1. Hot Summer.

Song of the Chapter: 'Hot Summer' by Rhys.

Timeline: Pre-curse.

Summary: Take one Hilla hungry for eye candy, three well-toned male commanders of the Black Mage and an extremely hot city. Mix. Add heroes. Sit back and enjoy.

Main Characters: Demon Slayer, Magnus, Von Leon, Hilla.

Crack Scale: Seven.

Azwan. The once-populous city called the flower of the Nihal Desert that had been the hubbub of activity and trade was now only populated by a traitorous shaman and the ghosts of those who had once breathed and lived and loved within its walls.

It was a beautiful place, and could have been a very nice tourist trap if not for the whole 'under-Black-Mage-rule' thing going on in there. Unfortunately, since it happened to be smack dab in the middle of the desert, it was also very hot.

Several of the Commanders were just beginning to realize this.

"Why," growled Magnus, wiping away sweat from his face for the hundredth time, "are we meeting in fucking Azwan of all places?"

Von Leon didn't even seem capable of answering – the lion king was currently in a state of limbo, extremely unused to and unprepared for the heat that was the opposite of his usual cold environment.

The Demon Slayer glanced at the king, limply drawn across the chair, before answering the dragon man. "Because Hilla requested our help."

Magnus took a deep breath. Then, he punched a hole in the wall.

"Are you guys here, too?" Orchid bounced into the room, completely unfazed by the extreme heat. "Wow, what happened here?"

No one bothered answering her because no one really took Orchid seriously even when they weren't dying of a heat stroke.

"Hmph," she turned on her heels. "I'm going to go play with Lotus."

And then, "Oh, hi Hilla."

The Demon Slayer watched, sitting next to the near-unconscious Von Leon, as Magnus grabbed his sword and launched himself with a roar at the redhead, who only ducked to dodge the slow blow. "Too hot for you gentlemen?" she chuckled.

Von Leon let out something that sounded more like a whine than an actual growl.

"You know, you could just take off your clothes."

The statement shocked Von Leon into actually fully opening his eyes. "What?" he said weakly.

Hilla gestured at his long, fur-lined coat impatiently. "Look at what you're wearing! Who wears a long-sleeved coat in Azwan? Besides," she added, her gold eyes twinkling, "you go around half-naked in El Nath all the time. It shouldn't be a big deal for you."

Everyone could see the king from the cold land struggle internally before the logic and the thought of shedding some heat won. Slowly, he removed his coat.

And sighed as the breeze began to actually reach his skin. "That is better," he admitted.

"See?" then, with a raised eyebrow, Hilla turned to the other two men in the room.

The Demon Slayer was the first to realize the meaning her eyebrow held. "Oh, no," he protested weakly, raising his hands in front of him. He would have wrapped the black velvet coat even tighter around himself, but that would have trapped even more heat near his body. The last thing he wanted was to be baked to death in a stuffy parlour in the desert.

"What?" Magnus looked back and forth between the two several times before he finally got it. "Oh, hell no."

"So you're just going to die of heat stroke?"

Well . . . .

The Demon Slayer exchanged looks with Magnus. It was really hot here . . . .

"Well, if you want to fight with the heroes in that state," Hilla huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, "don't complain when you lose."

Fight? In this heat? With all their heavy, black, heat-absorbing clothes on?

The thought was downright terrifying. The clothes and armour came off.

Back in the Temple of Time where the chill encouraged clothes to stay on one's body, Arkarium was sitting in his office drinking black tea and reading reports as thunder echoed in the background when Nagini hissed softly in his ear, warning him of someone approaching.

Moments later, the door opened and Guwaru entered. "Where are the others?" the spirit asked.

Arkarium didn't look up from his favourite teacup with the pansy patterns. Was that a crack that was beginning to form between the yellow and the blue pansy? He'd have to kill the new dishwasher slave they'd captured from Leafre for being careless with his favourite teacup. "Out in Azwan, assisting Hilla."

"Oh," the tree-thing that was Guwaru frowned. "But why are we not there?"

"Hilla specifically requested that we weren't part of the backup."

"Why?"

Arkarium set the teacup down in the matching saucer. "Because she said she wanted to enjoy the view, not ruin it."

"Huh?"

The dark Pontiac shrugged. "Yeah, I didn't get it either."

When the heroes came to face the gathering of the commanders in Azwan, they were met with a shocking sight.

Their enemies were half-naked.

It wasn't a surprise to see Hilla – more skin than black cloth was her usual dress code – but it was definitely surprising to see Von Leon in human form without his fur-lined coat, or Magnus without his black armour, or the Demon Slayer bare-chested. All three revealing skin was definitely . . . .

Well, the word for it was nonexistent, but it struck both Luminous and Phantom speechless.

"Er . . ." said Freud, somewhat more intelligent than his fellow heroes. Which, right now in the heat, was not by much.

"It's too hot for that bullshit!" snapped Magnus defensively, brandishing his oversized sword threateningly. Hilla beamed when his muscles, glistening with sweat, flexed.

The heroes were faced with a dilemma. Or, more specifically, Aran and Mercedes were.

Aran's tanned face was beet-red, tugging at the fur cloak she refused to shed out of stubbornness and fidgeting with the bandages wrapped around Maha. Mercedes pointedly stared at the bow guns in her hands with a heavy blush dusting her pale cheeks, refusing to raise her head to see the three half-naked and very, very well-toned commanders.

Somewhere within the castle, Orchid was leaning on Lotus for support as she laughed.

Freud rubbed his chin and patted Afrien's paw out of habit, ignoring the searing burn that came with the direct contact with the black scales. This would be a very awkward fight if two of their allies couldn't even look at the enemy properly. To make it worse the sun was directly above their heads, and the heat steadily rising.

"Well," he sighed, "I suppose we'll just have to make do."

After one very half-hearted battle where Hilla (and secretly, Aran and Mercedes) got her fill of eye candy for the month, both sides decided to agree with Magnus's previous words; it was just too hot for this bullshit.

Giving up on the Nihal Desert for now, the heroes hastily retreated to the air-conditioned bless of the Lumiere while the commanders retired into the palace of Azwan, deliberately walking through ghosts to get that bone-chilling feel. "Never again," growled Von Leon as he collapsed into the chair. "I will never leave El Nath for a hot place."

"Oh, come on," Hilla smiled, "it wasn't all that bad, was it?"

Her smile grew positively wicked when all three half-naked men glared daggers at her.