Chapter 6 - Part two

“The faster we start, the saver she is.” Hiro sounded confident with this reasoning. Ryuu already formed fists with his hands and I could see how the bones turned white. He sighed heavily but didn’t say anything. When Hiro continued talking I knew he understood Ryuu’s silent sign to go on with what we were doing, even if he wasn’t happy with it. “Now Nao, try to touch this” he pointed to one of his wounds. Touch it? If I did that wouldn’t it bleed again? He already had lost so much blood. But he seemed sure about what he was saying so I reached out my hand but he caught it midway. “Let me finish. Touch it, without making it bleed! You have to control your ability. When you manage to touch it without the wound defreezing you got control about when to use it!” he let go of my hand. I slowly reached out for his wound again. Just an inch before touching it I stopped. I closed my eyes and concentrated. Not bleeding, not bleeding, not bleeding... I repeated over and over in my head before I touched his wound softly. I felt the cold. I managed to not make it bleed immediately. I softly opened my eyes and looked at the blood. It was still in place. When I wanted to turn around to share my joy with Ryuu I almost bumped my head with his. When I experimented with the wound he came nearer to get a closer look and his head was just behind mine so we almost kissed. I blushed and backed off when Ryuu shouted: “Hey concentrate! The wound!” and grabbed my hand so it would stay on Hiro’s wound. I turned my head to it and saw how the blood got liquid on one corner of it. I got nervous and looked up to Hiro, to see if he felt any pain, but he was just grinning widely and said: “Continue, continue.” I looked back to my hand and saw that Ryuu was still holding onto it. His face got nearer to mine when right beside my ear he softly spoke: “Concentrate. See, Hiro froze it back, try again. Touch it softly and just think about not liquidizing it. It mustn’t bleed. You have to control your ability. Make it your strength.” Hearing him this near to my ear made my heart beat faster. I knew I had to concentrate, they were doing it for me after all, but it was hard with him being this close. I closed my eyes again and tried to calm down. Concentrate, concentrate... I told myself. The wound mustn’t bleed. When I opened my eyes this time the wound was still frozen. I swiped over it a few times but it didn’t start bleeding. I did it! “You did it!” Hiro and Ryuu said at the same time. I looked up to Hiro to see that he still had a really wide grin. First he was looking me in the eyes but then his gaze wandered to my hand. When I followed it I saw that Ryuu was still holding my hand. This was becoming a habit. He must have noticed, because he let go right that moment.  I felt sad about it but right when I felt like that I questioned these feelings. I couldn’t feel sad about someone whom I just met. Ryuu hemmed “Well, that’s it for today. We have to get back to our classes or everyone will be suspicious. Let’s meet up tomorrow at lunch break in front of the stuff room. We’ll continue from there.” I nodded. I couldn’t look them in the eye right now. I was blushing from my own feelings and I felt like I had to go immediately. I turned around to leave the infirmary, but Hiro grabbed my arm. “Thank you a lot for your help.” When I turned around I saw a mischievous grin on his lips. The colour in my face got deeper. He saw through me. I nodded and he let go of my arm. I left the room and returned to the classroom.