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It's not unusual to see someone in one of the Academy’s many training rooms. Most of the rooms in the east corridor exist in decaying states of ruin, so they are just eerie enough to keep most wandering faculty members out. Ike uses the space whenever he needs a bit of privacy. His hiding spot has been discovered by other students looking for a place to get it on after dark, so he's not surprised when he stumbles upon somewhere inside the old gym.
What is unusual, however, is this particular occupant. He watches in the doorway, blinking in surprise at the head of red hair across the room, standing in front of a punching bag.
Ike is half convinced she’s never even seen a punching bag before, not with the gentle way she carries herself through each day. Her delicate hands are white-wrapped and her gaze is fixed on the bag in front of her. Ike's curiosity is peaked. He lets the door shut quietly behind him. He makes his way over to his usual area, stripping off his shirt and falling easily into stretches to start off his workout. He watches Jade carefully, observing her movements. She attacks the bag with the barely contained ferocity of a mountain lion.
Ike can't help but wonder whose face she's picturing when she hits it. His? Very possible. Her knife-wielding roommate? Also likely. Maybe her own face. Not her current one, of course, but the future one, who goes by the name of Dr. Ellsworth.
He’s sure Jade hates him now, but what else is new? Their relationship walks the fine line between fury and passion, hate and love, ignorance and infatuation. Frankly, he doesn't care which side they land on, because he knows he's on her mind either way.
Right now, they are planted firmly on the hate side. Ike certainly deserves it. He can almost fool himself into thinking he still feels the harsh slap of her hand hitting his cheek as he watches her punch the bag. Ike winces slightly at her sloppy form.
Ever since that night on the roof, something in his view of Jade has shifted. She became something more. What exactly that means, he still doesn't know. She unlocked something within her, and then she just glared at him, like she was waiting for him to catch up, to remember everything he had forgotten, to be more. Ike must have done something really bad. Some days he thinks he might be the reason they are all stuck here in the first place. Whatever the truth is, Jade knows, but she hasn't said a word to him in a week.
He tries not to dwell on it for too long, because his gut tells him that exploring anything with her is like opening Pandora's box.
Ike's attention is undivided as her presence filled the room, her anger something magnetic. He couldn't look away from the furrow of her brow, the pout of her full, blood red lips, and the determination in her eyes.
Ike stands up, crossing the room toward her before he can really think about what he's doing. If Jade notices him, she makes no indication.
"You're going to hurt yourself," He tells her, but it’s not patronizing or antagonistic, which surprises even him. “ Your hands – you need to wrap your hands properly if you’re going to hit the bag like that. You aren't Casey. You have to hit it… differently."
"Didn't realize you were such an expert." She says, but she continues with what she was doing, not considering his words at all. She's wearing her shorts from the Woodrun, and her hair is almost down to her shoulders again. If Ike told her he liked it long, she'd definitely chop it off again.
"Not in throwing punches, but by being hit by them. You're going to break your hand."
"Why are you here, Ike?" She says, eyes fixed forward. He wonders what she's afraid to see when she looks at him.
"I was hoping you'd tell me that. I mean, I assume after the other night, your eyes were opened and you could explain the meaning of life to all of us. Yet, you've been less than eager to share."
"Maybe I don't want to talk about it." Maybe she doesn't want what she saw to be true. Or maybe a part of her desperately wants it to be.
"We're getting out of here soon." She says without the slightest hint of victory in her tone. The walls creak and groan around them, and with every sweep of his shoe, Ike kicks a pile of dust into the air.
"Ah, Blevins must be thrilled to hear that." Ike mutters. Why does he always bring Casey into everything? If she didn't know better, Jade would say there was a hint of jealously in his tone whenever he spoke about the blonde.
"And you're not?"
"Well, there's nothing in the real world I'm particularly in a hurry to get back to." He says brutally honestly before he realizes how damn pathetic it sounds, but then he slaps on his signature smirk so maybe she'll think it was just a joke. Please let her think it was a joke.
"I'm scared of the future. I have looked her right in the face, and just wonder what terrible things happened- are going to happen to me to make me like that."
Jade is fire and Ellsworth is ice. Deep in her heart, she thinks there's only one thing that could turn her into something like that.
"You aren't Dr. Ellsworth. I mean, you are, but not yet. Only you control your future, and you can change it." Ike says quietly. He almost believes it.
"I thought you said people never change." She laughs, leaning in close to him. He's half-naked and she's in workout gear, and Ike so desperately wants to make a joke about it, but he doesn't. That's a bad sign. Maybe he is growing up.
Jade is looking at him like she's trying to memorize every detail, every scar on his chest, every shade of blue ringing his eyes, and his hands shake when she steps closer. For a moment, he thinks she's going to kiss him, but it never comes.
"I was mostly referring to Abraham when I mentioned that, but it's good to know you listen diligently to everything I say." He smiles.
"Shut up, Ike."
Jade hates to admit it, but Ike could be noble, sometimes. Like a twisted, screwed-up version of the virtuous knight in a fairytale. Instead of slaying dragons and saving princesses, he occasionally murders some guys and throws his money around a lot. But he also holds her hand really gently, more carefully than he handles anything else in the entire world. When she wakes up screaming, Ike reads to her until she falls asleep again. Sometimes he hums when he thinks he's alone, and he really has a beautiful singing voice even though he refuses to use it.
He helps her rewrap her hands. Sometimes love is like breathing. Sometimes you do it so naturally that until you stop and think, you don't realize you've been doing it all along. Ike holds the bag steady for her while until she beats it into submission.
2
Jade doesn't want to think about the fact that they all might die tomorrow, but she also can't get it out of her head. She tries to think about soccer, creamsicles, and how badly Casey snores. They might die painful deaths in a few hours. She's never been very good at compartmentalizing and blocking her thoughts out. Ike, on the other hand, is the king of repressing every emotion known to man.
"What do you think?" Jade asks for the millionth time, still waiting for an answer from him. It seems she's not interesting enough to tear Ike away from his reading.
"About?"
"Tomorrow, obviously." She rolls her eyes. Ike glances up from the papers Blevins delivered to him. Their escape plan is incredibly detailed. Casey has too much time on her hands. He thought Jade was asleep, so he went about reading through the timeline again. Ike wonders how long she has been awake, just watching him.
He's not going to lie to her, so he shrugs, and resumes his reading, "It doesn't look great for us, Red."
Jade gives a small laugh and rolls onto her back, kicking his blanket on to the floor. "Don't give me vague, half-ass answers now."
The corners of his lips quirk and he absently runs a hand through his loose hair. The smile is only a pretense though. There's nothing encouraging about their situation. There's a less than twenty percent chance their escape will be successful. The chance that all of the Glories will make it out alive is significantly less. He wants to tear up the papers, curl up next to Jade, and not get out of bed for years. Ike doesn't want to let her leave this room. He's trying to devise a way to spare them from all the bloodshed that is coming.
Jade doesn't know how long they've been stuck in the Academy. It could be years, months, or just weeks. She doesn't think she looks any older then when she first arrived, but sometimes she feels like she's lived an entire lifetime in a single day. Ike has changed. Maybe not on the outside, but definitely on the inside. Jade is the only one who sees it, but that's fine. Only what she thinks matters.
Both of them are running on empty now. They are exhausted and hungry and worn and so terrified.
Ike stretches his legs beneath the makeshift desk in the dorm-room.
"Are you scared?" Jade asks him.
She's on the bed, one leg bent under her, the other propped up. Her hair is tied in a goofy ponytail. She had fallen asleep pretty early. He has had trouble sleeping recently. Always, actually. Even as child, he doesn't remember taking naps or dreaming. Ike is simply awake. His eyes have always been open.
He looks back up from the desk, trying to read her expression. Her head is turned and she is staring at him, waiting patiently for an answer. "Yes."
"You aren't scared often." Has she ever seen him scared? Jade isn't sure. Furious, yes. Disgusted, yes. Joyful, yes. But scared? This is Ike, she's talking about. He laughs in the face of danger. He is confidence and arrogance personified. He picks fights with Gribbs just for the hell of it.
"Not usually." He agrees softly.
"But you're scared now?"
"Yes." Ike admits.
"God," She says, "Don't be such a wimp about this. It's what we've been working towards. We get to go home, Ike." They are finally going to be free. This is a good thing. Smile, she tells herself, this is going to be a good thing.
"You make it sound so simple."
"Maybe you just overcomplicate things."
He considers this for a minute, and then there's a shift in his entire demeanor, "Would you like to go on an adventure, Red?"
She doesn't plan on going back to her room anytime soon. She's not worried about walking in on Hunter and Casey, because all they ever do is hold hands and talk about their feelings. It's somehow more intimate than if they tore each others clothes off. They're so sickeningly sweet that she can't stand to be around them for too long.
"I've got nowhere else to be." She sighs, and he's smiling like he just won the lottery.
"Oh no." Jade groans in realization when they finally stop walking, "We aren't going in there."
The room is circular, lined with pale pink tiles. At Jade's feet lay a circle of dark water. There is a skylight above the pool, turning the water into a mirror. She didn't even realize the Academy had a swimming pool.
Jade hears Ike laugh again and when she turns, he's taking off his shirt, his eyes daring her to join in.
She catches sight of his stomach. The atmosphere in the room is hot and causes her hair to expand like a hot air balloon. Jade fights back a smile.
“Ike,” She mutters half heartedly. “This is a bad idea!”
Jade feels the thrill course through her body. The idea of abandoning everything for a few minutes might be just what they need.
“C'mon, Red, it'll be fun.” His eyes are wide and full of glee. Minutes ago, he was just telling her that they'll likely die tomorrow, and now he's as carefree as a kid. He makes no sense to her.
“I’m not going in and neither are you,” Jade tells him, "Tomorrow is the most important day of our lives. We should be preparing and resting and-"
Ike dives in, leaving her to lecture herself. His body disappears through the water with only a ripple. How deep is the pool? She can't see his shadow under the blue. Jade curses, laughing to herself as she starts to kick off her shoes.
His head breaks the surface a few seconds later, his hair dark with water.
“Come on in,” He says, "Please, Jade." He tacks on his special smile, a genuine one that he reserved for moments like this, when he really wants something.
"You asked for it." She squeals as she launches herself halfway across the pool, splashing him with her cannonball.
He dives back to evade her grasp, but she's like a shark in the water, catching up to him in a matter of seconds.
She's got hands on both of his shoulders, ready to playful push him under, but instead she kisses him.
It doesn't matter what happens tomorrow.
Jade's lips are all-consuming. It feels like he's being swallowed by the sun, like he's melting in her heat and becoming one with her, like Jade is taking and taking everything Ike is willing to give.
Nothing else matters.
3
Ike moves heaven and hell to try and find her after they get back to the real world. After years of no luck, no leads, and no word from her, he starts thinking maybe Jade just doesn't want to be found. Like maybe she ran into some hot farmer from her childhood and deleted his number. Maybe she got hit by a car and got buried in some hick cemetery. Maybe the Academy's goons caught up with her before Ike could.
Hunter moves into the apartment with him, which Ike insists should be a tax-deductible act of charity. But some days, the ginger keeps him sane while he loses his mind searching for their other redheaded friend.
It takes him four years to find her.
Ike is on his third drink when he notices her. At first, he's sure he's imagining it. After all, what would Jade be doing in New York, at a party like this, in a dress like that-
He pinches himself. There's a girl on his arm that smells like heavy perfume that he promptly shoves off him.
Jade is standing on the other side of the room, dressed inconspicuously, like she's trying too hard to blend in with the other girls at the party. She could almost pass for just another drunk model, but her freckles give her away. She's spotted where they are flawless, and suddenly Ike has to remind himself to breath.
She doesn't notice him. There's a room full of people obscuring her vision. Ike laughs bitterly to himself. There is always something between them–a table, a Sumerian Temple, a row of chairs, Irina's loaded gun, another person.
Ike can see Jade clearly, how she dips and rises again in time with the music. The last time he saw her, they were kids who didn't know how to say goodbye to each other at the airport. Ike never should have let her go. No, that's not right. He never should have let her go alone.
Even in the low light, he could see everything –her face, her neck, her collarbone, her bared arms all aglow in golden light.
He hadn't even wanted to come here tonight.
Ike had needed a break from the city, from Hunter's looks of pity, from the people, from the reminder of everything about his old life at the academy. Ike's legs had, almost instinctively, carried him closer to the bar, as if drawn by the promised of solace that place held. He could wallow in self-pity and regret, if only for a little while. Ike is pushing through the outer circle of people, clutching his fifth ? sixth ? cup. Ike pushes his way through the crowd more determinedly, cringing every time someone brushes against his arm, his leg, his back.
If he was smart, he would stop and plan what he wants his first words to her to be. But the one trait he has never been able to shake off is his stubbornness. He's only a few feet away from her, when a body crashes into him. Ike gasps in a deep breath of air tinged with liquor and smoke.
Jade glances over to see what drunk idiot just collapsed on the ground.
"Hey, Red." He whispers when he's staggering to her side. He sees her for the first time again up close.
Something in his heart breaks and heals at once when she looks at him. Her jaw is hanging open, and an implosion sends her moving, moving, kissing him. Jade doesn't care who’s watching. The sky can darken and the sun can fizzle out and bones can break but she's finally here, here in his arms.
Ike is lost and found and wrapped up in her. This is the only moment that matters and she is the only one he's thought of for months now.
Maybe Ike is not good at emotions, maybe he's too good at hiding things behind a joke. But she is real. Jade matters in a way nothing else does, like nothing else ever has or ever will. So Ike kisses her, and hopes she knows that.
And given how Jade holds him, he's pretty sure she does.