𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 - 𝑓. ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑠

020. CHILDREN OF THE CORN

"Experimentation of what?"

She stared at the trinket that lay on Elliot's table, with a wave of her fingers it melted and the usual glow flowed over her figure. His eyes widened as he came to a quick conclusion. "You can absorb energy."

"Yup." she said. "Reality has energy and, well..."

The corner of his lips turned up, remembering the week prior when she had been unable to control herself at all. Her improvement surfaced an odd sense of pride in him. He liked watching her grow. It was those little things that snuck up on him and caused him to be unable to avoid his emotions. Little moments over coffee in the mornings that seemed simple, could be brushed off as merely a friendly gesture but as always, anyone with eyes could see past the "friends" facade.

It seemed the friends, however, were adamant on avoiding it.

"That's great." he said, taking a long sip of coffee. The scratch of graphite settled in a moment later as she began filling in the crossword, something neither had done in a while. He grinned. "Bet I could beat you."

She looked up deviously. "At crosswords? Never."

He took the challenge, grabbing the other copy of the newspaper and pencil and they raced in silence. Desperately, he banked on her getting stuck on one as he struggled with four across. She must have noticed because her teasing soon followed. "Four across, huh?"

"Shut up." he sighed.

She shrugged while holding back a smile. "You need to catch up on your pop culture."

"Yeah, yeah." he rolled his eyes as she enjoyed soaking in his defeat.

A beep interrupted their race right as Charlotte was about to finish thirty down. Five jolted up, dropping the pencil against the table. She did the same, watching as Elliot's eyes widened at the flashing red light. "Hey, we got one. Hey, one of those machines you asked for is going crazy."

He rushed over, Charlotte trailing his side. "Which one?"

"It's the, uh, atmospheric radar," he said. Her eyes fell on the many circles that were mapped against the screen. She squinted in confusion.

"Good." Five responded.

"I don't get it. What are you tracking?" Elliot asked. "A hurricane? A storm front?"

"Sound waves."

Elliot nodded. "Sound waves."

"Sound waves?" she questioned lowly. Her mind raced even more as he intertwined his hand in hers and she knew what was coming. "Woah, woah, woah. Where are we going?"

"Vanya." he muttered before dragging her into that wormhole she had been forced to get used to over the past few days with a jolt.

She fell out with more stability than before, his arm stabling her. She looked around but not before giving him a scowl. He glanced down at her as she stared at the cornfield he had dropped them into. He smiled as she frowned. "Great. You just dragged us into Children of the Corn."

He sighed. "You're ridiculous."

"Outlander! Outlander! We have your woman!" she announced dramatically, waving her hands amongst the corn. Five stared at her blankly. She stared at him pointedly. "See this is why you didn't get four across."

He rolled his eyes but the corner of his lips twitched up and she noticed in secret adoration, enjoying the small action she seemed to elicit from him. "Whatever."

They continued through the corn, leaves brushing across her shoulders as they went along. Per usual, they bickered frequently, stumbling through the cornfield before coming upon a pair of eyes among the twisted stems. He paused as did she, his hands pushing apart the corn that the eyes hid behind. Short brown hair and gentle features across the face... "Hi, Vanya." he greeted.