Chapter Text
“ShitshitshitshitshitwhyamilikethisSHIT-” Sea Hawk swore internally as he ran through his apartment. It was supposed to be a small, contained fire. Legal in the apartment building? Absolutely not. Fun and appealing? Of course! Unfortunately, mixing arsonists and “small fires” doesn’t tend to end well. Sea Hawk’s apartment was current proof of this universal truth, fiery as it was.
He looked on in sadness as the firefighters hosed down his apartment kitchen, thankful that at least his apartment was on the first floor’s exterior wall. Not only was it easier for him to get out, it also meant the window was right where it needed to be for the firefighters to put out the fire without dealing any water damage to the rest of the apartment. Some people would call putting the kitchen in the only room with a window poor floor planning, but Sea Hawk called it a match made in arsonist heaven. Some of the firefighters did, too. They got calls out to Sea Hawk’s apartment at least once a month, and if they didn’t they honestly assumed something was wrong or that something had happened to Sea Hawk. Once, they’d sent one of their off-duty fighters over to his apartment after a month and a half without a call. They found his window open and his apartment covered in dust with clear signs of a fight. Sea Hawk had been kidnapped nearly three weeks ago, apparently by someone named Bill who’s house he’d burned down. No one would have known had it not been for Bow getting concerned and going to check it out, and it was thanks to his boyfriend, Detective Jewelstar, that Sea Hawk was found in an abandoned marina. (apparently, it wasn’t the first time.)
Suffice it to say Sea Hawk was familiar with the firefighters that usually came to deal with his not-quite-legal apartment fires that totally weren’t intentional and he can totally claim insurance for, but there was someone new to take care of the fire today, someone Sea Hawk hadn’t seen on any previous visits to the firehouse. They must have been new, he rationalized, and boy was he right. He walked around to get a look at the firefighter’s face, and. Wow was she pretty. She was striking against the firelight, a dead serious look on her face. He couldn’t see much beyond that, and the orange light from the fire- wow, okay, the fire had actually gotten bigger than usual this time, that was odd. Had he left something with grease or oil on the stove? Or maybe it was- Oh! He knew what it was. He’d left a bottle of wine open underneath the window because he was making a new sauce that had called for a bit of red wine. But wine doesn’t set fire like that- oh. He must have been using the vodka bottle. Perhaps it was for the best the fire he’d started had gotten out of hand... At least now he wouldn’t be able to eat what he had failed to make.
The new firefighter had moved now, apparently during his internal ramblings they managed to put out the fire, and were now wrapping up the hoses and putting away their extinguishers. Sea Hawk startled as he felt someone grab his arm, and as he looked to his right he saw her. The new one. The beautiful one.
“Hey. You need to come with me.” Oh, even her voice was beautiful. He stared at her, not at all registering what she was saying. The woman’s face screwed up in confusion as she brought a hand up to snap in his face.
“Hey. Hey, can you hear me? Sir, are you alright? Are you hard of hearing or something? Concussed, maybe, to start a fire like that…” she mumbled, and ended up waving a hand in front of Sea Hawk’s face to see if the lights were all on upstairs. He jumped, finally realising what she was saying.
“Oh, yes! I can hear you, loud and clear. My utmost apologies, Miss…?” Sea Hawk trailed off, hoping to learn the name of the beautiful woman that helped put out the fire.
“Mermista. Don’t be weird about it. Now come on, you have to get checked out by medical.” She turned and walked away, towards the ambulance that was always called in no matter how many times this happened. “Procedure is important, Sea Hawk” Bow had once said, but no matter how much it was explained Sea Hawk still thought it was pointless. He never needed it, not for anything. He always started the fires in the kitchen, and dove out the window if it got uncontrollable. If he couldn’t do that, his apartment was pretty near the door to the building. Getting hurt, overheating, and smoke inhalation were never a problem because of how easy it was for him to get out, and by now his neighbors were long since used to and prepared for his… unique brand of charm. No one ever got hurt, not once from his fires.
Once again, Sea Hawk didn’t notice quite how long he was rambling in his own head. Mermista looked seriously concerned for his mental ability by now, and had gone back to drag him over to the ambulance herself. He was completely unresponsive to being moved, and though she would never admit it, it did worry her. She’d heard all sorts of stories about this man, Sea Hawk, from around the firehouse. From the captain, Micah, from Bow who was apparently one of Sea Hawk’s friends, even from that girl Catra who hung around Bow for absolutely no discernible reason. And from all those stories, Sea Hawk seemed like a loud, boisterous man with a strange love of sea shanties and a penchant for serial arson. Seeing the man so entirely vegatative was shocking, to say the least. And apparently out of the usual, given how the EMT (Kyle, if she remembered right) looked worried as she started dragging Sea Hawk over to him.
“Hey, I’m pretty sure he’s concussed or something, he’s really not responding to… well, anything. I mean, I talked to him a minute ago, but since then he hasn’t responded, and before that he was just sorta… staring. Like that,” she gestured, though not unkindly, to Sea Hawk’s current expression. His eyes were glazed over as he stared almost straight through her, completely unaware of what was going on outside his head. Mermista gave him one last concerned look before finally turning back to the firetruck, where Bow, Micah, and Rogelio were waiting for her. She didn’t turn back.
“Sea Hawk? Sea Hawk, you there? Sea Hawk, hey! SEA HAWK!” He jumped, startled out of his mind, and he finally noticed-
“Where did she go?” Sea Hawk looked around, trying to find the beautiful Mermista.
“Uhm, Sea Hawk, she left a few minutes ago. I’ve been trying to get your attention since. Are you okay? Do I need to check your head?” Kyle sounded concerned, but Sea Hawk hardly noticed. He put his head in his hands and rubbed his face, before looking up at Kyle.
“I think I’m in love.”