Hey everybody! Finally, some real romance! Well, some flirting and a lot of checking the other person out, but same diff! This chapter's pretty long compared to the others, it took up 22 pages in my notebook! They usually only take about 10 tops. Any ways, on with the story!

Disclaimer: Boy do I wish I owned Torn! But I don't. That makes me sad!

Mr. Brightside

Chapter 7

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

"Can you believe him! Getting all pissed 'cause I'm not pining over his sorry excuse for an ass!"

Kiera hurled her tool box into the back of the zoomer.

"Err, Kiera, maybe you should-"

"And Mar for forbid I do something without him breathing down my neck! I swear, if I'd had a peace maker I-"

She stopped her tirade abruptly and looked over to whom she'd been ranting to.

"Uhh, sorry Torn. I didn't mean to shout."

"That's okay, I didn't need both eat drums," the aforementioned commander stated, removing his hands from his long pointy ears and gingerly wiggling them.

"Come on, let's get to that passage before those guys die of boredom," the mechanic said, hopping inside the zoomer.

So, with both tool box and hearing in toe, they took off towards the entrance to the sewers. It wasn't far from where the elevator was, wedged in between two pieces of the wall. It was a large vent about two feet off the ground and five feet high. Steam came from the grate covering it, adding an extra sense of foreboding.

Before she could retrieve her screwdriver from the tool box, Torn proceeded to rip the grate from it's hinges. Her eyes were the size of tires when he looked back. His cheeks turned a light shade of shell pink as he gestured to the now open vent and said, "Um, uh, ladies first?"

"Anger issues much?" Kiera replied, secretly enjoying the show of strength. Who knew lean muscle could do that? "And I'm not going in there first. Everyone seems to think I need a body guard, so do your job and guard me," she said with a sarcastic tone.

"Okay, okay, I'm going. But I think you could take on Kor himself if you were angry enough. I have anger issues! Sheesh!"

She gave a faint smile at his obscured compliment. At least someone thought she could hold her own.

Torn, being exceptionally tall, had to bend over at an odd angle in order to fit inside. This action gave Kiera a terrific view of his perfect posterior, something many women would commit murder to get. She had to admit, she was using this opportunity to the fullest. 'Damn I wish I'd brought a camera! I could make a few bucks selling them to all the female FL members!'

"Well, are you coming? This isn't very comfortable you know!" Torn said, turning around to face her. He, of course, realized what she was looking at and blushed again, this time more of a strawberry cream colour. Kiera noticed this and gave a shrug and a guilty smile.

"Okay, I'm coming! This tool box isn't exactly a pillow ya know," she said, getting in behind him.

He was still blushing as he walked forward, thinking, 'She wasn't – she couldn't have been – could she? Yeah right! That Biscotti must've gone to my head! Girls don't check you out Torn, get over it!'

As they walked deeper into the quickly darkening passage, the vent got taller, thankfully, and they also began to notice how much the temperature was rising.

"Torn?"

"Yeah?"

"Why is it getting so hot in this thing? It's like a sauna!" croaked Kiera. Boy, did she wish she'd brought some water!

"Well," Torn replied, his voice equally hoarse (not that you could really tell since it was always like that), " a lot of the homes in this part of the city use the steam to heat their homes. It comes from some underground hot springs or something, I guess."

"That's all fine and dandy, but wasn't there another way to get to those guys! My shirt is totally soaked!" Normally, she wouldn't complain, but her tank top was white after all.

"How do you think I feel?" he countered testily, "I have a long sleeved shirt on and I'm haulin' 30 lb of weapons and ammo on my back!" This revelation was meant to get her to shut up, but instead it provoked another one of her own.

"Duh, Torn! You can take your shirt off, so you have no room to complain!"

Torn blushed for a third time that day (he'd have to stop that ASAP). "I can't take my shirt off!"

"And why not?" she asked, her voice sounding testy now.

"Well, um, err, it's uhh...Because!" was his perfectly logical explanation. 'Mar Torn, you have such a way with words!'

"Because wh–" Kiera stopped abruptly as realization dawned on her. She gave an evil grin. "Torn, you're not shy are you?"

"N-no! I just, err, don't... want to be rude is all, yeah!"

She rolled her eyes. "Rude? Do you have an undershirt on under the long-sleeved one?"

"Yeah, but it's all wet too." Why in the name of the fuzzy little precursors did he have to grab the too small muscle tank this morning? He couldn't have put on a normal baggy t-shirt today, oh no! He had to be different!

"Does it really matter? It's your arms, it's not like you're gonna strip down!" She was grinning again, " Admit it. Mr. Tough Rebel Leader doesn't want to take his shirt off in front of a girl."

This, sadly, was true. If it'd been another guy he wouldn't have liked it, but he'd take it off any ways; it was friggin' hot in there! But he wasn't about to tell her that.

"Okay! I'll take the dang thing off, just so you'll see I'm NOT Shy!" And with that said he began to remove the weapons and spare ammo from his back in order to get it off.

Kiera was finding this highly amusing. Despite his convictions of the contrary, she could tell he did have trouble with his body image and, she'd bet, interacting with the opposite gender, as well. Man, she'd have hours of fun teasing him about this!

It was too dark to really see him any ways, so why was he so embarrassed? Did he have a third nipple or something? She'd have to find out later.

"There, are you happy now?" he said tossing his heavy shirt on the ground; he could come back for it later. 'For the love of Mar Torn, it's dark! So, why are you blushing again!' He was arguing with himself, a bad habit. The first voice was right, it was dark and she couldn't see him. 'Does it matter? A gorgeous girl is right behind us and we have no shirt on besides a wife beater that's too small! We're asking for disaster!' a second voice said. Sometimes he swore he had a mental health problem.

"See, much cooler! Why you wear that heavy thing any ways is a mystery to me. By the way, why didn't these guys just go out the way were coming in? Wouldn't it save time?" she asked, still curious about her whole third nipple theory.

"Well, the end of this passage leads to a 7ft drop into the hot springs I mentioned earlier," he mentioned, happy for a change in subject, "It's actually quicker for us to get in than them to get out."

"Wait, we have to fall into a hot spring?" she asked incredulously, " and get wet!"

"Well, normally you get a tad bit wet when going in water, but–"

"Torn!" she yelled, annoyed by his sarcasm.

He laughed. "Yes Kiera, you will get wet. Don't worry, the water's warm."

"It's not the water I'm worried about," she retorted hotly, "in case you hadn't noticed, I'm a girl!"

"Really! I was under the impression you were just a young boy with unusually gay eyelashes and a strangely curved body! This explains a lot."

"TORN!" she shouted again, then lowered her voice a few decibels when he flinched and covered his ears, "I'm a girl and I'm wearing a skimpy white tank top! Catch my drift!"

"Do you take me as a perv?" he said in an offended manner.

"Not you. I trust you," this statement caused his stomach to do that weird flipping this again, "It's the other guys I'm talking about."

"Believe me, that won't try anything while I'm around. Promise." He'd smack whoever did upside the head for her.

"Okay, I guess I can go along with that," she replied.

"You don't have a choice any way, we're here."

They were now overlooking a pool of clear blue water, which was admitting more steam than ever. Kiera glanced over to her left and got a good look at Torn in the brighter light. If she hadn't been hot before, she was smokin' now.

The tank he had on was sticking to his muscles, so it might as well not have been there at all. Every inch of skin was toned to perfection. His shoulders, usually hidden under baggy layers and guns were surprisingly strong for his lean frame. His chest seemed to be chiseled from marble, and his stomach show-cased a gorgeous eight-pack. She watched as one of his long, lean arms moved a rather large hand up to swipe a piece of dark hair that had escaped his dreads away from his face. Golden skin, covered in different designs of black ink, glowed under a sheen of sweat.

'Ashelin–was–insane!'

While he was being ogled, Torn obliviously surveyed the small cavern for trouble. Seeing none, he turned to Kiera to see if she was ready to jump, only to find her licking her lips and, for the lack of a better phrase, checking out his chest. He blushed some more before saying, "Um, Earth to Kiera, can you hear me?"

This snapped her out of her revere, and she too blushed (a delicate shade of soft pink) and said, "Oh, um, I, uhh, yeah?"

"Do you want me to jump first? The water's about 10ft deep I'd estimate."

"Please do," she replied, her dislike of heights coming back and overpowering her lust.

"Okay," he said before jumping in and performing a perfect jack-knife. He came up from the water and pushed his soaked dreads out of his face, then yelled up to her, "Water feels great. Drop your tool box down here and then jump in."

She did as she was told and dropped her tools from the vent, which made a large 'splash!' Not wanting to be out done, she performed a nice swan dive.

"Lovely," he said with an eyebrow raised as she resurfaced.

"Shut up," she countered with an eye roll, but a smile was on her face. The water felt really good, the perfect temperature for relaxing, or swimming around, or... 'fooling around, especially with your sexy bodyguard' thought a naughty part of her brain.

She shook her head to clear it of that particular notion and started towards dry ground. When she got to it, she remembered about her shirt and, sure enough, it was plastered to her chest like Daxter to a porno.

Torn had noticed this too and was having another inner voice argument.

'Nice. I could tighten her bolts alright!'

'She seventeen you perv!'

'So?'

'So, we could get arrested for that!'

'By who? Our self?'

'That's not the point, we promised her!'

'Yeah, but we're her bodyguard, we need to protect that curvy little frame of her's, and she might need some comforting still, if ya catch my drift.'

'You are such a–'

'Shut up both of you! I'm getting a headache! ...Oh great, I'm arguing with myself again. I need to see a shrink.'

Torn turned back to the situation at hand, finding the right passage. They walked forward through the sewers, side by side, not talking. Every once in a while, that pervy voice would speak up again.

'She's hot. Seriously, she's got to be hotter than Ashelin.'

'Her boobs look great in that top!'

'She's really tiny, bet she's really flexible too.'

'Think what those mechanic's hand could do...oh mar...'

He was about to bash his head in with a pipe lying on the ground when he heard it. A foot step. He reacted immediately, spinning around and shooting three times. All were direct hits.

Behind them were now eight metal heads, circling them from all sides. Torn shot some again, killing three more, but the others were quicker, going for the weakest link. Kiera.

Kiera had been surprised when Torn had whirled around and shot a metal head. She was even more surprised to find eight more coming at them. Torn had gotten a few of them, but he couldn't get one of the quicker ones, which was coming after her. She heard Torn curse as the beast ran at her; he wasn't able to shoot it in the fear that it would hit her. She was able to dodge it by rolling over so it ran into the wall. Beside her, she saw an old lead pipe and she grabbed it. As soon as she was up, it was charging her again. She didn't know what to do, the other metal heads had ganged up on Torn and she hadn't thought about asking him for a gun. It was getting closer, closer, closer, and then...

Smack!

Out of pure instinct, she had hit it as hard as she could when it opened it'd mouth to tear into her. This action caused it's jaw to break with a sickening 'crunch'. It's mouth hung wide open, making it howl in pain. She took this moment of it's distraction and hit it again, right between the eyes. It swayed a little and she jammed the pipe as far as she could push it into it's sagging mouth, all the way to the back of the throat. This blow severed it's spinal cord and killed it.

Torn had taken down the other creatures and had turned to fire at the last one, praying Kiera was all right. He turned just in time to see her take the first swing at it. He watched as she broke it's jaw, then killed it while it was looking the other way. He was impressed.

"Kiera! Mar, are you alright? I'm so sorry, they ganged up on me and..." he yelled as he ran over to her. She was leaning against the wall, looking down at the dead beast.

She looked up at him, smiling, "Yeah, I'm okay. But, I actually killed one! Me! The weak little mechanic! I'd love to see the look on everyone's faces if they'd seen that!" She was beaming at him now.

"Yeah," he said smiling back at her, " Jak's face would be priceless. Sorry about letting that one get to ya, though. But, you did a great job, any ways, I shouldn't have worried at all." she was looking at him oddly now, " By the way, the next time you go to hit something with a pipe or staff or something," he gestured for her to come over to him, "make sure you hold t more towards the center, about 1/3 of the way to the end," he adjusted her grip on the pipe, "You'll use up less of your energy, but you'll hit harder."

She was still looking at him funny. "Where'd you learn that?"

"I, um, trained at a temple when I was around fifteen, and one of my favorite weapons was a bo staff. Well, next to a sword, but, uhh..."

He was babbling. Why was he babbling? Maybe it was because they were still standing really close. Or maybe because that voice inside his head was talking about some illegal stuff again. Or maybe it was because she was smiling up at him through her lashes and he was blushing again. Either way, he had to stop.

"Um, we should probably get going," he broke the contact, flushed now more than ever.

"K, just let me grab the skull gem. No one's going to believe this."

Wow, that was a whopper of a chapter! I think it's adorable how Torn gets all shy! Any ways, it was fun to write, was it fun to read? Tell me! Review gosh darnnit, review! Lol.