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"Oh shit. Oh fuck. Shit fuck shit fu-"
"SKY! You are not helping right now!" Sam shouted
"I’m! Thinking!"
"No, you’re just CURSING!"
"Well, maybe that's how I think you dumb fuck!"
“How come I’m the dumb one?”
“You’re the one stuck in the wall!”
“You’re the asshole who told me to phase because you didn’t believe me!”
“Well I believe you now ,” Sky grumbled.
“WHAT? I couldn't hear you there is a WALL in the way!”
“I said I believe you now!" he shouted. "Asshole," he muttered as he crossed his arms in annoyance.
"Stop calling me an asshole!" Sky shook his head in disbelief.
"You just said you couldn't hear me what the fu-" Sky was cut off by the footsteps of an adult.
"Sky."
"Hi Harvey," Sky said, refusing to act guilty. Because it was not his fault that Sam messed up. Harvey looked between Sky and his son, whose left half was visible and obviously stuck in the wall.
"Sammy, I'm here," Harvey said, louder than when he had spoken to Sky. "You just need to calm down and you should phase all the way through just as I taught you. Remember, the first lesson about earth magic is about listening and waiting, and then decisiveness. Listen to the stone, and then demand to move."
"I have been TRYING!"
"No, you have been panicking. Calm down. Sense the stone, then command it."
"Fine, fine. I'm sensing the stone. It's hard. Because it’s stone."
"That's a start," mutters Sky to himself, earning a look from Harvey.
"Calm like the earth, calm, cool, collected, cool-” and Sam fell through to the other side of the wall with a loud shout.
“Good job Sammy! Cool, calm, collected. Remember that for next time!”
“Now you get to practice this until you get it right. And I'll be watching since you should not be playing around with magic this young unsupervised.”
“He wasn't unsupervised, I was here.”
“Sky, you are not helping.”
“Sorry, I was trying to help though.”
“And I will be sure to tell Silva that later,” Harvey said. Sky rubbed the back of his neck thinking about all of the laps that he was going to run later. He knew that there was no use arguing with Harvey and just mumbled his thanks.
“Try phasing back through the same wall now that you know how it feels," Harvey said, eyes on the empty wall. Then, Sam appeared.
Sam was grinning this time, any hint of prior embarrassment gone with the exhilaration of his success.
"Thanks, Dad," he said.
"Do it again!" And suddenly Sam was walking back and forth through the wall, a stupid smile fixed upon his face.
"Good job, kiddo!" Sky tried to ignore the tendril of jealousy that was growing in his stomach. Not at the fairy powers, he knew being a Specialist was different. His magic was innate and helped him hone reaction times and muscle strength. He was fine with it really, or at least he thought he was.
"Looks like it's almost time for lunch! I'll meet you two in the Canteen. I have to grab some papers from my office. Don't wear yourself out," Harvey said and pulled Sam close for a hug.
Sky felt weird again, knowing he was feeling jealous of something he couldn't quite name. Of not being compared to some impossible standard, or maybe just the open praise that Harvey showed Sam.
"Looks like you finally got it Sammy boy!" Sky said, knowing that Sam hated that nickname.
"Yeah, whatever. What do you think Doris made for lunch today?" Sam asked, still elated from getting the hang of his phasing.
"Who knows. I know my dad said something about Fofeocket Buns though, so maybe that."
"I bet you can't run through the walls to get there though. You'll probably get stuck again."
"Oh yeah? Watch me." Sam got excited at the challenge, which is not what Sky expected. He wanted Sam to be as angry as he was.
"Go on, then." Sam readied himself, taking a deep breath with his eyes closed and doing some fairy magic that Sky didn't know about. Would never know about.
"Calm, cool, collected," he repeated quietly to himself. He opened his eyes and Sky could see that they were green instead of their normal brown. He started running down the hall directly to the wall and the feeling inside Sky burst out.
"Don't get stuck!" He shouted, and Sam hit the wall instead of phasing through it. For a second Sky didn't know what to do. He just stood there, mouth open that Sam didn't actually phase through. The feelings he felt before, the jealousy, and the rage fizzled away and he rushed forward.
"Fuck, I didn't think you'd not phase at all, Sam."
Sam started laughing at the absurdity of the situation, his dimples showing on his face. "I just bumped off like it was a trampoline.: Sam looked Sky in the eyes, his mind visibly whirling, "Do you think I can make the hallways into trampolines?" He exclaimed, excitement visible in every move he made.
"You absolute dummy!" Sky's shoulders slumped and he turned to the voice. It was Terra, all of eight years old and on the verge of crying.
"You did that on purpose, Sky!"
"What, no I didn't! We were just joking around!" Sky defended himself, but truthfully he wasn’t quite sure what he expected to happen.
"Yeah, see I'm fine, Terra," Sam agreed. "See, not a scratch on me!" He stood up and spun around in a circle to show her.
"But you could have gotten hurt!" There were tears in her eyes, actual tears. Sky hated it when Terra cried, it was ugly and messy and she did it a lot.
"Don't be such a cry baby, Terra. Nothing bad happened." Sky tried to placate her. Fuck now she was actually crying.
"You are so mean!" Terra ran down the hallway and Sky knew he had really messed up.
"You were kind of mean, Sky," Sam added after the fact.
"Well I wasn't wrong though, was I?"
"No, you're right. But you know she is going to hate you forever now, right? She's an earth fairy. Stubborn."
"Stubborn like you?" Sky asked.
"Exactly! Let's go to lunch, I'm starved."
The weeks went by and Sam discovered that he could bounce off the floor like a trampoline, but couldn't make it bouncy for Sky so the two found other things to do in their free time. As Sam progressed with his magic lessons, Silva became even more strict with Sky's training regimen.
Terra still glared at Sky's back. Sam denied it but Sky could feel it even if he could never catch her doing it. When they were together eating lunch she was perfectly polite but Sky knew she was still mad at him.
It was the way her magic made the plants around him /do something/ and it was confirmed by Sam. It wasn't a conscious effort, she didn't have that much control but she was definitely still mad.
Sky turned to Silva for help, hoping that he would be able to fix the problem. Sky didn't know how to bring up the topic, so he waited until they were sparring.
"Ask Harvey, he knows her the best. I'm no good with girls like that." Another swing of the staff. "Especially little ones."
So Sky, sweaty and tired and just wanting his salad to stop wilting before he could eat it, wandered into the greenhouse to find Harvey at his desk hunched over some tome.
"Professor Harvey?"
"Sky?" he asked. "Is Sam stuck in a wall somewhere?"
"No, nothing's wrong with Sam." Sky took a moment to think about how to word his request before giving up. "I made Terra cry and now she keeps making my salad all wilty and the plants around me act sad. Sam said she's mad at me. Please help," he finished lamely.
Harvey didn't say anything and Sky worried if Harvey was going to yell at him or do something for making his daughter cry.
"You're getting the silent treatment then?" He laughed and somehow looked fond of the little demon that was his daughter.
"She hasn't spoken to me in ages," Sky agreed.
"You know with Terra, she's just like her mother in that regard. But with both of them, the answer is obvious."
Sky stared at him. He had no idea, which is why he was there asking Harvey for help.
"Plants. Look up their meanings, too, she's been obsessed recently. Get her some plants." Harvey pushed up his glasses and looked down to his book then back to Sky. "Actually, look up some plants you think she might like, then let me know. I'll get them for you and then you can gift them to her."
Sky breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much, sir."
A few days later, after confirming his choices with Harvey, the plants had arrived. All he had to do was give them to her. And apologize. He would be fine.
Sky tracked Terra down to the summer gardens.
"Sammy! Do you have my- Oh." Her eyes glanced at Sky before landing on the two small planters in his hands.
"I'm sorry. You haven't let me say it yet but I am. I was hoping that Sam would phase through like he did before."
Sky moved to hold out his arms before deciding against it, thinking it was more likely to drop them. Instead, he settled for a shoulder shrug.
"These are for you. Please stop being mad at me. I even looked up what they would mean."
Terra carefully takes the pots and leaves them on the ground. Instead of looking at her new plants, Terra wraps herself around Sky.
"I hated being mad at you it was so hard. Please don't do it again."
Sky patted her on the head and when she still didn't let go, he awkwardly returned her hug.
"I'll try my best to avoid it, Ter."
She let go and went to the plants and delicately touched the petals. "Did you know that you're covered in soil, now?"
Sky looked down at himself and slumped. She was right. He was covered in dirt. "You did that on purpose, didn't you."
She only grinned in response.