The sensation of air being blown into his mouth brought Flynn back to his senses, and his lungs violently protested the smoke that he had inhaled. His throat and chest hurt by the time they stopped, and a small cup of water was pressed into his hands. "Drink this, sir," a soft male voice by his ear told him as hands helped him sit up. He looked around blearily, seeing two in front of him, a long golden braid and dark cropped hair being the only distinguishing marks to his unfocused eyes. Another coughing fit caught him and he felt himself retching with the force and sudden pain, nothing coming up as he gagged.

"What did you think you were doing?" a strident whiny female voice joined the male voice. "If you suffocated, or burned to a crisp, we'd be out a Commandant! Liam, go get Lieutenant Sodia. Jonah, stay here and make sure our Commandant doesn't kill himself with more heroics. I'm going to get the medics." Flynn felt his lips twisting at her self-important tone, knowing he should remember her. That there had been someone recently reprimanded for insubordination, but the name-

The next time he opened his eyes, white assaulted them. Flynn groaned, realizing he had passed out again, throwing an arm over his face. The medical ward was not a place he enjoyed going, not just because of how the patients got there. Breathing still gave his chest a bit of tightness, rasping his throat. But, he noticed as he carefully took in a deep breath, it wasn't as bad as before. A Cure Bottle? That would explain the nasty taste in his mouth, far worse than what he would expect from neglecting to brush his teeth. Slowly, he sat up, hissing slightly as his ribs protested and noticed that he was shirtless. Thankfully, someone had thought to pull loose pants up around his hips. But the lack of shirt gave him time to look at his skin.

Someone had cleaned him up, that was certain. While he could still see a ring of ash under and around his nails, his skin was free of it. And, he saw with no little surprise, free of burns. There was no mark on him that he had been in a fire, at all. He probed his ribs, noting the feeling of deep bruising left from Gel healing. Had he bruised or broken his ribs while in the house or coughing? Then he remembered his head, lightly touching where the roof had hit.

Flynn hissed as his fingers brushed a hidden cut just under the hairline. Most of it had been healed, but the edges still were a little raw, and in the case of this edge, open. The exertion of sitting up finally forced him back down, sucking in air as if he couldn't get enough. Maybe he couldn't. Who knew how much smoke he had inhaled before his knights had managed to get in and rescue him.

How had they? A frown crossed his face as the thought hit him. He should have burns scars everywhere. How had he gotten out without anything? A memory, fire pausing in mid leap only to flicker over his gauntlet as he stared at it in amazement, tried to hold his attention before his ribs protested from a tight hug and his nose tickled from fine, gentle pink strands of hair.

"Flynn, I was so worried about you! They wouldn't let me in to see you!" Lady Estellise's arms tightened briefly, then she pulled back as she realized his own state of undress. The furious blush that stained Flynn's cheeks echoed on her's as well as she held her hands in her lap. "U-um, how are you feeling?"

"I'm doing fine, Lady Estellise," he reassured her, taken slightly aback at the rough quality of his voice. She looked at him with alarm, her finger reaching out for his throat before pausing and coming back to her lap.

"I mean, may I? See if I can help?" Her fingers fidgeted as she looked down, and Flynn started casting his gaze around for a shirt. This would go a lot easier if the both of them weren't beet red and avoiding each other's eyes because one was shirtless! Finally, he just pulled the sheet up just under his shoulder and held it in place with his arms. Not the best, but it would work. He nodded at her, and she reached out again, softly muttering an abbreviated arte. Her instructors would be horrified to hear her, he mused as the tightness in his chest eased and breath flowed through his throat without rasping. The adventure she had taken had forced to teach her how to take the formal artes training she had to use her innate ability to manipulate aer efficiently and cut the rituals down to quick and dirty versions to use on the battlefield. Lady Estellise smiled as she finished, her hand returning to her lap. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better. Thank you, my Lady." Flynn bowed slightly at her, causing her to push his shoulder slightly, her cheeks puffed out when he straightened. Something she picked up from Miss Mordio, most likely. He would call it a bad habit if it didn't follow with how more self-assured she had become. "I thought you were in Heliord."

She smiled, embarrassed, and ducked her head. The white of her travelling clothes still showed dirt from her journey, giving him the story that she had just arrived home. "I finished pretty quickly and didn't need to stay any longer, so we came home. And then I saw the burned home in the Lower Quarter and while seeing if anyone needed help I heard about you and-"

She had been herself, selflessly helping her people without thinking when disaster hit, and instantly went to him when she found one of her friends had been hurt. Flynn caught himself smiling at that. "I'm glad to see you here," he told her instead, his voice pitched to carry only between them. Estellise had no problem smiling to herself at that, tilting her head slightly. "But I'm fine now. See?" Flynn took a deep breath to prove it, the urge to cough as he let it out much weaker than before. She eyed him, not quite believing it. "And I think you should let your cousin know everything went fine before you catch up with me."

The color that had faded sprang back to her cheeks as her eyes widened. "Oh my- I'm sorry, I completely forgot about- I'll be back in a bit, I just-" Before she could stammer anything else out, Estellise rushed out of the room, the chair she had been perched on still wobbling slightly from her departure. The smile that had threatened to break out finally fit onto his lips. She really turned out to be a lovely lady, and one of his best friends. And speaking of- Flynn let out a breath, not quite wanting to think about it. Yuri would not let the fact he had rushed into a burning home without backup go without some teasing. It was a good thing, then, that he was out on a job, and wouldn't be back for a few weeks.

Flynn let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding since Lady Estellise had arrived, looking at his hand. The memory of the flame dancing on his fingertips tickled to the fore, causing a shiver to crawl across his skin. He had to been hallucinating. Flames freezing like that, being able to scoop it up and play with it without being burned... there was no way he could do that.

There was no way.

"The rubble you were found under was scorched." Flynn frowned slightly as Sodia read from the report. "But from what we can tell, the worst of the damage was from after it fell. The doctors are still wondering why you still don't have some kind of burn from the heat-"

"The ceiling could have shielded me from the worst of it," he told her, trying not to shift in his seat as her eyes snapped up, disbelief written in her gaze. "I was unconscious, Sodia. How I made it out of there without a single burn I do not know."

She didn't look mollified, but she put the report back onto his desk. "Sir, it was dangerous to have gone in there alone. What possessed you to take such a risk?"

The look in the mother's eyes and the terrified wail of her son slowed his hand in the middle of sketching a signature. "There was still a child," he told her softly. "I couldn't let him get caught and die in there while his mother knew he was still there."

For a moment, she didn't move. Everything was quiet as she processed this, even his own work pausing as he considered his actions again. If he had waited, could he had still gotten there on time? Would he have been able to get the child out faster and not been knocked unconscious? Finally, Sodia shifted, causing Flynn to look up at her. "Next time," she told him, her voice not quite a whisper, "be a bit more cautious when you're alone."

A small chuckle escaped him before he could stop it. "Same goes for you," Flynn told her, watching color spring to her cheeks in memory of the last time she had gotten into something she couldn't handle. It happened so rarely that he couldn't help but remember each one, though it seemed the factor that was the same through each was she had been alone. Her back straightened suddenly, searching for any change in subject.

Finally, as the color faded back to normal on her face, she nodded at him. "Sir," Sodia started, her voice almost hesitating. Flynn looked at her sharply, knowing only he caught that pause in her word. Something happened, or she knew something. But she thought she could take care of it, and was warring with the ideal of a soldier to tell her commanding officer, and not bothering him. Finally, she pulled out a well wrinkled letter, passing it to him. "It's from Brave Vesperia," she told him grudgingly as he snapped it out of her fingers.

Yuri. Breath caught in his still sore throat as he smoothed the lines out enough to read. It could, and usually was just a letter about how the guild was doing, Karol or Yuri keeping in touch with him. But every time he saw a letter from them, for a brief moment, all he could see was Yuri's too limp form falling, too far away to stop it. His chest eased as familiar, nearly unreadable handwriting met his eyes, and he read over Yuri's chicken scratch with the ease born only from having read it for years. He chuckled as he read about his most recent job, then looked up suddenly as he heard Sodia clear her throat. For a moment, Flynn swore he saw a look of distaste and guilt on her face before she schooled it. What did Yuri ever do to her, he wondered, knowing it wasn't for the first and definitely not for the last time. "The expense reports?" Her voice was clipped, professional, and she turned and left immediately when he handed them over.

He didn't expect Sodia to like Yuri. Oh, at one time, he did. But at the end of all the battles, after seeing what Yuri had done, he didn't really expect it of her anymore. But he at least expect her to tolerate him better than this. If she could... Flynn sighed, going back to the letter. It would be nice if his best friend and second-in-command could get along. But it would only be a fever dream.

Flynn took in a deep breath as the last knight left, a soft spoken young man that tickled a strand of memory. He certainly was one of the most inoffensive knights out there. But Jonah was the last one he needed to see before he could slip out and take a long bath. A long, hot, relaxing, silent... he nearly let out a moan as he looked over his paperwork one last time. It all sounded so nice.

There was something that bothered him in the report brought to him about the fire. The scorch marks, according to who had investigated, said the fire hadn't originated from inside the house. In fact, it looked like it had started just outside, in some waste, and spread. The idea that it had been a lamp knocked over or a stove left on was ruined at that, making Flynn wonder who had set the original fire, and why. He went over it again, swearing to himself he would go home right after this and take that bath. Flynn rested his elbows on his desk, muttering softly to himself what he was reading, hoping the answer would reveal itself as he did so.

Maybe it would if he read it on the way home. Flynn tucked the stack of papers under his arm as he locked up, the answer still bugging him. There had to be something. If he could walk and read at the same time, he would. As it was, he mulled over what he read. No witnesses to what had happened, no one reporting any sounds of anyone in the area or anyone running away, no one reporting fire until the home had caught ablaze... There was a possibility it was an accident, since no one was seen at the scene, but Flynn wasn't sure of that. Garbage on the street didn't spontaneously burst into flames.

This time, he saw the flames before smelling them. A wastebasket right by a desk held them, burning merrily as the fire leapt higher, reaching for the wood next to it. Heart filling his throat and beating wildly in his mouth, Flynn rushed forward and pulled the basket away from the desk. A part of him noted he shouldn't have done this in bare hands, a part too quiet to be heard over the rapid thought of how to stop this fire before it spread and took his headquarters with it. He distantly saw the fire crawling over his skin, licking and caressing it lovingly before he slowly withdrew his hands. The beat that had raced through his skin and filled his mouth suddenly lurched as he realized what was going on, what was happening. Flynn looked at his palms, expecting to see a horrible black line of burned flesh, only to see the usual pale palms.

Don't fear fire...

Shivers brought him back to himself, looking down at the flames. He couldn't let it continue like this. If the fire wasn't so advanced he would have just stamped on it, but not now. Not like this. But... would he even catch on fire at all? The thought rippled disquietingly through his shoulders. If... if it would just stop like before-!

The fire shuddered. Breath paused in Flynn's chest as he started at it, not daring to hope. Then, slowly releasing it, he thought at the fire hard, stop.

For a brief moment, it did. A lick of flame curled up, trying to meet him, and froze in mid-air. The blaze curled in that same beautiful way, filled with colors he never knew fire had. It was... the child inside him whispered "beautiful," the adult agreeing. Then Flynn noticed the flame shivering again, aching to break free of the will he threw at it in hope. He had to move fast. Without another thought, he started stamping at the flames, watching them spring to life for a brief moment before dying under his foot. Finally, the last one fell and he pulled his leg free, breath heaving in his chest as he backed away, the back of his thighs hitting a desk and forcing him to stop.

He couldn't put this down to a smoke-filled hallucination. Not this time.

"What is going on?" Flynn whispered, knowing there would be more questions than that coming.