Work Text:
Galo had no idea where his parents were. He had no idea where the door was, or how to get out of the blinding, choking smoke and away from the burning flames. He was completely lost in his own home. He might as well have been on an alien planet—a planet on fire.
He screamed, but his screams quickly dissolved into coughing. In his attempt to find the door, he hit the edge of something that he guessed had to be a chair.
Something large fell nearby with a loud crash and Galo scrambled away. He felt a flare of pain up his arm, and was horrified to realise that it was on fire.
And then a dark shape loomed above him. A piece of fabric, someone’s coat, Galo assumed, was used to put out the flames eating at the skin of his arm.
Was this person his mother? Galo’s eyes were stinging too much for him to see properly. Whoever they were, they glowed with a teal light. Galo’s mother didn’t glow, so he assumed it couldn’t be her. Maybe it was a god.
Galo was lifted up into the person’s arms and carried quickly from the room. Galo clung to them, crying into their shoulder.
“Galo! Galo!”
The sound of his mother’s voice caused Galo to raise his head. Whoever was carrying him set him down on the ground, and Galo ran toward the woman sitting on the sidewalk. She held her arms out, and Galo ran into them. He buried his face in her shirt, crying.
Her chest heaved with coughs as she held Galo’s head to her body.
“Thank God.” Galo heard his father’s voice above them.
“He needs to go to the hospital,” an unfamiliar voice said. “His arm was burned.”
Galo could hear sirens in the distance. His mother clutched him tighter.
“Thank you,” she said. “It took hold so quickly. I didn’t think we’d get out. I couldn’t find Galo…” His mother let out a sob.
Galo looked up at the person who had rescued him. They stood over them, looking intimidating in black leather. Their face was pale and their eyes were…pink, Galo realised. A Burnish colour. The man who had saved him was a Burnish.
Galo’s father must have come to the same realisation because he said, “You’re Burnish, aren’t you?”
The stranger’s tone was defensive. “So what if I am?”
“How do we know you didn’t set that fire?” Galo’s father demanded.
“Because I don’t set fire to inhabited dwellings,” the Burnish man responded, eyes narrowed in hostility.
“Dad?” Galo asked. His father looked angry, and Galo was beginning to feel scared.
“Why should we believe you?” Galo’s father demanded.
“Because I’m not a liar,” the blond stranger snapped. “Why would I save you if I’d set the fire? I was just passing by and decided to help…though maybe I shouldn’t have bothered.”
The stranger’s tone was bitter. That didn’t sound right to Galo. The Burnish man had saved him. Weren’t people who did things like that supposed to be thanked? Why did his father not seem to like this man?
Galo pulled out of his mother’s hold. “Mister Burnish?”
The stranger knelt to his eye-level. Galo caught sight of blue and red lights out of the corner of his eye as the sirens approached, but he ignored them.
The stranger had a nice face, and kind eyes. Galo didn’t think this man would have wanted to hurt them, no matter what his father said.
“Thanks for saving us,” he said.
The stranger’s eyes widened. For a moment, Galo thought he saw a glimmer of wetness in them. The Burnish man patted Galo on the head.
“You’re welcome, Galo. Just remember, in the future, that it was a Burnish who helped you. Don’t believe everything you hear about us. Believe what you see.”
Galo nodded seriously, though the Burnish’s words didn’t really make much sense to him.
The blond man stood and started to walk away down the street.
“Wait!” Galo’s mother called. “What’s your name?”
The stranger paused to answer, “Lio Fotia,” before continuing on.
Galo’s father stood protectively over his wife and son until the ambulance officers arrived. They were all taken to the hospital where Galo’s arm was treated and the family was questioned by the police.
Galo later discovered that the person responsible for starting the fire that had destroyed his family’s home was not the same person as the Burnish who had saved them. Just as the Burnish man had said, he’d been passing by and decided to help. The person who had lit the fire had been a college student who was unable to control their flames.
Galo attempted to locate the mysterious Lio Fotia in an attempt to thank him properly for his help, and apologise for his father’s attitude, but Galo had no luck. If Lio Fotia existed, he didn’t live in Promepolis.
It was only years later, when Galo had given up on finding the blond stranger, that he actually did find him. At least, Galo thought it was him.
The odd thing was, Lio Fotia, the fiery advocate for Burnish rights, looked no older than he’d been on the day he’d saved Galo. And Lio Fotia seemed to have no clue who Galo was. He insisted that he hadn’t even been anywhere near Promepolis at the time of that fire.
Had the stranger lied about his identity? But both Lio Fotias looked exactly the same, right down to the cut of their hair and their pretty pink eyes. Even their voices were identical—though years had passed, Galo had never forgotten a single detail about that Burnish man.
Galo was forced to accept that the incident had no rational explanation. The Lio Fotia he had met that day was not the same Lio Fotia he met years later. How that could be was a mystery, but since Galo couldn’t repay that Lio Fotia for what he’d done for Galo and his family, he decided that he’d try to help the Lio Fotia he knew now instead. It was the next best thing, after all.