A/N – Hola! This is my first fic. It's a little bit morbid, and will get more so later. PG for 2 swears. Please review. And chapter 2 will be posted as soon as I get around to writing it.

Disclaimer – I don't own ASoUE, Mr. Snicket does. Except for James, he's my creation. Title/any lyrics I use are by Shawn Colvin ("Sunny Came Home" is the title of the song).

A rush of chilly winter air gusted through the door of the pub, startling the man in the corner. He glanced up from his writing, watching the young woman in the gray pea coat make her way across the dark, noisy room toward him. He leaned back and stretched as the woman sat down across the table across from him.

"Hello, Sunny," the man said, leaning forward to shake her hand.

Sunny also leaned forward and took his hand. "Hello...your name is James?"

"Names don't matter," the man replied with a wave. "So, you told me you were interested-"  

"Yes," Sunny nodded, reclining in her chair. "This schism business...tell me more."

The man gave her a small smile. "The schism...the noble organization of V.F.D...one side fighting fire, the other setting it...the dignified organization, so undignified in its division, so many years ago-" His eyes were glazed over as he spoke, but he abruptly stopped and looked at Sunny. His next two rapid-fire questions startled her. "How old are you? Where are your siblings?"

Sunny looked at him with mild surprise. "I'm 24, and I already mentioned to you that I haven't spoken to my siblings in a few years."

"But the last you heard-tell me about them."

Sunny sighed. "Violet, she graduated from college, and then she and Duncan got married-"

"Quagmire?" the man asked suspiciously.

"Yeah."

"I thought we killed them off years ago. We burned that mansion down."

Sunny shook her head. Her wavy auburn hair fell into her face, and she paused to brush it back. "Well, I don't know who told you that-all three of them survived. We met two of them at a boarding school, and the other one a while later."

The man opened the notebook he had been writing in earlier and jotted something down. "Oh. What's Violet do?"

Sunny rolled her eyes. "Guess. Oh, and guess what Klaus does too-that was a fucking idiotic question." 

The man looked a little taken aback. "Inventor, and-"

"College professor," Sunny finished. "And then there's me. The baby of the Baudelaire family. Nobody really fucking cares about me-my family's excommunicated me, my friends have all abandoned me-"

"So to deal with it all, you've turned to fire? Typical," James replied.

"Exactly." Sunny leaned forward, closer to him. The man felt her staring at him, and he shifted uneasily. Sunny continued in a whisper. "Fire is the single most destructive force on Earth...it ruined my life all those years ago, and now I'm here to ruin everyone else's."

The man couldn't believe what he was hearing. "But, are you su-"

"Positive."

He sighed. "Meeting is tomorrow night. You can meet me at the corner of Washington and Main, we'll walk over together."

"Okay," Sunny replied shortly. She stood up and silently left. As she disappeared into the evening darkness, another breeze blew through the pub, extinguishing the candle on the table where James now sat. He ran his fingers through his hair.

"My God," he murmured, "what have I done?"