Could we be a love story

 The ground was firm against his torn shoes. Parts of his exposed feet grew raw from the blistering hot pavement but he had to keep moving on to survive. The people were watching and the people were scared. If he loses it is the end of it all. 

 A boom erupted as another building fell. That was the other heroes’ jobs though, he needed to find the one at the center of it all. He needed to face him again.

             THREE YEARS EARLIER

 The sun shone brightly on Arla City. It was the peak time of 6 where everyone was busy and on their way to work. Some would stop for maybe a coffee or a small breakfast before going into work. The normal people thing. 

 Josh always wanted that lifestyle. The “where are my keys’’ stress and the “late for work’ peril.

 Josh had lived at his ‘work’ since he was a child. As soon as he’d developed powers his parents didn't know what to do with him and sent him off to a facility.

 It was one of the tallest buildings here in Arla, and the most controversial for the fact of weaponizing children. But regardless, he still had something. 

 “Get your face out of the window airhead,” Emilia snarked with a snort as she stood behind him with her hands on her hips.

 Josh rolled his grey-blue eyes at the overused nickname, “Just a few more minutes.”

 “You can control the weather to the point where you can fly, you can just go outside and see it in person.”

 Josh pressed his dark tan fingertips against the window, starting to trace buildings, “Yeah sure. Like that's something Celeste would agree to,” he scoffed.

 “Well jokes on you, they are sending us out to help with the recent attacks. They have some sort of inside source saying something big is building up.”

 Josh turned around as fast as he could. A huge smile spread across his face.

 “Wait, really?”

 “Yes really,” Emilia responded while twirling a lock of her blue-tipped black hair and popping her bubble gum, “We are heading out in about an hour. All you have to do is get Makoto before we go.”

 “Gotcha!” He exclaimed while giving her two thumbs up mid-running out the door.

 Makoto had his room down the left hall, far from the others. He had the power to use and control dark magic. So as kids they were scared of his powers and it stayed that way because he was distanced. At first, not by Celeste or any of the other staff, but after an outburst they found it better for Makoto to mostly stay away from the rest of the kids. Even though he was only six. 

 As Josh reached his door he didn't even bother to knock, “Hey buddy,” Josh exclaimed after slamming the door wide open into his very bright room. 

 His eyes ached briefly adjusting to the brightness compared to the dimly lit hallway.

 The boy he was looking for was across the room in a black hoodie and ripped blue jeans. His shaggy blue-black hair was pushed back by a headband showing more of his lightly tan and quite built face.

 Makoto didn't even squeak, “so do you just not knock anymore?” he questioned.

 He didn't even look up from his book.

 Josh’s heart rose just slightly at the fact that he wasn't even surprised. “Well I mean we are besties, you should have been able to sense me through the door.”

 “We are not besties,” Makoto teased with a snort while narrowing his black mono-lidded eyes at him. 

 “Oh, we so are. I'm gonna make you a bracelet now that you've said that.”

 “Please don't,” he groaned with a smile while sinking into his seat, “what're you doing here anyway?”

 “There's some stuff going on in the city and Celeste needs our help for it.”

 Makoto looked at him, his black eyes seem entangled in deep thought. 

 “Does that mean I get to see you in your supposedly horrid suit?” He joked.

 Something tugged at his heart, maybe an inkling that that’s not what he had wanted to say. But he brushed it off. 

 “Hey, I think it's cool,” Josh teased back while leaning on the doorframe, “are you coming though?”

 Makoto paused and looked at him deep in thought. 

 “It’ll be fun! Please? For me?” Josh asked with a pout.

                          ONE HOUR LATER

 “I can't believe you've made me do this,” Makoto grumbled.

 Makoto was still in his attire before but Josh had changed into his awkward light blue top with an A written on it and black tights that were under green cargo shorts.

 They had been sent out to their stations at this point. Josh was with Makoto and Olive. Emilia was with the other two, Anika and Kai. 

 “Um-excuse you I am innocent on all charges, you chose to come here,” Josh said dramatically while slinging his arm over the shorter boy’s shoulders.

 He already was a little less than the average height but his posture made him even shorter. 

 In the corner of his eye, he could see a slight smile grow on Makoto’s face

 “Here we are,” Olive commented, dragging Josh from his thoughts. 

 She turned around to face them and paused to put her raven hair into a ponytail. “Other buildings have been reported to have some sort of darkness hang over them but this one doesn’t. This should be a routine check but…” she glared at Makoto with accusing eyes, “We’ll see.”

 Makoto sent a glare back, both looks-of course- flying under Josh’s radar.

 “Let's go check it out then! We should use the usual bottom to top routine since in an emergency I can fly us out.” 

 Olive nodded and turned back around to head into the tall very windowed building. Josh and Makoto close behind. 

 On the inside of the building, it was very different. It looked like it had been abandoned for years, but that wouldn't make any sense. It was on a decently busy street. How could it go unnoticed for so long?

 “We should split up to cover more ground. I’ll stay down here and cover the next five stories, you two go up from the fifth to the tenth story. Anything happens I should be fine, I can notify you guys,” Olive ordered before coughing a bit in her elbow, “Ugh there's so much dust.”

 Josh and Makoto nodded and they both went up the stairs.

 “Can’t you just fly up?” Makoto questioned as they reached the third set of stairs.

 “It's a good workout and besides my powers are too draining,” Josh replied optimistically with a smile.

 His smile seemed to be getting brighter and brighter to the point that Makoto may need sunglasses soon. 

 The sixth floor was surprisingly less dusty. A couple of the hanging lights flickered but there was enough natural light for it not to be an issue. 

 “Do you know what we are supposed to be looking for?” Makoto asked as he checked under the few metal desks that had been left behind.

 “I think we are mostly checking for suspicious activities or something.”

 Makoto hummed in response. 

 There wasn’t much on the floor so they went back to the staircase. They climbed the stairs again and expected to be met with the next floor. 

 But this one had a door. It was metal with many locks and was very obviously brand new. 

 “Stand back,” Josh told Makoto before positioning his arms to use his powers to blow the door in.

 With a swift push, it fell back with a loud slam.

 “So much for being sneaky,” Makoto muttered with a snort. 

 Josh elbowed him softly in mock offense and the two continued slowly. 

 The room was full of dust and empty like the other rooms.

 “Well, looks like there's nothing here,” Josh commented with interest.

 Of course, after he said that a thick dark cloud covered the room. 

 A punch slammed across his face quickly. He groaned through gritted teeth and tried to clear the air with his powers, but it stayed. 

 He could hear fighting that came from the other side of the room that was most likely Makoto.

 Josh tried to fight back but failed miserably due to the lack of sight, at least Makoto’s specialty was darkness and dark magic so he was able to fight back. 

 “Go get Olive,” Makoto yelled urgently.

 Josh turned and ran as fast as he could, instead of running down the stairs he flew instead to the bottom floor where he prayed Olive went back to. 

 “Olive??” He yelled.

 At first sight from the bottom of the stairs, it looked empty but muffled noises came from the corner of the room. 

He ran over but froze in terror when he saw her. Her body was sinking into the ground. She was only half-submerged but the sinking was going quickly. Some sort of black goo was wrapped around her mouth and hands preventing her from talking and using her powers.

Josh started to try to pull her out. His chest squeezed as she started to sink even faster. He tried to use his powers to help but was getting to the point where his stamina was running low. He fought back the feeling of fatigue and pulled harder. 

He heard footsteps coming down the stairs and turned to see Makoto. 

“Come help, Olive is stuck,” He exclaimed in a panic. 

He expected Makoto to rush over. But he didn’t.

Josh turned his head in confusion but only saw Makoto reaching out his hand and darkness surrounding his palm. He was about to ask what he was doing but paused as he felt Olive’s arm slip from his hand. 

He froze. His heart pounding out of his chest. He turned his head back and Olive was gone. 

“Olive??” He yelled as he kneeled and reached for the ground. 

But it was hard.

“What did you do??” he yelled as he spun around to look at Makoto in shock.

Josh looked in the other boy’s black eyes for any hint of emotion. But only saw a conflicted look grow into boiling anger. 

His brows furrowed as he let out a shallow laugh. “Did you seriously not see this coming?” He folded his arms as his laugh fell. “Do I have to spell it out for you Josh.”

 Josh stood slowly. “The dark stuff…. Was you?”

“Well,” Makoto paused and looked away from Josh’s eye contact. “Not exactly, my parents-”

“Your parents?” Josh repeated, sounding it out slowly. 

“Yeah, they found me. They never wanted to send me here in the first place,” Makoto gritted his teeth and dug his nails into his arms. “Celeste took me and probably everyone else from their families. Including you.”

Josh felt some sort of panic bubble up but he shoved it down, “Then why get rid of Olive??”

 “She didn't believe us nor agree with us. It was for the best.”

“The BEST? She's dead Makoto. How can I agree with that? Regardless of whether they stole us or not.”

“They took EVERYTHING from me. My family, my mental stability, my last name. I didn't even recognize myself as a person until recently,” Makoto yelled, pain seeping through his voice, “who knows what else they've done or that they're capable of.”

The fatigue started to hit Josh. “How can that excuse murder?”

“Oh please, like she wasn't going to do the same. She's been brainwashed into being the teacher's pet.”

Josh tried to fight his body from swaying as he gritted his teeth. “Well what are we supposed to do now anyway, I can try to have them take you in again but it'll be hard.”

Makoto gave him a bewildered look. “I don't want to go back. You should come with me instead. At least we will be together and we can fight them together.”

“I can't go with you either,” Josh whispered.

Makoto sighed and turned to start leaving,

Josh almost falls to his knees fighting the fatigue trying to stop him. “Why are you letting me live?”

Makoto froze, “Because I love you,” he turned to look at Josh with sadness welling up in his eyes, “but don't make any mistake. Things will end differently if you choose to face me again.”

Josh felt his eyelids grow heavy as he watched Makoto walk off with two blurry figures joining him. He was passed out before he could return the confession.

             THREE YEARS LATER

 Even though it had been years since he saw any signs of Makoto, he knew he was the one he was looking for. His powers have grown much over the years, so he can only imagine how powerful the other one was now.

 Josh would be lying if he said his feeling for Makoto had dissolved over the years. To be fair After what happened they were under a huge lockdown for years, all he had to do was worry for him. 

 He had a feeling about where he was. A large group of shadow-like people surrounded the building they were in long ago. 

 Josh had improved his powers over the years so he would be able to either fly over and he just needed to find a way to be slick about it or he could fight his way through. 

 Screw this. There was no time.

 He put his hands in a cone shape and focused his mind to make a strong gust of wind to blow the shadow people away. Since he couldn't approximate their weight he did only a medium-sized gust so he didn't drain himself. 

 Luckily it worked, and he jumped up as he used the wind channels to push himself onto the roof. 

 The sky grew darker as his feet thumped against the hard floor of the roof.

 He was preparing to fly down to find him but there was no need. 

 “Long time no see, Josh,” Makoto greeted.

 He grew a few more inches and was more muscular now. Instead of his sweatshirt he now wore a white tee shirt with black sleeves and ripped blue jeans. 

 “Glad to see your suit is still stupid. Nice stubble,” he teased.

 “What are you doing here,” Josh snapped.

 “What does it look like I’m doing here. Celeste hasn't had any consequences, this city deserves to burn to the ground to what they did to so many families. It wasn't just me. They glorify and idolize it now that they see the results. They still do the same today,” Makoto snapped back through gritted teeth, “Glad to see you still work for them,” he added with sarcasm.

 Josh gritted his teeth. “Glad to see you still kill people.”

 “It's kill or be killed in this world,” Makoto snapped before his hands were covered by clouds of darkness, “I told you last time things would end the same. Let’s see how you hold up.”

 He right-hooked his fist into Josh’s face before kneeing him in the stomach. 

 Josh grunted in pain but pushed through to grab him by the shoulder and push him to the right and into the ground. 

 Makoto grabbed Josh’s leg and made him slam to the ground. He went to climb on top of Josh and raised his elbow to punch him again but Josh used the wind to throw him off.

 Makoto used his power of darkness to hold him down before sending a hand like a shadow to punch him again. 

 “Why didn't you come with me?” Makoto yelled.

 Josh broke out of the hold before slamming a right hook back, “You killed someone it wasn't exactly an ideal thing to join,” he yelled.

 Makoto slammed a few punches into his chest and stomach, “Celeste has done wayyy worse.”

 Josh shoved him into the ground and started to stir up a storm in the clouds.

 Thunder began to roll and rain began to fall. 

 “You left me,” Josh screamed, his hands pointed to the air to control the storm as wind and rain whipped around his hair. 

 Makoto jumped up, “I couldn't have stayed with the people that stole me from my family,” He screamed back.

 “You could have talked to me, we could have figured it out together” He argued, ignoring his voice cracking. 

 “Why would you care??” Makoto yelled.

 “Because I loved you,” Josh yelled back as he threw his hands down in anger causing lightning bolts to strike near them

 The rain continued to fall.

 The other man was frozen, his eyes were wide. 

 “What?” he whispered so softly it could be hardly heard over the rain. 

 Josh just stood looking back at him, the only noise was just his heavy breaths and the rain.

 “We can run away together,” Makoto said, his voice hoarse.

 “How. It's too late.” 

 “We’ll find a way,” Makoto said as he walked up to Josh.

 “Together?” Josh asked. 

 Makoto held out his hand. “Together.”