Chapter 5: Revealed

Time for Sebastian to talk a girl. Yep, this will go well.

Oh boy, Sebastian was nervous. Gabrielle was walking home from school and Sebastian was following her. At a distance, but his palms were still sweating. He wasn’t sure this was a good idea.

He had treated Gabrielle like crap the last time he spoke to her. Now he would have to apologise and tell her she wasn’t human. Yep, she was going take this so well… Not.

It hadn’t rained in a few days, but the ground still had puddles in some places. Some of them were pretty deep. Sebastian felt comforted that if he needed it. Water wasn’t far away.

“Uh… G-Gabrielle?” she stopped walking in front of him. She was maybe five or six steps in front of him. He wondered if she had even known he was behind her this whole time. That made him sound to stalker like for his taste.

“What do you want Jerk?!” Sebastian winced at the sting of anger in her voice, but he knew what he had to say. He pushed his fringe away from his eyes and took a deep breath.

“I-I wanted to apologise for what I said to you the other day. I’m just not used to talking to girls” that was the worst apology Sebastian had ever heard, and it came out of his own mouth. Well, he was screwed for sure there was no way Gabrielle would talk to him now.

“Ok” wait, what? Did Gabrielle just say ok? as in she forgave Sebastian for being a giant pain and blowing her off? Sebastian obviously wasn’t as bad at talking to girls as he thought he was.

“Look Gabrielle, can we talk? like just for a minute I have something I need to, uh, tell you” this could be taken in the wrong way so easily. What if she thought he liked her? because he didn’t. He didn’t even know her.

“Yeh sure Puppy. It’s not like I have anything else to do” she was at it with the really annoying nickname thing again. Sebastian gritted his teeth and promised himself that he would not say anything rude.

“Well… I’m not sure how to tell you this… So I should probably just show you” There was a puddle not far from where the two were standing on the path. There were no cars on the road. Now was as good a time as ever.

Sebastian sank his power into the puddle and willed it to please, please, please do something other than freeze.

The water rose up for a moment out of the puddle and then froze into ice. Well, it had worked for a second. Gabrielle stood staring at the puddle and then laughed.

“Wow, that was cool. How did you do that?” she thought it was cool. Even though Sebastian had hardly been able to do anything compared to what he knew he should be able to do.

“I’m a, I’m a supernatural being called an Elemental and, uh, you are as well?” he said it. He did it. He said it. Well there was no turning back now. Whatever Gabrielle’s reaction was.

He watched as she stiffened and then clenched her fists. Oh no, she was angry. He could tell by the slight reddening of her pale skin and the way she suddenly held her head high on her shoulders.

“If this is some kind of joke, it’s not funny. If you think I’m going to fall for something like that mister, then you are wrong!” she turned to go but Sebastian couldn’t let her leave. He needed her to understand, he needed her to let him help.

“Gabrielle please just…” he reached out and touched her arm. As it turned out that was a really bad idea. Brilliant white light filled his vision and suddenly he was on the ground. Oh, well that happened.

“Sebastian! Oh my god! Oh my god please don’t be dead!” Someone was shaking him. Sebastian opened his eyes and realised that Gabrielle was crying.

“Hey its ok, I’m fine” that was a lie. His arm was numb and tingling but she didn’t need to know that. What the hell just happened?

“I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry! I don’t know what happened I swear I didn’t mean it!” Sebastian shook his head and sat up on the pavement. He was starting to have a feeling that he knew what had happened. Gabrielle had gotten mad, and accidentally hit Sebastian with lightning. Thank god it was just a minor shock.

“Just… Help me to my house, my uncle… He knows more than me about this stuff” Sebastian examined his arm in interest. It wasn’t burnt, but there were some weird markings on it that would probably hurt if he could feel his arm.

“Your uncle? What about your parents?” Sebastian winced as he stood up. Both because he was a little sore and because Gabrielle didn’t know how talking about his parents hurt him.

“They passed away when I was Nine” Sebastian put out his good hand and Gabrielle grabbed it. It was the first real physical touch Sebastian had felt in a long time. His uncle wasn’t the touchy feeling type.

“I’m sorry about that, it’s just my mum and me if it makes you feel any better” Sebastian and Gabrielle started walking together. Sebastian leaning on Gabrielle more then he would have liked to. That's for sure.

“I guess it does, thank you Gabrielle” Where the hell did that come from? Sebastian almost smiled! This girl. She was something all right. Sebastian didn’t know what to think of her.

He just had to hope his uncle would be better at explaining and that he would be nice to Gabrielle. After all they couldn’t afford for her to get angry again. She might do some real damage next time.

None of them wanted that, as dangerous as Sebastian and his uncle were. Gabrielle could be ten times worse.

They arrived at the apartment block where Sebastian lived. Sebastian was almost ashamed of the dirty exterior. Knowing it didn’t make a good first impression and was even worse inside.

“Uncle?” Sebastian called as they entered the apartment. At least the inside was tidy. His uncle was very organised, even if Sebastian wasn’t. Those were his shoes making the front door area look messy. The ones his uncle kept telling him to put away.

“Did you tell that girl that you’ll help her train? or did you chicken out?!” his uncle was in the kitchen. As usual he didn’t have much faith in Sebastian’s ability to do things properly.

“I did actually, I told her and she hit me with lightning” Sebastian’s arm wasn’t numb anymore. Actually it hurt a lot. Not that Sebastian was going to admit it in front of Gabrielle. He knew she felt bad about it already.

“Are you alright boy?” Daniel came limping into the room and stopped short at the sight of Gabrielle standing next to Sebastian. Sebastian gave his uncle a ‘be nice’ look and Daniel coughed.

“Hello girl, you don’t look much different then you did the last time I saw you. Your father and I weren’t on speaking terms but he sent me a photo of you when you were about two” that was news to both Gabrielle and Sebastian. Although Sebastian at least knew that his uncle had known Eric.

“You know my father? Do you know where he is? Is he even alive?” Gabrielle shook slightly next to Sebastian. It must be a surprise for Gabrielle to know that there was any information out there about the man who left her and her mother.

“Well he is alive, and all I know about his location is that he just had a boy in Mexico killed. Whether he attended personally. I’m not sure” Woah, subtly was not his uncle’s style. Never mind the fact he knew Eric, tell Gabrielle that he killed someone. Yep that was a great way to start uncle.

“He… He what?” poor Gabrielle looked like she might go into shock. She was a very strange colour and her pupils were huge. Sebastian decided it was time to intervene.

“Maybe we should take things a bit slower uncle. I thought you might help me explain the whole Elemental thing” he didn’t want to cause Gabrielle more distress then was necessary and he knew from personal experience. This was a lot to take in.

“Alright then, girl come in and take a seat. We have a lot of talking to do” Gabrielle hesitated but Sebastian gave her a nod of encouragement and she followed Daniel into the kitchen.

Sebastian went upstairs to take care of his arm. That had gone about as well as he could have hoped. He knew the fight to save her wouldn’t be as easy, but god he hoped they all got through it ok.

Author's Note

It took me forever... and about Fifty rewrites before I settled on how Sebastian would reveal the truth to Gabrielle. It's like poking a snake and hoping it doesn't bite you.