Pyromantic

The Spear Incident, Followed by Cracking of Your Spine

"Ah!" you screamed, falling back from the weapon.

     "Who the hell do you think you are?!" came a loud, booming female voice.

     "woah," you heard Sans in the background, but your eyes were squeezed shut tightly and your hands had gone over your head, muffling the rest of his words.

    You were scared out of your mind, and as you sat trembling on the floor, a bright light passed over your eyes, and a gentle warmth swept over you as someone knelt down, holding you softly. You opened your eyes to see that Grillby was the one soothing you. The warm sight of the fire elemental helped to put you at ease, and you did not object when he began to guide you up, slowly walking you over to the bar. He was practically carrying you, but you didn't care as you were focused on the calm, elegant swooshing of his flames. You also noticed just how warm he actually was, and felt the loss of warmth when he finally set you down on a small couch.

     You briefly heard Grillby say he would be right back, and with that he left, but not before lighting a nearby candle for light in the unusually dark room. You picked up the candle, holding it close, but not close enough to burn you.

     Looking around, you saw you were no longer in the bar area (which you were very much thankful for after the spear incident), but instead what looked like a break room. There was the couch you were currently sitting on, a small bookshelf to your left, and a low table to your right. In the far corner, there was a modern phonograph/radio combo. After another moment, you noticed a set of narrow stairs set in the far wall. 'Probably leads up to a loft area?' you thought.

     After another few moment, Grillby came back with a steaming cup. His flames were low and fidgety, but his strides and movements were very sure and graceful as he sat down beside you. He went to hand you the cup, but stopped when he noticed you were white-knuckling the candle he had lit before he left. He looked at you, then the candle, and back to you, then he began to crackle, his shoulders shifting as he was chuckling. You felt your cheeks get warm with embarrassment as you went to set the candle down and fixed your gaze to the floor.

     "Ah, no," Grillby had slowed his chuckling, trying to compose himself, "I was not laughing at you, my apologies if I gave you the wrong impression." you looked up to see that he was being sincere. "I just find it funny that, while most humans don't take comfort in fire, Sans was actually right when he said that you had a, what was it?" he paused, cheeks tinting blue, " A burning desire for all things fire?" You both began to chuckle at this. He passed you the cup.

     "Pfffft," You air waved, accepting the drink. "It's not like that, I just find it," You sipped at the warm beverage, determining it as chai tea. "Soothing, or, therapeutic, to you know," you shrugged your shoulders, inhaling the warm scent of the tea. "Light up, or sometimes, just watch it burn." You got a kinda bad idea, but he called you out to make you laugh, and now it was your turn. "But, if you really want to see if Sans is right," you gave him your best smirk, "I might take you up on your offer from yesterday, Mr. Hot-stuff~" His flames shot up and his face went a deep blue at the comment. You began laughing, so hard in fact, you had to set your cup down on the table.

     There was a shuffling at the doorway, and you felt the sofa shift as Grillby got up. You wiped the tears from your eyes and calmed down enough to see Sans telling something to Grillby as he left the room. Sans turned to you, sighed, and gave you a worried, yet relieved smile.

     "hey, kid," he began, rubbing the back of his skull, "you, uh, doin' okay?"

     "Yeah, much better," you gave him a reassuring smile, then got pretty serious. "What was all that about, anyway?" you saw Sans slump and come sit beside you.