Chapter Text
Emma Nolan winces as the racer in front of her veers hard off the track, a laser-tipped spear embedded in his chest, then ducks as a second spear almost hits her in the head. She sits up a bit straighter on her bike, lifting her faceplate and giving a hard stare ahead.
Alyssa Greene lifts her own helmet’s visor and gives her a small, apologetic shrug before returning her focus to the race.
“You missed, Greene!” a voice yells from the stands. “Show the new kid how we do things around here!”
Irritated, Emma presses her motorcycle faster until she comes up alongside Alyssa. She lashes out, laying a solid kick to Alyssa’s back tire.
Alyssa wavers but manages to pull herself back before she hits the boundary wall. “Is that how we’re playing this?” she yells over the noise.
“I guess it is!”
“Don’t cry to me later, Nolan!”
Alyssa opens the sheath on the front of her bike and pulls out one of her swords, the edge already blazing with bright red energy. She swipes at Emma’s shoulder, and Emma just barely maneuvers out of the way.
Emma pops one of the charges off of her steering bar and activates it before throwing it in front of Alyssa’s bike. She skids, almost to a stop, just in time to avoid the explosion.
The hard movement puts her behind Emma, who looks over her shoulder.
She doesn’t lift her visor, but she knows that Alyssa can tell she’s smirking anyway.
She has to look forward to take a turn as Alyssa reaches down towards her boot, and Emma adjusts her speed to try to get further ahead. As she gets back to a straighter route, Emma glances behind again.
Just in time for Alyssa’s last spear to make contact with the center of her chest.
Emma opens her eyes to Alyssa standing over her, smirking. “I guess you’re not as bad at that as you thought, Nolan.”
She groans and gets to her feet. “I had that, Greene.”
“You had a taste of pavement.”
“Maybe so, but I didn’t use every weapon in the arsenal to do it.”
Alyssa prods her finger against Emma’s chest. “I used my resources. Besides, it’s not every weapon. There’s the guns, and the knives, and zap cannons, and-”
Emma rolls her eyes and picks her helmet up off the ground. “Semantics. You and your damn semantics.”
Alyssa takes a small step closer. “Do you know what my favorite weapon is, Nolan?”
“W-What?” Emma asks as she watches Alyssa’s hand as it brushes back curly dark hair.
“It’s-” Alyssa hesitates, glancing over as a few of their classmates head towards them. “It’s uh…”
She panics, and Emma is pretty sure she knows what’s about to happen a second before Alyssa takes a glowing dagger out of her pocket and stabs Emma in the chest with it.
“Is this what the whole year is going to be like?” Emma asks dryly as she walks into her dorm room. “I mean really, I think we need to come up with a better solution to our problems.”
“I’m sorry,” Alyssa soothes, locking the door behind them before setting her arms on Emma’s shoulders. “I panicked.”
“You panicked because you were going to say that your best weapon is flirting with me, weren’t you?”
Alyssa gives an embarrassed smile. “Maybe.”
Emma sighs. “Yeah, that’s what I figured.” She gives Alyssa a curious look. “Was I dead for the same amount of time both times?”
“I think so. I wasn’t really paying attention.”
“Oh, gee, thanks.”
“I had to pay attention to whatever bullshit story Kaylee was telling me!” Alyssa says defensively.
Emma squints and leans in, pressing a quick, sharp kiss to Alyssa’s lips. “If I don’t get you back even once this year, I’m quitting.”
“Honey, you can’t quit. Like literally, you can’t.”
“I know, but I really thought I had it that time,” Emma says, unable to prevent the whine from slipping into her voice as she pulls away and lies down on her bed. “It’s not your fault, I’m just frustrated that I can never get anything right.” She hums a soft tune absentmindedly as she closes her eyes.
Alyssa joins her, knees on either side of Emma’s body as she sits on Emma’s hips. She sets her hands gently at Emma’s waist as she says, “You do get things right. Just because it’s not the things they expect doesn’t mean… I don’t know, it doesn’t mean you’re a failure. You’re just different.”
Emma opens one eye. “Oh, so the closeted gay new kid who has no powers is different? You don’t say.”
“You know what I mean,” Alyssa says with a roll of her eyes. She leans down and kisses Emma slowly. “And besides. You have to have powers. We all do. It’s kinda the point.”
“Maybe they got it wrong. Maybe they picked the wrong kid.”
“The lightning bolt hit you square in the chest. You can’t be more sure.”
“Yeah, well… you never know,” Emma mutters, avoiding Alyssa’s gaze and playing with a loose thread in the comforter.
“If you don’t want to talk about it, we can talk about how everyone thinks we hate each other.”
Emma looks back up at her. “Huh?”
“Uh, well, it would seem that we tried a little too hard to make everyone believe that we aren’t dating. Now they think we’re enemies.”
“That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think?”
“It might’ve been fueled by me saying that I stabbed you because you were annoying me.”
Emma gives a heavy sigh. “Lys…”
Alyssa winces. “I love you?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Emma tugs Alyssa down to hold her. “I’m not sure how you can be the God of Knowledge and still be this bad at improvising.”
“I think improv falls under Greg as the God of Theatre.”
“I guess that’s fair.”
Alyssa shifts a bit and kisses the corner of Emma’s mouth. “Hey,” she murmurs. “We’ll find out who you are, okay? I promise.”
“What if we never do? What if we’re supposed to graduate into our pantheon and I’m still just…” Emma trails off, waving a hand in the general vicinity of the rest of her body.
“I happen to like just…” Alyssa mimics her hand motion. “And if that’s all we end up knowing, then maybe that’s just how it’ll be. But we still have a whole year, Em. Don’t give up on yourself. Please?”
Emma nods. “Any bets on how many times Shelby tries to kill me during dueling class tomorrow?”
Alyssa pats her on the cheek and kisses her. “You’re a god. You’ll get over it.”