Frost & Flames | Soulmate AU 2 |

Ten

I convince Jacob to let us go to Thomas's open practice in the morning. They're both skeptical, sharing a look. I know I look like death, I saw myself in the mirror this morning, but the promise of being near all that ice is too good to miss. They agree after I insist to a degree that must be annoying.

Jacob sits with me in the top row of the stands. Most of the Capitals fans are down in the lower first few rows, so we look a little out of place, but it's better that we're farther away. You can tell I'm severely under the weather even with the HoloTech masking my true face.

Watching the practice is actually pretty entertaining. It distracts me from the fact that I haven't heard from Max or Rowan in a day. I spent all of yesterday being a sad mope of a person, flicking through TV channels and eating the little portions of food Jacob kept handing me.

Even being this close to the ice has already has an effect on how sick I'm feeling. The aches have eased up a bit and the headache that's been clouding my head for the past few days is fairly mild. It's been documented by some League studies that a lot of people with elemental enhancements feel better when they're around their certain element. It's not a magic cure, but the pain lessens by degrees varying person to person during the time of exposure. I feel a little better right now, sure, but it's not going to last. I'll gradually go back to feeling just as shitty as I have been on the way back to Jacob's apartment. It sucks, but I'll take the momentary comfort while I can have it.

The hockey players down on the ice before me line up for another drill, their assistant couch pointing this way and that with some last minute instructions. My mind drifts a bit, and I can't help but think about how useless I am right now. The team and I have experienced problems before. Maybe not a problem as serious as one of us being framed for multiple murders that is being considered treason on top of everything, but we've been in a crisis before. I was dealing with Rowan's father within my first week in the League, an undercover assignment I was put on to gather information that would take down his father's drug empire. My horrible mother rose from the dead, at least that's what it felt like, shortly after. We handled that entire situation, though it took us a while, but we managed it. I was in the middle of all of that. I was a part of the solutions. I am quite literally doing nothing right now. Right now I'm too sick to do much of anything a majority of the time, so I couldn't even help if Max or Jacob would allow me to. It's frustrating and makes me antsy in a way I haven't experienced before. I don't know how to handle all of this down time and inaction.

"You alright over there?" Jacob asks, breaking through my cycle of thought.

I hum back, pulling the sleeves of the gray hoodie he lent me down over my hands.

"You feeling alright?" he presses.

"Uh huh," I reply. "Better than I would back at the apartment."

"Yeah?"

"It's an elemental thing," I say. "The ice."

"Does it work for water, too?"

"Not as well. I don't know why," I say with a sigh. It'd be much easier if I felt this better when exposed to water. I could just in Jacob's bath for hours. Water doesn't have the same effect as the ice has, though. Maybe it's because I'm more connected to ice than I am to water, but I have no idea of knowing. This entire concept isn't an exact science.

"Does this whole connection to your element thing work for other enhancements, too?" he asks.

"I don't know," I reply. "I'm not sure. I bet it could, I just don't think there's any studies on it yet."

"I feel better in the dark," he says. "So does he," he adds, nodding down to the rink so he doesn't have to say Thomas's name. He's careful about what he says about Thomas when we're out in public. They both are, really. I suppose it can't be easy for either of them with the way NHL players are such public figures. Anyone can be listening at any time, especially in the city that Thomas plays in.