To love and to Hate

26: Our way out

*This song mostly inspired Jisung's 'power' when he is trapped, ya know, his god mode lol
*It suits this chapter very well
*Bad Side- Hidden Citizens 

How had he forgotten? The thrill of a fight always brought Jisung to life, and he'd somehow forgotten it until this moment.

 Minho was somewhere behind him to his left, his magic crashing through enemies like a tsunami crashing through a child's sand castle. Jisung knew what it was like to be on the other side of that magic, and he couldn't help feeling a new thrill at having the water by his side rather than swirling against him.

Jisung's fire was the perfect harmony to Minho's water, roaring out and rising in white-hot waves to consume those that escaped the water. A wind mage attempted to stop him, but she was quickly disposed of, unable to keep up with the fire mage's raw power.

Despite the destruction he'd caused the other day, Jisung felt as if he hadn't let go in years, and it had him grinning through turbulent waves of adrenaline and spastic energy. He was riding on a high he hadn't been able to reach in years, breathing smoke and exhaling fire. For the first time in a long time, he felt wild and free.

By the time Jisung's magic energy began to burn out, he and Minho had wiped out a fairly large number of the Unseen, and Minho's men had plenty of room to take on the exhausted enemy.

To say the first day of battle was tumultuous was an understatement. That night after attempting to make sense of the situation in a tense meeting, Jisung passed out in a patch of grass, too lazy to find a proper place to sleep, like beside a fire or the medic tent. Minho found him later that night and just fell asleep beside him, not even bothering to kick his boots off. It was evident that he was much more tired than Jisung, which made the fire mage wonder what he'd been up to leading up to their reunion in the woods.

Unfortunately there was no time for Jisung to check in with Minho properly, as the following morning they were rudely awakened by a surprise attack and forced to retreat toward Agrook in search of better standing and possible support from the city guilds teamed up with Enforcement.

The night following that, Jisung lost any ounce of enthusiasm he had at the beginning of this whole mess, and he hadn't seen Minho properly since their night in the tent. To put it simply, he was in a mood, and he was taking it out on the apple in his hand, roughly carving out jagged, uneven chunks to glare at before eating sullenly. He was perched on a sturdy tree branch at the edge of their new camp, hidden up in the tree but still able to see what was going on clearly.

Minho was surrounded by people, again, stressing over maps and engaging in important, bothersome discussions. Watching the water mage made Jisung a little angry, and it took him some time to realize why. He was upset because Minho was visibly drained, and yet he wasn't receiving even a small moment to rest and reset.

In fact, Jisung had grown quite worried that day, as he noticed Minho's magic barely making any impact in the skirmishes they'd gotten involved in. And now, watching him from across the camp, eyes dead and shoulders sagging, Jisung felt the overwhelming need to run over and tell everyone to leave the water mage alone. But if Jisung knew anything, it was how to read Mage Minho, and stepping in at the moment would accomplish nothing.

Jisung carved the last chunk from his apple, giving it another steady glare before popping it into his mouth and tossing the core behind him. He was going to pull Minho away, even if it was inconvenient. He needed rest, and the fire mage... just wanted to be with him.

 At that moment, a light rising up in the night sky caught his attention. It wasn't terribly noticeable, but as it flew higher into the sky it seemed to burn... brighter? For a split second, his brain jumped to the strange conclusion that it was a firework, but that theory was quickly demolished when several other lights exactly like the first one flew into the sky.