Ashes (Flame Ash Burned Backstory)

Chapter 19: Eye

3rd January 2010

"How's your eye holding up?"

"It's... It's fine. It still hurts, though..." Flame replied quietly, almost flinching at Phoenix's touch when he brushed her bangs to the side in order to inspect her eye. She looked down at the ground. "It's nothing to worry about. Like I said earlier, it was just an accident..."

An accident. Nothing more, nothing less. Just an accident.

Flame kept up the pretense of the injury over her eye as 'just an accident,' when in reality, she knew it had been done deliberately. Maybe because she wanted to believe that an accident was all it really was.

It would make her situation better if it was.

She didn't understand why Blackout had changed so much towards her in such a short space of time. The day he had asked her out - she couldn't say no to him. The way he spoke to her, and the way he looked at her -- he made her feel special, and in that moment, loved...

But barely a week after they had started dating, his personality had changed so drastically. Those flattering words and that look in his eyes -- they were gone, completely.

And she had no idea how to leave him.

Flame wanted to see the best in him - she really did.

She believed that there may be a possibility that he would just change back to the person she met by the lake: that charming, captivating person who seemed as if he'd never lay a hand on her.

Flame fell in love with that person, and though terrified by who he had become, she wanted to believe he could be good again.

With all she had gone through, she didn't want to lose anybody else...

She had to try, didn't she? To try to see the good in him?

He had been a good person when she met him. Couldn't he be like that again?

Phoenix sighed, the suspicion of what could have truly happened weighing down on his mind. He had always had a bad feeling about Blackout from the moment he laid eyes on him, but never spoke up about it. After all, Flame had said yes to dating him - she knew what she was getting herself into, didn't she?

He didn't want to ruin the relationship between Flame and Blackout, or make things worse for Flame than he already suspected they were.

Of course, he cared about Flame -he cared about her a hell of a lot more than he cared about himself, or anybody else, for that matter- but he didn't know for sure what was going on between Flame and Blackout in their relationship, and didn't want to start making accusations of abuse from Blackout towards Flame if he was wrong about his suspicions.

It happened on New Year's Eve.

Flame and Blackout had been in the kitchen, and as the clock struck midnight, they had shared a kiss. The servants of the Fire Castle -Kate and Lacey- were busy setting off fireworks outside for the Fire People to admire, and Phoenix was wrapped up in a blanket and huddled by the couch while he binge-watched all the episodes of an anime called Clannad.

White fairy lights illuminated the room ever so slightly, and the bright fireworks in the sky outside the window made for a romantic setting. Flame felt so happy, and wished that moment could last forever.