unnaturals // luke hemmings {slow updates}

one

"Lex. Lex, wake up."

Lexus was startled awake by Ashton's frantic yelling. A quick glance around the room was enough to explain exactly why her brother was shouting at her. He was standing over by the window - one of the towels from the bathroom in his hands - trying to put out the flames that were licking up the room's curtains.

"I'm sorry." She cried out, her eyes widening as she watched Ashton try to stop the flames from spreading.

"It's not your fault Lex, you can't control it. Just come and help me." Ashton quickly shot her a sympathetic look before he turned back towards the wall.

Lexus clambered out of the bed and ran over to join Ashton by the window. She grabbed hold of her brother's arm and pulled him out of the way before she stuck out her hands and closed her eyes so she could really focus. A few moments later water doused the flames and she heard Ashton let out a sigh of relief.

"We've got to get out of here." Ashton muttered, mostly to himself, as he took a seat on the edge of the bed.

Lexus fell down into the space beside him and placed her head on his shoulder. Ashton wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer in an awkward sort of side hug that was probably meant to be comforting.

"I'm sorry." She repeated. "I wish I wasn't like this, I wish I was normal."

Ever since she was young Lexus had known that she wasn't like everyone else. Strange things always seemed to be happening around her; freak storms, unexplainable fire, and one time there was even a miniature cyclone.

Ashton was the one who figured out that the so called accidents were actually being caused by Lexus. He was a couple of years older than her and around her fourteenth birthday he seemed to put two and two together. It took a little longer for the two of them to work out that her emotions played a large part in controlling it.

As far as they both knew there was no specific term to describe what it was that Lexus could do, Ashton just kept saying that she could manipulate the elements. For a while Ashton tried to help her hide and control it, but then 'The Incident' occurred.

'The Incident', as they both referred, to it, was an argument that had gone very very wrong. Their parents had been yelling at Lexus about a grade on her school report and their dad had just taken it too far. Lexus hadn't meant for it to happen, but she'd accidentally set the kitchen on fire. Ashton tried to get her out of the room as soon as possible but he wasn't fast enough and Lexus still heard her mother calling her an abomination.

Things had been sort of rough since then; her parents had avoided her as if she had the plague and they even tried to have her committed at one point. Not long after that Ashton turned eighteen and when he left home he took Lexus with him. That was nearly a year ago, Ashton was now nineteen while Lexus had just celebrated her seventeenth birthday a few weeks ago.

Ashton had enough money saved up from his part time job that they could survive but it often meant crashing on some friends couch or scrounging up enough to get a room in a motel for a few nights (it also meant that Lexus hadn't been to school in a while but she wasn't exactly complaining). Whenever something like that happened, and Lexus lost control of her powers, they'd pack up and move on (Ashton kept mentioning that they couldn't afford to have people knowing what Lexus could do), piling what little personal belongings they had into Ashton's shitty car and finding somewhere new to settle down for a little while.

"Don't say that, okay?" Ashton squeezed her a little tighter. "What were you dreaming about?"

"I don't even remember." Lexus replied, rubbing at her eyes.