Amaya took a deep breath as she approached Janai.
Ever since peace had been former a few months ago she would often travel to Lux Aurea to visit her... friend.
Her friend who she thought was amazingly strong and brave and beautiful.
Her friend that she... developed a crush on.
It didn't even matter to Amaya that Janai was an elf, admiring the lovely golden markings that stood out against her dark skin, her fiery red hair that matched her strong personality and even finding her horns and long pointy ears cute.
She made Amaya feel warm inside.
Now, today she had decided it was time to get started on changing their relatopnship for the better.
She had a whole battle-plan thought out on what to sign and how to respond to however Janai would react.
She now walked through the now familiar halls, nodding at the elves that acknowledged her and even waving at some of the more friendly ones like Kazi.
Confidently she threw open the doors leading to where she knew Janai would be, only for that confidence to leave right away upon seeing the Sunfire elf standing with her brother, the sun shining on her in obvious rays and making her look even more beautiful.
"Amaya!" Janai turned to beam at her and the general felt her cheeks turn warm.
"I'll leave you two alone for a moment." Janai's brother said, giving Amaya a pat on the back and a knowing smirk when he passed her, making her flush grow worse, both in embarrassment and frustration.
She was an adult and a general to boot and not some silly teenager for everone to tease, damn it!
She jumped when Janai was suddenly standing in front of her.
How had she not noticed her coming closer?
"I'm so happy you could come!" the elf told her with a smile and even used her hands to sign 'happy' for empasis.
This only made the heat in Amaya's face spread to her chest, both at the thought of Janai being happy to see her as well her knowing how she went through the effort of learning some sign-language for her.
"So what's up? What are you doing here?" Janai asked, reminding Amaya of her original goal.
As said before, she had a whole multi-step plan but in that moment her mind blanked out completely.
'Is it warm in here or is it just you?' she signed instead and right away felt like banging her head against a wall for just asking the most cliche question to flirt ever.
Janai looked confused for a moment and just as Amaya was about to apologize she answered "Actually, that's probably me."
Amaya looked back on surprise, not having expected that answer.
"My brother and I just finished sparring a while ago and we used out heat-mode. Some of the extra heat we tend to generate when doing so can still stick for a while. You remember my heat-mode, right? It's when I go..." Janai trailed off before making a comical exaterated face that was probably supposed to look fierce.
Any other day Amaya would have laughed at the silly face but right now she was too stunned to do so and just nodded dumbly.
"Believe it or not, but it actually takes a lot of effort to activate it. Some sunfire elves can even get overheated and- Oh, I'm sorry! I wouldn't want to bore you with all those details about some elven gimmick!" Janai apologised and Amaya shook her head.
'No, it's really fasinating! Please tell me more!' she found herself signing and after that she spend who knows how long listening (or watching) as Janai talked about her powers and how they worked, asked questions in between until Janai's brother came back to get Janai to do... something.
"Sorry I can't make more time for you, but I'm still glad you could come." Janai said as she walked walked with Amaya till they were outside.
'No problem, really.' Amaya answered because even if their time together was short and hadn't really gone as she planned, she still found that she enjoyed herself.
She reached out an arm to slap the other on the shoulder like what had become customary for them, only to be caught of guard once again when Janai hugged her.
Hugged her!
Amaya's hands hovered awkwardly over the elf's shoulders, unsure if she should hug back or not while trying to ignore the heat in her face that was rising again.
After what felt like an eternity Janai finally let go.
"I know I said this before but I'm really happy you came today." she said with a cute shy smile and Amaya was sure her by now she looked like a tomato.
"Also..." Janai went on, "I'm still feeling warm all this time but I know it's not just because of my heat-mode."
Then she raised her hands and signed in perfect sign-language 'I feel the greatest and most comforting warmth when I'm with you.'
What?!
Before Amaya could respond to that, Janai turned around and shouted something Amaya couldn't make out, most likely at her brother or another elf telling her to hurry up.
When she turned back Amaya saw she was blushing as well.
"I should go back. Thanks for coming again and I hope that next time we can spend more time together." she said before rushing back inside, leacing a stunned human behind, ready to combust on the spot.
What just happened?!