[Flashback] Love Burns (Ignotus)

[Gale Austin McCenry]

28th of Winter, 490 A.V.
Zeltiva's Streets
Late Afternoon

OOCSorry, this might be a little long but I wanted to give you something to work with so you don't have to do a whole post on something completely pointless.

Sitting on a cold rock in the sand just off the waves of the ocean, a blonde thirteen year old was was peeling a stick to form a nice point that he could use. His hair was short then, it being a typical short boy hairstyle. Which was mainly just not doing anything with it. Gale wore his "school clothes" that his mother made him wore to today's set of classes which included just a plain cotton shirt and dark brown pants. It wasn't anything fancy since his family wasn't the richest.

After getting the point just right, the lad pointed it in the ground, dragging it along to form a picture of sorts. For it being in sand, and him being just a young lad, it wasn't bad. He was trying to capture the waves in the picture, making little short lines to try and capture the calmness of the waves nearing the shore. It wasn't anything special. It wasn't his best, and it wasn't his worst. Just another drawing to add to his collection. Only if he could take sand home and manage to keep it in one piece.

A small voice asked him from behind,"Whacha doing?" It was the familiar sound of "Flower Girl" who spoke to him.

Lifting his head and looking over his shoulder at the small girl, Gale couldn't help but smile at his crush. "Nothing much." He told her, his voice clearly not having the deepness to it that he will grow into.

Hana had her long, dark brown hair in her common braid, wearing a light dress. Her tan skin seemed to glisten from the sun that was now lowering itself to sleep. Hana returned the smile kindly and walked across the sand over to him, looking at what was just lines to her. "What's that?" She asked, her hands folded behind her back.

Gale followed her gaze to his flat waves and said simply,"Well, it's suppose to be the ocean."

Hana nodded and looked at his stick briefly before looking at her classmate. "I've seen a few of your pictures in class. You're pretty good."

Gale gave her a look of disbelief that read 'really?' and replied,"Nah, I'm not that good."

The girl giggled,"Don't put yourself down. Yes you are. I mean, you're not Nabisa or anything but still pretty good."

Gale chuckled,"Well thanks for that." He said sarcastically.

"Don't mention it." She said with a smirk, earning a odd look from Gale. Gale laughed at her joke, Hana joining in.

"You're nice." Gale said sarcastically again, teasing her.

"Nooo, I'm Hana." She told him.

"Ah, Flower Girl got a name." Gale looked at her, bringing his knees up and placing his arms on his knees.

"Yes, I have a name. I suppose you have one as well?"

"Gale." He replied with a smile.

Hana grinned in return and opened her mouth to say something when another voice called her name,"Hana!! We need to go back home!!" Her older sister said from some distance away. Hana looked over her shoulder at who was calling her and sighed.

Turning back to Gale and said,"Well, Gale, it was nice meeting you. I'll see you in class." She flashed him a smile again and started to walk towards her sister standing on the cobble stone.

Gale gave a wave and a 'bye' in which she did not hear. Watching the siblings walk away, Gale sighed. At least he knew her name. Looking back at his sandy picture, Gale put his chin on top of his arms, holding his smile. She looked nice in that dress. Only if he had better clothes.

Gale lifted his head when he heard some more familiar voices laughing behind him as well. Gale dropped his legs and turned over to see who was laughing. Some other kids who went to the university were laughing and pointing at him for apparently no reason it seemed to the lad.

"Haha!! Hey Lover boy!!" One called waving then busting out laughing again.

Raising an eyebrow at the insult, Gale looked at all the other kids. There was four, all looking about his age and maybe a year or so older. He watched as the boys walked and laughed their way over to him. "Why didn't you kiss her?!" Another boy asked, holding his stomach from laughing. Gale furrowed his brows and looked back at his ocean waves and continued to push the sand to continue his drawing.

The boy who commented first squatted in front of him and his picture, looking at him,"Come on, lover boy, admit it. You like her!" He laughed.

Gale had no idea what was so funny about someone like another. Gale stayed silent with a glare, trying not to look at any of the four boys teasing him

[Ignotus Everto]

Today was a good day. It wasn't often that Ignotus was seen near the beach: The salt air wasn't good for him, but today was a special exception. He had a fresh body, and it was always nice to enjoy the week or so he had before it atrophied. It was always so unpleasant, shedding so many pounds so quickly. Either way, he was lucky this time; the undertaker had been busily prepping a tall, rather rotund man with a truly extravagant handlebar mustache. Growing a beard was usually out of the question for him, and he felt... Distinguished. He patted his round belly happily, content to simply stroll along the ocean's edge, when something caught his attention. "Hey Lover boy!" Ignotus raised an eyebrow, looking up to locate the source of the noise. His eyes fell on the four boys mocking Gale, and the corner of his mouth twitched. Those annoying little bags of flesh were exactly the same as they were when he was a boy... The only difference being that he was the stronger one now. Deciding to entertain himself, he waited for one of the four boys to look at him, then tried to meet his gaze. A little bit of prodding was all this little gaggle needed to go from simply teasing to taking swings at Gale, and Ignotus was more than happy to provide that push. Should one of the boys look him in the eye, they'd firstly feel a faint sense of indifference towards the Nuit, followed by a slight surge in aggression. Nothing major, mind. Just a little encouragement... Today was a very good day.

[Gale Austin McCenry]

Gale continued to draw his picture of the ocean, trying his best not to give in to their teasing.

The first boy, who seemed to be the leader of the small group, had glanced at the Nuit but quickly turned to Gale. Looking at Gale's sand portrait, he slapped a hand on it, leaning forward to look Gale in the eyes,"Answer me. You like her don't you?"

Gale jolted back slightly when his hand suddenly ruined his picture. Furrowing his eyebrows and sparing a glare at the boy, Gale dropped the stick and stood up. He didn't have to take this. He would go home and they would leave him alone. Besides, they wouldn't hurt him for no reason...Would they?

Gale turned his back to the group and started to walk towards the cobblestone streets to go home. The group didn't back down, but two of the other boys gave the stranger a quick glance as well. "Hey! You can't just walk away!" A shorter, black haired boy called after Gale. His hair was longer then the rest and it covered one eye.

"Who says I can't?' Gale said, not even looking over his shoulder at them.

"Says me." The dark skinned leader went up to him, grabbing his shoulder and spinning him around.

"Leave me alone. I didn't do anything to you." Gale told him still holding the glare.

"Says you Loverbird. I like her too ya know." He said. He didn't actually, he just wanted to tick Gale off. He could care less about Hana but never seeing Gale very upset before, he wanted to see how far Gale would go.

[Ignotus Everto]

Ignotus chuckled quietly to himself, suppressing a grin. This was going more smoothly than he could have hoped! He started walking leisurely towards them, his left hand curling around a nonexistent ball. Slowly, a thin layer of ethereal gas started to seep from the palm of his hand, gathering itself into a small orb the size of an egg over the course of about thirty seconds. He suddenly splayed his fingers out, the bottom of the ball bursting into cherry red flame. The fire quickly crept up the surface of the globe until the gas was no longer visible. The Nuit forced himself to frown, and barked angrily at the group once he was a few yards away from them. "Oi! Leave the boy alone, you damned ruffians!" Of course, he charged his words to provoke them further as opposed to calm them, silently praying they would give him an excuse to loose the fire bolt. It had been so long since he'd had a bit of fun...

[Gale Austin McCenry]

The boys turned to man who called over to them. A shaggy dark brown haired boy, being the fourth turned to tell him off but saw the flames. His open mouth snapped shut.

Gale raised an eyebrow when he heard another, but older, voice call over to them. He turned to look at the Nuit and blinked in fear of the fire. Luckily if any of them caught fire the ocean was right there. With the boys having their backs turned to him, Gale slowly backed away, trying to be quiet so they wouldn't notice he was gone.

Swallowing his fear in a heavy gulp, the leader looked at Ignotus and asked, trying to keep his voice as steady and fearless as possible,"Who 're you?!" The boy's pride was the only thing keeping him from running. The others however, didn't do the same as the boy. They slowly started to back away too, not wanting any part of this anymore. But they didn't want to get yelled at or worse from their leader later as a punishment for abandoning him.

The young blonde looked at the man who was seeming to be trying to protect him. He hadn't seen the man before, but he hadn't seen a lot of people. Possibly a tourist? But why was a stranger wanting to help him? Just to be kind?

[Ignotus Everto]

Ignotus laughed at the boy trying to be brave, his mottled black tongue visible for several seconds. "Who am I?" He bent down to the boy's eye level and twisted his head to the side, a mad gleam in his eye. "I'm Mr. Fabulous, scholar by day, superhero... Also by day, and I'm about to scorch that stupid hair off your head!" He hated that hair. And with that, he snapped up to his full height and slung the bolt at the boy's bangs. The wizard caught a glance at the child whose skin he was saving, and gave him a reassuring wink.

OOCSorry about the length, but anything extra seemed superfluous. Also... I'm sorry Eri, I just can't match you.

[Gale Austin McCenry]

OOCIt's okay chap. No harm done.

Taking a step back from the Nuit when he tilted his head creepily, the boy gulped. Letting out a screamed, falling back away from the flames as it singed his bangs, the prideful leader hit the sand with a oof, the sand flying briefly away from him. Looking at him in terror, the boy whimpered as he scrambled to his feet and started to run to catch up with his friends, who had already started running when he fell.

Gale was about to do the same, turn around and run home, but he caught sight of Ignotus winking at him. "Huh?" Gale muttered to himself, looking over his shoulder. Not watching where he was going, Gale tripped over something, which turned out to be his own feet. His hands catching himself before his face pounded in the yellow sand.

[Ignotus Everto]

"Aw, they're running away already..."The undead sighed sadly, then straightened out his cloak before striding over to the frightened Gale and trying to yank him onto his feet by his collar. Clumsy little bastard. "Relax kid, I'm not going to set you on fire..." At the moment. "You all right?" Should his hand come into contact with Gale's skin, it would become very apparent that Ignotus was as cold as, well, a corpse.

[Gale Austin McCenry]

Gale was pulled to his feet by the man who nearly lite a kids head on fire. He wasn't going to set him on fire? Oh yeah. He could trust him. One hundred percent. Of course Gale would trust a stranger he has never seen before who almost burned another kids face off.

Turning around to look at the Nuit with a mustache, Gale pushed his hand away. or tried at least. Why was his hand so cold? Perhaps he stayed on the beach too long? Slept in the water maybe?

"I'm fine." Gale told him. Irritation from the boys and from him scaring the skitniz out of Gale showed in his voice.

[Ignotus Everto]

The undead patted him on the back, smiling reassuringly at him. "Brave one, are you?" It wouldn't be possible to pin down, but something about Ignotus' voice caused a spark of pride to ignite in Gale's stomach. It was natural that the boy would be frightened, and indeed, quite pleasurable to Ignotus. But getting five kids screaming to Wave Guards wouldn't be very pleasant at all. Getting this one to vouch for him would at least slow them down. So he laced his voice with a feeling of trust and let it wash over the boy. It wouldn't be powerful: Any strong emotion would be powerful enough to tamp it down, but it was a start. "What were those boys harassing you about?" he asked curiously. A 'Lover boy' might make a useful tool later on if he could create a debt. It was best to think in the long term. Just good sense, really. It was why he hadn't strangled Gale already. Well, that and his marvelous mustache. It would be such a shame to lose the mustache.