Blaze - Part Three
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here. The episode below is NSFW and contains mild mature content. You can stop reading after the break to avoid it, if you’d like!
The soft cries of seagulls gradually draw me from my sleep. A cold, salty breeze is breaking against my face. There’s a rhythmic rushing sound in my ears. I’m on something soft, and beneath something soft, and snuggled up against something perfectly warm.
I don’t open my eyes for a long moment, because while I’m not sure what the situation is, I’m so comfy that I don’t want to do anything to change it.
But then a gust of breeze breaks over me, scattering my face with a light dusting of raindrops. Waking me up more, and confirming my growing suspicion that I’m not in my bed.
My eyes slowly blink open, and everything makes sense at once.
The ocean was exceptionally still and tranquil last night. This morning, the water is chaotic and choppy, restless with crashing waves. The early morning sky is dark and grey and wet, soft droplets sprinkling down when the breeze flows our way.
Far off in the distance, there’s a foggy line of very dark, heavy clouds floating over the sea. The radiant explosion of color we saw in the sky at sunrise must have been the sign of a coming storm.
The reason I’m feeling so warm on the windy, rainy beach quickly becomes apparent. I’m cuddled up on the nest of blankets and pillows we made near the sand dunes last night. I have thick blankets heaped on top of me, too - but the real source of heat is Aiden, whose relaxed, sleeping body is stretched out next to mine.
Or - no, it’s not just Aiden, actually. Someone is on the other side of me, too. I’m sure of that, because whoever it is, their leg is sprawled over my shins. I reach over, still half-asleep, and feel around until my hand finds the warmth of someone’s arm. I turn my head to look, trying to convince my tired eyes to focus.
They land on a sleeping face, a head tilted slightly to the side, white-blonde hair ruffled by the wind and falling over closed eyes. Ralph. He’s got Calla in his arms, curled up with her head on his chest. Beyond Calla I can make out Ripley’s shoulder, rising and falling with his deep, sleepy breaths.
I look the other way and nearly laugh when I realize that Raj is curled up with Aiden, too. Tucked neatly under one of his muscled arms, just like I am, but on the other side. Mel is just past Raj, so Raj is in a sort of snuggle sandwich between her and Aiden, smiling contentedly in his sleep. Noah is wrapped closely around Mel, sleeping with his nose to the back of her neck, one arm reaching over her so that his hand can rest on Raj.
I’m the only one awake yet. The beach is cold and getting colder - not to mention wet and getting wetter - but we all slept in essentially a big pile, close together beneath the blankets. Everyone is perfectly, blissfully warm and cozy, to the point that they’ve gone undisturbed by the approaching storm.
“Mmm…” I sit up on my elbows, touch my fingertips to Aiden’s stubbled cheek, then give Ralph’s arm a little shake. “Aiden. Ralph.”
Aiden lets out a sleepy sigh, and Ralph’s eyebrows furrow as he tries to push his face into the blankets and ignore me. I knuckle my blurred eyes, then feel around until my fingers close around Ralph’s wrist on one side, Aiden’s bicep on the other. I give Ralph’s wrist a tug, Aiden’s arm a squeeze.
“Aiden… Ralph… hey…”
I pause in surprise when the response from both of them is to turn over and snuggle up closer to me in their sleep. Aiden puts a hand on my chest and knocks me flat onto my back. Ralph kinda shoves me, like he was trying to do the same thing.
“You guys,” I try again, unsteadily starting to sit up.
“You’re lettin’ all the warmth go,” Ralph groans, only barely awake. “Quit movin’ around.”
“I don’t want to move, either, man, but there’s a-”
I let out a startled laugh as Aiden rolls onto his stomach, and also half onto me, flattening me onto the blankets again. He presses a fingertip over my mouth, lets out a quiet sigh.
“There we go,” he mumbles, his deep voice husky with sleep.
I’m even less inclined to move, now, perfectly pinned in place by the delicious heat and weight of Aiden’s body, cocooned between him and everyone else in the heap of blankets. Maybe I should just let what’s about to happen go ahead and happen. I’m so cozy, I don’t even care.
Another big gust of wind sweeps over us, this time scattering a thicker burst of cold droplets down onto us. Those of us still soundly asleep retreat deeper under the blankets, but Aiden lifts his head, startled.
“Why’re you so close to me, Keane?” Ralph mumbles, his sleep-slurred words nearly carried off on the wind. “Fuck off, yeah? Go over there.”
“No,” I answer tiredly, closing my eyes again. “You’re warm, so no. Also, you’re the one who snuggled up with me. Why don’t you move yourself, if you want me away from you so b-?”
I break off as another fleeting burst of rain sweeps over us, sprinkling icy droplets onto my face, waking me up enough to finally open my eyes all the way. Waking up Aiden and Ralph more, too. Ralph’s dark green eyes flutter open to a view of the dark, angry storm clouds gathering overhead. He sits upright sharply, blinking hard.
His movements dislodge some of the blankets. Calla and Ripley both let out disgruntled little noises and try to burrow deeper beneath them.
“Oh, shit,” Ralph rasps, staring out at the storm. “D’you guys see-?”
“I was trying to tell you,” I answer sleepily, settling myself back down into the blankets. “But nobody would listen, so I’m going back to bed. Wake me up if I’m drowning, or whatever.”
“Nope. Jamie. Hey.” Aiden shakes my shoulder, then turns to Raj and pinches his arm, shakes Noah’s shoulder. “Everybody up. Disaster impending.”
“Who cares, dude?” Noah mumbles, his words barely broken apart by his sleepy voice. “Let it happen, s’cool.”
“Okay,” Aiden answers. “Well, if Mel gets sick after this, it’s on you.”
This is apparently enough to wake both Raj and Noah up the rest of the way. Noah sits bolt upright like someone just slapped him in his sleep, and Raj is right behind him. They both instinctively move closer to Melanie, who slumbers on peacefully, her braid coiled up beneath her head.
“What?” Noah asks, bewildered and only half awake. He gathers Mel up into his arms protectively, and she sighs sleepily, cuddles her face into his chest. “Whuz happenin’? Oh, shit - it’s cold.”
“Because,” Aiden says tiredly, pointing out at the horizon line, where the heavy charcoal clouds are slowly and silently rolling closer and closer.
Noah’s grey eyes struggle to focus on them, but Raj is awake and seeing the issue right away.
“Oh,” he stammers, and sort of wobbles his way to his feet. “Hey - everybody wake - wake up.”
Nobody moves.
“Hey,” Ralph says sharply, in a tone that instantly wakes up everyone. “We’ve gotta move. Now.”
Ripley sits up, revealing Alix, who was hidden in his arms, hugging tightly to him like a sleeping koala bear. Ripley has a print of her necklace on his cheek, like he was passed out with his face on her chest at some point.
Raj bends down to kiss Mel - startling a happy little laugh from her, since her eyes were still closed - then scrambles past the put-out bonfire and starts snatching up all of the random beach wreckage he’d gathered into a pile last night.
“Did I do a cartwheel?” Alix asks sleepily, looking down at a new bruise on her arm. “I feel like I did a cartwheel.”
Before Calla can answer her, an enormous crack of distant thunder makes everyone gasp.
“Oh, shit,” Raj shouts, and with that, we’re all rushing around to grab everything.
I let out a groaning laugh as I stagger across the sand to snatch up the oversized pillows Mel brought to the beach. My balance is still way off, my thoughts scattered and slow to form around anything. I think we only slept for a few hours, that it’s still very early in the morning, even though I can’t say for sure with the day so darkened by the storm. Either way, Calla and I nearly knock our heads into each other trying to hastily scoop up everyone’s shoes and socks, and Aiden catches me when I go careening backwards to avoid her.
Everyone else is similarly ungraceful this morning. We’re all laughing helplessly, half supporting ourselves on each other, gasping as fleeting gusts of raindrops sweep over us. The clouds are close enough now that we can see the hazy sheets of rain spilling into the ocean from them.
We all go rushing for the truck. Most of our stuff gets jammed into the front with Aiden and Alix, where it’ll keep dry. The rest of it goes into the back with all the rest of us, just as the rain makes landfall on the sand.
“Oh, fuck!” Ralph gasps, hauling Raj up into the truck by his arm as the truck engine roars to life. “Come on, faster!”
“Do we have everyone and everything?” Aiden shouts through the truck window.
Calla is the last one in, and the sheets of rain almost kiss her heels before she gracefully leaps up into the back of the pickup. Ripley slams it closed after her.
“Now we do, go, go!” Ralph shouts back, and the truck surges into movement.
We’re like storm chasers, but in reverse. As the truck glides down the dark blacktop road, the rain follows right after us, the dark clouds growing thicker with every passing second. We all huddle together into the back of the truck, letting out a burst of startled laughter when Aiden has to slow down to take a turn, nearly dousing us with rain.
“Oh, no,” I gasp, staring at Melanie. “Mel, your dress!”
Her wedding dress is more than ruined. The delicate layer of airy white fabric all but disintegrated from the sand and seawater. What’s left of it is hanging in tatters. The red silky fabric beneath is crusted with salt, stained beyond repair. Destroyed.
Mel looks down at it, then up at me, smiling brightly.
“Jamie,” she laughs, having to shout over the roar of the oncoming rain. “It was from the thrift store. You glued real flowers to it. Frosting from our wedding cake got on it last night. I’m pretty sure that Noah licked it, at some point. It was gonna get ruined, I always knew that!”
“So - you’re not upset?” I shout back, caught by surprise. “Even though it’s your wedding dress?”
“It’s evidence of a good time, now.” She happily smooths her hennaed hands over the wrecked fabric, her wedding ring glinting in the sunlight. “The dress was never gonna last, but the memories will! Sometimes you’ve just gotta say fuck it and let go and just have fun! Ask my husbands about it, they’ll tell you! They’re the ones I learned that from!”
I let out a relieved laugh, hold my hands up in surrender, then gasp when the rain gets closer to us again, close enough to mist us all with spray. We all press together, pooling our warmth against the cold wind.
“Okay, get the rest of the blankets inside,” Raj shouts, shoving them through the truck window to Alix. “Is everybody’s phone in the front?”
We all nod in confirmation, since nobody remembered to take their phones out of the truck last night. Only Noah, whose phone is still plugged into the portable set of speakers that have been safely stowed near Alix’s feet.
“Okay, anything else that shouldn’t get wet, I think we need to-”
Too late. Aiden is driving as fast as he safely can with all of us in the back, and the rain is simply faster.
We all gasp and seize hold of each other as it crashes down on us in a freezing wave.
It does occur to me that if I had been more urgent when I woke up, we might have avoided this. But I can’t bring myself to regret it. The cold shock sends me catapulting out of the mental fog and into total, vivid clarity. I can see Calla laughing and trying to hide her head in Ralph’s arms, Ralph gasping and gathering her closer. Ripley’s recently re-dyed curls are staining the rainwater water green as it rolls down onto his dress shirt. He’s laughing, because Raj is shouting a lot and trying to shelter both him and Mel, succeeding with neither of them.
Mel is laughing, too, her soaked braid falling over her shoulder, raindrops rolling down her face.
Noah is lounging back with his elbows on the side of the truck, smiling widely, his face tipped up to the wild rain, his long hair loose in the wind.
I let out a blissful laugh, instantly lost in the uproar of the storm. I tip my head back, too, let go of all of my thoughts, and let the storm break over me.
Cold on the outside, but perfectly, radiantly warm from within.
~~~~
It’s strangely good to be so cold. It makes the hot shower feel even better. The icy rainwater runs out of my hair, chased away by the steamy water spilling over me.
It lulls me back to sleepiness, after the very few hours of rest we got last night. I find myself standing with my eyes closed, my cheek smushed against the firm warmth of Aiden’s chest, my arms folded around the taper of his waist.
After a moment, Aiden’s hands slowly begin to travel over my body, feeling me in the heat and steam of the shower. He pauses for a moment, hesitating, but when I melt further into him and let out a happy sigh, his hands go back into movement. His fingers glide slowly over my wet skin, touching me and stroking me and squeezing me. Sinking in deep pressure, then grazing me very lightly.
Even in the depths of my exhaustion, Aiden’s touch kindles something in me. It unlocks some deep down channel of heat that flows out from my core and runs in slow, blazing currents through my veins like lava.
I’m way too tired to act on it. So I end up holding still, but swimming deeply. Lost completely in sensation, until it feels like all of my nerves are concentrated into whatever part of me Aiden is touching at the moment.
When Aiden strokes the dimples at the base of my spine, I am the dimples at the base of my spine. When he kisses the curve of my shoulder, that curve is the only part of me that exists. When he kisses my mouth with aching slowness and thoroughness, I’m only a mouth. It’s where I feel everything, everything.
I’m floating underwater in an ocean of fiery, mind-melting passion. My whole body is vibrating with it, given over to it.
I’m so completely absorbed and dissolved in the feeling that I don’t even realize Aiden turned off the shower until he lifts me up into his arms and carries me out. I drop my cheek onto his shoulder and fold my thighs around him. The friction between our wet bodies steals my breath away. Aiden’s grasp tightens around me, his chest rising and falling with deeper breaths against mine.
He drops me into the bed, still soaked from the shower. I laugh and swat at him, but I’m too worn out to get up and go dry off.
Aiden smiles tiredly, then drops down on top of me and settles himself between my legs. Bends his head over mine, his elbows braced on the bed.
A flash of ice-blue glitters through his eyes as he slowly works up a heat bath for us to lose ourselves in. A full-body heat transfusion. I let out a soft, elated sigh as his toasty Heliomancer warmth seeps into me everywhere our bare bodies are pressed together.
The rain is thundering down in torrents outside, making the morning very dark, sending up a constant rustle from the garden that reaches us through the open window. The cold wind reaches us, too, but I can barely feel it. I’m mostly aware of it because it ruffles through my hair, scatters a few stray icy droplets onto us now and then. Little bursts of goosebump-inducing cold against Aiden’s rich heat.
I tip my head back and let out a heavy rush of breath, basking in Aiden’s warmth. He puts his forehead to mine as our bodies slowly dry off, and I keep my thighs wrapped around him, holding him in place. I listen to the rain and thunder outside, but also to Aiden’s heartbeat, his breath.
I open my eyes and look at him. He looks like pure, sleepy seduction, his eyes glinting like the blue heat at the center of a flame. I lift my hands and get his stubble against my palms. His jaw goes slack with pleasure as I give him a deep, slow scratch.
We’re both exhausted enough that we could probably close our eyes and instantly be asleep. But our bodies always have that extreme responsiveness to each other, even now. I can feel exactly how turned on Aiden is, laying with me like this. I know he can feel how much I am, too - but neither of us can move to do anything about it.
Aiden suddenly lifts his head and locks me into a hard, intense kiss, fusing our open mouths together, using his hips to sink me deeper into the bed. A bolt of mind-numbing pleasure rolls through my body, and I feel the tremor that goes through his. We both let out a jagged breath into each other’s mouths. A flash of Heliomancer lightning licks over us, in tandem with a rumble of thunder from outside.
Aiden very slowly breaks off the kiss, then closes his eyes for a second.
He rolls me onto my stomach, then lays over me, his chest partially on my back, his leg folded over my legs. Pinning me down with his weight and warmth in that way I love so much. He smells like vetiver, but I can still taste the last traces of sea salt on the deep breath I take of him.
I let out a cozy sigh, snuggling my face into a pillow, then let out a frustrated, turned-on laugh. Aiden huffs out his version of the same thing, burying his nose in my hair, pressing himself up against me.
“Fuck,” he murmurs in my ear, the deep bass of his voice down to a whisper. “It’s killing me that we’re both so tired. I want you so bad, right now.”
“Mmm.” I press myself back into Aiden, then rub up against him, forcing a sharp, gasping breath from his mouth. “I can feel that.”
“Goddamn you, Jamie!” Aiden pins me down again, lets out an exhausted, husky laugh. “Hold still. I can’t take it.”
I smile into the pillow. Lulled by the rich rumble of his voice, even as my pulse picks up when I feel the response of his body to my one little movement.
He bites down softly on my ear, then whispers right into it. “Just you wait, Keane.”
The blush in my cheeks instantly deepens, and I find myself holding onto a tight handful of the bedding, my breath picking up. Aiden lets out a soft, satisfied laugh, then lightly brushes a kiss onto the back of my neck. Snuggles up with me again.
“This is a much better morning than I expected to have,” I stammer, to another quiet laugh from Aiden. “Why am I not that hungover?”
“Sounds like you had someone looking after you all night. Making sure you didn’t hurt yourself, and that you ate and drank water and all that. Lucky you.”
I smile to myself, then stop, suddenly worried. I lift my head to look over my shoulder at Aiden.
“Babe,” I say slowly. “You don’t - you don’t feel like you got shafted into doing Guardian work last night, do you? I’m - realizing that you had to look after all of us and take care of us, being the sober one.”
“Nah,” he says, to my instant relief. “I mean, I was looking after all of you, but s’different with you guys. On account of that it’s extremely entertaining for me. Honestly, it was a ton of fun. Wouldn’t change a thing about last night.”
The smile comes back to my face. I lean down to kiss Aiden’s temple before I settle back into the bed.
“Our house is a mess from the pre-wedding chaos,” I mumble tiredly.
“Mhm. And we ruined our suits. I don’t think you’re supposed to wear them in the ocean. And you nearly drove me crazy, Keane. Not just because of how good you look in that suit you destroyed.”
“You did the same thing to me, actually. You just don’t know it.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“God, I’m so tired. And I’m sore from sleeping on the beach.”
“I am, too.”
“There’s still some sand in my hair.”
“Yeah, look, it left prints on my arm from sleeping on it. And I’m losing my voice a little bit.”
“What a great fucking time,” I sigh happily.
Aiden huffs out an exhausted laugh. “It was.”
The rain thrums down outside, making all the trees in the magic garden whisper, sending up the faint song of the malachite leaves in motion. Lightning flashes silently beyond the windows.
Aiden sits up, and I let out a sound of protest, but he only moves me so that he can pull the covers over us, then snuggles right back up against me. Luna hops lightly up onto the end of the bed and curls up into a ball of grey fur.
I turn on my side. Aiden folds his arm around me, trails his fingertips in slow, lazy circles on my chest.
“Do you remember everything from last night?” he asks, after a moment.
“I think so, yeah. Unfortunate. I was hoping to black out one or two embarrassing moments.”
Aiden breathes out his quiet, bass laugh, then hesitates.
“Do you remember, um - saying to me - all Jamies love all Aidens?”
“I do,” I sigh softly, closing my eyes. “And I stand by that.”
There’s a silence from Aiden, then an answering huff of soft laughter.
“Cute of you to say,” he rumbles, nuzzling his nose into my neck. “Not true. But cute.”
“Not true?” My eyebrows furrow in confusion. “Why not true?”
“Trust me, there were…” Aiden trails off for a second. “There were versions of me that you definitely wouldn’t love, or even like. Don’t you know that? I mean. High school me, right? Didn’t you hate me?”
I turn that over in my tired mind. I’m - not sure of my answer.
If I could go back and ask my high school self, he’d say that he definitely hates Aiden Callahan. But looking back on it now… I know that wasn’t the real Aiden. The person I used to hate was a mask, a false version of Aiden that he created specifically to make me hate him. That was a disguise, even if it was a very convincing one.
If I had known the real Aiden - the sweet, shy, sensitive soul that he truly was inside, all along - I would have loved him back then, too.
“I - don’t hate high school Aiden,” I mumble, not sure of how to explain myself. “He was a mess, he was all mixed up-”
“Wow, okay-”
“But he was you. I love high school Aiden, even if I only really got to meet him that one time on the beach. It’s only fake Aidens that I don’t love.”
This is met with a long silence from Aiden, the air filled with the constant rush of the rainfall.
“So it is true,” I insist. “What I said. I don’t know why everyone keeps acting like I know how to lie.”
“It’s not - it’s not that I think you’re lying, but - high school aside…” Aiden hesitates, his slow-spoken words faltering. “Just - there are versions of me you never met, and believe me… you think I was a mess in high school? I’ve been worse than that, I’ve been, like - miles beyond pathetic-”
“Doesn’t matter,” I answer softly, my eyes heavy with sleep. “Doesn’t change anything.”
Another silence from Aiden.
After a moment he draws me closer to him, locks his arms around me. I’m not sure that he believes what I said - I don’t think he does, actually - but he must like to hear me say it, anyways. I can feel him smiling, and I can hear it in his voice when he speaks.
“All Aidens love all Jamies, too,” he rumbles, his lips brushing against my neck. “And don’t even try to argue with me on that one. It’s true. Way more than you know.”
I smile to myself, then turn over and cozy up to him. Another gust of icy breeze sweeps through the window, but I’m toasty warm everywhere. I burrow my face into Aiden’s chest, and he laughs, draws the covers down around us.
The storm rages on outside, darkening the sky as Aiden and I disappear together beneath the blankets and nestle into each other’s warmth. There are a few soft bursts of laughter, and then a cozy silence as we both start to fall asleep, our legs tangled together, my cheek on the smooth, firm warmth of his bicep.
Aiden passes out before I do. My eyes linger on his peaceful, sleeping face until I can’t keep them open any longer.
It’s okay if he can’t make himself believe what I said. I know it’s true. In my heart, I know.
I draw Aiden closer to me. With the beating of his heart against mine, the warmth of his body seeping into me, and the rush of the storm in my ears, I can’t even try to keep myself awake.
Half-asleep, I dream of flowers from a red, silver, and gold bouquet fluttering down onto my head, whispering in my ears. Telling me things only my heart understands. But whatever the message is, it sets my soul aglow, makes it blaze with light. Like something cosmic. Like the sun.
Like magic only a Heliomancer can work.
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