(This is a long chapter with a bit of a long exposition but I promise it picks up!)
(I wanna' hear a holler from the Fantasia kids, it inspired this as well as a request so I mashed them together!)
Evan hummed a gentle melody as he strode slowly through the thickly-wooded forest, glancing up through half-lidded eyes at the sunshine that dappled through the woven branches, smiling when he saw a mother bird swoop down to land in a nest of two fussy baby birds, feeding them before gently sitting on them to provide warmth.

Evan then returned his gaze to the grassy path ahead of him, smile widening when he saw sunlight filter through the end of the path where the trees let out; He picked his pace up from a slow stride to a brisk jog as he came to halting stop just where the trees ended.

Evan let out a quiet gasp at the vast meadow that stretched out for miles around him.

Yellow grass blew gently in the breeze, trees framing the outskirts of the giant clearing. He giggled slightly with happiness that he could explore this area, it dipped down on all sides, and who was to tell what was over those rolling hills that led down into probably a little clearing where Evan could spread some more green and yellow. In fact...one thing Evan noticed that was disturbingly off was the fact that this clearing was empty.

Aside from the soft, golden grass at Evan's feet that rested in a single bed of flowers, that still continued to grow, the clearing was empty.

"That...I-I'd better fix them." Evan hummed and looked down at his feet, glancing back at the scattered path of blooming flowers behind him. Evan grinned and ran forward, diving into the meadow and running all along the outskirts of it, laughing as he looked behind him to see flowers sprout up cheerfully where his feet had descended, growing towards the core of the meadow.

Evan leapt forward, attempting at doing a cartwheel before suddenly remembering how terrifying the stunt would be and stiffening anxiously a moment before, causing him to fall and tumble blindly down the side of the hill that made up the most part of the meadow, squeaking every time he hit a rock, which was slowly becoming more frequent until he felt the ground heating up beneath him before he rammed into a particularly large rock, stopping him on the stiff ground beneath him.

Evan's gaze was blurry for a minute or two before it focused and his brain kicked back in- along with the bleeding scrapes along his knees, elbows, shins, arms, chin, face- everywhere.

Evan let out a choked sob at how much he was hurting, looking down at the hard, molten rock beneath him, pressing a firm hand to it to try and make a daisy flowerbed, but nothing happened. He let out a cry when nothing worked and tried again. Nothing. The ground was too firm for plants to grow here.

Evan sat back to look around him, and saw that all around him was molten rock spreading across a flat valley that was at the core of the meadow, the hill around it sloping upwards where the flowers were now blooming. Evan reached a shaky hand towards the distant flowers before placing the scraped up limb to the ground and squinting as tears fell to the ground.

Evan was more than surprised when a delicate flower grew. He squinted at its gentle, flame-colored petals, this flower was rare, it only grew in the fire district...

Evan immediately stiffened up and stumbled back. A fire district descendent hadn't been seen in centuries- and nothing grew in territory that was abandoned.

That's when Evan's eyes focused on the rock that he had run into, but it wasn't a rock, it was a person...sort of? It was the form of a person that seemed...trapped...in volcanic rock...

The position he was in...he was a boy, and he looked afraid...he was curled up with his hands holding the long hair on his head that fell shakily to his shoulders. He was still- after all, he was incased in thick rock.

Fire Descendants were dangerous...they had been wiped out centuries ago in the war...after all their contributions led to distraction, they were killed for the better of everyone...Why was this boy alive? In Evan's personal Nature district of all places...he truly hadn't been in that thicket of the Woods before...no wonder this boy was so deep in his domain...no wonder this district hadn't been occupied- this had been a Fire District taken over been the Nature District.

Evan knew he should just turn heel and report this to the Haven District Council...but...they'd kill him...and...maybe this boy was dangerous...but when Evan looked at him...

"You look so afraid..." Evan whispered, reaching a hand towards the figure, "I'm so sorry that they did this to you." His voice was filled with true pity as he placed a hand to caress the boy's cheek.

A few moments after Evan did so, he felt the figure heat up, causing Evan to wince slightly as he felt rock crackle under his hand. Before he was even able to do anything or leap backwards, Evan witness the rock completely fall away to be replaced by a young boy with brunette hair, the ends a glowing red and orange, vibrant, fiery color...his skin was pale and he wore a black cloak that looked like it had been often warn.

Evan kept his hand against the boy's cheek, no idea what to do otherwise, he looked asleep with open eyes, in the same position until-

"Don't hurt us!" The boy screamed suddenly, scrambling away from Evan's touch.

The fiery boy panted as he was now on his back, sitting up quickly onto his elbows and staring at Evan, looking absolutely terrified before getting to his feet as fast as he could and pushing his hands forward in a fighting stance, "Get back Nature Scum!"

Evan furrowed his brow in confusion, beginning to tremble slightly in fear, mouth moving but nothing coming out.

The other boy stomped a foot forward, causing Evan to yelp and curl into a tight ball, which confused the mystery boy, "A-aren't you going- you know, fight back?" Evan simply trembled more, "At...all?" The other frowned.

"D-don't hurt me!" Evan squeaked, shaking harder.

The other's expression softened and he frowned deeply before lowering his hands that had weak flames collected at  them, clenching his fists to douse them before putting his hands on his hips, "You're pretty shitty at your job." He scoffed.

"M-my job?" Evan looked between his hands that hid his face.

The other nodded, "You've been sent here to dispose of me, haven't you?"

Evan shook his head quickly, "N-no, no! Not at all! I- I didn't even know y-your kind even existed before a few minutes ago!"

The other cocked an eyebrow, "My...kind?"

"F-fire District..." Evan mumbled, sitting up slightly.

"I- what? What do you mean? I- still existed?" This boy was more than perplexed.

"The Fire District- i-it's wiped out."

The Fire boy looked at Evan in disbelief before falling to his knees, "N-no...no, that's wrong- you're wrong!" Connor screamed, causing his hair to light up.

Evan covered his face in fear again, "I-I'm sorry!" He cried.

Connor shut his eyes, the tears instantly evaporating on his face as he slumped down into the same position he had been in in the rock, this time shaking and panting, "No."

There was silence as the boy burned the ground beneath him with rage before it slowly subsided and his hair turned a dull red at the tips, "Zoe..."

"Z-Zoe?" Evan swallowed nervously at the other's temper.

"My sister..." He sighed.

"O-oh...I'm...I'm so sorry..."

"I tried to turn us both to stone s-so I could protect her." He cursed and slammed a hot fist down, "Damn it!"

There was silence for a bit before Evan chirped up quietly as the other cooled down.

"I...I'm sorry about...your family and...district...I'm..I'm Evan, I'm the last of the Flower specified Nature District...this land is all that's left of it..."

"Conmor." Connor responded with a mumble, looking around with a frown, "It used to be Fire District...all of this was rock and..." His eyes landed on the flower that Evan had made and smiled, reaching down to caress its petals, "It's-" It burned to ashes at Connor's touch.

Silence, absolute silence as Connor stared at what used to be the flower.

"N-no..." Connor whispered, "NO!" He screamed as he slammed his fists to the ground, his whole body heating up to an unhealthy level until he was burning himself, letting out sobs at both the burning pain and the grieving pain.

Evan's heart ached, he shook his head and did the only thing he could think of when someone was having a panic attack and stumbled forward, throwing his arms around Connor and holding him, biting his tongue and he held back shrieks of agony from the fiery sensation burning his scrapes.

Connor was startled at first before he eased into Evan's gentle touch and his sons ceased into choked cries as the heat died down.

Evan was panting as his entire body was red from either scrapes or burns.

Connor was holding on tightly to Evan as if his life depended on it before letting out a small, content sigh and leaning back, wincing as he noticed Evan's skin and the tired look on the boy's face when he looked like he was going to faint, "Shit..." He shuffled back, looking around before sighing and putting his hands together, summoning some sort of power being there until his hands radiated a green, red splotchy glow and he gently hovered it over Evan's arms and legs, everywhere that was scraped.

Evan winced at the tingly feeling before noticing clearly that his wounds were being healed bit by bit until all that was left was a warm, fuzzy feeling as he looked at Connor, shyly smiling thankfully, "Thank you..."

"You literally just burned yourself so I wouldn't turn into a Connor Crisp- it's the...least I can do." Connor sighed.

Evan nodded.

Connor looked around at the flowers outside his ring of molten rock, "You...did this?"

Evan nodded again, sheepishly.

"It's beautiful."

Evan blushed, drawing his hair behind his ear and smiling widely at Connor, "Th-thanks, you too-"

SHIT

"I- I MEAN-" Evan slowly squealed as he drew his green shirt over his face to hide. While he did this he heard slight crackling and pulled it down a little to see Connor's face a light shade of red while the ground burned a tad bit beneath his feet.

"Er- yeah, of course." Connor nodded, tucking his own hair behind his ear in a nervous manor.

"I-I can show you s-some of my other um, flowers a-and trees..." Evan mumbled, peeking up at the idea of showing off his trees.

Connor sighed with a slow nod, "Might as well...not sure how I'll take it..."

"Don't start a forest fire- I-I don't think the trees can take it...I don't think I can take the trees taking in..." Evan looked solemn.

"I'm going to start a forest fire if you keep looking at me like that." Connor mumbled quietly but Evan heard.

"L-let's g-get started then." Evan stood up and held out his hand for Connor.

Connor looked at his hand and let out a sigh so that it would slowly cool down, smiling slightly as it did so and burned less, not particularly wanting to burn the hand of the boy who had just indirectly called him beautiful- shit it was hot again.

"I can handle some heat." Evan laughed nervously I'll have to if you're sticking around.

Connor gave an actual, genuine smile, laced with sadness from this all still being new, before taking Evan's hand, a comfortable heat forming between them, and not just due to Connor's element.

Evan looked towards the woods beyond the clearing up ahead,
"You'll be obsessed with all my forest expertise."

***