Cold Ashes

two

I didn't get to go to the cemetery to visit my parents' graves, not until the next evening.

Not when I received a new notification on the band around my arm, right as I was making my way out of that dirty, old alleyway. And when I saw who it was from, I knew I couldn't sneak away just yet.

When I reached the Agency, I was forced to meet up with Orias way before I could've gone to the infirmary to get my shoulder checked. Which, now that I was walking again, hurt like a literal bitch.

"Something's wrong with my shoulder," I groaned, looking up at River as he stood before the common room doors.

He grinned at me. River was someone I had been familiar with ever since I was a child, ever since the Agency and Orias took me in. He was like a big brother to me. And I could always count on him when I fucked things up. Like that time I'd accidentally started a whole forest fire to somehow defeat Ice Phantom.

I had received only two things from that incident. One, Ice Phantom had a real fear of fire. And two, my nickname--Cinder Girl.

"Ah, the fall." River nodded, running a hand through his hair. A shade so vibrantly blue, I liked it. "It's already on the news. Didn't look decent."

"You think?" I groaned again. "He pushed me down an eight-storey building."

"And you were expecting something else?" He cocked his head to the side, gaze questioning.

I hadn't. If there was any chance for him to push me off a building, I knew Ice Phantom would take it over anything. No wonder they called us each other's nemesis now and then.

"You should go in." River broke me out of my thoughts. "Orias has been waiting for a while. You know how he gets when someone keeps him waiting."

I grimaced and tried straightening my back, only to wince when my shoulder pulsed in pain again.

"I'll make sure Jade is free so you can get your shoulder checked." He nudged his head towards my shoulder, gave me another one of his grins, and left.

I sighed and pushed open the doors, ready to face Orias. And like I had expected, he wasn't happy with me that I'd let Ice Phantom go away just like that, even when it had been quite the opposite.

"Ever since you started that college of yours, you've been lagging on your training, Seven." Orias's steely gaze swept over me and I froze a little in my position. "All of those bystanders, even that stupid reporter saw you failing in front of that...that lousy excuse of a person."

The fact that he was calling me Seven--numbers he kept for his recruits--told me he was plenty annoyed with me. My eyes kept darting from him, as he paced, to my black boots.

"I'm sorry. I was just...just a little distracted." I murmured quietly. I hated disappointing him. Out of everyone in the Agency, Orias has always treated me like his own. Like family. There were my dead parents, the graves, the lone photograph of them I had with me, but they had never felt like my parents or my family. Orias was my family. He'd been there for me through it all, ever since I was a kid. And disappointing him pained me. More so than anything else.

"What could you possibly be distracted about when thousands of innocent lives were at stake?" His voice boomed all around us, bouncing off the common room walls.

I glanced up at him, swallowed and told myself not to shrink away. "I...there was...it was...you know..." I trailed off, biting my tongue when no proper sentence came out of my lips.

"Use your words, Seven!" He shouted. I flinched.

"My parents." I blurted out, crossing my arms and gritting my teeth at the pain that shot up my neck. "I needed to go to the cemetery. It's the...it was the 3rd. I just...couldn't find the time and I feel horrible when I don't visit them."