Word Vomit

The Pyromancer

[This short story was written based on a prompt by Tumblr user 'hunterlavellan,' in which they talked about how cool it would be if a mage's emotions corresponded with their magic. Specifically, they talked about pyromancers not being able to control the smoke on their breath when they're in love (I can't post exactly what they said lest I risk infringing some copyright). Their words weren't weren't written for me, but I do hope you find my interpretation of them to be acceptable --Lyn]

***

Autumn deeply regretted telling her friends about her crush. They knew how flighty she was  and listening to them giggling every time Nat entered the room only made her magic flare up more. 

The three of them had wasted about half of their lunch period trying to print things on the school computer, and once they had reached the cafeteria they decided to eat outside. It was a pleasant day with a mild breeze and without too much sun, which is how Autumn had justified it to herself. Maggie and Anna had obviously moved outside to watch Autumn squirm over how close they were to Nat's table though.

"He's coming over here Autumn! Maybe he'll talk to you!" Maggie exclaimed from the seat next to her. She slapped Autumn on the arm to get her attention, but yelped when she felt how hot her skin was.

"You're already burning up!" Maggie laughed, still cradling her hand. The air around her popped with a quick discharge of electricity.

"Who's getting excited now?" Autumn retorted. Maggie was a storm mage, but she didn't normally get this enthusiastic about things.

"Don't electrocute the poor boy," Anna pleaded, reaching across the table to slap at Maggie. "We need him alive for their wedding."

"Please, don't do this now," Autumn begged. Maggie and Anna were Autumn's best friends. They were wonderful most of the time, but she still sometimes wished they'd never found out about Nat. They'd had a good reason to start prying, considering the fact that her breath literally turned into smoke around him and that she'd accidently set her own homework on fire on one occasion, but they never would have known that she like-liked him had she not actually told them... would they?

"Hey, can I sit here?" Nat asked.

It was Nat. Nat was asking to sit at their table. Their table?? He had like, a bajillion friends, and he could have sat at literally any table he wanted to.

"It's kinda crowded over there," Nat gestured to his usual seat.

Autumn glanced over to see about half of the other guys staring right back at their table. Apparently they were confused too.

"Sure, you can sit with us!" Autumn squeaked. A tiny bit of smoke snuck out from between her lips, but it was barely noticeable. She waved it away by pretending to swipe at a stray hair.

"I forgot my lunch at home today, so I need to share with Anna," Maggie blurted out. She gave Autumn a firm pat on the leg accompanied with a friendly jolt of electricity, as if to say 'go get 'em tiger!' She then proceeded to move her things to the other side of the table and scooted up next to Anna.

"You should be more mindful next time," Anna said with a plastered on smile. Anna hated sharing her food, and Maggie usually couldn't grab more than a bite before a gust of wind slapped the spoon out of her hand.

That left the seat next to Autumn open for the taking.

As her nails began to slowly melt into the table's bench, Autumn gave Maggie a stern glare. She was a great friend, but this was not what Autumn wanted.

"Alright then," Nat said, rather pleasantly. Of course he was fine with this; he used ice magic so he kind of had to be a chill person. The two things just went together.

Conversely, pyromancers were not well known for their self-control. Autumn had caught herself on fire just last week because someone offered her a doughnut. As Nat sat down, she let out the breath she had been holding and blew it in the opposite direction.

"So, whatcha normally talk about over here?" Nat asked.

Maggie and Anna locked eyes and smirked. Covering her mouth to block the smoke and the chewed food she was working on, Autumn responded "School. School and home and sports and stuff."

"Oh, you like sports?" Nat asked. He sounded genuinely interested.

"Yeah!" Autumn chirped, "I play basketball, but football is really fun to watch too!" He'd found a good subject. It was good because she liked sports, but mostly because she was familiar enough with the topic that she wouldn't get nervous and set everything on fire. Autumn pressed her palms into the bench to cool them further.

"That's awesome!" Nat smiled, sliding his hands into the pocket of his hoodie. "Do you like football enough to--"

Nat was cut off by the bell.

Autumn cursed, "Hey, I'm really sorry we have Mr. Williams right now and he locks the door if we don't get to class on time. We can talk later though!" 

Autumn and Maggie hurriedly threw on their backpacks and jogged away to class. Anna called out as she chased after them, "we were supposed to leave 5 minutes early you dimwits! Now I have to run!"

***

Nat's friend Xian walked over from their table. "How'd it go?" he grinned.

"Feel the bench," Nat said, exasperated

"Gosh man, that's COLD!" Xian's smile was fading.

"There's more," Nat mumbled. He pulled frost-covered hands from his pockets.

"Did you at least get to ask her out?"

"No. I missed my chance," Nat whispered, fingering the football tickets in his pocket.

***

[So yeah, this is another thing that is definitely not about me (I'm not a big fan of sports lol). It might be my second piece about people struggling with romance, but at least I'm writing something right? *sigh* I wish the world was cooler so I would have more things to make stories about.     --Lyn]