The Elements (Peterick)

ONE

Pete has gotten used to the heated gaze that seemingly follows him around everywhere he goes by midway through the second day of his classes. Right before they break up into the groups they are assigned to.

Pete now has two sleeves full of bluish tattoos and a circular necklace with the same colour palette as his new ink. He finds out quickly enough that Andy, Joe and Patrick all have similar necklaces - Andy's is green and diamond shaped, Joe's is a whitish blue and hexagon shaped, and Patrick's is orangish yellow with a hint of black and triangular shaped.

Andy Hurley's eyes - much like Patrick Stump's - have been glued to him since he walked in this morning. Andy is probably confused because of the amount of power restraints Pete required. Pete has no clue what the fire-controlling boy wants with him yet, but he intends to find out.

The bell rings, and Pete stays in his seat to listen to Mr. Wells' voice tell him where to go next. "You will break up into your groups now. Technicals to stay here, Elements to the football field, etc. If you don't know where you're going, see me immediately."

Pete smirks and pulls the letterman jacket further onto his shoulders, aware of how cold it is outside. And the fact that his power makes his body about ten degrees cooler than others doesn't help in the least bit.

When he reaches the middle of the huge football field, Joe and Andy are already there. He gets a small smile from Joe, which he returns, and a dirty look from Andy.

"What are you doing here, Rookie?" Andy asks, crossing his arms. Pete thinks he sees Joe place a hand at the small of Andy's back, but he can't be sure.

"I'm here for class." Pete answers simply, the smile on his face never faltering at Andy's scoff.

"Perhaps you're lost. This is for The Elements." Andy says slowly, as if Pete is too idiotic to understand.

"I know." Pete replies, grabbing the bottle of water out of his backpack. He makes sure to always have one around ... in case of emergencies.

"No." Andy gasps, looking down at the water bottle and then back up to Pete's face. "But you said.." He trails off, looking to Joe for help. Joe just shrugs and smiles at Pete again.

"Boys!" An unfamiliar voice rings through their ears, stopping all conversation. Andy and Joe immediately jump apart, standing up straight and looking past Pete, to where he's sure the voice is coming from. He turns around slowly and mimics Andy and Joe's posture, the smile still on his face from earlier. "I see you've both met Peter, the boy with the ability to control water. The missing piece to our little puzzle." He smiles, holding a hand out to Pete. "I'm Aeson Hollis Aiken, but you can call me Ace." Without hesitation, Pete's mind goes to the fact that the school is literally named after this man, even though he is not the principal. He shakes the man's hand gasping and letting go of it when he gets a weird feeling. "Where's Patrick?" Ace asks, the smile dropping from his face as he turns his attention to the other boys, who - if the way they're both on edge have anything to do with it - are very afraid of him.

"He had to go to the infirmary. His cords are acting up again." Andy answers quickly, and Ace shakes his head, huffing out a breath.

"Those damn things don't even work, yet they're keeping him from doing schoolwork. He should've just listened to me and gotten them cut out." Ace responds, going off like a ticking time bomb. Pete's eyes almost bulge out of his head at the sudden change of moods. He's confused as to what they're talking about, but he doesn't ask in fear of getting punished.

As if on cue, Pete feels his body warming up because the heavy gaze that comes with Patrick has just landed back where it usually is; on Pete. He gives Ace a note and Pete a funny look.

Pete focuses his eyes on Patrick's face to see multiple fiery red piercings on Patrick's face; he has a lip ring, a nose ring, an eyebrow stud, and two holes in each of his ears with earrings in all of them. Why hadn't he noticed those before? Maybe they were new? Surely Pete would've noticed the eyebrow piercing at least.

"You had to get your power restraints changed as well?" Ace questions, and Pete knew that fucking eyebrow piercing was new. Patrick nods, tapping the eyebrow stud and the nose ring and pointing to his earrings. "Of course. Well, it feels good to be able to say this finally: partner up, boys. We've got a long day of work ahead of us."

Ace wasn't kidding. For what seemed like hours, Andy built a mountain from dirt and Joe blew it all away, and Patrick shot fire at Pete, only to have the latter distinguish the fire before it hit his body. When Ace finally let them quit, it was almost dinner time.

They all walk in silence to the cafeteria, where they sit in the middle with everyone staring at them. Pete never thought a school like this would have popular kids, and the chance of him being one of them was even less likely. But here he is, eating his pasta with everyone's eyes fixated on him and the other three boys sitting around him.

"So how long have you had your power?" Joe asks from across the table, trying to include Pete in on the conversation. "Andy and I both got ours at fourteen, and Patrick was an early bloomer, getting his powers at nine." Joe explains, ignoring Andy elbowing him.

"I was nine as well. I wasn't aware that I'm considered an early bloomer for it, though." Pete replies, taking a bite from his garlic bread as he awaits Joe to answer.

"I'd call you a late bloomer." Andy says honestly, shrugging at the confused look he gets from Joe for actually talking to Pete and not being arrogant or rude. "You might have gotten your powers early, but you did a damn good job of not using them. You hid yourself from the government for seven years. I couldn't even do it for seven hours."

"He's not wrong. Andy and I were both dragged off as soon as we discovered what we could do and sent here, where we've been for three and a half years." Joe clarifies, eating a french fry after he finishes talking.

"And Patrick?" Pete asks, turning his attention to the colourful haired boy. The latter's head snaps up, and he smirks at Pete before taking his tray to the garbage can and disappearing seconds later. Pete shakes his head at the strange behaviour, turning back to Andy and Joe to see if one of them will answer.

"That's a story he'll have to tell you." Joe offers him a smile instead of the story, to which he returns. He doesn't blame Joe for not wanting to share Patrick's personal business with someone he met yesterday. Pete will just have to gain their trust. All of their trust.

how is this? does it suck?

thank you for reading!

what does everyone think is up with patrick?