Ember heated her hand and pressed it into the concrete floor. Slowly, a hole burned and melted into the floor until she could feel her hand melt through to the underside. Then she shrunk herself enough to slip down through the hole and grab a small pipe fixture from the pile she had left beneath the floor.

"Ember?"

She heard Wade's voice call her from above the floor.

"Down here," she called up as she continued to work. "You were gone for a lot longer than you said you'd be. Did you find everything we needed?"

Wade's head poked through the hole in the floor. "What are you doing down here?" he asked without answering her question, her light illuminating the space under the floor in that way that he liked.

Ember shrugged slightly, but didn't meet his eye. "I'm . . . just making some small renovations," she answered quietly.

Wade could tell she was upset about something. "Can you come up and talk to me for a minute?" he asked, trying not to be distracted by her light dancing on the dirt beneath the floor.

Ember sighed, a little smoke coming from her breath as she looked down. "Okay," she said as she set the pipe down and followed Wade's head back up through the hole in the floor.

When Ember emerged, she immediately noticed a familiar smell. She looked down into the wooden box on the floor with a red box inside.

"Fire Crackers! I love these!" Ember said in excitement, reaching down and picking them up. "How did you find these?"

Wade smiled softly as he admired her excitement. "From the Fireplace, of course," he answered.

Ember's flame softened as she looked up at him. "But that's all the way in Fire Town," she observed.

Wade gently touched her face, a small puff of steam leaving his hand. "We left our families over a month ago. I wanted you to have a piece of home," he said.

Ember held the box a little closer for a moment, looking up at him and leaning her face into his hand. "Thank you, Wade."

"You're welcome," Wade said softly. After a moment of silence, he pulled his hand away and looked down at the floor.

"So, you gonna tell me what all this is?" he asked again.

Ember shifted uncomfortably, her light flickering. "Well, I just figured having some drains in the house might be something important to have."

The water above Wade's eyes rippled in confusion. "Why would a fire-resistant house need drains? I thought we agreed this was the better option."

"We did," Ember responded, not meeting his eye. "It still is."

Wade stepped forward and touched her face again, bringing her head up to meet his eye. "What's wrong, my light? What's this about?"

Ember touched her hand to the one he was using to hold her face, taking a moment to appreciate the coolness of his touch. "I just . . ." She closed her eyes.

Wade stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, feeling the heat of her body against the coolness of his. "It's okay, Ember. You can tell me."

Ember took a few deep breaths, then pushed away just enough to look up at him, but stayed in his arms. "It's just . . . I want you to always have a way to . . . escape."

Wade laughed. "I would never want to escape from you," he said, shaking his head.

Ember rolled her eyes in frustration. "But you might have to," she responded.

Wade's brow rippled again, but then he nodded as he started to realize what she was talking about. "Is this about what happened in your shop almost a year ago? My light, I told you that it was nothing to worry about. Besides, it was kind of cool being condensation. I've never had that experience before."

Ember shoved him away. "Don't you get it?" she screamed, her flame flickering from orange to lavender. "This isn't about you, Wade!"

Wade didn't respond. He knew that when she was like this, it was best to give her a moment to process her emotions first and let her finish speaking.

Finally, Ember exhaled heavily and dropped to her knees, her flame dimming. She spoke through her sobs. "I never want to come that close to losing you again."

Wade felt a pang of guilt as he realized he had been so focused on his experience during that moment, that he'd never really taken the time to understand hers.

"Of course," he said softly, dropping to his knees in front of her. "I may have been okay . . . but you thought I'd . . ."

Ember looked up at him finally, lava tears filling her eyes and trailing down her face. "I can't lose you again," she said softly.

Wade nodded, tears welling in his eyes too. "You're making drains so if something like that happens again, I'll have a way out."

Ember looked down at her hands in her lap. Wade wiped his tears and looked up, putting his hand to his chin.

"Well, then we should have some kind of chimneys or vents as well on the ceiling, in case there's ever a flood or something and you need a way out," Wade observed.

Ember picked up her head, studying him. "What?"

"Oh, so you can protect me and I can't protect you?" Wade challenged with a smile, folding his arms. "I don't think so."

"Well, most of the rooms have windows," Ember pointed out.

"That's the problem," Wade answered. "Most. For the rooms that don't have windows, we need to create a way out for you too."

Ember studied him carefully for what felt like a long time. Then she looked down. "We're always going to have to protect each other from ourselves, aren't we?"

Wade frowned, then scooted forward and grasped her hands, steam slowly curling up from their grip. "Are you having second thoughts about us?" he asked softly.

Ember shook her head. "No!" She sighed. "I don't know. I just know that . . . I love you so much, Wade. I can't stand the thought of hurting you again."

Tears welled up in Wade's eyes again. "First of all, you could never hurt me. Secondly, I can see now that we learned two very different lessons from that incident. You learned that you had to protect me from you. I learned that together, we can survive anything."

Ember met his eye again as tears streamed down his face. He was giving her that look again, the one that always made her feel like she was melting inside. Wiping a tear from her eye, she cocked her head to the side with a small smile. "You're keeping it together rather well for a conversation like this, for once," she observed in a nonjudgemental way. "In fact, I haven't seen you crying as hard as you used to in a while."

Wade laughed slightly and wiped away his tears. "Well, I guess I'll come clean. I've been going to therapy for a few months now. My therapist has been helping me with that."

Ember's smile faded. "Wade, I've never judged you for that. I like that you aren't afraid to show your emotions. I fell in love with you for who you are," she said, reaching out and touching his face. A few of his tears evaporated.

Wade laughed slightly. "Don't worry, not even she can change me that much. She's just helping me learn how to control it enough so that I'm able to keep myself from turning on the waterworks when I'm too close to you," he explained.

Ember dropped her hand and looked down. "Oh. Something else you've had to do so we won't hurt each other."

Wade shook his head and tried to meet her eye. "No. Something else I've had to do to prove how badly I want to be with you," he replied. Ember looked up and met his eye again. "And besides, I never realized how exhausting it is to cry so much," he said with a laugh. "So it's helping me too."

Ember studied the floor for a few minutes. "Maybe I should start therapy too," she said softly.

"For your temper?" Wade asked. "You know it doesn't bother me."

"I know," Ember said, looking back up at him. "But I don't want to accidentally evaporate you just as much as you don't want to accidentally extinguish me." She exhaled heavily, then studied the half empty room. "Besides, I'd rather not have to buy new furniture every few weeks."

Wade chuckled and Ember finally smiled back. Wade scooted to her side on the floor and drew her in, holding her against his chest. "Every relationship has its problems. But I know that we will get through anything."

Ember felt herself sink into his arms. "You always know what to say to make me feel better."

Wade pushed her up so that he could see her face while steam collected on the ceiling. "You know why I call you my light right?"

Ember arched a brow. "Because I'm fire?"

Wade chuckled. "Because you've brought so much more light into my life than just by your beautiful flame."

Ember smiled and reached up to grab his face, pulling his face down into a kiss. Steam sizzled like electricity at their lips as they held each other there for a few moments.

Finally they pulled apart. Wade started to get to his feet.

"Well, I guess we should get started on the – WHOA!"

Suddenly Wade disappeared into the floor. It took Ember a moment to process that he'd accidentally slipped into the hole in the floor.

"Wade? Are you okay?" she called down into the floor.

Wade gathered himself from the dirt beneath the floor and stood. "Yeah, I'm fine. On the bright side, we know the drain works."

Ember laughed. "It works for fire too," she said before dropping through the hole into Wade's arms.

Wade laughed and set her down, his arms still around her waist.. "I could get used to catching you when you fall, my light."

Ember smiled, her flame growing brighter, which caused Wade to start boiling slightly. "You've been doing that since I met you, Wade."