As I woke up I felt… warmer, than usual. My body seemed hot and flustered even though I felt fine. As I tried to turn in bed I felt something drag a bit along my side and froze, recognizing the blue tinted hand gently wrapped around my shoulder. Turning my head I saw Inum happily sleeping next to me, pressed to my side in her clothes from last night close, a small half smile on her face.
I couldn’t help but stay still and watch her, contemplating my situation in my head. Then, after a minute of waiting my body slowly turned to face her and I wrapped one of my own arms around her, pulling her a bit closer. Her body felt even warmer as I did, as if a fire burned from the inside of her chest and made her like a living heater.
Realizing something, I smiled and reaching up slowly began to pet her fiery hair, watching the flames play on and around my hand, the motion causing embers to come off of her hair yet it only felt a bit warmer than usual. Otherwise it acted and felt like normal hair, not even singing the bed. “Uhm… hey,” a voice said a bit shyly and I realized she must have woken up from the sensation. Looking down I found her looking at me, blushing quite a bit to the point her face looked as hot as she felt. And her fingers had gently grabbed a hold of my side. “Hope you don’t mind I snuck in next to you, you were just cool and I couldn’t sleep,” she said quickly, seeming afraid of chastisement or anger.
Instead I smiled and gently ruffled her hair, her face turning to one of surprise as I did so. “Its okay, you gave me quite the peaceful sleep little Inum,” I teased, and she blushed even more pouting. “I’m not little your just huge!”
“I’m only a bit taller than average silly~”
“No your a giant now shush,” she grumped, turning her head still pouting yet seeming not to mind the fact her hair was still being petted. I laughed softly and slowly untangled myself from her and stood up, stretching my arms out. I hadn’t been lying about the sleep either, the warmth had sunk into my very bones and they felt longer and stronger than they usually did.
Inum got up as well, watching me from behind her hair before slowly getting up. “Hey uh… mind if I change real quick? I might have grabbed a few extra pairs of clothes from the store while you weren’t looking,” she said cheekily, looking to the side and tapping her fingers together. I nodded and she quickly seemed to almost vanish with how fast she moved, leaving a few wisps of blue fire before retreating into her room. Going into my own closet, I found out her shopping had also included a few of my own shirts cheeky girl.
I found her at the table looking towards the hallway to the bedrooms, wearing a light blue top held onto her small form by straps on her shoulders, the barest hint of a black bra showing on the side of one strap. She was wearing jeans this time, but this time they were shorts and seemed to be very lightly singed at the tips to give it a more ragged appearance. She smiled a bit as she saw me, and I smiled back walking over and preparing the stove to cook something good.
“Hey Inum, any ideas for what to do today?” I asked casually, and she thought about it for a second then smiling held up a single finger. “One thing at a time Morrow, lets get past breakfast first,”
“Fair enough,” I responded and looked into the fridge grabbing out ingredients to make an omelette. I felt her press against my back a bit as she looked around me to watch as i prepared it, and even helped with cracking the eggs.
She could use a bit of work, little shards of eggshell getting in with the yolk but she did mostly well, cracking the eggs and applying salt and pepper to the eggs as they cooked while I prepared some of the bacon to get mixed in with them. Soon we were finished and sat down to eat with the pan in front of us and two plates.
She ate slowly, seeming to watch me more than eat but whenever I looked in her direction she looked somewhere else, blushing just a bit. After a bite I smiled and teased “This is pretty good, although you look a bit better,”
“S-shush…” she replied evidently flustered, but the red tint on her cheeks made me smile. I wasn’t quite sure why, but when I saw her happy it made me happy, and my mind pondered that while I continued to eat. Red tinted the edges of my vision and time seemed to pass faster than usual as visions and thoughts passed through my head while we ate.
All of a sudden one of the visions seemed to blister, and as it rubbed past my vision I saw myself standing in front of a mirror, watching as my eyes rapidly changed colors. It was strange, they went from red, then to blue then even yellow. Purple was next, then green and this time when the green appeared it looked like my left side was on fire, before it went to orange and a single spot on the mirror seemed to warp before the me in the mirror winked and the vision faded. I think future me just made a time paradox, great that would have to be smoothed out later. “Oh… is that why my eyes hurt?” I asked out loud, and Inum looked at me strangely. “Wait, you didn’t know what you were doing?”
“No how would I? I don’t usually stare into a mirror,”
“But whenever your eyes turned yellow you traveled and you seemed to be able to control that pretty easily,”
My hand seemed to want to say hi to my face for a second as I slapped it over my eyes, leaning back as the full realization hit me. “I just thought I was a really good taxi driver!”
Inum stared at me for a second, then began to giggle uncontrollably before starting to laugh. Before long I was laughing with her, food forgotten and we both laughed so hard we were left panting and we looked at each other, smiling just a bit. Then, surprisingly she got up and took the seat next to me, sliding her plate to her new position. I looked at her, then shrugged and continued to eat myself, the two of us soon finishing the meal.
I stood up from the table smiling a bit before excusing myself and heading for the bathroom to relieve myself. When I finished, i looked into the mirror and watched my eyes, wondering if they would change like they did in the vision. The usual red haze that usually came from time to time happened and this time I saw my eyes turn red. It was like a deep scarlet pool had opened up in both eyes, and as soon as the haze lifted they seemed to shrink like they were evaporating until it was my normal pale eye color. I wonder how I hadn’t noticed this happening, but at least it explained a lot.
When I came back out I saw her playing with her hair a bit, grasping the fire between her fingers like it was normal strands of hair and playing with it gently, watching as the flames flickered out from her grasp. I came up behind her and gently rested my hands on her shoulders and she jumped, evidently surprised. Then she leaned back into my hands and closed her eyes for a second. Even though I didn’t do anything it seemed as if that second stretched for a minute, the silence closing around us and the world faded to black for a second. It was just us in a plane of darkness and silence, then the second was broken and her eyes opened again. “You know, it's hard being alone for so long, not being able to talk to anyone…” she said sadly, looking at me all the while.
“I have to imagine, but isn’t it nice not being seen every once and awhile?”
She snorted before responding “Sure, once out of a thousand times,”
“How long since someone talked to you?”
“Too long to remember… although I think the last time was maybe ten years ago,”
“How long since your last date?” I asked casually, and that spark of emotion that had been building since last night suddenly bloomed into a full fire, and I realized the emotion was love. I should have figured that long ago from when I had first seen her, that red vision of a kiss. She blinked, blushed then began stammering. “W-what!? W-what do you m-mean?”
“I mean, would you mind going on a date with me later? I have a good feeling about us,” I said, smiling warmly.
“But we have known each other for a day!”
My mind whispered otherwise, and at that moment it seemed I had known her for my entire life, or at least my future life. That felt like a load to dump onto her though, so I just smiled as she looked everywhere but me, seeming flustered. Then after a solid minute of her avoiding my eyes she looked at me and nodded, a small smile quirking the corners of her lips. That's about when I fell back in relief, half expecting her to say no since we had only just met.
Five hours later I was standing in front of my body mirror, checking the sleek black shirt I had put on and black pants, seeing if it looked alright. The front of the shirt looked like a tuxedo, and it was one of the nicer clothes I had. After a bit of straightening I walked out into the main room and waited for inum to get ready, one foot tapping on the ground beating out a quick rhythm. Another five minutes passed like this, then she emerged.
She was wearing a black top like she had the night at the carnival, but this one hung off one shoulder covering her chest but leaving part of her stomach exposed. She wore tight black pants that hugged her lower body and she seemed to have managed to do her hair in a bun, the ends of the flames flickering with purple as well. She smiled at me before walking over, gently poking my chest. “Nice tux, or should i say shirt~?”
“Just call it a tuxedo, makes it sound more fancy, “ i teased and she giggled softly, smiling a bit more. “So where were you wanting to eat?”
“I thought you had a place picked out, did you not?”
“Well not exactly, but if you want I know a pretty good spot,”
“Alright, but if its Mcdonald's then your not coming out of this date without a bruised chin,” she said smirking at me, and smiling I shook my head eyes turning yellow.
She seemed intrigued by the restaurant, a strange mexican and Italian mix that served food from pasta to tacos. They even had a few strange combination foods, like mexican rice mixed in with thin noodle spaghetti, with mexican cooked ground beef in meatball form and a side of refried beans. Funny enough that's what I ended up ordering though, it just seemed too interesting to pass up. She ordered a simple salad and steak, and we ate in partial silence, other times engaging in jokes and teasing at one another. We also talked about the night before, and which act we liked the most. I had liked the lions the most and to my delight she also liked that the best, and while eating I secretly covered my eyes while looking for a path where we got that cat.
“You know, despite what you think your very pretty,” I said casually, smiling just a bit at her as her cheeks turned the smallest bit red. “No i’m not silly,” she responded, ending up brushing a strand of fiery hair back into place. “But you are, I mean purple and blue hair - “
“fire, “ she interrupted, “not hair, but fire,”
“An adorable smaller frame with a big amount of attitude~”
“Hey now we talked about this, i’m not small you're just giant!” she pouted, her cheeks puffing out and lips sticking out in an adorable pouty face. I laughed softly, trying to stay quiet as to not disturb the other customers eating, before starting to eat myself giving her a wink. She began to eat as well, still with just a hint of color in both cheeks as we finished our meal.
After paying the bill I stood up and stretched, cracking my back before looking around slowly. It was dark out by now, and there were very few customers still here. Inum stood up as well, and offering her my arm we walked out into the city only to find past the little overhand of the restaurant it was raining. It wasn’t a light pattering of rain either, but a downpour, as if the sky were trying to drown the world underneath it.
Inum looked out into it and frowned, clutching the corner of her dress with obvious distaste. “Does rain still touch you?”
“Abiotic things touch me, living things can’t see or interact with me though,” she explained, and patted her hair with an annoyed look. “Its always annoying when it rains, it lowers my temperature and sometimes makes my fire go out,”
I frowned, starting to think before bringing her with me starting to quickly walk through the downpour. It felt like a hammer was bashing against my head and shoulders, and Inum’s hair immediately started flickering. She was already left shivering, and the usual heat that radiated from her seemed to dim immensely, as if struggling to keep her internal temperatures stable. Without another thought I pulled off my shirt and held it above her, catching the rain with it instead and letting me take the full brunt of the rain.
She stared at me and my bare chest, then tried to push the shirt back towards me. “Come on put your shirt back on, your going to catch a cold,”
“Your going to do the same if I don't do this,”
“Just put your shirt on its oka - “ she was cut off as I suddenly walked up to her, picked her up and laid the shirt on top of her, starting to walk back in the direction of the house. She gave an indignant noise and struggled for a second before shooting me an annoyed look. “Morrow, put me do - “
That was all I heard before she was silenced by a kiss, me leaning down over her and pressing my lips to her own. Her eyes widened in shock and she seemed to freeze, not moving away or kissing back as I looked into her eyes. Her lips were warm and soft, like a pillow and only after a second did I pull away. Then, gently as possible I tilted my head down and rested my forehead against hers, wrapping my arms close around her and pulling her close to my chest. I closed my eyes, and I could hear her breathing quicken, her heart beat strong against my hands as I held her.
I opened my eyes and looked into hers, which now held a small white dot for a pupil in each and I smiled. It looked like a single shining star in the middle of oblivion.
“Just let me love you…”