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Charlie's walking out by the lake. Remembering meeting Rachel Gray there, over two years ago.

Still getting used to this. It's like ... she can't think what it's like.

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From:

ladyfirestarter

Charlie tilts her head, curious in turn.

"What did you have in mind?"

From:

walking_napalm

"Can you--?" She slips a gloved hand out of her pocket and wiggles her fingers, palm up; it's an illustrative gesture and a request.

She looks thoughtful.

From:

ladyfirestarter

"Sure," Charlie says, and repeats the gesture.

Fire follows her fingers.

Yeah, that's not gonna get old anytime soon.

From:

walking_napalm

Liz eyes the fire speculatively, and she pulls off her right glove and rolls up her sleeve, business-like.

(Her mouth is set just a little bit tighter, almost imperceptible.)

"I've never actually run into any fire that wasn't the regular kind or, you know, mine," she says. "Besides people here.

"I kind of want to see if I'm all the way fireproof."

She holds her bare hand up; glances at Charlie for permission.

From:

ladyfirestarter

"...Huh," says Charlie, clearly struck by the idea. "That's ... that'll be interesting to find out. Hang on, though, let me see --"

She concentrates for a moment, and the exuberant fire wreathing around her hand sinks down, draws inward, shrinks to a single dancing flame like that of a candle.

"There," she says. "Try now?"

From:

walking_napalm

It feels weird, being close by when Charlie does that.

(And Liz feels a twinge of jealousy, too, seeing that pinpoint control, but she suppresses it.)

Liz watches the small flame, for a second, and then she touches the flame with the tip of a finger, just quickly.

She holds her palm over the single flame for several seconds (her own fire feeling like it ignites deep in her bones; her expression tightens and her skin flashes translucent for a split second, the way that it does when she lights up, but the blue flames stay within her).

She holds her hand up toward Charlie, illustrative.

There's not a mark on her palm.

From:

ladyfirestarter

Charlie's smile spreads slowly to a full grin.

"How about that," she says softly. "How about that."

From:

walking_napalm

Liz half-smiles. "You want to give it a shot?" She wiggles her fingers.

From:

ladyfirestarter

"...Yeah," she says, still grinning. "Yeah, let's see what happens."

From:

walking_napalm

Slow flames ripple up from Liz's wrist (burning into ash the rubber bands that she wears there), blue and spectral and white-hot, and dancing several inches above her fingertips. Her fire turns her skin translucent; shows her hand and finger bones, like a ghostly x-ray.

Her mouth set with effort, Liz lowers the blue flames to a uniform inch or so above her skin, all the way around her hand. "This is as small as I can get it," she says, a little apologetic and just a little tight. She's been working with Zuko and that makes this level of control easier (and growing still easier all the time) -- but she doesn't want to screw it up and have fire lick up unexpectedly. She's being careful.

Palm up, she extends her hand to Charlie.

From:

ladyfirestarter

Charlie reaches out, slow and careful, toward the blue flame halo around Liz's hands. Brushes one finger swiftly through it.
come on, come on
Again, a touch more slowly.
put your hands into the fire
Again. Holds still, letting the blue fire curl up and around her fingers, like a water fountain in reverse.

From:

walking_napalm

And at that -- Liz smiles brightly, watching the flames dance around Charlie's fingers. She (carefully, carefully; ready to extinguish and yank her hand back at a split second's notice) lets the fire leap just a little higher.

"I've never known anybody I didn't have to worry about burning," she says, wonder creeping into her voice. Added in a more practical afterthought: "Besides Red."

A lot of what she has been working on lately has been not fearing the fire; allowing it into her daily life -- flaring up when she's mad -- instead of shoving it down all the time. The flip side of that is that Liz always has to be aware of who and what's around her.

This makes that a little easier. It may only be with one person, but still: it's nice.

From:

ladyfirestarter

"Me neither." Soft. "Not even myself. Not until I came here."

And here there's been Fire, and Prometheus, and now Liz.

And now herself.

From:

walking_napalm

Liz nods quietly; lets the fire ripple for another couple of seconds.

"So," she says, glancing up. "Clothes, right?"

With a thought, the flames sink back into her skin; she brushes ash off her wrist, rolls her sleeve back down, and pulls her glove out of her coat pocket.