#pkat

[karts-pit-of-art]

prologue kat but like if they were john doe

blood, exposed bone below the cut

[blazingsnark]

Coat

Pairing: Blazing Heart x Mastermind Wordcount: 7170 (holyfuck it didn’t seem that long when I wrote it) Rating: G Notes: Based on the ever-present idea of people stealing Mastermind’s coat, and Elesis’ damn chivalry ruining everything.  Thanks to @rainsonata for beta’ing and Elsword NA’s “Nawt” for the art!

The Red Knights had no problem taking in strays.  They had started out as a group of strays; after all, a conglomerate of mercenaries, trained knights, and simple men at arms that Penensio (and Elesis, to a lesser extent) and somehow welded into one cohesive force.

But the newest stray was weirder than most.

Elesis had found him when she was leading a scouting party through a Glitter Zombie spawn point.  His name was Add, apparently, nicknamed the 'Arc Tracer,' and his fighting style was like nothing Elesis had ever seen before.  Six pieces of scrap metal (okay, advanced Nasod technology, still a glorified tin can in Elesis' view) hovered around him and seemed to do all his dirty work.

So after the scouting mission was through, Elesis brought him back to camp and convinced him to travel with the Red Knights.  Penensio called him just another one of Elesis' stray cats.  Elesis promptly punched Penensio in the shoulder.

Add didn't really fit in well with the rest of the Red Knights.  He often isolated himself from the group, but when Elesis searched him out and got past those first acidic defenses with the help of bad puns, he actually wasn't a terrible person to be around.  He was definitely smart and it showed in nearly everything he did or said.  Sure, he wasn't the nicest person, but if Elesis was being honest with herself, she wasn't all sunshine and roses most of the time either.

She wasn't sure why her fire acted up around him.  It usually did that only in the presence of strong emotions, but it had been doing so more often.  Maybe a trip to Echo was in order.  Her controlling gloves might be wearing down.

Elesis wasn’t really sure how the gloves worked.  Taking into account what she knew about Echo and how the gloves sometimes felt heavy, it was probably machinery combined with enchantment or an El shard.  Add worked with machinery, so maybe he could look at the gloves so Elesis wouldn't have to leave the Red Knights under Penensio's care while she traveled back to Elder.

(Sure, Penensio was capable, but something in Elesis flinched at the thought of leaving.)

So a few weeks after they met, Elesis hurried between the neatly pitched tents of the Red Knights' to Add's as the sun disappeared below the horizon.  She shivered at the chill, yanking out her ponytail to let her red hair drape over the back of her neck in an attempt to ward off the cold breeze.

Was it worth it to try and use fire to warm herself up?  She glanced down at the glove on her left hand, concentrating to send a controlled burst of flame into her palm.  The rune on the back of the glove glowed a healthy red and the fire flickered up, warmth flooding her veins from the inside.

Okay. So they were working right now.  That was good. Elesis had no desire to burn down Add’s tent and all the weird stuff he had in it. Their relationship was okay right now – he'd stopped threatening her with lasers every time she walked near – and Elesis would really like it to stay that way.

Elesis closed her hand around the fire she'd created, diffusing it back into the gloves and into her body.  The rune flared orange as it absorbed the energy.

She watched it for a moment, making sure the color went back to normal, and then tapped on the side of Add’s tent.

“Hey, Add?  You in there?”

Something beeped from inside, but nothing else happened.  Elesis tapped again. When Add didn't call out or anything, she drew aside the flap of his tent and poked her head in.

“Add?”

He didn’t appear to be anywhere inside.  And wow, the small space was even more cluttered than it had been that one time Add asked Elesis to help him hold together one of his drones while he repaired it. Books littered the floor in no particular order, containers of separated El shards and metal pieces mingled at the edges of the tent, and the blanket dropped in the corner didn’t look like it had been used recently.

Elesis frowned to herself and made a mental note to yell at Add for not sleeping.  He obviously wasn’t here, though.  She was about to back out before a white poof discarded behind a pile of books caught her eye.

Carefully, she kicked off her shoes and stepped inside, reaching for Add’s spare coat.

For such a big pile of fluff, it was surprisingly light - though Elesis would really prefer it to be heavier, since that would probably mean there was at least some sort of armor in it.  As it stood, Add was no more protected in battle than Elesis had originally assumed.

The worry she was feeling, Elesis told herself, was just because Add was a comrade now.  An  honorary Red Knight.  She’d worry if any Red Knight decided to waltz into battle with only six pieces of flying metal and a head full of calculations to protect him.

Yeah. That was a solid reason.

Elesis shook the thoughts from her head and, on a whim, slung Add's coat around her shoulders and slipped her arms through the sleeves.  It warmed up quickly and she relaxed into the fluffy feeling, half-grinning at herself.  

Footsteps outside the tent.  Elesis looked up, freezing in place, her mind racing to figure out how to explain to Add that she was in his tent with his coat on.

“Elesis!” Penensio called.

Elesis grimaced.  At least it wasn’t Add, but Penensio probably wanted to badger her about taking that paperwork back to Ariel and her El-forsaken Cobo Service.  He probably wouldn’t look for her in Add’s tent, though.

But, as terrible, terrible luck would have it, Penensio’s shadow loomed on the side of the tent.  Elesis remembered too late that her boots were outside.  And the fluffy warmth of Add’s coat still enveloped her.

Crap.

Elesis tried to shrug off the coat before Penensio poked his head in, but her gloves were reacting to her tension and flaring with heat, making it impossible to get the coat off without burning it.

The tent flap rustled.  Elesis could feel the exact moment when Penensio’s gaze landed on her.

“Am I... interrupting something?”

Elesis grimaced and pulled the coat back on fully - in for a hatchling, in for a Hameling, right? - looked up at Penensio, and hoped her face wasn’t burning as bright red as it felt.

“No. Nothing.  Did something happen?”

Penensio raised one eyebrow and held up that damned paperwork.  Somehow, Elesis’ satisfaction of being right about what he wanted was lost in the general embarrassment of the situation.

“I’ll just… leave this in your tent.  I don’t need to hold your hand all the way to Feita to make sure you turn it in, right?”

Elesis held up one hand, not even having to concentrate for her palm to fill with fire.

“Good luck with that.”  She tried to put on a joking smile; from Penensio’s expression, it probably came off as more of a grimace.

Penensio made half a move to leave, but lingered after a second thought, looking pointedly at the coat.

“I'm waiting for Add,” Elesis rushed to explain after only a second of Penensio's staring.  She felt her cheeks flame hotter when Penensio looked surprised.

“For Add?  He left camp yesterday.  Said he wouldn't be back for a few days.”

Well, on the plus side, Elesis didn't have to worry about him catching her with his coat on.  On the other hand, there went the chance of getting her gloves checked soon.

“Penensio, I was out with the newbies yesterday.  I wouldn't know,” she said. “So he won't be back until...?”

“It's Add.  He didn't give an exact date.”  Penensio shrugged.  “I'll go put these papers in your tent.  And if anything bad happens from you being in Add's tent while he's gone, I'm not covering for you.”

“Such a loyal second-in-command,” Elesis teased.

“I try,” Penensio said dryly.  He finally withdrew, the tent flap falling shut after him.

Elesis held her breath, listening to his fading footsteps just to make sure he was walking away, then chided herself for her paranoia.  Whatever. If she got the coat off now and put it back where she found it, Add would never need to know.

She started to shrug off the coat.  The cold Feita air hit her bare shoulders, cutting past even the warmth of the fire in her blood and making Elesis shiver.

On the other hand, if Add wasn't going to be back for a few days, there wasn't any harm in borrowing his coat, right?  He'd still never need to know.  And she'd just have to be careful not to stain it.

Elesis usually listened to that quiet voice of chivalry in the back of her mind.  But on this cold Feita night, she ignored it and flipped up the hood of Add's spare jacket, stepping out of Add's tent and back into her boots before stealing across the camp to slip into her own tent.

After all, what was the worst that could happen?

+=+=+=+=+=+

Elesis examined the blade of her claymore, squinting in the dim light inside her tent to make sure the metal was fully covered with a thin layer of the protective oil.  Usually she’d just do this outside where the light was better,, but it was cold outside and she only felt comfortable wearing Add’s coat in her own tent.

Speaking of which, she should probably wash it and sneak it back into his tent soon.  She’d had it for almost three days, and Add hadn’t said when he’d be back, after all.

Satisfied with her claymore’s blade, she switched to examining and wiping down the hilt.  Dried sweat from a recent training session crusted across the grip.  Elesis pushed one poofy white sleeve up her arm and ignited her hand, carefully burning away the residue before damping out the fire and reaching for the cloth again.

Penensio’s silhouette flickered on her tent wall.  Elesis looked up, calling for him to come in when he tapped.

He fit his tall frame through the entrance and straightened as much as he could, frowning.  The coat felt heavy on Elesis’ shoulders.

“You still have that?”

She opened her mouth to say something defensive before realizing he was looking at the stack of papers still on her makeshift desk.  Whoops.

“Yeah. Haven’t gotten time to give them to Ariel yet.”  She laughed, wiping down her claymore’s hilt and flicking to the floor some ash that had gotten caught in the intricate handguard.

“So long as you do.” Penensio sighed.  “I assume you know about the group training session tomorrow for the newbies?”

“Yeah.” Elesis looked up from her claymore. “I was planning to have you and Vanessa lead that, and I'll watch from the sidelines.  It’s a good opportunity to see how Vanessa commands without any real risk.”

“The new centurion from the Velder Garrison with the blue hair?” Penensio shrugged.  “Whatever you say.  Speaking of Velder, I sent those scouts we discussed.  The demons are getting startlingly close to the capital.”

“The Velder Garrison is the best fighting force in Fluone,” Elesis reminded Penensio with a grin, pulling down the sleeve of Add’s coat again and laying aside her cloth to lift and examine her claymore once again.  “I’m sure they’ll be fine.  What could happen?  Demons bursting out from inside the palace and laying waste to all but small sections of the city?  Come on.”

“That’s a strangely specific scenario, but you have a point.”  Penensio saluted and turned, reaching for the tent flap.  “Oh, by the way, Add’s back.”

Fire flared in Elesis’ veins, heat throbbing from her chest down her limbs.  Flame flickered around her hands, the runes of the gloves flaring a weak orange.

It took a few seconds for her to recognize the scent of burning cloth.

Elesis dropped her claymore with a yelp, trying to shake out the fire in her hands and swatting ineffectually at the flaming sleeve of Add’s coat.  Penensio spun around in shock.

“Elesis?”

“Water!”

Penensio snatched up the pitcher of water on Elesis’ makeshift desk, crossing the tent in one stride and dumping the contents on Elesis’ arm.  The fire was doused immediately.  Elesis felt the loss like a prickle of pain along her collarbone.

No time to concentrate on that.  The coat’s sleeve was dripping wet, and the white fabric had been scorched in a ragged hole near the bottom of the sleeve.

Elesis cursed.

Penensio set the empty pitcher back on her desk with a final-sounding thud.

They both watched water drip from the cloth for a few moments before Elesis's mind started to race.

Add was back in camp now.  He’d be looking for his spare coat soon enough, probably.  Elesis didn’t have time to fix this.  Which meant she had two choices.

Elesis shrugged her arm out of the wet sleeve, reaching for the pitcher and starting to wring the water out into it.

Choice one: keep silent, let Add freak out over his “missing” coat, and sneak it to Feita to see if Allegro could do some alchemy and fix it. Worst-case scenario, the coat would have to go mysteriously missing. Which of course, the little voice of chivalry in her head was screaming at her not to do, but the little voice of self-preservation liked the second idea even less.

Choice two: own up to stealing and destroying Add’s coat and let him get mad at her, knowing full well that he didn’t take kindly to people destroying his things.  He’d almost punched Elesis when she got a tiny scorch mark on his Dynamo during battle. This was a lot bigger than a scorch mark.

Penensio shifted his weight like he wanted to say something. Elesis held up a hand to forestall him.

“Don’t even start,” she warned, trying to keep her voice steady.  A familiar step sounded outside and Elesis jerked her head up, panic flaring through her chest at Add’s silhouette on the wall of her tent.

“Oh, El,” she whispered.  The look Penensio gave her wasn’t exactly sympathetic.

“Sorry, Captain.  You’re on your own for this one.  I’ll put roses on your grave.”

“I'm sure I'll be fine,” Elesis managed, but the grin she tried to give felt twisted. Penensio saluted and ducked out.

The flap didn’t even close properly before Add ducked in.  Elesis braced herself.

“Ele-” Add cut himself off, staring at her.  More accurately, at the white coat still draped over her shoulders.

“Why do you have my spare coat?”  And then, flicking his bangs from his eyes, without even waiting for an answer - “Elesis, why is my coat burned?”

“I-”

Add cut her off, storming across the tent and holding out his hand. “Coat.  Now.”

Elesis swallowed hard.  She shrugged the coat off, not meeting Add’s accusatory glare, and held it out.

The soft fabric was snatched from her fingers almost immediately.  Add turned it over in his hands, staring at the burn mark.

“What the hell?  I leave for three days and you manage to destroy my spare coat, which I know I left in my tent, and- Oh, El, please tell me you didn’t take anything else.”

“No! I-”  Elesis met his stare for only a second before looking away again, guilt gnawing through her ribs.  Add laughed, a crazy, disbelieving sound of anger.

“Great. Fantastic.  So you just walked into my tent while I wasn’t there, took my coat, and ruined it with that fire you can’t even control?” The laugh again, stinging like a slap across the face.  “And Penensio calls me a loose cannon.  Adrian’s codes, Elesis!  How utterly useless do you want to be?”

Swallowing around the lump in her throat felt like trying to choke down a dead mouse.  “I-”

“Isn’t there something in your ‘chivalry’ code or whatever about not stealing and vandalizing other people’s things?  Or is your honor more easily put on and taken off than my coat?”

The insult to Elesis’ honor sparked a clear-sighted blue flame of anger in Elesis’ chest, just bright enough to see a path through the guilt.  All his points were valid; she couldn't argue with him.  She was the one in the wrong here.

Add was right.

So Elesis said so.

Add stumbled back, then stopped himself.  “What?”

“You're right,” Elesis repeated, looking up and making eye contact with Add.  He looked shocked.  “You're totally right.  I was dishonest and foolish.”

Add said nothing.  Elesis continued.

“I went by your tent the day after you left.  I wanted you to take a look at my gloves, since I think they have something to do with Nasod technology.  When Penensio told me you weren't there, I should have just left.  I shouldn't have stayed in your tent, and I definitely shouldn't have taken your coat.  I'm sorry.”

Add pressed his lips together and gingerly picked up the burned portion of the sleeve, examining it again.

“I'm really sorry,” Elesis repeated.  “If there's anything I can do to fix it-”

“This is as far beyond fixing as King Nasod,” Add said flatly.  Elesis already knew that, so why did hearing Add say it make tears prickle the backs of her eyes?

Add looked up and inhaled, seemingly thinking about saying something, then simply turned on his heel and left.  Elesis watched the tent flap close behind him before stumbling backwards, her knees giving out when her legs hit her cot.  She sat down heavily on it and buried her face in her hands.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.  Why had she thought stealing Add's coat would be okay?  It just made her look creepy, and now that it was burned beyond repair, Add would have a legitimate reason to hate her.

If she started crying now, she wouldn't be able to stop.  Elesis blinked away her tears and looked up, searching her tent for something that didn't remind her of her shame and embarrassment, and her gaze landed on the stack of papers that she still hadn't turned in to Cobo Service.

She might as well do that.  She didn't really want to be in the Red Knights' camp right now anyways.

Elesis stood up and took the sheets of paper, slipping into her boots and out of the camp with as little fuss as possible.

The walk to Feita felt longer than it really was.  Elesis shivered against the cool air, wishing for the warmth of Add's coat despite herself and remembering the ugly burn mark every time she closed her eyes.  Thinking of anything else didn't help.  Thoughts of the Red Knights newbies led back to the day Add had left his coat behind in camp.  Thoughts of Penensio made her remember how he'd been uncomfortable with her having the coat in the first place -  he was right, he was so right, why hadn't Elesis listened?

For the first time, the fire throbbing hot in Elesis' veins made her feel ill.

She was grateful when she got to Feita – it gave her something else to concentrate on, for a few minutes at least.  Ariel looked at her with concern as Elesis handed in the papers.

“Are you sick?” she asked, flipping through the forms and nodding to herself before reaching for Elesis' forehead.  Her hand was cold against Elesis' skin.  “You're running a temperature!”

“No, my body heat just runs higher than normal.”  Elesis tried to wave it away with a grin and a sarcastic pun, as usual.  “It just makes me even more hot than I would be normally.”

Add's rage and disappointment circled in her head, a counterpoint to the almost soft way he had begun looking at her.  Elesis turned away from Ariel, her smile gone.

“Everything's good?”

“Yeah, all your forms are in order.  Thank you for using Cobo Service!”

Elesis could hear the worry in Ariel's voice, but she didn't have the energy to deal with it, simply walking away.  She even skirted Camilla's good-natured calls to “come back and fight like a woman!” because that just reminded her of the confrontation.

Her gloves flared warm against the backs of her hands.  Elesis stared down at them, biting the inside of her cheek.

She'd really have to go see Echo now.  Asking Add to take a look was out of the question.

“Elesis!”

She blinked and lifted her head at the sound of her name, casting around until she saw Allegro sprinting towards her with a book clutched to his chest.  For a moment, she toyed with the idea of pretending she hadn't heard him.

But then he made eye contact with her and waved.  There went that plan.  Elesis braced herself and turned around, trying to stretch her normal grin across her face.

“Hey, Allegro!”

It came out too cheerful.  He didn't seem to notice, slowing to a stop and bending almost double to catch his breath.

“Elesis! I was... reading... and I found something....”

“Yeah?”

He held up one finger, still panting.  Elesis waited until he swallowed and stood up straight again, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

“You have the power of fire, right?  And you control it with those?”  He gestured at her gloves.

Elesis did her best not to wince.  The burn mark flashed tauntingly in her mind's eye.

“Yeah, pretty much.  They haven't been working really well lately, though, I should go see Echo.”

Allegro waved that away, still clutching the book.  “Have you ever heard of the Blazing Heart?”

Elesis shook her head.

Allegro adjusted his glasses again.  “She was a legendary warrior who could control and dance with flames.  They say she was forged from the furnace of war and despite her power, was always a noble force for good.”  He smiled sheepishly.  “I thought it was just a myth, but seeing you... I think you can be the next Blazing Heart, Elesis. Please let me help you control your power?”

Elesis stared at him.

Legendary warrior who could control fire.

Noble force for good.

Blazing Heart.

Elesis' mind whirled with the new information, seeing the coat, her malfunctioning gloves, Add's face, and Allegro's excitement all at once.  If she wanted to make amends, this would be as good a place as any to start.

And, she wasn't going to lie – controlling her fire by herself would be kinda awesome.  'Blazing Heart' sounded like a badass title.

Elesis took a deep breath and smiled, a real one this time.  “It can't hurt to try, at least.  What do I have to do?”

+=+=+=+=+=+

Even with Allegro's instructions running through her head and the fire coursing through her veins, Elesis didn't forget about the practice session Penensio was holding.

True to what she had said the night before, she sat on the sidelines and watched.  The air was just as cold as it had been all week, a chilly breeze blowing from time to time, but Elesis gritted her teeth and did her best to ignore the cold.  Allegro had asked her to try taking off one glove when she wasn't fighting, just to see if she could begin controlling her fire alone.  With it simmering so close to her skin, she didn't want to try reaching for it to warm herself up.

She shook her head and leaned forward, bracing her forearms on her knees and redirecting her attention to the training practice.  Vanessa paced around yelling at people while Penensio followed her, gently correcting the trainees' mistakes.

Huh. Maybe Elesis didn't want to let Vanessa near young, impressionable recruits, then.  Unless she needed to scare someone off.

Something white moved in the corner of her vision.  Elesis looked up, ready to chirp a greeting that got caught in her throat when she saw Add standing over her.

The coat he was wearing wasn't the one she'd burned.  And he'd tied his hair back, she noticed.  Examining the length of his ponytail was better than examining the expression on his face.

“Is something wrong?” he asked after a few seconds, waving a hand in front of her face.  Elesis blinked and snapped her gaze back to the training session.

“No. Nothing.  Um, about last night, I'm really-”

“Shut up,” he sighed.  Elesis closed her eyes for a moment, willing back the prickle of tears.

“Yeah. Yeah, sorry.  Allegro's going to help me control my fire now.”

Add grunted.  Elesis opened one eye to see him sitting down next to her on his Dynamo, crossing his legs and leaning back.

He didn't say anything else, so neither did she.  No matter how hard Elesis tried to concentrate on Penensio and Vanessa and the new recruits, however, she was too hyper-aware of Add's slow breathing next to her.

The silence between them stretched on so long it was almost unbearable. Elesis shivered.

“I was mad because you burned it, not because you borrowed it.”

Elesis froze, then jerked her head up to stare at Add.  He stared right back for about two seconds, then his eyes shifted to the side and he hunched over.

“Don’t look at me like that.  It’s the truth,” he muttered defensively. Elesis fought to keep the corners of her mouth from tilting up and turned back to watching the recruits, all still practicing in their ordered lines.

The silence between them wasn’t quite as awkward as before.

Feita’s chill breeze filled it, making Elesis shiver again and wrap her arms around herself, attempting to fuel the fire in her veins just enough to warm her up but not enough to materialize.  It didn’t work - the fire hovered at the edges of her control, just far enough to make her nervous about reaching for it.

Add made a tiny sound of disapproval in his throat.  Elesis set her jaw and refused to look at him, even when she saw him moving out of the corner of her eye, instead resolutely staring at the training Red Knights.

Penensio was correcting someone’s form.  A tiny spark of amusement lit in Elesis’ breast at the trainee’s awkward stance.  Reminded her of Elsword when he first started training, honestly.

Downy warmth dropped over her shoulders.  Elesis recognized that warmth, that scent.  She refused to clutch at Add’s coat, looking up at him in confusion.

He stood up, his own pale, exposed arms starting to break out in goosebumps from the cold wind, and scoffed at her.

“Keep it.  I've nearly outgrown it anyways,” he said.  “Get your own coat so you won’t have to steal mine.”

Elesis watched him walk away before she slipped her arms through the unburnt sleeves, keeping a careful check on her fire.  It simmered in her veins, but didn’t erupt.  Huh.  Maybe Allegro was onto something.

Elesis smiled to herself and flipped up the hood, turning back to the Red Knights and losing herself in the warmth of the coat and the thud of practice swords on training monkeys.

And if she went to bed that night curled in Add’s coat instead of her normal pajamas?

Well, that was nobody’s business but hers.

 Nearly a year later

“Panzer-”

Elesis spun out of Add’s way at the warning call, kicking a Glitter towards him and dashing towards another one.

“-Buster!”

Purple energy lit up the otherwise dark Velder street for a few brief seconds.  Elesis thrust her claymore through the demon and ripped it out again, finishing it off with a quick burst of flame from one hand and spinning again to face Add.

“You’re getting better at that.”  She grinned at him, totally expecting the half-exasperated glare she received in return.

“And you haven’t burned that dumb coat of yours yet.  Congratulations.”

“I told you, I had Grail fireproof it!”  Elesis huffed, turning away from Add and settling her claymore across her shoulders.  “C’mon, there’s probably more around the corner.  And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but your coat is like, the exact same design as mine.  So hush.”

“Copycat.”

“Oh, and who has the cat ears on their hood?”

Add grumbled something and caught up to Elesis, stepping off his Dynamo to walk beside her.  One of the tools nudged the collar of her coat. She made a face at Add.

“We should rejoin the rest of my Red Knights soon.  Can you go any faster?”

Add snorted.  “I’m slowing down to accommodate you.  Slowpoke.”

“Liar. Lies and slander.”  Elesis grinned at him, then the sound of running Glitters made her swing her claymore back into a ready position and look around.

Glitter shield and spearmen poured from an alleyway Elesis and Add must have forgotten to check, quickly forming up to the barked orders of a commander in the back.  A wave of thrown spears bristled towards Elesis and Add.

Elesis thrust her arm out and called on her fire.  A wall of flame sprang up in the street, immediately incinerating the projectiles.

“I’ll take care of this with Sword Fire,” she sighed, glancing over at Add.  “Give me a boost?”

He rolled his eyes.  His Dynamo flew downwards, locking together to form a platform which Elesis stepped onto.

“Don’t crack your head open,” he grumbled, and sent the Dynamo flying up and over the wall with Elesis on them.

She jumped off as soon as she crested the dying flames, pulling the remaining flame energy and infusing her claymore with it.

“Sword-”

A moment to line up her shot, aiming for the center of the regiment, visualizing and calling the fire to do what she wanted.

“-Fire!”

Elesis released the flames in a sweeping gesture of her claymore.

The bolt of fire shot straight where she’d aimed it, the stench and screams of burning Glitter filling the Velder air.  Elesis twisted her body to land on her feet, feeling the fire rush out in a wave that barely scorched the evacuated houses on either side, flame lapping around her feet and-

Burning cloth was a scent she really hated.

Elesis yelped and twisted around, trying to stamp out the fire that had caught onto the edges of her coat.  The flames were quickly working their uneven way up the thick white cloth.

“Elesis!” Add yelled.  Elesis had a brief moment of deja vu before shaking it away and reaching for the energy of the flames, yanking it back into the fire running through her veins.

They sputtered and died.  Elesis turned around and glared at Add.

“Not a word.”

He stopped laughing, sort of, and raised his hands in surrender.  “I thought you said-”

“It’s supposed to be fireproof!”  Elesis leaned her claymore against a building and shrugged off the coat, brushing ash from her black vest while she was at it, and examined the burned ends of the coat.  “I don’t get it.  I’ve done that so many times before and it’s never burned.”

“Maybe the fireproof enchantment wore off,” Add suggested.  Elesis shook her head, shaking the coat so the badly burnt cloth fluttered to the ground in scraps.

“The only way it could do that is if I washed it wrong.  There’s this little piece of paper with an enchantment on it that I have to put in the pocket when I wash it.  But I’m sure I didn’t forget that.”

Add said nothing.  Elesis glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, watching his eyes go wide and his Dynamo swirl around him uncertainly.

Huh. Weird.

The coat didn’t look too bad, it was only the bottom edges that had been burned.  Elesis shrugged it back on and grabbed her claymore, turning to Add and opening her mouth to ask him why he looked almost guilty.

“Elesis!”

Saved by Penensio, Elesis thought, sighing and looking over her shoulder.  The squad leader was running towards her, a few Red Knights following him.

“We heard Sword Fire.  Are you okay?”  Penensio slowed to a stop a foot or two away, his eyes darting to Elesis’ singed coat.  A few of the Red Knights - Tori and Vane, Elesis remembered - looked like they were trying not to breathe in.  The stench of burned Glitter was still heavy in the air.

“Yeah, we’re fine.”  Elesis turned around fully to grin at him.  “We just got attacked by some Glitters who really wanted to be barbecue. Anything new?”

“The area’s been fully evacuated and cleared for now,” Penensio said. “But we’ve just got word from Hamel.  They’re sandwiched between demons and the sea.  Right now, Hamel’s White Colossus is trying to hold them off, but….”

“Hamel’s artillery really can’t replace troops on the ground, yeah.” Elesis hummed.  “We might have to send you and a few Red Knights over.  Say, two squads?  Just to help them?  If Hamel falls, Velder will become that much harder to defend.”

“Oh, not to mention Hamel is the home of the Water El,” Penensio said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.  “We’ll have to bring your suggestion up at our meeting with the other military leaders tomorrow.”

“Meeting?” Elesis groaned.  “I’m the captain of the Red Knights, can’t I just send you without having to deal with bureaucracy?”

“Well, if you want to deal with Vanessa’s wrath, sure.”

Ugh. Meetings meant diplomacy, diplomacy meant mission reports, mission reports meant paperwork.  Elesis rolled her eyes and turned to Add.

He wasn’t there.

“What?” She turned back to Penensio, then around again, looking for Add. “Where’d he go?”

“Probably back to his lab,” Penensio said.  “He walked away halfway through our conversation.  Didn’t you notice?”

“Oddly, the invasion of Hamel is a bit more important than a moody scientist.”  Elesis spun around, settling her claymore across her shoulders where it belonged.  “Anyways.  Let’s get back to base, and we’ll figure out who we want to send from there.”

Penensio nodded.  The other Red Knights saluted - which honestly still felt a bit weird to Elesis, even after all this time as their captain - and fell into step with Penensio and Elesis at the front.

“So,” Penensio said quietly.  “Is there a reason your coat is burned again?”

“Again,” Elesis repeated flatly.  Penensio couldn’t quite hide his amusement.

“Yes. Sure, it’s not Add’s coat this time, but it does seem to happen around him, don’t you think?”

“Penensio, are you trying to get at something?”

“Well, you said you only lose control of your fire when your emotions run high-”

“Oh, by the Lady,” Elesis snapped, and Penensio snorted with laughter. “Penensio, I know you’re my second in command, but so help me El, I will-”

It was hard to think of a convincing threat when the person you wanted to scare was laughing this hard.

+=+=+=+=+=+

At least Penensio wasn’t laughing when he showed up the next day to remind Elesis about the meeting.  Though she wasn’t laughing either.

“Aren’t you done with those?” he asked as soon as he walked into Elesis’ office.  Elesis flipped hair out of her face and held up one special finger, carefully signing the mission report.

“You know me.  Why do something today when you can do it tomorrow?” she joked, blowing on the ink to dry it and checking through the pages of writing.  Penensio’s glare weighed heavy.  Elesis ignored him.

“Alright, we’re good.”  She set the papers in a neat stack on her messy desk, stood up, and stretched.  “Let me just grab my coat and we can go. It’s Vanessa and that mercenary leader, right?”

“Alex. Yeah.”  Penensio reached for the report, flipping through it. Elesis gave him a glare.

“Can you maybe not check over my work like I’m a rookie?”

“I seem to remember having to teach you to write these.”  Penensio rolled his eyes.  “Oh, speaking of Alex, the Black Crows aren’t doing too well.  We might have to absorb them like we absorbed the Feita garrison.”

“Well, why not.”  Elesis spun and sidestepped her desk, reaching for the coat she’d left draped over the foot of the bed without taking her eyes off Penensio.  “We’ve never really been exclusive.”

Her fingers brushed the quilt instead of her coat.

Elesis blinked, actually looking at the foot of the bed.  Her coat wasn’t there.

What the hell?

She’d put it there last night, hadn’t she?  Yeah, she’d wanted to bring it back to Grail and ask about the enchantment after the meeting today.

Had it been there this morning before she started working on the report? Elesis thought so, but she hadn’t exactly been paying attention to it.

Hot wind messed with her hair.  Elesis groaned her exasperation, reaching for a black ribbon and tying up the troublesome strands.  Penensio looked up and frowned at the window.

“Do you really want ash blowing into your office?”

Elesis paused, following his line of sight to the window.  “I could have sworn that was closed.”

She finished tying up her hair, quietly lamenting the fact that the offending strands were from what was left of her bangs and therefore weren’t long enough to put into an actual ponytail, and walked over to shut the window.  It slid down far more smoothly and quietly than a window that hadn’t been opened in months should have.

Elesis frowned.

She looked back at the foot of the bed.

Add had looked half-startled, half-guilty yesterday when she’d mentioned how to wash her coat, hadn’t he?

“The meeting’s being held in the Velder Garrison’s base, right?” she asked Penensio.

Penensio grunted affirmation.  “Why?”

“I’ll meet you there, then.”  Elesis spun away from the window, debated whether to take her claymore, decided it wasn’t necessary.  “I’ve got something to do beforehand.”

“You won’t be late, right?”  Penensio blocked the door.

“Probably not.”  She sidestepped him, flicking her hand at the report he was still holding.  “Oh, can you take that for me?”

He stepped in front of her again. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Nope!” Elesis grinned, quickly ducked under Penensio’s arm and slipped out, leaving the door swinging.  “But the only risk is major embarrassment if I'm wrong, so I’ll be fine.  See ya there!”

She ignored his next shouted attempt to stop her.  A few hallways later, she was out in the fresh Velder air, turning towards the street that would take her to Add’s lab.

After all, there was only one person skilled enough to slip past her, and only two people dumb enough to try.

It took only a few minutes to cross the short distance to Add’s lab, a small building on the outskirts of Velder.  The Velder garrison had used it for storage at one point.  Not anymore.

Elesis squared her shoulders and prayed to the El Lady that she wasn’t wrong before knocking on the door.

“Hey Add, you in there?”

She didn’t get a response.  Elesis frowned and knocked again, then tried the door.  It swung open easily.

After only a moment of hesitation - this was how she’d gotten in trouble last time, damn it - Elesis poked her head in.  “Add?”

He had his back turned to her, purple kitty-ear headphones over his ears and intent on some drone or another.  Elesis only registered that for a moment before her eyes were drawn to the high-collared coat with singed edges that he was wearing.

She’d been right.  Ha.

Elesis allowed herself a silent moment of celebration before wondering what she was going to do about this.  She wasn’t mad about Add taking her coat, per se - if he’d washed it wrong, it wasn’t really his fault if he didn’t know - but damn.  He could have just asked.

Her gaze drifted across the neat lab to a chair with Add’s own coat folded across the back.

Revenge was a nice word.

Elesis stepped inside the lab, shut the door, and walked over to Add.  She didn’t even hesitate before reaching out and pulling off his headphones.

He jumped and spun around, Dynamo coming up into a defensive position, then stopped short when he saw who it was.  Elesis wished she had a picture of the oh shit look on his face.

“Uh, Elesis-”

He looked really hot in her coat.  Elesis grinned and waved away his half-stammered explanation, trying not to focus on the way his vest contrasted against her coat, the soft way his hair fell over her collar.

“No, no, it’s fine.  Really.  I’ve got a meeting, but you can keep the coat for now.  Lemme just…”

She spun around and walked over to where Add’s coat was draped over the back of a chair, reaching for it and shrugging it on.

“Mmm, yeah, I think that’ll work.  I’ll be back to return it after my meeting, ‘kay?  Oh, and try not to wash my coat again.  It's badly burned enough.”

She looked up and grinned at him, reading his expression to make sure Add was okay with this.  He just looked stunned.  His Dynamo weren’t trying to shock her though, and he wasn’t yelling, so she took that as permission to walk out with his coat.

Which she did.

“See ya!”

As soon as the door closed behind her, Elesis leaned against the outside wall, trying to catch her breath and sort through what just happened.

She actually had Add’s coat.

He was okay with her having his coat.

He looked really hot while wearing her coat.

Elesis grinned and pulled up Add’s hood, pulling out the ribbon in her hair so it sat more comfortably on her head.  The coat smelled of the scented soap he used and felt prickly with lingering static.

Walking into a meeting with this on didn’t seem like a terrible idea.  She might not be able to pay attention, but it wasn’t like Elesis tended to pay attention in meetings anyways.  Elesis pushed herself off the wall and started walking back to the Velder garrison's headquarters, humming to herself and appreciating the way Add's coat was just long enough to brush her ankles.

She'd have to ask Grail to fireproof this coat, too.  Elesis would hate to have another accident like with Add's first coat, and something told her she'd be taking this one a lot more.

[mizeyesis-blog]

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