Forbidden | Carol Danvers

Chapter 5: Stolen kisses

16 years ago

'You are doing a great job honey', I heard my mother's voice from behind me. I had been practicing my second element, water, the whole day. And because it was my mother's specialty, she helped me. A little cup filled with water from the tab stood on the table outside our house. 

It was very warm today. The sun was shining brightly and my mother had her big straw hat on. She only wore it in the summer, when she wanted to protect her head from the sun. To me, that hat presented the sunny days of summer.

I had succeeded in lifting the water out of the cup a couple of inches and letting it fall back in gently and now I wanted to make a small waterspout. It didn't go very well, however. I just couldn't seem to make the water turn.

My mother saw that I got frustrated when it didn't work so she turned me around and looked me in my eyes. I had tears in my eyes because I was disappointed in myself. 'It is okay to cry Aayala. But when something doesn't work out, try and find another way, another solution', she said to me sweetly, hands on my cheeks.

I smiled at her. If she believed I could do it, so did I. So when I turned around again and looked at the water, I let her belief in me help me turn the water into a little tornado. I couldn't hold it long, but I didn't have to. I did it.  

'Never forget that you can always do more than you think you can if you just believe in yourself. I will always believe in you' 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now

Months passed, I went on more missions and kept training with Vers. In the days or weeks I was on missions, she would train on her own and show me the progress she had made when I came back. I had to admit, I missed her when I was on missions. The contrast between the emotionless faces of my fellow Soldiers and the smile Vers always wore on her face, was big. 

I missed her happy aura that made me feel content. She was the only one who had ever made me feel that way again after I had lost my parents. 

I could tell she felt the same way about our trainings. She would tease me, dare me or challenge me. Anything to get a reaction out of me. And if she succeeded, her face lit up like she had won the lottery. 

She had her powers under enough control that we started doing hand-to-hand combat again, but with usage of powers. Of course I wouldn't use my fire, I didn't want to burn her pretty face off, but I came a long way with my wind and water which didn't hurt her that much.

I had to look out for her photon blasts though. She almost burned my pretty face off once. 

She felt really guilty about that at first, but we laughed about it later. Besides, I got back at her by blowing her legs away from under her with a big gust of wind. She landed on her face and had a small bump on her head for about a week. She could laugh about it though.

It was also impossible to ignore her little flirtations towards me every now and then. I did my best to push down the blush that came on my face every time she did so, but she didn't make it easy for me.

Going back to hand-to-hand meant a lot more touching than I wanted and I just couldn't ignore how my skin burned where she touched it. I tried to convince myself that it was just her powers, but I had to admit that we had subtly gotten a lot closer than I wanted to. I did not like to be touched, but it was a strange dislike. I did not like it, because I craved it too much. I wanted to be held very tight so I would not break.