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He woke up to the sound of whistling in his ears and a slight chill running through his body.
Through his closed eyelids, the man could detect a faint light from next to him, pulsating in and out. When he managed to open his eyes, he had to close them again before struggling to keep them open; it was brighter than he knew it would be once his eyes adjusted to it.
In certain situations if he saw this light, he had to be cautious and alert immediately, ready to fight for his life. Now, especially when he remembered where he was and given the situation, the light was calming and even made his heart speak a beat. The light glowed cool blue hues, but the presence of this light in this kind of situation made him feel warm.
Never mind the fact that it was beyond warm as it was already - which, in retrospect, was probably why he could feel literal wind swirling around the repurposed South London fire station bedroom and why this light was present in the first place.
Sure enough, when Phoenix turned his head to his side to look at the person lying next to him in his bed - this wonderful woman, this cute girl with pale skin and silvery hair clinging to her face, wearing an oversized white tee and black underwear shorts - she was staring at the ceiling with her arms flickering with swirls of light blue energy, hands resting on her stomach, one finger making circular motions in the same direction as where he felt the wind blowing.
"Sun?" the man murmured, voice thick and husky with fatigue. He grunted. "Baby, what time is it?"
The woman just hummed back.
"Like, 4 AM or something." Her voice cracked with a different kind of fatigue; normally, it was light and relaxed but now irritated in tone and in physicality. "Stopped keeping track."
Well, shit. Jett was fully awake to feel the heat then.
Phoenix stirred, rubbing his eyes with his fingers first before shifting his body to turn fully towards her. He let his cheeks rest against the satin pillowcases - and God he should have spent the money on silk pillowcases instead for his dark, orange-dyed hair the moment they landed in Peckham and he remembered he needed new pillowcases or cloths, because whatever satin he was using was not doing wonders for the heat.
"How much sleep you get?" he asked her.
Phoenix watched her cute lips purse into a tightly-pressed line. He sighed.
"Jett. You get any sleep?"
At this, Jett chuckled. It was wry and it told him everything he needed to know before she responded anyway.
"Nope! Too hot to sleep. Been trying, though." With the wind still rotating in the air, she huffed out before turning her body to look at him; her hands stopped doing the thing, yet the wind continued to blow in the room, even a bit louder, her arms swirling with that blue energy and illuminating the darkness in his room. "Come on, spill it; how did you fall asleep in this weather, baby? Teach me your secrets."
He shrugged. Phoenix could usually handle heat, sure, but not like this - not when the moisture of the humidity in summer clung to his skin even at nighttime when it was supposed to be cooler, not when home felt so different in the air.
For whatever reason, he became very aware of the fact even before he was lying down in bed, he had been wearing shorts and a tank before stripping down to just boxers now, while she was wearing her simple white tee and her simple black panties. He saw his own dark skin glistening in the moonlight with sweat. Shit; it really was hot for home.
How long had he been away from London since being at the Protocol? How long has he been away from home like this? How long did home feel…different like this?
"I just…did?" Phoenix yawned. "Like, yeah, weather's not great, but, when you think about it, fact it's normally cold as shit in the UK means it's not the worst."
She shifted closer to him, and Jett pouted those pretty lips of hers at him that made him smile without realizing it, that made him forget about whatever crazy thoughts were intruding his mind in the middle of the silent hours past midnight.
He couldn't help but think about how she was lying here, with him, in his home in Peckham rather than at their workplace quarters on some volcanic island. It didn't feel awkward using each other's work callsigns with their real names, let alone mixing nicknames or pet names they had since realizing this was going to be a thing between them.
None of it felt awkward; it felt right, even if it blew his mind. He scoffed.
"Not like I'm dying or anything, know what I mean?"
"Phoenix, I'm dying. I'm gonna melt in this bed. And just when I start dozing off, the wind stops, and then I wake up again all hot and sweaty. What am I gonna do?"
He couldn't help himself; Phoenix leaned closer to her, enough that their eyes were level and that he could take advantage of how he knew his voice sounded when he woke up, murmuring with raised eyebrows and a smirk.
"Well, I mean…you're more than welcome to strip down, if you reckon that'll help."
The wind whistled past him roughly, and Phoenix's hands immediately went up to his hair as he began laughing softly in the night, trying to preserve whatever integrity was there for it even knowing the humidity and the heat would fuck it up by the morning.
"Alright, simmer down there, Pretty Boy." Her voice was chiding, but it was teasing. "I'm not trying to get hotter and sweatier."
To be honest, only Jett was ever allowed to do this to him. Only Jett was ever allowed to touch Phoenix's hair - whether it was without her hands and with the Radiance of her wind as she taunted him back when he bantered with her, or when it was with her fingers to scratch lightly when she loved him back while he showed his love for her.
His tone stayed cheeky and his grin stayed on.
"What?" Phoenix mumbled. "Come on, now, don't be like that; it's not a bad suggestion, is it?"
Her face leaned closer, and those lips that could drive him crazy at the right place and the right time were right there for him to kiss.
"Naked bodies give more body heat, idiot," Jett muttered, and it prompted him to move closer to her.
"You sure about that, Jett? We should test this out, no?"
He took the opportunity and closed the gap between their lips. It was over too quickly as Jett pulled back on the pillow she was sleeping on - cotton-encased - still smirking back at him.
"Fuck you, Phoenix."
He arched his eyebrows playfully again.
"Yeah? Thought you said you're not in the mood, baby."
Jett rolled her eyes, and then she turned around, staring back up at the ceiling with her arms still glowing. The wind continued to blow, and the breeze admittedly felt really nice on his skin, even with the occasional spike of coldness that he knew would shock him or get him coughing especially without any sheets or duvets.
"Hey, is it too loud for you, Jamie? I can turn it down if it's noisy."
Ah. So, that's why it had increased in intensity when he had woken up.
That was another thing he realized he loved about her; while Jett came off a certain way, it was her consideration that touched him most. It was the way she'd reach out in the smallest ways, even if these gestures of kindness weren't as obvious or soft as Sage, or as rough or as standoff-ish as Yoru.
"Right, I respect what it is you're doing here, and it's nice - but you can't stay up all night doing this, Sunwoo."
She scoffed at him, and it was just so her - this simple gesture that showed her stubbornness and hard-headed nature, but her drive and determination. It was another thing he loved about her. It was one of those things that made her the woman he loved.
"That's what you think!" Jett's arms folded together on her chest. "I can totally do this all night if I can't sleep, right?"
"Look. You need a fan or something? Like, pretty sure I've got one lying around here somewhere; I can bust that out if you really can't - "
"Nuh-uh, no fans, aniya. In my culture, it's bad luck to fall asleep with a fan!"
Phoenix could feel himself waking up properly now, at 4 AM in the morning during a damn heatwave, scoffing right back at her as he poked her shoulder with one of his fingers.
"From, like, a century ago when fans were electric and had to be plugged into the wall? No shot you still believe that shit when you can make wind do things."
She didn't answer. She kept her arms folded, glaring up at the ceiling. Phoenix's eyes blinked wide.
"Oh, my days, you do believe it. Honestly, not gonna lie, that's kinda cute and - erm, kinda not cute?"
Jett laughed, and Phoenix kind of wished the cool blue light from the energy swirling in her arms was bright enough so she could see if she was blushing out of embarrassment or not.
"I was being polite, fam!"
"Shut up, Jamie! I don't like going back on shit my grandma told me - sorry, my nan's sagely advice!"
"Girl, you can use 'grandma' near me, we know what grandmas are. Besides, I've hung around you enough that your Americanisms and Koreanisms are rubbing off on me." He swapped his accent out to quickly imitate Jett's. "'Gwenchana, know what I mean, Pretty Boy?' See? I'm international, baby."
She physically swung lightly for his arm this time with a laugh.
"You're cringe is what you are. Plus, you're the one who still gets weird about the number thirteen!"
"Yo, I don't need the number thirteen in my life to handle the heat now, do I? Come on; let me get the fan out - "
"No no no no, don't! Besides: electric, battery, or Radianite-powered fans don't even make the room get cooler, Jamie. It just circulates the hot air around so it's still hot!"
He gestured a hand in the air; there was no real presence of the wind present that he could physically see, but he knew it was there; he felt it was there, he could see the way his twelve jackets hanging in his closet blew in the breeze, he heard it whistling out for him and for her.
"And you think whatever you're doing right here is not that, innit?'
"Hey! It's working!" Jett paused. "Kinda! Look, as long as I'm awake, I'm making it work."
"You're not staying up to be your own fan, Sunwoo. I will not allow it."
"Well, tough shit! I don't wanna sleep with a fan pointed at me!"
"Baby, you're not gonna die from fan death just 'cause your nan - lovely woman, I'm sure, may she rest easy and forgive your transgressions, and I do mean all of them from the restaurant to you using fans at night when you sleep - just 'cause your nan said you would. I promise you, that ain't a real thing."
When Jett didn't respond - not out of hurt memories that he knew she'd need comforting for, but more out of that stubborn attitude he was comfortable with - Phoenix turned onto his stomach, propping himself up with his elbows folded so that he was looking down at her.
"Come on; how'd you deal with this shit in America? In California? Like, the heat gets proper scorching in California, yeah?"
Jett turned back to him, arms still folded and still scowling.
"In America they had way more AC units!"
"And that's...not fans? Girl, are those not fans? We've not ever needed AC as much as America did here, fam, even now. They're fans, right?"
She paused again.
Phoenix groaned.
"Mate, they're fucking fans, innit?"
"No, they're not fans! AC isn't technically fans, bro! They do more than fans!"
"Right: what do they do? Tell me, bruv. Come on then; what do ACs do that makes them not fans?"
She just rolled her eyes. He couldn't help but notice her hair was actually quite damp and clammy, or the way her skin glistened with oil and sweat in the moonlight. Maybe they'll share a shower together tomorrow when they were both awake.
"Oh, my God. You're so stupid. Look, I don't have to know how they work different, I just know they're built different. So, with more AC units, we didn't need plug-in fans in Cali since we had the modern technology of air conditioning."
What a crazy thought, come to think of it; two years ago, if he had thought about showering together with one of his fellow agents - particularly Agent Jett who he very much was always fond of - he would've put a stop to that thought as soon as he could. And now, they've done it more than once to the point where it wasn't as exciting as it used to be - if anything, that wasn't bad, though.
The feeling and expectation had evolved into something more…comforting?
"Well, you ain't gonna condition this air all night. Sunwoo, I know you're knackered. You can't stay up."
Jett just yawned.
"What gave you that idea, Pretty Boy? Seriously, if it wasn't so hot here, we wouldn't be dealing with this, Phoenix. Why the hell is there a heatwave in the UK?"
Phoenix raised his eyebrows.
"You want the actual answer to that?" he muttered, and Jett shook her head, knowing he was joking along.
"I want answers, period. Climate change, Kingdom Industries, whatever answer you got, I need someone to blame for this, baby."
"Right, love, here's what you gotta understand; compared to the constant gloominess and rain and shit, this is paradise, yeah? It's like…if the UK was a tropical country, just imagine it like that!"
The frown that crossed her face was so quick he couldn't help but snort immediately.
"Ew."
"Nah, come on! What you mean, 'ew'? After man went around the Protocol, fought for our love, and took you with me here after managing to sync up our vacation time - you're gonna hit me with that 'ew'?"
She had propped herself up now, scooting back to lift her upper back up with her own elbows and arms, and she was looking directly up at him. Their faces were close enough to kiss again; he chose to hold off.
"It's the United Kingdom. How am I supposed to imagine anything here is tropical at all? You're really gonna lie there and lie to me with shit like 'yeah mate, Peckham is like the Bahamas, innit bruv'?"
Now, he was leaning closer to her face again, his voice dipping down to something husky albeit not as natural as when he first woke up.
"Well, I mean, if that's what you want, I can make it feel like the Bahamas. Know what I mean?"
It didn't work; not that he expected it to, although he wouldn't have minded it to. Jett simply hummed, pursing her lips and tilting her head playfully, as if deep into consideration for a rejection Phoenix knew was gonna happen anyway.
"Still not doing it for me, sorry! It's too hot for me to risk it all for you."
"Aww, can't blame mans for trying."
"Okay, Pretty Boy. If it gets cooler and I'm still awake, you might get lucky, but don't get your hopes up, so chill out there, alright?"
"Baby, it's scorching and I've not done a damn thing. I can't chill out even if I wanted to, and neither can you."
The thoughts from before were back, the ones he really shouldn't be having in the middle of the silent hours past midnight. They were comforting to the point where he wasn't quite sure this was real; if this comfort was simply complacency or deception, a means to soothe the realities of their work.
Jett collapsed back on her back against the mattress, smacking against the pillow and embracing her head in a way Phoenix found stupid cute. She sighed loudly.
"God, we should've gone to Southeast Asia for our vacation instead. But no; we somehow ended up in the UK during one of their hottest summers. All because you gave me those puppy dog eyes and said it'd be good for our relationship."
How did they get to a point where they were talking about coming back to Peckham next year, instead of wondering if there even would be an opportunity to come back here next year that they needed to stay alert for?
Phoenix batted his eyelashes, taunting her.
"See, you say that now, but there's always next year's summer in the UK for you to whinge about, yeah?"
"Shut up." The wind had slowed down a bit from the force it was at before, back to the calm and hushed breeze it had been when he woke up. Jett's smile was still ever present, ever beautiful. "This is all your fault, Jamie."
He huffed lightly. "Mate, love; how is this my fault?" he retorted. "What?"
"Well, unlike you, I'm totally cool with rain and storms since that's my thing. But since you're here for a week for vacation, maybe that's why this heatwave's happening."
Phoenix laid back down next to her, and they faced each other again like that.
"So, if I've understood this correctly - you're saying I'm just too hot to handle then. That right?"
"Oh, shut up, Jamie."
How did they get to a point where they were lying in his bed, next to each other, bantering like this freely, without the fear of the world exploding if they even looked away from that world for just a tiny second in order to look into each other's eyes?
"Ah, I'm chuffed, Sunwoo. You're so sweet, baby."
How were they able to look into each other's eyes on nights like these, kiss each other like they did just now, when just a year ago, there was always a fear that these days were just fantasy and dreams? This idealism to escape from the reality that their Earth would always be under attack?
That they were some of the only people, gifted by First Light's blessings and curses, that could do something about it?
Were they going to be okay? Was this world they shared together going to be okay if they decided that maybe, just maybe, there was value in being honest with each other in a way that they were never supposed to be honest with each other?
Phoenix finally sighed, shaking his head.
"Right, tell you what, Jett: I'll buy a single AC unit. The fire station technically should've had them, but they didn't, and I didn't think I'd need them but I guess I do. And technically, that's more than a fan according to what you're saying, so it ain't just a fan, right?" He smirked. "Will that finally convince you it's fine so we can sleep properly, until the's week done and we gotta go back?"
Jett hummed. He rolled his eyes.
"Well, it is really hot and I am really tired and would rather not do this all week…"
"Right, that settles it, then; I'll order it tomorrow, first thing when we wake up. Sound good?"
She grinned - this wonderful woman, this cute girl with pale skin and silvery hair clinging to her face, wearing an oversized white tee and black underwear shorts - and it made Phoenix realize that even if this world was on fire like what could happen to Omega Earth, even if it was keeping them up late in the summer nights because of how awfully hot things had become even in his hometown, that as long as Jett was here in this world…
"Yep! Sounds perfect, Jamie!"
…that everything was going to be okay.
The wind finally stopped, and the whistling faded away, no longer in his ears. The stillness of the air and silence of the hours past midnight returned fully, as did the awareness of the uncomfortable heat that immediately hung back in the air.
The difference was so noticeable - sort of like how Phoenix always felt when Jett was around him versus when she wasn't. That was just the effect Jett had on him. And he wouldn't trade it for anything else, not even cooler evenings and the comfort of the old days gone by; not when there were new days to share with her, new days to protect for people other than themselves.
Phoenix leaned in one more time towards her face, and their lips connected briefly into a short kiss.
"Now," he whispered, leaning back. "Can you please try and get some beauty sleep, love?"
She kissed his nose one last time for good measure.
"Love ya, Pretty Boy," Jett murmured.
His heart skipped a beat. It felt so wonderful. It didn't feel real, but he didn't think it ever would, even if it was very much real in front of his eyes.
"Love you too, Wind Girl," Phoenix responded.
And that was all he needed. That fact he could see it was enough comfort for him to know it was real, and he'd treasure it as long as it would last for the both of them.
He turned back to his side of the bed, closing his eyes and letting sleep overtake him again.
Not even two minutes later before sleep even had the opportunity to do so, a piece of fabric fall over his face. He blinked and grabbed it, taking it off his head.
It was Jett's white tee-shirt. Sleep could wait.
Phoenix had turned back around so, so quickly, only to see Jett's smooth backside looking towards her side of the bed, facing away from him, wearing nothing but her black panties.
And surely, he couldn't be blamed for trying one last time at 4 AM in the morning, his voice dipping low again.
"Thought you said you weren't in the mood?"
Jett’s voice did not dip low; it stayed light, cheerful, and mercilessly teasing even now.
"I'm not; I took your suggestion. Goodnight, Jamie!"
He let the white tee-shirt fall to the floor next to the bed with a long sigh.
Well, shit. Phoenix was fully awake to feel the heat then.