Chapter Text
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[|| Downtown, Gardenia ||]
[|| 11:35 PM ||]
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Bloom had snuck out of her room a few minutes ago through the window and quickly made haste to her usual go-to hang out spot, the one that was hidden from the public where she can spray paint her feelings and emotions out without resorting to accidentally starting a fire. Bloom wasn't much of an arsonist, but when you're born with powers that allow you to set things on fire, inciddental ones are almost always guaranteed. Her incidental fires started when she was 8 years old, at her mother's flower shop. She had been startled by a bee and not even a minute later, the whole fire department had to be called just to put out a fire that magically began in the shop. By the time she was 13 years old, Bloom had eventually figured out her powers and somewhat controlled her powers, managing not to set things like the house on fire, but nevertheless, some heavy emotions tend to cause the control to slip and the let the fire out like an energetic puppy who has the zoomies. Her mother and father, Vanessa and Mike, had found out about these powers and, although feared it, were supportive enough to make sure everything in the house was fire-proof, though the fire-proofing was to be debated upon.
Bloom took a turn at a crossing and soon ended up in what seemed to be an abandoned street with abandoned buildings covered in decaying plants. She lifted her hand slightly and clenched it into a fist. Closing her eyes, she focused, and suddenly, her fist began glowing until it was now set ablaze like a torch. The streetlights in this street were broken, so naturally, Bloom had to supply herself with her own source of light, that being herself. Eventually, Bloom found herself by a dumpster with a large flame painted right onto it. She smiled. This was the spot, or, as she called it, The Hidden Flame. Bloom opened the dumpster and, despite the disgusting aroma, leaned into it and pulled out a satchel filled with colorful spray paints. The moment Bloom was away from the dumpster, the strong odor of the spray paint cans began filling the air, and the odor was, although weaker, more disgusting than the dumpster's odor, which was why Bloom hid them in the dumpster.
(I'm starting to regret buying paint from sketchy shops...), Bloom thought to herself as she walked past the dumpster. She heads towards a large door. The door, as Bloom recalled, was old and very heavy, meaning she'd need to ram into it to open it. Bloom takes a deep breathe, jumps in place before seemingly gets ready to ram it open. She charges right at it with her left shoulder, and braces for impact, but instead of "OW, that's gotta hurt!" type impact, Bloom goes through the door with ease and falls straight to the floor. The moment she hits the floor, the cans in the satchel bounces and roll out of the bag.
"Augh...! God, that hurts!" Bloom hissed as she rolled to her other side and held onto her shoulder. She slowly sat up as the pain receeded. She scoffed, picked up the scattered spray cans and returned them into the satchel. When she got up onto her feet, she patted the dirt off her clothes. "Ugh, this is going to take a while to get rid of... Mom's so going to kill me over this."
"I think she'd be more pissed if she knew where you were right now," a voice sudden said, echoing through the room. Bloom nearly tripped on nothing, having been startled by the voice.
"What the-!? Who--!?" Bloom quickly rushed to the origin of the voice and upon finding it, was utterly shocked.
"Yo," greeted a girl, perhaps the same age as her, as she held what seemed to be a peace sign (✌🏻). "Cool place you got here, by the way. I'm so digging the art." The girl had a guitar on her lap, and was tuning it using her other hand.
"Who are you and why are you here, and also, how did you find this place?" Bloom asked, flushing mild pink in embarassment.
"Eh, the name's Musa, and, I dunno, I was just roamin' around and found this place. Sorry if it looks like I'm tresspassing, but, um, the door wasn't locked and it looked abandoned, so I assumed no one lived here." The girl, named Musa, explained. She struck a few cords on her guitar and tuned it a bit.
"Okay, Musa, you're sitting in my seat." Bloom said firmly.
"Your seat? Didn't think this place had designated seating here."
"It's literally the ONLY chair in this place."
"Oh," Musa then stood up. "My apologies, oh great one."
Musa then walked over to a wall with her guitar and sat against it. She put on the headphones hanging around her neck onto her ears and began strumming (and tuning) her guitar. Bloom just stared at her, unsure of what to do with her. Musa noticed and (rather loudly) said, "If you plan on doing something here, go ahead. Just think of me as some background music for whatever you think you're doing."
"Noted," Bloom uttered, though it wasn't like she nor Musa heard it anyway.
Bloom put down the satchel and took out a red spray can. She faced giant wall that had nothing on it. Shaking the spray can, she began thinking of what to paint on it. So far, all Bloom had spray painted on walls were usually just her name in various different fonts and calligraphy, and so she decided to try something else, something big perhaps. Unfortunately, Bloom couldn't think of anything, thus meaning she was left shaking the spray can for an ungodly amount of minutes. The rattling in the spray can was really loud and can be really annoying for long periods of time. Musa would know, definitely, considering she can't think of a good melody while the rattling was on-going. Despite the headphones, the rattling could still be heard, and it was throwing Musa off her game.
Peeved, she took her headphones off and said, "You know, if you're having some artblock, maybe don't lash it out on me."
Bloom turned around, surprised. "Oh," she uttered out. "I forgot you were still here."
"Mhm, yeah, try being quieter with your artblock. It's messing with my vibe and giving me music block here." Musa said.
"Okay, sorry." Bloom raised both hands. "I'll try to be quieter... unlike you with your guitar."
"Unlike me with my guitar? Girl," Musa scoffed and got up. "have you heard yourself while spray painting? That shit's very loud and annoying to hear, unlike my guitar. Literally anyone would rather listen to me playing my guitar than listen to you vandalise that wall."
"Play your guitar? All you've done so far with that piece of cheap wood and string is--"
"I'll have you know this guitar is NOT a cheap piece wood and string! Unlike your cheap n' smelly paint!"
Soon, Bloom and Musa were face to face, looking as if they were about to throw hands with one another. After an oddly and very heterosexual stare down between the two, Musa laughed. Bloom raises a brow in confusion.
"What's so funny?" Bloom asked, clearly annoyed.
"Is this the part where we kiss or something?" Musa replied, still laughing.
"WHAT!?" Bloom flushed pink, taking a few steps back out of shock. She began stammering, heat rising within herself, "Wha, Wh-Why...!? H-HOW could you think - Can you even think!? - of s-something SO ridiculous!?"
"So, is it a no, or..?"
"NO!"
"Okay, good," Musa replied, sighing in relief. "I did NOT want to kiss someone who sets herself on fire."
"What?" Bloom looked down at herself and shrieked. "I'M ON FIRE!?"
"Um, yeah, couldn't you feel it?" Musa asked. She was oddly calm for someone seeing someone else ablazed.
"Well, help me put me out of fire!" Bloom yelled, trying to stomp out the fire on her shoes onto the carpet.
"Uh, you sure you wanna stomp the fire right on the very flammable carpet?" Musa pointed out.
Bloom gritted her teeth. "There's a fire extinguisher in this place. Go find it and help me before this place goes from cozy to scorched!"
"Alright, alright... Geez..."
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[|| Downtown, Gardenia ||]
[|| 12:07 AM ||]
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Bloom sat on the bean bag that was in the The Hidden Flame. Musa went back to sitting on the floor, because, of course, there was only one chair in the hideout, but this time she was sitting closer to Bloom. Musa's guitar had been put back into its case and now laid right next to Musa. The fire extinguisher used to put the fire out on Bloom's shoes sat far in the corner of the room. It sat there, empty as Musa had used everything inside it.
"So, uh," Musa began. "Are you always this hot when bothered or are you always bothered when hot?"
"I don't even know what you're on about," Bloom replied, coldly. A brief silence hung over before she added, "but, yes."
Musa raised a brow. "Yes... what exactly?"
Bloom sighed. She wasn't going to like how she'd word this, but she hoped this wouldbe a one time thing.
"I am always hot when bothered." she uttered out, looking as if she had been held at gunpoint to say it. She looked at Musa and frowned upon seeing Musa's ridiculous face. "What, what now?"
Musa chuckled. "Nothing," she said through the chuckles. "Nothing... Just... Your face when you had no choice but to say it."
"What about it?" Bloom asked. She was beginning to get impatient with Musa. Frankly, she should've kicked her out of The Hidden Flame an hour ago, yet chose not to... for whatever reason.
Musa smiled before making a neutral face. She said nothing, and opened her guitar case, pulling her guitar out of its case. Bloom found this ridiculous. (Why put it in the case if you're just gonna bring it out again?), Bloom thought at she watched Musa tune her guitar.
When Musa stopped tuning the guitar after finding the right tune, she took out a notebook from the guitar case and opened it. Musa looks at whatever was in the notebook and began playing her guitar in a specific melody. Bloom seemed interested in that melody.
"You write songs or something?" Bloom asked.
"Mhm, yeah," Musa answered. "I plan to become the biggest musician here in... Where are we again?"
"Gardenia."
"Wait, so this isn't Magix?"
"Magix? W-what is Magix!?"
Musa looks at Bloom like one would look at a conspiracy theorist.
"You never heard of Magix?" Musa asked.
"No." Bloom answered.
"Odd," Musa mused. "I thought you'd know... Cuz, y'know... You can set things on fire. Like yourself, for example."
"And...?'
"Ehh, we can talk about Magix another time. Right now, I'm in the mood for some tunes." Musa carefully put her guitar in a better position to grip on. "Ya got any songs in mind?"
"Huh?"
"I said, you got any songs in mind?" Musa repeated. "I figured that, since this is your place, maybe you should have the say in what I play, as some form of, uh, I dunno, apology for ruining your night, I guess? Music always lightens my day, or in this case, night, so maybe you'll feel... more... relaxed if you listen to music."
"You're really going to play music for me?" Bloom asked with a slight smile. She wasn't sure if Musa was either genuine or joking with this offer, and frankly, she wouldn't mind really. Bloom could use something to make the night feel better, and music might just be it.
"Really. Though, if it's a song I don't know, which would be rare since I know a LOT of songs," Musa said with a slight smirk. "I'll try my best."
"Okay, let me think... Uhh... Do you know... Phoenix by Fall Out Boy?" Bloom asked.
Musa looked as if she was given a college essay.
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[|| Downtown, Gardenia ||]
[|| 3:20 AM ||]
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"Whoo, well, that was some the jam session." Musa said as she put her guitar away back into its case. The two have been on a duet for over 3 hours, singing songs from bands they coincidentally both knew about, though that was quite the gamble, and had tired themselves and their voices out. "You have some pretty good vocals." Musa notes. "You could join a band with a voice like yours."
Bloom laughed. "I could say the same with you. You sang so well, I could see the notes and keys." she said. "They were floating around, glowing like stars."
"Really now?" Musa asked.
"Yeah, but I was probably just hallucinating." Bloom said with a shrug. "I mean, I once hallucinated about a fairy talked to me about my fire powers and how I might be adopted. Heavy emphasis on MIGHT, though."
"Like, legit?"
"Legit, girl... She did this whole "Hi, my name is Daphne," introduction and all that. She went on and on about some kingdom falling apart and how I was the heir to it and... Wait, why am I blabbing about some weird thing that happened to me?" Bloom shifted in her seat. She technically had moved onto the floor, sitting right next to Musa during their singing session.
"I don't know, but that sounded interesting." Musa then checked her watch. "Damn."
"What?" Bloom asked.
"Shouldn't you be back at whatever home you live in? It's like 3 AM." Musa answered.
"Seriously?" Bloom leaned in to see Musa's watch. It was, indeed, 3 AM. "Wow, that's... shocking."
"What, you've never been out of the house for more than 3 hours at night or something?" Musa raised a brow.
"Admittedly, yes. I usually stay here for an hour. Mainly because I would only, like, spray paint stuff on the walls, then go home when I'm either really tired or don't have any ideas on what to draw." Bloom got up and patted the dust off her leggings. "Well, I'm glad you told me what time it was. As much as you are fun to hang out with, I gotta go back home. Wouldn't want my mom to think I was out of bed, talking to a stranger in the abandoned part of Gardenia."
"I wouldn't blame her for getting mad if she knew," Musa said. "I, too, would be mad if I found out my daughter was out of bed at the dead of night talking to strangers."
"Well, I guess this is goodbye?" Bloom waved.
"Right then, goodbye!" Musa waved back with a rock and roll hand (🤘).
Bloom picked up the spray can she had discarded 4 hours ago and returned it in the satchel from the floor. She picked up the satchel and headed to the door, but before she could walk out, she looked back at Musa and asked, "Wait, are you just gonna stay here?"
"Hm? Yeah. I don't have a real place to stay and I do tend to move from one place to another, so I basically don't have any need for a permanent home. I'll probably just stay for the night, or I guess morning since it is the morning... by technicality." Musa replied. "I'll be sure to clean up my mess before I leave."
"Um, okay then..." Bloom turned to face the door, only to face Musa once more. "Hey, uhm... What was your name again?"
"It's Musa!"
"Okay, uh, goodbye, Musa!" Bloom then left.