Ten years now Jade had been living with him. Ten years since she'd had her beautiful little girl and brought her sweet pig to live on his farm. Ambrose reached into his pocket and felt a little box. Ten years he's trusted her, cared about her. They'd seen each other through sickness and injury, through famine and change. Jade Amare had been by his side for so long that according to some old laws in Vale they would have been man and wife on record. She had even helped him care for his adopted daughter Motley when he was out of his depth... Ambrose sighed and took his hand out of his pocket. He didn't know why he hadn't given her that little box years ago...but he did. He did know. He was afraid, even now.
Ambrose sighed as he washed his hands for supper. He knew that Jade would never hurt him, would even protect him. She had trusted him to teach her how to shoot and had even gone on patrol with him before. She was loving and kind, gentle as could be and strong as she needed to be. She was amazing...perfect even...
Ambrose shook his head and helped set the table for dinner. Jade had made them a delicious smelling potato soup while he was out training with his fire crew. He cared about his family and wanted to be with them enough that he had chosen to help fight fire rather than the creatures of Grimm. With Moira Agincourt's blessing, he had left the Guns of Atlas mercenary group to become a firefighter so he could spend more time with his family and less time all over Remnant.
Jade smiled at Ambrose and began ladling the soup into bowls as Ambrose sliced some bread for them to have with supper. "Would you mind calling for Luna sug? I think she's tending the goats right now".
Ambrose nodded and finished with the bread before setting the knife to the side and going out on the front porch. "Luna, it's dinner time. Come get cleaned up" he shouted toward the barn.
A little tiger faunus with straw in her hair and a baby goat holding her tail in its mouth came out of the barn, a huge grin on her face. "Okay, tell mama I'll be right there!".
Ambrose waved to her to let her know he heard her and went back inside to deliver the news. When he did, he saw Jade frowning and setting the landline scroll down on its receiver. "Bad news sug. That was your captain. All off-duty personnel are to report at the fire station. A wildfire's sprung up in western Vale and they need everyone".
Ambrose nodded quickly and went to get his gear while Jade filled a thermos with the soup and filled a second with coffee. Luna walked in with a smile just to frown when Ambrose walked in with his boots and adjusting his overalls. "Mama?".
"Don't worry sweetie, Ambrose just got called to help fight a fire. Everything will be alright. Go get cleaned up now. We'll stay up for a bit tonight so we can greet Ambrose when he gets home".
Luna nodded, not very certain if everything really was alright but trusting her mother. She gave Ambrose a tight hug and kissed him on the cheek, telling him to take care and goodbye before scurrying off to do as her mother instructed.
Ambrose paused to smile slightly before he once more went back to getting ready. "Thank you, Jade," he said as he accepted the bag she held out to him with the thermoses inside. "Take care and stay safe".
Jade nodded and kissed Ambrose's cheek before he hurried out the door to his truck. She stayed in the doorway as she watched him drive off before sighing and going back inside to have supper...though she wasn't likely to eat much with her stomach in knots from worry...
It was bad, really bad. The fire chief knew it was going to get worse and that's why all of duty crew members had been recalled but he hadn't expected the sheer scope of the fire. Over a hundred thousand acres had already burned with another quarter of a million in danger. There had already been a town on the frontier that had burned to the ground. Nearly thirty people had died including four firefighters before the evacuation was complete.
Ambrose hadn't been in the first wave, but he had been sent to a dangerous area where the trees were already burning. With his flamethrower Salamander's Backbone, he was able to destroy much of the flammable undergrowth in a controlled burn. Between repeats of that and a few trees being cut down, things had seemed to be going in favor of the fire crews at first.
All it took was a single Beawolf charging out of the fire to put everyone in danger. The Beawolf was mad from pain, it's back coated in flames and cinders as it charged headlong past the firefighters. Where it went, embers fell from its back and ignited brush fires, putting everyone in danger. The captain called for a retreat even as the Beawolf was brought down. Its death didn't matter anymore, the damage had already been done.
The winds changed direction, breathing life into the dying embers and stoking them into a full-blown blaze. Fire crews started falling back, but a few were cut off by the unexpected fires. Ambrose did what he could to help, burning off undergrowth to stall the fire, giving others time needed to cut trees the cut off crews could cross out of the danger zone.
Again and again, heedless of the danger to himself, Ambrose worked to give the other crews time. Soon the last of the cut off crews were away from immediate danger and Ambrose was ordered to pull back
"The fires seem to be fifty-percent under control on the eastern age, but lack of personnel and the needed equipment has kept the fire from truly being under control. We now go live to our on the scene reporter, Tint Brosney. Tint, how are things where you are?".
Coming up side by side with the view of the newsroom was a video of a man with orange hair and a blue mustache. Behind him could be seen a long ribbon of orange going from horizon to horizon with the occasional plane seen dumping water on it. Near to the man could be seen fire crews resting and eating as buses full of people were being taken from the town they were in.
"While things could be better here, it seems that the firefighters of Vale and the surrounding area have things relatively under control here Noir. Behind me, as you can see is the Valean forest service dumping thousands of gallons of water on the fire in an effort to dampen it so that the crews on the ground will have an easier time stopping it. As things stand, there are three planes in the air as we speak dropping water and fire suppressant on both the fire and the area in front of it. The belief right now is that the fire will follow the path of the valley here leading toward Vale. To stop that, the crews have blanketed the area around the town of Dorado with suppressant. The crews will work to stop the fire from getting to the town, but as things stand, they might not be able to. That aside, the people of Dorado have been evacuated and if necessary the floodgates in a nearby dam can be opened. That would flood the valley for some time, but the fire will most assuredly be put out. Back to you Noir".
"Thank you Tint. In other news, the price of wood products is sure to see a spike due to the fires. We are already hearing reports about-".
Jade turned the television off and sighed. The static electricity in the air made it impossible to get news from the fire crews near the fire and the reporters weren't going anywhere near the blaze itself just to ask about some random firefighter. She looked down at Luna, curled up beside her with her head in her lap. Jade smiled a bit and gently brushed her hair and pet her ears.
Motley had stayed up for some time as well, but this was the sixth day after Ambrose had been called in and she needed to be in school on Tuesday. That said, Motley didn't want to be alone and had taken to sleeping in the bed with Jade and Luna. It wasn't much, but all three of them were worried about Ambrose.
"...Come home sug...We miss you".
Time and time again the firefighters were forced to pull back from the blaze. Everything they tried had only stalled the flames, disheartening the crews as time and again they saw their brothers and sisters cut off, some never to escape the flames. The exhausted crews took shelter in a town near a small river with a dam on one end, sleeping where they could, looking for lost crewmates when they couldn't. The townspeople had mostly evacuated when they were told, but a few had chosen to stay behind to try to fight the fire.
Ambrose was exhausted. He had been near the worst parts of the blaze almost nonstop. His knowledge of fire and his equipment meant that he was the one to hold the line while the others fell back. When he was ordered to the fall back area all he had done was rinse his mouth four times before drinking a gallon of water and immediately falling asleep. When he woke up everything hurt and he was starving so he ate some MREs that were given to him, six in all, before sleeping again.
When Ambrose finally was able to keep his eyes open and pay attention he found out that the fire was too much for them and that in order to halt its advance they were going to demolish the town. Opening the floodgates was something that command wanted to be avoided at all costs but if that meant losing an empty town then so be it.
Ambrose sighed and gathered his gear before reporting to his lieutenant. since he was a demolitions expert he was going to help with planting the explosives. As Ambrose shouldered a bag full of charges he looked out at the fire and thought of how at least he wouldn't have to keep breathing smoke if this worked.
It didn't work... well, it did, but a crew got cut off.
Ambrose cursed quietly as he worked to clear a way for them. The trees around them were like kindling for the fire and he could feel the heat from over a hundred feet away. He flinched as he saw a tree fall in his path. Gritting his teeth, he vaulted over the burning tree and was soon able to get to the crew. One was down having inhaled too much smoke and passed out, while another had a broken ankle from stumbling in a hole.
Taking charge of those still able to move, Ambrose picked up the unconscious man, freeing up the other two to carry the third. Moving back toward the path he had come from, Ambrose frowned when he saw it burning. Fire to the front, fire to the sides, fire to the rear... They were trapped.
Looking around, Ambrose spotted an empty pool in someone's backyard. With a quick order, the fence around it was soon cut and the crew huddled down in it. There would be no rescue for them. Ambrose was meant to be the rescue. If they weren't back in ten minutes then they would be presumed dead and the floodgates would be considered clear to open.
"Are we going to die here?" one of the firemen asked. Young, barely out of school, he looked to be no more than twenty at the most. Ambrose looked at him for a moment, then at the others before shaking his head. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out an emergency foil blanket. The others soon followed suit and pulled theirs out as well. Huddling together, the five firefighters tried to make themselves as small as possible as they heard the inferno raging around them and over their heads.
Ambrose groaned as he felt the heat sear his fingers even through his fireproof gloves. He didn't move them though and tried to ignore the pain as the fire above tried to suck their air from their lungs. The others put the unconscious man's mask on him so he could breath before taking care of themselves and Ambrose. By then, a sound like the hammer of an angry god shook the valley. The floodgates had been opened...
Jade was worried and it had shown. Since Ambrose had left she had lost nearly five pounds just from stress. She hadn't been eating right the past week and it was starting to tell. Her normally beautiful skin and hair were now looking more frazzled than ever and she had become slightly paler from staying inside with the television on in case Ambrose was on the news. The fire had been put out two days ago but still no word from him. She feared the worst and had checked in with his captain every day to see if a word had come back from him.
Motley, despite not wanting to, had gone back to teaching. Luna had gone back to her own school as well, though she at least could come home at nights.
It was while Jade was washing the dishes that she heard the front door being opened and shut. That surprised her since no one was supposed to be there beside her.
"Hello?". Jade picked up a kitchen knife just in case and went to see who it was.
Standing in front of the doorway, was Ambrose.
Lip quivering, Jade dropped the knife. She took first one step, then another, before running to Ambrose and throwing her arms around him. She cried into his shoulder as he held her, her calling him one or two less than polite names for not calling or letting anyone know what happened. After a few minutes, Ambrose just smiled slightly and gently kissed her on the lips.
That shocked Jade. Never, not once in ten years, had Ambrose initiated a kiss on her lips. So surprised was she that she didn't even react when Ambrose slowly sank to one knee and held an open box up to her. Inside was a ring. It was plain, simple silver with a green band through the middle, but nonetheless it nearly stopped Jade's heart.
"Jade Amare...Would you marry me?".
Jade was silent a moments before nodding her head. "Y-yes. Yes...Yes, Ambrose". She slowly smiled wider and wider, happy as could be as he took the ring out of the box and carefully slid it on her finger. That broke the spell on Jade and she laughed from happiness and hugged Ambrose tightly.
He stood up and held on to Jade, kissing her again and again. Nothing too sexual, but Jade understood and cherished each and every kiss. "N-not, not that I'm complaining or reckon on changing my mind hun, but what brought this on?".
Ambrose was quiet for a moment before speaking. "...I thought I was going to die, Jade. I thought I would never see you again, that I would never see the girls again...And I regretted never asking you to marry me".
Ambrose pressed his forehead to Jade's, looking into her beautiful green eyes. "I've wanted to for a long time Jade. I don't know when I fell in love with you, but I bought that ring years ago, even before leaving the Guns. I've shared my life with you, and you've been such an important part of mine, that I wanted to share my name with you...I love you Jade, and I want to spend the rest of my life showing you how much you mean to me".
Jade was at a loss for words, but it was a good thing that kissing didn't require words.
Ambrose's body was scarred in that fire but he was grateful every day for having gone through it. His fingers were scalded by his own sweat but luckily didn't receive permanent damage and soon healed. He suffered some burns on his back and arms, some of those leaving scars he had the rest of his life. His beard and eyebrows were singed and after spending time with Jade she gave him a shave and haircut so that she wouldn't have to look at his lopsided hair and be bothered by it.
Ambrose and three of the firefighters in the pool made it out without permanent injury. While the one with a broken ankle would start hurting whenever it rained, the one unconscious from smoke inhalation nearly died. During recovery, it was discovered that his lungs had been slightly seared by the flames and damaged by the smoke. While they were able to lead a normal life, they had to leave their work with the fire crews.