2

One Shot

You Called Me A Hero.

They had been training together for over a year. Mei and Red Son turned slow, their steps coordinated. Mentor and mentee moved as one. They alternated punching the air out in front of them, left, right, left, right. The two fire wielders stood on one foot, then moved their arm over their heads.

"From your inner core outward," Red Son said, now on two feet again as a small flame on each of their palms flickered in the air. He took in a breath. Steady, calm, controlled.

Both of them guided the flame along their arm and down the leg.

Red Son flicked his foot up and the flame bounced off it and into the air. He caught it in his palm, to which he lifted the fire and allowed it to combine with his hair in one fluid movement.

Mei glanced at the maneuver. Her own green flame extinguished on her shoulder due to a lack of focus. Her cheeks puffed up and then she released a sigh. Mei didn't have fireproof hair, unfortunately.

Red Son paused to sneak a glance at her; he turned and faced forward once more, allowing his hands to fall at his sides. "Not bad, dragon girl. Your form needs work, but your flame coordination has improved. We can take a lunch break for now."

Mei gave an energetic head bounce and sped up the stone temple steps into a makeshift kitchen. Red Son would make her lunch as usual. This time it was spicy barbecued chicken with vegetable rice, followed by some paprika and moqua squash bean buns. It turns out that the Demon Bull King's son was an excellent cook; he just made his food too spicy for mortals to eat. She helped him taste test all the foods, as she was really the only person, with her dragon ancestry, who had the tolerance for his sauces. However, even she couldn't handle the spice level at times. Mei decided to help out his family food stall business by giving them feedback, (while also being a loyal customer who would keep track of all the discounts, especially the buy one get two free coupons). So far, the customer count was growing, but Red Son still wasn't letting up on the spice.

He placed the dishes on the wooden table and leaned back against the stone countertops, crossing his arms, one foot on the lower cabinets.

Mei, playing with the chopsticks, did all kinds of tricks and whirls with them, stalling. She knew Red Son was dying to see her reaction. Mei made a tiny rawr sound, tapping the sticks together like an animal biting down. She glanced up with a smirk. With one fist she slammed down on the bowl, a bean bun flew into the air.

Red Son exploded with fire, stomping his foot, "HEY."

Mei gobbled the bean bun as it landed in her mouth. She chewed obnoxiously and swallowed.

Her triumphant gaze landed on Red Son, and for a second her eyes traveled up his form to his face. His hair was so cool, she imagined him running a hand through it before putting it up in its usual ponytail, a masculine kind of movement. Since MK, Sandy, and her had stayed at the Demon Bull Family castle around a year ago, she had seen Red Son's hair down before bed. At the time, Mei had resisted the urge to run her own hand through it and call him beautiful.

Mei blinked in surprise. It was her turn to combust into a fury of green flames for a moment.

She choked on a bit of bean bun. Mei cleared her throat and pushed some hair out of her face, a light flush on her cheeks. She chewed quietly, the green flickers of fire dimming down around her. Her tongue moved across the whirl of ingredients that had been carefully chosen. It wasn't quite Pigsey's excellence, no, but it was still very good, a different kind of nuance to the cooking, as if scorched and roasted instead of boiled. It didn't burn her tongue with pain this time.

Red Son coughed into his fist. "Ponying around, I see." He took a seat at the bench and chopsticked food onto his plate.

"No, it's—" Mei paused and looked at the floor. For a second, and only a second, she had wanted to run a hand through his hair just now, to reach up and look into his dark eyes and stand on her tip toes. Just so she could—no! Whaaaat? She was psyching herself out. Psssh. Her mind was trying to come up with ways to defeat the Demon Bull's son if they ever had a duel. She could use her charms, yes, as a distraction tool.

"It's, it's good," she said, gesturing to the food. "Really good. The outside has a crispy texture but inside it's tender. The watery sauce gives the spice a nice balance."

Red Son leaned an elbow on the table, head tilted on his fist. His food laid untouched on his plate, the steam wafting up into his face. Mei could see a red ring on his hand, glinting from the sunlight that filtered in from outside the temple.

It was his mother's, he had told Mei in one of their private conversations that it was a birthday gift. She was memorized by it, but only for a moment. Red Son's hand lifted, he flexed the fingers with the ring and rounded them against his face and lips a few times.

He was staring at her.

"Would you look at that," she said in a loud voice and jumped up from the bench. Mei swiped her phone off the table and turned toward the stone pillar behind them. She leaned on it, "I have 21 unread messages from MK." Five of those messages were "Mei. Mei. Mei. Mei. Mei." Another text was "are you training right now?" Her finger scrolled through some puppy memes. It wasn't an emergency, otherwise he would have just called and did the same thing, but without the memes. MK sent her a picture of the new Super Sunshine Man game. It was the third in the series, they had been waiting months for its release. MK would use his Porty Party clone as a third player and together they would play through the game's story. "Aww sick," she mumbled, her eyes shimmered at the photo. It was a bundle deal with a themed controller too.

Before she could click on the attachment, her phone lifted out of her hand. Red Son leaned against the pillar beside her and her phone disappeared.

"Wha—HEEEEY!" She rattled her arms up in the air, moving them back and forth around at high speeds. Mei jumped to grab his shirt and tried to dig her hands into his sweatpants pockets.

Red Son turned left and right, dodging her attempts to grab him. "You didn't finish the meal I made you, Pony girl," he said. He held a hand to her face as she tried to run into it again and again with all her might. Red Son checked the nails on his other hand. "That seems a bit ungrateful, don't you think?"

Mei launched herself at him. "HYIAH!"

Red Son caught her mid jump and grabbed her shoulders. She fell onto his chest, the black t-shirt smelling of barbecue and some smokey fruit kind of cologne. Then, before she knew it, he had pushed her gently up against the pillar in one fell swoop. His arm went over her head and against the stone, he leaned over her.

She held her breath.

"What's wrong?" he asked. The villainous grin on his face was spreading. "You were so confident when we went to get that immortality peach from the celestial realm."

Red Son lifted her chin with his fingers, the hand with the ring. He was looking her face over. His voice softened. "You called me a hero, remember?"

She looked up at his deep inky eyes. Her heart tugged in her chest. "You kept saying you were a villain and gave your 'best villain speech of all time' soon after that," she said, quoting with her fingers. Then she used her hand to copy the little smoothing motion he does to the one flaming piece of hair that stuck up from his forehead.

Red Son watched her. "Ah yes, world domination and all that. But you know," he said and then his face really had a jagged kind of grin. He continued, "villains taking over the world need a partner in crime, perhaps a 'Dragon horse' queen?" He bounced his eyebrows.

Mei tsked and turned her head away, crossing her arms. "Only in your fiery dreams, Red Boy."

She heard him giggle. The sound made Mei's heart leap.

His hands cupped around her face. Red Son hesitated for a moment, as if waiting for her permission, glancing down.

Her nose found his and she nodded into his touch.

Their mouths pressed together, a slow welding of their faces. Their lips smacked a few times in a quiet and gentle rhythm, their noses pressing into one another. It was a deep kiss, yet simple; they didn't feel the need to rush. Red Son's hair gave off a little burst of flames and he pulled away from Mei, running his hand through it to calm himself.

He adjusted his small glasses and flashed her a wild grin. Red Son lifted his arms out and back, his hands making claw like motions as he released a loud cackle. "ohhhhoooohoooo, HAAAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAAAAHAAAAAAHAH."

"Oh, here we go again," she mumbled. Mei held onto him, arms around his back. She breathed a sigh of contentment into his shirt. He was still villain laughing when she carefully slid her phone out from his sweatpants pocket. Two missed calls from MK. His text messages relayed the situation.

There was a dusting of pink on her cheeks. "Sorry, Red Boy. There's a monster downtown and MK needs me. DRAGON PONYGIRL ESCAPE FIST OF FURY." She socked Red Son in the chest and then pushed him away with a playful gentleness. "KAY. BYEEEIIIIII."

She zoomed out of the temple and somehow got to her white and green hover craft before he could even finish saying "so nuuuuwdle boy needs our help?"

Red Son ran out of the temple and glanced up. Mei's hover craft ship zipped into the blue sky and twinkled away in the distance.

He crossed his arms and grumbled. "Only a hero when you need me to be."

Red Son touched his lips with his fingers. He chuckled and giggled to himself when he went back inside the temple.