Ash x Misty

08 - The Fire that Burns Forever and Ever

Dark clouds covered the moon and most of its light with just a small speckling of stars winking in the night's canvass. A cold wind found its way through the Viridian Forest trees and settled on the camp in the middle of a small clearing.

Misty sat on her rolled out sleeping bag. She leaned back on a fallen tree log and pulled her legs to her chest, hugging them for warmth. She stared into the waning fire, her blue eyes barely lit by the tenuous flames. The fire coughed its last sparks into the air. The wheezing embers started to fade just below the flame. She couldn't help but remember just a few hours ago a large roaring fire was in front of her, with a heat that had enveloped her whole body and a light that extended even past the edges of the campsite.

It was a picture growing more distant and elusive as the night went on, but she closed her eyes and visualized that intense buring fire in her mind, as if trying to will it back into existence.

A crack of a tree branch forced her eyes open. Ash came from the forest with an arm full of dried wood he had gathered from the surrounding area. He plopped the pile of branches to the side and began feeding the fire one piece at a time.

"You were gone for a while," she muttered under her breath.

He nodded. "Yeah, sorry about that. Kinda lost track of time."

"It's OK. Wasn't too cold," she whispered, obiously lying. The soft inflection of sadness in her voice and the long pause of hopelessness that followed was more than enough for him to pick up on it. He snapped a few long branches in half and gave them to the fire. It grew steadily and evenly, enough to feel it on her skin again.

He made his way around the campire and sat down beside her. He mimiked her pose and wrapped his arm around her.

"I'm sorry, Misty," he began, rubbing her shoulder reaffirmingly. "I should have asked you to come with me, or at least checked in a few times."

His small guesture of affection was admirable and it was comforting, but all it did was make her feel inadequate, like she was a baby who couldn't be left unattended for a measily few hours. Then a wave of guilt fell over her. She never wanted to be the source of his anxiety and worry. Then saddness quickly followed when she realized he could have easily left and abandoned her there. Then all that was left was hopelessness, like she was on a lone skiff in the middle of a massive ocean, churned by the wrath of the storm. One way or another, in the battle of the many different emotions wrestling for control begging to be felt, it was the negative ones that always gained the victory.

But as if he could see the inner struggle bound within her heart, aching from all that silent turmoil, he brought her in closer, kissed her on the forehead and whispered: "I love you, Misty. So much."

As soon as his lips left her skin the chaos was gone. The clamoring emotions vying for attention were silenced, replaced by an inner calm. She smiled, looked at his kind face smiling back at her, glowing brighter by the fire now alive and dancing brightly in the center of camp.

"I love you too," she said, and he gave her another kiss on the forehead.

She moved in closer and rested her head against his chest, the warmth from his body almost rivaling the flames just a few feet from them.

"What if you go again?" she said after a long break. "What if you go looking for firewood and the fire dies before you come back?"

"That's true," he whispered, just audiable enough for her to hear. "But then again, so could you. You could go and leave and the fire could die."

"That'll never happen," she quickly replied, hugging him tighter. "I'll hurry back."

He smiled and thanked her for her resassurance with another kiss on the forehead. "If you do go... I'll feed the fire. I promise it'll never go out."

"And if you go," she continued. "I'll feed the fire too. I promise it'll never go out."

He nudged her head upwards gently with his fingers. As their lips met another, an entirely new heat engulfed her entire body. It was a spark that completely set her heart on fire, buring ablaze that even the fully grown fire rising four feet off the ground in the center of camp spouting out sparks into the night air could not compete.

She parted to take in a much needed breath and he ended it with another kiss, to which is gladly accepted. In that moment, the quaint notion of a dying fire was forgotten. She knew it would keep on burning forevermore by the ressurance just made and the warmth of two burning hearts, together like two hot coals breathing life into the fire deep within their chests, never to die out again.

END