Strong Enough To Break

by evr

Summary:

Day-by-day, finding a place in the world.
Day-by-day, falling in love, learning the jealousy and frustrations that come with it.

Notes:

I blame Taki and Meren for this most of all. "Hey how about experienced Galo with virgin Lio" yeah okay I'm on it.

Anyway, expect weekly updates for a while.

Chapter 1: Day 1

For the first time in his life, Galo started a fire. Nothing like what he'd expected.

Leading up to it, there had been a series of awful events: almost dying, almost losing, seeing someone newly important to him start to physically crumble to nothing. Hearing someone who'd been important to him for years speak with such cruelty. It was almost as though it was a contender for worst day of his life, but he wasn't that negative of a person - the day his parents died and the week Kray had locked him up were pretty awful, but he'd look back on this day as the day he started a fire and saved the world from the brink of destruction (and from Kray's monstrous ego). It was the day he joined with Lio and piloted the coolest robot ever, and the day that they would start to build their new world.

And he could've sworn it was the day his heart skipped a beat when Lio smiled and called him an idiot. That was a curious reaction.

(But it would be planted in his memory forever, the way Lio's eyes lit up like burning in the sunrise.)

He couldn't stand to go home and sleep after such an ordeal, adrenaline still firing him up as intensely as it had been when he fought Kray's mech - and the dread of going home to an empty apartment, if it was still standing, was haunting him.

So he and Lio worked side-by-side, yanking open doors to the pods and freeing burnish for hours. The ones that could still stand usually stayed to help them, and Galo found that socializing with them about little, unimportant things was a great distraction. He especially liked asking them about their 'boss'. The stories were amazing, and Lio was a hero, even if every time Galo glanced at him when he heard something else incredible about him he was bright red and scowling.

The hours wore on, and the burnish in the pods were less and less likely to be responsive, having gone so long without food or water, bound in a single position for so long that their limbs ached (if they were even still attached, he noted; some had indeed been burned away by the Parnassus). And over time, both his and Lio's mood soured significantly, but they kept working.

Galo couldn't go home yet. Even when Ignis relayed a message from rescue workers in other parts of the city that his block was relatively untouched, he didn't want to be there, alone in the quiet.

He'd rather have Lio's quiet, driven company, and keep saving as many people as possible until his arms felt like jelly.

See, nights were difficult.

He didn't want to think about it, but in the silence he had fleeting moments of sinking, of worry that he'd be trapped in his small apartment later, alone.

He didn't spend nights alone, if he could help it. Often, he did have a solution.

One of the first things Galo learned about being a firefighter was that firefighting stories got you laid. No, that was never an aim of his, but it wasn't as though he'd never accepted rewards for his heroics either. He'd wanted to be a hero, just like his hero, and if people were impressed enough to invite him to bed, well, he must be doing something right. That was the logic of his tired brain, of his empty bed.

The trouble was, it didn't feel so heroic in the morning, when his partner would wake up hurriedly and rush out the door with a "it's been fun, let's do this again." None of them were eager to stick around, have breakfast, talk about future plans - and that was fine! Galo didn't need to date anyone, though he liked having a companion. So long as there was some pillow talk, he was pleased enough.

And on the nights his bed felt too empty, darkness closed in from all corners as his eyes fell shut, nightmares plagued him and woke him at odd hours, making him miserably tired the following day. So… Even if it wasn't ideal, he wanted to have a partner with him at night.

Someday he'd have a partner in the daylight as well, but he wasn't in much of a hurry.

His routine was normal, he thought. Go to work, go out with friends, socialize at a sports bar maybe. By the end of the night there would be a woman leaning on his arm, breasts strategically pressed against his skin, and an unabashed invitation on her lips. Even if there was nothing special about her in his eyes, if she seemed nice enough, or praised him and got his attention, he'd offer to show her home. They were never conquests to him, he asked to be friends more often than not. A few would keep coming around if he kept asking. He liked them, even if he wasn't romantically interested.

Occasionally, men would approach him too, and Galo thought he might prefer that. But anything was better than an empty bed.

Nights were about to get worse. When he'd slept on the floor of that empty cell he'd had nothing but unpleasant dreams, all feeling too deeply personal to talk out with anyone (at least most of the time, it was just the fire that killed his family; well-publicized information anyone would know about, things an empathetic person who wanted to get into his pants would coo over. "Oh, you poor thing," they'd say, a hand on his shoulder and another hand squeezing his thigh invitingly). His face hurt every morning as though Kray had punched him all over again, but really it was from sleeping on a hard metal floor.

After this whole ordeal, he began to wonder as he thought about the grand, colorful dragon's tears streaming by, if Lio Fotia was perhaps a kindred spirit, someone else just as haunted. If not before, he probably was now; he couldn't possibly fathom the pain the man had felt bound in that engine, being suddenly ripped apart and burned to dried, flakey pieces. It would contribute to Galo's nightmares from just a secondhand perspective. He knew that, and he worried for Lio's mental health.

Night crept up on them, and neither stopped working until Aina showed up and shoved a pill bottle into Galo's hands.

"It's a sleep aid," She told him, frowning. "Give some to Lio, too. You two look like shit."

He heard Lio make a disapproving sound behind him.

"I think we're okay for now," Galo tried to smile at her and hand it back, and she pinched his nose and tugged his face down to her level.

"Look here, Rookie. You and your new little friend have been working non-stop for twenty-nine hours, not counting the whole robot fight. Not okay. Get some sleep and then come back."

"But--"

"No buts!" She demanded, shoving his face away again.

There was so much more to do; they'd freed most of the burnish, but the crash meant that some pods were inaccessible without moving debris out of the way, and the people inside were probably starving and tired too. He had no excuse to stop if he really wanted to help. When he tried to argue again, she glared.

"Lucia's got a new suit to help move the crap out of the way, okay? As soon as it gets here, we'll have all the rest of the burnish out within the hour. I swear it."

"Well," Lio hadn't stopped working, and was trying to lift half of a heavy girder from in front of one of the pods, "Within the hour of it arriving, I guess I'll find time to rest."

Aina shot Galo an unimpressed look. "He's worse than you are."

Galo shrugged and moved to help him so he didn't hurt himself. Something he'd noticed throughout the day was that Lio's strength was more than halved without his fire, and he kept overestimating his own ability because of it.

Aina, who was a good person, also helped them move it. It fell to the floor with an extremely loud thud once it was far enough to open the door to the pod, and Lio jumped over it to rip at the handle as soon as he could. He'd been going at it all day with exactly that level of urgency.

The burnish inside (well, ex-burnish now, Galo supposed) fell into Lio's arms, completely unconscious and disfigured. One arm was missing at the elbow, and both of their feet were gone. Lio cringed and held them tightly, as though it could give the unconscious person comfort.

"I've got this one," Aina said gently, lifting them into her arms and frowning down at Lio. "Seriously. We can keep up your work, but you need at least some rest or you'll be worse than useless to these people."

"You're not in charge of me," Lio snipped at her without any venom, and Galo almost felt like laughing because of how tired he was. That was the bite of a man who knew he'd lose, but wanted to fight anyway.

He tried to pat Lio's shoulder reassuringly, but the second he made contact he flinched. "Lio? You're shivering… Shit, you're so cold, why didn't you say something?"

Aina adjusted her grip on the unconscious burnish and leaned to see what Galo was feeling, but Lio shied away from her. "...Hey, Galo, I don't think we have any extra blankets at the station. Do you have any at your place?" She paused, "Come to think of it, do you still have a place?"

"Yeah, my block seems to be standing fine," Galo said, tugging Lio a little closer. "Come stay with me tonight. Might not be your size, but I'll load you up with some winter clothing."

Lio hissed and wrenched free, scowling, "I'm needed here."

"Galo," Aina gave him a look of concern that was easy to read.

"On it," He answered, lifting Lio over his shoulder and tucking those sleeping pills into his pocket. Lio tried to hit him repeatedly and snarled.

"Put me down, Galo Thymos, or I swear, I--"

"Five hours, then you can come back. I'll be right there with you." Galo promised, and Lio seemed to relent. After Aina had walked ahead of them with the sleeping burnish, Lio calmed.

"...How much do you trust them?" Lio demanded pointedly. "After what happened with Kray, how much can you still trust them?"

Galo paused and set Lio down, watching him shiver. "With my life! We're a team!" He declared, fist to his heart with conviction.

Lio stared for a few extra seconds and then looked away. "...Fine. I'll trust them. But if they show the burnish any disrespect, I--"

"You're the only one we're disrespecting," Galo assured him, earning another scowl. "C'mon. Don't let them see their leader looking like this. You need a bath and a nap."

He combed fingers through Lio's hair to flatten it down where it had gotten messy, and Lio eyed him suspiciously through the action.

"You seriously feel freezing," Galo frowned. "Has it been like that since…"

"Since the promare left," Lio confirmed.

"You could've asked for clothes." Seriously, he'd been half-naked this whole time, someone could've given him a jacket or something if he'd just asked. Galo took a deep breath and picked Lio back up, ignoring the immediate struggle. "Here, my burning soul can warm you up on the way home," He teased, enjoying the way Lio turned bright red in the face.

"You-- You're an idiot!" He sputtered.

"Yep! But a warm one," Galo agreed, and kept carrying him. "With a working hot water heater, a cozy bed, and loads of blankets."

Lio was unwilling to outwardly relax, but he put up less of a fight as Galo got him home. His expression looked defeated as he silently scrutinized the apartment.

Galo would be the first to admit he didn't live some extravagant lifestyle; his apartment was a studio, there were just a couple of partitions set up in the room to divide it up. His kitchen was kept clean enough, but there wasn't enough storage for all the pots, pans and utensils he used, so they sat out on the countertop. His fridge was wide and had a lot of magnets with newspaper clippings all over it, which he made a mental note to dispose of.

He had a couch set in front of his TV with a few tray tables, but no dining set. Not necessary, since he usually ate alone. There was a bookcase that carried a few books on one of the shelves, but was otherwise dedicated to photo frames (that he also needed to dispose of) and a few various items that he had no other place for.

There was a low table he kept toward the center of the apartment, a special kind from Japan that he'd actually never used properly, but he still liked it.

His bed hadn't been made before he'd left to confront Kray. It had been a sleepless night, the city restless outside of his window and keeping him awake with the sounds of distant traffic until he'd left.

There wasn't enough time for dust to gather in a significant layer, but it had been over a week since anyone was in the apartment. Lio was out-of-place and quiet, walking through the space warily.

"So this is where you live…"

"Yep, home sweet home. Hope you don't mind staying tonight."

Lio glanced up at him, then continued surveying the space.

"You can take a bath or shower first if you want."

"...No. You first," Lio commanded, distrust in his tone. Well, he was out of his element, so Galo would let it slide.

"Okay. Want anything to eat?...I'm not sure anything in the fridge is good still, but there's plenty of stuff in the cabinets."

"...I'll look."

Lio really didn't seem happy. "Okay, but no running away, okay? It's just one night. Promise."

"Fine," He spat, wandering to the kitchen and starting to rifle through the random assortment of easy-to-make boxed foods.

Galo was pretty sure Lio could manage to make something like that without much supervision, so he started going through his drawers to find clothes to change into, and something Lio might be able to wear. He settled on a sweater and sweatpants with a drawstring for Lio, hoping it'd keep him warm, and he picked pajama pants for himself. No need for a shirt, he never wore one to sleep in.

He rarely wore clothes in bed, actually. Maybe underwear at most.

He rushed his shower and dried off, setting out the clothes and a spare towel for Lio before going to check on him. He'd found something canned and was eating it right out of the can with a fork, but Galo didn't have the heart to lecture him about it. He knew Lio had a rough life. A table manners lecture could come after he was better adjusted.

"Okay, your turn."

Lio looked up at him with a glare, and Galo saw that the articles from the fridge were scattered across the counter in front of him.

"...I'll throw those away."

"You should."

They lapsed into silence while Lio finished eating and reading the clippings, the sour look still on his face. Galo wasn't sure why he was tormenting himself, but… Well, Lio was a little strange. He finished and wordlessly wandered to the bathroom, and Galo heard a click as the door was locked behind him.

He sat the bottle of pills on the counter and swept the articles into his fist, crumpling them up and dropping them in the garbage. He hadn't decided if he needed a sleep aid, but he'd keep it around. Lio might, for one. And if Lio didn't like the idea of sharing space with him to stay warm, maybe Galo would need it too.

Would Lio be open to that though? He was so annoyed the whole time, it was hard to imagine him settling peacefully into bed. They'd gotten along so well before that, setting the world on fire, saving the burnish, saving each other… Galo might've dared to call it chemistry.

That's what it was, right? Something like that, or destiny, or whatever else it might've been. He was glad to have met Lio, no matter the circumstances, and he definitely wanted to keep him around.

But in his bed… It couldn't hurt to try. He'd had partners he knew way less about before, and Lio was definitely attractive enough to get him fired up. If Lio was into it, anyway; he couldn't push anything, but regardless, he would make an invitation to keep Lio warm that night. However it'd be interpreted, he'd live with. He'd already kissed him, sorta. It wasn't coming out of nowhere.

There was leftover adrenaline in his system, and he thought Lio might be the same.

When the bathroom door opened, Galo was greeted with an adorable sight of Lio in clothes way too big for him. He didn't comment on it, but he smiled. "How was it?"

Lio was still shivering, and Galo's smile faltered.

"You okay? Did you dry off well enough?"

"I don't know," He said, lips trembling and looking almost blue. "I'm used to fire, I don't know that any of this is right."

Galo put an arm around him, tugging him to the couch to sit down. "So losing your fire-buddies put you into shock, maybe?"

"I don't know," Lio seethed, not thrilled at being pulled around but not fighting it either.

"Hey," Galo said, combing back Lio's slightly-damp bangs to get him to make eye contact. It was possibly too affectionate, but Lio didn't push him off or anything.

No, Lio kept staring, ever wary.

"We should share tonight. I'll keep you warm," he said, knowing full well how that could be taken, but not putting any suggestive tone behind it because it didn't have to be taken that way.

Lio's eyes narrowed in disgust. "Is this what you invited me here for? Is this taking responsibility? You're a sick man, Galo Thymos."

"No! I mean it, I just want to keep you warm while you sleep!" He backpedaled right away, knowing it was the most cowardly thing he'd done all day but hoping to smooth things over. He did genuinely care that Lio was freezing cold, and he wanted to help out. Sex would've been fun, but it was definitely not his real goal.

Lio said nothing, frowning.

"I won't touch you any way you wouldn't want me to," Galo declared, sincerely. "But I'm a pretty comfortable space-heater, okay?"

With a long sigh, Lio relented. "Fine. Only because I'm desperate."

"Want the sleeping meds Aina gave me?"

"I don't trust her that well."

"Gotcha," Galo eyed the bottle on the counter and knew he'd probably need it. "Well… Get cozy, I'll grab the winter blankets for you."

It may have been a little awkward, but it worked. There was a mountain of heavy blankets and Galo thought he might end up melting, but it was fine as long as Lio was comfortable. The bed was large, and Lio fit well under his chin, cuddled close that night. At some point, he stopped shivering, and Galo could allow himself to sleep.

The warming body against him fought off the creeping darkness of his nightmares, simply by being there. He wanted to stay Lio's space-heater if only to keep Lio in his bed, even if all they ever did was sleep.

It had been many years since Lio had slept in a proper bed, and never with another person, but he didn't find it unpleasant. Galo's body was firm, and he'd thought that wouldn't be so comfortable, but it was. A steady, warm presence through the night.

Though he was comfortable, he'd been shaken by that invitation; not because Galo was unattractive, nor because he actually hated the idea, but because he'd avoided the experience for so long that it shocked him. He didn't care so much, but he wasn't going to start with a stranger, either.

And yet, a part of him couldn't keep calling Galo a stranger. They'd united as one, saved the planet, and somehow he felt as though he really knew the man. Sickeningly earnest, sweet. The invitation was at odds with what he knew, in his opinion. Maybe he was a little too closed-minded. Or maybe he kept remembering that moment he'd asked Galo if he'd saved him. Galo exploded into a nervous fit and tried to punch him over embarrassment about a kiss.

When he closed his eyes and thought enough about it, he could remember Galo rescuing him, what his lips felt like, and Lio hated that after all the years he'd closed himself off from people, from ever being touched by anyone, he found himself wanting to kiss the idiot again now. Just to see if it still felt incredible without the fire. It couldn't though. He couldn't. He had so much to accomplish still, so many people to protect, he couldn't give in to such dumb impulses.

Galo would hinder him, he knew that, and yet when morning came he didn't move until Galo did. He was warm and staying there was better than exposing himself to cold air, so he waited.

Finally Galo stirred, and Lio sat up, pulling a blanket around his shoulders and the rest fell behind him. For whatever reason, they'd been facing each other. Too weird, he wouldn't be doing that again. But it wasn't so bad.

"Can we go back now?" He asked sharply, waiting for Galo's response.

Galo rubbed his eyes and sat up, and Lio noticed the worn elastic waistband had fallen lower on his hips overnight. He didn't know why it had drawn his attention, but it had. "Uh. First, good morning. How'd you sleep?"

"I slept," Lio answered. There wasn't much more to it. He wasn't going to say anything Galo could misunderstand.

"Warm enough for you?"

"Yes."

"Want breakfast? I think I have pancake mix."

"...Yes," Lio admitted. "But then we go back?"

Galo leaned close to him, and for a moment Lio panicked, but he was just reaching past him for the bedside table, where his phone sat charging up. "Here," He said, unlocking it with the screen tilted just so, making sure Lio could see the pattern. "Looks like Aina's been sending updates. Get yourself caught up and we can leave after breakfast."

After handing off his phone, he climbed out of bed and walked toward the kitchen area. Lio watched him for a few moments, then turned his attention to the messages.

"You might want to ask her if she has clothes that might fit you better," Galo called back to him while setting up a pan on the stove.

Lio frowned at that, but he had a point. He was practically swimming in Galo's clothes, if not drowning in them. He'd deal with that later, he decided as he fought down a shiver and scrolled through Aina's updates.

The pods were all cleared. She gave a full detail of the body count, the number of burnish that had been transported to the nearest functioning hospital for their sudden deformities, and the blessed number of able-bodied survivors, which lined Lio's eyes with relieved tears he wiped away quickly. There were fewer deaths than he'd thought. He remembered his own pain, and he'd thought that all of them had felt some level of the same thing, but perhaps it wasn't quite as much after all.

And then he shed a tear for those who'd died anyway, swiping the sweater sleeve over the phone screen to get rid of it. He was feeling a lot of things, just seeing the numbers. The burnish weren't numbers to him, he had to apply names and faces to each of the deceased and he had to properly mourn them.

The messages continued, telling of non-burnish injured that he admittedly cared just a bit less about, but he was still relieved to see the numbers so much lower than he'd expected.

Continuing on, she'd also listed essential facilities that were no longer standing. Not surprising, considering how many of them Kray was taking aboard the Parnassus. Surprisingly, she also said their firehouse was half-collapsed, and even more surprising, Lio felt a pang of guilt, wondering if he'd done that or if the crash had. He'd caused a lot of damage before Kray did.

To that end, he wasn't sure why he'd been so surprised when Galo had demanded his help while they stood over the wreckage. Of course he was going to help, provided he wasn't chased out of town. Maybe it was just the way he'd said it that had caught him off-guard. Presumptuous.

Before calling Aina to address that clothing issue, Lio had to do something about Galo's home screen; he snapped a quick picture of his hand with his middle finger up and changed the wallpaper. Better than leaving Kray's face on there.

And then he hit the call button.

"Galo, how'd you sleep? Is Lio still with you?"

"This is Lio."

"...Oh! Galo's still alive, right?" He didn't think she was serious, but if she was then she was more callous than he was. Unlikely.

"He's making pancakes."

"And did you sleep okay? A lot of burnish are in a state of shock, and their body temperature is too low, is that the case for you?"

"...I'm fine," he lied. His nose felt cold more than anything, because he couldn't cover his face with blankets while talking on the phone. "Galo told me to ask you about clothing that might fit me better."

She took a moment, and then said "Huh." Her voice was thoughtful. "I guess I have a few things that might work for a guy, but they won't look that flattering on you," she warned. "But they'll do for the time being. I'll run home and grab them, and meet you guys at station two, okay?"

He agreed and hung up.

From what he knew of Galo, the news about the station might upset him, so he approached carefully (still bundled in a blanket).

"Almost done," Galo said, grinning.

"She said we have to meet at station two," He said, and Galo's smile faded slightly, just for a moment. It was odd, the way Lio's heart sank seeing it, but Galo recovered quickly and shook his head. It was… interesting, seeing Galo, an idiot, read between the lines so quickly. He was perceptive, no matter how dumb he could act.

"Everyone at station two seems pretty nice, from the couple times I met them. I'm sure it won't be bad."

"Even though your firehouse is unusable, you're okay with that?"

"We'll rebuild it," he answered simply, handing Lio a plate with a stack of way more pancakes than he thought he'd be able to eat.

But he surprised himself, and then Galo took him to station two, where Galo's captain and vice-captain were talking to the station two leader, a tall woman with broad shoulders that were slightly more decorated than most in her field. She didn't look too happy, but waved and offered a tired smile when they pulled up on Galo's bike.

"There are your heroes, Ignis. I'd better get back to work," she regarded them again with a nod as she walked past them to head to her office.

Galo had his arm around Lio as they approached, meaning to keep him warm but having the additional effect of making Galo's coworker look at them weird.

"Lio, this is Ignis and this is Remi. They're nice, I promise," Galo gestured at each of them and beamed at him. "You guys remember Lio, right?"

"...Yes, Galo, we're not stupid," Remi said, running a hand through his hair. "Everything is a mess right now. We've got a power vacuum on our hands, so we're working without pay until we can get a new governing body in place."

Lio listened with interest, but only so much. He wasn't looking to fill that void, no, but he was very concerned with who might.

"Don't worry too much, Fotia." Ignis had noticed. "We're trying to get Vanessa in the seat. She's a decent type." From a slight gesture, he figured out that 'Vanessa' was that more-decorated-than-captain person, and from his words Lio could conclude that Ignis knew what his immediate concerns would be. It was only ever about protecting the burnish for him, so maybe he was a little predictable.

"Working without pay is pretty rough." In spite of the words he'd used, Galo didn't sound all that upset about it. "Hope the landlord's gonna be cool about it."

"We'll see what we can do," Ignis agreed, folding his arms. From there, he started talking seriously about what their duties would be - Lio thought he might be able to just ignore it, but he listened anyway. Ignis wasn't his boss, but it was important to know where the pieces were positioned. Galo's Burning Rescue unit was going to be leading the crash site cleanup, along with the second unit they'd currently be sharing headquarters with. The entirety of Freeze Force was detained alongside Kray Foresight, which was a blessing. Ignis also detailed where other units were going to be, and what they'd be doing there, but Lio's attention wavered.

"...Should I have turned myself in?" He interrupted, knowing full well that it was rude, but he was going to be haunted by the question. He'd caused destruction to the city as well, after all, whether in retaliation or not.

Ignis looked at him - or at least, it seemed so, behind the sunglasses - and shook his head. "As long as you're not useless out here, no one's interested in putting you away."

"I see," Lio said, looking aside.

"You can work with us if you need guidance," Ignis told him, "But I'm going to assume you have your own priorities, and that's fine, as long as you're not hindering anyone else's work."

Lio nodded. The burnish were always his priority, with or without their flames, and it was a good thing that people knew it. He wasn't going to fight for just anyone, he wasn't as pure-hearted as Galo. He'd seen too much.

It was about that time that Aina pulled up with a shopping bag strung over her arm, and Lio frowned when he remembered the kind of clothing she actually wore. He wouldn't enjoy this, but sometimes function was just that much more important than form, and he couldn't walk around wreckage in something baggy.

He wished he could conjure flames. His armor would serve him well here; he hated feeling small and ineffectual.

"Special delivery!" Aina cheered, holding out the bag for him. "I went through everything I had, and I think these are the safest bets for you."

He took the bag and reluctantly muttered "thanks."

"Galo, I'm kidnapping him for a bit," She said, nudging Lio's shoulder so he'd follow her guidance to a room in the back.

"Have fun!" Galo called after him. As if any part of this was fun.

The back room was apparently storage, but he found a few things brought over with unit three hanging off the shelving unit in the middle; some jackets and fragments of the weird mech suits they used, spare parts, weapons. A young woman was sitting cross-legged on the floor, grinning over a piece of equipment with a fired-up welding torch, which she cut off to raise her protective visor and wave at them. She had a rat on her shoulder that waved too. Lio gave them an odd look.

"Hey Lucia. Lio's going to be changing, so do you mind scooching over that way?" Aina gestured to the other side of the shelves.

"Sure thing," She agreed, showing teeth. Lio's instincts told him to be terrified of this woman.

But Aina, fearless, pulled a set of clothing out of the bag. Thankfully, it was black and not bright orange, but it was clearly cut for a woman, not a man. "I've never worn this shirt, so it shouldn't be stretched out anywhere," she told him. "And the leggings were too tight on me in places that I'm pretty sure will make them an easier fit for you. There's also a pair of jeans and a belt if these don't work."

After that, she moved around the shelves to give him privacy and apparently went to help Lucia with something.

The shirt had a logo on it he didn't recognize, and three quarter sleeves. It fit okay, though it seemed a touch too long. The leggings were snug, so maybe the longer shirt was a good thing. In the bag, along with the jeans, was a jacket (not leather), and a pair of gloves (leather). He'd done his best to hide how cold he'd been, and yet he found himself grateful, slipping the gloves over his hands and putting the jacket around his shoulders to make sure of the fit.

"Everything okay?" Aina asked from the other section of the room. He stepped out and she grimaced, which made him scowl. "How do you look better in my clothes than I do?" She complained, catching him off-guard.

Lucia snorted. "It's true! Man, attractive people are just the worst."

"Are you saying I'm una--"

"Thank you, Aina," Lio cut her off, knowing that they were just going to get caught up in friendly banter. That seemed to be the way Burning Rescue Three got along.

She was startled, "Oh, yeah. You're welcome," she said, and smiled at him. "After we've gotten things cleaned up more, I'll help you find more clothes if you need. Now that you're not a burnish anymore, I guess you'll have to sweat and smell like the rest of us, so you'll need to have more than one set."

"...You're right about that, but," Lio pointed out coldly, "I will always be burnish."

He adjusted the sleeves of the jacket and turned to leave.

"That was so cool." He heard Lucia say.

It was the truth. He didn't need the flames to prove it anymore.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2: Day 2

 

Everyone in the city had become part-time construction workers and part-time looters all at once. It was complicated. Half the city was in ruins, and if there was something intact among the rubble, people were encouraged to take it if only so that it wouldn't be a resource wasted. It wasn't taken selfishly, it was more often than not contributed to a sort of community stockpile, cleaned up and kept in the tents placed near construction and demolition sites. That meant they could feed and clothe the people who'd lost their homes, and the burnish who'd lost everything long ago.

It had been Galo's idea, after seeing Lio in those slender leggings Aina gave him. Everyone deserved a fresh set of clothes, and Lio needed layers or something.

He hadn't missed that Lio was often shivering the worst among all of the burnish. Maybe it had something to do with how powerful he'd been before, and how adept he was at using flames.

After a full day of doing everything Ignis assigned him, Galo pulled Lio aside. "Wanna stay at my place again?" He probably sounded too hopeful. Lio gave him a look.

"And where will my people be staying, while I have the comfort of a bed?" It was a fair argument, but one of his closest companions, the one with the long hair and sly expression, patted Lio on the back.

"It's okay, Boss. You've been working harder than anyone else, and you deserve a break."

"But--"

"Seriously. We found that condemned mattress store, so we'll make use of that. We'll all sleep comfortably enough." The man glanced at Galo like he knew something that he and Lio didn't, and slinked away before Lio could form a proper argument.

Lio, though, looked betrayed.

"I doubt they don't want you with them, if that's what you'd prefer to do," Galo offered, hoping it smoothed over any hurt. He was positive that was true, as well. "But I liked having you too, so it's up to you."

He'd really liked having him there. Someone who didn't rush out the door, stuck around to eat with him and chat. Even if Lio was kind of moody, it was really nice to have him around.

Lio didn't look at him, instead looking down at the empty case of water he'd distributed. "Fine. Once I'm done."

Galo grinned at him. "Okay! How can I help out?"

With another wary look, Lio gestured toward a gutted restaurant. "We've gotten permission from the owner of this building to convert it to a community kitchen temporarily, so we're cleaning it up now and tracking down sources for supplies."

That seemed like a fantastic idea; the only problem was that if it was a burnish project, not many of them would have the connections to find supplies. Galo, meanwhile, knew a ton of people, so he volunteered himself for that.

First, he stopped by his favorite pizza joint, asking if the owner there had any leads, and he got quite a few out of him and heaps of donations that he struggled to carry back and put in the freezer of the future kitchen. That was by far the easiest one.

The next one was slightly more complicated. He went through his phone and scrolled through contacts for a minute before landing on an entry titled "M", and called. She had inherited ownership of a grocery store, and if she was feeling charitable (and in his experience, she was often quite charitable), she might be willing to help out. The real issue was that he'd definitely slept with her before. He remembered her as pretty with long dark hair, a kind smile, and eager to please, and he'd kept her number because of how friendly she'd been outside of his room. He wasn't making any calls for that purpose though.

So after a slightly awkward but cordial conversation, she agreed to help out, no strings attached. A huge weight off of his shoulders, and off Lio's plate. That should cover supplies for a while, plenty of food to go around.

"I don't know how you managed it so quickly," Lio gave him a half-smile. "But thank you. I appreciate it. The rations were going to run out quickly, since several of us hadn't eaten for days before all this."

She arrived with the food and gave Galo a little wave and a smile as she helped unload her delivery van. Ah, so she came in person. That was possibly a bad sign, but he'd deal with it. There was a lot of fresh and frozen produce and meat to unload, so immediately some of the burnish moved to help her.

"The way you put away those pancakes this morning, I believe it."

Lio's mouth twitched. "Well, it had been more than a week, for me," He said, as if he was embarrassed by his eating habits. Galo found that especially cute. "You should take some of this for yourself, since so much of your food expired."

"That wouldn't be fair. I still have a place to live, I can buy groceries," Galo pointed out.

"You're currently working without a paycheck," Lio countered. "Plus, you made this happen."

Lio was being a lot nicer, and Galo liked it. He guessed it was because Galo had proven himself an ally after everything. He hoped that was it. "Alright, alright. How about you pick out what you'll want for dinner and breakfast, since you're staying with me?"

"I can't cook."

"I can! Seriously, whatever you want. You're my guest so I'll take care of you."

Lio stared at him before he nodded, wordlessly moving to help unload and presumably pick out something for himself.

Galo was about to help, too, but he was stopped by fingertips brushing his arm, and a coy invitation he had to turn down - he explained he had a guest, didn't want to leave them alone. She accepted it and smiled. "Next time, maybe."

He waved her off cheerfully, but he didn't want there to be a next time with her, not really. And especially not while he had Lio to share space with. Because it was never about sex in the first place.

And there was so much work left to be done that he was sure he could keep Lio around for longer. It wasn't all about chasing away nightmares, he genuinely liked Lio a lot. Maybe it was from piloting together, but something had happened, and he felt drawn to him in ways he couldn't articulate.

He may have noticed Lio's eyes trailing after the woman as she returned to her van to leave once it had been emptied, but he tried not to read too much into that.

Lio watched while Galo made dinner, taking in information to use for later. He only knew anything about instant food, so knowing how to use a stove, and to season things, it would be important eventually. He'd be able to help with the community kitchen, maybe. Or he could live on his own. Obviously that was a while off.

He sat on the limited counter space, watching as Galo grew nervous. He didn't care if he made Galo feel nervous, though.

It was cold. It wasn't cold to anyone but burnish people, but it was freezing to him, and he could tell that Galo had raised the room temperature for him, because he was visibly sweating. And still, Lio was cold.

"Why do you have a table with a blanket attached?" He decided to ask.

"Oh, are you interested?" Galo turned to him with a wide grin and Lio frowned, mentally prepared for a powerpoint presentation. "It's called a kotatsu. It's a heated table--"

"Heated?" Lio perked up.

"Yeah! There's a heater built into it. I hear they're awesome in winter months."

"You hear?...So you've never used it?"

"Nah," Galo explained. "Fire hazard."

Unbelievable.

"Why have a table you don't use?"

"'Cause it's awesome," Galo proclaimed, beaming. "It's really popular in Japan!"

"It's just a table if you're not using it properly," Lio folded his arms, trying to hide a shiver.

"Maybe," Galo shrugged, "But at least this building is still standing!"

Lio rolled his eyes, knowing there was no way to win the argument. Still, he eyed the table again curiously, wondering. Galo really liked things from far-east islands. Lio didn't know much about it, other than what Galo had presented to him, but it sounded dumb when he explained it.

He almost wanted to ask if Galo's family had some sort of ties out there, but it wasn't his business any more than his family history was Galo's. More to the point, he was worried Galo might actually tell him, in excruciating detail.

They'd gotten back to Galo's home once the sky had darkened enough to justify it. He'd tried to stay around and make sure the burnish had comfortable places to sleep, but Meis and Gueira had shooed him away, telling him what he did or didn't deserve. It was frustrating, but he didn't want to fight with them over something like this.

He may have told them he had an interest in Galo, and they may have interpreted that in the most frustrating way possible. To him, the interest was a friendly one. A curiosity about him, a loyalty to him because of how much they'd accomplished together in the short time they'd known each other.

Galo hadn't been what he expected. Such open-mindedness was rare, and he wasn't too bright but he had the charisma to draw people in, and he was perceptive in ways Lio definitely wasn't. Galo was a mystery and Lio wanted to solve it. It wasn't any deeper than that.

Except when it was.

Because Galo was needy at night, a cuddler, and while Lio had initially assumed it was for his benefit, getting that invite again had only complicated the matter. His being there served some purpose, and he wasn't sure what it was, but he figured he may as well serve it while he could. He owed Galo a great deal, after all. His life, the lives of all the burnish.

He'd been giving it a lot of thought, all day; how far would he go for Galo now? For a man he owed his life to - he ought to be kinder, at the very least.

He was cold to non-burnish all the time, he couldn't trust them so easily, though he knew he could trust Galo with anything. That was an objective truth. He couldn't risk losing Galo's friendship by repeatedly pushing him away, even if that was his instinct.

"How did you manage to get supplies together so fast?" He asked, as Galo stir-fried vegetables.

"I called on a couple friends," Galo answered.

"Girlfriend?"

Lio watched, sharply, as Galo's cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink.

"No, she's just a friend, really."

"...Are you lying?" To anyone else that would be a pointless question, anyone would just lie a second time. Somehow he trusted that Galo wouldn't. He knew Galo wouldn't.

"We never dated or anything," Galo glanced at him with a stubborn frown. "Why?"

"Curious," Lio told him. It wasn't a lie either. He'd been curious of her actions, and the way Galo looked at her. He'd… never had anything like that for himself. He was bound to be curious about such things.

According to Gueira, now was a good time to find something like that, relieve some stress. Of course, he'd had that sort of friend in Meis for years, so he wasn't one to talk. And yet still, Lio was thinking about maybe coming around on that idea. Maybe. He remained on the fence about it, but only because of Galo; he'd known since he was young that his tastes leaned toward men and firm, muscular bodies (specifically the kind he knew he wouldn't ever be able to gain for himself, as much as he hated it), and Galo fit that description well enough. He had pretty, expressive eyes and a sunshiny smile that infected the world around him. And if Lio were to look for a partner for stress relief, Galo would be an obvious choice, if there was interest both ways.

Dwelling on it wouldn't help anything.

Galo handed him a plate full of food, chicken and vegetables mostly. Things Lio recognized as healthy even if they weren't his favorites, things that he knew would expire faster than other items they were keeping in the freezer storage at the former restaurant. Galo made it look tasty, at least. He'd made some sort of sauce and drizzled it all over the plate, like latticework, fancy.

"Thanks," he said, reaching for a fork.

"You can eat while watching TV if you want. Might be good to stay up-to-date on current events."

"I want to eat at your weird table," Lio said, knowing it might piss Galo off.

"It's not weird!" Jackpot. "It's a kotatsu! And you can eat at it, just don't turn it on."

"Tsk."

"Don't!"

Lio shot him a look, but ultimately gave up and sat at the super weird and non-functioning table to eat, looking at Galo to join him. He ate mostly silently; Galo had switched on the TV and listened to the news, but Lio was mostly uninterested - the news often lied, after all. He was used to Kray's propaganda seeping into every part of everyday life in the city; part of why he never intended to live there. And yet he'd spent two days in this tiny apartment, and liked it.

The food disappeared from his plate quickly. He hadn't eaten since Galo's pancakes at breakfast (and before that the little can of ravioli the night before, and then... he'd probably had some other canned food a week ago?), so he tried not to feel bad about it. It had been years since someone had been around to make him a home-cooked meal, so long that he wasn't sure if he felt nostalgic or what - but it was overwhelming. He could've cried, but he wasn't the type.

The news told a story about people being pulled from the Parnassus crash site, without a single mention of the burnish. He heard Galo grumble something about it and he let out a sigh. He liked that Galo was bothered by things Lio found so predictable, like that.

"Galo."

"Hmm?" His mouth was full, but he gulped it down hard.

"Truthfully. Did you want to have sex with me last night?"

And then Galo choked.

Lio waited.

His face was bright red, which spoke volumes. "Well-- I mean, if you wanted to, I--"

"Yes or no."

"...Kinda, yeah. But!! I mean, I like having you around even if you don't look at me that way! So I really won't do anything!" He looked so determined and embarrassed, it was baffling to watch.

Lio looked down at his plate, thinking quietly for a few seconds. "Okay. You can."

"Huh?"

"I'm saying," Lio leaned his elbows on the table, "I'll take responsibility. However you want me to do that."

Galo fell uncharacteristically silent, and Lio felt his eyes scrutinizing every detail of his face, every movement he might've made, looking for a tell. Maybe he'd puzzled him.

"You hated the idea yesterday. Called me sick."

"I was dragged to a strange place by a guy I'd just met," Lio said. "I was freezing and tired and hungry. Of course I was mad about it."

"That's true…" Galo still looked worried about accepting.

"If you've changed your mind, that's fine."

"Why did you change yours?" Galo asked, looking uncomfortable. "If it's 'cause you think you owe me or something, I don't want it. You don't owe me anything."

Lio laughed at that, softly. "Of course I owe you, Galo. You've fed me homemade meals, housed me and clothed me, and you saved my life. But that's not why."

"Then why?"

"I don't appreciate having my motives questioned," Lio frowned at him. "I felt like offering. That's all."

They stared at each other for ten more seconds before Galo rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and said. "Alright, then. I guess we're doing this!"

Lio nodded and, in a mimicry of what he'd seen Galo do with their plates that morning, he cleared the table and rinsed them off. Galo tried to tell him he didn't have to, but he ignored it. He was being treated as a guest, but Galo was offering too much.

He could admit he didn't know how much soap to use, as a complete novice, but he did his best and Galo seemed to approve of it - or at least, he didn't re-wash the dishes, so that was enough. There were things Lio knew how to do, like leading a rebellion, and then there were domestic chores, which were a complete mystery.

Galo invited him to shower first and this time, he accepted, once again donning heavy winter clothing that had been set out for him (and he wondered why, because surely everything would come off? But he didn't vocalize any concerns). While Galo showered, Lio searched the room.

He'd already looked around the place for the most part, making sure there weren't any hidden weapons, there was a fire escape if he needed to leave in a hurry, things like that, but his interest was different the second time around. He was keeping an eye out for porn - Galo seemed the type to have it, and maybe Lio could figure out his tastes if he examined it, and make sure he hadn't gotten himself into a real mess by agreeing to try it with him. Without much experience, he'd have to rely on Galo to tell him what to do, and that seemed like a terrible idea. A guy who took a deadly hit right to the face and said his strategy was "grin and bear it" couldn't be trusted.

Lio couldn't find a secret hidden porn stash, but he guessed it wouldn't be easy. He did find comics though, filled with wide-eyed characters in colorful clothing and wild hair (Galo's inspiration?), and he sat cross-legged on the floor thumbing through a volume while Galo showered. It was… weird. But interesting. By the time Galo had left the bathroom, Lio had gotten through more than half of the book and Galo beamed at him.

"D'you like it? I have every book out so far from that series. And there's an adaptation--"

"Another time," Lio cut through his words, looking up at him and setting the book down.

Galo was wearing pants with thin fabric; apparently walking around naked was just going to be too awkward even if they were about to go to bed together. Well, whatever. Lio stood, and Galo's hand gently touched his jaw, tilting his head and kissing him. It wasn't Lio's first kiss, but it was the first one he'd actually accepted - he'd had experiences with people who wanted him, but he didn't have any such desire for them at the time. He was fighting a war.

But now the war was over, and Galo was absolutely welcome to put his tongue down Lio's throat. Fingers threading through his hair, a puff of breath against his cheek. Hand on his waist, guiding his body against Galo's, sliding up the sweater he was given to wear. It was overwhelming and yet he knew it was barely a taste of what to expect.

"What do you like?" Galo asked him.

"...Doesn't matter to me," Lio answered with a shrug.

"You seem nervous."

His eyes narrowed and he gave Galo a shove towards the bed. "Don't read anything into it," he commanded, pushing until Galo let himself fall backwards onto the mattress, where Lio climbed over him. "Tell me what you like."

It seemed as though Galo was delighted by this turn, which was silly. He propped himself upright and kissed Lio again, briefly this time. "I'll be happy if I can make you feel good."

"Okay…" They were just going in circles, but he wasn't going to come right out and say he had no idea what he was doing. Sure, sex wasn't overcomplicated like foreign furniture assembly, things could generally fit together however you wanted them to, as he understood it, but he'd never done it before and he didn't want to be horribly wrong and end up with one of them hurt (and judging by the shape Lio could make out through that thin fabric on Galo, he would be the one most likely to get hurt. Holy shit). "And if I wanted to do something for you?"

Galo hummed thoughtfully, slipping his warm hands under the sweater again, rough fingertips against Lio's unblemished skin. "I wanna start with you."

Lio decided then that Galo was far more frustrating than he'd thought. And he'd already known he was stubborn and stupid.

But he was shockingly gentle with every touch along Lio's body, and it almost tickled. He was watching Lio's reactions with fierce determination and a fond expression, and Lio could only brace himself in place over Galo, hands in the mattress on either side of his head.

Galo leaned up and kissed him again. "I like this."

"Huh?" Lio looked down at his face, startled.

"Touching you. Kissing you while you're awake. Not for rescue purposes, but for fun."

"...I should hope that it's better while I'm awake."

Galo laughed softly at that, sneaking his hands lower on Lio's body, thumbs on his hips and fingers spread out, gripping his ass. He had big hands. Strong. Lio gulped. "You're still nervous. We can stop whenever you want, you know."

"I made up my mind," Lio insisted, but still didn't take the proactive role Galo was trying to push him to.

"Alright, but if you want me to stop, tell me right away."

"I'm fine!" He hissed, and Galo gave him an odd look for it.

Galo's hands wandered more, under the waistband of the pants he was wearing, squeezing the flesh of his ass again. He'd more or less expected that; he knew Galo must have been with that woman before, he must be looking at Lio as a replacement for a woman. It wouldn't be the first time someone tried that. He was slender and pretty rather than handsome, he knew what kind of people were interested in someone like him.

...No. Galo wasn't like that - objectively he knew that was a fact, and yet he'd let himself get anxious about it.

And Galo nudged his cheek to keep his attention. It was somewhat surprising that he hadn't been thrown down on the bed and pinned or something, he could easily picture that sort of thing between them, but no, Galo was so tender. A finger brushed his tailbone and he shivered as it slid further down.

"Have you ever done this here?" Galo asked carefully, rubbing at the flesh just so Lio knew what he was referring to.

"No…" Lio admitted, his face warm.

"Oh. Want to do that to me instead?" Galo suddenly removed his hand like he'd crossed a line.

"What? I told you, I don't care. We can do whatever you want--"

"Hmm," Galo hummed again, wrapping an arm around Lio's waist and slipping his other hand down the front of his pants, instead. "What I want --" he said, cupping him and making Lio squirm again, "--is to help you relax."

"I'm not going to relax," He argued, unable to keep himself from pressing his hips lower, into Galo's hand. "I don't know what I'm doing."

Perhaps he shouldn't have confessed that with his fully hard dick in Galo's hand, but he hadn't intended to say it at all.

"You've never done this?"

"No, I haven't." Galo's grip loosened and Lio let out a sound he hadn't expected from himself.

Galo moved his hands to Lio's hips to sit them up, Lio straddling his lap. His eyebrows furrowed with concern. "Are you sure you want this? I mean-- You don't want it to be something more special?"

"I've told you what I want," Lio scowled, leaning into Galo's face, combative as the first time they met. "Why, was your first all that special?"

There was a twitch in Galo's brow that Lio almost missed, and a soft exhale. "Nah. You're right."

"Sorry." Lio could tell he struck a nerve. And his chest ached, because that reaction told him many things, but confirmed none of it; perhaps Galo had a terrible first experience, maybe heartbreak, maybe … Maybe the worst thing he could imagine. He shouldn't have brought it up. "I don't care much about 'firsts'," Lio told him. "But if I did, I'd be glad I was with someone I could trust."

That brought back Galo's smile, and it was annoyingly contagious. "Alright!" Galo cheered decisively, "I'm gonna make this feel super fucking awesome for you, then. We'll worry about me if you like it enough for a next time. Sound good?"

It didn't. It sounded so generous that it circled around to pathetic and needy, but Lio didn't say so. "Fine," he said, fully intending to make Galo get off somehow, even if they took turns jerking each other off, or whatever. Galo could have the lead, because he knew if he didn't agree to it they'd just argue in more circles.

Galo looked around and lifted Lio again (he did that too easily, like he was some light prop - Galo was so strong. It was unfair), placing him at the head of the bed, cozy in the soft mound of pillows. "If I take your pants off, will you be too cold?"

"Not if you're doing things right," Lio offered a smirk that Galo answered.

"Well, get cozy!"

Galo's eagerness to please gave away more than he probably thought it did. But Lio didn't have any right to point it out; Galo may do this to fill a sort of loneliness in his life, but Lio only decided to do it because he'd lost all direction. The war and the fighting were everything to him for so long, he didn't know how to be anything else other than a burnish leader. There had been plenty of offers for this before, women and men alike, dedicated to him and moved by the cause, or maybe just interested in his looks, Lio couldn't say, but he'd always turned them down. He didn't think of himself as some romantic soul, saving himself for true love, no, he was just too consumed with righteous anger to look at another person and feel anything that didn't fit into a 'friend' or 'foe' binary. No one stood out as attractive or captivated his interest in any special way.

And yet here he was, lost and curious enough to do this. Even if he ended up hating it, Galo seemed happy. That was enough.

He couldn't say he'd never been touched, but he'd certainly never invited it, so the people who did try putting their hands on him in the past were likely to lose those hands to fire. Inviting the touches made it for a different experience entirely, through the awkwardness. Galo slid the sweatpants down and placed a kiss on his hip, like a warning that he was getting started. Lio shivered, and then gasped sharply at the first touch of Galo's tongue.

"Shit."

Galo paused, glancing up to make sure Lio didn't mean 'stop' with that curse, then continued

It was unexpected, it felt weird, his legs were definitely still cold and he was trying not to shiver violently. But of course, parts of him were warm. Galo's mouth was vaguely reminiscent of how good the fire could feel. His eyes kept watching Lio's reactions carefully and Lio wanted to cover his face, the sweater sleeves falling over his hands as he tried. In every way it felt good, it made him feel small as well. He doubted he'd be able to return the favor even half as effectively.

Galo tugged on his wrist and made him put a hand on the back of his head, which… Seemed mean. But if Galo liked it, he'd try; he combed fingers through the thick, wild hair and pushed it out of Galo's face, trying not to apply pressure because it would've made him feel bad (because if Galo tried that with him, he'd either vomit, or choke and die on the spot, he was sure of it).

His trembling grew worse when Galo pulled away, and he almost asked why before Galo preemptively answered, "You're still cold," and grabbed one of the many blankets he'd gotten out for Lio the night before, burying himself - and Lio's lower half - beneath it.

And if it was hard to handle when he could watch, it was even worse when he didn't know what Galo would do. Firm hands massaged his thighs as Galo continued, and all Lio could do was watch the movements under the blanket. He made a noise he hadn't intended to and covered his mouth yet again.

If he hadn't been seated the way he was, his hips would've been moving to meet Galo's mouth, but it was better that he couldn't (again, because the thought of reciprocation gave him that 'choke and die' impression). He hadn't been told to give warning when he was close, but it came to mind that he probably should, and his voice came out broken on Galo's name, and he barely lasted a second longer. He felt Galo swallow. And heard it. How mortifying.

"Y-you--" Lio stammered as Galo emerged from the blanket with a wide grin. "Don't expect me to swallow."

Somehow Galo thought that was funny enough that he snorted while wiping his chin off with the back of his hand. "You don't have to do anything you don't want," He assured him, "did you enjoy yourself though?"

Lio hesitated, but nodded, unwilling to give more praise than that and let it get to Galo's head. "Should I do the same for you now?"

"Don't have to, if you're still nervous." Galo kept smiling at him. It was stifling, in a way. It was as though he was genuinely sated just from getting Lio off. His own pleasure was immaterial. In turn, that motivated Lio to do something about it, and he kicked Galo's hip to push him on his back (with enough space behind him that he wouldn't fall), and he pulled his pants back up (because it was still freezing).

Galo giggled, and Lio sneered at him, determined to wipe that grin off of his stupidly cute face. Before he could let himself dwell on the fact that he'd considered Galo's face cute, he yanked on the waistband of Galo's pants and leaned down.

Galo's erection was already dripping and stiff, and heavy, leaning left as Galo adjusted his position to be propped up on his hands. He didn't act even a little surprised by Lio pushing him, but took a second to pet down Lio's hair, where it had evidently been sticking up. "You sure?"

"Shut up," Lio commanded, trying to remember how Galo had done it. Lio could barely wrap a hand around it and he was irrationally annoyed by this, but he slid his tongue over the tip, almost wincing at the taste. It wasn't pleasant, but it was tolerable.

He knew what felt good, kind of; he'd masturbated before, when he was safe and distracted and couldn't get his body to calm down any other way. It wasn't a science, it was all about feeling, but after what Galo had done for him, he wasn't sure he knew anything at all. He took the head into his mouth and sucked on it, a little, rewarded with a pleasant sound from Galo's throat that encouraged him more.

This wasn't something he thought he'd ever do - not that he was against it or anything, he'd just never thought about it. Since he obviously wasn't taking the whole thing into his mouth, he wrapped his hand around the base and tried to move it in time with his mouth, but it took a lot more focus than he thought it would. Plus, he kept feeling disgusted by the weird noises he was hearing himself make.

"This really is your first time, huh?" He heard Galo say and he snapped his head up to look at him, answering with a questioning expression. "I mean… There's no such thing as a bad blow-job, but you're kinda close--"

Lio's hand slipped lower and gave his balls a good squeeze. "What was that?"

"Ow, fuck! Sorry!" Galo was laughing even though it hurt, which honestly made Lio want to squeeze harder. He didn't, but that could change depending on the next words out of Galo's mouth. "Use tongue, use teeth, suck. You're embarrassed by the noise, right? You're sucking a dick, you don't need shame. Don't worry so much."

Lio held a glare on him for a few more seconds because of how he'd said that.

"And uh," he glanced away. "If you want, you can keep squeezing?"

"You're sick," Lio told him, annoyed at how much he'd been salivating because it caused a little slur in his words. He meant it more as a joke, and Galo picked up on that and didn't get offended.

"You've mentioned that."

"As long as you know." He paused before trying again, still determined to finish what he'd started even if he was slightly disheartened. "...If you want to give me directions, it's fine."

"You'll get the hang of it," Galo assured him. "I was awful once too--" Lio squeezed again  "-- Ow, damn!"

If nothing else, he'd confirmed that Galo had indeed slept with men before, so the thought of being a replacement for a woman was no longer a lingering thought in the back of his mind. Even if he wasn't all that concerned about it. He'd gotten himself into this position by his own choice, after all. So, still nervous and determined, he tucked his hair behind his ears and leaned back down to try again, keeping Galo's words in mind.

Galo's mouth hadn't just been warm and wet, he'd felt his tongue tease at him, so he tried his best to work on mimicking that. And he was less mindful of his teeth, letting them scrape at the skin gently as he moved. Sucking on him was the least rewarding, since that gross taste kept hitting him every time he tried, but if he ignored that he could listen instead for sounds Galo made, little praises and encouragement, sometimes gasps and even once, a moan.

"You're a fast learner," Galo told him in an unsteady tone. It spurred him on, and his jaw was sore by the time Galo gave him warning, just telling him the word "off" with urgency.

He lifted his head off and pressed his free hand over Galo's dick instead, to keep from making a mess. He kept moving his hand though, coaxing Galo to finish. Which he did, with a shiver in his hips and his stomach muscles visibly tense, almost enchanting. And Galo was always loud, but it was nice to hear his voice without any challenge in it, just crying out, enjoying himself. Maybe Lio could sort of understand why people could be addicted to this sort of activity, while he was watching Galo.

Lio wiped the semen and saliva from his hands with a grimace, because it was almost worse having it rubbed into the knees of his pants, but they were clearly made for sleeping in, so he wasn't going to be seen that way by anyone but the person who'd made the mess in the first place.

Galo let out a long sigh, winding down and tugging his pants back on lazily. "See? You got the hang of it."

Lio glared at him, but he knew that Galo hadn't meant it to pick on him. It was just… embarrassing. That was all. Lio didn't deal well with embarrassment.

"Is it cool if I kiss you now?"

"Huh? Why wouldn't-- oh." Because they'd just done that. Because Galo had gulped down cum without a second thought. It was weird, but he shrugged. "If you want."

"Nice," Galo looked so pleased with himself, and tugged Lio's body close to kiss him again. There wasn't any fire between their lips, just wet and messy and kind of strange, but Lio didn't hate it.

As soon as his mouth was free, Lio said, "I want to brush my teeth."

"Hmm." Galo used his tongue to feel around his own mouth, and nodded. "I should, too. I think I have a spare toothbrush, c'mon."

Curiously, Galo held his hand to guide him to the bathroom. A short distance, and terribly unnecessary in a studio apartment that was impossible to get lost in, so it was noteworthy. Lio didn't know what to do with that, and quietly filed that information in the back of his mind for later.

In the meantime, he had his own toothbrush now; it was neon yellow and sat next to Galo's orange one in a cup by the sink.

Chapter 3: Day 3

Galo knew Lio wasn't his lover, or his boyfriend, or anything even close to that. He was probably experimenting, and that was fine. Galo had known other guys who wanted to experiment before. At least if he was doing it with Galo, he could be safe, since Galo definitely didn't have any diseases and he wasn't the type to do anything his partners wouldn't enjoy.

And fiercely, he wanted to protect Lio from that type of person, after seeing how nervous he'd been last night. That was what he'd decided in the morning, making pancakes, eggs and bacon for them both while Lio was still waking up and processing things. It was easy to tell that he struggled sleeping, especially with how cold he always was.

He wanted to point out that the other burnish, especially the children, seemed to be adapting to it, their core temperature changing. He wanted to find out what made Lio different, but he didn't want to bring the conversation out of nowhere, freak him out or anything. He'd ask Aina's sister maybe. She was under Aina's strict supervision, working as an assistant to Lucia rather than having her own freedom after all she'd done, but she still knew a lot more about burnish physiology than Galo did, for sure.

He flipped the pancakes, and stacked the misshapen ones on his own plate and the perfect-looking ones on Lio's, because it felt fun to have a guest for breakfast, and he wanted to spoil him a little. He wanted to give him more clothes to wear, he wanted to keep feeding him. He wanted to keep him there. Maybe that was foolish. Again, they weren't lovers. But at the very least, he was sure they enjoyed each others' company.

"Does that feeling ever go away?" Lio asked, bundled in a blanket beside the kotatsu, which was still turned off. "That… it doesn't feel real?"

"Mm, yeah, kinda," Galo noted, pretty sure he knew what Lio was talking about. "But now that it's over, saving the world doesn't feel real, right?"

Lio almost laughed. Almost. "I guess."

Galo set the plate in front of him and sat down across from him. "Do you regret it?"

"...About as much as I regret saving the world," Lio said, sort-of smiling as he pressed his fork into a pancake sideways instead of using a knife. "But, how often do you do this? Invite people over…"

Galo gulped down a large bite of his food before he could answer. "Uh."

"You don't have to answer, it's okay."

"No, I mean… I guess I just sleep better when someone's with me. So I like having someone here. Even when I was little, I remember I used to sneak into my parents' room and curl up on their bed sometimes." The fact that it was miles worse after their deaths, he didn't say.

Lio watched him, and Galo noticed, not for the first time, that his stare was intense, as if boring holes into his very soul. He took a few moments to actually say anything, and it almost made Galo feel nervous, but he didn't feel judgement from him, just the kind of scrutiny that came with puzzle-solving. He was trying to read between the lines, and it seemed that he came to a conclusion he didn't mind. "Does that mean you'll invite me here again tonight?"

"Yeah! Yeah, whenever you want, of course!" His heart lifted, glad that Lio seemed agreeable.

"As long as the burnish don't need me," Lio said, in the tone he always used when talking to 'outsiders' about 'his people'. Galo hadn't missed the difference, but he wasn't sure Lio knew it was there. "I don't mind coming back."

After a second of that warm, fluttery feeling in his chest, Galo smiled around another bite of pancake, swallowing it down. "And I'll keep making food for you every time you come."

"If it sounds too good, I'll be suspicious," Lio was smiling again, so Galo would know it was a tease.

"Maybe you should be!" Galo teased right back, raising an eyebrow.

Lio didn't answer, and his smile started to fade. There was definitely something bothering him and Galo couldn't figure it out, and he had a feeling that asking wouldn't get him very far.

"If there's anything you need, just let me know," Galo decided to tell him. Hopefully that would be enough, though he knew Lio wouldn't come to him for anything too personal.

But Lio nodded, and he kept eating. For such a skinny guy, he had one hell of an appetite.

Maybe Galo could invite him to one of his and Varys's eating contests. "Want seconds?"

"...No, that's fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah," Lio twirled the fork on his mostly-empty plate, in deep thought. "I didn't tell you before, but when Freeze Force attacked our settlement and kidnapped all of the burnish--"

"Wait, they did what?"

"...I assumed you knew."

"No," Galo shook his head, "I mean, I knew they had taken them, but I didn't know how it happened…" He supposed it had to have been gruesome, because Freeze Force didn't do cruelty by halves. And he had to remind himself that he and Lio had saved almost all of them, in the end. It would be okay, even if things still needed work.

Lio paused, and looked down. "They used an experimental weapon on me, made especially to kill me. It kept feeding off of my heat, and I was trapped in ice for a full week before I could fight my way free." He didn't look proud of it, but Galo thought that was ridiculous.

"You freed yourself from a weapon designed specifically to kill you," he repeated, amazed.

"...It took me too long. I couldn't save all of them because--"  

"Lio, you can't take the blame for what Freeze Force did to you."

Lio watched him again, studying, silent.

"You fought like hell to save them."

"And it wasn't enough," Lio's jaw was clenched tight when he paused. "...Anyway. I just thought I'd fill you in. I think that weapon is why I can't seem to warm up anymore, so… Staying here will benefit me, as well. It would be easier to sleep next to someone providing heat I can't."

Galo folded his arms across his chest almost proudly, "Sure thing! My burni--"

"Shut up about your burning soul."

The interruption was so well-timed that Galo wasn't even offended, he just laughed and relaxed his shoulders. "I guess this makes us friends with benefits, huh?"

He saw color in Lio's cheeks, so he must've known what that term meant in spite of inexperience. That was kind of cute. "Yeah, it seems that way."

Galo leaned forward on the table, still grinning, and held out his fist. Lio bumped it after taking a second to figure out what he was doing. "You can call on me if you ever need anything."

"...I could say the same, if I had a phone," Lio looked amused.

"Work for Burning Rescue and you get a free one!"

"You're suggesting that the leader of an arsonist group fight fires?"

"It's something to consider," he said with a laugh. It wasn't the same fire, anyway, and he didn't need to tell Lio that. Lio knew the promare-flames intimately, and could control them. He couldn't do the same with the regular stuff.

"I suppose it is," Lio agreed, halfheartedly but good enough for the time being.

It wasn't hard to see that Lio was struggling with something, and was intent on solving his problems alone. Galo may have always wanted to be helpful, but he knew when to stand down and let people think things through on their own. That in mind, he didn't push, he just picked up Lio's plate along with his own so he could wash it. Lio almost protested, because apparently there was something wrong with being treated like a guest.

When they dressed, Galo noted that Lio had found another set of clothes that he pulled from a worn-in messenger bag. While it would be thankfully less distracting to see him in something less form-hugging than Aina's leggings had been, he wasn't sure he was pleased with what Lio had found. It was a little shabby, so he was probably letting the other burnish take everything they needed before he would help himself to anything. At least the clothes looked warm; the sweater fell over his hands, but it was at least thick and would help with those violent chills.

He deserved to have belongings of his own, and he was starting to realize that Lio and the other burnish, they had nothing, and starting their lives over in the city was going to be nearly impossible without enough community support. Galo didn't have the means to help them all himself.

Before they left that day, Galo handed him a spare key. Lio stared at it oddly.

"This way you can come over whenever you want, even if my shift runs long, or you decide to work for a freakishly long time and need to get in at three in the morning."

"How are you okay with this?" Lio didn't look suspicious anymore, but still curious. Maybe a little concerned.

"How could I not be? I like having you around!"

Lio's fist closed around the key and he nodded, offering a soft "thanks" in return, like he was still unsure.

Galo was dumb, but he wasn't blind. Still, he couldn't force Lio to open up to him, so it would have to do to just be a friend for the time being and hope Lio could work it out, or trust him. They'd keep working together well enough until then.

So, instead of worrying, he gave Lio a lift to the section of the city that the burnish had started carving out for themselves, and he went to Station Two after a short detour, when he forgot that Three was still in ruins.

Lio had kept Aina's gloves. She'd told him it was okay, and though he would've argued about it, he couldn't give them back after how much he'd worn them in while clearing out rubble from the city streets. They looked aged by a good two years after two days of work.

Meis had found a pair of winter gloves for himself, and Gueira just let himself suffer, and they were the three who seemed to be the worst off among the burnish. It had something to do with how strong their fires were, after all. Even then, after a while Meis shed the gloves and Gueira had to ditch his jacket while working hard in the midday heat, but Lio still felt cold. Perhaps it was the bullet and his strength with fire. He hoped it would go away.

He missed the fire, though.

He stumbled over a crack in the pavement he hadn't seen, smothered by dust, and Gueira caught him by the shoulder before he could fall. A week ago he would've been able to step confidently. If the ground was uneven, he'd just melt it level or fly right over it. Now, he was weak, and it took too much strength to do something as simple as load large stones onto a cart to move out of the way. If he knew how to pilot like Galo did, maybe this would be easier, but none of the burnish had access to such things, so they were all toiling away and trying to make room for themselves in the city that hated them. Lio knew it was an uphill battle, and he could only hope he wouldn't keep losing his footing when no one was there to catch him.

"Thanks," He said quietly, his throat dry from dust inhalation more than dehydration, though both were indeed an issue.

"You eat lunch, Boss?" Gueira asked him, frowning.

Lio decided not to answer, dropping the heavy concrete slab onto their makeshift cart. One of the able-bodied burnish had known how to make asphalt properly, so it'd all be crunched up into little rocks and made into pavement soon. They could do anything for themselves if they had to. Pave their own future.

"Boss, you need to eat."

"I had a large breakfast," He countered, scowling.

"Yeah, that was what, seven hours ago? We have access to food now. Use it." Lio was about to argue, but Gueira knew what he'd say and cut in, "No one is going to go hungry. You don't have to do that to yourself for everyone else."

Lio lowered his head, and Gueira took it as a nod and started pushing him toward the kitchen. It was odd, being called boss and then being pushed around like that. He didn't feel like much of a leader that way, but he knew it was done out of concern.

There were two former burnish manning the kitchen, a middle-aged woman and her son that Lio had recognized from the burnish settlement. They were friendly and helpful, and apparently could cook well. Something smelled fantastic. The young man brightened seeing them walk in, and cheerfully greeted Lio as "boss" as well, hurriedly getting a plate ready for him. He felt a twinge of embarrassment at it, but he couldn't say why.

Gueira sat at one of the shabby picnic tables they'd set up inside the building, and Lio joined him quietly. The food looked good. Not as nice as Galo's, but it was still miles better than anything the burnish had available to them on the road. More than miles. It was like living on a different planet.

While he ate, Gueira also kept silent for a while. Watching, making it awkward.

"What?"

"Nothing!" Gueira protested. "Just in very deep thought."

Lio looked at him skeptically.

"You look upset. Did that guy not treat you right?"

After choking on his food for a second, Lio grimaced. "What are you talking about?"

Gueira hummed thoughtfully. "Meis said you hooked up with the firefighter last night."

Lio's first impulse, which he ignored, was to deny it was anything of the sort - he couldn't say why, though, since it didn't really matter. Nor was it really Gueira's business, but they didn't usually hide things from each other. "I wasn't thinking about that," He decided to say instead. Because he wasn't. Thoughts of Galo crossed his mind occasionally, sure, as much as any friend and ally would, but mostly he was thinking ahead, for the burnish. Really, his General ought to know that.

"Alright. But you give me the word and Meis and I will rough him up for you!" 

"Unnecessary." He shoved a fork full of food in his mouth because he was ready to be done talking about it. Gueira went back to watching him and making him feel way too self-conscious. " What."

"Nothin'." Gueira leaned his elbows on the table. "Trying to figure out what's on your mind, if it isn't that guy."

"Housing," Lio answered. "Everyone can't keep sleeping on stolen mattresses. Where supplies will come from after we run out. What will happen when--"

"Damn, Boss, you can talk to us about that kinda thing, you know?" Gueira looked almost hurt, and Lio very nearly flinched at the expression. "We all know what we have to work for. You can't do everything yourself."

"I know." He couldn't do everything as a burnish, and he managed so much less with the promare gone. But he wouldn't say that out loud, because it was weakness, and he wasn't prepared to share so much of that. "It's what I've been thinking about, though."

"What do you think we should do about it, then?"

From there, they started digging into details. How this or that wouldn't work. Reclaiming land owned by Foresight for themselves, because it's the minimum that they were owed after all they'd been put through (and at some point, Lio knew they'd need permission for that, but Gueira wasn't the 'ask permission' type, so he held his tongue. Better to raise that issue with someone who was more amenable to it). He knew they'd need outside help if they wanted it done quickly enough, but trust was going to be the biggest issue. He trusted Galo, and to a certain extent he trusted Galo's teammates, but there were very few in the city he would bother turning to for assistance. He'd be reluctant to ask anyone but the burnish.

They were meant to do this on their own, in the first place. They could do it.

He managed to finish his plate before it got cold, and went to go wash it, but that bright-eyed young man took it and was practically sparkling at him. Being served was kind of annoying, but Lio put up with it, because when he tried to argue that he'd do it himself the guy gave him the most dejected look Lio had ever seen on another man's face.

As they left, Gueira decided to tell him, "If things don't work out with the firefighter, you could probably go for that--"

"No," Lio stopped him coldly.

"Not your type?"

"Not talking about this." Lio had an authoritative hiss in his tone. Gueira backed down, and they returned to where they'd stationed themselves before, clearing out more rubble.

He thought more about it. About ingratiating himself to Burning Rescue; maybe they would give them access to some of their gear, make building easier. Maybe they could find a way to use Kray's technology to do this; after all, if he'd been hoping to start a colony somewhere, he must've prepared to make housing for the people he'd bring along. There had to be resources to make this faster, to help his people find comfort.

If they made the city their home, they would need allies.

But for now, he kept it to himself, listening to Gueira babble about whatever came to mind (he was the type that always had to interrupt silence, hated the quiet whenever he imagined tension in it). They discussed how a housing layout might work, what each burnish household definitely needed. How it would be amazing to have proper bedrooms to decorate, bathrooms with hot water.

"Gueira," Lio eventually spoke up to change the topic, and when his former General looked at him expectantly, he frowned. "What do you think Hunter X Hunter is supposed to mean?"

Because somewhere in the back of his mind, whenever he thought of home, of comfort, he'd started thinking of Galo's tiny apartment, his useless table, his comfortable bed and his bookshelves lined with translated foreign comic books, and he wanted to return there. He felt the key in his pocket, and secretly looked forward to using it.

Galo's day was shockingly uneventful. Cleanup came before rebuilding, and there weren't any fires to put out. They were simply quarrying the rubble and letting Lucia and Heris use Kray's tech to make it into useful resources - he could tell Lucia was having a blast with it, but Heris had a gloomy attitude that brought everyone within a mile radius of her down a few notches. She wasn't the most reasonable person, Galo knew that, but he didn't hate her or anything. He could not say the same for Aina, who'd been avoiding her all day.

He'd been warned by almost everyone that he needed to stay away from the sibling drama, so he did.

Once he was home, he decided to bet on Lio showing up, and started cooking. He kind of wanted to show off Japanese dishes he'd taught himself to make, since Lio liked sitting at the kotatsu, but he hadn't done any shopping yet, so he had to work with what was left of the things Lio had picked out the day before. Still, he had enough for tempura at least, so he prepared the vegetables for it and got to work.

The whole time, he kept thinking about the faces Lio made while he ate, that little smile that showed he was enjoying it even though he would eat quietly and wasn't really the type to hand out compliments. Galo needed to face it - he really liked having Lio around. He didn't know how deep that ran, maybe no different than getting a pet that relied on him. Maybe it was more like enjoying the company of a roommate, and in order to keep him there he'd have to move to an apartment with at least a little more space. Keeping him - that was a messy thought, he discarded it and focused on dinner.

Lio didn't show up until the food had grown cold, but that was okay. Galo liked that he was right, and he showed up at all. It was easy enough to heat it up for him.

"...What is it with people today and watching me eat?" Lio complained, giving Galo a sour look.

He didn't know why, but he thought that was funny. "Well, I already ate, but it's nicer to have dinner with someone, isn't it?"

Lio's cheeks were a little pink. His embarrassment was cute, Galo thought, and scenes from the night before flitted through his mind. Lio's cute, frustrated and nervous expressions had been in and out of his head all day. And honestly, he'd never dwelled that much on someone after sleeping with them, but he figured Lio was special because of all they'd been through in such a short amount of time.

And because he stayed.

"The food is good. Thank you," Lio said, kind of quiet. "You should show me how you made it." He was trying to avoid meeting Galo's eyes, somewhere between being coy and annoyed. The way his lashes shielded his eyes was so pretty. That was weird.

"Yeah! I'll show you the ropes for sure!"

Lio glanced at him, his chin in his hand and elbow on the table. "You're like an idiot savant, or something, right?" He had a tiny, teasing smile on his face that very nearly lit a fire in Galo's chest.

"Sure, the number one firefighting idiot chef," Galo beamed.

"How did you learn?"

"I've lived alone… Uh, you know why. I just had to learn or else I felt like a burden to-- well." His mood didn't sink as much as he thought it would, but he noted that Lio's reaction was far worse, the corner of his mouth twitched and a crease showed between his eyebrows in irritation. He knew better than to say the name, but he'd been obvious enough to piss Lio off already. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Lio said quickly. "What he did to you was inexcusable. I didn't even know I could hate him more than I did a week ago."

He wanted to argue that what he'd done to Lio and the rest of the burnish was worse, but he didn't, because he knew Lio was aware of that. More importantly, Lio getting so angry on his behalf was weirdly flattering. He couldn't suppress a smile, and Lio's expression changed, more confused than before. Rather than explaining himself, he grabbed Lio's plate to clean up. "You can go ahead and grab a shower if you want."

While he washed the dishes, he noted that Lio hadn't moved for a full minute, and he didn't go toward the bathroom when he did, instead walking closer to Galo and hesitantly grasping his sleeve to get his attention. It was so bizarrely innocent for the leader of the Mad Burnish. He looked nervous again, and determined. "...Do I need to do anything?" He asked, voice forcefully steadied. "...To prepare, I mean."

It took Galo a couple more seconds than he was proud of to realize what Lio meant. "Oh! Uh, no, don't worry about that," He answered quickly, but then amended, "I mean. We don't have to do anything you don't want to. And if that's something you're interested in, I don't think it'd be smart to rush into it?" He wouldn't say why - Lio was very petite, Galo didn't want to hurt him. Maybe get him used to it with his fingers first.

He hadn't been sure that Lio would've wanted to try anything again, since they'd had that talk about just enjoying each other's presence at night, no need for the sex part of it. If Lio wanted more though, Galo would just take it as a compliment. And he'd give Lio whatever he wanted, because what he'd said before, about being with someone he trusted, that had struck a nerve. Lio deserved to feel safe and comfortable and he deserved to enjoy himself after all the crap he'd been through.

Lio stared at him for an extra few seconds before turning and grabbing that worn bag again. Galo still needed to do something about clothes for him. At least wash the stuff he'd been wearing so it could be used again. He'd have to ask first, because Lio would probably be upset if his clothes went missing all of a sudden.

When Lio exited the bathroom, once again in clothes way too big for him (which was ridiculously cute, Galo loved the look and would never say so for fear of injury, mostly to Lio's pride but also to wherever he decided to kick Galo for it), he walked up to Galo without knowing what to do, so Galo put an arm around his waist and pulled him into his lap on the bed. Noting the slight tremble in his limbs, Galo asked, "You okay?"

"Still cold," Lio answered curtly, his voice strained.

"Well, I can fix that," Galo grinned at him and leaned close to kiss Lio's throat - and to his surprise, Lio didn't flinch away as though it tickled, but tilted his chin to give him better access. A sweet warmth filled his chest. "Anything specific you want to try?"

Lio shook his head, but then added, "Maybe… To know what it feels like. Inside."

"Two options then," Galo rested his hands on Lio's waist and slid his fingers against skin right above the elastic waistband of his pants. "One, you can do me. Two, I can show you with my hands to get you used to it."

Lio paused, giving Galo a look that he was actually familiar with. Yeah, he liked it both ways. Maybe that wasn't the vibe he gave off, but it felt good both ways, so he didn't limit himself. "Show me," Lio said. "I want to know what it feels like before I do it to someone else." Sound reasoning, Galo thought.

It had been a surprise the night before to learn that Lio was a pretty decent kisser, in spite of his lack of experience. A bit shy, but in a way Galo didn't mind. He was a bit bolder when Galo kissed him again, eager to add to the feeling. He probably had no idea how cute he was being, but maybe Galo was a little biased. He really liked Lio, liked how honest and forceful he could be, and how driven he was.

After everything Galo had lost recently, Lio was exactly what he needed. He was the strong, compassionate leader that Galo thought Kray was, worthy of every bit of admiration.

There was a little shudder in Lio's limbs when Galo's fingers slid under his clothes, over his tailbone, almost like he was ticklish or especially sensitive there. Rather than using dry fingers on him, he gave his ass a squeeze and smiled. "Okay, think you can manage without pants on for a while? Or is it too cold?"

But before Lio could answer, he pulled him with him toward the middle of the bed, nesting the blankets around them so that Lio's legs could stay mostly covered. It was worth a shot. Lio gave him a smile and a raised eyebrow before slipping the sweatpants lower, struggling to get them off of his body while staying close to Galo. He did though, and tossed them to the side.

He was already hard, which was nice, since it meant he'd probably been looking forward to this, even if he still carried that air of nervousness. It all just made Galo more excited to make him feel good.

He stroked his erection a few times, slowly, while he adjusted the blankets over most of Lio's legs (fantastic legs, he would be revisiting that later for sure). The lube was in the bedside table, just barely in reach, and he leaned to grab it but just set it down beside the blanket nest instead of using it. Getting Lio comfortable came first.

He kissed him again, because it seemed to help, licking at his lips to coax him further into it, then stroked him again, slid his other hand between Lio's legs and pressed fingers against his perineum, firm. It drew a gasp from him, broke the kiss and Lio's fists tightened, pressed against Galo's bare chest. A little curse slipped out.

"You okay?"

"Stop asking me that," Lio hissed, "That's just… weird."

"Feels great once you get used to it!"

Lio's eyes had that fierce, grouchy look to them when they looked at Galo then. It almost made him laugh. Instead, he thumbed over the head of Lio's cock and watched his reaction, this time a small wince, and kissed his forehead in a way he hoped was comforting.

He took a quick break from that to grab a condom and lube, slipping both over two fingers. He was probably being too gentle for Lio's tastes, but he would keep that up until it felt more like a casual thing between them.

Lio lifted his hips, though it may not have been a conscious decision, and Galo pressed the wet fingers against him, pushing in slowly enough to keep watch over Lio's reactions. "Still feels weird, doesn't it?"

Lio nodded, a grimace on his face. "You enjoy this?"

"I enjoy this part," Galo teased, moving his fingers just so, in the general location of the prostate, making Lio's body tense up. "There it is…" He added, in a lighter voice that Lio shivered to.

"Oh…" Was all Lio seemed to manage at that.

"Yeah. I'll make this good for you, just relax," Galo promised, sneaking his other hand down the front of Lio's pants and once again massaging his perineal area. Lio was effectively enveloped in a hug on Galo's lap, and he kind of seemed to like it, leaning his forehead against Galo's shoulder. Maybe he was just seeking warmth. That was okay. The trembling in his limbs wasn't anything to do with the cold.

He wondered, though, if perhaps it would be impossible for Lio to take him, too tight around his fingers to really trust that it wouldn't hurt. He hoped they'd have the chance to try, but he wouldn't dare push it too far. He checked that Lio was okay two more times over the next couple minutes, until Lio stopped using full words and started letting out cute little whimpers and moans, and he kept moving his hips along with Galo's fingers like he couldn't get enough. Muscles in his thighs kept tensing and it was a delight to see it.

Somehow he'd pushed his body closer, and Galo felt him grinding against his stomach, already wet and hard. He seemed to be more readily giving in, which was promising, and honestly kind of beautiful.

His eyes were watering when he leaned back just enough to tug Galo's face into another kiss to drown out the noises that were likely embarrassing him. Messier than before, Lio less controlled and Galo too focused on working his fingers inside and outside of Lio's body, wanting to push him to the edge that way. Then he moaned Galo's name in a deep, breathy voice.

It was unusual, and noteworthy because Galo liked it. Most of the time, his casual partners wouldn't bother with such a thing - 'harder', 'yes', whatever else, sure, but not his name. That was far more encouraging anyway.

Lio desperately reached between them in their tangle of limbs, his hand over Galo's cock, squeezing hesitantly through fabric. "You too--" He tried to insist, and though Galo wasn't unmoved, he relentlessly continued fingering him and Lio's grip wavered as he climaxed, trying hard to keep sounds to himself and failing, biting back a gasp only for it to turn into a whimper.

Galo let him ride it out before pulling his fingers out and reaching behind him for tissues so that Lio could get cleaned up, but Lio's hand clamped onto his wrist to stop him.

"What about you?"

"Huh?"

"I agreed to this," he started, and Galo almost argued that no he didn't, but that wouldn't really get them anywhere, "because I thought it would be mutually beneficial, Galo." He was still catching his breath, and a little shaky, but he wasn't letting that stop him from being forceful and bossy. Galo was starting to like that side of him.

"Hey, I liked doing this for you! We both enjoyed it."

"Not good enough," Lio insisted. "Do you want me to try the same for you?"

Instead of saying that Lio didn't have to, Galo thought better of it, leaning in closer and saying "Not yet," with a smile he hoped was suggestive. "Save it. I wouldn't want to stop at just your hands."

He was rewarded with Lio turning a lovely shade of pink, and an even harder scowl on his features. "Idiot. Let me do something. Or-- put it in me, that's fine."

"Nah," Galo shook his head. "But! If you insist, I do want to try something. Lie back."

Lio looked uncertain, and Galo tried to offer a reassuring smile. It wasn't working. Lio seemed to like control, or at least knowing what was happening. The kind of guy who probably hated surprise parties. Still, he followed instruction, and Galo immediately went for Lio's legs, hands hooked under his knees to draw them upwards.

The first time he saw Lio's legs, clad in pointy armor, had been terrifying. Minutes later they were bound in skintight leather and way hotter than anyone's legs had any right to be, burnish or not. Naked, they were also perfect. Not the smooth, well-maintained legs of a woman who would show them off to catch attention, but from a distance no one would know it. There was hair but it was fine and so lightly colored it may as well have been invisible. His skin was smooth and pretty.

In the engine room, crumbling away, he… No.

He pressed a kiss to Lio's shin and moved up to his knee, moving his hips against Lio's thigh even though he hadn't even undressed yet. "Is it too cold?" He thought to ask, belatedly.

Lio hesitated, watching carefully, but shook his head. "It's fine for now."

"Let me know if it gets bad, okay?" He waited for Lio to nod before continuing, pushing Lio's legs back almost to his stomach, mouthing at his ankle and kissing it reverently. He knew Lio was strong with fire, and quick with it, but he hadn't been neglecting his body all that time; he was small but every bit of him seemed to be muscle. He was fantastic. "Hold your legs together?" he suggested, voice lower as he finally lowered his pants just enough, using just enough lube to make it easier.

Lio finally realized what he was doing and gave him a look, but he did press his thighs together. "You're so weird."

"Yep. Number one weirdest firefighting idiot right here," Galo agreed, pushing his cock between Lio's legs with a grunt. "You're still sleeping with me, so you must be into one of those things."

He was so smooth and lovely, and his cheeks reddened again at Galo's words, like he'd either never thought about it, or at least he'd never admit it. That was fine.

Galo hugged an arm around Lio's knees and started moving his hips, thrusting between Lio's thighs without holding back. He'd been turned on for a while, watching Lio be all sexy and cute in his lap, so he didn't need to waste time on buildup, just fuck it out of his system so Lio could be satisfied that they'd both finished and gotten something out of it.

Lio's entire body was pushed closer to the headboard with every thrust of Galo's hips, and he raised his arms above his head to make sure he didn't actually injure himself. Then he started to squirm like he was getting worked up again, and he chewed his bottom lip, his eyes locked on Galo's face. It really was ridiculous, how attractive Lio could be; he probably wasn't even trying. The bastard.

A handful of hard thrusts and he grunted again, coming all over Lio's thighs and the shirt he was wearing.

Lio stared.

"Sorry," Galo managed, sort-of laughing sheepishly as he let go of Lio's legs. "I'll do the laundry in the morning for you. Promise."

"It's not--" Lio started to protest, and Galo had a feeling it wasn't about the laundry. "...Thank you. I'd appreciate it," he amended quietly, lowering his legs and accepting the box of tissues from Galo to quickly clean himself up. "Will you show me how to use the machine?"

"Of course! We'll go right after breakfast."

He helped Lio re-dress himself, and laid down with his arm outstretched for Lio to use as a pillow if he'd like, when he joined him. And he did, quietly moving in close to Galo's chest and taking a deep breath.

Not for the first time, Galo admitted to himself that Lio was dangerous. It was a very different situation from before though, and he was a foolhardy sort who loved the danger. Loved it.

He chased sleep for a few minutes by petting a hand through Lio's hair, and once he heard Lio's breathing change, he finally dozed off, himself.

 

Chapter 4: Day 4

Notes:

I'm taking next week off from updates to work on a zine piece and Trail Blazing. 💖

@covetedthrone on twitter

 

As was probably normal, Lio was being a little moody the next day. It wasn't that the day was treating him so badly; Galo helped him get his clothes washed in the tiny basement laundry room of his apartment building, and taught him how to make some simple things so he could help more with feeding the burnish.

They were setting up a lean-to at the side of the community kitchen building. Shabby but usable. It didn't need to be there for long, just until they'd gotten enough set up to work better at the site. It was nothing interesting, none of their camp was, but they were aiming for 'functional', and that worked out well.

Lio's problems were more personal. That was new to him, since he'd never bothered being close to anyone after awakening as a burnish. Sure, he'd been close to his parents, but those ties were severed in fire, ashes left in the past. Galo… Was becoming special, and Lio didn't know what to do about it.

He didn't want to keep thinking about it, but Galo was wearing a simply gorgeous expression the night before while fucking between Lio's legs. It was so stupid. Lio couldn't stop watching his face, brows furrowed with a bead of sweat slithering down his nose. Hair clinging to his dampened skin. His pretty blue eyes in the dark, fierce and focused, dim city lights from the window highlighting the shapes of his body. Lio wanted to see more of him. He wanted to keep coming back to Galo's bedroom and keep offering himself up just to get that kind of eyeful.

Galo had been his type from the start, of course, at least physically. He never thought they'd see eye-to-eye in the beginning, but it seemed that they got along swimmingly after all. And he was becoming attached, which was frustrating.

"The boyfriend-shirt look is good on you, Boss," Gueira teased him gently, nudging his shoulder while he moved to help him lift what would be a makeshift wall of worn-in sheet metal they'd scavenged from the crash site.

"Not my boyfriend," Lio corrected, swiftly. Possibly too swiftly.

"It's just the big hoodie you've got on, it looks good."

Lio glared at him.

"Are you still that cold?" Meis nudged his other shoulder. "Is it not any better?"

Lio shook his head. "I'm fine. I'll hold this if you secure it in place," he said, trying to change the topic back to more important things. They both followed instruction on each side of the metal sheet, but they didn't let up on the invasive questions.

"Do you need to stay with us at night until it gets better?"

He felt his face warm, but it wasn't enough to reduce the chill at all. "No. I'm not having this problem at night."

"You're really attached to the guy, aren't you?" Gueira asked, making Lio scowl at him.

"He saved my life. He saved all of you. Until I find a way to adequately repay him, I'll stay there." A half-truth. "What is it with you two? I've never invaded your privacy this much."

"Well, neither of us started dating our former enemy, so…" Meis shrugged.

"Not dating," Lio hissed.

But would it be so bad?

"Well, if it's nothing serious, I won't worry about you so much," Meis promised, and Gueira frowned.

"We're just lookin' out for you, Boss."

"And I'm still not talking about this."

Whatever they thought about his non-relationship with Galo, it didn't matter; if the burnish weren't fighting for their lives anymore, he had the freedom to do whatever he wanted in the time he wasn't spending at the crash site. Still, he spent a great portion of his off time thinking about ways to keep things running smoothly. If at night he wasted time on little dalliances with a former enemy, well... 

No, they had no reason to worry for him. He barely thought of Galo as the same moron he was when they first met. Now, he was a friend. A gentle, compassionate friend who he'd probably keep sleeping with.

And that was his business, no one else's.

With their help, he finished that simple project and moved on to the next one. Whether they had access to all of the fancy equipment he wanted or not, they'd get this done, or at least as far along as they could manage. The burnish were all kinds, after all. Their numbers were diminished, but he knew for a fact that a few of them had worked in construction before their fires awakened and chased them out of their lives. There was no uniform burnish experience, they all had their own skills - that was why his settlement idea could've worked. Just… the rest of the burnish, all of them, would've needed to believe in them too, and even though there was only one who didn't, it was enough for it all to come crumbling down.

The entire block had been claimed by the burnish. A few standing buildings had been repurposed into homes, and nobody had come to try taking them back yet - most of the buildings belonged to Foresight, so he expected some resistance, but not from anyone who could do a damn thing about it. They needed somewhere to sleep at night. He was the only one who had anywhere else to go, so protecting them in his absence was a priority.

Where Meis and Gueira had found that mattress store, they'd set up room dividers to give as many as possible some privacy. There was a crumbling office building that they were cautiously clearing out to try and make use of the ruins, maybe they could fix it later on and make apartments. It was a start, and they'd need to keep going for the burnish who were incapable of working, the ones who'd been butchered and disfigured by the Foresight Foundation. The ones who wouldn't stand a chance on their own. They would take care of each other, just as he'd wanted.

The woman and her son appeared to enjoy their post in the kitchen, so they stayed there and brought small meals out to the people working hard all day. They called him 'boss' with a pair of bright, yet tired, smiles as they offered him a sandwich.

They were all tired.

They needed more help than what they had, and he just wasn't sure how to secure it yet. Galo had already helped them once, he couldn't keep asking him - and he didn't want to give him the wrong idea about the reason Lio kept going back at night, he wasn't angling for anything.

For now, it would be okay. They'd keep working until they hit a wall.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Aina shrieked, Lucia barely holding her back while Galo blocked off Heris, who wasn't actually doing much more than flinching meekly at every movement.

"Aina, calm down," Ignis warned her.

"This is unbelievable!" She spat, glaring at her sister coldly, "Why are you putting this in her hands after how much she hurt people!"

"Because she knows how to do it," Vanessa, the standing leader of Promepolis until elections could be held, informed her.

Aina didn't have an argument for that - no one did. And maybe Galo wasn't fond of the idea either, but he knew it was probably Heris Ardebit's best chance to get back into her sister's (and the city's) good graces, so he was willing to allow it without throwing a tantrum. Honestly, Aina's behavior was a huge shock.

And she glared at Heris before turning on her heel and storming off. Galo, ever the risk-taker, followed her.

She didn't turn to face him, just walked in the direction of the burnish camp as though she could physically protect them from her sister by being there in her way.

"She should be punished," Aina said, aware that Galo was behind her.

"Yeah."

"You don't even know the half of it, Galo," she snarled, finally slowing her pace so he could catch up. "She murdered people. She's not the sister I knew, she's not the person I looked up to."

"...I know exactly how that feels, though."

Aina flinched, and suddenly apologized, quieter. They walked together in silence for a full minute before Aina spoke up again. "She-- she told me that she overloaded the engine by leaning harder on the burnish flame. And it killed a bunch of them, I can't say how many. She could've smashed up the controls, she could've messed up the code. Anything else. But she chose to kill people instead. Like people don't even matter to her."

"You matter to her," Galo pointed out. "I know that's not what you want to hear, but… I dunno. You could remind her of who she was when you trusted her. She wasn't always hiding this from you. It might matter to hear you say that."

"It won't change what she did. And it won't make it any better that she's being put in charge of the burnish now."

"Trust me, she's not going to be in charge," Galo almost laughed, imagining Lio bending to Heris of all people. No, he'd be telling her what to do in no time, and if she tried arguing she'd be crushed under his boots. He was the boss.

"I don't want her anywhere near them. They deserve better."

"She developed the equipment," Galo pointed out.

"I bet Lucia could figure it out!" She argued back.

"Maybe…" Galo folded his arms. "Maybe we could ask if Lucia could be working with her? Or at least give her some kind of supervision."

"You'd better believe I won't let her have any contact with the burnish by herself," Aina nodded decisively. "Besides, they'd probably murd--"

"No," Galo interrupted. "You know they wouldn't." He wouldn't let anyone say that the burnish were murderers. Yeah, they were all individuals, some of them could've killed before, but not under Lio's leadership.

She paused to stare at him for a few more seconds. "Well, I'm just saying. If she got clocked in the head, she'd have it coming from them."

Galo frowned at her, but he didn't argue, since it really wasn't his place to decide who deserved what. He kind of agreed with Aina's insistence that Heris deserved to be in prison, but he wasn't going to argue for it. His feelings were conflicted. She'd brought him a last meal and he thought he could see some conflict on her face at the time, too. But it was dark in that cell, and his mind had been playing tricks on him…

"I'm going to help the burnish myself," Aina declared, not slowing her pace in the slightest. "You can tell Ignis for me. Or better yet, join me."

"Yeah, I'll help!" He brightened, and she gave him a look, but said nothing about it. "I guess step one will be telling Lio that they're getting extra equipment to make things easier. That'll make him happy."

"...You're invested in his happiness, huh?"

"Yeah, he's my friend."

"A friend you make pancakes for. Is he still at your place?"

"When he wants to be," Galo tilted his head and she looked like she was trying not to laugh for a second there.

"So," She started, seemingly cheered up at the very least, "Is he your type?"

Galo froze for a moment. He'd been in this situation before; it was delicate and awkward to try and sidestep any indication that they might be sleeping together. That was the usual course, anyway. Most of his partners would deny it publicly after all, so it was better to stick with a 'just a friend' comment and shrug it off.

He felt reluctant to do that this time, and his face warmed considerably.

"No! I mean, sure, he's attractive, but you think so too, right?"

Her eyes narrowed playfully, but he was pretty sure she bought it. "I heard you kissed him."

"It was CPR!"

"Sure it was," She teased again, her footsteps lighter. If picking on him lifted her mood, he was okay with it. He was always okay with it, a good sport about teasing.

He pouted about it, but didn't say anything that would've proven a point.

They approached what was to be named the burnish district, and it was honestly rather impressive how much they'd managed without real equipment; sure, it looked like a shantytown, but still like a town nonetheless. Structures were placed near the crash site, and though they were crude they looked sturdy enough to hold up for a few months while they built proper housing. They'd do for now. Hopefully Lio would feel a bit better leaving the burnish here while staying at Galo's place.

Lio's pretty blond head was easy to spot in spite of how short he was. Must have been that commanding presence of his. Even in the too-big clothing, he gave a simple gesture in a direction and three people rushed to follow it. He was such a powerful leader, even though as far as Galo could tell, Lio was feeling uncomfortable with it. His stance was tall (well, as tall as he could be), movements sure; and yet, there was something off. His head looked downward more often. The proud guy he'd piloted with would've raised paper to his level to read it, he wouldn't lower his chin.

Or maybe he was reading too much into it. That was entirely possible.

Aina called out a greeting to him and waved and Lio waved back, hesitantly. He didn't move toward them, but waited for them to approach him. "How's it going out here? Anything we can help out with?" She was being overly bubbly to try and be friendly with him, and Galo had a feeling that was exactly the wrong way to endear oneself to Lio Fotia, but Aina could hold her own, she'd figure it out.

"There's nothing…" Lio said warily, but glanced over at Galo as if to silently ask what they were doing with a look of unease.

"Looks like you'll be getting some equipment to help you guys out," Galo said with a smile. The corner of Lio's mouth twitched. "Uh, don't get too excited about it yet. It's coming with some extra baggage."

Lio simply waited to hear him continue.

"W-well, it's Foresight Foundation tech, so my sister was recruited to help you with it…" Aina admitted. When Lio looked confused, she added, "Heris Ardebit. She's my sister."

Shadows fell over Lio's eyes as he looked down and bit back his reaction. Ah, Galo recognized it somehow. If he had fire, he'd be burning.

"She won't hurt any of you. We won't let her."

"She shouldn't be anywhere near us."

"I know," Aina agreed, "If it was up to me she'd be in--" When Lio's gaze snapped in her direction she stopped immediately. He had that kind of power over people.

"She was a bogeyman to my people. Campfire horror stories that would make your skin crawl. Anyone who survived the foundation knew she earned that reputation. Bringing her here is going to help no one." Lio maintained a very level tone, and quietly took a moment to adjust the gloves he'd been given. "For what it's worth, Aina Ardebit, it astounds me that someone like you is related to that monster."

"No one is more surprised than I am…" Aina bowed her head. "Let's just… learn to use the equipment and then make her leave. We'll figure out a way."

Aina missed it, but Lio had just admitted liking her, indirectly. That brought Galo's smile back, and he crossed his arms while looking between them proudly. "Yeah, don't worry. I'll come along and make sure she keeps her distance. And you can bet Aina won't let her do anything."

"I will literally hogtie her every morning so she's stuck at home if I have to!"

Lio actually cracked a smile at that. "Well, hopefully you won't have to."

A few seconds passed before anyone spoke up again, and rather than stand there awkwardly Galo decided to ask again, "So, where can we help?"

Lio looked back at him, his expression far softer than it had been a minute before. "The equipment that we're getting, is that what he was using in the-- what was it you named his robot?"

"Krayzor X!" He said it loudly, and struck a pose.

"Right. That stupid thing. Is that what we'll have access to?"

Galo didn't know, so he looked to Aina.

"Um, As long as my sister knows how to use it, we'll have access to it here, from what I understand." She said, tapping her chin. "And she developed most of his stuff, I think?"

He wondered if Lio was okay with her saying 'we' like she was part of it; Lio often separated the burnish from others in order to protect them, and maybe Galo expected him to argue for that now, but instead, Lio seemed happier.

"Then-- You can help clear out space? We'll need plumbing all along that block--" he gestured behind him "--and we could even put together a plot of land for produce, so we'll be that much closer to providing for ourselves…"

The excitement was cute, but… "You know you don't have to do that now, right?" Galo pointed out, "I mean, you'll be able to get groceries the same as everyone else. Nobody's banning you from the supply."

Lio fell silent and watched his face thoughtfully. "I hope you're right. But to get us started, we need to become self-sufficient. We have nothing of our own anymore, no money, no jobs or homes. We can't rely on the kindness of the same people who would've called Freeze Force on us if we were caught in the city two weeks ago."

"Of course I'm right! And it's not like you guys are really all that different from anyone else now, right?"

"Some of us are safe. Many of us never will be. They'll wear the scars of the Foresight Foundation for the rest of their lives."

Galo swallowed hard and nodded. He'd seen enough while they were rescuing the burnish. Their bodies had been crumbling apart and the promare were no longer around to fix the damage, pieces missing in varying amounts. It was horrific. "You're right. Sorry. But you know you've got allies, right? Even if you haven't met all of them yet."

Lio looked down in a subtle agreement, "The people of this city… The burnish are unlikely to trust them."

"I have a feeling that if you showed trust in someone, the rest of the burnish would trust them too," Aina spoke up from the edge of the conversation, as if trying to remind them she was there. She'd done that before, trying to temper their enthusiasm when they found Prometh's lab.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Galo agreed, ruffling Lio's hair (an action Lio quite clearly hated). "Let's get started cleaning this place up."

Both Aina and Lio showed a sort of cautious optimism when they agreed, and they worked together smoothly through the rest of the day. Galo was especially delighted to meet more of the burnish, and played with some of the kids whenever he felt like a break had been earned (and he mentally noted to call the orphanage that he'd been raised in. Maybe he could put in a good word for the burnish kids and get them into a better living situation).

Rather than go home for dinner that night, he and Lio took kitchen duty, giving the others a break. Lio was a quick study, and managed to make simple meals without hurting himself or anyone else. Galo wasn't used to making food in such quantities, barely used to cooking for two. 

Throughout the day, Galo realized that he'd never seen Lio smile that way before. The way he smiled at the other burnish was special, and… something about that made Galo just a little jealous.

And yet, Lio still went home with him that night.

Along with the constant coldness, Lio had been trying to adjust to one other side effect of losing the promare, and that was being sore. The trembling made it worse, his muscles and joints achingly tender.

When they got back to Galo's apartment, Lio wanted nothing more than to drop on the bed and sleep, but it felt early for that. Plus, he was kind of gross after working all day and desperately needed a shower. At least they'd already eaten (and he'd been pleased with himself for managing the kitchen. He wasn't as good as Galo yet, but hopefully he could be, and maybe he'd be more useful to the burnish).

Galo sat beside him and ruffled his hair, rudely, earning a scowl.

"Want a shower?"

"Yes," Lio answered. "I'm too tired to move."

Galo grinned at him and grabbed around his waist, lifting him up. Lio didn't like that any more than the first time Galo had pulled such a stunt, so he tried thrashing his way out of Galo's arms with a yelp and Galo just pulled him up onto his shoulder. "We'll take one together," he said, "It'll be fine."

He was set down on the side of the tub and Galo started running the water to warm it up. It wasn't that Lio didn't trust him, obviously, but he didn't know how much either of them could be trusted to keep their hands to themselves. At least… That's how Lio felt. He wasn't sure Galo felt the same way, but he'd at least been receptive.

"Want to try a bath instead?" Galo offered. "I think it can be a bit more relaxing. There's probably enough space for both of us."

Imagining it, Lio flushed. It was not a large bathtub, they would be cramped. It wasn't new territory, they'd seen each other naked, but something about it was somewhat unnerving. The relaxation part was tempting, though, and he nodded. "I'd rather not do anything tonight," he blurted out, not quite a warning. Was he too fickle? No, he was allowed to be tired and sore and still accept Galo's company without that level of intimacy, wasn't he?

"Yeah, makes sense," Galo agreed, "We don't have to sleep together every night you're here, you know. If it's a comfort thing for both of us, it's fine without anything more than, y'know, sleeping."

Lio nodded once. He knew that was the arrangement, but he also assumed… well, that didn't matter.

"I could add bubbles! Aw man, have you ever tried a bubble bath? It's so fun."

When Lio said he hadn't, Galo wore a wide, way-too-giddy smile and poured something under the faucet as the tub filled up. The water was covered with foam in seconds and Lio couldn't possibly have felt more concerned in that moment. He assumed it was a weird soap, and he hoped he was right.

Galo started to peel his clothing off and dumped it on the floor, and hesitantly, Lio started to follow suit. He'd never actually undressed in front of someone before. Galo had always been so considerate, letting him leave layers on so he would stay warm even while they had sex. It was a different kind of awkward, but he figured Galo wouldn't care. He'd seen all of Lio at different points in time, after all. And he'd seen plenty of others…

The enthusiasm Galo had for such a simple thing was incredible. He climbed in first, reacting like it was way too hot for him (probably for Lio's sake) by flinching. But he sank into the water with a sigh and held out a hand for Lio to join him, and Lio took it, stepping in carefully and marveling at how warm it was. He liked hot showers, they were probably a highlight of his time staying with Galo, and the bath seemed just as comforting, but the water was still.

Galo pulled him onto his lap impatiently and stuck his tongue out. "Feels great, right?"

Lio nodded, still quiet. He still didn't understand what the foaming was for, but that was an interesting touch. "How do you wash your hair like this?"

"Well, sometimes I'll run the shower to get the rest of me when I'm done relaxing," Galo explained, "But if I had a bigger tub, I'd just dunk my head under like I did as a kid."

"You do this to relax often?"

Galo didn't answer right away, grabbing some soap and lathering it onto his hands, then on Lio's shoulders while he thought about his answer. Lio didn't complain even though he felt that he ought to. It was nice. "When I'm stuck at home alone, I do whatever I need to do to relax before bed," he answered finally. "Sometimes it helps."

"But company works best for you?"

"Yeah," Galo agreed.

Lio had a feeling that even if they were facing each other, Galo wouldn't be meeting his eyes. "There's no shame in it." He wasn't sure what the right words to say were, but he knew what he thought of it. "Life isn't perfect for anyone, and you've had a lot to grow up with. I have nightmares too, sometimes. On the run, I didn't have the opportunity to combat them, though."

Galo gave it another few seconds of thought and started scrubbing at Lio's back. "Well, who knows! Maybe company is helpful to you, too."

"Perhaps it will be."

He felt Galo's smile against his skin like a sunbeam, though he wasn't facing it to see. How odd.

They fell silent, and on Lio's side it was due to drowsiness. He leaned back against Galo's chest without much thought, and just enjoyed the way his body warmed up. Eventually, Galo had the showerhead in hand and turned it on, carefully washing Lio's hair and rinsing him off, but even after he was clean he didn't want to get out until the water lost enough of its heat that he shivered.

Galo bundled him into a towel and gave him some clothes to wear, and Lio couldn't decide if he hated being pampered or not. Maybe just this once he'd give it a pass, because Galo genuinely seemed happy to do it. Like that was all he wanted, not the company to sleep with. Something more like a partner. Lio knew that wasn't him, but he couldn't be blamed for enjoying it, could he? While he was there, while his company was desired, he could enjoy himself.

He fell asleep the moment he laid down and closed his eyes. It was still too early, because he woke again around eleven-thirty, Galo's phone buzzing on the nightstand and Galo snoring away peacefully through it.

It would have been a massive overstep to answer, but he reached for it. The caller ID read with simply the letter "B", and showed a picture of a handsome man, tall and muscular. No one Lio recognized.

…

Yeah, it was an overstep. He unlocked the phone with the pattern he remembered Galo showing him that first morning and said sharply, "It's late, try later."

He hung up before the man could answer. It wasn't his business anyway. He just wanted to phone to stop making noise - that was all it was. Really. He set it back down and it chimed with a text, but Lio ignored it and rolled over to face Galo, who woke up at some point, snug against his chest.

"Everything okay?" Galo asked, sleepy.

"Mm," Lio answered.

The man in the picture had been so manly-looking. Basically the opposite of Lio himself, and it made him feel a bit weird. Galo rubbed his back tiredly, comforting as could be, but it didn't do anything to calm his mind. He was probably nothing like Galo's usual taste, if that was the kind of guy calling him at that late hour.

He pushed closer, hugging tight around Galo's body. "I changed my mind."

"'Bout what?"

"Sex."

Galo made a confused, tired noise and leaned back to look Lio in the face. "Uh. Everything okay?"

"Yeah. I just want to," He answered simply, unable to find an explanation more honest than that. He couldn't explain it to himself either. "If you want to, I mean."

Galo looked slightly troubled, but not unhappy. He was trying to figure it out, because he could tell there was more to it. But if Lio didn't know the answer, how would Galo be able to figure it out? "Yeah… Yeah, okay. If you need help getting back to sleep, I totally get it."

Lio almost protested - that wasn't why, but since he didn't have anything better to say he kept it to himself.

"What do you wanna do, then?" Galo asked, sitting up. Lio sat upright with him, looking down at the sheets.

"I want you to show me what you like. What I can do for you, this time."

When he turned his head back up, Galo's cheeks had reddened. It was a cute reaction. He was always so selfless in bed, never pushing too far, it was frustrating in a way. Lio wanted to know how to be a better bed partner. That wasn't so odd, was it? "...Sure, okay. Uh," Galo rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully and glanced aside. "You remember what I did to you? With my fingers, I mean."

Lio nodded.

"That. I still think it's too soon for you to handle it, but I think I'd like it if you had the lead, if you want to try it." He didn't have to act weirdly bashful about it. It was cute, though. "Since you're the one who found all this energy all of a sudden," he added, apparently as a tease.

With a few seconds of hesitation, Lio nodded again and reached into the drawer in the nightstand to grab Galo's lube bottle. One look at the condoms and he paused again. "...Will I really be enough for you?" He asked, not necessarily embarrassed by his size, but… Well, every part of him was smaller than a man like "B" was. The guy probably had a huge dick and Lio was probably less than average. Not that he had much reference there.

For whatever reason, he would've felt devastated to leave Galo unsatisfied. One look at the condom size Galo stocked up on told him he'd probably disappoint.

"You're more than enough," Galo insisted, so sincere that Lio's face warmed. "C'mon, you're hot as hell, you know that, right?"

Lio's eyes widened and his face flushed. "I-- I don't know what your tastes are," he argued, then gestured at the drawer with the supplies in it, "Attractive or not, those probably won't fit me."

Galo laughed, and Lio's embarrassment turned into a glare. "You'll be fine. Trust me. They're more one-size-fits-all than you'd expect."

Lio frowned, and pulled one from the box, looking at the width of the wrapper skeptically. "If you say so," he said, finally leaning over Galo to kiss him. He'd come to understand that as the beginning of the ritual: a kiss, then wandering hands, then he'd have to rely on Galo to tell him what to do. Hopefully that last step would change.

He rested one hand on Galo's chest, his other finding Galo's hand and holding it for a moment, though he wasn't sure if he was seeking reassurance or what. Maybe he just liked Galo's hands. No, he knew he did. He liked a lot of Galo. The way he stared at Galo's body sometimes, it wasn't all jealousy. He'd trace over the lines of his muscles with his eyes, and at least in the bedroom, when they did this, he had the chance to do it with his hands too. Every part of him was so firm and yet relaxed under Lio's fingers.

"Somethin' you like?" Galo teased, right against Lio's mouth.

He took that to mean he was being too obvious. "You know, you're the one who shows off your body constantly," Lio pointed out, pushing Galo flat on his back and leaning over him. "You have no right to give me any crap for indulging."

Galo chuckled. "Yeah, that's fair. Admire all you want. I worked hard on it!"

Lio stared down at his goofy face for a second, then nodded. "Yeah. Obviously," he murmured, leaning down and pressing lips to Galo's skin, right under his collar, nuzzling against his pectorals and taking a deep breath. He smelled like body wash, which was less interesting than he'd hoped it'd be. "Do you like this sort of thing?"

"Being admired? Duh. Have we met?"

Lio rolled his eyes, but he didn't stop. He licked Galo's nipple and was delighted to see the response, his muscles tensing in surprise. Good. In spite of exposure, he was sensitive. Even if Lio only had a vague sense of what he was doing, he was determined to explore, and make it worthwhile for both of them. "Tell me what feels good," He demanded, right before taking a bite - he wasn't stupid enough to leave marks, Galo walked around shirtless too much and he really didn't need to draw attention to what they were up to at night, but he wondered if Galo might like it, and judging by the little gasp and the way he squirmed under Lio, he must be doing it right.

He trailed his fingers down his torso, and heard Galo giggle lightly. If he was ticklish that opened a whole world of possibilities-- for another day, perhaps. Still, Lio filed it away and slipped one of his hands down the front of Galo's pants, a wet spot on his wrist told him he was doing something very right.

"Shit, why are your hands so cold," Galo whined.

"Should warm up fast in here," Lio teased, wrapping his fingers around Galo's dick and making him flinch again. Truly, it was so cozy and warm in there. "Or, maybe faster inside of you?"

Galo cursed under his breath and pushed his hair out of his face. "Yeah, try it. Where'd you put--"

Lio withdrew his hand and grabbed the lube, and Galo took the opportunity to pull his pants off. Made sense. Lio was the cold one, he was the one who had to work around clothes, not Galo, who was apparently quite comfortable naked. He kept the temperature high for Lio's comfort, after all. Firefighter or not, he shouldn't have to be dealing with too much heat at home, so Lio felt appropriately guilty even if he'd never asked for it.

He wasn't a very good judge, but he guessed the lube was cold based on how Galo reacted when Lio touched him with it. Well, that would probably warm up faster than Lio would, so he'd just have to deal if he wanted to move forward. More importantly, he found almost no resistance when he pushed his fingers inside, just as Galo had done to him. He recalled it stinging at first, feeling way too tight, but Galo was already pliant, and seemed used to it, to some degree.

He shuddered and covered his eyes with his wrist, "A little-- yeah, that's--"

Even if he wasn't speaking in full sentences, Lio found what he was reacting to. It was barely noticeable, but he pressed against it with curled fingers and Galo gasped and trembled. What a sight.

"Your fingers are slender," Galo said with a shaky voice, "So, keep going?"

A part of him felt annoyed, wanting to point out see, I wasn't enough for you, but he bit it back and worked a third finger in. If nothing else, he was pretty sure he could find that spot inside of him with his dick, so maybe he'd been worried for nothing after all.

It was just…

Galo had been really good to him. They were just friends, sure, but that didn't mean this had to be one-sided, Galo showing him the ropes and leaving himself hanging.

He leaned over him again and kissed him, sliding his tongue past parted lips. Galo made a muffled noise against his mouth, but it wasn't a complaint so Lio didn't back off yet. The first time they kissed it had just felt sloppy and kind of weird, but he was finally finding the pleasure in it, the needy way Galo's mouth moved against his. It was almost sweet.

He tried his best to reach for the condom one-handed, but ultimately failed. "About ready?" He asked before removing his fingers, and got a slurred 'uh-huh' in response, which was honestly better than real words. The tiny, pleading noise he made in the back of his throat when Lio pulled his fingers out was even more telling. "You really like this, huh?"

"Yeah," Galo managed, "You're a natural."

It was more a relief than a boost to his pride, but he accepted the compliment with a grin and kissed him again, quickly, while he arranged his clothing to let barely a sliver of skin exposed to the cold, and slipped on the condom. It didn't feel as snug as he thought it should, but he was sure it would stay in place as Galo told him.

"All set?" Galo asked him, propping himself up on an elbow to see. Lio nodded, taking a few extra seconds to position himself, somewhat nervous but not really enough to hinder him. He pushed inside slowly, watching Galo's face for any sign of discomfort and not finding any. Instead he just laid back down and groaned, squirming pleasantly. "At least that part of you isn't freezing." It might have been another tease, but the crack in his voice made it sound pitifully sincere.

And yeah, it was good he wasn't actually freezing, 'cause without a doubt Galo would make him melt. Seeing where he disappeared into him, it was too tempting. He tried moving; it wasn't as easy as he assumed it would be to actually aim himself, but he eventually found a good angle that made Galo shiver. "Is this okay?"

"Yeah. Keep it up." Galo almost sounded demanding, which was cute. Lio moved his hips with more force behind it and Galo let out a yelp that dissolved into a satisfied hiss. "S-see? A natural…"

"You talk too much," Lio chided him, doing it again, and again and repeating until Galo whined loudly.

He murmured Lio's name, and it seemed unnatural, like he was just testing it out. Like he'd never said Lio's name before, but that wasn't right at all. He used it with more confidence a few seconds later, and Lio murmured Galo's name in response, leaning closer.

"Galo," he said, softly against the skin of Galo's chest. He was focused, trying not to get carried away with himself. "I want to make you feel good, but if my hands are too cold--"

"Y-you're good enough like this."

A nice sentiment, but Lio was still inexperienced and doubted he'd last long enough. Not that he'd say it so bluntly. "I want to see it," he said, nipping at his skin and reaching for Galo's hand, guiding it between them so that Galo could touch himself. He wouldn't beg, and he didn't think Galo would make him.

Sure enough, he caved, squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing his cock while Lio kept thrusting inside of him. He didn't have much enthusiasm in his hand, but he didn't seem to need it, swallowing down Lio's name following a string of curses. Lio accepted that as a signal that he was close, and he stopped concentrating so hard on his own control.

Because it was so hot inside of Galo and he'd never done this before, so it ought to be something that made him more nervous than it did. He supposed he'd gotten comfortable, which was maybe a good thing. 

He wanted to know exactly what Galo was feeling like, too. Maybe that was weird, but there were tears lining Galo's eyes and he looked so thrilled… He'd felt good inside when Galo touched him. He hoped he was doing half as well. He gripped Galo's thigh as he finished, his limbs feeling weak and tense all at once. Luckily Galo came at about the same time, making a mess over his stomach and breathing unsteadily.

He fumbled for the tissues but his arms were weak and threatened to give out the moment he pulled away, so it fell on Galo to clean himself up and Lio struggled with his own mess. He would've been embarrassed if Galo drew attention to that momentary weakness, but he seemed to know better.

After tossing trash into the bin and straightening his clothing out, Galo grabbed him around the shoulders and tugged him under blankets again with a deep sigh into his hair. He thought about protesting, but he was warm and relaxed and decided against it.

"Y'know, if you're worried about your size--"

"Tread carefully, Thymos," He warned. He wasn't being serious.

"Well, I just mean-- I know I'm bigger than average? But you shouldn't compare to me! For your height and stuff, you're probably better than average too, I think?"

"Shut up," he tried rolling his eyes but Galo couldn't see it.

"And there was this one guy I used to meet at the gym - I think he did steroids, and I don't mess with that kinda thing so we don't really talk anymore. But he was this huge, muscular guy, way bigger than me--"

"Your point, Galo."

"Yeah, well, what they say about steroids shrinking your junk? Probably true, as it turns out."

Lio snorted, relaxing again in Galo's grip. "You're so dumb."

"Yep. And you feel warmer now."

"Yeah," Lio agreed, snuggling close. "Thanks, for that."

He felt Galo's breathing on his scalp, and felt a festering, sinking feeling in his chest. He couldn't identify what it was, too inexperienced, but he knew it was stupid to get caught up in it.

 

 

Chapter 5: Day 5

Though the street had been cleared and leveled just for construction to start with Heris at the helm, the first sight that greeted them when they arrived was crude graffiti on the wall of the kitchen, calling for death to all burnish. Not a great start to the day, but Lio seemed undeterred and immediately started gathering supplies to clean it off.

There were some symbols that Galo found suspicious, but he didn't remark on them. They'd be scrubbed away soon.

Instead, he spent much more time watching Lio than he was proud of. He was glad Ignis had allowed him and Aina to work with the burnish, possibly as a gesture of goodwill, but honestly he wasn't sure how much help he was being. He could pilot Lucia's gear, and the Lio de Galon had been pretty user-friendly, but Heris had her own design style that made things needlessly complicated, and while he was doing his best to adapt, he wasn't entirely successful yet.

Lio still had faith in him. Every now and then he'd look at him with a gentle, encouraging smile and tell him it was okay, and he should try again.

And then he'd stare at that smile and feel his face warm up. He wasn't used to spending the day with people he slept with, and people he knew he was going to take home again, so maybe that was all it was. Plus, Lio had been kind of… needy, the night before. Not the best word for it, but Galo didn't know a better one. And he'd probably caused it in the first place. What kind of idiot washes their friend's hair? Apparently Galo was that kind of idiot, and he'd enjoyed the hell out of it.

The machinery he was working with, according to Heris (who was standing behind him meekly), was meant to build foundations for housing. It was a lot more complicated than regular construction gear. Apparently, it was going to be used to build a colony for Kray, so it had to be way more involved.

It was still cool to watch it spit out hot iron and cement and whatever that plastic-looking stuff was. It created an intricate web of materials that needed to be filled in after a twelve hour cooling period, but it was obviously a tidy little building in the making, like a set of row houses along the street.

And when he looked at Lio after those were built, he saw his eyes sparkling proudly.

It was one of the nicest expressions he'd ever seen on him - and Lio was a very expressive person, more than he'd know. The outright joy he shared with the former burnish at times, the sadness he showed when discussing the dead. The studious expression he wore that night, leaning over Galo and trying to figure things out for himself. Beautifully expressive. Galo was doing his best not to think about it.

Aina had been working with that pile-driver device, and getting pipes in place for proper irrigation. She'd met some former burnish with experience in the field and was getting along well with them, listening to their expertise without question and earning their trust in the process.

"...I'm also supposed to be doing medical check-ups…" Heris said quietly. "To make sure that the burnish will recover from any lasting effects of the promare."

"We're fine with you staying away from us," Lio snapped at her. She flinched, but nodded, and Galo frowned. No, Heris wasn't exactly trustworthy, but it was hard not to feel sorry for someone who was cowed as she was. Whatever Aina had said to her had pushed her into this state, and Aina could be pretty scary when she was pissed off.

"It'd probably be good if that sort of thing does happen, though," Galo pointed out, "If not Aina's sis, who d'you think would be best for the job?"

"There were doctors who became burnish. We can take care of ourselves."

"Got it," Galo agreed, kickstarting the machine back to life with a wide grin, "You're gonna need a medical center for that, aren't you?"

"Hell yes," Lio agreed, "Show me how to do it myself."

...Maybe it was foolish.

Yeah, it was probably a dumb idea, but he had Lio in his lap, learning the controls for the rest of the morning. Somehow he'd managed to erase Heris's presence from Lio's mind in that time.

Lio was feeling stiff, and he didn't think it had anything to do with any activity from the night before, but he couldn't discount it either. His shoulder was hard to move without dull pain.

"It's normal, I think," Gueira told him, with a mouth full of food. "You're working too hard, so your body is trying to make you rest."

"You've been burnish too long to know what that's like, I'm guessing?" Meis asked, rotating his water bottle as though he was interested in reading the label.

They'd never discussed awakenings. Oftentimes, the moment a burnish found their fire was a terrible memory for them, something remembered with shame and regret. Too often they awoke in a fit of rage, or nervousness, too often surrounded by people who would become victims of the flames. Most burnish knew what it felt like to harm or kill someone, and it was rarely on purpose.

"I was pretty young," Lio admitted.

"It also gets worse when you get older," Gueira needlessly added. "And colder. Since you're still feeling cold, that might be it."

"Still?" Meis asked, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

Lio nodded, but said nothing to make his worry even worse. He didn't want to make a big deal out of it until all of the burnish were safe and comfortable as he was every night. And since he was warm at night, it couldn't be that bad. The pain was a constant, but… He preferred not to think about it. A sharp ache in his body that he could still ignore.

Simply that, and nothing more.

"I'll be fine," Lio insisted, and Meis said nothing. He was likely to continue ruminating on the topic for days, but so long as it didn't get in the way of their work that would be okay. "Tomorrow, we'll have homes," he reminded them, glad of their proud reactions.

That was important, after all; they'd been at it all day, setting up for the next day's construction. It was moving so quickly that it felt unreal. Truly, befriending Galo had been a blessing in many forms. He wished more people could be so open-minded and eager to help as he and Aina had been.

The young man who enjoyed working the kitchen was taking every opportunity to stare at Lio now, admiration in his eyes on a level that Lio might have assumed was childish. While he accepted his leadership role with grace, he didn't like the idea of being held on a pedestal, and he hadn't earned any kind of celebrity status for anything good he'd done. Even saving the planet with Galo, most of the credit all went to Galo in the first place and he was okay with that.

The burnish knew, though. They knew what he'd done for them, and they respected him for it, and that was more than enough, even teetering on too much, since Lio didn't particularly like the spotlight the same way Galo did.

"You gonna stay with the big guy?" Gueira asked. "You could stay with us, you know. You'll have privacy once those houses are done."

"Judging by how many of us we need to house, I don't think there will be a lot of space just yet," Lio pointed out, not blatantly confirming that he would indeed be staying with the big guy. "It will work out eventually, though. It's already moving so fast."

"It's a shame we couldn't keep it a burnish-only project, though," Meis added. His expression was never easy to read, but it at least seemed frustrated, or dissatisfied.

"Building those resources from scratch would have taken years, though." Lio understood the frustration. He'd always believed the burnish could accomplish everything themselves, build their own society. "Besides… The burnish have always had some allies. Not many, but some. It just so happens that these are particularly useful ones."

Gueira laughed behind his hand, and Meis cracked a half-smile.

"We have to consider what's best for everyone, not just what would be the most cathartic," Lio leaned back in his seat, dipping a piece of bread in sauce that had spilled onto his plate. "Even if that means playing nice with her for a while."

"That's why you're Boss," Meis agreed, "I would've punched her in the face."

Gueira immediately and loudly argued that he would have done it way before Meis, as if that was a good thing. It was probably true, of course. Lio watched them playfully bicker back and forth with a smile on his face, oddly content with their lot. No, the burnish hadn't successfully built their settlement outside of the city walls, but they were thriving where they were. No one seemed to have a need to complain, everyone was finding a space where they fit seamlessly into the larger picture. He'd seen a glimpse of that community before Freeze Force attacked them, but now they had the freedom to keep it together.

If it could only stay that way, this time around. Smiling, playing children running underfoot. Families seated together to eat. Nobody had to suffer anymore.

But it wasn't because they were no longer burnish - no, there would always be a fire within them that couldn't be extinguished, and their history and pain would always mark them as different.

Even though they suddenly had the ability to have blistered hands from a hard day's work, just as any human. Even though they were just as flammable as a human--

Which they learned, as something smashed through the window of the kitchen, igniting instantly as it shattered on a tabletop.

Only minutes after arriving at the station and checking in with Ignis, Galo was dispatched with the rest of the team. It was especially troubling to hear where they were headed, and see pitch-black smoke in an ugly cloud above the burnish community.

While Galo wasn't the best at math, he was quick on his feet in emergencies; he did a quick mental headcount and knew not everyone was outside. Luckily, the fire hadn't consumed the entire building, but it had clearly done a number on it. Scorch marks were trailing upwards from busted windows, and it looked like a great deal of furniture had suffered. Flickering firelight was still visible, but… Not enough to do all that.

And Lio wasn't out to safety, which was Galo's immediate concern (and heroes weren't supposed to play favorites. Still…)

Ignoring orders, Galo was the first to rush in, finding Meis putting out a small blaze eating away at the countertops calmly. He gestured out the back door.

"We burnish have things under control," he said, not kindly but not with malice either. "The boss went through the back."

It was a huge relief. "Thanks!" He beamed at him, offering a friendly wave as he hurried through the building, noting small live embers but nothing so immediate a threat that he needed to worry. "You'd make a good firefighter, y'know?"

"I don't know," Meis answered dryly, but Galo went right past him without acknowledging it. He seemed sour. Maybe he'd try again on a better day. Also, Galo was pretty sure Meis had just flipped him off.

The alleyway behind the kitchen was barren, covered in dirt rather than any type of pavement. Bits of dry weeds here and there, nothing special. Lio was there, leaned over the young man from the kitchen with trembling hands. His head whipped around to see Galo and he looked desperate, eyes damp.

"Galo," He said, as calmly as he could manage (which wasn't much), "I don't know how to do this as a normal person-- Only as a burnish--"

Galo took a knee at his side and saw the former burnish was unconscious, and didn't seem to be breathing.

"Okay," Galo cut in before Lio could start begging for help, which he was ready to do. "Okay, watch what I do carefully. You should learn this."

Lio nodded, a fierce expression replacing the desperation that hadn't suited him, and he focused hard on Galo's every move.

Truthfully, in practice it wasn't so different from when he'd given Lio's flame back to him, though he knew the burnish could skip a few steps. Lio hadn't tilted that girl's head back, didn't worry about timing as far as he could tell, but Galo had done every step the same as he was trained to do, just with the addition of a calm, soothing fire between their mouths.

Lio's fire had a flavor to it, if he remembered right. Something sweet and robust. It had been hard to register that in the moment though, because Lio was dying and Galo was doing everything he could not to panic, every bit of his simple mind focused on reviving his newfound ally and friend.

The young man coughed right into Galo's mouth, which would have been gross if it wasn't a good thing. Lio crowded him again to help him sit up, and Galo sat back and watched now, because the soft way Lio interacted with the burnish was something worth seeing, and not something Galo had earned for himself yet.

"Are you okay now?" Lio asked him, and the young man grasped Lio's hands.

"You saved me, Boss?" His voice was hoarse and strained, his eyes sparkling with hope, and honestly Galo would have been absolutely fine letting Lio take credit for it.

"No," Lio shook his head calmly. "Galo did it. I failed."

The young man's eyes flicked over to Galo briefly, then back to Lio, as if he was lost, or heartbroken.

"Hey--" Galo nudged Lio's shoulder "--you got him to safety. You didn't fail."

Blessedly, before Lio could argue, Gueira rounded the corner, short of breath and sweaty. "Sorry, Boss," He gasped out, "Couldn't catch'em. They had a getaway car. No plates."

"...Thank you for trying, Gueira," Lio said, a forced smile on his face. Putting the pieces together, Galo figured it must've been some kind of ambush.

"Did you see what kind of car?" Galo offered, and Gueira almost jumped out of his skin.

"Oh, shit! Hey big guy, didn't see you there."

Galo balked and Lio seemed to warm up at that. He was wearing bright orange! How could anyone miss him?

"It was uh. Kinda fancy, but I don't know the model. Been a few years since I could go car shopping."

His chest felt heavy again. While any number of people could've had expensive cars, since such a huge chunk of the city was destroyed it was hard to imagine many of those cars would still look very expensive. Hopefully that would narrow down the search a little, but Galo had a feeling Lio was about to go rogue and look on his own.

The alley started to feel crowded when Remi propped open the back door and announced that the building was safe again, which was great news. They'd put so much work in, condemning it would have been devastating. Somehow still acting calm, Lio walked through the building flanked by his former generals, noting aloud the supplies they'd need to make repairs.

It wasn't fair to see this keep happening to the burnish. They deserved to feel safe and they deserved a place in the world, in the city, and nobody had the right to chase them out.

When Burning Rescue left, Galo stayed behind. It wasn't so far he couldn't just jog back later. Or maybe he'd just stay, try to help recovery efforts all night. That was more his speed anyway. Shut his brain off and get to work. Stay with Lio, who likely needed more help than he was willing to admit.

It was already dark, and the lights were mostly busted and would need replacing, but they worked by lantern for a while, replacing a support beam and cracking the scorched tops of the counter off to get those re-done, too. It wasn't long before they all realized that they wouldn't be able to get much farther without daylight.

"Go home," Meis told him.

"Huh? No, I'll stick around a bit longer--"

"I was talking to both of you. You and the boss." His expression was notably softer when he looked at Lio. "You need rest. We'll take guard duty tonight."

Guard duty. Nobody should need guard duty on a community of displaced refugees. That stung more than Galo wanted to admit.

"I'm fine." Of course Lio insisted, but his hands were still shaking. Either adrenaline or the cold, or both.

"No, you're not. And have him look at your shoulder," Meis fought back.

"Your shoulder? Is something wrong?"

"No," Lio hissed, but one hand grabbed his sleeve on one side, clenching fabric in his fist tightly. Well, Galo didn't think he had a free pass under Lio's clothes at the moment, but he could definitely tell something was off.

"Boss. Pride can't get in the way, right?"

Lio stared at him, looking frustrated, but nodded and held out his (good) hand, which Meis hesitantly bumped with his fist. Just by watching, Galo could tell that they usually did that with flames, not fists.

When Lio turned to leave the building, Galo followed behind him. "You wanna stay here with the burnish tonight? I could stay here with you, if you think they'll be okay trusting me."

Lio looked uncertain, but shook his head. "No. Your place is fine."

"Alright. You got to eat already?"

"Yeah."

There wasn't a whole lot of conversation as they walked together, but at least he knew Lio wasn't mad at him. Every time he tried babbling out a conversation topic, Lio made grouchy noises in response, but he was deep in thought, not really up for Galo's shenanigans. Which was totally fair. Not many people put up with Galo on their bad days. Lio was being a pretty good sport about it.

It was already so late. They needed showers though. "Hey, let's get washed up and I'll take a look at what Meis was talking about?" Galo offered, tossing his jacket over the couch.

"You don't have to," Lio mumbled, knowing that it wasn't a fight he could win. Galo would find out regardless, because he was easily just as stubborn as Lio was.

"Too bad!" Galo declared, lifting Lio by the midsection and carrying him to the bathroom. "C'mon, we can have another bubble bath! That was fun, right?"

"You-- Are you completely stupid?" Lio didn't wrestle very hard against Galo's grip, though.

"Yep!" He set Lio down in the bathroom and started running the water to warm it up. In proper lighting, Lio looked kind of filthy - no worse than Galo after a hard rescue, of course. Soot all over, ashes in his hair. Weirdly stiff. "Take off your shirt?"

Lio scowled, but pulled his shirt over his head and winced.

There was a bunch of clotted blood near his shoulder, dirty and smeared. Whatever happened, it'd definitely get infected like that. Galo grabbed a washcloth and dampened it under the faucet for a second, gesturing for Lio to come closer. "How'd this happen? Sorry, this is gonna hurt a bit. Just cleaning it up first."

Lio didn't even flinch when Galo started wiping the grime away. "A... I'm not sure what it's called. Bottle bomb? Glass shattered and hit my shoulder. Nobody else was hurt."

"Did any glass get stuck in there?"

"It was dark, but I think it's out."

With the better light, Galo carefully looked it over. It wasn't too bad, but it had been bleeding a lot before. There was a spot that warped a bit, like clean glass was resting over it. "I don't think that was all of it. Hold still, I think we can get it out without much trouble."

"Not going to force me to go to a hospital and get stitches?" Lio asked with a wry smile.

"I already guessed you'd fight a lot harder about that," Galo answered, smiling at him and grabbing his first aid kit. "Besides, this is kinda small. You shouldn't need stitches, just one of these oversized bandaids. I've got firetrucks and dalmatians, pick one!"

Lio grimaced at them instead. Their tastes were pretty different. He'd probably prefer a blank one - Galo thought he might have some solid-color ones in there too, but they were neon colors.

Meanwhile, he grabbed tweezers and held Lio's shoulder steady with a firm hand, gingerly tilting one end under the glass and clamping down on it, giving a slight pull at first. "You okay?" He asked, just to be sure.

"Yeah. Hurry up." Lio was gritting his teeth. Galo nodded, tugging the piece out at an angle that wouldn't disturb the rest of the injury. It wasn't too large, but it was sharp and would've been a lot of trouble later on.

More importantly, Galo realized something when he was closer to that injury. "Lio, you feel like a corpse. You shouldn't be this cold." Even when he'd been actually dying, he hadn't been that cold. Crumbling to ashes, fading out, but burning hot still.

Lio scowled at the piece of glass as he set it on the bathroom sink, then at Galo. "Not much to do but warm up, then."

"Can we please have someone with proper equipment look at you? I know you hate it, but I…"

He was scared of losing him, but that was too clingy, wasn't it? They were just supposed to be friends, after all. It wasn't like friends couldn't worry about each other, though.

"...Fine. Once the kitchen is rebuilt, I'll consent to having someone look."

"I won't let them experiment on you," Galo added, surprising himself by how fiercely he meant that. "I know you're worried about it, but it's not going to happen. There are no burnish anymore, so I don't think there'd be a reason for it anyway…" He trailed off because Lio's face fell. He wasn't the easiest guy to read, but Galo knew he'd said something wrong. Or, not wrong, but not something Lio wanted to hear.

He didn't try to figure it out. Instead, he pulled Lio toward the tub. "Well, let's get you warmed up for now," He said, trying to add a little bit of cheer between them again.

"Yeah," Lio murmured, leaning over him with a small, almost suggestive grin on his face. "Warm me up, Thymos."

Galo hummed in agreement and threaded his fingers in Lio's hair, still full of ash. "Gotta clean up before that."

"Okay." He nudged his pants lower, kicking them off on the floor.

That eagerness was cute, Galo thought. He knew better than to say so, but he couldn't help thinking it was so different from that first night, when Lio had snarled at him for even offering to share a bed. Now he was kicking off clothes and demanding intimacy. Weirdly heartwarming.

They settled into the bath the same way they had the night before, sans bubbles, and Lio wasn't shy about seeking warmth from Galo's body. And Galo, once again, busied his hands by helping Lio clean off, washing his hair and skin, careful of the small injury. It didn't strike him as odd to do it, he just wanted to. As he had the night before, when Lio was feeling sore and tired and it was just a helpful thing to do.

Now it was… because he was injured? Yeah, that sounded right.

As the night before, he let Lio decide when to get out, even though they would be kind of pruny by the time the water cooled enough for him. It was worth it to see him relax a little, cozy up against Galo's chest. He was still deep in thought, but he was comfortable and Galo was helping, at least in some small way.

"Galo," Lio said, reaching for his hand idly.

"Hm?"

"Tonight, I want you to fuck me."

Galo snorted, ducking his head against Lio's shoulder.

Lio gave him a look that made the laughter stop, but he didn't stop grinning. "What's so funny?"

"I dunno. Somehow, hearing you say 'fuck' is just really great."

Lio rolled his eyes, barely hiding amusement. "...It doesn't sound right coming from you, either."

Galo laughed again, lightly, tilting his head and planting a kiss on Lio's neck, a sort of acceptance to the invitation. "Might be a little too soon for it. But we can see how it goes."

In truth, sure, part of him wanted to pin Lio to the bed and fuck him until he cried tears of joy, but that was sort of an unrealistic want for now. Galo's own first time taking had been a disaster; maybe he'd been a little too ambitious, or he was with a bad partner, or something along those lines, but it had hurt, and he realized too late that he wasn't prepared enough.

And Lio's slim body looked so delicate - he knew Lio was anything but delicate, but that still didn't mean they needed to rush into anything. In his own way, Galo wanted to care for him in the way he deserved. Lio had a rough life, but he deserved to feel treasured.

...The thought that he would be the one to do it filled him with a weird, fluttery feeling. The same sort of feeling that Lio's fire gave him, when it had protected him. Gentle, soft. Kind of sweet. That was weird.

Lio turned his body and pressed close to Galo's, arms sneaking around him. Galo first looked down at the cut on Lio's shoulder, but it didn't seem to be holding him back at all. It just looked like a small wound on the mend, not actively bleeding.

He could tell Lio got frustrated when his attention drifted; he got a little more pushy, tangling fingers in Galo's wet hair and forcing his chin up to kiss him properly.

"We're not doing this in the bath," Galo laughed.

"Why not?" It sounded almost like a challenge. He liked how warm the water was, so it made sense that Lio would want to stay there. And if Galo had a bigger tub he'd be totally on board for it. Or maybe one of those big bathrooms with the drains in the floor, like in Japan.

"'Cause I don't want to clean up after." Still, he relented, giving Lio the kiss he'd been after (though he was less enthused to receive it now). "Let me get out first, I'll grab you something warm to cover up."

Lio was reluctant to move, but he did, and once Galo had climbed out of the water he sank lower into it, up to his chin. It was cute. Galo would absolutely piss him off if he said so. It looked like he was pouting.

Toweling off quickly was a decent way to force himself not to stare.

His drawer of winter clothing was pretty full compared to the rest of the dresser, so he grabbed the first sweater he could and fished around for some pants again. He'd run out before long, but that was fine; Lio needed the heavy clothing way more than Galo did, and when winter actually came around he'd be able to get some new stuff. Both of them could have some new stuff.

None of his other pants had a drawstring, but he found some with elastic and figured they'd be good enough - no matter how skinny Lio was, if all he did in them was sleep after, it wouldn't matter if his pants slipped out of place a bit. Galo liked to think he was getting better at warming him up, too. Walls were coming down, and Lio was more comfortable beside him. Still tense in some situations, but it was clear he trusted Galo.

He'd gotten out of the bath already, bundled in a towel and shivering as he dried off; the way his body trembled was subtle and stiff because he was trying to hide it. It triggered a sort of inexplicable reflex in Galo that made him want to gather him up and cuddle the heck out of him until he was warm. Lio would fight it like an angry cat, but he still wanted to do it.

Instead, he helped him towel off his hair (which he also reacted to like an angry cat).

Gently, he put a big band-aid on the cut on Lio's shoulder, glad to have found a neon pink one that Lio didn't cringe at as hard as he'd cringed at the firetrucks, and helped him dress though it was entirely unnecessary. He rationalized it thinking that Lio should take it easy, not stretch that injury (but it was truly so small that he was stretching his explanation quite a bit).

"Hurry up, Thymos. I don't need to be pampered so much," Lio snipped at him, frustrated and maybe embarrassed.

"So impatient!" Galo teased, as though he were any better. He knew he could be pretty needy at times. And he certainly knew that Lio would need extra attention after the night he'd had so far. Galo wanted to do right by him. "Alright, let's get cozy!"

He lifted Lio by his hips and carried him propped on one arm over to the bed - maybe showing off just a little, but it made Lio sort-of giggle with surprise so that was totally worth the hair-pulling he did not a second later out of embarrassment. Cute as hell. He dropped onto the bed and set Lio in his lap, leaning back against his chest, figuring that would be the warmest way to do things.

Lio wasn't corpse-cold anymore, more like the temperature of the flipped side of a pillow on a summer night, but Galo wanted him to feel human. With an awkward and sometimes overwhelming sincerity, he wanted to warm more than just his body.

With deliberate, slow movements he gripped Lio's thighs, spreading them apart and giving a squeeze because yeah, those legs were fantastic and covering them in too-big pants was an actual crime. Lio's cheeks were red but he didn't seem that troubled by anything Galo was doing. Maybe a little annoyed? He nuzzled Lio's neck and was so pleased to feel a palm rest on the side of his head, as if encouraging him to be there.

He slid his hand over the crotch of Lio's pants just to feel out where they were starting from. While Lio wasn't quite hard yet, he was getting somewhere.

"You know I'm not interested in your hands tonight, right?"

"Yeah, you made your point." Galo almost laughed again while remembering Lio dropping an f-bomb, but that was hardly appropriate. "You'll get hurt if you rush things though. Let me help you get used to it."

"I don't care if it--"

"Okay, stop there. I care!"

Lio made a sharp "tsk"ing noise and turned his head further from Galo's view.

Galo only grinned, because something about that was cute and he knew better than to say so. Instead of commenting, he grabbed the lube and got a couple fingers wet with it, tugging the waistband of the sleeping pants open wide so it wouldn't smear everywhere when he pushed inside of him. Lio flinched, though it was easy enough to brush that off as how awkward it always felt at first.

Lio was… Cute. He was just cute, and something about him being so eager made Galo think he was especially nervous to try it out, which was also cute as hell. The way he leaned back against Galo in an attempt to relax was kind of sweet, his hair soft against Galo's shoulder. But the problem was, he wasn't relaxing at all, really. There was tension in his limbs, his stomach was tight, and Galo actually had a more difficult time fingering him than he'd had the first time he'd done it.

So they'd just have to keep taking it slowly, even if Lio was being impatient.

At least he'd started warming up. He kissed and nipped at Lio's neck gently, appreciative that Lio tilted his head to make space.

"You can bite, if that's what you want," he offered.

"Nah," Galo had to admit to himself, at least, that he was tempted by the offer. Lio had a pretty neck, pretty skin all over. He'd look pretty with marks, as well. But he wasn't relaxing at all, and Galo could hardly move his fingers without feeling like he might've been hurting him. "What I want--" he took a second to adjust his own legs around Lio to encase him in more body heat, thinking it might help a little "--is for you to relax."

To that end, he wrapped his free hand around Lio's erection, getting him to squirm and make a soft gasping noise. Well, that was something. Somewhat of a success. He curled his fingers inside of him for a similar reaction. If all that was motivating Lio to try this was determination to get through it, neither of them would enjoy it, but Galo didn't really know how to articulate that. He wanted to show it instead, prove that it could feel great for both of them rather than treating it like a chore.

"This is… taking too long."

"Yeah, well, too bad. I'm not going to hurt you."

"I thought you were supposed to be impulsive and impatient." There was some truth to that, but he'd never rush into something and hurt anyone but himself. He didn't argue though, just sighed against Lio's hair.

"And I thought you were cautious."

It wasn't as though Lio would ever be easy to pin down - Galo accepted that, and even liked it about him. If he was too predictable, he wouldn't seem as honest as he was.

"Stop," Lio commanded, and Galo's hands immediately retreated, raised to his sides. He'd never gotten a hard stop like that before, but he didn't think Lio meant it like he was actually hurting him or doing something wrong ; maybe he just wasn't in the mood for it anymore. Or maybe he wanted to do it himself - a thought that made Galo's heart thud loudly in his ears (because Lio was hot, okay, it would be stupidly hot if Galo got to watch him).

Lio turned in his lap and pushed him down (also hot), leaning over him with a scowl. "Why are you so reluctant to do this with me?"

"What!" Galo's volume was too high. "Of course I want to!"

"Then do it," Lio almost growled, tugging at Galo's waistband.

Galo didn't move to stop him, but he wasn't about to help, either. Whatever Lio was so bothered by, he hadn't picked the healthiest way to deal with it, but it wouldn't be fair to judge him for it.

If the mood had been better, it might've been fun to watch Lio tug his pants off and straddle him. Actually, even with the mood sorely lacking, it was a nice sight and he mentally filed that away for a better occasion. "Lio, it's going to hurt--"

"I don't care," Lio's voice was quieter as he concentrated on positioning himself, trying to push his hips down only to have Galo's dick slip out of place. He made a frustrated noise.

Galo propped himself back up on his elbows and made a face. Lio ignored him and tried again, moderately more successful but he winced and honestly Galo was going soft. "Lio."

"What." The frustration in his voice was rougher, shaken. He sounded like he might cry, but they both knew that wasn't going to happen.

"Cut it out. C'mon," Galo sat up and tugged Lio off of him. "I may not be the brightest guy out there, but I can tell something else is bothering you."

"And I don't want to think about it," Lio hissed.

"Well this is a bad thing to distract yourself with!"

"Speaking from experience?" His voice was sharp, annoyed.

"...Well, yeah," Galo shrugged. He could tell Lio had meant to say something hurtful, and maybe it stung a little, but he was more or less at peace with his history. Plus, Lio was in a really bad headspace, it kinda made sense that he was lashing out.

Lio flinched, and quietly said "Sorry."

Galo started fixing their clothes. They probably wouldn't sleep anytime soon, but that was fine. He really just wanted to help. "I get that today sucked," He started, trying his best to choose words carefully, "and you don't have to talk it out or anything, I know that doesn't always help. But I wanna help. So let's try something better?"

Lio glanced up at him questioningly.

"We could go to the gym and work up a sweat that way! Or watch some TV." He combed some of Lio's hair back from his face and Lio gave him an odd look, probably unused to simple affectionate gestures like that. When he didn't get a response for a few too many seconds, he kept going, "We'll figure out who did that to you guys. The fire, I mean. And I'll punch them into next week. I've still got your back."

"Idiot," Lio murmured, looking away to hide amusement.

"But maybe for now it's okay to be glad no one was seriously hurt?"

With a heavy sigh, tension ebbed out of Lio's body and he leaned against Galo again. Acceptance. "Alright. I get it." He paused to think about what to say, and sighed again. "I'm never going to be level-headed about the burnish being endangered."

"I get it, too," Galo beamed at him. Lio was amazing like that. Fiercely loyal, always looking out for others even if it killed him.

"I don't want to go anywhere else, but I don't want to sleep yet, either," Lio said, decisive. "I'll read more of that comic, I guess. Or-- you said there was an adaptation?"

If possible, Galo grinned even wider. "Yeah! Wanna watch it?"

"Sure."

Not as enthusiastic as he was hoping, but he could still hope Lio would like it. "Alright, let's get some blankets on the couch and watch it, then! The first season is a little slow."

"...How long is this, exactly?"

Galo chose not to answer.

Lio had calmed, and sat beside him on the couch for a few hours asking questions and making comments about subtitles being annoying (which Galo disagreed with, but Lio brought up a good point when he said it was harder to focus on the art when he had to read the bottom of the screen. He wondered if he maybe needed to re-think his subs versus dubs stance).

After about four episodes, Lio leaned against his shoulder, and he adjusted so that he had an arm around him, giving him extra body heat. Within minutes of that, Lio dozed off, and Galo quietly turned off the television and carried him back to the bed, still bundled in a mountain of blankets. He tried not to wake him but failed - Lio didn't seem to mind, climbing into the bed and getting comfortable at Galo's side.

There was something to be said for how amazing it was to feel confident that Lio would be back the next day and keep watching things with him. That they'd wake up in the morning together and come back at night, he'd never had that. It felt selfish to want to keep it.

He took a deep breath, and his chest felt tight.

"Galo?" It sounded more like an 'are you okay' than an attention-grabber. Galo simply hugged him close and tried to shake it off. When he didn't get a response, Lio murmured, "Thanks."

Was it weird that it made his heart stutter? Maybe. A lot of things about Lio did that, though. He'd gotten so attached. "You should be a firefighter," He blurted out, completely out of the blue, thinking about earlier when Lio had saved that kid but didn't know CPR. It was something he could learn, easy. "We could save people together, y'know?"

He heard a low laughter, and felt chills when Lio said "okay" muffled against his chest.

"Wait, really?" He pulled back to see his face, and Lio wore a tired smile.

"Yeah. You started a fire for me, so I guess it makes sense I should help you put them out. Taking responsibility, whatever that means to you."

In that moment there was an overwhelming amount of things he could've said, most of them kind of silly, out-of-place metaphors about his burning soul, but his heart ached, and he couldn't stop staring at Lio's face. Like a total idiot.

Oh.

Chapter 6: Day 6

Notes:

I'M SO SORRY FOR VANISHING.
After a family tragedy and other life-altering events it's very hard to write, but I'm not gone, I promise. I still intend to keep going!!

 

It was getting colder outside. According to news notifications on Galo's phone, the planet was in a sort of recovery stage, teetering from one extreme to the other in a matter of days - over the weekend, there was supposed to be snow. Lio expected to suffer.

He was given the tacky uniform almost immediately; Ignis barely wrote down his name before welcoming him in. That Vanessa woman was sharing the office with him, and she watched carefully, but held back any words just yet. He was given a very basic cell phone as well, but perhaps that was better than a fancy model. The touch screens didn't respond well to his cold hands and he was having trouble unlocking Galo's.

"You'll need a physical, and after that--" Ignis tipped his shades, either sizing him up or being dramatic, "--you're a firefighter."

Lio clenched the heavy fabric of the uniform in his hands tight. He couldn't imagine getting cold wearing it. However, it was still tacky as hell.

"Quite a promotion," Vanessa said wryly. Even so, she didn't object.

"I imagine I gave you some trouble in the past."

"You've imagined correctly. This is Burning Rescue Headquarters, in case you needed a reminder." She said, flipping through a few pages on the desk. "And I assure you, I know you had a reason. I won't hold a grudge so long as you don't start any more fires."

After that, she smiled, and it didn't seem forced. It wasn't especially cold, but it lacked warmth in some ways. She was pragmatic. They would get along fine - they didn't have to like each other for that. He nodded.

"Where is Galo this morning?" Ignis cut in.

"Not sure. He said he needed to check on something," Lio answered with a shrug.

"Should we be worrying?"

"...I think so, yes," Lio glanced aside. Galo had been acting a little quieter, maybe sort of absent-minded; he very nearly burned breakfast, and he didn't finish things he'd started. Like that glass on the sink, he threw the shard away and left the dried blood there (which of course Lio cleaned up once he'd seen it). "I didn't push."

Ignis gave a gruff acknowledgement and stood. "That's fine. We know where to find him if things go south."

As he left the office, Lio walked behind him, taking one more look over his shoulder at the other Burning Rescue Captain. She was watching him closely, still.

Prison was ugly. A boring, gray box. Galo vividly remembered his week trapped inside of his own cell, but it turned out that every prison was pretty much the same deal; solid gray walls, doors with very small openings and heavy locks. Even the conference room had that empty, cold feeling.

Like Kray's office, but without the windows. Kray sat at the table as though he was at his desk.

Galo took a deep breath and sat across from him. The guards that had been posted were dutifully prepared to eavesdrop.

"Galo." Kray acknowledged him in a gentle tone, something like from his memories of the 'good' Kray that turned out to be fake. Almost like habit, Galo shot him a smile and a wave.

Then folded his arms, and got it together. "I don't know how you did it, but I know it was you."

"Hmm?"

"The refugees. Attacking them. I know you had something to do with it."

"What makes you think I had anything to do with such a thing?" He asked, still calm, "From in here, especially."

"Of course I can't prove it," Galo conceded. He knew his limits, after all. "But I'll figure it out. The team will."

Kray was silent.

"You can't keep punishing the burnish for doing nothing wrong."

"I'm not interested in punishing them."

"I know you won't go down quietly. You still think you'll get out of here and run the city again."

"Galo," he interrupted, voice stern but still that soft, fake version of Kray. "You don't know anything. You never knew anything."

"Well now I know!" Galo argued. "I know you're a murderer and a liar, and you'd probably do anything to get what you want!"

"And then, you should also know," he paused, looking Galo over. There was a slight dip in his tone, "That my ambitions landed me in here. That I failed."

"As if that would stop you!" Galo slammed a fist on the table and one of the guards shifted their weight. They were supposed to prevent any outbursts from either side of that table, so Galo took a deep breath to calm himself down.

Kray remained silent for the time; he'd cleaned himself back up after the crash, and after being arrested. Perfectly groomed as always. Completely at odds with the way Galo saw him after everything that had happened.

"You think I want to free myself, by somehow attacking the burnish?"

Galo frowned. "No, I think you're a manipulative prick and you're up to something."

"How would I do it, then? Hire someone? I don't have access to my accounts. The city seized all of my assets."

Galo grit his teeth, not wanting to say that there were people calling themselves 'Foresight Loyalists'. He was almost positive they'd follow Kray's orders.

"I would gain nothing by doing what you're accusing me of."

"Except revenge."

Kray paused again, this time with a stern edge to his demeanor. "I'm not interested in revenge. It accomplishes nothing."

Galo wanted to argue, because it was such a villainous motivation, and yet Kray was probably right. He was always trying to move forward, and revenge would probably only get him deeper in the hole he'd dug for himself. Getting rid of obstacles, or making sacrifices for what he called 'the greater good' was his M.O., not anything like revenge. Still, it didn't seem below him either.

"Of course, you don't have to trust me--"

"I don't."

"...Yes, that's fine. I did want you gone, after all. And your new friend. Getting rid of you now wouldn't benefit me at all, though."

Galo chewed on the inside of his cheek, trying to think of another argument.

"Unless you decide to keep visiting me every time there's a setback."

"I don't accept that!" Galo blurted out. "There's no way you've just settled into prison life! There's definitely something, and I'll find out what it is!"

Kray let out a frustrated and disappointed sigh. "Very well. But I'm asking you not to visit me to apologize, once you realize you're wrong. You're a disturbance."

When he stood to leave, Galo made a mental note of his posture. The prosthetic arm he had now was useless, and uncuffed, but they'd fitted his real arm with some sort of specialty handcuff that looked way too comfortable for someone who'd literally attempted genocide.

The guard posted on that side of the table escorted Kray through the solid, boring doors, and Galo barely resisted the urge to throw a shoe at him and yell something. He didn't trust Kray at all, couldn't believe that he wasn't involved. Of course he was involved.

Galo didn't know what his motive could be but there had to be one. Revenge wasn't off the table, either. Kray had tried to kill so many people, and knowing he was on that list just made him all the more positive that Kray still had it out for him. And Lio, too. Kray had gone to some extreme lengths to make sure Lio died, custom-making a weapon and everything.

Galo wasn't confident enough that he had the brain power to figure out Kray's new plans, but that was why he had a team. They'd figure it out.

And… He'd keep Lio safe. Lio and all of the former burnish.

All of them. A hero couldn't play favorites, after all.

True to her word, Aina was constantly over Heris's shoulder.

"We don't have to wear the uniform," she told him. She'd been so amused that he'd followed allong with Galo's whims, but in his experience, it was stupidly easy to get swept along with every stupid thought the guy had. Aina probably did it sometimes too. Hell, it was likely that everyone did.

"...Yes, I can see that," he answered, a smile on his face. Anyone could see that Aina didn't wear her uniform properly. But he was wearing the jacket over his clothes, because he was cold. It was too damn cold out.

Heris was bent over a console, carefully distributing the plaster-like material in the guidelines Galo had started the day before. As long as she wasn't hurting anyone, Lio would possibly be content to leave her be. There were plenty of important projects he could contribute to - some former burnish had started building furniture for their new living spaces, others were working on clearing out the kitchen and fixing it to be usable again by the end of the day.

Lio was too cold and stiff to move, but since he was too stubborn to admit it, he kept watching Heris like a hawk, as if Aina wasn't good enough at it.

Now and then, his attention would drift to Meis and Gueira. They seemed happy. He'd made a point never to invade on their relationship, but he was keenly aware of it; in the best and worst of times, they were inseparable. They almost never argued, shared everything, and at night they had little signals to each other that Lio feigned ignorance of. He didn't know if they were in love, dating, or just unusually dependent on each other, but he quietly admired their bond. Perhaps that was also strange, being an outsider and looking in with a distorted sense of longing.

And he wondered where Galo had gone.

"So you just need a physical now?" Aina asked, apparently reaching for conversation topics. Lio nodded. "Well, I know you don't want my sister to do it, is there anyone here with a medical license?"

"...I'm sure they'd need to have them renewed."

"Well, we can get the ball rolling on that, too," Aina cheered gently.

Watching the back of Heris's head, he wondered if he ought to just let her do it now. Obviously he hated her, didn't want to be anywhere near her, but he was also feeling impatient; Galo would be so excited if he'd just have it all done in a single day, and somehow that was motivating. Not quite motivating enough to deal with Heris, but enough to consider it, momentarily.

"Are you still staying with Galo?"

He glanced up at her, and she seemed to take it negatively.

"I don't mean anything by that! I'm just wondering," she shrugged. "He's a good guy, so I'm hoping it's going well."

"...How good of a guy is he to you?" Lio asked, warily eyeing her expression.

She looked at him, confused, then her hands flew up defensively, "Whoa-- just a friend, I promise. A good friend, but a hands-off kinda friend!" After a pause, she added, "I never would've thought you were the jealous type."

He jolted, "I'm not--!!"

But he couldn't really deny it. It wasn't like that, though - he just thought, if Galo had a consistent 'friend' to share a bed with, maybe there wouldn't be a need for 'other friends'. Unless there was someone, of some other variety, that maybe Galo liked more.

He ducked his head, feeling awkward. "We're not together or anything."

"...No offense, but does Galo know that?"

"Of course he does," Lio snapped. He was the one who'd said it first, anyway. Friends with benefits. They got along well enough that it'd probably continue.

She looked at him oddly, but didn't say anything about it again.

The walls and the roof were filled in for the next house, and Lio simply watched Heris continue. It was a bit like a giant, three-dimensional coloring book. Fascinating to see it work, he couldn't begin to comprehend the science behind it. The plaster-like material was a solid gray-white, obviously couldn't be left that color, but it looked like something Kray would've built a city from. Uniform and plain.

The burnish, their city would've been vibrant. Painted in their colors, nothing uniform, no one would feel boxed in. While the architecture was basic for now, he couldn't imagine they would allow it to stay that way, with Kray's fingerprints all over it. They would reclaim it, no matter how long it took.

Aina's phone rang and she answered quickly, escaping the silence. "Captain! Hey, what's going on?" As she spoke, she covered her other ear and began walking away from the sounds of construction. Heris lifted her head to watch.

And once her sister was out of earshot, she spoke up. "...I've overheard some things."

"I'm sure."

"You're still cold."

"And?"

For the first time in his memory, she looked him in the eye. "I know more about burnish physiology than most. If there's something wrong, I could help--"

He scowled at her and she stopped speaking.

But, he'd promised Galo that he'd get checked out once the kitchen was repaired, and repairs were well underway, proceeding smoothly. While anyone would be better than Heris, literally anyone (aside from Kray himself), it was true that he seemed to be a unique case.

"...Absolute Zero bullet. What do you know about it?" He asked, his expression still hard.

She flinched, "I… I oversaw development. Consulted on it."

"To kill me."

She lowered her head in a nod.

"Well, congratulations. You may succeed yet," he spat bitterly. He'd faced his own mortality before, that wasn't bothering him so much. A slow death, if that was indeed the case, would be the worst-case scenario. He always figured if he had to go out, it would be with a bang. Blaze of glory, whatever that was supposed to mean.

"Ah…" She'd stopped the machine, which was fine because it seemed that she was done. "I don't want to kill you."

"You've killed enough of us for me to doubt that."

"That was for Aina!" She argued, "If someone precious to you were going to die, wouldn't you do the same thing?"

"No." He answered. "Especially not in your position. You're the genius, you could've figured out a way to save the planet - with your sister on it, without hurting anyone else. Just as Galo and I managed to do. Maybe even better. But you didn't. You listened to Kray Foresight and let him tug on your strings until you had enough blood on your hands that you couldn't even stop."

She flinched again.

"Just because he's out of the picture, how are we supposed to suddenly believe you wouldn't decide to have us all killed again, if it was convenient?"

"Because Aina wouldn't ever forgive me."

"What makes you think she'll forgive you for all you've done already?"

"I don't know… But I'm trying."

"Aina's a better person than you are," He added, feeling like he was bullying her. Not that he minded. "She doesn't need you. In fact, she might be better off without you."

"That may be true, but I have to try!" Ah, there were tears lining her eyes. "She's my sister!"

Lio stared at her a few seconds, taking in the sight and mulling his options over. As much as he hated Heris, she was useful and he could use her, so long as he stayed on Aina's good side (which seemed easy, since she was so outgoing and friendly, and he hadn't committed murder. Admittedly a low bar).

Her face was reddened, embarrassment or frustration, maybe both. It made her freckles stand out more.

"Once our medical center is finished," he started, wary. Pushing the date back just a little further. "I'll let you look into my condition. Aina has to be there, though. I won't trust you otherwise." 

She stared back at him, her emotions leveling out as she tried to piece together who-knows-what in her head. Maybe she'd sensed the fears he'd been trying to bury, but she didn't seem able to read people that well. Even Galo hadn't brought it up with him yet, and he was eerily perceptive (but only with people who weren't Kray Foresight).

She nodded slowly, and he turned his attention elsewhere until Aina walked back up to them, fiddling with her phone. "Hey, Lio! Captain said he gave you a phone, let me save your number?"

"Huh? Oh. I don't know it yet." He frowned, pulling the phone out of his pocket and staring at it as if it would just tell him.

She giggled and took it from his hand (which he did not like, but he allowed it anyway in the interest of gathering more information), pressing her phone number in and calling her own phone. "There we go. Now I'll be your first contact."

Once she handed it back to him he looked at his contact list - true, Aina was the only human on there, but there were customer support numbers and voicemail and things on the list, technically. "What's Galo's number?" He asked without thinking. They were living together currently, so it only made sense, but he probably sounded too eager, judging by the look she gave him.

Nevertheless, she gave him Galo's number, which he gladly saved as his second contact.

"You know," Aina started, tiptoeing around what she really wanted to say, "You can go home if you want. Get warmed up."

"It's still early."

"Yeah, but you're turning blue."

"I'm what?"

"...Sorry, it's just an expression. Your lips are discolored from the cold and you're really pale," she explained. "I don't want you to get frostbite or something. Galo would never forgive me."

She said those few words so oddly, like a tease. Lio stared at her to try and figure it out, but he couldn't.

"So, yeah. You have a key, right? Head home, I'll make sure things keep going smoothly here."

He knew he could trust her - she'd done nothing wrong by him the entire time he'd been there, never a hint of animosity toward burnish people, always looking out for them (and he knew that wasn't exclusive to the burnish, but in a way that made him trust her even more). So that in mind, he nodded.

He didn't move just yet, though, limbs stiff from the cold and making it hard to move naturally - and he was unwilling to show that kind of weakness, especially with Heris near. So, with hesitation, he fiddled with his phone for a minute, debating whether or not he should call Galo ahead, maybe find out what he was doing or where he'd been all day - but that was too clingy. He thought better of it, grabbed his new belongings and left.

He'd been so much smaller the last time he was in that orphanage, the stairs seemed much shorter as he hopped down three at once from the front door. Sure, he was the type to visit - he loved kids, and kids loved him, and the caretakers were happy to see him now and then, but he visited during playtime, hopping the fence out back and spending time in the yard playing with the kids.

The headmistress cheered every time about how healthy he looked and how tall he'd grown, and he'd try to come up with a sweet thing to say to pretend she hadn't aged a bit (though the lines that marked the years on her face were harder to ignore, and her silver-white hair had still been peppered with black when he was still a child). The flattery was unnecessary. They were kind at the orphanage, so of course when he mentioned the burnish children the headmistress agreed to take them in without hesitation.

It hadn't been an especially busy day for Galo. After seeing Kray, he was too mentally drained to function properly, so he'd gone to the lake to cool himself off for an hour or so before tackling the rest of the tasks he'd given himself. Aside from the orphanage, he'd been to his friend's grocery to talk about what happened to the community kitchen; she'd been a bit less charitable this time, but he understood why. Times were going to be hard for a while. Still, he had to try.

She cast him another invitation and he nearly froze on the spot. He wasn't known for tact, but he scratched the back of his neck and thought out a proper reply. Involved was the word he chose, and one she understood and congratulated him for. Not dating, they weren't on the same page and they hadn't talked about it yet, but he didn't have interest in anyone else, not anymore.

He thought maybe he was justified in feeling hopeful that once things settled, Lio might date him. Too soon though. There was so much on Lio's mind, Galo couldn't imagine that bringing up feelings would end well. He was trying his best to be considerate of the situation Lio was in.

When he finally could rejoin the construction efforts, Aina told him she'd sent Lio home because he looked like a 'liocicle'. After getting a chuckle out of the mental image, he got to work filling all the gaps Lio had left behind for the day (because he was starting to really understand him better, and thought he'd be feeling guilty if not enough got done because he wasn't able to work).

The final touches were doors, and the row of homes for the burnish were completed. It was enough to put a proper roof over all of their heads that night, which was great because it was freezing. Also great - lots of blankets and supplies had been made, scavenged, or donated. He could report back to Lio that everyone was safe and sound, and Lio could be happy with that.

So maybe getting home, he was a little worn out physically, but in good spirits in spite of the start to his day. And seeing Lio bundled in a blanket, sitting under the kotatsu… well, that was enough to make anyone's heart stop, probably. Unfairly cute.

"Welcome home," Lio said, looking up from the manga he was reading. Unfairly cute.

"...Wait, did you turn it on?!" Galo asked, horrified.

"Don't put good furniture to waste," Lio answered, looking back down at the manga.

"Seriously? I give you one rule to follow--"

"Then throw me out. I'll take the table with me," Lio looked smug. "This is one of the best inventions ever made. How have you never used it?"

"It's a fi--"

"Fire hazard, yeah, yeah." He still looked way too self-satisfied. "That's okay. Two firefighters live here, I doubt we'd let anything get out of hand."

Oh, Galo's heart stopped yet again. "You did it? But there's tests, and…"

"Ignis said that since you got to skip all that, so did I," He said in a teasing tone. "Just need to get a physical."

"That's great!!" Galo cheered, dropping beside Lio and hugging him around the shoulders. Lio didn't fight the contact.

The very day after Galo had suggested it, Lio went out and did it. That was amazing, making his chest feel all fluttery. Now he knew what it was, it was almost embarrassing.

Yeah. He loved him. He was absolutely smitten. Never wanted to let him go. And maybe if he played his cards right, he could win Lio over properly too. He'd give it time. Lio had a lot going on, didn't need to worry about something like that anytime soon.

"Okay, get off," Lio shoved him, a small hint of laughter in his throat. Galo didn't move back very far.

Their eyes met for just a moment, and he saw Lio looking so relaxed and happy and nope, his heart couldn't take it.

"Try out your weird table, Galo," Lio patted the corner of it, a gesture to join him. "It's warm, not fire-hazard-hot."

"Uh…" It took a second to snap out of it, and he carefully shifted under the blanket around the table; Lio was right, it was very cozy. "...Once in a while, this will be okay. Just don't fall asleep under it."

Lio chuckled. "You caved fast." He flipped the manga closed and pushed it aside. Even if he was unfamiliar with its value, he'd been careful with the spines, which Galo was grateful for. It got expensive to collect those. "Anyway. I'd much rather fall asleep under you."

Was there steam coming out of Galo's ears? He imagined so. "What's got you in such a good mood?" He dared to ask.

"Aina's been texting me. Apparently you were working really hard today, and I'm grateful for it."

"...You know you don't have to repay me or anything like that, right?"

"Yes, I know. But you asked why I was in a good mood, and I told you."

Galo's shoulders relaxed before he even realized how tense he was. "In that case, yeah. We got a lot done!" He offered a thumbs-up. "Everyone will have shelter from tonight on!"

"Thank you," Lio cut in before Galo's enthusiasm carried him away. "You've done a lot for us."

"That's not all! I checked at the orphanage that raised me and they're happy to take in any orphaned burnish kids, too!"

Lio frowned at that almost instantly. "The burnish should stay together. We take care of each other."

"Ah…" Galo deflated, just a little. "Yeah, I get it. But I think it would be safe and good for them, if you ever reconsider. Since they aren't burnish anymore, they can have a shot at… y'know, living a normal life and being adopted by a nice family?"

Lio shook his head and refused to say anything else about it. Well, it was worth a try. Maybe Lio would realize it was a nice opportunity once he gave it more thought.

"...Well, hey, better news! You have a phone now?"

"Oh," Lio softened up again, pulling his phone out from under the blanket and flipping it open, punching a few of the keys. "There."

Galo's phone buzzed and he looked at the screen delightedly, making a new contact page a little too quickly. Maybe he was overthinking it, just a little, but it would be fine. It was just a phone number.

He felt Lio's legs move against his own and he hit 'save', prepared to be thoroughly distracted.

"I made something for dinner," Lio offered, a hint of shyness hiding in his voice. He was working hard to learn. "I thought it came out okay."

Galo sniffed the air, and sure enough, underneath the dust that he'd been inhaling all day from construction, something smelled kind of good. Perhaps slightly overcooked, but that was hardly a problem, Galo had eaten way worse than slightly overcooked food when he'd been learning. "That's great! I'll get a shower and heat some up."

"I'll still be here, then," Lio watched him get to his feet, then grabbed the book again. It was stupid, but Galo wanted to keep watching him just sit there, doing nothing but reading while bundled in blankets. Or maybe he wanted to join him. Maybe that was too couple-y, but at least he had the excuse to do it for Lio to warm up.

Probably not while he was covered in sweat and construction dust though. He rushed his shower, and emerged not wearing a shirt again just to enjoy the way Lio glanced up at him and then pretended not to notice. Now he knew Lio liked it, he intended to show off plenty.

On the stove, Lio had left a pot of something out (and it was simmering now, though Galo hoped Lio had only just turned the burner back on - he chose to assume that was the case to avoid having to lecture him on fire safety), with fragrant spices that smelled good in spite of the fact that the food itself didn't look all that attractive. That was fine. Ugly food could taste really good.

After sampling a taste, he decided it did. He recognized some of the spices but not their combination, so Lio was looking up recipes on his own. Galo knew it was a bit conceited to assume it was to impress him, but he kind of suspected it, or at least hoped.

"How do you pick up on things this fast?" Galo asked when he sat down beside Lio again, "I swear, you learn everything too fast, it's not fair."

"Do I?" Lio asked, glancing up from the pages with a curious smile.

"Yeah!" Galo spoke with his mouth full, which he could tell was not winning Lio over in the slightest. "It's like you're a robot. Programmed to be perfect or something." It was a shame, really, that he wasn't clever enough with words to properly explain how frustrating and awesome Lio's seemingly effortless perfection was.

Lio raised an eyebrow and turned just a bit pink. "A robot." He repeated.

"...Yeah, dumb analogy, I get it."

"Very dumb."

"For what it's worth, you'd be a very hot robot."

"Shut up, Thymos," Lio said, any edge shaved off his voice by a breath of laughter. "And chew your food, you lunatic."

"Also, you didn't argue with the perfect part."

Lio's face reddened just a little more. "Quit being stupid."

"Nope," Galo gulped down his food and stuck his tongue out, which Lio also did not appreciate. "Sorry. Been a long day. Just tired."

He could tell Lio was watching him carefully after that statement, which was fair - it was unlike him to admit to something like that. But it had been exhausting, and productive. Physically, he was probably fine. Talking to Kray though, that had taken something out of him. He was trying not to think about it.

"Not too tired, I hope." It might have been meant as a tease, and it worked, since Galo nearly dropped his fork and sputtered.

"Uh--"

"You're odd, Galo," Lio pushed the book away from himself and folded his arms on the table. "You're so easy to embarrass, yet you're the one who invited me to your bed. CPR had you so flustered you tried to punch me over it, and barely a day later, you had my--"

"Y-yeah, well--!!" Galo nearly shouted, definitely way more embarrassed than he had any right to be.

"A man of action, not words, I guess," Lio mused.

Maybe even that was too charitable. "...I am really tired," He admitted. "But I'll take care of you tonight."

He could see the effect it had on Lio right away, an almost bashful smile. "That's a shame." Probably another tease. It felt suspiciously like they were flirting.

Was it flirting, though? Galo was never much for overthinking things, but he didn't want to convince himself that he was just imagining it. He was no stranger to wishful thinking, but he knew he shouldn't dwell on that.

In the pit of his stomach he worried about continuing on as they were, like he was taking advantage. He got to fool around with the guy he was head over heels with, no strings attached (even though he kinda wanted them attached), and Lio had no idea there were any feelings involved at all. Was that even okay? It was like a lie. Galo didn't lie to people.

The alternative was blurting it out, and that would probably be worse. Lio didn't need that now, he needed stress relief and a friend - and honestly, that was all Galo was giving him, right?

"Is it that bad?"

"Huh?"

"You stopped eating."

"No! It's great! Sorry, just thinking about… stuff." He shoveled a forkful into his mouth and just about choked on it. Lio looked on in amusement, but seemed satisfied and relieved that Galo didn't dislike it. Which was cute.

"Stuff?" Lio leaned his chin in his hand, elbow on the table. Under the table he was being rather creative with his legs, slipping up Galo's thigh. His spectacularly distracting legs.

"...C'mon, dude, I'm trying to eat."

Lio had an expression like he was trying not to laugh, but he thankfully stopped inching closer. "Alright, I'll leave you to it," He said, getting out from under the table but not dropping the blanket he had draped over his shoulders.

"You don't have to leave--"

"I'll just be waiting for you," He said, grinning widely as he turned to go to the bed.

He'd gotten kind of pushy, in a way. In a fun way, of course. And of course Galo would fall for it, tipping his food into his mouth and gulping it down so hard he barely had time to taste it, then jumping from the table to tackle Lio against the mattress. Luckily, it won him a fit of laughter.

Seeing him in this good a mood tied Galo's stomach in all kinds of knots, but it was worth it.

"You'll make yourself sick if you eat like that." Lio's cool hand petted his hair back and Galo rested his chin on his chest, hugging around his too-slim waist. Probably too affectionate, but if Lio didn't mind, neither did Galo. In spite of his body temperature, Lio was smiling warmly.

"I don't get sick!" Galo beamed at him, earning another soft laugh.

"Well, good. I'm not sharing a bed with a sick person. I haven't been sick since I became burnish."

"You'll probably get sick if you stay this cold."

"Isn't it up to you to keep me warm now?" He said it while his hand subtly tugged at Galo to bring him closer, so he took the hint and stole a kiss. Enjoying that gave him a rush of both guilt and excitement. "Sure you aren't up for it?" Lio teased, with a smile (a smile that could set the world ablaze all over again, Galo thought).

Galo didn't answer, but grinned back at him and shoved the sweater Lio was wearing up his chest, taking just a moment to glance at the bandage, noting that it had been changed. Lio made a noise of complaint and tried to push the clothing back over himself until Galo licked a wide stripe along his skin, getting a shiver out of him instead. No, he wasn't up for much, body sort of sore and his head still spinning from too much in one day, but he was absolutely willing to give Lio a good time.

His hands wandered, gripping Lio's slender waist through his sweater and adjusting his position on the bed. "Still want me playing with your ass?"

"You have so little tact," Lio complained, but looked amused more than anything else. "...Yes. I plan to be ready for you next time."

"I would've thought you'd like topping more," Galo thought aloud, continuing to be as tactless as ever.

"How so?"

"You're the boss, y'know?" He tried to explain himself while grabbing the lube off the nightstand.

"...Is that what you'd want from me, then?" Lio watched him, thoughtfully.

"Hmm, nah." He didn't even have to think about it, really. He was happy with anything Lio wanted to give him, happy just having a bedmate he enjoyed being with so much. "Just, my first impression of you was in that huge armor, and with all that leather you like to wear… Hey, if you wanted to give it a try, I'd be game." He got a sudden idea and hopped off the bed to get into his closet, knowing Lio was watching his movements closely.

"...The basics should come first," Lio answered, trying to figure out what Galo was doing.

"That's fair," Galo agreed while he tugged a box off a shelf that was probably out of Lio's reach. "Ever try toys?" He held one up, a smooth black vibrator with a slight curve to it. Lio looked mortified.

"Of course not! Where do you think I would've gotten something like that while on the run?"

"Oh, that's true," Galo looked at it and then Lio, grinning competitively. "You just gave me crap about getting embarrassed and look at you now, firebug!"

"Fire-- what?" If anything, that seemed to make him way more embarrassed.

"Firebug!" Galo repeated, almost proud of it. "It's a nickname. Don't like it?" The color in Lio's cheeks was rather soft and hard to see, but Galo noticed.

"What's the point of a nickname if it's longer than my actual name?"

"I dunno. Fun?" He shrugged. Lio was exceptionally cute today, and he didn't think his crush was playing tricks on his head. "Anyway, wanna try?"

Lio looked at the toy warily and gave a short nod. "...Fine."

"We don't have to--"

"I said I'll try it." Something about his demeanor didn't match his tone, dodging eye contact out of embarrassment, his shoulders tense. It wasn't an enthusiastic 'yes' he'd have liked, but Galo could work with it. He was getting a feeling that Lio wanted to try a lot more than he was willing to let on.

"Okay," Galo said, trying to use a softer voice, maybe comforting. He wasn't the best at that, but it did steal the tension from Lio's shoulder. "Want to do it yourself, or should I?" In a dumb way he kinda hoped for both; he liked being the one to do it, but watching was also very appealing.

Lio glanced his way and held his hand out. "You're tired, right?"

Excitement bubbled up in his chest and he quickly cleaned it off before handing it over - he kept his things clean, of course, but he was careful about it anyway (and it hadn't been a bunch of mysterious places, he was pretty sure only he'd ever used it on himself so far).

It wasn't too big, so at least Lio didn't seem intimidated by it. There wasn't any hesitance in his movements, sliding his pants off and slicking the vibrator with lube, almost like he'd done it before (though Galo knew that Lio wouldn't have lied to him). He leaned forward and reached behind himself with it, then tried pushing it inside of himself a little clumsily at first, and though Galo leaned over to help, it turned out to not be needed.

"Quit it," Lio demanded, in an attractively breathy voice he likely hadn't intended to use.

"Huh?"

"Staring. Stop staring."

As if there was any chance of that. His view was a little obscured, but there was no way he would miss out on a hot guy pleasuring himself in his bed whether he was in the mood or not. "Nope." Instead, he scooted close on the bed and put a firm hand on Lio's shoulder to help support his weight, and just for the excuse to touch him a little. "Here, lean on me?"

Lio pulled a face, but he did lean closer, fluffy hair brushing Galo's chin and neck.

"Want any help?" Without waiting for an answer, he reached over and steadied Lio's hand, noting how slowly he was moving to insert it. "Does it hurt?"

"No," Lio answered too quickly, "I'm fine."

"It'll be easier if you lie back," Galo suggested. He got an annoyed look in return, but really Lio seemed more embarrassed than annoyed, so Galo didn't mind it, giving him a gentle nudge backwards. He supported his body until he was laying back on the pillows behind him.

"You said you were tired," Lio said pointedly as Galo leaned over him, hand wandering lower on his body.

"Doesn't mean I can't help!"

An annoyed sound came from deep in Lio's throat, but not an objection. Galo pressed his fingers on the toy to nudge him along, watching it disappear inside of him, watching Lio squirm against it with rapt attention.

"Want me to turn it on?"

Lio hesitated, but nodded, and Galo twisted it on, gentle to start. The buzzing noise was barely audible, but Lio flinched and pulled his hand away, fingers curling unevenly over the cuff of his sleeve. He looked so good. So good.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," Lio answered, drawing his leg up to kick Galo in the face and push him back - it came off as playful more than aggravated, so instead of taking offense Galo laughed and grabbed his foot. Tickling him was tempting, and he ran his thumb along the arch fondly. The soles of his feet were so smooth and free of calluses, but reddened in such a way that Galo figured his skin was getting used to wear and tear without the promare. "Don't tell me you're into feet, too," Lio said in a mocking tone.

"I'm not!" Galo insisted quickly. Maybe just Lio's feet, along with every other part of his body. That wasn't weird. "You should be nice to me. I can turn that thing up still."

Lio paused and tried to relax, but it seemed to be a struggle with the vibrator inside of him. "Not yet."

Cute.

Lio started to tremble slightly and Galo leaned in, slipping between Lio's legs and hovering over him just to offer body heat, but taking advantage a little bit and stealing a kiss. It was reciprocated sweetly, and Lio's arms wrapped around him to keep him close. His pulse thundered in his ears.

That was what he wanted for the rest of his life. Sure, sex was fun, but it was apparently empty without the little ways Lio acted needy and sweet and demanding. He hadn't known that before, or maybe he'd never have wasted his time with anyone else. Maybe that thought was too extreme, but it suited the sort of haze his mind was in.

Dull vibrations reached Galo's crotch because Lio had moved his hips quite deliberately to rub against him, an unsteady-but-smug grin on his face.

Galo grabbed his hip firmly to stop him. "Seriously. Not tonight," he tried to sound stern but he probably failed. Lio's expression faded and he seemed to respond properly though, with a somber nod.

"...Sorry. Thought I could change your mind."

"It's okay."

Lio looked guilty, almost distressed, so Galo kissed his forehead to try and reassure him. To be fair, he was definitely hard; nobody could watch Lio masturbate and not get into it to some degree, he figured. But Galo had his own guilt to deal with, and he wouldn't enjoy going along with it. He'd feel gross afterwards.

He didn't want to think about why. Well, half of why.

The being stupidly in love part, that was okay. He could handle that.

"Tomorrow." He promised, and slipped his thigh against the vibrator's base instead, pushing it at a better angle and causing Lio to flinch.

"Damnit, I--" He looked ready to complain about something, but ended up chewing his lip.

Galo watched and wondered if it would be okay to touch him more, since he'd just rejected Lio's advance. Lio liked things to be even between them, and Galo liked that about him. But that also probably meant Lio wouldn't be enjoying this as much as Galo wanted him to, and that was disappointing.

Without asking, because he didn't want to give Lio the space to get annoyed by it, he went for it and wrapped a hand around him, giving a gentle squeeze to start off and catching his eyes.

Ah, he looked annoyed anyway. But he wasn't saying anything, so Galo stroked him until his hips started moving involuntarily, and kissed him when he looked ready to tell him off. Lio's nails dug into his shoulder and he needed a second to figure out if he was mad or if he was coming.

He finished quietly against Galo's palm, riding it out until Galo switched the vibrator off and pulled it from him. He wrapped it in a washcloth, setting it aside and deciding to deal with it in the morning. That was normal.

Lio propped himself up on his elbows and stared at him for a few seconds. "For someone who didn't want to do this, you were really into it," he accused sharply.

"Watching you is really fun," Galo said in his defense, gathering Lio into his arms and flopping down on the pillows. He knew that wouldn't be enough to get Lio to back off, so he sorted through his words, uncharacteristically cautious. "I had to do something today that really sucked. Kinda messed me up."

As if Lio had perfectly read between the lines of that statement, he tensed and pressed a hand on Galo's chest, over his heart. "Galo…"

"Sorry."

"Don't," Lio commanded. "Why did you have to?"

"Had to see if he was involved."

"He's in prison," Lio reminded him. "Let him rot there. Anyone who thinks attacking the burnish helps him somehow, they're idiots, and he wouldn't tell anyone to do it."

Galo made a grumbling noise. That had been along the lines of what Kray had said, too. All those years of idolizing Kray and Lio still somehow knew him better. Well, it made sense, and it wasn't anything to be bitter about now.

Lio didn't respond, but he took Galo's hand and idly threaded their fingers together.

"You do like it to be special, don't you?" He finally changed the subject.

"Huh?"

"Sex, I mean. You wanted it to be special for me."

"...Mm, yeah. It's better when there aren't knots around your insides."

"So it doesn't work to cheer you up, huh?" There was a teasing lilt in his voice, so he didn't want to be taken too seriously. Galo didn't reply, just watched him while he stared at their joined hands. Something so small, but so sweet. If there was anything that could cheer Galo up, it wasn't sex, it was this. Lio's fingers tight around his, a tiny smile on his face.

He wasn't imagining things - he couldn't be imagining things - Lio might not have been the most open person, but he wasn't so hard to read. He was happy with Galo, and content to stay. If Galo just blurted it out now, asked him to just live there with him from then on, asked him on an actual date, there was no way Lio would turn him down.

But then, that flicker of doubt in the pit of his stomach. He thought he was able to read Kray pretty well, too. He could be wrong.

"Night, Galo," Lio said with a sigh, leaning close. Galo tugged the blanket over the both of them and hugged around Lio's body again, tightly.

The chill in Lio's skin felt worse than it had been, but it faded during the night.

Chapter 7: Day 7

Summary:

Every step forward is some kind of progress.

Notes:

*looks at last update date, sweats*

Lio was starting to get used to waking up in a warm cocoon. He wanted to stay there and relax longer, enjoy Galo's company until he was forced out of bed, but he wasn't the type to dawdle long.

Even so, he could easily make excuses. It was tempting to wake Galo up, remind him that it was tomorrow, and he'd promised, and they ought to start the day off right-- no, that would be stupid. Fun, perhaps, but irresponsible and stupid. As much as he knew the burnish were capable of getting through the day without him, they shouldn't have to just because he wanted to climb Galo's lap and waste the first hours of daylight on him instead.

Usually, Galo would be up first, carefully peeling off the blankets just enough to get out of bed without disturbing Lio. Even though Lio never would have slept so soundly or so much before, he was glad to have the chance, at least somewhat. And he was glad that he was wanted there, so he wouldn't feel guilty for indulging in Galo's generosity.

He supposed he could get up first this time, maybe attempt to make breakfast without burning the apartment down. Or he could, at the very least, turn off the kotatsu that Galo had completely forgotten about the night before somehow (and he counted it as a compliment, that he'd so thoroughly distracted the ever fire-conscious Galo from a supposed fire hazard). As soon as he stirred, Galo woke up, but kind of grumbled something and hugged Lio tighter to his body, just for a few seconds. He wasn't about to restrain Lio, of course. He wasn't so selfish. So Lio climbed out of bed and quickly unplugged the kotatsu in hopes it would cool down before Galo could notice it had been left on (and then ban its use again).

He didn't have time to ruin breakfast before Galo got up and joined him in the kitchen, taking over most of the cooking; Lio didn't take offense, he just assumed it was out of habit, not an indication that he was doing poorly. It was oddly normal, like the picture of domesticity he'd never imagined for himself. The sort of thing only 'normal' people could have.

Even without fire, he wasn't 'normal'. He didn't want to be; imagining a future he'd spend with some faceless person he might marry, imagining kids, none of it even seemed appealing the way living day-to-day with a friend did.

Galo kissed him that morning before they left.

"Oh? We're doing that in mornings now too?"

"Yup!" Galo answered, "See you tonight." The second the door clicked shut behind them, the topic was dropped. Those things were better kept safely on the other side of it.

The far more important tasks for the day stacked up in front of him as soon as he arrived at the burnish settlement. The irrigation system had been mostly installed, and was being used to hose off obnoxious graffiti on the side of newly-built homes. They would be colorful someday, but not with slurs and threats in cheap spraypaint.

Galo hadn't gone with him immediately to check on the burnish, and maybe that was for the better. Lio wouldn't hide how bad it was for them, no, but he didn't want to feel the pity, or talk about it, he wanted to push on until it was all behind them.

And in the back of his mind he knew he was making a poor choice. He knew he wasn't cut out for this kind of leadership. He knew that Ignis had filled out a bunch of paperwork on his behalf the day before because he didn't get it, he didn't know half of the terms used and trying to put together the cryptic wording - even when he frustratingly knew what each word meant separately - it made his vision blur and his head felt like a lead weight. He couldn't ask for reparations or submit any proposals to the city for funds, and when arms reach passed him to take the task off his plate he felt smaller each time.

When Ignis showed up at the burnish district with a folder, he eyed it warily, but it was thankfully nothing serious. A simple to-do list he could've texted (and he had, Lio found out later. He needed to put his phone on vibrate so he'd at least feel it go off), photocopies of the documents he'd filled out -or at least signed - yesterday, and curiously, some kind of medical paperwork with his name on it.

"Keep this when you're ready to get your physical. The doctor will need to fill it out for you." He was just dropping it off, not staying. He was ready to leave before Lio even had a chance to do much more than acknowledge his presence there.

Lio held the folder in his hands thoughtfully, considering again just getting it done, going to Heris and letting her do it. He glanced over at the reconstruction, at a few burnish teenagers who'd gotten carried away with the hose and gotten soaking wet, an electrician working on wiring, the young man from the kitchens handing out breakfast biscuits… And the buildings behind them, springing forth almost overnight. He wasn't needed there. He wasn't the kind of leader the burnish needed at all.

But instead of questioning his place in this new community, in the new world, he spun on his heel and looked for Aina.

Truthfully, he was frustrated by his inability to do as much as others; he became burnish young and had very limited education, grew up malnourished and stunted his growth so he was too small to be very useful with heavy lifting. He barely knew how to do anything without the flames, and he didn't want that to hold him back. If he needed a physical to be something else, to feel better than useless again, he'd put up with the older Ardebit sister looking at his condition.

(He didn't find her that day, eventually finding out that her talents were being put to use elsewhere, at the city's main power grid. He would have been sore about it if night hadn't fallen later with a flicker of power to the newest burnish buildings.)

He managed to find one of the more 'recently turned' burnish who still, on paper, had a medical license, and they were more than happy to help him out with everything else needed on paper. They couldn't get access to anything heavier than lab tests for drugs and STIs, so when he turned out to be in good condition other than cold and tired, he knew he'd have to let Heris look into him.

Until then, he kept himself busy. He didn't have to know how plumbing worked in order to help install it, he just had to listen to instruction. He may not have been used to it, and nor were the awkward, almost shy burnish around him looking at him oddly, but he could do it. If he overheard someone whisper a comment about how the boss was taking orders now, he pretended he didn't. He wasn't the leader they needed, but he was what they'd picked and he would pull his weight.

He wouldn't be weak, he couldn't allow himself to be.

Sometimes, rarely, he took a step and stumbled. Between the chill, exhaustion and pain in his limbs, his immediate panic was that his legs had finally given out, fallen to ash again, that the promare couldn't keep his body whole if they weren't with him anymore. Gueira and Meis stayed by his side, catching his shoulder and steadying him. They hid their worried looks until he turned away.

How much more really needed to be done that he could even contribute to?

"Wanna go check on the big guy?" Gueira asked him suddenly.

"Why?"

"I mean, you had blood drawn, dude. You're allowed to be tired. Leave the heavy stuff to us today."

He scrunched his face at the word 'dude', but didn't comment on the downgraded nickname.

"We can go with you," Meis said in a far steadier voice. "I think if you're joining those firefighters, we might want to get to know them, too."

Lio looked at him.

"He said I should be one, too, you know." He said with a dry laugh.

Lio wasn't sure why he felt jealous. He hadn't been left out. But regardless, his stomach tightened and he nodded, staying stoic as he could. "Yeah. Okay, let's go, then."

Honestly, he should be glad if Meis was interested in joining too. Maybe get Gueira along for it, they could stay a team.

It just… felt weird.

A loud popping noise came from behind them and Lio jumped; a pipe had burst, though it seemed harmless enough. Several ex-burnish regarded it with shrieks and giggles, delighted by the clean water spraying everywhere.

Surely, though, he wasn't the only one startled by the noise, was he? He was far from the only burnish with trauma. Gueira folded his arms behind his head and watched a few kids jump into a forming puddle with a wide grin, as though he wanted to play with them too.

Hopefully, whatever had burst wasn't Lio's fault. But they were probably all thinking it was.

Meis patted the back of his neck, aiming to redirect him. "Where do you think they are today?"

"...Not sure," Lio answered, pulling out his phone and typing a quick text to Galo (and briefly he wondered if that was appropriate, but they were going to be working together, so he'd have to communicate with him normally too). The response came just as quickly, that they were cleaning up Station Three to get it into working order again. Maybe he was reading a little too much into it, but he could practically hear the excitement in Galo's voice through the message.

Without saying anything else, he put his phone away and started walking. Meis and Gueira fell in step behind him, as usual. At least that felt familiar.

Not much felt familiar anymore, and Lio was having trouble figuring out if it was a good or bad thing in some cases.

Outside of the fire station, Lio caught sight of Lucia with a controller, leading drones to spread wires that did who-knows-what, and Varys holding two stacked generators on one shoulder. No sign of Galo yet, but he shouldn't have been so put off by that.

"Wanna see if our tag is still on the back of the building?" Gueira asked Meis in a hushed, playful tone.

"Hell yeah."

"If it is, you owe them community service hours," Lio told them, amused more than anything.

"You have no proof, Boss." They linked arms and took a left down the alley behind the station, and Lio watched them for a moment before continuing on. He didn't want to intrude. He didn't know for sure that they were up to anything, but he didn't want to involve himself.

He set himself to work immediately, holding a section of the doorframe steady for Remi while he secured it in place (he got a surprised 'thank you' in response, but Lio didn't answer). There was rubble all over the floor inside, and he saw a cart full of it being pushed away by Galo - rather than chasing him down for no real reason, he stayed and helped Vanessa with a concrete slab that she was loading into a second cart.

She gave him a look, definitely not thanking him. He didn't mind, and kept working alongside her quietly while taking in the scenery.

The fire escape was propped open if he needed to run, south side of the room. Next to it was a cooler full of bottled water and rations. There were two more exits that were less conspicuous because they didn't actually belong there, they were actually just holes in the wall. He wondered if he'd caused those.

"My husband was burnish," Vanessa said suddenly, possibly as an attempt to break tension. Her hair was pinned up at the side of her head and already tumbling free over the strap of a tank top. She wasn't above getting her hands dirty, and maybe that was why she was so likable. She had more muscle than expected in her frame. The uniforms usually had shoulder pads or something to give that proud, sturdy stature, but she wore it naturally.

"Yeah?" Lio asked, handing her a bottle of water. She pulled off what looked like a gardening glove and sighed before chugging a third of the bottle.

"Yeah," She answered. He didn't press, because it was obvious she was in a deep thought, struggling with the story. It hadn't escaped his notice that she used past tense, and she didn't wear her ring on her finger. He figured if the husband was an ex-burnish, they would have a chance to reunite, and it hadn't happened.

She crinkled the bottle in her hands and looked aside at the ground. "I was away when it happened. He was already suffering mentally, and seeing a therapist, but I guess it got so bad he combusted one day. When I got back from my business trip, he'd hanged himself from a fixture in the ceiling."

Lio's brows furrowed, "If he was burnish, he would've…"

"Oh, he wasn't dead. Flames kept healing him, but I guess he couldn't control them enough to snap the wire he'd used."

Lio blanched.

"He'd been there for days. When I tried to get him down, that's when he finally…"

"I'm sorry."

"No need for that."

"But I am."

"You couldn't swoop in on your damn motorbike and save every burnish from the city. But I can't lie, I would've rather kept him home than let him run away with terrorists. Even if I had to hide him forever. I kept telling him that while he was strung up there. Promising him it'd be okay." She sighed again, her arms dropping and swinging at her sides in subtle defeat. "Then, poof. Ashes in my face, all over the apartment."

Lio allowed the silence to settle around them, but couldn't let it end there. "And after that? How did you report the incident?"

"There's the fun part," She gave a low laugh. "I blamed it on you."

"Ah," He answered, as though he'd expected it.

"...I destroyed the reports, of course. I just wanted to protect him from being outed. His family would have been heartbroken to know he'd turned. I never convinced myself that the Mad Burnish had anything to do with it." She set down the bottle of water and stretched her arms out, getting ready to work herself ragged again. "But let's face it, I couldn't have done anything to make your reputation much worse, so I didn't think you'd mind all that much."

"No, it's true. I'm glad it was an advantage to somebody." He tried to match her tone, not wanting to make light of her suffering but not wanting to drag her down into it further.

"You're not so bad, Fotia," She said, lifting a slab of what was once walls around the third firehouse and grunting. "Still don't like you, but in my defense you're responsible for at least thirty percent of the damage to the city."

If he still had his fires, he might've been able to fix at least thirty percent of the damage to the city himself, too. He didn't say that out loud. It didn't really matter anymore since the fires were gone.

"I was a terrorist," Lio admitted as though it was a secret. He figured if she'd wanted to open up, it was his turn to explain himself.

"How good of you to notice." She raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"I never thought of myself as one, but I knew I was. I never killed anyone, but I scared them half to death on a regular basis. And I couldn't help it. I needed to burn."

"Being burnish was a heavy burden for you, then?"

"Leading the burnish was heavier. If I hadn't built on that reputation, more of us would've been killed because they weren't protected by the 'Mad Burnish'. It was never about hurting people."

"Yeah, I get it," She agreed, dropping more concrete into the cart (it was too heavy. It bent the cart. Lio didn't mention it though). "Foresight thought he was accepting a heavy burden in the same way."

"But he did hurt people."

"So did you. A week ago, you tore this city apart. How many did you hurt then?"

Lio chewed his lip and looked away. That event was a blur in his mind, completely disconnected from everything else. It didn't feel real, but he knew he felt himself- as a dragon - tearing through the streets. He set things on fire without much care, but he tried to avoid buildings with lights on. Government buildings he'd been less careful with (and he didn't mind that so much, since Galo wound up freed because of that). He truly did, even when he was lost, try not to hurt innocent people.

"You're not better than him. Just luckier than him," Vanessa told him pointedly. "People vouched for you and you get to stay out here while he gets put away. The burnish would riot if anything happened to you, but his reputation took so much of a hit that he's stuck in there and almost no one cares."

Lio's throat tightened. "No one cares ? What about his loyalists that keep attacking us?"

"Unless you've got names, there's no confirmed Foresight Loyalist movement."

He wondered if she was doing it on purpose, trying to get him angry. It was working, regardless. "What, so you think we set ourselves on fire?"

"Well, you used to do that all the time, right?" She shrugged.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" He snarled, "If you're standing at the head of this city, you'd better not be looking down on the former burnish. They did nothing wrong."

"There it is." The corner of her mouth quirked upwards. "That fire's still in you, Fotia. Better learn how to handle it if you want to be a firefighter."

He paused, huffing out an indignant breath. So she was doing it on purpose. It made some level of sense for her to do it, so he tried not to let it get too deeply under his skin. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and leveled his breathing.

"It's good you can let it go so quickly. I don't like people to be too hot under the collar on my team." She gave the filled cart a push with her foot to make sure it would dislodge from the spot it had been sitting in.

" Your team?"

"Yeah, my team," She confirmed. "I'm not putting you and Thymos in the same place. Conflict of interest and HR nightmare." As she spoke, she re-pinned her hair and started pushing the cart. "It doesn't make a lot of difference now, but we'll catch up later for the details."

Galo rounded the corner with an expression he didn't usually wear, passing her by with suspicion.

Lio opted not to say anything about that revelation to Galo just yet, not until he knew how to feel about it at least. He'd keep it to himself. He did want to work with Galo, but, well, she wasn't wrong about it being a potential nightmare for HR. Their eyes barely met and Lio felt his chest tighten. For some reason Lio could only assume was stupid, he wasn't wearing a shirt again, and Lio kind of wanted to bite him.

…Right. He was given the all-clear. No communicable diseases or infections. He wondered if Galo might be willing to go along with another curious whim of his, later.

Galo smiled broadly at him, with a hint of concern behind his eyes. "Hey firebug. Something up?"

Lio's cheeks warmed, "That's a stupid nickname, cut it out."

Some of the worry left Galo's face. "What'd she say to you?"

"Nothing important. She's… Interesting." Obviously, she and Galo had spoken about him before. Was that the concern? He could only assume so. He didn't care if people talked about him - he didn't - but if Galo was involved…

"She really, really doesn't seem to like you," he said, frowning. "I don't trust her."

"Ah, Galo Thymos, the best judge of character," Lio teased, feeling just a sliver of confidence coming back. "Well if she didn't pass your appraisal, I'll try to steer clear for now."

"Hey, screw you," Galo said, trying not to laugh at Lio's tone. "If she doesn't see that you're awesome then she's got a problem."

Lio smiled back at him and punched his arm amicably. "She's alright," he tried to reassure him, "We've all got problems."

Galo glanced around, trying to see who might've been there with them and finding no one. Lio braced himself for a personal question. Or even something more? No, they were still technically in public. Galo wouldn't.

"Did you know your friends are out back making out?" He asked in a hushed voice.

Lio was so startled he snorted.

"Fuck–"

Galo giggled and Lio kneed him in the shoulder. "It's still funny to hear you say it." Galo beamed up at him. Maybe it was a little mean to laugh while trying to get into Lio's pants, but it was meant innocently enough.

As soon as the door had shut behind them that night, Lio pinned him to it and started kissing him, fiercely, and Galo wasn't going to tell him no. He wasn't that stupid. Lio's demanding side was really hot, and Galo wanted to give him everything he wanted. For some reason, Lio had been surprised that Galo dropped to his knees almost right away. It was a silly thing to be surprised by, in Galo's opinion.

"I want you to–"

"I know," Galo interrupted him. "This first, please."

Lio looked down at him oddly. "Did you just say please ?"

Instead of responding to that, Galo nipped at exposed skin below Lio's navel, wrapping a hand around his dick to get him started. This time, Lio laughed like he was ticklish. It was cute.

"You're so weird."

"I like doing this." Galo met his eyes and stuck out his tongue. Just for a second, before he put his mouth to better use. It was possible that Lio would never enjoy giving head much, but Galo was determined to make him like getting it. Plus, it would likely help Lio relax if he got off once, and getting Lio to relax was proving to be a herculean task.

In his opinion, there weren't many things in the world that could be better than knowing he was the one making someone's knees buckle and sounds jump from their throats involuntarily. He liked the way his hands fit around Lio's hips and ass, and he liked the way Lio's body hunched a little, and he had no idea what to do with his hands so he'd settled on petting Galo's hair.

"Y-you didn't even want to shower first?" Lio asked quietly, his voice rasping.

Galo hummed instead of answering, Lio's dick almost at the back of his throat, and Lio flinched.

Lio smelled kind of good, anyway. Fresh sweat, like he'd been working hard. Any other scents were clinging to Galo as well, since they'd been in the same place for a long portion of the day, so he didn't notice anything else.

Plus, Lio started it.

"I'm– Galo–"

Galo gripped him harder and swallowed around him, getting a pretty whimper from Lio's throat. He let Lio ride it out, his hips quivering like he wanted to fuck Galo's mouth (which Galo would have been okay with, but they'd never talked it out before. Maybe they should). He was using remarkable self-control, but at that point he was almost sitting on Galo's hands and being held up.

"That was quick," Galo gave him a smug grin, licking his lips.

"You're so fucking weird." Lio's amusement was clear, so Galo didn't take offense.

"I think you mean awesome."

"You can be more than one thing." His eyes were fond as he petted Galo's hair back, and it made Galo's heart skip a beat. "So, are we going to be filthy animals or are we cleaning up first?"

Galo was fine being filthy, but he could take a hint. Luckily they'd eaten something already, some kind of weird ration that was packaged like astronaut food from a museum gift shop (which Galo learned the Parnassus passengers would've survived on for months while the new colony was to be set up, so it was nice to know they had enough rations to keep at least ten thousand people fed for the next few months. It wasn't especially tasty, kind of grainy like baby food, but it was very filling).

He lifted Lio up and carried him off into the bathroom, getting a delighted yelp. It reminded him of that first day, Lio hissing and spitting like a feral cat when Galo carried him off. Now he giggled and squirmed playfully, giving Galo that sweet, hopeful feeling in his chest that asking him out was a great plan for the future. But he wasn't really the planning type.

"Put me down, you lunatic!" He demanded with a laugh. Galo pretended to drop him and he snorted with more laughter. Fuck, Lio was cute. Galo set him down and he smacked the back of Galo's head in retaliation and sure, that was fair.

"Bath or shower?"

Lio stopped to consider the options, "If you're still against fooling around in the bath, shower."

"Unless you want to spend hours cleaning it up," Galo turned on the hot water, not even really paying attention to Lio's response. He was sure Lio would get him to cave someday, then Lio would learn how much of a mess it could be. "Shower, then."

Lio was leaning over his back, pressed against him, and Galo noted delightedly that he was already naked. Very nice. No wasting time tonight. Galo whipped off his own clothes and hopped right in, Lio tumbling in after him. His good mood was cute and infectious and Galo wanted nothing more than to spoil him rotten.

"I like seeing you so eager," Lio said, his arms loosely gathering around Galo's neck. Galo reciprocated with hands on Lio's slim waist. His fingers could possibly meet around him if he tried it, but if Lio figured out what he was doing he might get annoyed. Damn.

"Well, ditto." There wasn't a lot of space, but they didn't seem to need it. Lio kissed his jaw, then his neck, biting gently. "And needy."

"Galo, you spent the whole day walking around shirtless and you expected me to keep my hands to myself?"

Galo almost pointed out that he did that all the time, but thought better of it when Lio met his eyes again. "Glad it worked," He said instead, pretending it was all part of his master plan to seduce Lio. He wasn't really the planning type. Lio knew that.

"Idiot," Lio chuckled. His skin was turning a nice reddish color from the hot water, it made him look much healthier. The bandage on his collar was gone, and the wound was healing just fine - Galo rubbed a thumb over it to get a more careful look at it, and Lio's smile faded. "It's fine, you know."

"Yeah," Galo agreed, offering a smile of his own and trying to be reassuring. "Your body gets cold too easy, but it still seems to work just fine other than that. I'm relieved!"

Lio hummed in agreement and his eyes wandered. "Enough of that, though."

"Hmm?"

"You owe me," he said, his voice lower.

Galo beamed at him, "Yeah, I guess I do." He'd promised. Galo wasn't the type to forget his promises. And… Yeah, okay, whatever guilt he felt was positively dwarfed by excitement. He'd been trying his best not to daydream about it all day. If he took Lio's behavior into consideration, well, that was probably mutual.

He blinked water from his lashes and Galo smoothly pushed some of the wet hair from his face, pecking his nose and grabbing soap.

Lio sputtered and laughed when Galo grabbed his waist and started scrubbing his skin, "I can clean myself!"

"Yeah, but I want to keep feeling you up."

For whatever reason, Lio laughed at that too.

Galo was thorough, cleaning away the dust from Lio's body. Lio enthusiastically returned the favor.

With soapy fingers, Galo rubbed Lio's ass. "Gonna clean you up here, too, 'kay?" He barely heard Lio hum an affirmation over the water, but he nodded as well, pressing closer and leaning his forehead against Galo's chest. Soap wasn't the best lube, but it was good enough to get them started. In stark contrast to the first time Galo had fingered him, Lio felt relaxed and soft, pressing inside of him was easy and somehow that made Galo's heart flutter. "I am gonna rock your world tonight, firebug."

He felt Lio huff indignantly against his chest, "You did not just say that."

"Don't think I will?"

"Cringe," Lio looked up at him, amused. "Galo, you're cringy."

Galo just beamed at him and curled his fingers, making him squirm. 

"Hey," Lio managed, looking somewhat bashful, "Will you do it without a condom, tonight? I'm clean."

He paused at that - it wasn't as though he didn't like the idea, but he'd never had sex without protection. The request hit an interesting note, because he really wanted to give Lio everything he wanted, including some kind of 'first'. He was Lio's first, after all. If things went the way he hoped it would, he could be the only person Lio ever slept with, too. He noticed Lio's eyebrows furrowed in concern and he slid his fingers along his insides again to make him shudder. "Are you sure?" He finally asked, "Condoms make it easier."

"I don't want it easy," Lio argued, his face against Galo's pectoral. "I want you to finish inside of me, too."

And that would be enough to convince anyone, Galo thought. Lio's hole leaking semen down his thighs, twitching and loose. Maybe Lio would even let him eat him out after? He scissored his fingers thoughtfully and Lio bit him, gently. "Whatever you want, yeah. Of course." He hoped he didn't sound as giddy as he felt.

The soap was wearing thin, so Galo pulled his fingers out to lather them up more, pushing one more digit inside once he was ready and earning a little encouraging sound from Lio's throat. His other hand rested on the small of Lio's back and he kissed the top of his head fondly.

His body felt warm, now, under the running water and deep inside. Or, at least, it felt like a normal human body. That meant Galo was doing a good job, right?

Lio's hand had slowly trailed down Galo's body, as well, finally taking his erection and giving the head a gentle squeeze. "How clean do I need to be?" He asked, low. His limbs were a little shaky with his impatience. That side of Lio was really cute.

"Hmm," Galo considered it, lathering up more and sliding another finger inside. "You're good. I'm just having fun now."

With a stutter, Lio glared up at him. "My patience has limits, Thymos."

Galo ignored that and kissed him instead, twisting his fingers and sliding them in and out until he felt the soap was almost washed away. Lio's expression was dazed after that (still kind of annoyed, but mostly dazed), and Galo lifted him into his arms and turned off the water, intending to dry off as quickly as humanly possible.

He towelled Lio off with minimal protest and dropped him on the bed while he towel-dried himself and tied his hair back. "Ready to go?" He challenged.

"Why, are you going to make me wait even longer? Sadist."

"Nope," He answered, climbing over Lio and pushing him onto his back, pressing his dick against his stomach. He wondered how deep he would actually get. Lio's small frame couldn't possibly take that much.

He grabbed the lube from the nightstand and gingerly spread it around Lio's rim, pleased that he still felt soft and relaxed, then winced when applying it to himself.

"Ah, wait–" Lio pushed for just enough space to flip himself over, getting on all fours and pressing back against Galo's body, "Like this."

"You sure?" Galo tried to hide his disappointment - he wanted to see Lio's cute face.

"Yes." Oh, well. Galo might not have the best view possible, but the nape of Lio's neck was looking pretty delicious at least. He nipped at it and positioned himself at Lio's entrance, slipping away from it at first. He had to guide his cock by hand, gripping Lio's ass to spread him out at the same time. At the moment he slipped in, they both let out little gasps of surprise.

"Keep going!" Lio pleaded, gathering sheets into his fists.

"Believe me, I won't last if I rush now," Galo admitted, grumbling while leaning over Lio's back and covering one of his hands with his own, giving it a squeeze. Lio was still so tight even if he had felt relaxed and open to his fingers. He pushed further in and Lio's arms gave out, but he moved his hips, pressing himself even further onto Galo's dick and moaning.

He felt enough resistance to stop and made a mental note of how deep he'd be able to go for the time being. Maybe they could work it a little more in the future, but Lio's body had limits for now.

Lio whimpered and turned his head to look at him, his breathing uneven and rough. "Please keep going, Galo."

So Galo moved his hips. Lio whined.

He changed his grip and threaded their fingers together, his other hand pressed on Lio's stomach - he was probably imagining it when he felt a slight bulge there - holding on tightly. He was moving too slowly, and Lio was going to complain about it in just a moment, but until then he needed to take it easy and adjust to the feeling.

"Never done this without protection before," Galo finally admitted, "Lio, you feel so good. So good." Lio feeling better than any other partner he'd been with before didn't have anything to do with the lack of a condom, but he wasn't going to say why. He wanted him so badly. He needed him. He needed Lio to need him back.

He pushed with a little more force and Lio yelped, but it sounded good. The hand on Lio's stomach trailed up and pulled Lio off the bed enough for Galo to bite his shoulder. They hadn't talked about leaving marks, but Galo decided to ask for forgiveness instead of permission, sucking on the flesh between his teeth and shuddering at the little noises Lio made in response.

Lio was drooling. That was sexy.

He realized that Lio had already climaxed when he tried to touch him again and Lio writhed and sobbed from overstimulation. He felt guilty for a split second before remembering Lio's request and thrusting harder, trying his best to tip himself over the edge to finish inside as he'd been asked to.

It didn't take him a whole lot longer, not with Lio sputtering the word 'please' repeatedly as Galo got rougher.

Lio looked like he was on another planet he was so fucked out, his arms limp and his hips only held in place by Galo when he pulled out. It looked as good as he'd imagined, if not better. He looked so sloppy. Galo didn't even wait to ask, he nuzzled his nose against Lio's tailbone and licked along the rim of Lio's hole.

"Ah- wh–" Lio started to snap back to himself, "Th-there's no way that's sanitary."

"You're clean," Galo argued, "Well. You were clean. Now I'm cleaning up my mess."

He dipped his tongue inside and Lio made a noise that sounded almost like a complaint, but it wasn't words, just noise, so it was ignored.

There were tears in Lio's eyes and he looked the picture of bliss. His limbs were still shaky and weak and he seemed like he was going to fall asleep soon even if Galo kept going, so he stopped in favor of getting actual cuddles.

He grabbed his towel from where he'd discarded it on the floor and wiped himself off, then tried to situate himself around Lio's body, but Lio pushed a hand in his face. "Don't you dare try to kiss me after that, weirdo."

Galo made an offended noise and jumped up to go brush his teeth in a hurry.

He glanced back and Lio was watching him with a tired little smile. It was so distracting he almost grabbed the wrong toothbrush (and for a second, his heart fluttered at the two toothbrushes by the sink, as it had every time he looked at them and dared to hope they'd stay there forever).

By the time he got back to the bed, Lio was already starting to doze off, but Galo woke him up to at least slip a sweater over his head and settle in next to him to make sure he stayed warm all night.

"Did you like it?" He dared to ask,

Lio didn't bother opening his eyes, just hummed and scooted close. After a few seconds, he added, "I want to try a different position next time though."

Yeah, so did Galo. Lio facing away from him felt like being robbed. "Why's that?"

"I don't like feeling caged in... Something like that."

"Oh... Sorry."

"Mmn."

Galo kissed his forehead. "Goodnight, Lio."

Lio just hummed again and sighed, falling asleep almost instantly.

Next time, though. There'd definitely be a next time.

Notes:

Sincerely, thank you for reading and for everyone who commented and came back to this one with me. I'll keep writing. I just needed a break when my parents died and it's been a few years, which I know no one will blame me for but I truly did miss writing fics, so I'm going to keep doing it at some sort of pace I can manage.

You may have noticed I dabbled in Genshin/haikavetham a little bit too, and I have a few things I might post eventually for that too. But I'm not abandoning my old fics, I just needed some time and space to grieve.

Chapter 8: Day 8

Summary:

f r e e z e

Lio let his sweater drop over his shoulder on one side. It was intentional, making sure the hickey Galo left on the other side was covered. It showed off the new neon yellow bandaid on his little cut instead, which Lio decided was mildly less embarrassing than a big, splotchy bite mark.

He needed clothes that fit him properly. He missed his leather. At least he could still wear his pants now that he'd cleaned them, but they were looking a little rough.

Galo was in the kitchen with a large pot full of instant oatmeal. Lio liked instant oatmeal just fine, it kept well on the road so he used to eat it often, but Galo acted like it wasn't good enough.

Lio, meanwhile, was trying not to have an existential crisis in the bathroom mirror. He wanted to stay with Galo and wake up with him every morning from now on. He wanted Galo to need him as more than a weighted blanket. He wanted so much.

Why did that make his chest hurt?

He looked so small in someone else's clothes, so useless compared to the man he'd been with the promare inside of him. Obviously he wasn't useless, he just had to keep going, but...

Was he still a leader in anyone's eyes? He'd joined the firefighters and would be taking orders. He couldn't overpower anyone anymore, he didn't have the authority to be bossing anyone around.

And worst of all, he'd formed a strong attachment to Galo that he didn't want to break. Leaders didn't play favorites. And Galo was his favorite.

"Lio, come get breakfast and we'll head out," Galo called out to him. He sounded almost worried. Idiots shouldn't have to worry about anything.

Lio left the bathroom mirror behind and took a bowl of oatmeal from Galo's hands with a quiet 'thank you'.

"You okay?"

"Yes," Lio answered quickly. "Annoyed with you, but fine."

"Huh? What'd I do?!" Galo panicked and Lio pulled the sweater over the other shoulder, displaying the ugly mark Galo had left behind. He turned red at the sight. "Ahhh, shit, I wasn't thinking. I'm sorry!"

Lio just stared at him.

"S-sorry..." Galo said again, having the decency to at least act sheepish about it.

"If I had my normal clothes it wouldn't matter," Lio sighed, "but I don't. Now I'm going to spend the whole day trying to hide a massive hickey from the burnish."

"I won't do it again!" Galo promised.

"Help me find clothes I actually like," Lio rolled his eyes. "Then you can leave all the marks you want."

Galo stiffened, but looked like he was hiding just how giddy that promise had made him. Simple mind, simple pleasures. "Right! We recovered my bike, so we can go look at other shopping districts today if you want! A lot of them should still be standing!"

"Still standing and accepting money, probably. Galo, neither of us are being paid right now, remember? And I doubt you'd let me steal anything."

"True, I won't let you go back to your life of crime," Galo considered carefully, tapping his chin. "Maybe we can find someone who can make alterations among the burnish? They'd help you for sure."

"There's more important things to do. Guess you'll have to suffer and not leave marks on me."

"Noooo!"

"Don't be a baby about it, Galo."

Galo pouted anyway, shoveling a spoonful of oatmeal in his mouth. Lio almost laughed at him.

"Other than that, everything's fine though?" Galo asked again.

"Yeah," Lio nodded, glancing aside, "You took good care of me. If that's what you're referring to."

"Not sore or anything?"

"Galo, I said I'm fine. Do you want something to be wrong with me?"

"No! Sorry! I just know I was really sore the first time I was the taker."

"Well then, I guess I had a more mindful partner than you did," Lio pointed out bitterly. He tried to convince himself that the bitterness was completely benign, maybe just annoyance knowing Galo would be glowing from the compliment. It didn't exactly work, he could tell he was awkwardly jealous over a past partner like some kind of possessive jerk.

Galo was indeed glowing after that, though.

Mornings were easy in that cozy little apartment, much easier than outside of it where a few blocks over, everything was wreckage and politics. People with their homes and businesses intact were mostly sympathetic to those who had lost everything. Some were opportunists, which Lio predicted as much.

Vanessa had made the biggest power-grab, though. Burning Rescue teams ought to have been at ground zero, saving lives and clearing the rubble, but somehow she'd managed both that and claiming Kray's spot at the head of the city. Her burning rescue station was overrun with city officials trying to recover from the catastrophe, a makeshift office for a temporary governing body.

Ignis seemed far more trustworthy than her, in Lio's opinion, but his opinion didn't really matter. He was just relieved that Ignis was there, advising.

Lio hadn't been given a lot of instruction about how he was to conduct himself, as a new recruit, but he figured he ought to check in at least. He arrived to find her desk cluttered with papers and he was pretty sure she had a single gray hair in her bangs that wasn't there yesterday. He was familiar enough with the stress of leadership.

"Fotia. Good morning. Your medical center is going to be outfitted and staffed by volunteers." She said, flipping through a stack of papers. "You need to get the rest of your physical done before I can actually fit you on the schedule."

"Okay..." He said. "Good morning."

She sighed, and Ignis closed the folder he was reading from. Remi was in the office as well, but seemed to be content just holding stacks of freshly-copied papers and not participating in whatever his bosses were getting involved in.

"You're the de facto representative for the burnish refugees, so having you in the room is important right now," Ignis said. Lio nodded, finding that to be a reasonable request.

"So what are you discussing now, then?"

"Rations and reparation distribution. Foresight had resources meant for a colony on another planet, not a lot of liquid assets to disperse, and most of it is still at an unsafe angle because of the way it landed when it fell." Her pen twirled in her fingers elegantly while she spoke, not even looking up from her papers. "Step one is inventory, getting it usable. We're leaning on his former employees to get this done, and fingers crossed they're not still loyal to the man."

"There's no way to screen them?"

"They'd just lie to get their compensation for the work anyway. Otherwise they're just out of a job and most of them are in slightly tilted quarters on the Parnassus until we can rebuild." She waved her hand dismissively, and Lio prickled at it but accepted her words as likely true. "Righting the Parnassus is an obvious step in this. It sustained damage, but it's holding up. With a few dozen cranes we can probably level it down where it had launched from in the first place, which saves quite a few city blocks. Obviously the engine needs to be dismantled, but it's a low priority."

He... Supposed that was fair, making it a low priority. Only a few people in the city even knew how it worked, so it wasn't likely to be abused in the meantime. It still made Lio uncomfortable.

"The storage containers are full of rations. They need to be distributed to the citizens at a sustainable rate. That's what I've got my team on, but I won't drag you into it just yet."

"You're expecting a shortage of resources?"

"Yes. We have to rebuild farmland from scratch because even if the blaze wasn't dangerous this time, the shockwaves were. In a week we'll have nothing if we're not careful." Vanessa tapped the table thoughtfully, "With the terraforming equipment we can expect a first crop quickly, at least. But in the meantime, those ration bars that were made to be meal replacements need to go to the citizens, and at a slow rate so that we can stretch it out as much as necessary."

"Is there enough for everyone to have three meals a day, at least?"

"For now, yes. We can also make them into a porridge so it can be served in a more controlled way. I'm thinking that might be the best option. Won't taste great, but no one will starve or accidentally eat too much."

"So you're talking about setting up soup kitchens. That's not too complicated. We burnish already set one up for ourselves, and can start using it for this as soon as-"

"I said citizens," Vanessa said, clicking a pen a few times. "Resources to be allocated to citizens of Promepolis."

The room was dead silent for a moment while Lio's temper quietly flared. "I see. You intend to exclude the burnish from these efforts, then."

She met his gaze squarely, "They're not citizens. They're refugees that have started claiming land that belongs to others. They're displacing the people of Promepolis."

"Bullshit. Foresight owned most of that land and he owes us."

She placed her hands on the desk and leaned forward onto it, imposing. "Perhaps if you'd gone through reasonable channels to request an allotment of space for the refugees, this wouldn't be an issue. But you didn't, you just claimed the land as if no one else had any right to it."

"What reasonable channels?! There was a power vacuum and thousands of injured burnish who had nowhere to turn!"

"That doesn't give you the right to-"

"Vanessa. Lio." Ignis spoke up sharply, their attention turning to him immediately. "The city is in ruins. Rebuilding benefits everyone."

Lio felt like a cornered feral animal.

"Integration is also important. Make them citizens. It's less than ten minutes of paperwork."

Vanessa sighed and sat down. "Fine. My obligation is to the citizens of Promepolis. There's your loophole, Fotia."

"The difference is just paperwork to you?" He snarled.

"Officially, it would seem so. Get to it."

He turned on his heel to storm out of the office, but Remi handed over his stack of papers. Citizenship applications. Like they knew exactly what was just about to happen.

He didn't know if that made him angrier or relieved.

It was freezing out. The planet was still confused after the blaze, so it was literally freezing and puddles in the streets were starting to glaze over with ice. Between that and the rubble, it made driving dangerous, but Galo offered it anyway, and Lio clung to him irritably on the ride. It was the weather. The weather made everything worse.

The paperwork stack was heavy, and probably still not enough for all the burnish. Plus, a lot of them were going to be incapable of filling it out. Lio had doubts about Galo's ability to complete paperwork, but he was grateful that he'd made the offer to help.

They got to work immediately upon arrival; Galo started with the burnish kids - he was abnormally good with children. Lio took on the harder work of convincing the adults that it was a necessary evil. They really didn't want to be on anyone's radar, and given their history it made sense.

"We need this so that we'll be entitled to rations," Lio explained, "I just want to make sure none of us have to starve anymore."

...He said that, but the one most suspicious of it was him. Like there was an unknown catch and he was sending his people into a trap. Again.

After hours of it, Lio was worse for wear and Galo seemed dizzy from filling out forms. Meis and Gueira took over for them and shooed them away.

"I hate this," Lio confessed to him quietly as they walked away, "I hate feeling like they're going to use these against the burnish. Like they'll use it to track us. Or worse, charge us with crimes. At least there's no point in experimenting on us anymore."

Galo nodded in understanding. "Captain Ignis wouldn't do that to you guys."

"He wouldn't, maybe." Lio agreed, then yawned. "I need to check the medical center."

"You look like you need a nap," Galo countered. "Do you want to head home for a bit?"

Lio shook his head, "I can go to sleep early tonight. There's too much to do right now." Galo couldn't argue with that point. But Lio yawned again.

"Are you holding up okay physically? It's really cold out."

"Not really," Lio admitted. It bothered him to say it aloud, but he couldn't hide it. He'd shuddered involuntarily more than once in Galo's presence already. "I feel stiff, and I'm shivering and sore."

"Uh, hold still?" Galo grabbed him and felt his forehead, "That sounds kinda serious. Maybe you're getting sick... Er. Sicker."

"Huh. I've never been sick, so..."

"Well, we were heading to the medical center anyway, right? Let's go check the progress and see if it's ready."

Lio agreed, and Galo put an arm around his shoulders while they walked.

The little medical center was basically just a doctor's office with some extra lab equipment that looked uncomfortably like the stuff Kray was using to test on the burnish. Lio was moreso bothered by Heris being there, but the equipment was unsettling enough to put him on-edge even without her.

There were a dozen people there setting up the lab equipment and computers, a handful of private rooms and beds. For the most part, it looked like a normal medical lab. Mostly.

"Looks like Heris is in charge here," Lio grumbled, getting her attention and asking her pointed questions about the devices. He was unsteady on his feet though, and she glanced up at Galo with concern.

"The machines are being fitted to track the physical changes in the former burnish, and a specialized scanner. I promise it's not harmful. Some of you are still struggling to adapt..." Heris then looked at the ground. "Are you still cold?"

"To be fair, I think we're all cold today," Galo answered before Lio could snap at her again. "Can we borrow one of the beds?"

"Yes... I'd appreciate it if I can run one of the scans on you once we have it running. We may not know how to fix the problems with the recovering burnish body yet, but running tests will help."

"...The burnish aren't guinea pigs."

Heris deflated, but nodded in acceptance. Lio stalked off to one of the rooms and Galo followed close behind him, shutting the door behind him.

Lio hopped onto the bed and Galo sat beside him in the chair. They were quiet for a minute, and Lio laid down on his side and tried to make himself comfortable. It didn't quite work. His brain felt a bit like it was buzzing.

"My arm hurts," He admitted quietly. "This is so frustrating. I hate just sitting idly like this."

"I have an EMT certification if you're okay with me checking you out?" Galo suggested.

"Oh, I couldn't have a problem with that," Lio tried not to crack too obvious of a smile. "You do that all the time, anyway."

"Well, at least you have the strength to tease," Galo grinned, grabbing the edges of Lio's sweater and pulling it over his head, making him sit upright. Lio winced when he raised his arm and Galo leaned in to look at his shoulder; it was the same one that was injured. "Taking this off," he warned before ripping the bandaid off, earning him a yelp.

"Your bedside manner sucks," Lio said, instinctively crossing his arms over himself (though Galo was the last person he needed to hide himself from). Galo stuck his tongue out at him.

"You don't seem to mind it at home."

"Well, if we were doing that it wouldn't be so bad that you're pulling my clothes off." He countered, relaxing while Galo looked at the exposed cut again. Galo's fixation on it told him it was healing far too slowly, but his only frame of reference was how quickly flames used to heal him, so he didn't know how bad it was. He assumed Galo would tell him if it was truly concerning.

"I'll keep that in mind! Once we're not in a public place at least." Galo promised, letting himself look over Lio's body and touching the side of his neck to check his pulse. 

"I'm not opposed to fooling around in public places," Lio pointed out.

"There are laws against it."

"Some laws are dumb."

Galo let out a low laugh. "Yeah, I guess that's true." He looked like he'd thought of something upsetting just then, and Lio knew better than to ask. He then moved to take a gentle hold of Lio's sore arm, guiding him to rotate the shoulder. Lio might have leaned into his touches. "I don't see anything outwardly wrong. But you're still way too cold. Your heartbeat is a little off, too."

Of course his heartbeat would be off while Galo had his hands on him - even in a medical setting it was kind of exciting. He tried not to examine that thought too deeply, tried to dismiss it as a reaction to their conversation.

They stared at each other for a few seconds.

"I need to let Heris scan me, don't I?"

"Sorry, bud. I think you do." Not what Lio wanted to hear, obviously. "Your friends are all warming up, aren't they? I guess you were the most badass so your body is taking the change the hardest? But it's worth a check to be sure. Plus, the data could help if there are any other burnish having the same problems."

Lio felt a bit like he'd taken a bite out of an unripe lemon. That last part was sound logic, and it annoyed him.

"I'll stay with you if it helps?"

"Ugh. Fine. I'll be her stupid lab rat. I'll be mad about it, though."

"That's fair." Galo handed his sweater back and watched him put it back on. "I can go ask her when the scanner will be ready. You should rest for now."

"I don't want to rest. There's so much to do."

"And you're not going to be doing any of it until you don't feel like a Liocicle."

Lio pulled an annoyed face again. Galo kissed it, and scurried out of the room before Lio had time to react. So much for fooling around in public.

Left alone with his thoughts, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The room was colder without Galo in it.

He tried to remind himself that he's been given the role of de-facto leader of the burnish; he had to act responsibly, consider the best interests of the burnish at all times. Mourn their losses, celebrate their successes, and that was... It was fine. It was fine when he had fire and he had the power to actually do something.

Now he just had the role because others expected it of him. He didn't really deserve it.

Of course, even if no one had those expectations, Lio would advocate for the burnish. He always stood up for them and encouraged them to organize, that wouldn't change just because the fire was gone. But maybe, just maybe, he would free up a portion of himself to offer up to Galo, as well.

He was kind of already doing that. There was a magnetic pull between them, or something, and even if that just brought them together physically it meant something. He'd never ask for more. But... he wanted to. If he didn't have so much on his plate he'd do it. He'd ask Galo to delete every number in his phone except his. He'd ask about staying. He'd say some things that he'll probably end up taking to the grave instead.

It was just a few minutes before Galo came back and the room warmed again, just for a moment, before they had to prepare to deal with Heris Ardebit.

She gave him some instruction to get him to lie on a table under some heavy equipment and he blanched, but obeyed. He wouldn't let anyone strap him down for it, so Heris asked him to keep still as she turned it on. He hated every second of it, flashing back to the days he was subjected to cruel experiments when he was still a young burnish who didn't know how to fight back yet. He didn't want to think about it. He stayed still until it was over, but the bands of light and buzzing noises inside of the machine made him nervous.

Knowing Galo was there kind of helped.

Galo took his hand when it was done and Lio found comfort in that, too, as he hopped off the table and Galo pulled him closer.

"Your body temperature is concerning," Heris said, "While this is a documented pattern in the former burnish, it's hypothermia, so it can be dangerous."

"Okay, we already knew all that."

She turned her tablet to show him a portion of the scans, then continued, "There's a concentration here, which is odd. I can't identify why from the imaging. My only guess as to why things are getting worse is that the weather is exacerbating the problem."

"So what comes next?"

She looked thoughtful, "This isn't really my field. I know a lot about burnish physiology but I'm not that kind of doctor, and you're technically not even burnish anymore. I'll consult with medical doctors before giving you anything definitive... Just check in tomorrow. We might need more tests."

"Great. Just great." He grumbled, but felt just a little better when Galo squeezed his hand.

She turned to Galo. "If he's staying with you, just make sure it's warm in your apartment," Heris told him.

Galo didn't look so sure, but nodded, "Okay, leave it to me! He should probably go right home and bundle up, right?"

"There's still work to do–"

"Nope!" Galo indelicately grabbed Lio by the waist and hauled him over his shoulder to carry him. Lio let out a shocked yelp and kicked a few times while Galo walked out of the medical center, leaving Heris looking mildly startled by their behavior.

"I can walk, Galo! Put me down!"

"Nnnope!" Galo cheered, "I can't trust you not to try working more, so you're getting carried!"

"If you don't let me down I'll stay somewhere else!" An empty threat, but Galo didn't have to know that. And it worked - Galo set him down and pouted.

Lio was scowling, but he'd gotten what he wanted and so he couldn't really complain further. There was a lull in conversation, so they walked quietly and Lio started clinging to Galo's arm for warmth without saying anything.

It was still freezing, after all.

Galo's burning soul was warm.

What an indulgent thought. He tried not to focus on it, falling in step and realizing that he was a little unsteady. Maybe that was why Galo wanted to carry him. Regardless, they made it home.

"Okay, the first thing to do is turn up the heat in here!" Galo announced, going to the thermostat.

Lio immediately went to sit at the kotatsu table, switching it on and getting comfortable under it. "Don't get so carried away that you melt."

"I can take the heat!"

"Yeah, yeah," Lio half-smiled, resting his head in his arms. "Are you going back to help more?"

Galo paused, considering it. "Will you stay put if I leave?"

Lio felt his face contort into something of a pout, completely unintended. "No."

"Then I guess we're staying in and making sure you don't do anything stupid."

"That's so irresponsible. There's so much left to get done–"

"That's what teammates are for. They pick up our slack. Your guys are on it, right? And Captain Ignis has us pitching in to help the burnish as much as we can." Galo sat next to Lio at the kotatsu, but didn't get under the blanket. "And you're so stubborn you need someone else to stay with you to make sure you don't overdo it."

"So it's my fault we've lost two sets of hands, instead of just one?" Before Galo had time to answer, Lio sighed and added, "That's probably true. I apologize. I think I needed that perspective."

"Uh... That was a quick turn. Are you okay?"

"I'm not stubborn about everything, you know. I know when I need to apologize." But that wasn't really it. He also knew his usefulness out there was extremely limited. Losing Galo was a much bigger problem for the others.

"Hm," Galo looked suspicious for a second, then shook it off. "We can always do double the work when you've recovered to make up for it. But don't worry; we saved the planet, we're allowed to take a vacation day."

"You really don't have to stay if you'll be more useful out there," Lio admitted, "I'll stay put."

Galo poked the tip of Lio's nose. "Just let me fuss over you today."

Lio winced indignantly, pouting again, "Wow. I guess this means you really care about me, huh?"

With a surprised look, Galo straightened his back. "Uh. Yeah? Was that not clear?"

They both fell silent, staring at each other. Lio had meant it to bait him and get him flustered or something, but it backfired spectacularly and now he was the one whose heart skipped a beat.

He kind-of knew Galo considered him special... Sort of. He felt the same way, after they'd set off the blaze together. But it probably didn't go much deeper than that, did it? Galo still had a list of numbers in his phone of people he could pick over Lio anytime, didn't he?

But... Maybe he wouldn't pick them over Lio. 

"Wanna make out?" Lio asked, shattering the slightly awkward air between them and making Galo grin widely.

"Maybe. How're you feeling?"

"Same as the last time you asked."

"So... Cold?"

"Mmn. And whose job is it to keep me warm?" Lio teased. "So? Anything special you want to do tonight?"

"I'm fine with winging it," Galo pulled his shirt off and threw it aside, then scooted closer and leaned over Lio. "Anything you're curious about?"

"Kinda," Lio admitted before kissing him quickly, "Last night, you kept going and it felt a little like my brain short-circuited. I kind of liked it."

"You like being overstimulated, huh?" Galo grinned and pulled at the edges of Lio's sweater. "Want me to do that again?"

"Is it that easy to accomplish?" Lio raised his arms so Galo could tug his top off, hiding a wince from the pain in his shoulder. Galo didn't seem to notice. "Is that something I could do to you sometime?"

"Lio, you can do whatever you want to me," Galo said sincerely, making Lio's heart jump. "And it can be easy, sure. Might wanna build up your stamina a bit, though."

"Well, there's one way to do that." He leaned in and wrapped his arms around Galo's neck, "Wreck me, Thymos."

"I'm on it!" Galo kissed him with enthusiasm that pushed him to the floor. He was still halfway under the kotatsu, and Galo was twisting his body in a way that couldn't have been comfortable.

He was pinned down, but it didn't feel like he was trapped. It was kind of nice. Galo threaded fingers in his hair and he relaxed more, his own fingertips gliding down Galo's spine lightly. He let Galo set the pace and opened his mouth when prompted, letting out an embarrassing little noise in the back of his throat.

As always, it felt good. Everything with Galo felt amazing.

When they parted, Galo pointed out, "As much as you like the kotatsu, it presents some logistical issues here. Bed?"

Lio sighed dramatically, but couldn't hide his smile, "If we must."

Galo reached over and turned it off, looking pleased. "C'mon, I'm way hotter than a table."

Lio almost snorted, but startled out of it when Galo lifted him into a princess-carry and rushed to get him to the bed. "True. While that is the hottest table I've ever seen, it doesn't hold much of a candle to all this," He said, trailing a finger down Galo's chest. Galo flexed and Lio bit back another smile, allowing himself to be pushed down again.

"Are you okay with me over you like this?"

"Yeah," Lio said, "And - I know I said I don't like feeling caged in, but that's not what it feels like, facing you."

It was safer, Lio thought, when he could see Galo's sincere expressions. He was so enthusiastic and sweet, it was hard not to feel safe with those eyes on him. He absolutely could not explain that out loud.

"Okay," the words were sealed behind another light kiss before Galo spoke again. "If you change your mind, just say so."

"I will," Lio promised. Galo kissed him again, his hands settling on Lio's waist for a moment before slipping lower, tugging at the waistband of his pants. Lio raised his hips to make it easier and shivered as they came off.

Galo took less care with his own clothes, shimmying out of them while staying as connected to Lio's body as possible. Lio wondered if the novelty of all this would ever wear off. He hoped not.

"Is it good?" He asked suddenly, surprising himself. When Galo's brows furrowed in confusion, he added, "Sex. With me. Is it any good?"

Galo looked like he had a lot of thoughts on the matter, which was odd and gave Lio a sharp pang of anxiety for a second, but he blurted out, "It's the best, firebug."

As if to prove it, he kissed a wet trail over Lio's chest, keeping clear of his left side where the injury was. It tickled. "Even though I'm inexperienced?"

"Experience isn't everything. And you're getting more of it anyway," Galo said, moving lower and sliding his hand under Lio's thigh to lift his leg. "We're just an awesome team to start with. Don't you think so?"

Lio relaxed despite himself. "Yeah. Kind of like... Fighting with you on that rooftop was the most fun I'd ever had fighting someone, I guess?" Not that fighting was supposed to be fun. Galo was just weird like that.

"Exactly like that. You ignite my burning soul in ways no one else could!" Galo looked so proud of himself for that. Lio flicked his forehead.

"...So we can keep doing this?"

"Huh? I wasn't gonna stop unless you told me to–"

"No, I mean... I can stay here longer. Keep doing this in the future."

"Oh."

Yeah. Oh. Lio kept it to himself and waited for Galo's proper response, nerves flaring.

"Of course. As long as you want."

"...Okay. Good. Don't stop, then."

"You got it," Galo said, but his voice was more gentle than expected. He bit Lio's thigh a little less gently, then paused. "I can leave marks here, right? Where no one will see?"

Lio let out a laugh and kicked him, but agreed, and Galo sucked on his skin with gusto. He was content to let Galo do whatever he wanted.

Apparently Galo wanted to suck him off again. He made a gross slurping noise when he took Lio's dick into his mouth and Lio grimaced down at him for it, which only seemed to egg him on. He was really good at it, even if he was a weirdo. Oh well. It was important to have hobbies, Lio supposed.

He let himself focus on the way Galo's mouth felt on him, the enthusiastic sucking and heat and everything. He twitched and his shoulder stung uncomfortably, but he ignored it.

"Let me do this for you, too?" Lio offered - he wanted the practice. Maybe eventually he could make Galo feel just as good.

Galo pulled off him to answer. "Nope," he said decisively, "I'm gonna get you so worked up that you melt. Won't let up until you're seeing stars."

Lio's face warmed and he pouted, just a little - he had more or less asked for it.

"You came on my cock last night," Galo pointed out in a low voice. "Think you might do it again?"

"Please," he blurted out without thought. "And I want to return the favor later."

"Not tonight though," Galo said, grabbing the lube. "I'm gonna wear you out too much."

"Is that so?" Lio challenged, knowing very well he would lose that battle.

"And next time, you can do the same to me, if you want. When you're feeling better, anyway," Galo poured more lube than he needed onto his fingers.

His shoulder ached because he'd been reminded of it, but he brushed it off. Galo's fingers slipped inside of him and he trembled.

"That's it, relax... I'll take such good care of you," Galo said in a soothing voice, and Lio really did feel his body settle. Galo leaned over him so he could kiss him and he obliged, opening his mouth and noting there was a bitter, salty taste that he assumed came from himself. It was mostly inoffensive, though.

Galo curled his fingers and Lio arched his back, pressing their chests together while Galo reached under him with his other arm and trapped his waist. Trapped was the wrong word. Secured.

Ah. He loved this.

He loved a lot about it. He loved Galo's attention focused on him, he loved feeling wanted. He gasped when Galo brushed his prostate and snapped out of it.

He felt Galo's erection weeping against his thigh and rubbed against it idly, still much more focused on the kiss. He tried to murmur "hurry up" against Galo's mouth but he wasn't sure it sounded like words anymore.

"Be patient," Galo pulled away and chided with a laugh. "You wanted overstimulation, I've gotta get you there first."

"Do it with this useless thing," Lio shot back with a grin, rubbing Galo's dick harder with his thigh.

"Useless?!" Galo gaped incredulously, "How dare you!"

"Well what use is it right now?"

He was pretty sure Galo wasn't actually offended, but the taunt worked and his fingers slipped out and he got more lube ready. He broke character for a moment to ask if Lio wanted to use a condom, but that ship had sailed. He liked it raw, and as long as Galo was his partner he wasn't changing his mind (and he kind of hoped Galo would be okay with the reverse, as well).

"Brace yourself," Galo warned playfully, then sheathed himself inside of Lio. It felt rough, but in a way Lio liked, making him whimper and squirm.

It hurt, but in a way that felt good. It reminded him of burning.

"Ugh," Lio groaned, "Your needlessly oversized cock just rearranged my insides."

"Hot. I think."

"Whatever," Lio couldn't stop grinning even though he was trying to complain, "Just get moving."

"If you can still complain like this, I'm not doing my job well enough," Galo lamented, grabbing Lio's waist with both hands and rolling his hips. Lio moaned and threw his head back, and Galo seized the chance to kiss and bite his neck - he could tell that Galo was being careful not to leave any marks, and he was quietly grateful for it.

He really, really loved this. He needed it. He needed Galo to need it just as much.

No, he needed Galo to need him. There was a word for that. He wasn't allowed to say it.

Galo's pace changed and Lio bit back a moan, but the air was being punched out of his lungs every thrust and he couldn't hold back a humming noise even through his clenched jaw. It was so good, so good–

And then Galo slowed and Lio snapped to attention. "Don't... Don't stop."

A bead of sweat was trailing down Galo's jawline and Lio was enchanted for a moment. He wrapped his legs around Galo's hips and tugged his face down for another kiss, forcing him in deeper and oh, it was wonderful. Galo hugged around him and he was so warm.

His brain was starting to go numb, like the night before. He came. He did indeed see stars.

"Aw, I was trying to edge you some first," Galo teased, then picked up his pace again, pounding into him relentlessly. And there, that's what he wanted, that sweet way his body felt like it was melting and electrified all at once.

It hurt. It hurt like burning, it hurt so good, and then–

It was cold?

Something was wrong. He started babbling, pawing at Galo's neck to slow him down again, but it hurt.

There was a crackling noise. Ice bloomed from the wound near his shoulder like a lotus flower and frost crept across his skin, over his neck and chest, like a spreading disease.

He coughed and it felt like choking on dry ice. What a way to go.

If he were to die like this...

"Lio...? What the fuck. What the fuck."

"Galo," he tried, his voice rough. There were a million things he could say. 'Help me' came to mind, but that wasn't going to do anything - this was Galo, if anyone could help him, Galo was the one he could trust for that, he never had to ask.

His panicked thoughts didn't dwell long on the burnish - they didn't need him anymore, after all.

Instead, he managed a selfish "I love you."

His vision went white.

Notes:

It would be really funny if I took another five year hiatus right here

 

(the next two chapters are half done and everyone will be fine don't worry)

Chapter 9: Day 9

Summary:

(storm)cloud 9

Notes:

This chapter is forever going to haunt me as "galo ruins the tone of the entire thing because I can't help but write him giddy" And "well fuck it then, i'm using this to gripe about my possibly-controversial sailor moon opinions because galo is a weeb"

 

Anyway I'm sick of looking at it, you can look at it instead.

Galo's feet stung with cold; he did his best to run on the street where it was clear of rubble, because every time he stumbled it was time he was losing. He managed to get to his bike, tie the sheets around himself in such a way that Lio wouldn't be able to slip off, and got it moving. He was breaking a ton of safety laws, but after whatever the hell just happened, he didn't really care.

Lio was freezing right next to him. His skin was covered in a soft frost all across his chest and shoulder, creeping up his neck to his jaw. It was still trying to spread, but it had slowed since that first sharp crack, when that sharp spike of ice pierced his chest and blossomed once it reached past his skin.

Aina met him outside of the med center and bundled Lio into her arms, kicking the door open without a word. Galo hadn't wanted to let him go, wanted to keep him close and still feel his breathing so he knew he was alive at least, but he didn't stop her. Rescue was inside. Somehow.

She wasn't exactly delicate about putting Lio on the table in front of her sister. Lio whined and his arms twitched.

"This is..." Heris looked panicked.

"It doesn't matter what it is - can you do something?" Aina snapped her out of it and they nodded at each other decisively, like they'd had a detailed conversation in one instant. Sister telepathy or something. Galo would be impressed about it later.

Aina held down Lio's legs and she raised her voice to tell Galo to get his arms. Heris grasped a scalpel and got to work.

Lio's frozen skin sliced cleanly, the blood didn't flow like it was supposed to. But Lio reacted, gasping and whining and trying - trying - to thrash about. It was bad. He screamed, sort of; it came out like he was choking.

"Here, bite down if you need to," Galo offered his arm in the compression sleeve in front of Lio's mouth and Lio immediately took hold, biting down so painfully that Galo started to regret it. But Lio stopped seizing and didn't look like he was trying to scream anymore.

Lio drew blood. It was okay. As long as he pulled through it was okay.

The blossom of ice coming out of him was sharp and smeared with Lio's blood, blooming from the little wound that never fully healed. Heris delicately cut around it while Galo and Aina held Lio down. There wasn't time for pain management, there wasn't time for any hesitation. Galo didn't remember much from the panic of carrying Lio to safety, but he was still half-naked and not wearing shoes. He'd bundled Lio up in blankets and darted out the door, only remembering pants because he had to call for help first.

He wasn't sure why he'd called Aina, though? Panic makes people act strange, he knew that, but in his right mind he might've called an ambulance - and had he done that, Lio would be dead already.

Heris was deep in concentration, making a few incisions around the ice and carefully grabbing the little bloom, tilting it back and forth, twisting and finally tugging it out. Lio writhed, whimpered, and passed out.

"Keep holding him in case he wakes up," She instructed, aiming a lamp to examine the now-gaping wound and grabbing a different tool. "I see more fragments in here. I need to get it all out before we can close this up. Aina, lower the temperature in here."

Galo felt like he was going to vomit. He could handle blood just fine, but... This was Lio bleeding all over the place. This was Lio almost dying, again.

Lio, who apparently loved him.

Heris ran the scanner immediately after the wound was sewn up - Aina did the stitching, because Heris insisted she wasn't a surgeon or an EMT and she would mess it up, and Galo's hands were wildly unsteady.

"He was exposed to a lot of Freeze Force weaponry," Heris explained, "I thought it might be the cause, but it didn't occur to me that it would still be so volatile."

"That bullet designed to kill him?"

"Yes. A fragment of it was still lodged inside of him. It looks like we got it all, but I'll check again when his temperature stabilizes." Heris couldn't meet his eyes. That was alright, Galo wasn't really looking at her either. His gaze kept falling back onto Lio.

He kind of wanted to break Vulcan's nose, even though it would accomplish nothing. Also, he always kind of wanted to break Vulcan's nose. He was an asshole.

"I'll keep watch tonight. You should go clean up and get some rest," Heris offered, but Galo shook his head.

Before he could say anything, Aina cut in, "Galo, trust me when I say you need to clean up at least. There's a chemical shower here, just use that."

Galo looked down at himself and winced. "Oh," he said, "That's a lot of blood."

"Yeah. It is. I'll make sure Lio is cleaned up, but you don't want him to see you covered in blood when he wakes up, do you?"

"No... Where's the shower?"

Aina pointed it out to him and he went to take care of that, also taking the time to clean up the bite wound under his compression sleeve. Maybe he ought to run home and get a change of clothes? But it would feel like a betrayal to leave Lio alone with Heris.

Luckily, Aina came back with a spare burning rescue uniform. She was really the best.

"I think he'll pull through just fine, Galo," She tried to assure him. "He's a tough little guy. With or without the promare."

"I don't think I ever told you what happened in the engine room. Lio almost died. His body was starting to crumble away to ashes. His limbs were gone." He didn't know why he was telling her. Maybe trying to justify the trauma.

"When you went in to save him?" She asked, tilting her head and indulging him.

"Yeah. I managed to save him then, but..."

"I bet it was scary," She offered, a kind smile on her face. "Maybe even scarier than this was."

"Mm."

"It's okay to feel things, Galo. But I hope you perk up by the time he wakes up. You probably want Lio to wake up to a smile, right?"

"I've got a lot on my mind."

"No kidding. Have you told him yet?"

"Huh?"

She cocked her head. "That you're in love with him? That thing you kept mumbling while he was on the operating table?"

"I—!! I didn't say that!! Did I?"

"Uh, yeah. You did. Repeatedly. 'Stay with me, bud, I love you'," she shrugged while doing her best Galo impression. "I won't tease you about it, and I won't meddle. I think you two are cute together, though."

"Ahhh jeez," Galo covered his face in embarrassment.

"I know I won't convince you to go home and rest, but I'll offer to watch him for you so you can follow up on things. We can trade off. It'd be nice to give him some good news when he's up, right?"

"Yeah..." Galo agreed, looking at a wall instead of her. "Yeah, that's true. I need to tell his buddies what happened, too. But I want to stay with him tonight."

"Got it. I'll come stay with him in the morning and you can leave for a while." They nodded at each other and Aina pulled her jacket on, waving as she walked out of the room.

And then he was left alone in the room with Lio. He sat down in the chair beside him and took his hand, allowing himself to feel slightly giddy, knowing that things would be okay.

He loved Lio, and Lio loved him. They'd have a lot to talk about.

Galo wasn't that easily intimidated. He was too stupid for that, never knew when to back down.

Meeting up with Lio's friends without Lio being there? Very intimidating.

Both of them were scrawny to the point they looked a little malnourished, and were taller than Lio but not by that much. He knew their names, but he was only mildly sure he knew which one was which. The one with the long, pretty hair was Meis and the loud one was Gueira, probably.

"Hey guys!" Galo greeted them, trying to hide how tired and nervous he was.

"Firefighter." Meis regarded him simply with a nod, while Gueira said "Yo!" and waved.

"Hey, so, I need to let you know that Lio had emergency surgery last night–"

Meis didn't like him much, apparently. He eyed Galo with suspicion and cut him off. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything! Well, not intentionally. Nothing he didn't ask for–"

"Okay, stop there before you overshare, big guy," Gueira interrupted them. "So Boss is in the new med center, yeah? We can just go check on him ourselves. What happened?"

"Yeah. Some Freeze Force stuff was still in his body and it like, exploded out of him last night. But he'll be fine! I think. He's still under some meds to keep him from feeling pain and it's probably going to keep him asleep longer."

"You better have him on the real good shit," Gueira said.

"Hold on. Exploded?"

"Ice came out of his body. It was kind of like... have you ever seen Sailor Moon? Like when she uses the crystal and it opens up like a flower–" Galo was gesturing but he wasn't sure it was helping.

"What the fuck is Sailor Moon?"

"Oh... Uh. Exploded was too strong a word. It froze parts of him really suddenly."

Meis and Gueira looked at each other, then back at Galo. "Got it. We'll go see him. Don't tell the other burnish yet. You'll just freak them out."

They left as a unit toward the medical center, and Galo breathed a sigh of relief. Those were Lio's best friends, so he'd have to try harder to get them to like him, probably. He'd want their approval if he was going to make things official with Lio, after all.

Lio, who loved him.

Vanessa was a Foresight fanatic once. Galo knew this because he was one of them too. They'd met at events before. He hadn't told Lio as much because he hoped, deep down, she'd decided to wake up and reject Kray like Galo did.

Maybe she had, maybe she hadn't. She didn't say.

"Well, safe to assume he wouldn't have passed the rest of that physical," She said tiredly, stamping her signature on a form.

"But he will!" Galo argued.

"If he survives."

"He's gonna be fine!" he raised his voice. She looked at him with a grimace. He'd seen that expression before and tried to ignore it.

"Then when he's fine, he can come back and I'll put him to work. I'm not even sure why you're bothering to tell me about this."

"Because we weren't done submitting that citizenship paperwork," Galo explained, "I just dropped it off and decided to check in."

She took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Is that all, then?"

"...Yeah," He answered, "Is Captain Ignis here? Talking to him doesn't suck."

"He's at ground zero," she answered, not acknowledging his insult. "He's overseeing the dismantling of the Parnassus."

"Okay, I'll go see him instead then."

"Thymos. I want you to take care of your little arson-terrorist. He's been useful in ways he doesn't even realize."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?"

She cracked a little smile, "You don't think there'd be riots if he weren't around to keep the burnish in line? This whole city would be destroyed by now if it weren't for him. I doubt it's intentional, but he is very, very good at organizing them and keeping them peaceful."

"Why are you acting like they'd burn the city down? They're regular people now."

"Regular people can still use lighters," She said pointedly.

"You really suck," Galo said before he could stop himself, "You're a lot like Kray, aren't you?"

"You're just not very good at seeing the bigger picture," she answered, turning her attention back to her paperwork. "I want him to wake up. I don't like him, but we need him, so make sure he doesn't get assassinated or something, got it?"

Galo didn't have a snappy comeback for that, but he was sort of horrified at the implication that someone might try to hurt Lio in his hospital bed.

He decided not to visit Ignis and just shot him a text instead. Apparently his assignment was being Lio's bodyguard, which meant sticking to Lio's side like glue.

Which was nice, since Galo loved him.

Which was also nice since Lio loved Galo back.

Lio had a steady stream of visitors throughout the day. Mostly burnish, but Lucia made a point to stop by so she could study the bullet fragments with Heris. Two minds are better than one, or whatever. Didn't make any difference to Galo, as long as Lio woke up.

She took the opportunity to check in and see how Galo was holding up, and examined some of the tech Heris had in the room. "This stuff is aggressively temporary," she explained, thumping a larger machine with a fist, "The burnish are recovering, so its use is going to be done in a few months. I wonder if we can rebuild it into something more fun."

"Well, when there's no need for it, what would you make it into?"

"A big ol' mech," she said, spinning the stick of her lollipop. "Something fun, Galo."

Galo smiled at that. "Hell yeah."

"Since he's joining the force, we've gotta give him gear. Something badass."

"Like his armor?"

"Yeah! Maybe with flamethrowers."

"That's not useful for firefighting."

"Eh, I'll workshop it," She said, waving her hand flippantly. "But we agree it needs to be badass."

"Definitely."

They fell silent for a little while, Galo just happy to have some conscious company.

"So, what happened to him last night?" She asked. He couldn't tell if she was curious because she intended to study the bullet or if she was concerned, but he supposed both options were good.

"Well, we were– uh. It was really hot in the apartment and suddenly the ice burst out. Aina said it was like a lotus flower. I think it looked like the silver crystal, but–"

"Oh, from Sailor Moon?" She asked, cheeky.

"Wait! You like Sailor Moon?" Galo asked excitedly.

"Uh Duh. Look at my hair, Galo, I had to get inspo from anime."

"Why don't we talk about it all the time?! This is amazing!" He was leaning over and possibly being a bit louder than he should have been. "Who's your favorite character? Probably Mercury, right?"

"Hell no. She doesn't even use her big brain powers for anything interesting. I want the three older outers to step on me though."

"...Yeah, I kinda get that."

"And Venus was robbed by the anime," she added, shaking her fist at the ceiling. "Give her the sword you cowards!"

"Yeah! That's true! She deserves her own spinoff anime!"

"What the hell are you two on about?" Aina asked, entering the room without knocking, "We can hear you out there. You're gonna give Lio weird dreams."

"His meds will give him weird dreams, too," Lucia pointed out, hopping from her chair. "But okay. I'd better get to work. Aina, did you know Galo is a leg guy? All superfans of Sailor Moon are into legs."

"Hey!"

"He's into Lio, so I'm not shocked in the least," Aina shrugged as the door fell shut behind them and Lucia snorted.

Well. Lio was into him, too.

He wasn't waking up - and of course it was going to take time, Galo knew that, but it wasn't easy to sit next to a hospital bed all day and wait. He got bored and fidgety, he had to get up and pace the room a lot. Time dragged when he was alone in there, even if he wasn't technically alone.

He didn't question whether or not Lio would wake up eventually; Lio's condition was stable, he was mending, sometimes he had a REM cycle... It just required patience, which Galo wasn't great at.

At least he wasn't waiting for death in that cell, this time.

Meis and Gueira visited a lot. He was pretty sure he and Gueira were getting close to being friends, but Meis remained unmoved.

"We went ahead and told the other burnish," Meis said, "We decided to leave out the part about Heris Ardebit cutting him open, so keep your trap shut about it and you won't piss everyone off."

"That's fair," Galo agreed. Just knowing how Lio reacted to her was enough, he knew it wouldn't be a good idea to bring her up in front of the other burnish.

Gueira, meanwhile, pulled back Lio's blankets and unraveled a tape measure, which was startling; when he saw Galo's reaction he flipped the bird and said, "Look. Boss doesn't feel like himself wearing rags. We wanna surprise him when he gets up."

He couldn't help but smile. "You think so too? Aw, man, that's great. Can I help?"

"You're not allowed to touch him 'till he wakes up," Gueira said decisively. It didn't seem very fair but Galo wasn't going to argue with him. It would probably be mean to point out that Lio's not-quite-last words were a declaration of love for Galo and that probably meant Galo was allowed to touch him.

"There's a candlelight vigil tonight," Meis said to change the subject, "The other burnish wanted to put it together. You're welcome to join us."

"Um," Galo glanced between Meis and Lio's sleeping form. "I think I should stay with him. I have to make sure nothing happens to him."

"What's going to happen?" Meis probed.

"I dunno, man," Galo fidgeted uncomfortably, "It sounds like even my boss' boss is worried someone might try to hurt him, so I'm staying."

"Has anyone made any threats?" Meis was needling him for information because it was obvious Galo wasn't going to lie. Unfortunately, Galo also didn't really know much.

"None that I've heard myself," He admitted, shoulders slumping, "But someone tried to attack you guys before. It could happen again."

Meis and Gueira whispered some things to each other and nodded. Gueira rolled the tape back up and they started to leave. "Later, big guy."

He cocked his head, surprised by the sudden end to the visit. "Uh... Okay? Later?"

"You guard him. We guard the rest of the burnish. They'll all be gathered in one spot, after all."

Something sank in his gut at the explanation. "H-hey, you want backup? I can–"

"No. We burnish take care of our own," Meis said, frowning at him. "You get special permission to look after the boss, that's it."

The thought of Lio waking up to find out about something horrible happening to a crowd of burnish at a vigil held for him sounded terrifying. He doubted Meis and Gueira alone had the resources to secure a whole gathering. "Nah. Screw that. I'm getting reinforcements. My team will back you up."

Meis was about to argue but Gueira punched his arm lightly and said something under his breath.

"You do what you need to do, then," Gueira flashed a peace sign, then shoved his hands in his pockets. "So long as boss is safe."

"You can leave him to me. Take care!" He waved them off and turned back to Lio. Would Lio be okay with all this? He might be embarrassed by a vigil.

He took a moment to call Ignis and let him know what was happening, because he knew Ignis would be willing to provide some backup for the burnish. Sure enough, the group text for work lit up after the call and the others volunteered to help as well.

He stared at Lio for longer. Still nothing. He fiddled with his phone instead.

His texts had mostly been ignored lately. He didn't want to ghost anyone, he knew how much that could hurt, but he wasn't really interested in talking to them, either. He'd have to figure out how to break those connections eventually.

In the meantime, he pulled up Lio's entry in his contacts. He'd saved it with the same shorthand because he'd been rushing at the time, but that wasn't appropriate; Lio was special from the start, and now...

He changed the display name from "L" to "Sexy Arson-terrorist" with a bunch of fire emojis. That was much better. He imagined Lio would laugh at him for it, call him an idiot, but secretly he'd be totally charmed.

Because Lio loved him.

Some visitors surprised him more than others.

"Um." Galo said, very eloquent.

"I was on my way to the vigil," Vanessa said, walking up to the side of Lio's bed, "And I wanted to see his condition for myself. Since he's going to be one of ours."

"Why are you going to the vigil?" Galo's brows furrowed and he crossed his arms, standing to hopefully be at least kind of intimidating. Vanessa didn't budge.

"Because it looks good," she answered frankly. "You don't have to trust me. He certainly doesn't. But we'll work together well enough for the sake of the city."

"You were going to withhold rations from the burnish," Galo pointed out.

"More like I forced him to register all the burnish as citizens," she countered. "I may not have any love for the burnish themselves, but they're human enough now. Getting them integrated and getting over this ordeal will only make the city stronger. If that requires manipulation, so be it."

"No offense, but you're kind of an asshole. Actually, full offense."

"You can't get very far without being one," She agreed. "Anyway. I brought you a candle. Even if you're not at the vigil, you can sort-of take part in it."

"...You want me to light a candle in a hospital room?"

"It's battery-operated." She handed it over. It was indeed a fake candle.

"Oh."

"Let me know when he wakes up," she said, turning to leave. Galo made no move to stop her or even say goodbye to her.

He switched on the candle and set it beside Lio on the bed. It was one of those flickering fake candles. Lio looked pretty with the warm light on his face, even asleep.

"Hurry and wake up, firebug," he whispered, knowing that his sleep was medically-induced and it was really for the best if he didn't wake for a while longer. The wound had been pretty deep, after the ice had expanded and sliced through him like that. He'd be in a lot of pain when he did wake, and putting that off for just a little longer was the kind thing to do.

But Galo was bored.

And he wanted Lio to know he loved him, too.

Close to midnight, Heris entered the room holding a device. "Did they tell you, yet...?" she asked, already pressing the thing to Lio's chest and getting a reading. "About what happened tonight?"

"Something happened? Are the burnish okay?"

"You haven't left this room, so I'm not surprised you didn't hear us bringing in a few injured," Heris said, too calmly. "Someone drove a luxury car into the crowd."

"What?!" He actually turned to regard her after that, not sure what he expected to see. His skin was itchy suddenly, like he needed to get out there and solve problems himself, but he knew better and had to stay put.

"Everyone will be okay," she added quickly, and he started to relax. "There were some minor injuries. Aina saved everyone." That last part was spoken with a shy kind of pride.

"Who would do that?" Galo asked her.

"I don't know," she answered with an apologetic nod. "I only know what I've overheard."

They lapsed into silence then; Heris had come in with that doodad a few times throughout the day, getting a quick reading on Lio's temperature and a scan of the injury. She tapped a few times on the attached tablet to zoom in on the imaging, looking somewhat pleased.

"How's he doing?" Galo dared to ask.

"Much improved," she said, a tiny smile on her face. "His temperature is almost normal. Still low, but almost there. I'm not seeing any traces of freezing weapons anymore."

"Maybe he's just normal cold now," Galo suggested, taking Lio's hand and feeling for himself. "I should get him extra blankets."

She looked at him oddly, "You're going home?"

"...Uh, no. I guess not."

"I wouldn't mind watching him for you. He won't wake up until we ease him off the medications anyway..."

"Nah. Especially if the burnish were attacked tonight. I need to make sure he's safe with my own two eyes."

Heris nodded and lowered her tablet. "I think... Tomorrow, it should be okay to let him wake up."

Galo squeezed Lio's unresponsive hand. "That's good. He'd hate being left out of the loop for this long."

She watched for a minute, relief in her eyes for some reason. She really wasn't the villain Lio pictured her as, but her conscience wasn't anywhere near clean. People were complicated. She was still a villain, just trying to turn things around.

It wasn't up to him to decide what her penance should be, exactly, for her crimes. She'd been acting under orders, at least for some of it, and only she and Kray knew how bad it had really gotten. She'd made a terrible, panicked decision to overload the engine and broke free from Kray, but even that had added to her sins. She'd hurt people, and he understood why Aina wasn't keen to forgive her. He understood why Lio never would.

But Galo could respect it, seeing her try. He was glad she was trying, because that was why Lio would recover. If they'd just thrown her in prison like they'd done with Kray, Lio would have frozen over and died and no one would have known what to do. She had reacted swiftly, knowing just how to thaw him out without triggering the chain freezing effect of the bullet.

Granted, that was because she knew how the thing was made, but Galo was still grateful Lio would be okay. That was enough for now.

"I'll let you know if I find out anything else about that attack on the burnish," she promised, breaking the silence and turning to leave the room. "Although, you'll likely find out from Aina before I learn much. Good night, Galo."

The door clicked shut behind her and Galo wondered if he ought to check on the other patients, but he didn't want to disturb anyone, nor did he want to leave Lio's side.

He checked his phone and realized it hadn't gone off because he'd let it die. Well, he hadn't brought a charger with him, so it'd just have to stay dead until there was a chance to remedy that. Maybe Aina would give him some time to run home and change again. Or maybe Lio's buddies might be willing to cover him for a couple hours.

Lio still seemed cold. Carefully, Galo lifted him to move him over a little and joined him on the too-small bed. It wasn't comfortable for him, but he made sure Lio looked cozy. And okay, maybe that was breaking a bunch of rules and etiquette or whatever, but Galo didn't really care. He'd promised to keep Lio warm.

Lio's breathing deepened and he continued to sleep.

He hugged an arm around Lio's waist. Part of him wanted to go out and check on everyone, part of him was upset that he was so far from the action, but the rest of him was glad he could stay there.

He didn't intend to fall asleep, but it was pretty late, and he hadn't slept the night before, so it wasn't surprising that he'd dozed off.

Before closing his eyes, he grinned stupidly and said, "Love you, Lio. G'night."

Because Lio loved him.

Galo was awakened rudely by someone grabbing the strap of his sleeve and yanking him out of the bed.

"I said no touching!" Gueira sounded kind of pissed, "Boss can't consent if he's asleep, so hands off!"

"Ow, ow, ow," Galo whined, righting himself into a seated position where he'd landed on the floor. "He looked cold! I was trying to help!"

"You look like a creep, sneakin' into a hospital bed like that! Gross!"

"I wasn't being a creep!" Galo argued, but now that his brain had gotten a little rest he realized that maybe, just maybe, that was creepy behavior after all. He wasn't entitled to cuddles. Still kinda wanted them, though.

"Shut the fuck up," Meis chided them, "If you disturb his sleep I'll end you, got it? Same goes for both of you."

They both responded with "Sorry" at a perfectly reasonable volume. Galo added, "Are you guys okay after what happened?"

"It's been a long night. It'll be a long fucking day ahead too. Just fill us in, has he been recovering?"

Galo nodded, "Yeah. He's stable, he should be able to wake up soon."

Both Meis and Gueira visibly relaxed.

"There was never any question, right? He's too tough to let something like this take him down." Galo flashed a thumbs-up.

"...Yeah," Meis agreed, looking solemn. "The boss is invincible."

Neither of them looked like they bought it, though.

Galo wasn't sure he bought it, either. He wanted to, but he also struggled with the memories of watching Lio almost die, twice now. Crumbling to ash on the floor. Ice bursting from his chest. In Galo's arms both times. But he didn't die either time.

"If what he's been through isn't enough to crush him, nothing will," Galo resolved. Either of those things would've killed a normal person easily. Lio was special.

"Yeah, he's a fuckin' cockroach," Gueira had a wobbly grin on his face. "Nothing'll ever kill him."

Then he sniffled.

"...You guys wanna watch him for a bit? I can go home and get him some clean blankets." Galo thought that would be the kind thing to do, give them some time alone with Lio. It'd get him out of the room for an hour or so, too. He needed his phone back, for entertainment if nothing else.

"Get the fuck out," Gueira said sharply, "We got'im. He'll be great."

Meis rubbed his eyes and ignored him.

Galo stood and left, hurried so he wouldn't hold them up. He took his bike back to his apartment and rushed through the motions, grabbing a few blankets for Lio and his phone charger, brushing his teeth (feeling stupidly happy over the pair of toothbrushes for a second) and changing his clothes.

He realized somewhere along the way that they might want a bit more time with Lio and he plugged his phone in to check it and kill a bit more time before he left. Sure enough, dozens of missed messages. Most were filling him in on the incident from the night before. One was a video showing the car speeding toward the crowd only to have its wheels shot by an ice gun. Apparently Aina did that. That was really badass, he'd have to let her know how cool it looked.

He took a little more time to eat some food and shove the blankets and charger into his bag. He didn't rush back to the medical center, purposefully taking the trip slowly to give Meis and Gueira more alone time with Lio - he wanted to be there when he woke up, sure, but it would be nice if it was them, too. As long as Lio woke up to friendly faces.

As long as he woke up to someone who loved him.

"The doctor advised against waking him," Heris told him, her expression apologetic. "I'm not a surgeon, so I'm going to defer to their expertise here. Sorry, Galo."

"Hey, it's okay!" Galo said, giving her a thumbs-up even though he knew he wasn't hiding his disappointment well. "Whatever's best for Lio, let's do it."

"Still, sorry to get your hopes up." She glanced aside and adjusted her glasses. "Pass my apologies on to his, um, friends, if you get the chance..." The former Mad Burnish generals must've done something to spook her. Well, fair enough, they were a lot scarier now than they were with all that flaming armor, in Galo's opinion.

They'd left when Galo arrived, saying something about needing a ton of paint. It was probably better if Galo didn't know.

He took his seat next to the bed again and got as comfortable as he could, prepared for another long stretch of waiting.

It'd be worth the wait, because Lio loved him.

Chapter 10: Day ???

Summary:

Going home

Notes:

This is the most embarrassing thing I've ever written and I hate it, but I'm sick of looking at it and I've been bothering my friends too much over it, so I'll just get it out of the way.
I should be able to wrap up loose ends in the next chapter and I'll call it there. I'd wanted to drag this fic out, and in a way I guess I did... Oops.

Cold.

Crackling noises. Stiff.

"Lio, hold on– Here, bite down if you need to."

Coarse. Iron.

Cold cold cold cold cold, pain.

Something was restraining him.

Something was cutting him open.

He reached for fire and couldn't find it.

Right - he didn't have it anymore. He didn't have anything.

He woke, but he hadn't expected to.

He woke up in a hospital bed. The room was bright. The temperature was mild. His left side felt sore, but not frozen.

"Welcome back, firebug," Galo sounded so relieved, and he looked like he hadn't slept in days. He'd been sitting in a plastic chair beside the bed, his arms crossed over the mattress next to Lio. "How're you feeling?"

Lio ignored the question in favor of asking his own. "You saved me?"

Galo shook his head. "I brought you to someone who could. There's no EMT training to deal with whatever that was."

Why did that feel disappointing? The last time he'd asked that question Galo had panicked and almost punched him and now all of his energy seemed sapped away. Not that Lio had any energy, himself. He looked back at the ceiling and took a deep breath.

"How long was I out?"

"Few days," Galo said, resting his head in his arms. "You can keep sleeping if you need to."

"What have I missed?"

"Not too much," Galo lied. Lio could tell it was a lie. Galo wasn't a liar, so there had to be a good reason.

"The burnish–"

"All waiting for you to wake up," Galo said, and it sounded true this time. "They're getting settled."

He wanted to hear more, but he had gleaned that Galo was going to withhold things from him while he was still in that condition. He'd get the information he wanted elsewhere. Instead, he asked, "What happened to me?"

"Some Freezing tech was lodged in there. Aina's sister got it out."

Lio nodded, but didn't find that to be a particularly satisfying answer.

A hand brushed his own, then gingerly laced their fingers together. He didn't look.

"You scared me, Lio."

"I'm sorry," he answered, as if reflexively.

"Just promise me that's the last time I see you almost die. Or at least wait until we're old men." His voice was cracking with emotion. Lio still didn't look, and wasn't sure he should anyway.

"If I can help it," He agreed. "It's not like I want to die."

"Yeah..." Galo squeezed his hand. "I know. You've still got things to fight for."

Fighting wasn't really what he was doing anymore, was it? He couldn't win a fight with his own body. He couldn't win a fight with a shirt. He didn't say so.

He tried sitting up and Galo immediately started fussing, adjusting the bed and pillows to support him. Unfortunately, it seemed he needed it; his body truly felt like he'd just thawed out of a block of ice naturally. Everything was stiff and sore. With help, he settled comfortably.

And he desperately tried not to think about the fact that he'd thought he was going to die and all he could manage to do was blurt out that he'd fallen in love with his 'friend with benefits'. It didn't escape his notice that Galo hadn't brought it up either, and it hurt.

It wasn't Galo's fault if Lio's feelings weren't returned, of course. He could only hope they'd move past it and stay friends. Not that he had the courage to bring that up yet.

"It was the absolute zero bullet, wasn't it?" Lio asked instead, placing his hand over his chest. "I thought I got it out, but I must have failed."

"Just a piece of it," Galo corrected, adjusting the blanket on Lio's bed. "It wasn't as potent as the whole thing, but it still fed off your body heat."

"I see," Lio nodded. "And it's gone now?"

"Yeah. Emergency surgery. It was pretty intense." Galo shuddered. "Heris warned me she's not a surgeon, but she was the only one who figured it out."

"I'm sure she's carved up enough burnish to figure out a surgery," Lio scowled, looking at the spot on his chest with bandages over it. Knowing it was Heris Ardebit who'd saved him was very nearly devastating. He tried to keep that to himself, but he would have preferred to lose his arm, probably.

"Yeah, well. She figured it out and saved your life. I'm grateful to her."

"My life isn't enough to wash away the burnish blood on her hands."

"...No, I suppose not," Galo looked away, thoughtful. "But it's another step in the right direction."

"...Do you know when I can leave?"

"No idea. We were just waiting for you to wake up to get a good look at your condition," Galo explained. "You shouldn't need to stay here though. Just as long as you promise to take it easy at home."

Lio swallowed down the cheeky reply, that taking it easy was impossible with Galo around. He didn't want to bring that up. Galo probably wouldn't want to touch him for a while, after all that. And... yeah, that was fair. "I will. I'm not exactly comfortable here."

"Just wait until a doc gives you the all clear, okay?"

Lio nodded solemnly. He stared down at his lap until he heard a loud, familiar voice outside the door and looked up.

"That sounds like your friends are here," Galo said with a smile. "I'll give you some time with them and find a doctor to check you out."

"Thank you," Lio offered as Galo stepped out and Meis and Gueira welcomed themselves in. Galo waved it off.

Meis sat on the bed beside him, and Gueira plopped down next to his feet. They said nothing right away, but he could see the relief in their posture, and how tactile they were.

"...Hey, guys." He tried. Meis petted Lio's hair comfortingly.

"Glad you're still with us, Boss."

"Not that we saw the worst of it," Gueira added, "Loverboy was real freaked out though. He kept acting weird as fuck."

"Don't call him that." He ignored the rest of it. Galo acting weird was justified; Lio had just blurted out that he loved him and then almost died in his bed. Anyone would act weird about that.

"Nah, I'm callin' him that. He's straight up obsessed with you."

"No he isn't!" Lio argued, incredulous. He couldn't face it, not yet. Galo wasn't obsessed with him, he couldn't even...

"Whatever you say, Boss."

Lio pouted and Meis brushed his hair with his fingers again.

"I probably shouldn't have survived," Lio closed his eyes in thought as he spoke, "I'm not burnish anymore. I shouldn't have been able to withstand it."

"Not being burnish might be what saved you, then. You can't generate enough heat for it to react to anymore." Meis started working a tangle out, still trying to offer comfort. It wasn't what Lio wanted to hear.

"Maybe..." He shook his head and Meis stopped petting him.

"Whatever the reason, I'm relieved you're here. That's enough for me."

"Yeah, let the brains figure out the details if you want'em."

"What's been happening since I've been here?"

"We've been painting the new housing. It looks much cooler, now." Gueira's energy brought a smile to Lio's face. He was excited to see the results of that project.

"There's something you're not telling me. Galo, too."

"There was an incident, only minor injuries. We don't want you to worry about it right now." Meis was careful with his words. It was unsettling. Galo didn't lie and Meis didn't keep things from him.

Gueira, on the other hand, leaned back and grinned, "Oh, and we caught the guy who threw that molotov cocktail. Just some normal dude! Nothing connected to any big bad movement from Foresight's people."

"Thats... Good?" Lio's brows furrowed.

"Sorry, boss. We don't wanna overload you."

"I'll be fine," He tried to assure them, "I want to know."

Meis sighed and looked at Gueira, the two of them deliberating silently for an instant before he turned back to Lio. "There was a vigil for you. It was attacked, but those firefighters prevented anything from getting too bad."

"A vigil," Lio repeated, his cheeks warming from both embarrassment and anger.

"Yeah. Before you ask, no, it wasn't our idea."

"We knew you'd hate it," Gueira beamed at him, "Which is exactly why we went along with it."

"... Thanks," Lio said dryly, then added with more care, "Was anyone seriously hurt?"

"Nothing as bad as what happened to you," Meis told him. "A few broken bones aren't going to kill us, so don't worry."

Lio nodded and took a deep breath, noting the pain in his chest as he did so; it wasn't intolerable, but he still wasn't used to long-lasting pains from healing wounds, so it was novel. He'd been burnish for too long to know what it felt like to heal. It wasn't so bad, he thought, to figure out what it was like to be human again. He wondered if the others injured felt similarly, or if they resented him for sending the promare home after all.

"Was Galo here the whole time?" He asked, voice quiet.

"Mostly," Gueira answered. "We kicked him out a couple times. You worried about him?"

"Yeah," Lio surprised himself with his sincerity. He didn't want to talk about it in detail, but Galo hadn't deserved that scare. Lio thought he was going to die at that moment and probably made it worse. He'd have to make it up to him somehow.

At least... He knew Galo cared. It felt nice to acknowledge that. No matter what feelings were involved, at least there was something there that kept Galo by his side all that time.

He told himself to relax and flexed his sore arm, just to make sure it still worked okay. He still felt uncomfortably stiff.

"Hey, boss," Meis said gently, "We also made sure to get something ready for you. Once you're out of hospital clothes."

He was cleared to leave hours later. Meis and Gueira helped him dress since he was being instructed to limit use of his arm, which was tied into a sling. "Doc says you should probably stay in bed a couple more days and let me wait on you hand and foot," Galo told him, acting way too pleased about it.

"Why should the boss be going with you, huh?" Gueira challenged him.

"Gueira." Lio grabbed his attention and shook his head, shutting him down. He wanted to stay with Galo. Even if his nerves were on fire just thinking about it, he wanted to be there. Maybe he could get a response out of him when they were alone together, even if it wasn't what Lio wanted to hear in the end.

"Don't worry, guys, he's safe with me!" Galo was still being way too chipper. Meis looked annoyed by it.

"The boss can go wherever he wants to be," he said, "but you're dead if he pulls a single stitch. Got it?"

"Why are you so terrifying?" Galo asked, and Meis flipped his hair over his shoulder and grinned cruelly, not offering an answer.

"I think you mean hot," Gueira corrected him and folded his arms. "This side of him is extremely hot."

"...Guys... Can you at least pretend to get along with him?" Lio rubbed his forehead with his good hand and sighed. "I trust him. Can that be good enough for now?"

They both nodded at Lio and agreed readily, like soldiers falling in line rather than the protective older brothers they were trying to be before. Lio loved all sides of both of them, but he really did want them to see Galo in the right light, too. He managed to smile for them. "I look forward to see the way the burnish district gets painted. You can still visit me in the meantime, but you have to get Galo's permission to go to his place, okay?"

"They're welcome anytime," Galo hurried to say, completely ruining the point. "It's your home too, Lio. You can have guests."

"I– What?" Lio's heart did a somersault.

"You asked to stay, right? So it's your home. We can work out the details later. Let's just get you home." With that, he picked Lio up and settled him onto the back of his motorcycle before climbing on himself. "I'll go slow since you can only hold on with one arm," He said.

Lio was still stuck on home with a giddy sort of anxiety. Meis and Gueira wished him well and waved him off as Galo drove them back to the apartment building.

Galo picked him up again as soon as they arrived, carrying him to the elevator.

"My legs are fine, Galo, I can walk!" Lio complained as Galo continued to hold him.

"I know, but it's fun to carry you around!" Galo, unrepentant and grinning like a lunatic, was holding him like he was carrying a bride over the threshold. "Plus, this is a big occasion. You're coming home!"

"Why is that a big occasion?"

"Well, because it's home now, right? You were crashing here before, but now you're staying."

Lio's face warmed and he scowled, but Galo ignored that and took him directly to the bed, carefully placing him down on it and sitting beside him.

"Here we go. You need anything? You've gotta take it easy for a while so don't try to do everything for yourself."

"I haven't done anything for myself at all!" Lio argued. "You won't even let me walk."

"Yeah, 'cause I wanna spoil you." Galo looked so happy it annoyed Lio even more, but only because he was stubborn. "As happy as I am to see your clothes, they don't look great for relaxing or sleeping in. Need to borrow something?"

Lio looked down at his shiny new clothes, gifted by Meis and Gueira earlier, and was reluctant to remove them at first. They fit perfectly, just like what he used to wear, and they did help him feel more like himself. That said, sleeping in them sounded terrible. He'd done that with his old clothes on the run, but he didn't have to now, and in fact there was reason to think he might need to slip out of his clothes at night... "I'm not as cold as I was, so maybe," Lio said. "...Unless I shouldn't be wearing anything at all."

Galo didn't even consider the invitation before turning him down, "You're still injured, firebug. Not happening." He took hold of his hand to soothe the sting of rejection, but it barely helped.

"That's all that's changed, then?" Lio asked in a low voice, trying not to get his hopes up.

"Are you kidding?" Galo asked incredulously, " Everything's changed, Lio."

Lio stared at him, stricken, and Galo hurried to kiss him, squeezing his hand and then bringing it to his face, nuzzling against it and grinning.

"You have no idea how happy you've made me," he admitted, "You love me and you want to stay here? Perfect. Stay forever. I want to keep you."

Lio continued to stare, trying to piece together Galo's behavior, though he was still unwilling to take the most obvious conclusion in front of him. "...So it doesn't bother you? That I said it?"

"No way! If anything I'm bothered that you beat me to it."

"Oh." Lio's eyes stung and his nerves fluttered.

"I guess I haven't said it yet," Galo let out a low laugh, "I love you too, firebug."

"Idiot!" Lio's face was hot and his voice cracked embarrassingly. "Moron! Dumbass! Start with that! That should have been the first thing you said to me today!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Galo laughed again, "I thought you'd figured me out already."

"How could I have figured anything out? I'm an idiot, too!"

Galo was beaming fondly at him still. "I never thought it'd make you this angry."

"I'm not angry!" Lio argued angrily, "I'm just– frustrated!" He rubbed his eyes and then reached over to flick Galo's forehead and vent that frustration a little.

"Ow! Hey, careful with your stitches."

Lio groaned and turned his head away.

"Sorry for keeping you on edge all day," Galo apologized more sincerely this time, taking Lio's hand back. "To be fair to me though, you had me on edge for a lot longer! I was excited to tell you, but you were sleeping that whole time!" He clearly meant it in jest, but Lio felt a pang of guilt over it anyway.

"Galo," Lio said gently. Even knowing the answer, his nerves flared and his insides tightened uncomfortably. "Let me try this again? I love you."

"Of course. I love you, too," Galo answered, leaning close and giving him a kiss, short and sweet.

"I love you."

"You said that already," Galo laughed.

"Making up for lost time."

"I see! Well, I can appreciate that, since I love you too."

Lio straightened up and pressed close to him, stealing another kiss. "I love you so much I think it's made me stupid."

"I was already stupid," Galo maintained eye contact as if it proved his sincerity, "But falling in love with you was the smartest thing I ever did, I think."

"You're sweet."

"You're amazing."

Lio placed his good hand on Galo's thigh. "You're sexy."

"You're injured," Galo removed his hand and threaded their fingers together. "Give it another day or two. We'll do anything you want after that."

Lio narrowed his eyes. "One day."

"You're so pushy," Galo teased. To be fair, he was pretty demanding, too. Lio hadn't forgotten what it was like to pilot with him. "Fine. Tomorrow, we can fool around within limits. I wanna make sure you heal up properly, firebug. Nothing that'll mess with your stitches."

Lio wanted to point out that if they were going to be careful of the stitches, there wasn't much stopping them from doing something now, but between himself and Galo he feared Galo would prove to be far more stubborn about this one. It was fine. "Help me out of these clothes anyway?"

He shrugged the jacket off since it was resting on his shoulders over the sling instead of being worn normally, and Galo grabbed it and looked at it closely. "Should I be hanging this up?"

"Do you even own hangers?"

"A few! I have a formal uniform to take care of," Galo said, tucking it over his arm while he helped Lio with the fastenings on his shirt. "And those hangers come in packs of like, a hundred."

Lio slipped the sling off in order to get his shirt next, handing that over and letting Galo hang them up in his mostly-empty closet. The pants were more of a challenge because Galo wanted to help but he wasn't sure which belts were functional and which were decorative, but after some struggling and giggling, he hung those up as well.

"C'mon, Galo," Lio cooed, holding out his arms, "At least make out with me to mark the occasion. Don't you think?"

"While you're in your underwear?"

"Yes. I'll behave," Lio promised. "Mostly."

Galo shot him a skeptical look, but caved immediately, leaning over him and kissing him while fastening the sling back in place. "Don't use that side if you can help it."

"Yeah, yeah. Nothing that irritates the injury," Lio agreed, grabbing the strap of his compression sleeve and pulling him closer, nipping gently at his bottom lip. "I just need you close right now."

"Can't argue with that." Galo leaned him back onto the pillows and tilted Lio's chin up to kiss him, and Lio huffed a chuckle against his cheek. "What's so funny?"

"This isn't CPR, you know. No need to be so clinical about it."

"Oh, don't worry. We're just getting started." He pressed his thumb against Lio's bottom lip, gently opening his mouth and licking into it. Lio responded in kind, his fingers still gripping the strap and tightening, keeping Galo close. When he moaned into his mouth, Galo started to pull away to speak, but something caught Lio's eye first.

"What's this?" He asked, indicating the stain on Galo's sleeve.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Galo assured him immediately, which told him it was probably worse.

"That's not an answer."

"Uh," Galo stuttered, but Lio wasn't going to back down, so he grumbled and gave in. "During your surgery, there was no time to manage the pain, so I offered my arm for you to bite down on. Needed something."

"I bit through your sleeve?" Lio asked, concern in his voice.

"Just a little!"

"Show me."

"It's really not that bad–"

"Galo."

Galo grumbled again and relented, pulling his sleeve off. Lio took his arm and touched the mark lightly, careful of the scabbing, which seemed mostly healed over. He hoped it wouldn't scar. Galo had enough scars on that arm already.

"I'm sorry. I hurt you," Lio said quietly.

"You were already hurting, so it's okay. I was trying to help," Galo tried, "Don't worry about it."

"I'm going to make it up to you, though."

"There's nothing to make up for," he insisted, taking Lio's hand in his.

"I want to. Even if I can't do much of anything right now, I will." Lio swore, pulling Galo's arm closer and kissing the bite mark. "And to start... You can leave whatever bites you want on me, now."

"Oh." Galo looked surprised, maybe a little pleased. "Well, if you want to make it up like that, I guess..."

"You're probably into some sort of cosplay kink, too, right?" Lio couldn't hide a smile, but he didn't outright laugh even if he was teasing. "I'd dress up if you wanted."

"I would like to see you in thigh-highs..."

"And it might be pretty fun if you pin me to the headboard and fuck my throat," he offered next, his fingers sliding from the back of Galo's neck to his ear, then along his jaw.

"I get the feeling you'd hate that."

"Except I want to try it with you." It was true that he'd likely never trust anyone else enough to want something like that, but imagining Galo fucking his mouth sounded fun - if a little hazardous, since Lio couldn't take him too far in his throat just yet. Practice makes perfect. "You can make me swallow, that way. I think I'd like to try that, too."

Galo swallowed hard and put his hands on either side of Lio's face, trapping him and kissing him quickly. "We're taking it easy until you're fully healed," he insisted, "But save the ideas for later."

"You can't expect me to not touch you until the stitches come out."

"We'll be taking it easy!" Galo insisted again, louder this time. If nothing else, it made Lio laugh.

"Careful. What if I start to think you don't want me?"

"I'm thinking," Galo paused, pressing another kiss to Lio's brow and putting their foreheads together. "I'm going to ride you tomorrow. All you'll have to do is lie back and enjoy yourself."

"Sounds incredible," Lio purred before capturing Galo's lips and forcing them open with his tongue. He felt Galo's hands touch his sides, gripping his torso and thumbing over his nipple on his good side. It stirred something in his gut, feeling how big Galo's hands were on him.

Galo made a hungry little sound in the back of his throat and Lio sucked on his tongue, letting out a breath through his nose almost like a laugh. He raised his hips to press against Galo, warm and wanting, but knew he wouldn't take it much further than that. "I'm excited," he said softly, "so I'm going to make sure it's torture to wait."

"It's always torture to wait, with you," Galo agreed, moving lower and kissing Lio's neck, then nibbling the spot where the hickey had been before and pinching his nipples, making him jerk in surprise. This seemed to egg him on, and he kissed down Lio's chest and latched onto a nipple, swirling his tongue around it.

Lio had no idea he was so sensitive. Worse, when Galo pulled off it left him wet with saliva and chilled, making him shiver.

"We should stop–"

Lio objected by wrapping his legs around Galo's hips, and he seemed to really like that. Those large hands squeezed his thighs and Galo grinned down at him.

"Don't wanna."

Galo growled. Lio giggled and pulled Galo's face closer to his.

"Know what kinky thing we need to try?" Lio was taunting him, and it appeared to be working well.

"What's that?"

"Making love," he murmured against Galo's lips.

Galo laughed, low and delighted, and kissed him again. Lio wasn't trying to change his mind about sleeping together, not really; he just wanted the closeness more than anything, and he was glad Galo was putting up with it. He would have been content to do nothing more for the rest of the day, but Galo's phone rang.

"You can answer it," Lio said, planting a kiss on Galo's jaw.

"I don't think I need to." He looked conflicted, his eyes darting away for a moment.

"Go ahead," Lio urged him.

Galo sighed, pulled out his phone and answered with a casual greeting, sitting back on the bed.

The person on the other line said something Lio couldn't hear and Galo responded: "Yeah... Sorry you're having a rough week, but you shouldn't call me anymore - I have a boyfriend now." He glanced over at Lio when he said the word 'boyfriend' as if asking for permission to use it. "Uh huh. Well, I hope things get better for you! Bye."

There was an itchy feeling under Lio's skin, like he wanted to act but wasn't sure what to do. Impulsively, he held out his hand. "Can I delete it?" 

Galo handed him his phone without question.

"Can I delete all of them?" He asked next, pulling up the contact page.

"Go ahead," Galo told him. "Just not my friends and coworkers."

Lio looked into his eyes, trying to read him. "It won't bother you?"

"If they call I'd be turning them down anyway. Might as well."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Okay," Galo said, then took a deep breath and continued, "I don't like ghosting people, so that part might bother me. But it bothers me a lot less than seeing you jealous."

"Jealous?"

"Hmm. Maybe you're being territorial instead," Galo teased him, placing a hand on his thigh and reminding them both that Lio was still quite underdressed. "I don't need their numbers. Go ahead."

"I am a little jealous," Lio admitted, "Maybe."

"I love you, so you shouldn't be," Galo reminded him, "But anyway! I'm getting you some pants to put on. And maybe I'll make us some food."

"I'd rather just wear one of your shirts."

"Why? Wouldn't that be colder?"

"I'm hoping to provoke you, obviously."

"You're a demon." He was smiling, so he didn't actually seem that bothered.

Galo got up and Lio started going through the contacts, deleting all the entries saved under a single letter. He noted, pleased, that Kray Foresight was nowhere in Galo's phone (whether that was a new development or not he couldn't know, but it wasn't really his business).

Once he got to S he snorted. "Thymos, what the hell. Don't call me an arson-terrorist in your contacts."

"I called you a sexy arson-terrorist," Galo corrected him, throwing him an oversized shirt with some foreign lettering on it, "And it's a perfect contact name, I'm never changing it!"

"Idiot." Lio smiled anyway. Galo was lucky he was cute. He pulled the shirt over his head and continued on to the next suspicious contact.

"That's your boyfriend you're calling an idiot!"

"I'll make you 'Firefighting Idiot' in my phone next," Lio teased, fully intending to do it.

Galo started on dinner and Lio settled in, comfortably watching and setting down Galo's phone for the night, content.

He wondered if Galo had the same reservations about being called a firefighter as Lio had about being called an arsonist, now that the fire was gone. He knew enough about Galo's history to know that burnish fires were the ones he wanted to fight, after all, and those wouldn't exist anymore.

For either of them.

He wasn't the same as he was with the promare either, after all - certainly he wasn't an arson-terrorist, but maybe he was still the same person, on some level. He didn't have the promare, but the world didn't need him to have it anymore.

He couldn't lead the burnish, couldn't start a revolution, but he could start a fire as well as anyone else.