One (One Universe)

dimple. I can’t help but smile back.
    We shoot up 10 feet and zoom around in a little circle. We land quickly, just as my muscles start to twinge, right in front of Leni and Daniel. Something glints in Leni’s eyes — tears I can’t make sense of. She kind of leans against Daniel, like she’s having trouble standing up on her own.
    Elias watches the tree line for another long moment. “Okay, guys,” he says, his voice hushed. “I want you to try something. Hold hands.”
    “Okay…” Leni shakes her head slowly, but she turns and reaches her hands out to Daniel’s waiting ones. Of course she trusts Elias — they’ve been friends forever. Daniel bobs his head, smiles, and takes Leni’s hands.
    “Do you feel something?” Elias asks, his eyebrows high.
    “A…it’s like a tingling?” Daniel says, but his black eyes flash warmly at Leni.
    She smiles back and then gasps. “Oh! Yeah. I feel it.”
    “Like, a buzz?”
    Daniel nods.
    “Okay.” Elias beams. “Now don’t let go, okay?”
    “Elias? What do you want me to do?” Leni knows — I can tell by the tone of her voice. She knows what he’s going to ask of her, and she’s asking herself how much she wants to trust him, how much she wants to believe in this guy she loves like a brother.
    “Flame on, Len.”
    “Elias, I haven’t…you know…for a while now. Weeks.”
    Daniel looks at her, his eyebrows scrunching up. I know what she means. She’s just about given up on her One.
    “Use that feeling, okay? The buzz. Just picture it moving through you, making you do it, okay?”
    She shakes her head again, stands up a little taller, and breathes in deeply through her nose. I gasp as wisps of smoke rise from the place where she’s touching Daniel. They twist themselves around the point where their skin touches, then curl upward, disappearing into the air. Then, with a quiet whoosh, their hands light on fire.
    Leni’s arm shakes and her voice along with it. “Daniel?” she says, and Daniel has a smile playing at his lips, and then the flames fully engulf his hand and snake up his arm, licking through the knit of his sweater.
    Leni gives a gasp, breaks contact, jumps back, and stares at her hand. It’s not red, not raw, not burned. She touches it to her own face and doesn’t pull it away immediately. It’s not even hot. Leni pitches forward and grabs Daniel’s forearm, inspecting it for sizzling skin.
    “Oh, man,” Daniel says, shaking his head at Elias, the same smile on his lips. “Oh, man. How did you…”
    Elias takes a long breath, in and out, and then answers, “I have a theory. I’ve been thinking about this a lot,” he says.
    Of course he has. While I’ve been basking in sunlight, eating brownies, and having dreams of flying. Without him.
    “I don’t think Ones are just Ones. I think there’s, like, this hole. In the code maybe. There’s a hole because there’s something we could fill it with.”
    Daniel nods. “Keep going.”
    I listen just as attentively as he does. This reminds me of the talk with Mom.
    “The genetic code. And the hole sends out signals to someone whose code is close to what is supposed to be filling it. Compatible Ones. Normal people — or normal Supers, I mean — would have both the powers needed. But we’re not normal Supers. So our bodies are looking for another body that it can adapt to. Combine powers with, I guess.”
    “So she completes you? You’ve gone all soft, man,” Daniel teases, even though his voice sounds uncertain.
    Leni shuffles her feet and smiles at the ground, biting her bottom lip. I’m pretty sure that if it wasn’t so dark I could see her cheeks turning bright red.
    My heart rushes, but it’s not from excitement. It’s more panicked this time. I’ve known Elias for a week and a half. I am sixteen years old, and he is handsome and kind, but if someone told me that for sure he was my other half, I would throw up.
    “I don’t know. I suspect that another One who could make herself weightless might have this effect on me. Just like another One who pushes air or can create a pressure vortex might make Merrin fly, or another indestructible could make our girl Len into a human blowtorch.”
    I don’t say a word. I’m trying to decide if I want to be the only One who affects him in that way. And whether I want him to be the only One who does the same for me.
    Thankfully, Leni breaks the silence with a sniffle, then a short laugh. She’s smiling and