Too Hot, Hot Damn || Julia & Leon
[ ♛ ] — She never saw it coming.
The day had been a normal, and quite depressingly, uneventful one. With her not having to go into the tailor’s or cosmetics shop for work that day, Julia had all the time she needed to focus on her true pride and joy: the Minera Hot Springs. Business had been regrettably lacking as of late, (with most of her income coming from her silver tongued fox of a regular) and she had been working on a few ideas to reinvent the bathhouse’s image.
But just as she had been strutting down the halls, humming and jotting down her plans for herbal-infused milk baths, she smells... smoke. Of all the things she would have expected in her bathhouse, smoke was the absolute last on the list, and the mere presence of it spurs her to go and investigate.
And once she sees what it leads her to, Julia can feel her heart physically sink.
The entire front wall of her main lobby was engulfed in flames. Not only the door (which she couldn’t even see for all the smoke and flame), but the walls and furniture around it, all burning and withering away under the fire’s merciless might.
Though her heart ached for her beautiful bathhouse -- the bathhouse she’d put all of her hopes, efforts, blood, tears and sweat into -- her first concern actually isn’t the tragic loss of revenue, or expensive affects and decorations. But rather, the customers still inside, whose well-being she was responsible for. Or rather... customer.
“Crap!” She curses, swiveling on her heel and pulling out her phone to put in a call to the police department as she rushes down the hall, towards the male baths. Not only was she going to drag Leon out, but also try and grab a few bucketfuls of water to try and contain the blaze before it spread anymore.
Without care or abandon, Julia rushes inside of the male baths and winces against the onslaught of steam that hits her in that moment. Except. It wasn’t just steam... there was only a hint, but she could smell it. The scent of smoke.
Had it spread to the baths already!?
“Hey, Leon! Get out, we’ve gotta---” She runs deeper into the room only to stop in her tracks when she sees the man in question, unconscious and leaning against the side of the baths. Julia couldn’t believe it. Had he seriously fainted? Now, of all times!?
In the corner of the room, through the thick layer of steam, a bright orange light suddenly begins to flicker. Julia gasps as she whips her head over her shoulder, inwardly panicking at the sight. That was the light of a flame, one that seemed to be spreading much faster than it was supposed to be. With a renewed sense of urgency, she hastily kneels down, grabbing Leon’s arms and grunting as she struggled to pull him out.