.

Tiptoeing carefully towards the door, taking extra care to avoid that one plank right in front of the entryway that squeak, she reached forward and noiselessly slid the panel open. Curling past the partition, the infiltrator closed the door behind her and drifted over to a small chest lying next to her futon.

She eased the lid open… and let her shoulders droop as a flame lit up the room.

"You've got to stop doing this."   She carefully let the lid drop and turn to face both her teammates, now sitting up in their proper futons, the orange haired one with a tiny conflagration flowing up from her fingertips.

"I shouldn't have to-" She began, sitting herself down on her trunk, fully aware that she was going to be fighting a losing battle.

"Accepting a little help every now and then isn't a failure." The white haired one who had spoken first cut her off. "Is it too much ask? To share even a tiny bit of your burden?"

The light in the room flickered violently.

"Being alone, being 'independent', it's… not good." The golden eyed girl finally spoke up, the flame in her hand sputtering as she spread out her fingers. "Just look at my family. My older brother is the epitome of independence." Her voice grew bitter. "He doesn't need anybody, he just wants to watch things burn." The flame on her index finger sizzled and died. "My half-brother who saw my family for what it was and ran away." The fire on another finger slowly faded away. "My half-sister who's left to fill the void by herself." Another flame was snuffed out, leaving one tiny, flickering blaze on her pinkie. "And me." The final flame grew low. "And I found the two of you." The tiny spark erupted, enveloping her entire hand in a roaring light.

"We're not asking you to magically transform the way you do things right now." The blue eyed shifter added. "Just… think about it, ok?" She lay back on her futon and pulled the covers tightly over herself, closing the conversation. The Fire Sector princess quickly followed her example, extinguishing her hand and drowning the room in darkness once more.

The indigo haired assassin sat on her trunk for a long while after the shadows had reclaimed the room once more. Finally, she stood up and followed the last steps of what had been her mission plan before it had been irrevocably derailed.

'Think about it, huh…?'

She turned in her futon, her spare pair of pants slowly warming up to match the rest of her clothes.

Maybe tomorrow she'd see about getting the cut in her regular pants sewn up.