― s t a r c h i l d ― (michael clifford a.u.)

5

(unedited again bc i am the shittiest person on planet earth excuse my numerous typos also this is super. fuckin. long u're welcome)

"How could that be me?" Ciara asked, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "How were you in my head? How could that even be possible?"

Michael shook his head, "I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with the electric current that we've been feeling you know... every time we come into contact with each other," he looked over at her, and she still looked as clueless as before, "I know, it's weird. But I can't give you a straight answer because I've never experienced this before and I don't come with an instruction manual."

"Of course you don't," Ciara attempted to joke, but it fell flat due to her faltering voice. Staring straight ahead, she tried to think of nothing at all, but her mind was too cluttered with strings of questions coming from both within herself and outside herself. "... Do you think it's permanent?"

He shrugged, "The way it looks... yeah. I just wonder why," he stated, "I mean, I shook hands with Calum and Ashton today, but it didn't feel like that," he shook his head. "It just doesn't make any sense, you know?"

She smiled weakly, "Sorry I kind of freaked out on you earlier. I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I could tell."

Ciara got up and walked over to the T.V., turning it on with the remote that was lying on it's side near the entertainment center. Immediately, she turned down the volume as it was terribly loud, the news reporter who looked a little too cheery for being out in the cold talking in a matter-of-fact tone that she had always hated. "It's been twenty-four hours since the crash, and it has been confirmed by several sources, all of them official, that there were more than two persons involved in the crash of the U.F.O..."

Michael's eyes were glued to the screen as he listened to the report, eyes widened. Somehow, she could feel the fear that seemed to radiate from him, but that could just be a side effect of this bond that they had between them. "They're looking for me," he murmured, horrified, and her heart suddenly beat faster. She sat down on the couch, her hand to her chest, and Michael immediately went over to her, "What? What's wrong?"

Her heartbeat was fluttering as he took steps near her, and she felt like she wanted to puke. All of the sudden, contrary to her every day life, she was feeling all sorts of things with reckless abandon. It wasn't like she couldn't feel emotions on a daily basis; she'd just never felt them with this sort of intensity. She felt like she was a child again, feeling everything like this.

When she was a child, there was no moderation of emotions, no such thing as holding back. As she grew older though, she learned to reign it in, keep her emotions in check. This just felt like an emotional inferno; if she didn't watch it, she could get burned. But it wasn't under her control, not completely, anyways.

It was hard to speak, so she decided to think.

Feel my pulse. And feel yours.

"Why would I want to--"

She took his hands and one on her throat, and the other on his own, and his eyes suddenly widened. "Thaaat's weeeeird."

"You're telling me," Ciara replied, letting her hand drop from over his, though his hand still rested gently on the side of her throat. If the questions that were within her mind ever ceased, she would be grateful, but this strange development left her mind in a bigger mess than it was before.

Michael looked off, his gaze on the television but his mind clearly somewhere else, and, through the mental link, she could see bits and pieces of the things that he was thinking. Of course, most of these things she couldn't really comprehend, but the gist of it was that he could probably get answers if he could just contact the rest of his species.