SSO Winter Prompts 2020

4. Fireplace (Knights of Unistria)

Dawn rubbed her hands together, blowing on them to keep them warm as she followed Tithonus inside after stargazing for longer than intended.

"C'mon, let's get a fire going," he headed for the fireplace, grabbing some logs from the pile and placing them inside.

"Sure!" Dawn chirped before watching him in confusion as he grabbed some paper and tore it up, tossing it in with the logs. "Why don't you just turn it on?"

He snorted a laugh, confused, and looked at her to say, "there isn't an on switch."

"Oh. Well, yeah, duh, obviously," Dawn blushed and moved her hair back, glad the dim light hid her burning face. Right, humans didn't have all their infrastructure temperature controlled at all times, they had to manually change it. "Oh! Let me!"

"What are you doing?" he asked as she stepped over and pulled something out of her belt.

"I can just turn on a Sunlight disk!" she produced a small piece of metal. His blank expression made her continue, "it, you know, lights up and produces heat? Don't humans..."

She pursed her lips. No, of course humans didn't have things like that. But Tithonus was smiling at her, face outlined by the moonlight coming in the window.

"Yeah we have stuff like that, I guess. But have you ever made a fire?" he nodded his head toward the fireplace. She studied it for a moment, a dark box set into the wall with a chimney so smoke could escape. It was so primitive and inefficient.

"Well. No," she admitted, always having access to tools for easy heat or light.

"Can I show you how?" he asked in a voice that made her melt, and Dawn nodded and took a seat next to him.

She watched in fascination as he told her about kindling and how to build the fuel so the fire wouldn't burn out after starting. She helped him crumple paper, worried she would somehow do it wrong and breaking into laughs when he joked and encouraged her. With his help she finally managed to light a match, his hands guiding her. It looked so easy, why was it so difficult to get the pressure right, and his touch made it all the more difficult. Her eyes were wide as she watched, breathless, as the little flame from the match caught on the paper, spreading slowly to the pine cones and splintered wood.

"And there it goes! It'll be warm in no time!" Tithonus exclaimed as the fire grew and started on the logs.

"I did it!" Dawn squealed, sitting back and clapping her hands together, beaming at him.

"You did! See, that wasn't hard!" he praised, patting her on the shoulder, her blush hidden by the orange firelight.

"Yeah... thanks, Ty," she muttered, looking back at the fire. He was so close to her, sitting next to her on the floor. After chewing on her lip she held her breath and leaned her shoulder into his, heart pounding in fear that he would move away.

"You're a fast learner, Dawn," he complimented her again, pushing back against her.

They watched the fire grow, soaking in the heat, sitting together on the floor in silence. Ty cautiously put his arm over her shoulders, letting her lean against his chest. She hoped he couldn't feel the heat from her face, or notice how her toes curled in happiness as she settled in against him. But when she glanced up at him she saw him smiling too, and decided maybe she wanted him to notice. And, just maybe, the other Knights would understand why she didn't want to leave without Tithonus.