Long time, no see. (Mia)

[Jonah King]

At his departure from Hammel, Jonah had been informed that he was still welcome to visit the school when he wanted to – and that he was requested to still attend mandatory power training sessions for at least a year. Telepathy was an awkward thing in the outside world, and it would be better for all concerned if he kept on with his control practise.

It was ostensibly for this reason that Jonah had come to the school today – the first time in more than two months. But he would be lying if he said that it was the only reason he was here. There was another, more pressing, concern for him to attempt to deal with before he went anywhere near the training rooms. It was for this reason that he was sitting on one of the benches in the courtyard, collar up against the chilly dampness of the early September day. In his right hand rested a mobile phone.

When Jonah and Mia had first begun their Covert Operations, Mia had implemented a text code. If either needed the other for any reason – any reason whatsoever – they would only need to text the code, and the person who received it would do their best to be there within the hour. In Mia-and-Jonah-speak, it meant ‘meet me at the Courtyard’. To anyone else, it would simply read:

Fancy some fresh air?

Jonah’s thumb paused for a moment over the ‘send’ key – if he sent it, there would be no going back. If Mia got it and didn’t come, he would have come here for nothing. With what was at stake, Jonah found that he almost enjoyed not knowing. There was much less heartache when you were in that blissful limbo between ‘yes’ and ‘no’, when you could ignore any considerations and rest in simple hopefulness. But as he pressed the button and the text disappeared into the ether, Jonah knew that this was the one thing he really couldn’t run away from.

On the outside, he was the same as he had been eight weeks ago – a little thinner, maybe, and with a tired look in his eyes – but he felt like a pretty different person when push came to shove. He felt as if he had run a five-mile marathon every day for the last months, and he took a deep, shuddering breath as he looked down at his phone. No reply, yet. Maybe she hadn’t got it – but Mia was definitely not someone about whom you could make that assumption. If there was one person who would be sure to get every virtual message you sent them, Mia was that shining example. No, Jonah would simply have to wait. Wait and see if his closest friend would come to the Courtyard.

Jonah leaned back, closed his eyes, and exhaled. He had spent a lot of his life waiting for Mia – it looked as if that, at least, hadn’t changed. There was no point in sending a prayer up, no point in voicing – even internally – his hope that she would come and find him. Mia was above such things as ‘please’.

All he could do was wait.

[Mia Keystone]

It was luck, really. She had been at training, and so her powers were not being suppressed. She'd just talked to her brother, so her connection to her phone was still there and the message had lit up in her brain like a christmas tree.

Her trainer thought she'd died or something; he had been waving his hand in front of her eyes for a good three minutes before she blinked, said she had to go, and bolted through the door.

Fancy some fresh air?

It took her about five more minutes to stop punching the wall nearest her, two minutes for her to run to her room, another ten to reapply her eyeliner, then two for her to realise she was being moronic and smudge most of it away. Then she took ten minutes to sit in her desk chair to ask herself some very important questions.

The technopath approached slowly, halting about two meters away and clinging to another one of those benches. Well, it was him, and there were no projectors in the surrounding trees so he wasn't a hologram...

He had his eyes closed. Well, that would make talking to him a bit freaken hard wouldn't it? "Oi," she muttered, then kicked gently at one of his shins until he got up.

Half of her wanted very much to punch him right in the face. But then, the other half wanted to do something entirely so she was sort of stuck doing nothing, for now. It was harder then you might think; it felt like her body was buzzing and if anyone tried to touch her she'd electrocute them.

"Hey," she said quietly, face mostly blank. "Where've you been?" Her hands were stuffed into the pockets of her hoodie and she was now kicking at the dirt.

Where have you been why haven't I heard anything do you know what it's been like I am so angry at you/at everyone, and no one could tell me if I was doing it wrong...

"Oh fuck it," she muttered to herself, and tackled the seated telepath around the middle. Their rather exaggerated height difference was a blessing, as she didn't have to worry about seeing his face as she buried her own in his coat, her hands digging into the material covering his back.

I fucking missed you, you bloody stupid idiotic moronic bastard

[Jonah King]

He knew she was coming. He could sense her making her way toward shim, although it was only when he felt her feet collide with one of his legs that he opened his eyes and looked at her. He straightened in his seat, sitting up so that they were pretty much the same height. She looked like Mia – the same old Mia – but he could tell that there was something different. Something wrong. It was the stillness – the Mia he knew would be constantly moving, always fidgeting. The girl standing in front of him was perfectly still, regarding him with an expression which gave nothing away.

It didn’t feel right. None of it did.

Her anger was pressing against his mind – it seemed to radiate from her. Jonah did his best not to let any of it in (he really didn’t want to pry into her thoughts: not now, not ever) but he could feel it there, pulsing below the surface. ‘I’m sorry,’ he offered. It wasn’t an answer, but it was the only thing he could think of to say. The only thing which would make any sense, at the moment.

There was a pause. Jonah knew that he had to let Mia take control of this conversation – she was the one in the right, after all. If he tried to jump in with explanations and recriminations, it would only result in a shouting match. He watched her carefully, trying to work out what her next move would be. Subconsciously, he attempted to calculate if he would be able to duck in time to avoid any punch she threw at him.

Jonah didn’t see what she muttered, but the next thing he knew she was diving at him, wrapping her arms securely around his waist. Both of his arms encircled her before he had even thought about it – he held her close and bent his head until his cheek was resting on her hair. They stayed like that for a long, long moment.

Finally, something felt right.

He couldn’t block out her thoughts – he had been too thrown off by her sudden movements – but he had the feeling she meant him to hear what she was thinking. I missed you, too, he told her in reply, speaking into her mind with all the emotion he could never somehow manage to fit into his real voice. So much. So, so much.[/i] Jonah pressed his face into her hair and held her even tighter.

After a while he moved, touched Mia’s cheek so that she would look up at him. He smiled down at her, and leaned in so that their foreheads were pressed firmly together. Noses touching, Mia all but sitting on his lap. He touched the back of her head gently with one hand, burying his fingers in her hair, and closed his eyes. For the first time in a long time, he allowed himself to lean on her, just for a moment. For a split second he projected - no words would tell Mia how sorry he was, but she would be able to feel it. Can you forgive me?[/i]

[Mia Keystone]

Oh, he was sorry. Still, as she heard his voice in her head, nothing like the techo-babble that usually filled it, Mia felt a lump in her throat and swallowed hard. She was not going to cry, she was not that sad or happy or whatever, it was just, well,

He'd missed her. King hadn't gotten over her or grown out of her or any of the nasty ideas that had planted themselves in her head and kept her up at night.

Reluctantly she looked up at him, aware her bottom lip was trembling slightly. To hide that, she dug her teeth into it and scowled, squeezing her eyes shut so she didn't do anything stupid like punch him or grab him by his stupid ears and kiss him. Neither of those things would be helpful, so instead the technopath tried to see if she could maybe crack a rib or two as she hung on like a spider monkey.

But then she realised what an ass she was being and drew back into herself, pulling away and sitting on the arm of the bench as she rubbed her hands over her face. "I dunno," she said honestly, propping her elbow on her knee so she could rest her chin on her hand. "I mean, where were you? I," the tremor in her voice scared her, even knowing Jonah couldn't hear it. "It's been bad," she finally said, remembering to look up. "Without you, I mean. I don't feel... I feel like I'm different.,"

Her inability to express herself usually was not a problem for Mia; usually all there was to express was contempt or rage or amusement. But this was different. "They're like... like another species," she managed to say finally. "And I can't connect with any of them, because I forget how. But, I had never, I mean, you stop me forgetting. And I hadn't realised. But..."

Now she could only use her abilities for a few hours a day. Enough to make her realise that she didn't think like an organic. But he'd know that. He had always said her mind was different. Busier or something.

This was impossible, and so Mia gave up and ran her hands through her hair. "Where have you been?"

[Jonah King]

This tongue-tied Mia was definitely new. Jonah found it surprisingly upsetting to watch her try and articulate her thoughts – true, she wasn’t usually one to talk about ‘feelings’, but this was different. Usually she was unwilling to talk about it: now, she seemed unable to. He watched her carefully, knowing that his interrupting her wouldn’t help at all. But he reached for her hand all the same, taking it in his and giving it a gentle squeeze. ‘You’re not a machine,’ he told her, switching to verbal communication. It made it easier to block her out, and he was still finding it novel that he could touch her hand without hearing every little thought. He offered her a small smile: ‘Not yet, anyway.’

Mia’s brain was a little machine-like, in many ways, but Jonah knew that was simply because she spent so much of her time engaged with non-human things. Her thoughts moved in different patterns – well, they usually did. At the moment, her thought processes were the most human they had ever been: probably as a result of her lack of exposure to machines.

At her question, Jonah gave a deep, heartfelt sigh. ‘It’s a long story,’ he said after a moment, struggling to work out where to begin. He ran a hand over his short hair and thought carefully before beginning, hoping Mia would remember to be patient with his slow ability to put his thoughts into speech. ‘You knew I went home for a family meal,’ he began, with a statement rather than a question. Mia had known he was going home for what was supposed to just be a weekend – she hadn’t expected it would be far longer than that.

‘Mom – she – ’ It wasn’t working. Jonah shook his head, and began again in non-verbal speech, talking quietly into Mia’s mind. Mom and my sister had a huge argument. About me, about Rachel’s baby – about everything. It was awful. I got angry. Mom said some really bad things.[/i] Mostly about him. It wasn’t something he really wanted to dwell on. I guess it was always going to happen. But it was bad.[/i] The sheer amount of anger in the room had been enough to make Jonah have a headache for a week. They’re not talking. I’m not – I’m probably not going back to Mom and Dad’s again.[/i]

It had been coming for a while, but Jonah had never expected the storm to break with such violence. I had to leave the house, and Rachel said I could stay at theirs.[/i] Jonah hated talking about this – even to Mia. Just remembering was making his heart beat faster. Then Rachel had to go into hospital – she’s doing OK now, but it was bad for a long time. They delivered the baby, and she didn’t wake up for weeks. Rob stayed with Rachel, I stayed with Kathryn – that’s the baby’s name. The thought of his niece made him smile, just a little. Jonah looked at Mia – he hadn’t even been aware that he’d had his eyes closed for most of his story. ‘She’s so tiny,’ he took a deep breath. ‘It’ll be a while before anyone can hold her.’ He didn’t mention that it would be a while before anyone would know if there was anything wrong with her – the doctors had said that it was unlikely she would be in perfect health.

‘There you go,’ he said after a long pause. ‘My family. Someone should make a movie.’

[Mia Keystone]

Mia's fingers tightened instinctively, and she even managed a small smirk. "Maybe one day," she suggested, but the smile faded quickly enough. Because she hadn't lied, she wasn't sure if she could forgive him just yet. It had felt like he'd stolen something very important, like her wisdom teeth or something, and the absence had hurt. She was so angry, now he was here, that it was frying her circuits but she couldn't bring herself to yell or ignore him or, well, anything like that.

But then Jonah started talking about his family.

At last, she had someone to direct her anger at. It had been a matter of time, Jonah had told her that, before him and his parents would part ways but it still infuriated the technopath more than anything else; that people could make someone as wonderful as Jonah then not appreciate what they had.

The recent reconciliation with his sister was something, enough that Mia understood how worried Jonah would have been when she was in hospital even if she didn't really know how that would feel in herself. "Being tiny is awesome," she offered, not really sure what there was to say; she didn't really do sympathy, or the like, but seeing Jonah look concerned and upset made her feel like there was something pawing at her ribcage.

"And that's a boring movie. It would need more explosions. I could do that, if you want. Blow something up." Without even noticing, Mia had shifted off the arm rest and was sitting cross legged on the bench facing her taller friend.

You could have called me.

She could just leave it at that; forgive forget and suggest a movie. But there was something else that they were both not saying, and she had to at least ask.

"I thought, well, I thought you'd been freaked out after we got all, you know, mushy," she said quietly, mumbling. "Because it was just, you know, it doesn't mean anything and I was totally just, you know, happy we weren't fighting anymore and it just slipped out, and it was stupid and not us, and it's not like either of us actually said anything so if it was freaky we can just ignore it."

Her hands were stretching her shirt as she tugged at it, her fingers twisted in the material.

[Jonah King]

Jonah couldn’t help smiling: the movie of his life would be a kitchen-sink drama, and Mia wanted everything to be an action film. ‘Yeah. Maybe the hospital could blow up while I rescue the girl.’ He didn’t hear her thought about him calling her, but he didn’t need to – he was thinking it, as well. He should have texted. Should have let the phone ring three times before hanging up, the way they used to during holidays when they wanted the other to log onto Internet chat. He should have done something, anything, to let Mia know that he was still alive.

And no matter how many excuses he was tempted to make for his behaviour, he knew that nothing could erase the truth. The fact of the matter was, he had screwed up. He had screwed up in a big way, and now he was going to make it better – if such a thing was possible.

After the family argument, he had been too furious to do anything, to get in touch with anyone who wasn’t related to him. But as the anger had died down, something else had set in – the things his parents had said had started to come back into his head, and make him wonder about things he thought he knew. Jonah had started doubting himself, and just when he would have turned to Mia, his sister had been rushed to hospital.

He opened his mouth to speak, but then Mia was talking to him – and deliberately avoiding eye contact as she did so. ‘Mia,’ he murmured after she had finished her little speech – when she kept looking down at her hands, he ducked his head to try and catch her eye. ‘Mia, it’s not like that.’ Jonah knew exactly what she was referring to.

They had a said ‘I love you’ – just once, but once was enough to change everything.

‘Mia, please…’ She wouldn’t look at him – all of her attention seemed to be focussed directly in front of her. Maybe she thought that if she ignored him for long enough, he would go away. Jonah floundered for a moment, feeling eleven years old again as he tried to work out how to make her understand. He got to his feet and stood in front of her. He took her hands in his, and tugged – when she stood up, she was standing on the bench. They were the same height, now, and she had no choice but to look at him. I don’t want to ignore it.[/i] It was impossible for him to lie to her when he was using this method of speech – it was the only way he could convince her that he was telling the truth. It wasn’t about that. Well, it – I was stupid. I listened to the wrong things, and – I – I didn’t know what to do – Jonah made a low noise of frustration in his throat. He couldn’t say what he meant. ‘I can never speak the right language,’ he said aloud, frustration brimming in the way it always used to.

Then he met Mia’s gaze, and he was overtaken by a sudden calm.

'Don't be stupid, Jonah. You can't feel something if you don't have a word for it.' But there didn’t have to be a word for it. The world wasn’t about words. You didn’t need to say what you were feeling.

Silently – wordlessly – Jonah closed the short distance between them, and kissed Mia softly on the lips.

[Mia Keystone]

Maybe it was a bit childish but Mia did her best to avoid Jonah's face as he tried to get her to look at him, and even resisted as he tugged at her hands until she realised how stupid that was and so stood up reluctantly. "It's cool, I totally get it," she started, wanting to cut him off before he had to actually go out there and say it. "We don't need to-"

He didn't want to ignore it. It felt like someone was trying to jump start a car in her chest. "Oh," she managed to get out, finally looking up from under her bangs and twisting her finger into one of the little knots she'd done her hair up in. Was she supposed to say more? For someone labeled as a loud mouth, she was coming up strangely short.

Then he kissed her and it was a lot clearer.

Oh thank god. Her arms twisted around his neck and she pulled him towards her, kissing back almost desperately until PDA started to flash in her brain in neon letters and with obvious reluctance she pulled back a little.

"I don't know what to do," she said honestly, rubbing a thumb through Jonah's short hair. It tickled, like that time she'd shaved the side of her head for fun. "I mean, I..."

Most of her relationships involved screwing when they both felt like it, and getting drunk together. And nothing that lasted. This... this felt permanent. Like it should be permanent.

Are you a bit scared? she thought, still feeling very short even with the slates of wood under her feet. I think I am. It hurt when you were gone. I don't want to feel like that again.

[Jonah King]

Jonah had kissed a grand total of three girls in his lifetime – and given his own unique circumstances, he was of the opinion that this was actually an achievement. He didn’t think of himself as someone girls would particularly want to kiss, and up until very recently, physical contact had not been something he was particularly good at. There had always been something awkward about it, some feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

This, however, felt right. Even when Mia pulled away, and he was still holding her, it felt right.

Was he scared? Jonah shrugged. He had absolutely no idea where to go or what to do from here, but he didn’t feel scared. He wasn’t sure there was a word for the way he felt. I screwed up,[/i] he told Mia unflinchingly. The only trouble was, Jonah hated making promises – he wanted to tell her that he would never let him down again, but he knew that making a promise like that would never be successful. He would never deliberately hurt her again, but Jonah was no fool: he always seemed to manage to get it wrong in the end. All he could do was hope that she wouldn’t decide that an existence without emotion was preferable to an existence of being let down.

If you can’t trust me again, I understand.[/i] He bit his lip, suddenly terrified that she would tell him to leave. Jonah didn’t claim to know exactly what was going on, here, but he knew that he didn’t want it to stop. But I don’t want to do that again. I don’t want to leave you unless you want me to.[/i] He did his best to smile at her, although he was suddenly shy as he said aloud, and signed as he spoke: ‘I love you.’

[Mia Keystone]

The thing was, it was never really Jonah who screwed up, not in the history of the saga that was Mia and Jonah. Mia had nearly gotten them arrested, had been responsible for numerous inquiries from the school teachers, had had him dragged into more meetings with Sean then she could count with both hands. She'd insulted his family (to be fair they had always started it), gotten him drunk and had even stolen all his left socks on april fools day.

But the thing was, she had screwed up. Not him. It was like opposite day.

"Don't be stupid," she finally said, her arms still around his neck. "I'll just install a locator chip in all your shoes." The paranoid technopath was only half kidding too. "You're not going anywhere. Except to college, if you really have to." Watching his hands carefully, she tired to do the same but ended up just making a U then holding up two fingers. Leaning forward until she was almost hanging from him like a bad tempered christmas ornament, she grinned at him then closed her eyes and rested her forehead on his shoulder.

Darn right you love me, King.

But, now she had that safe and filed away, he needed to be updated. "Be careful," she finally said slowly, "I've pissed off a few people and you do sort of have the reputation of being my only friend."

What exactly it was she did, honestly, still didn't dredge up any regret. She'd have her powers back, she'd have her computer back, and was excused from all School events. Forever. Still, seeing Jonah obviously non-plussed she rolled her eyes. "Larousse paid me to cause a disturbance at the sex talk thing. I did. It was pretty hilarious, but a lot of people got mad. I don't care, and you shouldn't, just be careful, ok?"

If anything would make her regret her actions it would be someone making Jonah miserable to get at her. Her retaliation would be swift and furious, if that was to happen.

[Jonah King]

When asked by Robbie how he was so good at reading other people, Jonah had replied that it was all about joining up the dots. You were given the framework, the points to join together – and if you were sure enough you could join a line between them and get a picture. He didn’t have all the information in front of him, so he had to work with what he’d been given. It was the same principle as lip-reading. So when given Mia’s use of the word ‘hilarious’, coupled with her current expression, he was able to get a bit of the picture: something had gone very, very wrong in his absence.

He narrowed his eyes at her, regarding her carefully. ‘What did you do?’ he asked eventually, trying to make the facts she had given him come together to form an outline: LaRousse. Money. The sex talk. Mia’s technological capability. The picture he got from those hints was not a pleasant one: had she broadcast obscene messages? Played sex noises over the tannoy in the auditorium? No, it would have to be worse than that if everyone was actively angry with her. It would have to be something personal. Teachers in compromising positions? Videos of students in the shower?

And when she said that she had pissed off ‘a lot of people’, how many people did she mean? Jonah had a very bad feeling about this – if she had done something really bad, there would be nothing he could do to help her out.

The dots wouldn’t join. He needed more information. He waited patiently, knowing that she would tell him if he gave her long enough – though judging by her initial caginess, she didn’t want to tell him anything about what had happened, in detail. He kept looking at Mia, careful to keep any hint of judgement out of his expression: she was going to have to tell him for herself what he had done. Jonah raised an eyebrow at her: a nonverbal prompt for her to begin speaking.

[Mia Keystone]

He was reading her. A part of her wanted to just tell him not to worry, she didn't want to spoil the moment as stupid as that sounded. "Ah, pictures," she said while chewing on her lip. "of some of the couples at school. I mean, Zac and Robbie and me were in the slideshow too, so I thought people wouldn't freak but then someone ran out crying and so that sort of turned the mob."

Oh, mob mentalities. How often had Mia had that turn against her?

"So, the staff traced it back because Sean did his jedi thing," she went on, "and they were pissed and Dr Campbell said I couldn't talk to Ginny anymore but she thought it was funny too so that's ok. And they took Kaylee again, but I get her back next week, and they suppressed my powers. It was... not fun. I mean, I get it, punishment thing, but you weren't there so I felt like they were lobotomising me."

After all that yacking she needed to take a breath, raking her hands through her hair and trying to gage some sort of reaction and raising an eyebrow of her own. "Don't you judge me. I'm a soulless automaton, remember?" she said with an attempt at a smirk. She'd felt like one, honestly. It had been easier then constantly getting yelled at for not being quite like them, better then trying to feel things that she just... didn't and being told that she was wrong for that.

"It was good money," the technopath added simply. "Would have got us an apartment, you know? For when I graduate, or get kicked out or whatever. LaRousse has promised I'll still get it, so that's ok I guess. And I'm not exactly worried; wasn't like they were all my biggest fans before hand and I'll be done this year, I think." She linked her hands and rested them behind her head, eyebrows raised expectantly. "So yes. That's it."

Can you kiss me again now already?

She may have been a bit optimistic but Mia really did not want to dwell on this past 'dont go wondering down dark alleys any time soon'. It was over and done and she just wanted to get on with her life. Which was going to include Jonah again.

[Jonah King]

Dirty pictures. Of course. Jonah would have chuckled if things hadn’t appeared to be so serious. He didn’t expect that Mia had done the stunt out of any kind of malice, but he also guessed that she wouldn’t have paid much attention to the notion that some people may not have wanted photos displayed. Especially if their relationship wasn’t known about by the rest of the student body. As it was, Jonah gave Mia a small, fond smile, and shook his head. She would never learn. ‘Oh, Mia…’ He knew how difficult it would be for her to lose her power (he had seen the state she had been in when one of the security staff had removed all of her technology), but a small part of him couldn’t help but wonder if this would finally make her realise that….

Who was he kidding? No amount of punishment could make Mia realise that she wasn’t infallible, and Jonah knew it.

A soulless automaton? ‘I know you are,’ Jonah said with a teasing grin, marvelling that she had her hands on his shoulders, and he had his hands on her waist, and he wasn’t ‘spazzing out’. ‘It’s all part of your charm.’ But her comment about the money made his breath catch in his throat for just a moment: had that been what she was thinking about when she was asked to play the prank?

Jonah bit his lip. He wasn’t going to say anything about it – Mia wouldn’t have welcomed any comments – but it felt strange to know that she hadn’t just played the prank for fun. She had been looking out for him, as well. Thanks,[/b] he said softly, hands tightening a little where he held her. Nobody ever looked out for him in the way Mia did. Even when she was close to getting him arrested, she was still trying to work out how to make things marginally less dangerous for him.

He moved a little closer, and pressed a kiss softly to her forehead. Then he stepped back, head tilted inquisitively to one side. Are you allowed out of the school? he asked. Because I’m really not going to be allowed into your room now that I’m not a student. We’re going to get very cold if the only place we can see each other is here. Maybe all of Mia’s ill-gotten gains was going to have to go on several thick winter coats…

[Mia Keystone]

His lips twitched. "See? It's funny!" Mia crowed, and felt herself relax when he didn't try to pass more judgement on her. She'd had enough of that.

As if she'd read his mind (which was more then a little ironic), Mia's hands flexed and she raised her eyebrows questioningly. It had been what felt like hours and seconds but he hadn't so much as flinched. Maybe it was because she was mostly happy, which was, to be fair, highly unusual, but for someone who found that physical contact only made it too clear how soft and squishy organics were Mia wasn't minding it either.

"I am a very charming person," Mia said with a smile. "Hey, don't laugh!"

But at least he got it, well, sort of. It had been money for them, not that Mia had been counting on, well, this but it had been assumed they'd end up living together while she tinkered with computers and he did his grease monkey thing. Just... now.... maybe.... well, in a year... Still, being thanked by him made her feel uncomfortable so she waked him on the shoulder in a your welcome kind of way.

He wanted to sneak into her room? They'd get cold? Mia's mind flew into the gutter so quickly it made her head spin and she pulled her hands off Jonah's shoulders so he didn't have to feel too much of it. But he hadn't meant it like that, because this was Jonah King: Virgin. "Only for a bit longer," she managed to get out once she'd stopped fighting between giggling and blushing (which was so out of character it was scary). "I wouldn't even try to sneak you in; not exactly pocket sized are you? Do you have a dorm or something I can sneak into?"

But it was a problem. "Soon, yeah?" she managed to make it sound less like an addict asking for heroin and more like a teenager asking for booze. "I mean, really soon. Like, why don't we just stay here for, well, ever?"

Screw the forehead thing, Mia grabbed Jonah by the ears and kissed him loudly on the mouth, grinning even as she did so. "I need to sneak in and ravish the virgin. That's how the stories go, right?"

[Jonah King]

He should have known that Mia would take his words in a way he hadn’t meant them to be taken – after all, this was the girl who could take the most serious of matters and turn it into a dirty joke. The comments she had made to him all the way through the Sex Talk of a few years ago had been enough to give Jonah in insight into the way her mind could turn things around, and he knew from experience how much she loved to freak people out by suddenly turning a harmless joke into a twisted one.

That didn’t stop him from blushing every time she brought up the subject, though. It was her ultimate weapon: the sure-fire way to make him back out of any conversation. Mia had always taken great delight in using as much graphic detail as she could to make him squirm (despite the fact that it hardly took any detail at all to make him feel uncomfortable). When she was fighting giggles, Jonah knew that there was no point in protesting that he hadn’t meant it that way – she knew that he hadn’t.

He grinned. ‘You hate being outside,’ Jonah pointed out to her, knowing that he spoke only the truth. Mia had never been able to understand his love of the outdoors, and she made no secret of the fact. If the Courtyard or other outdoor school spaces ended up being the only places they could meet, he half expected Mia to go mad.

Her next statement made Jonah blush hotly, and he turned his face away in embarrassment for a moment. But he was unable to prevent a smile from forcing its’ way out, and he looked back at her with the beginnings of a grin which managed to be both pleased and deeply embarrassed at the same time. He would have protested if he had been capable of speech at that point. As it was, he settled for shyly looking down at the floor.

But there was more than just embarrassment – a nervous kick in his stomach brought Jonah down to earth very quickly. Sure, he was doing well with kisses now, but what about later? He had never succeeded in being too physical with anyone, and he had to face up to the possibility that the same problems would arise with Mia. ‘It…’ he sought the words, looking at Mia with his shoulders visibly tense. ‘It might be a while…’ he hoped she understood what he meant: his control of his power was still shaky, and there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t take him a long time to be able to do more.