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The distant roar was unmistakable.
Lio remained crouched in the shadow of the stone, narrowing his eyes slightly and focusing on the approaching heat, so recognizable.
Evening light bounced off of the sand of the desert, brilliant reds and golds painting the landscape in which he was hunted tonight. A setting and feeling all-too familiar – once upon a time, unpleasantly so.
Tonight, the familiarity made his body thrum in excitement and anticipation; he was sure the equally-ecstatic heat from his Promare was giving him away, but he didn’t care.
That was part of the fun.
-
They were a sorry sight, really.
Visibly exhausted and surrounded by disorderly piles of documents and paperwork, the Mad Burnish had been at it all day, making good use of Burning Rescue’s lounge space to deal in official matters and politics. While they had started enthusiastically (okay, less than enthusiastically), the hours had dragged on. Now, even Lio looked down to his last nerve, repeatedly pausing to rub at his reddening eyes. Meis grumbled quietly to himself as he filled out a form, and Guiera struggled not to fall asleep, only perking up when Galo entered the room and examined them.
“Lio. Your boyfriend’s here.”
The leader among them only responded with a noncommittal grunt, not looking up from what he was reading at all. Guiera stretched and groaned, a few joints popping loudly and garnering the faintest sympathetic wince from the other two Burnish.
The entire display made Galo frown deeply, and he crossed his arms, looking over the mess.
“Geeze, what a trainwreck. How long have you guys been at this?”
Meis hummed, pausing his writing to dart his gaze to the clock, squinting a bit to let his eyes adjust to seeing something at a slight distance for a change.
“... A few hours?”
“All day,” Guiera corrected, reaching around to nudge his partner gently; “That says P.M., babe.”
“Ah. Really…?”
Meis groaned, leaning back to stretch a bit in turn – seemingly abruptly aware of how stiff and aching he was – and prompting Galo to huff, shaking his head.
“You guys look rough. You should take a break.”
“Well, that’s up to the Boss.”
“Besides, we’ve got a lot of work to get through…”
All eyes settled on Lio – who, apparently, was oblivious that anything was going on, scrawling something out before turning the page over. The firefighter grumbled, tapping his foot in agitation.
“The work can wait! You can’t do anything if you’re passing out. Have you guys even eaten today?”
There was a beat of silence, but the mere mention of food made one of their stomachs growl loudly, prompting both Guiera and Meis to look away awkwardly. Galo shook his head, dissatisfied.
“That settles it, then. You guys need to step away for a bit. Get some food, get some exercise, and get some sleep… Lio, are you even listening to me?”
Their eyes all settled on Lio again, who continued to be ignorant of the conversation; as Galo fumed, Guiera snorted, holding up a finger to get him to wait. There was a long silence before the redheaded burnish struck, tasing Lio in the side with his fingers and prompting a loud shout of surprise from the blonde; he straightened up abruptly, jolting into the chuckling Meis.
“ Ah! What was that for…?”
There was a bit of a tired whine to his voice, at first rubbing his side with a grumpy pout before his hands returned to his eyes again. It was kind of pathetic, really, and made Galo soften – though it didn’t lessen the faint annoyance he felt with having to repeat himself.
“It’s crazy late, and you’ve been at this all day. I’m kicking you guys out.”
“Mmh… No, I have to get this done. You guys did well,” Lio added, casting a sideways glance to his generals; “You should go rest.”
“Huh? No way – we’re a team,” Guiera huffed, crossing his arms while Meis nodded sagely.
“Either we all drop it or none of us do.”
“Then all of you need to drop it! I’m serious, this isn’t good.”
Lio continued to sulk, shaking his head and tidying a few of the piles so he could continue talking.
“Look, Galo’s right about needing a break, but a lot of these need to be done for tomorrow. I can do it solo if you guys can rest to help me out with communicating in the morning.”
There was some mumbling between the Mad Burnish at that, the duo seeming to see sense in Lio’s suggestion and gradually making to stand – though they weren’t happy about it, Lio had made his decision.
Galo, however, didn’t take it as well, and straightened abruptly, making them all freeze.
“I’ll do it!”
“... What?”
“You three all go rest, and I’ll take care of the stuff that needs to be ready tomorrow. Me and Lucia – it’ll be a breeze!”
“ Eh?! ”
From the back of the room, Lucia all but sprung over the back of her chair, glaring directly at Galo and pointing at him accusingly.
“Don’t volunteer me for stuff! Maybe I have plans!”
“You’ve been at your project all day, too, it was slow! This’ll be faster with both of us! Besides, you owe me for helping you with those tests last week!”
The scientist groaned dramatically, sliding back down in her chair, and Galo returned his attention to the Burnish trio, flashing a confident grin. Lio, encouragingly, seemed to be considering this at least, humming uncertainly.
“... You’re sure you can take it?”
“I’m positive. How hard can it be?”
Galo’s confidence did not spark the same in Lio – but he knew when he was beaten. Besides, he was feeling absolutely drained from the work, and he could imagine it was worse for Meis and Guiera, who were more accustomed to being constantly active than even he. Together, or not at all…
“Fine, then. But do not screw this up, okay? It’s important for the Burnish.”
“I won’t. Promise.”
Finally standing and stepping over and around the mess of paperwork, the Mad Burnish began to see themselves out; they paused by the exit to wait for Lio as he stopped in front of Galo, stretching up to bid him goodbye with a kiss.
It didn’t last more than a few seconds before Guiera made dramatic retching noises, making him pull back and glare his way playfully.
“Oh, like I haven’t had to put up with you and Meis necking it in front of me a few times. Grow up.”
“At least we’re hot when we do it! Gross .”
Galo snorted, pushing Lio along to join his boys; only after the door closed behind them did he turn back to the mess, faltering as Lucia slowly turned her chair to face him, arms crossed and expression unamused.
“... Thank you for the help?”
“Don’t push it. Let’s just get this over with.”
-
Sand sprayed around him under the pressure from his board, coasting down the dune with ease; at the bottom, near a cleft of debris, he sprung off and dissolved it into flame again, pressing his back against cool stone.
Just seconds later a pair of motorbikes followed his trail, growling loudly over the terrain. Lio counted down the seconds in his head, pulling in a breath –
Guiera leapt over the debris before he was ready. Startled, he was momentarily thrown off his rhythm, but recovered quickly, ducking around the other side and making a sprint the other way.
A gust of hot wind and the ghost of claws at his back told him he had just barely missed Meis’ grasp, and his breath hitched as he spun around to gauge their distance from him. Too close, far too close.
I’m out of practice…!
“You really think you can outrun a motorbike?” He could hear Guiera’s cocky grin in his voice alone; “When has that ever worked for you in the past?”
“This is our dragon? I’ve seen faster lackeys in Freeze Force,” Meis goaded.
Lio could only snort, straightening to stand his ground and igniting a small flame in the palm of his hand.
“Speed isn’t everything. Are you gonna be all bark for this entire thing? Show me your bite already!”
“You’re still such a little punk…! Alright, you asked for it!”
Revving their engines, the two of them made a straight shot for him.
Lio’s flame expanded.
-
“You’ll choke if you aren’t careful.”
“Mmfh. Sh’up.”
Guiera laughed at Lio’s embarrassment while Meis proffered a napkin his way; ducking down bashfully, the blonde accepted his offering and wiped his face. He hadn’t realized exactly how hungry he was until they’d sat down and actually smelled food; for all Guiera’s teasing, he knew he wasn’t much better. The three of them had practically destroyed their order within seconds of it being set on the table.
Part of it was the day of straight work stroking their appetites to an unholy degree, sure. But the other was just having access to good food for a change. It still felt a little surreal to be able to actually just… Sit at a restaurant and eat something freshly cooked. For the longest time their meals had been largely scraped together with whatever they could find or steal.
The three of them in particular were very familiar with going hungry; if it meant children or the sick and injured could have a full stomach, they’d sacrifice their portions in a heartbeat.
Such things, thankfully, weren’t necessary anymore. And while it still felt strange to indulge, their collective impulse control was a bit lacking in their sorry states.
(Lio made a mental note to apologize to Galo for the expensive charge on their currently-shared credit card when he paid for their meal.)
Leaving the restaurant behind, they spent some time walking the outskirts of Promepolis, the final fringes of Flametown. Lio never truly gave up on his idea for the Burnish to have their own city – but with Promepolis still in recovery, they didn’t exactly have the assets to set up a proper infrastructure. Thankfully, the Acting Governess had been gracious in helping them establish a spot to at least house their people, and it had come along quite nicely so far.
While not as polished and sparkly as the rest of the city, it had its own unique charm, and Lio actually found himself far more at ease around the cracked concrete walls and Promare-sustained street lights. Lanterns and clotheslines were strung up along streets and alleys, and gardens had been started on balconies and in plazas so they could be a little more self-sustaining.
(Some of these gardens had even contributed greatly to Promepolis’ recovering economy and stability, getting more non-Burnish politicians invested in their rehabilitation, which Lio had thanked the stars for. They needed all the help they could get, at this point.)
At last, they stood at the very fringe of the city, staring out at the desert beyond. A desert that, once upon a time, was their only chance at refuge – when Freeze Force wasn’t chasing them, of course. Though, the idea of a chase made the leader hum thoughtfully, an impulsive little idea springing to mind.
“... Wanna do one? For old times sake?”
“Huh? A hunt?”
“You’re sure…?”
The suggestion, coming from Lio himself, surprised both generals – but they also sparked with delight at the fond memory.
When they’d been on the run, the hunt was their form of stress relief and training. It gave them a good chance to practice evasiveness and close combat, tools they sorely needed to protect the rest of the Burnish back then. Of course, such skills were borderline useless now, but something about it was still fun for them.
And with how tense the three of them had been all day, they sorely needed the outlet.
Lio nodded with a smile, eyes glittering with challenge as he canted his head mischievously.
“I’m sure. It’s been awhile. Unless you’re too chicken…?”
Guiera huffed, crossing his arms – but the grin he bore implied that he accepted the challenge, tilting his head a bit in return.
“Talking big, as always. We’ll see how smug you are when we have you on the ground.”
Lio laughed in reply, stepping forward and conjuring Detroit with his flames; as he boarded the bike, Meis stepped closer.
“How much of a head start? Five minutes?”
“ Five? Oh, you insult me, general.”
The blonde’s own grin broadened into something a little more feral and cocky, his eyes glinting in the setting sunlight.
“I only need one. ”
-
Lio’s flame solidified into a dulled pole, digging into the sand as Guiera swept up; Lio threw himself abruptly up, effectively both dodging Meis and clotheslining Guiera with his legs. Though grunting with surprise, Guiera made a grab at the leader’s leg, prompting him to grit his teeth and focus up a little more.
The redhead’s bike dissolved after driving without him for a few meters, and Meis halted where it disappeared, turning his own to watch the scene play out in front of him.
Guiera wound up on the ground next to Lio’s stake with a grunt, very briefly winded, and Lio took that opportunity to pin him with his comparatively meager weight, shortening the length of his pole and turning it horizontal to press between him and Guiera. The redhead caught it, and though Lio manipulated his Promare to try and extend it to keep his wrists in place, Guiera’s fought back to keep dissolving it.
They hardly noticed the pinks, greens and blues flaring up around them in the wrestling match, too focused on outplaying the other.
“What, is that all you’ve got?”
“Grr… If you’re disappointed, why not let me up so I ca aAH – hey! Chehee – cheater! ”
Though muffled by his helmet, Guiera couldn’t help the laughter, his strength faltering a bit against the pole as Lio shifted his weight. Supporting his tool with one arm, the other was free to dip down and dig into his current rival’s belly without mercy. All the while, Lio merely tilted his head innocently, blinking a few times.
“ Cheater? I’m sorry, I thought the hunt was anything goes…? Or has it been so long that I’ve forgotten? Oh, well.”
With Guiera subdued aside from a few wayward kicks that collided with his back, Lio noted Meis’ inaction, and chanced a quick look up to figure out where his secondary threat was. He quickly noted, with amusement, that the long-haired general was simply standing by, wanting to watch the scene for a moment.
Or, perhaps, just wanting to hear his lover laugh. Lio couldn’t fault him for that; he did the same thing whenever it had been the two of them fooling around without him – or, more recently, whenever Burning Rescue members sprang on Galo back at the station. He could, and would, gladly indulge him – in the name of revenge, of course.
Grinning wickedly, he leaned down again, amused by the stifled noises of his hunter as he made his clawing more erratic, climbing up the redhead’s ribs.
“Come now, general. No need to be ashamed of defeat – don’t hold yourself back on my account. I know it would feel so much better to just surrender… ”
The teasing, purposely spoken in a low, silky voice, seemed to do it. Guiera gave up on holding back after that, boisterous, warm, and completely in-character cackles bursting out of him. His helmet dissolved with the lost control, and Lio practically purred, chuckling to himself.
“ Therrrre it is.”
“ Mhhmm – MEIS! Fuhucking - gahah , help mehe already!”
“R – right! Sorry!”
Oh, so he was flustered, too! That was kind of adorable, actually.
While Lio had readied for an incoming attack, he did not anticipate that Meis wouldn’t ride over in person. Instead, he’d shot a flame his way, with enough force behind it to completely knock him off of Guiera with a shout of surprise and send him tumbling across the sand a few feet. By the time he'd gathered his bearings and made to stand, Guiera was upon him again, having shattered the pole himself to free his arms.
“Now you’re gonna get it, you little shit!”
Lio grunted from the tackle, very suddenly reminded that without the power of physics on his side, he was much smaller and much lighter than Guiera, and had very little chance of throwing him off. That didn’t stop him from trying, baring his teeth in what amounted to a play-growl as they resumed their wrestling match.
When Meis finally caught up to them, shattering his helmet and hurrying up on foot to join, is when Lio opted to make an escape attempt. One of them, he could rival, but both? With their equal strength and overwhelming number, he didn’t stand a chance. Rolling onto his stomach, he tried to crawl away along the sand, only to be yanked back with a startled squeal when Guiera caught him roughly by the sides and pulled him back in.
“Oh, now you see how much you’ve bitten off, huh? Tough shit, too late to run now!”
“ Fuhuck you! ”
“Yeah? You’ll be changing that tune real quick,” Guiera snorted, laying his upper body across Lio's lower back to keep him pinned and pinching at the soft flesh of his midriff. Meis practically threw himself over the leader with his back to Guiera, using an arm and a leg to pin both of Lio’s legs and go after his thighs.
Between the two of them, Lio Fotia was absolutely done for. Guiera and Meis knew him better than anyone, and this song and dance had been done so many times that they didn’t bother burying the lead at all with vengeance.
Normally he would hold back his noises as long as possible; in part to preserve his dignity, especially if they were near other people. In part to goad on his attacker, to dare them to try harder, if he was in the mood for it. Today, though, in the middle of the desert, on the losing end of their little game, Lio shed the pretenses and simply howled . Any residual stress that had clung to him fell off with every laugh, replaced by a warm, childlike delight that he didn’t want to let go of.
“That’s what I thought. Can’t take what you dish out, huh?”
The competitiveness faded from Guiera’s grin, replaced with something more fond (yet no less evil) as he shifted himself a little bit. His hands didn’t stop for a second, trying to wiggle their way underneath Lio to get at his belly and prompting the blonde to reach an arm out, weakly pushing at him in a half-hearted display of defiance. Behind him, Meis snorted, jostled by a particularly strong kick from the leader underneath them when he curled his digits into the space under his knee.
“Don’t act surprised. He’s never been able to. He might be the toughest of us, but he’s also the most sensitive…”
Lio whined through his laughter, using his free arm to keep his face out of the sand – though he did turn his head to hide it in his shoulder, more than a little flustered from their remarks. The detail didn’t slip by Guiera at all, who smirked and leaned forward a bit, lowering his hands to the bit of waist just above the hips and making Lio thrash a little more violently.
“Hey, don’t be shy! How did you say it…? No need to be ashamed. Though, I guess it is a little silly… Could you imagine how goofy they would find it back home, if they found out how stupidly ticklish the leader of the Mad Burnish is? You wouldn’t have a moment of peace, I think.”
“Least of all from your blue-haired loverboy.”
“ Ahaa – shh – shut uhuhup !”
Of course, he knew they’d never let the word get out – there was too much respect there between them to let such a thing slip. Galo had just found out by virtue of being his dumb self, although Lio hardly had a genuine complaint, and he’d been sworn to the same secrecy. But the thought was still a little overwhelming, setting off wild butterflies in his stomach that didn’t help at all against Guiera’s minstriations from the outside.
Between the mounting sensation and the internal fluster-bugs, Lio found himself unable to hold back, and withdrew the arm that had made an attempt to stop them, using it to instead tap the ground a few times, speechless otherwise. Guiera caught it instantly, stopping his attack in favour of nudging Meis do the same, and before long his generals had removed themselves from him completely, leaving him to let out residual giggles in recovery.
Guiera reached to roll him over at least a little bit to get his face out of the sand, and Meis scooted up a bit to brush his hair away for him as well, a tenderness in their actions that brought Lio to serenity sooner than he might have otherwise. He shut his eyes as he calmed, holding the euphoria in his chest.
Of course, Guiera ruined it.
“You’re rusty.”
The simple comment made Lio snort, opening an eye to glare at him without any heat.
“Yeah? You aren’t much better. Since when do you let yourself get thrown off your bike?”
“Hey, I wanted to give you a fair shot! I felt bad for you.”
“Hmph. Doesn’t help that Meis froze on the field, I bet.”
“Oh, yeah. That reminds me – c’mere!”
Guiera whipped around, yanking Meis in front of him and making the dark-haired general yelp with surprise – only for it to be traded out with shocked, bright giggles of his own as he struggled to get away.
“ Ahaha – n- noho , fucker – !”
“This is for leaving me to suffer earlier! We all know it’s because you were jealous and wanted a turn, anyway!”
Lio laughed softly at their roughhousing, content to close his eyes and leave it at that – at least, until they both fell on top of him, forcing him to get involved again.
—
The moon was well into the sky when they got back to the city, all half-asleep and drunk on joy marching into Burning Rescue HQ. Lio was first to enter, and he woke up rapidly when he saw the scene left for them to find.
On the table where he left him was Galo… Completely asleep, and drooling on most of the documents that had been half-filled at best.
Behind him, Guiera and Meis entered, their chatter dying as they took in the same sight. Guiera jumped straight to anger once he registered it fully, balling his hand into a fist.
“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me! This is gonna set us back so far!”
As much as he loved Galo, Lio couldn’t help but agree, clenching his jaw and massaging his temples against a budding headache as his tension mounted drastically. When he was done ripping into Thymos, he’d have to go through so much bureaucratic bullshit…
“... I’ll call town hall first thing in the morning, let them know there’ll be a delay on the papers –”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
Lucia’s voice made them all jump, and they looked up to see her turn in her chair again. While she looked haggard, with Vinny completely conked out on her head, she held up a fat stack of documents, all completely filled out.
“He passed out, like, an hour into this whole thing. When I saw the ruined garbage, I went ahead and printed new copies. Don’t ask me how I got the PDFs,” She tacked on, crossing the room to hand the papers to Lio properly; “It’d get Burning Rescue into some pre-tty hot water.”
The blonde accepted her offering with wide eyes, flipping through the papers; sure enough, every single one had been filled out with the correct information, and he looked back up after a moment, willing himself not to tear up with relief.
“Lucia…”
“Don’t thank me yet.”
She crossed her arms, brow furrowing.
“I agreed to help because I owed Galo one, but this is worth, like, an easy ten. You guys owe me a big fuckin’ favor, you get that? And I don’t mean like a run-to-the-store-and-get-me-an-energy-drink kind of favor, I mean a take-this-tech-to-the-desert-and-see-if-it-blows-up kind of favor.”
The Mad Burnish blinked in tandem, and Guiera opened his mouth to argue – but Lucia shot him a glare that could wither a flower, and he swallowed whatever words he’d had for her, settling for a little nod that the other two followed in giving her.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. Now if you exhaust yourselves to the point where I need to pull this off again, I will actually kill you and make it look like an accident, so don’t be dumb, alright? Good-fucking-night.”
Without waiting for further response, she shoved past them, leaving them still standing and staring at the sleeping Galo. While being in massive debt to Lucia was arguably one of the scariest things they’d ever considered, at least their documents were in order, and the Burnish wouldn’t suffer for their incompetence.
In any case, it was a lesson well learned.
… Until it happened again two weeks later.