Chapter Text
Like two children.
The thought came to Ashton in a flash as they caught their breath on the outside of Ligament Manor, having triumphed in the race down from the rooftop garden.
They didn't have enough time to dwell on what bittersweet feeling it conjured, because Fearne barreled into them a heartbeat later. It knocked the breath out of him, toppling him forward into the ground.
This time, there was enough ground to welcome him and it was as easy as diving into water, except that Ashton wasn't just submerged but rather dissolved into the earth with no way to know where their body ended and the soil and rock began. It was a surreal feeling, and yet it somehow made so much sense, like this was how it was supposed to be. Like this was the habitat their body was actually meant to live in.
Fearne's laughter from above reached them in a strange tone, muffled, and yet distinct and precise at the same time - it took them a moment to understand that, rather than hearing it, they felt the sound ripple through them.
Movement felt like being pulled along by the stone itself, like crowdsurfing at a concert, except without the part where people decided your drunk ass made of rock was too heavy and dropped you.
An overwhelming mass of different vibrations pushed against them and bounced back off again - the only way to feel out their own physical boundary - and after a moment they understood that all those tremors were the movements of every single creature in the vicinity.
Every single one except Fearne.
She was still hovering above the ground like the flame she was. Far above him, unreachable, untraceable.
But Ashton was always up for a challenge.
It took a moment to navigate the incessant stream of different sensations, but then there she was; without raising their head out of the earth, Ashton could feel where the heat of her flame above the ground caused insects and critters to flee deeper into their burrowed tunnels.
When Ashton's arm shot out of the stone, only barely missing her ankle, Fearne's crackling laughter rippled through their entire body.
They laughed with her, intoxicated and dizzy with relief of having their friendship back.
The game of tag that ensued was, admittedly, a bit one-sided when it came to testing out their new powers. But she kept on laughing and darting away from their grasp until he finally caught her.
Shooting out of a giant boulder, he cornered her against it in one swift motion, one forearm pushing against her sternum.
Their feeling of thriumph was immediately evaporated by the flames in her eyes. The heat from her smoldering body made it hard to breathe, and even her own cheeks were flushed now.
Or - oh shit, was she blushing?
Suddenly, they remembered their friends' teasing her earlier. It broke him out of the spell that being so playful and unbothered had cast on him - the spell that was only enforced by how much they had missed being with her like this, just being silly and having fun.
He blinked several times and stepped back, releasing her and a lungful of breath at the same time. The tension visibly seeped out of her and she cast her eyes to the ground, huffing out a nervous laughter and clearing her throat.
Ashton would have almost had the urge to look around for if any of their friends were watching, but with their new powers they would have felt it right away if somebody of humanoid size and weight had stepped out of the Manor to follow them.
Ashton also cleared their throat. "Um. Sorry, I didn't -"
"No, no, it's -"
They both paused and looked at each other, and it seemed like they were both searching for a point of connection in each other's faces, to somehow suss out where the other's mind was at right now.
This one was a game that, unfortunately, Ashton was really fucking bad at.
But standing in front of her like this, being alone with her, for the first time since - well, that. Their mind could only think of one thing, one thing that he had avoided thinking about and that he had not been able to make sense of ever since it happened.
"Fearne, I'm really sorry."
"Yeah, I know."
"I mean -"
"You already apologized. I know you're sorry."
She looked and sounded almost soft, comforting. It was clear her anger over what happened had diminished over the events of the day, but there was also a guarded tone in her voice, like maybe she already knew what he meant.
"Not for everything."
She sighed. Her eyes dropped to the flames rising from her hands, and Ashton's followed, enraptured by the bright, flickering heat.
"Yeah, um -", she said softly. "That."
"I don't want to make you uncomfortable. I wish everyone stopped making you uncomfortable, and I'm sorry for my part in that. I don't want this to be weird, it's all fucking weird enough already and I guess, well, that probably didn't help. Made it worse, maybe."
Ashton cleared their throat again and kept focusing on her flaming hands, even though they felt her eyes shifting to their face again.
Was it the heat that had his cheeks burning, too, now?
Anyway, fuck it, he had to get this over with.
"I just need you to know that I'm sorry I kissed you and if you want, we can just forget that it ever happened. I thought - or I hoped - that it wouldn't be a big deal, for you I mean, but clearly it is a big deal and now I keep thinking I really shouldn't have done that. For all kinds of reasons, really, but mainly because - I mean, like you said the shard thing really fucked you up and I feel like that was just another factor."
Deep breath, focus.
She kept quiet, waiting for them to continue.
"I don't like seeing you this uncomfortable, especially not if it's my fault. So I guess, what I'm saying is I won't bother you about any of this. The titan thing that Laudna keeps obsessing over, it's whatever, destiny is bullshit anyway. This doesn't have to mean anything. The others will stop teasing eventually and I will try not to do anything to provoke it."
"Like what?"
Ashton's eyes shot up to hers in confusion.
"I mean, I don't know, like not kiss you, at the very least."
"Hm", she nodded while searching their face, if for signs of dishonesty or her own train of thought he did not know.
Staring at the way she was chewing on her lower lip was a surprisingly good way to distract themself from that dangerous flicker in her eyes.
The heat felt so much more intense suddenly, and Ashton could feel the blazing inferno slowly rob him of any air to breathe.
Was she getting closer?
"Why did you do it?" Her voice was soft and low in a pitch that vibrated through Ashton's whole body.
It muddled every thought in their brain and it took them a very long moment of staring at her slightly parted lips to focus on finding an answer.
Unfortunately, there really wasn't one.
"I don't know." It felt like defeat.
The one thing they hadn't been able to untangle about what might have driven them to do all the insanely stupid things they had done that day. The one thing that kept evading his every attempt at explaining, no matter how much he turned the whole progression of his mental breakdown over in their head.
Sure, she was hot as all nine hells combined, and had been this whole time. But Ashton didn't just go around and kiss people just because they found them attractive. Not in a very long time at least. Especially not while sober.
And yet, in that moment, it had felt like the only logical thing to do.
"I just - I don't know."
He finally gave in and looked into her eyes, but could only bare it for a second.
It wasn't the brightness of the flame - that they had gotten used to - but rather the unbearable heat in her expression that forced them to drop their eyes to her lips again.
When he did, she sucked in a small breath, as if looking at them was doing something to her, too.
A million impossible questions and just as many impossible answers shooting through his brain, creating through sheer volume a static that was almost soothing in it's violence, like the inevitability of a roaring forest fire.
No, it wasn't the fire glow that he had to look away from.
It was her, the truth in her expression, that felt like staring into the sun itself.
So, even as they focused on the way her lips quirked up in a small smile, Ashton still saw the afterimage of that truth with every blink.
"I wanted to" There was just barely enough air to whisper.
She was so close, why was she so close? Their throat was drying out and their chest felt so tight. Fuck.
They could smell their own eyebrows starting to singe. The flames that framed her face like a crown started licking at his skin. He felt the cracks in his new, larger stone body start melting into glowing veins of orange again.
"And now, what do you want?" Her voice was just as soft, just as breathless.
Fuck.
No. They couldn't. They had to pull away, they had to fucking breathe or they would pass out, they couldn't - they had just said they wouldn't kiss her again but fuck, what did she want?
There wasn't any doubt what he wanted. Her, only her, all the fucking time and even though he only just realised it in this moment, it came as no surprise at all.
But what did she want? Were they the one coming closer or was it her? Either way, she was allowing it. Or was she? Her flames were painful but Ashton couldn't be sure if it was supposed to be bad pain or just, well, normal pain.
Finally, looking into her eyes again was their last desperate attempt at reading her, looking for permission to close the distance, before the edges of their vision began to blur.
When Fearne's lips touched theirs, he pulled her closer in pure instinct. A need for survival.
The sudden gasp of air that rushed into Ashton's lungs was just as scorching hot as the inside of her mouth was. In an instant, they felt alive again, every inch of their body tingling with the promise of being unmade and reforged by the fire within her.
The thick columns of cracked stone that their legs had turned into were the only thing keeping them upright, rooted in the ground. The vibrating signals of their surroundings did not reach them anymore, because every last one of their nerve endings was flooded with the burning pain of her fire. The surroundings did not matter anymore, nothing mattered except this.
The flame melting their insides didn't just come from her - it was her and they would gladly take her in. They would become her home. They would keep her inside of them so they could become one and the same thing instead of being forced apart for eternity.
When she pulled back, Ashton felt an ice cold shiver rush over them.
There was the urge to pull her back, but their body was too stunned to follow it. Not to mention their mind. He had trouble convincing himself he wasn't dreaming.
Some part of their stupor must have shown on their face, because Fearne blushed and shrugged, small flickers of flame escaping her eyes as she blinked several times.
''I guess, I didn't mind that part very much." She took a deep breath and looked at them sheepishly. "So, I guess I forgive you for kissing me, if you forgive me for kissing you."
A breathless laughter escaped Ashton's throat. "I - okay, yeah, sure. There's really nothing to forgive but okay. Thank you, for forgiving me."
She nodded and smiled, nervously, and Ashton's brain cleared just enough to remember that things were still anything but resolved between them.
"I mean I know there's still the other stuff but - yeah, thanks. I'm glad you didn't mind it."
"Yeah, no I really didn't. The other stuff -" She sighed again, staring just past them with unfocused eyes.
"Yeah. I've been thinking a lot about it", Ashton offered. "Again, whenever you're ready to talk, we'll talk."
"Yeah, I know."
Another pause.
Ashton could almost see the pieces of the guarded walls she kept around her true emotions shift back into place.
"A lot stuff happened lately, so I guess there's already a lot of new stuff to talk about." The way she was chewing on her bottom lip caused Ashton to unvoluntarily lean closer again, until he noticed it and caught himself. "But I feel like for now I want to do some target practice while we're still in these amazing new forms. I have no idea how long this lasts so we better not waste it."
Ashton nodded. "I personally don't think this was a waste but sure, let's go. Game on."
She grinned and blushed again, and Ashton realized she was maybe not as uncomfortable about this thing between them than he had initially thought.
Wow, that was something to consider, wasn't it.