The Darkness Inside ~ Pentatonix

Earth

Kevin wanted to scream. He'd been in the EE's hands the longest, yet he still had to share a room with Avi. Scott didn't have to share a room. (Kirstie didn't either, but that, Kevin could understand, most of the time she couldn't understand who she survived the madness of all boys). The only other woman in the EE's whole facility was Dr. Grace Madden, (although behind her back they called her Nuts, Kirsite had read that in a book somewhere and they thought it fit) and every single one of them hated her.

"Avi!" Kevin finally yelled, slamming his book closed. It was nonfiction of course, that was all he read, but because Nuts monitored everything they saw or read pages of the book had been torn out, leaving Kevin to use his imagination at every missing passage. "Shut up will you? If you want to be loud visit Scott." Avi huffed, dropping the pencils he had been drumming with. 

"We both know I can't," Avi groaned and flung himself onto the bottom bunk - his bunk. This was true, once it was past eight p.m. they couldn't leave their rooms. This is when Kevin envied Scott the most. Sadly it was quarter to nine, meaning that Avi was stuck. It wasn't that Kevin disliked Avi, out of the four he could consider him his best friend, he just couldn't concentrate with the noise. 

"Well can you find something quiet to do?" Kevin asked. The deep-voiced boy shrugged. 

"I'm not a nerd, so I don't have quite as many books as you do." It was true, while Kevin had a whole wall dedicated to his history books, Avi had maybe one book. The rest where comics and Kevin was still finding the 'books' in the randomest places. He couldn't say he was exactly happy with finding an issue of 'Spiderman' in his pillowcase. Although Avi did love dragons and castles so Kevin always made sure to snag a couple of those for him. 

"I'm not a nerd, I am educated, there is a difference," Kevin corrected tossing his book aside. Avi snorted.

"We are all 'educated' by Nuts, we all have exactly the same amount of knowledge." 

"And that is where you are wrong. I have these," Kevin leaned over the side of his bunk so he could grab his discarded book and throw it in Avi's direction. There was a cry of pain and Kevin assumed that Avi hadn't caught the book. "Don't set it on fire, I haven't finished it yet." Many of Kevin's volumes had seen their death in Avi's hands, he kept the burnt ones under their bed, he couldn't bring himself to throw them away. 

"I wasn't going to set it on fire," Avi grumbled, chucking it back up at Kevin. He paused. "What were we even talking about again?" Kevin opened his mouth to respond, but thought better than to activate Avi's fiery argumentative skills. 

"Nothing important," Kevin answered. 

"Okay," Avi answered and started humming a little song, not bothered at all by the change of subject. Fire could be a little absent minded at times. Maybe that's why Avi was paired with Kevin, Kevin was too grounded to forget. And too grounded to enjoy fantasy, although Kevin was sure Avi liked dragons mostly because of their fire breathing capabilities. 

"Do you think Kirsite likes me?" Avi asked breaking the silence. Kevin sighed, they had this conversation almost every night. Avi had been crushing on Kirsite for as long as Kevin could remember. 

"I think she likes you as a brother," Kevin answered, trying to keep the boredom out of his voice. The last thing he wanted was for Avi to get angry. 

"I like Water..." Avi trailed off. To anyone but them this comment might have sounded weird, but the young Elementals tended to refer to each other by their element, causing them to have to respond to both. For example, Kevin would be called Earth or Kevin and so on. Since Kirstie's element was Water, Avi was referring to her.

"I know know you do," Kevin answered. 

"Do you think she'd ever like me more than a brother?" Avi asked not being able to keep the hopefulness out of his voice. 

"Avi, it's not like she doesn't have options. There are three of us-" 

"Scotty's gay," Avi interrupted. "Two of us, Scotty's hella gay." 

"Right two of us... Well, actually, you're her only option. But Nuts won't let us date anyway. She's too worried about what would happen if Elementals had children together," Kevin shook his head. He had no interest in dating Kirstie, in fact, he really didn't have any interest in dating anyone at all. 

"I wouldn't get her pregnant," Avi grumbled. Kevin raised an eyebrow even though Avi couldn't see him. 

"... Still... Nuts would never allow it." 

"Ugh," A bang sounded and Kevin assumed Avi had hit his head against the metal frame of the bunk bed. "I hate Nuts and her stupid rules, plus, goddamn, that really hurt." 

"Language, Fire," Kevin warned. 

"You let me say hella but not goddamn?" Avi questioned, Kevin could practically hear the frown in his voice. "My God."

"Don't use the Lord's name in vain."

"Goddammit Kevin!"