The Cooling of The Fire and The Melting of The Ice

7. Fuel and Lighter

· · ─────── ·🐻· ─────── · ·

God... Winnie's smile was so genuine and- Augustine knew a lot of different expressions that he had been greeted with. Most of them were fake kindness, an expected gesture to keep formality and avoid trouble. Augustine wasn't exactly the most liked guy towards the end of their high school days while Winnie had gotten more popular. But despite that, Winnie's expression never changed. He was always genuine and kind, even if Augustine didn't want his kindness.

Augustine can say for certain that now he would want him to smile like that around him all the time. Almost like he was one of the most important people in his life. A spark of near possessiveness and pride rooted its way into Augustine's gut, knowing that that smile has only really been seen by him more than once. All these new emotions were tiring and complicated to untangle and frankly Augustine just wanted to sleep for days once this nightmare was done. Winnie brought him a sense of familiarity, he always has! Winnie at least was someone- something that would never change!

Oh... well, the strange twisting feeling in his gut that he was beginning to get every time he looked at Winnie a little too long was new.

It wasn't aggressive, or overclouded with anger as he had previously been- no.. it was.. different. Augustine could understand anger better, it was so much easier than trying to understand everything else. So why was this feeling so different- why was it- oh, oh no.

Augustine avoided making a face, No he's not going to dwell on those thoughts, that's something to unpack much much later. He's not going to dwell on the sinking feeling he was currently experiencing at the idea of ... no, nope! It's not happening! Winnie is his best friend and he is not going to ruin this by thinking any silly little thoughts. It simply had to be the situation at hand and the rare vulnerability just shared between them. Yeah! That was it! Augustine just wasn't used to having something like this!

However, Augustine quickly tabled his growing troubled emotions in exchange for worrying about Winnie's sudden plan for arson. "Are you sure I-" The sound of another roar from elkbear made him quickly realize that he had no room to question Winnie or figure out a different plan. "Alright! Let's do it!" Augustine grabbed the lighter in his pocket, quickly testing it for a moment to see if it would spark. After a few attempts at sparking the wheel, a flame burst from the small mouth of the lighter, perfect.

"It's definitely heard us now, so just get ready okay?" Augustine knew Winnie was strong and more than capable of handling himself, but his nerves were making him nervous that something might go wrong. But he quickly shook those thoughts from his head. If Winnie heard him thinking like that, he would- well, he wouldn't be upset, but he would probably shake his shoulders and make sure to lecture him about the importance of thinking positively.

"Just throw the gas as hard as you can!" He said, "And I'll throw the lighter and-" he paused, this was ... actually pretty dangerous. He looked at Winnie for a moment. "A spark will cause everything to basically go up in flames so be careful," he knew he'd always been the type to try and protect Winnie, and that was a difficult habit to break out of now...

Augustine stepped back from Winnie a bit, he could hear the distant thundering steps from the approaching creature... it was pretty sad honestly, to see the animal- the monster struggling in its own skin. "C'mon let's get away from the stairs-" he would hate for anything awful to happen here.

They've had enough stair-associated accidents for their whole lives at this point.

Augustine moved his arm to hover near the small of Winnie's back as they moved, a subconscious way to make sure that if anything were to happen, he'd have Winnie in reach and hopefully, get away safely. He was always protective of him, he was sure that was something that he's never been able to grow out of.