Magic and surveillance

[Alex's POV]

Alex looked up with a frown from his computer screen. He had been gaming in his room when his dad barged in. He used to knock, but Alex had started ignoring him when he did, so Mar had changed his habit in return.

"You have a guest!" he said cheerfully with a sing-song voice. Alex used to smile whenever his dad intentionally behaved ridiculous, but he had no intention of indulging him anymore. So he stayed seated in his luxurious office chair.

Mar pressed his lips into a taut line. It was obvious he wanted to say a thing or two about his son's recent rude behaviour, but thought better of it, let Otto in and closed the door behind him as he left.

Alex stared at the door as if he could see his father's retreating back through it. He hoped his facial expression had looked neutral. He didn't know how to act around his dad anymore. Alex used to tell him everything, but now he simply didn't want to anymore.

"Wow, you look happy to see me?" Otto remarked doubtfully.

"Hmm?" Alex asked as he looked up towards her, only now fully registering that it was in fact his girlfriend that had entered his room. A genuine smile automatically bloomed on his face.

"Hey you," he said lovingly. "I missed you."

But Otto met his loving greeting with a worried frown.

"I'm not buying it," she said seriously. "What's bothering you?"

"Why would you say that?" he asked as he laughed sourly. But he was met with a blank stare. Dammed it! This proved it. He'd been acting way too awkward around his dad lately. He could only hope that his dad was writing his behaviour off to puberty acting up, or something.

"Is this one of the things you can't tell me?" Otto asked with a pretty little pout. Alex chuckled and shook his head.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding," he said. "The secret you are referring to, is about me being in love with you. Which we both know isn't a secret anymore, by the way."

Otto's face instantly turned bright red.

"How can you say such cheesy things out of the blue," she complained. "So embarrassing."

"It's true though," he said as he grasped her hand and pressed a feather-light kiss on her knuckles. If it had been even remotely possible, Otto would have blushed even harder.

"Stop trying to change the subject and tell me already!" she complained as she pulled her hand back. Alex pursed his lips and heaved a deep sigh. A frown appeared on his face as he concentrated for a moment. He knew his dad was listening and he didn't want him to hear what he was about to say.

"It's my dad," he said hesitantly. "I just don't trust him anymore."

"Wow, that's ... sudden?" Otto asked, unsure of how to react. "Why? Every time you talk about him, you make him sound like some sort of god!"

"Well, he used to be my hero," Alex said as he frowned again. "But he's been keeping things from me. Who knows how long he's been doing it."

"This is not about the Easter bunny, is it?" she asked playfully.

"Of course not!" Alex rolled his eyes at her lame joke.

"Then why? What could possibly cause you to distrust your hero like that?"

Alex doubted. Maybe he shouldn't tell her after all. If he told her, there would be no going back. He was about to make up an excuse, but then the source of his frustration caught his eye once more, and he felt a wave of annoyance bubble up in him.

"He bugged my room," Alex said.

"Excuse me?" Otto asked flabbergasted. She didn't look very convinced.

"He bugged my room," Alex repeated. "And not just my room; the entire house, the school, ... There was even some listening equipment hidden in street lanterns along my way to school."

"Are you joking?" Otto asked uncertainly. He silently shook his head. She'd reacted the same way he had when he'd started noticing; disbelief. He felt confused and betrayed. Why would his dad do something like that?! It was hard to ignore now that he knew. They were literally everywhere.

"Your dad planted a listening device in your room?" she asked doubtfully once more. He nodded again. "Are you sure it's him?"

"Well, there aren't any in your or Jasper's room, so that narrows it down nicely."

"Is he listening in on us right now?"

Alex shook his head.

"No, I jammed the signal," he answered with a smug grin. "He should be hearing the calming tunes of Radio Sunshine right now."

Alex had chosen that specific radio station because he knew his dad couldn't stand the music they played. Mar's frustrated face came to mind. It made him chuckle.

That's when Alex noticed Otto looking around his room sneakily.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to see if I can spot the bugs myself," she whispered.

"You won't," Alex chuckled. "They're hidden inside the walls."

"Then how did you spot them?"

He didn't answer her question. Instead, he looked straight down to the floor.

He wanted to tell her. He really did. But he hated that he couldn't predict her reaction.

"Hey," she said as she rushed back over to his side and squeezed his fingers lightly. "I'm here for you."

When he looked up into her eyes, she looked back at him with sincere concern. He was worrying her by not telling her. But he knew she wouldn't believe just anything he said either. She'd laugh to the point of a stomachache if he told her something like: I can use magic.

No, the only way she'd have no choice but to believe him, was by showing her. So he heaved a shaky sigh, pressed one of his hands tightly against his computer screen and held his other hand open for her to see.

Out of nowhere, the prettiest little flower had appeared.

No, saying it had appeared didn't do it any justice. It had started with a spec and had grown at accelerated speed from there, all the way to the little bud blooming to show the pretty little pink flower it had been hiding.

Otto watched with wide eyes.

"Wow," she uttered at long last, reaching carefully for the little flower as if she didn't believe it was real. When her fingers finally did touch the little flower, she momentarily flinched back as if it had bitten her.

When he saw her reaction, Alex thought he had scared her off, but even before he could try and defend himself, he saw a mesmerising smile spread across her face.

"This is really amazing," she said breathlessly. "What a beautiful little flower. How did you do that?"

"I don't know," Alex replied sheepishly. She reacted better than he'd hoped. "Would you believe me if I said; I just can?"

That's when his hand on the screen caught his attention. The image on the screen was completely distorted as if the very image itself was being pulled into his hand, with an extra bright rim where it touched his flesh and the edges of the screen nearly black.

He flinched his hand away from the device hoping the effect wouldn't be permanent and sighed a breath of relief when the image morphed back to normal.

"I believe you," Otto giggled. "So... What did I see just now? Did you create something out of thin air? Or do you need electricity to do it?"

"Good question," Alex mumbled to himself. He hadn't thought about it before. Or no, that wasn't right. If he was being really honest with himself, it was a topic he'd avoided thinking about.

Was he an electricity vampire? Or were other sources of energy fine too? And if the answer was yes, had he simply not figured out how to do it yet? He liked to think Amon could.

"I don't think it's limited to electricity," he finally said. "I think it's about manipulating energy. I can see it flow around us, not just electricity. That's how I figured out were the eavesdropping equipment was hidden. And they are really easy to influence too."

"Ok," Otto mirrored his grin. "Do you think that is why your dad bugged the room? Do you think he knows?"

"I'm not sure. It has been bugged long before I discovered my powers."

"Really?" she asked thoughtfully. "Now that you mention it, when did you discover your powers?"

"In the hospital during winter-break."

She frowned slightly as she thought for a few seconds until she finally smacked her fist in the palm of her free hand and said: "I should have known! You've been acting strange ever since."

"Yeah, right!" Alex laughed. "I've been doing magic tricks right in front of all of your noses and none of you caught on!"

"You're talking about Jasper's broken phone screen, aren't you?" she deadpanned. Alex flinched. "Yeah, that's what I thought. You're not as sneaky as you thought you were."

Alex just stared at Otto, completely flabbergasted.

"I really can't hide anything from you, huh," he asked with a proud grin adorning his face.

"I'd like to think so. I'm your girlfriend after all," she said as she inched closer, a feint blush dusting her cheeks. "You fooled Jessy and Jasper though. They totally bought your hastily made up story about the screen-protector."

Alex chuckled and wrapped his arms around Otto's waist as he pulled her closer.

"I bet they wouldn't even believe that it was real magic if I made the flower appear in front of their noses like I did here with you," he said. This time Otto did accept his advances. She wrapped her arms around his neck and crawled onto his lap with her legs straddling his.

"Don't blame them," she said with a smile while leaning in. "It takes a dreamer to believe in magic."

Alex had barely registered her words. He was way too busy drowning in her deep blue eyes. Every nerve in his body was humming with her at such a close proximity.

Some times he wondered if she knew what kind of effect she had on him, what kind of power she had over him. She probably didn't know, otherwise she'd have ran away a long time ago.

He swallowed hard.

"You definitely are my dream come true," he said as he tilted his head upwards to close the gap between their lips.

She welcomed his kiss and they both eased into the office chair. But as soon as they did, the chair tilted backwards and toppled over causing them both to fall to the floor with a loud BANG!

"Ouch!" Otto complained because she had hit her head on the top of the chair.

"Are you OK?" Alex asked as Otto leaned on one hand to relieve her weight from his chest and rubbed at the sore spot on her head.

Suddenly the door flew open and they both looked up at the person standing in the doorway. It was Mar, looking severely unimpressed.

"You know?" he said as they both stared up at him with surprised faces. "I thought I could trust the two of you together, but it looks like that decision was against my better judgement. Come on, I revoke your permission to be alone in a room."

Mar just stood there, with an overly exaggerated stern expression, waiting for the two of them to get up and follow him downstairs. Alex couldn't help it, he started to laugh.

His dad glaring angrily at them, the compromising position they were in and the realisation of how ridiculous a situation of the tipping over chair really was, just resulted in him laughing uncontrollably.

It had started as an innocent chuckle, but as his father's frown grew deeper, it soon grew into full-blown laughter. The longer Alex laughed, the more Mar's angry face morphed into a confused one.

That's the point were Otto couldn't hold her giggles in any longer and started laughing too.

At the sight of the both of them laughing, Mar's expression eased up and he heaved a sigh.

"OK, I get it. Come down when you've gathered your bearings," he said and went ahead downstairs.

Once he was gone from view, and once Alex's laughter has reduced to a mere chuckle, Otto asked: "Is it OK to anger your dad like that?"

"It's ok," Alex said as he gently kissed the sore spot on her head, which had turned red.

"The pain is gone," she muttered incredulously.

"Of course it is," Alex chuckled. "It's magic!"

"You can even heal people?" she asked even more incredulous now. "Wait a second... So that's why they couldn't find any evidence of me hitting my head back then! You'd already long healed it!"

"Yes, well... Honestly, that was an accident," he admitted sheepishly. "I couldn't control it yet back then. And healing you had left me drained."

Her eyes widened in realisation.

"You were that weak because of me?! You idiot!" she yelled on the verge of tears. Alex blinked in surprise. "You could have died that day! That was an incredibly risky thing to do! I would never forgive you if you had died because of me!"

Alex stared at her for an instant and then gently rubbed away her tears with his thumbs.

"I'd do it again any day," he said seriously. "And besides, it helped me to learn to control my ability."

Otto was about to say something undoubtedly dramatic, but Alex didn't need to hear it. So he interrupted her before she could.

"Now, come on. Let's get up and go downstairs. My dad is a patient man, but you don't want to anger him."