+ ALL THESE RUMOURS SPREADING AROUND,
AND I KINDA LIKE THE WAY THEY SOUND. [ rumours ]

Never once did Blaze think of that. The reason why Ice had devoted himself to serving the rest of his life as a school Wonder, aiding the spirits and also human students whenever they were hurt. 

It's my biggest dream, he told him, To become a doctor and help others.

"But, why?" Was the only question he dared ask. Scratch that; the question he's dying to know the answer to. "Why choose suicide when you have such a big dream like that?"

Ice could only stare back at him helplessly, "The past me couldn't handle the stress. If I were to grow up in the same state, I would probably revert to doing bad instead. Drugs, cigars. Name all that. If my future self was to grow up, it'd end that way."

"You said that the future is absolute," Blaze argues back. "Wha-"

"I was fifteen, Blaze." His tone dropped low, filled with pure disappointment. "That time, when I had nobody to talk to, no friends to share my problems with, I was left alone with the voices in my mind, telling me to go off and that I'd be better off dead."

"I'm sure there was someone! Someone you could've talked to!"

"You act as if this problem is in the present." Ice sweatdrops slightly at Blaze's exaggerated reaction and touches the boy's arm. "You're starting to burn off again. Calm down."

The said teenager looks at his biceps, where smoke steamed off his skin. "Ah, sorry." He scratches the nape of his bandaged neck. "I'm sorry that you had to go through all that, Ice."

"Why say sorry? It's none of your faults. It's a decision the past me made, and he has absolutely nothing to do with me now. And to be fair, I could've. Yes. I should've spoken to someone when I had the chance. I didn't, out of fear. Or maybe, out of pride."

Blaze scoffs, "Your ego must be as high as the Eiffel Tower then."

"Worse." Ice shakes his head, grinning. "It's Mount Everest."

"I can't imagine you being someone like that."

"You wouldn't want to be friends with me, let alone talk to me. I was that one shy, quiet kid in the corner who never bothers asking help from people because I believed I could solve everything on my own."

"How'd you grow up to be the.. you now then?"

Ice hums, "Experience. The younger you are, the more likely you'll see the world as a worthless place to live in. The older you get, the more you understand. What do they call that, ah puberty? Isn't that what you're going through rig-"

Blaze's face burned bright red, from embarrassment. "I've passed that."

"I thought so." The latter snorts, "Though you act immature at times."

"I'm offended." Blaze puckers his lips jokingly, bumping his shoulder to the older figure. "That's nice. What if you did live your life to be the person you are now? If you could, would you?"

He responds with a quiet smile. "I wouldn't change a thing."

"Huh. You're weird. If I was a Wonder and had the chance to go time-traveling, maybe with the memories I have now and into the body when I was like, a baby; I would take the chance. So why don't you do the same too? Fix your regrets?"

Ice's orbs drilled into his. "Because if I was to change my fate,

I wouldn't be here to meet you, Blaze."

And as cheesy as it sounded, trust grew between them.

"I'm going to personally murder you if you come trudging in here one more time like you're the Mexican mafia boss." Thorn chuckles at the empty threat and leaps two steps away from the duo who had just arrived home after their little bonding moment.

He mocks Blaze, "Are you going to hit me with the chancla?"

"I swear I'm going to kill you!" The boy growls, raising his chakrams.

Ice puts a hand on Blaze's weapon, lowering it down. "There's no need for that. What are you doing here, Number Six?" 

"Oh, you know. Just the usual!" He looks at them up-and-down.

"And what would that mean?" The Third Wonder sighs, pushing past them both and into the living room, where he exhales in relief. It was just in the same condition as he had left it.

Thorn shrugs, skipping onto the couch and plops himself onto one of them comfortably as if he owns the place. "Don't know. It could mean whatever you want it to be. I'm not here for you, teenage Gandalf." He moves his index finger to Blaze, "I'm here for him."

Ice felt slightly defensive as he peers at the fiery boy, who had just seated himself at the sofa opposite of him. "What do you want with him? That's odd of you." Teenage Gandalf. Seriously?

"You both act like I'm not here!" Blaze shouts, "Oh, come on!"

"I wanna know everything about him!" Thorn grins, ignoring the boy's last message. Blaze gave up trying and put his head into his hands, muffling his screams. "There's someone in him."

"Someone?" Ice raises a brow, "Do you mean something?"

"Did I stutter?" The Sixth Wonder sassily retorts back, and this left the blue-eyed spirit rolling his eyes away. "I said, someone. Or yeah, well, something. It's unworthy of being in the same degree with us!"

With a frown, Blaze speaks up, "Stop beating around the bush and get to the point, will ya?! If you think that I'm opening the hell up to you, then you're mistaken, flora boy!"

"F-Flora boy?" Thorn chokes on his spit, bursting to laughter.

He stops at the sight of a glowering Ice and clears his throat, "You're both too serious! I just came here for the sake of my research."

Research my ass, the other two thought, utterly defeated.

"Blaze, do you remember who your parents are?"

"Hah?!" Orange orbs bulged out of their sockets. "I know nothin'!"

Thorn shakes his head and whimpers dramatically, "That's too bad. I was sure that I got them now." He turns to Ice, demeanor changed, and everything. Traces of his childish side dissipated quickly. "I don't know if you know, but Cyclone just got atta-"

"Cyclone?" Blaze interrupts, "Who the hell is that, and why does his name sound like he's a walking disaster? Is he one of your stupid buddies?"

The green-eyed apparition groans, "At least he's not as dumb as you!"

"Both of you, stop it." Ice took his position as the middleman and cuts in before any of the conversation was going to end up being a yelling competition. "Thorn, you were saying?"

"Cih." Blaze mumbles, crossing his hands sourly. "I'm not dumb."

Thorn grins at the boy, mouthing a 'You're down, thermometer rat'. Right after, he continued his endearing speech, "Cyclone got attacked when it was his turn to patrol around the school area. Imagine if I wasn't there. He would've died! Thunderstorm woul-"

"Your friends have the weirdest names ever. Period."

"Shut up. That Pikachu aspirer would've killed me if I didn't bring Cyclone back in time. Oh, I brought some pictures with me."

Ice narrows his eyes, "You took pictures before saving him?"

"Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do!" Thorn replies with both shoulders lifted, without a care in the world. "Plus, it's a great way to blackmail Thundy one day. You know, I managed to snap some shots of him crying when Cyclone went into a coma."

"Cyclone went into a coma and nobody told me?" 

"Crap. That's on me." The Sixth Wonder puffs his cheeks. "My bad, pops. I had a load of work to do." He winks, sticking his tongue out as Ice could only look at the other Wonder in disbelief.

Blaze's mouth hung open. "And you had time to take pictures?"

"That isn't the point of this conversation," Thorn coughs the issue away and flails a hand in the air to dismiss the topic. "Whoever attacked Cyclone is powerful. By that, I mean in spiritual form. I don't know if it was the work of an exorcist or something."

Orange irises shrunk at the sight of four eyes directed towards him. "What are ya'll looking at? You're accusing me of doing that? I haven't been to school since I was se-"

They turn away from him immediately. "So you're saying.."

A-Are they purposely ignoring me? Blaze's brow twitches.

"There are two possibilities. It's either someone from the spirit world's working together with an exorcist to take the Wonders down, or-"

Ice's eyes turned into slits, "There's a new rumor going around."

gah so much blice stuff going around xx
hope yall liked this, will update again :)