The Metal Children

04 The Neighbouring Enemy

"Haruka, please."

Haru stepped out of the bathroom barefooted, water droplets dripping from her damp hair and skin glistened with more water she hadn't bother to really wipe off. Bea immediately threw a bath towel Alyssa had previously used, from the couch she was sitting on, towards Haru. She stumbled backwards as the towel cloaked her face and her front torso, but regained her stability in seconds, muttering a hardly-audible squeal underneath the thick fabric.

It was nearly one in the morning, but the night was incredibly warm that Haru had decided to take a shower at Bea's instead of waiting to get home for her shower. She had spent nearly twenty minutes soaking herself in the bathtub - the sensation of being surrounded by water was fully therapeutic to her, despite the fact that she is an earthbender, a very skillful one too. For twenty minutes, she had sat in the cold white bathtub, hoping that Asri would get Alyssa's wound treated, hoping that Claire would return her text message after the movie ends, hoping that the rest of the entire house - except for Bea, of course - would go to bed before they could really talk, within that twenty minutes.

But Faith and Sera - two other Benders, who had taken shelter under Bea's care and have worked part-time at Refill since they arrived at Refill's doorstep as young teenagers - were still on their beds, laughing and conversing, and playing pop music on their mobile phones. Their bedroom door was partly open, their ceiling lights were off, but there were still dim light from what Haru assumed as lights from their electronic gadgets. Asri, on the other hand, was still treating Alyssa on the couch, accompanied by Bea, and the couple from downstairs. The girl was sitting by the stool Bea was sitting on, legs folded neatly on the floor, and the boy was sitting on a tall barstool he had somehow pulled towards the open window of the living room, with a lit cigarette between his fingers and a noticeable metal ashtray on the window frame.

Haru swung the towel and hung it over her damp, pixie hair that made her look very androgynous in a quick glance, if it wasn't for the sports bra she was sporting. Alyssa noticed several scars littering her body - a light-coloured one on her left shoulder, a dark one below her right rib, and a long one underneath the bone of her left rib cage, which seemed like it was protruding out. Quickly, Haru grabbed a loose, white cotton tank top from the railing of the void opening where the staircase had made its way, and discarded the towel in replacement. On her chest, hung from her neck was a familiar necklace pendant - she had seen it on Ajong before - a silver one, with sanskrit 'om' in a circle. She wore the cotton top and stretched her arms upwards, her barefooted heels lifted upwards. "Ah, fresh!" She exhaled loudly.

Asri, who had avoided looking, was still concentrating on treating Alyssa's wound. The fifteen year-old sank low into the couch, her legs straightened like a bridge, and her heels were pillowed with folded cloth. She had what appeared to be glowing water moving as if it was a lightly possessed jelly, being controlled by Asri, who had his hands hovered over the glowing water and his forehead wrinkled in concentration.

"Does it hurt?" Haru asked Alyssa as she joined them around the coffee table, and sat on the couch by Asri, hugging one knee comfortably.

Alyssa shook her head, strands of hair that had escaped from her messy bun, hanging down from the frame of her forehead, moved along with her.

"Asri's a senior healer," Haru replied. "If we waited for Wayne, you'd feel pain. Not from his treatment, but from his rants while he treats you."

"We'd enjoy his rants once in a while," the boy by the window interrupted, and removed his cigarette from his lips. His wavy hair flipped so fabulously it hurts Haru's pride a little inside. "He's the sass master."