Nothing Less than Extraordinary

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Zaine and I both leaned on the railings of the balcony. After the others were notified that we were both okay and after notifying the authorities about an escaped Tyler, they (rightfully) left us alone. Wib took a lot of convincing, but eventually settled that he would wait in the bedroom while Zaine and I got the balcony. We just didn't say anything to each other in our time being out here. I don't think either of us knew what or how to say.

"So," I took the liberty to begin, "how long have you been able to walk through walls?"

I couldn't unsee it and neither could the others. He had easily passed through the dry wall as if it wasn't even there in order to get to me. I watched as his dark eyes watched over the empty courtyard below us.

"Since Emma got shot, I guess," he revealed. He looked over at me. "They always said I had density manipulation and I assumed it was only towards impermeability, not vulnerability too." Did that make him fully Developed? Because he unintentionally let the bullet go through him that killed Emma. He even unintentionally let Jase's blade go through him. And now...it was a wall to get to me. "I guess my powers and my emotions are connected." It would explain their tendencies. He loved Emma. Even though he wanted to protect her, his vulnerability and fear of her being hurt caused him to literally be vulnerable. The same thing happened on the rooftop with me. It made sense. He was scared to be weakened by his loved ones being hurt...so he was weakened as a self-fulfilling prophecy. I had no doubt it was eating him alive that he hadn't been able to control that aspect of his Specialty until now. I only reached my hand over to his forearm.

"I love you," I told him.

He added his other hand on top of mine and finally looked over at me.

"I know," he sighed and removed his touch so he could kiss my forehead and pull me into him by my shoulder before his other arm slid around to pull me into a hug. I had missed this. My memory had always been strong aside from the ones with him in order to make sure I could experience him in real time, not just in past memories. His strength, his scent and his warmth took a hold of me and no matter what was going on around us in this crazy world. I knew I had a safe place. I pulled away though.

"Do you though?" I asked, wondering if I could see the swirling eyes of Cheshire Nichols influencing his beliefs. His chocolate eyes were pure.

"Cheshire's powers don't work on me," Zaine suddenly informed and then stepped away from me to lean on the balcony rails once more. "Not completely anyways."

What...?

"Not even Maxwell could completely connect with me," he added and I continued watching him from afar. "I guess maybe it has something to do with my powers. He would always joke that my mind was always distant and preoccupied for him to reach me most of the time. Or maybe I'm just that stubborn," he mumbled and let out a breathy laugh before turning to face me. "But I'm not the only one with that tendency so I don't believe you'd be naïve enough to see what Cheshire wanted you to with his powers when he hugged you nor do I believe you would depend on him to convince me it was meaningless."

I instantly bit my lip and felt guilty once more. But at the same time, I thought of Cheshire. He was clever. He must've known he had no sway on Zaine. Trying to convince Zaine we were nothing was just Cheshire's way of purely proving to Zaine that he shouldn't worry so wouldn't always be this rift between us all. Because if Cheshire hadn't been adamant about vindicating himself (or us) to the length of using his powers, Zaine would've surely rioted and Cheshire would've actually left like he did in my imagination just so he wouldn't cause problems. I appreciated the hell out of it.

"I just didn't want you to assume anything between me and Cheshire again," I muttered. His eyes were unreadable. "I know he told you about his feelings for me."