Steam

Chapter 11: Devious Genius, Quiet Genius

Blaze had found a way to climb back up to his window and somehow quietly get through it without being noisy. Walking past the chair next to the window he grabbed some clean clothes from his dresser. His clothes were still dripping wet and he was unable to get warm. Being in his warm home was helping. He took off his shirt and before he could take off his pants a voice came from behind him and startled him.

"Where were you, young man?"

Looking back he saw Igni sitting in the armchair next to the window.

"How the fuck do you do that?" he whispered as he turned around. He was trying to remove the glass bottle from his back pocket and place it in the dresser without her noticing. 

"Stop deflecting, where were you?"

"None of your business." He got the bottle into the open drawer and hoped it was enough for her not to notice.

"Was it the girl? You know the one you have been sighing about the last few days."

"There is no girl."

"That's a straight-up lie. Was it the girl next door? She is pretty."

Blaze knew she would never give up, " Cyra? No, but it is a girl from the district. Now, will you leave me alone?"

"No. Because that was a lie and I wasn't talking about Cyra"

"There are no other girls next door, besides Cyra."

"Not next to our house."

Blaze was trying not to lose his cool, "What the hell are you talking about?"

He watched as she pointed up to the cliff where all the high-standing Water Clan lived. Dropping her voice to a hush, "Maybe I should have said the girl next district."

Fuck.

He brought his voice down to a whisper, "That's fucking crazy Igni. Why would I do that?" 

Igni's face turned into that creepy unsettling grin. Blaze knew he was fucked.

"Why are your clothes wet?"

Blaze could only muster, "Igni."

"You were sighing so much before she came over for dinner, and all the days before that. 

"Igni stop."

"But there was more sighing after the heir meeting. I heard you, right after you walked away after introducing us." 

"Ig..."

She cut him off, " I saw you grab her hand at dinner and she pushed it away." 

Blaze couldn't say anything. 

"And the shed. You went off to help her with the wood but you both were taking so long. So I went to check and I could hear you both in the shed." Igni began to mock his voice, " Maybe we can be cowards together?" 

Blaze let out a deep breath raising his hands to his head and sliding down to the floor. "Igni you can't tell anyone."

Igni chuckled, " I'm not telling anyone, and neither is Ember."

"Ember knows?"

"He's right there looking at whatever you have in that bottle."

He turned around and saw Ember on the floor with the papers.

"You two are the worst. Why would you keep it a secret?"

"Because River's my friend. As much as I think she's too cool for you, you're my brother. You got to be better at hiding this. I mean I'm smarter than most people but you have to be more careful." 

"Fine. Can you both get out of my room?"

Ember started muttering to himself. Blaze looked over to his brother, " Are you... reading that?"

"Yeah, we both can. But Ember does it better."

"I'm sorry what?" 

Ember looked at Blaze, " It's like our language, the letters just represent the sounds. If you put the sounds together you can read it."

"Who taught you that?"

Igni smiled, " Dad did."

Blaze couldn't fathom that, his Dad always believed in following the rules. "Dad wouldn't do that." 

"It's passed down in secret but only to usually one child but Ember taught me." 

"Why?" 

"Dad said it was important. Didn't say why though." Igni responded. 

Blaze crawled over to his brother, " What does it say?"

"The results of DX257 caused prisoner AG5789 to die within 8 hours of it being administered. It is possible his gen-e-tic" Ember struggled over the word but continued "profile had too many powers to assist in the effectiveness of the drug. More testing will be required." Ember finished and looked to his brother, "That's the only part I can read the rest of it is either too damaged to read or make out any sentence." 

"What about the other pages?" Igni asked. 

"They aren't words I'm familiar with. I know the sounds but not the words. I don't know what genetic means. There's also numbers." 

"Could you teach me? And in the meantime, I'll bring more stuff for you to read."

"Dad was mad when I taught Igni, he said only I was supposed to know." 

" I need you to teach me."

Blaze was adamant, he had to read it. It wasn't like he could ferry his siblings to the cavern. It was also that he liked being alone with River, having his siblings there would just ruin his time with River.

Igni smiled, " You could take us to wherever you're getting it?" 

Blaze sometimes felt like Igni could read his mind and he found it unnerving, "No."

"Why not?"

"It's dangerous."

"You don't want to share you're special makeout place."

"It's not my space to invite you to, it's hers. And ya special makeout place." 

"Gross." Igni and Ember said together. 

"Ok get out of my room. I'm fucking tired and sick of your shit." 

Igni smiled, " Ok fine, c'mon Ember."

Igni helped Ember up. Ember left all the pages behind on the floor.

Ember made his way through the door and Igni was almost out of the door before stopping and looking at Blaze. 

"Is she still at her secret place?"

"No, she went home."

"Do you think I should visit her tomorrow?"

"No. If you get caught you'll not only cause problems for yourself. You'll cause her problems too. Her father won't take too kindly to it." 

"Ok." 

Blaze knew Igni was going to do it anyways. "Don't get caught."

"I never do." 

"I know."

 Igni closed the door behind her.

Blaze picked up all the pages off the floor and rolled them up, replacing them in the bottle. Placing the bottle in the drawer he pushed it closed. He finished changing and laid down on his bed. Blaze could only think about River. He hoped she was ok. At least Igni would check on her tomorrow. Then he could see her the day after that. Blaze couldn't stop thinking of how pretty she was, how fun she was. Igni was right, River was too cool for him. Every once in a while he could smell her. He realized it was him, he smelled like her. It was like the salt of the ocean, the flowers of the garden, green apple. Blaze thought he would like to have a green apple tomorrow, eat it by the beach, and watch the fishermen. He wondered if she could see the Fire District beach from her window. He only hoped she was thinking of him as much as he thought about her. He closed his eyes and hoped for Dream River.