Pyromantic

Amateur Photography

Kl-click!*flash*  

"Ah!" you shot up, a bright light and loud noise flinging you out of your peaceful sleep. "Ouch...!" you hit your head on something as you sat up, immediately making you shrink down, holding your head gently. You heard a groan above you as you buried your face into your warm pillow... then you realized that your pillow was not   a pillow.

You opened your eyes, seeing the warm light of flames above you, feeling the gentle warmth they gave as you felt a pair of hands grip your waist. You stiffened, now fully awake, realizing that you were not at home, but remembering that you were at the Escape the Room place, the vestibule, to be exact, and, well, you weren't alone.

You moved your eyes up to meet the face of whomever you were partly laying on, and, lo and behold, it was none other than your boss and friend, Grillby.

He was leaning back on the wall, and you were leaning against him, his arms at your waist, their grip now softened, just a small reminder of their presence, the warmth of them seeping through your clothing. He had his mask of flames down, his facial features scrunched in pain. He slowly opened his eyes, showing the pure molten white, but they were groggy, as though he were just waking up.

Which meant you both had fallen asleep.

Holding each other.

Still holding your tender head with one hand, you used the other to push yourself off of him, working up the courage to do so by sheer power of will. He stiffened at your own touch on his firm, warm chest. But as you finally sat up all the way, he still hadn't let go of your waist.

"Grillby," you said, your voice soft from sleep, trying to get him to let go.

He looked at you, the lack of awareness apparent on his face, "[Y/n]...?" he looked down at your hand still on his chest, making his brow furrow, the flames flickering a bit more rapidly, as low as they were. Finally, his gaze shifted to his hands at your waist, his eyes going wide, the flames spiking momentarily. "O-oh."

His hands released your waist, and you scooted back just a bit away from him, allowing him enough space to sit up full now. He did so, now wide awake and slightly flushed.

"I am so very sorry, I don't know what happened," Grillby began. "All I remember is you falling asleep, and I guess I must have fallen asleep also. Just, oh dear, please forgive me, I had no i-" his voice was rapidly rising in pitch and speed as he continued to panic apologize.

"Hey," you said in a surprisingly calm voice, considering you were internally freaking out. "It's okay. I shouldn't have fallen asleep, but I was just so comfortable beside you I couldn't help it," You gave him a soft smile. 'what am I even saying????'   you thought on the inside. "Thanks for being my pillow and not doing anything weird."

'the absolute fuck are you saying? Thanks for being my pillow?? Who says that? You certainly don't.'   you gave him another calm smile as his expression relaxed quite a bit, berating yourself on the inside for the cringe worthy words. 'Thanks for not doing anything weird? What the hell, [y/n], what the utter hell.'  

"Ah, well," Grillby muttered, a flush on his cheeks and a hand rubbing the back of his head as he looked away from you. "Of course."

You, still a bit groggy, took in his appearance. The flames of his were nearly erratic, but in a patterned way. You wondered briefly if it was like a pulse to him, and tucked that away for later. His glasses were low on his nose, his molten eyes still wide from his embarrassment. You couldn't help but giggle. He turned to you, then, a sad expression on his face.