SUPRISE!

So I can understand if you all hate me...

Hopefully this story will start to be churned out at a more normal pace. School has started up again for me, so homework may conflict with the timing now and then. Anyhoo, after that nice filler and a break, it's time for more storyline!

Songs?:

I Think I Smell A Rat by The White Stripes

Quesadilla by Walk the Moon

Collect Call by Metric

I own nothing but Adriana and Tazia.

After my sleep was so rudely interrupted by the smell of smoke, I made my way back up to my pentagonal room. The mere sight of the sheets made me drowsy. Though, as soon as I set foot inside my room, I noticed it was just a bit more stuffy than the rest of the creaky old house. Begrudgingly, I turned on the fake-gold adorned ceiling fan. Before finally swaddling myself back into my bed, I opened one of the windows, just about halfway.

It didn't get much cooler any faster, but the level of my gauge showed no reason to be worried.

The down cover made a light puff as I wrapped myself back inside of my lovely cloak. A serene smile spread itself across my face when I finally felt comfortable again.

The sweet wafting scent of strawberries, the cool breeze from the window on my bare shoulder, the sound of the rustling trees... All of this lulled me into calming sleep.

My dream had no lights or images at first, just senses. I was sweating. No, sweating is inappropriate... It felt more as if I was a wax statue placed next to the Gates of Hell. I was melting – from my very core – and the feeling wasn't fading away. My fingers raked at my torso, face, thighs, grasping at what should have been liquid wax. Skin met skin – solid, smooth skin. No matter what my fingertips told me, I knew I was melting.

There were still no images. All I could see was a vast, empty blackness – a few shapes hinted at the stars. The blackness was void of any sound, so perhaps this was space?

But there was panting. The heated, breathy wheeze of someone gasping for oxygen. My own, I assumed. My lungs were about to burst, not needing air, but overflowing with it, but still needing more.

Energy. Did I need it? Was it building?

Both. I could feel wave after wave of indefatigable warmth built up near my heart, and pulsated out to every toe and fingertip. My hands clutched after my chest in desperation. The heat built, built, built... It wasn't a pulse anymore, it was a series of fiery tsunamis crashing over every inch of my body.

Fiery...

Fiery...

Of course.

A familiar friend, this was. A familiar fiend.

This was not a simple dream.

This was fire.

With a strong intake of breath, I shook the last remnants of my unconsciousness. I escaped the blackness of my eyelids, revealing the same dilapidated ceiling I had fallen asleep under, made blue by the moonlight. The gold-tipped wings of the fan had come to a damned stop. The one small window I had opened for circulation had slammed shut at some point in the night. Every single source of cool and fresh air I allowed myself failed...

Every movement felt like pieces were crumbling off – Ashes, cinders, embers. I pushed myself up by the palms in an attempt to prop my shoulders up, at least. As they pressed into the linen sheets, I could feel my hand crumble into lifeless shards of charcoal.

Yet there it was.

I held my left wrist close to my still-cloudy eyes, blinking away a swarm of non-existent ash. My eye caught the warm glow emanating from my hands – almost as if you had put a powerful flashlight under the skin. The gauge's needle rose to a highly dangerous 405.5 degrees. A measly 76.5 degrees away from...

This was bad. This was very, very bad.

As I craned my neck to look at the bedside table clock, I could practically hear each tendon and sinew crackle.

Red, angry lines shouted '4:57'. I could not have been asleep for more than an hour or two.

Which meant Tazia was probably not asleep at all.

Breathlessly at first, I called out.

"T-Zs-ahh..." Barely a whisper. I cleared my lungs of their smog, logs collapsing on my chest. I took the smallest of inhalations my body would allow. With my eyes furrowed shut, I tried again.

"Tazia-Tazi..." I felt the last part of my body – the base of my neck – turn to glowing coal.

There was no more pain to come.

Only light.

"Tazia!" I struggled to control my breathing – in, out, in, out... Ragged, all the same.

It felt like ages before I heard the patter of bare, lithe feet. Their rhythm paused, the doorknob clicked open slowly.

"Aidie?" a small voice inquired. Taz peeked her head past the doorframe. I kept my eyes to the wall in front of me.

In...

"Aidie, wh– aw shiiiiiiit." In a fraction of a second, my little sister was nervously wailing her way down the staircase.

Out...

I let my eyes ease shut, my head tilted back so that it rested on the white wood panels of the chipped walls.

In...

Anything... Anything to take my mind off the searing heat. I listen close to the sounds below, rapidly becoming more frantic by the second.

Out...

Our guest... No, I can't be bothered with his name now – He was awake now, adding to Taz's clamor.

In...

Their voices were muted by the wooden flooring, but I could still make the deduction that Tazia was in hysterics.

Out...

After one final word from the little sprite, I could hear the sweet sound of rustling bags – Bags filled to the brim with ice.

In...

Two sets of feet came bounding up the steps, one more eager than the other. The feet stopped a few doors down the hall, as I could hear the chime-like clanking of ice cubes falling.

Out...

Finally, the four feet made their way back to my door. Our guest remained outside, but Taz all but ran to my side.

In...

"Shit." Tazia cursed, obviously louder than she thought. "Uh... We need to get her into that tub, STAT."

"..What?"

"STAT, pronto, immediately, right now." Fantastic.

Out...

"I'm still unclear as to what the problem is - " The man started.

"Look buddy, you don't need to know jack shit for all I care, just help me get her into that damn ice!" I managed a smirk.

There's my girl.

In...

A few things happened next that are still unclear to me. The first was initiated by Tazia – through all the years of her having to care for me and my episodes, she always grabs my arm without checking the gauge on my wrist. Tonight was no exception.

"Aii-!" I couldn't help but snicker as she slinked back. "Uh, right, yeah..." The floorboards creaked as she leaned over to look at the now-glowing metal and glass disc. "Oooookay, um..." Her voice shook. "Well we could, ah... Dad always. -"

"Tazia?" I intervened. She looked at me with unnerved eyes. "Quickly, please." Taz flashed a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Yeah, sure, no problem...ah..." I tried to hide my visage of pain, but it was fading fast – I was fading fast. Tazia's eyes glazed over in panic. Whenever this had happened back home, our father had donned a welding apron and the gloves to match them. He had simply carried me across the hall. Here though – I hadn't anticipated having an outburst this early on...

Tazia paced furiously – she didn't get very far with it, she kept herself in the same 3-foot area. She whimpered, she whined, she was almost in tears. I could hear her mutter something along the lines of "I don't know what to do" under her breath over and over...

Which is when odd even number 2 occurred. The man strode over to me – giving Taz a slight push to the right – and felt the top of my shoulder with his fingertips.

I cringed premature to his touch, expecting him to yelp in pain the way Taz did.

Then I recalled our first encounter – His hand had clutched my wrist, despite the fact that my hand was glowing in self-defense.

There was no apparent pain for him – only on my part. His cool touch made my entire shoulder light up just a few degrees hotter. I hissed.

Unfazed, our guest slid one arm around my shoulders and the other under the sheet, to get at my knees. With one final lift, he picked me up as easily as a feather.

His odd attire didn't let much skin from his arms through, but I could feel the smallest of gaps of his skin pressing against my back. For a moment, the touch of his skin set my own flesh practically alight, but that subsided within seconds. I struggled as much as my body would let me – I shook my shoulders and tried to jerk my arms away, but he kept a tight grasp.

Before he was even half way down the hall, the sensation of his skin had changed from molten to frigid. And at this moment, it was the best thing I could feel in the world.

When we finally made it to the marble and porcelain bathroom, a mountain of ice was awaiting me – Taz went so far as to run cold water into the bath as well.

"J-just put her in, uh, feet first I think." Taz had piped up. Was she there the entire time...?

I could see him glance at Taz with a flicker of annoyance.

He slid his arm down my legs and grasped my shoulder as to let me plant my feet in the pool of ice. As soon as my feet were in though, our guest practically let me fall in. I landed with a small splash, accompanied by the jingle of the ice.

My body started to melt the ice instantly – within seconds, over half of the make-shift iceberg had disappeared.

Out... I released the heavy breath that I had been unknowingly holding. My eyelids drifted closed, and I lowered all but my head into the frigid waters.

Taz joined out guest leaning against the porcelain sink. She huffed out a large sigh. There were a few moments of silence before I realized that the two of them were waiting for me to react.

"Taz... Go get more ice? It's almost gone..." I waved my hand around in the water, countering nothing solid.

"Sure thing, Heat Miser." Before I could even start to glare at my younger sister, she had skipped out of the room.

Now this is where the most shocking thing of all happens.

The tall guest and I were left alone, silent. I tried to convince myself that there was nothing to say to the man, but my conscience differed.

"What was your name again?" I inquired. He was still. For a moment I was afraid that I had offended him.

"It is Loki." I managed to politely smile a bit, though I still did not face him.

"Loki... Thank you."

Oh...

My...

Goodness. I'm not even gonna talk about that gap of time. Nope. Not doing it.

Now did that second part sound kinda sexual? I just wanted to give you a clear, sensory idea of what bursting into flames might feel like... And dammit, it's pretty hot (ba-da, tiss...)!

I'm basing the randomness of her 'outbursts' on the tendencies of my friend's headaches – she can be set off by the smallest of circumstances.

Reviews!:

I-have-an-original-pen-name: (hides under a blanket) I DON'T EVEN KNOOOOWWW!

AWESHUM: My friend told me once that all writing is is just describing stuff. So yeah, danka.

PartyVenom vVv: Eee! You my friend have given me my longest review yet. I'm trying my best to get this stuff out faster, but like I've said before, this is more like a pre-actual-favored-plot, so writing this stuff is kinda hard, but I want to get it over with at the same time... blechk. Yeah, Loki wasn't very active before, but I'm gonna be getting into the swing of writing him soon enough. Also, is that a My Chem related name I see? Props if so, props if not.

[AGH, I MISSED TAZ SO MUCH, EEEEEEEEEEE.]