But today I woke up in your bed [O, BONFIRE]

[michael t.]

Fire. And Octane. Hell, fire and Caustic. Never in the past had Michael wished for either of those unholy pairs to come to fruition. Granted, Michael hadn't actually known Octane and Caustic for that long, but he got the general gyst of how they... were. He had a tendency to trust Caustic a little bit more around an open flame, considering he knew that the scientist wasn't constantly chasing after death in the same way as Octane. However, he dreaded to think of what horrible things Caustic would choose to do with flames and another person. Probably some horrific experiments involving things like reaction times and how fleshed burned. Hopefully Michael's thoughts weren't written across his face in the moment as he padded over slowly, not looking to be the next one to be made one of Caustic's little test subjects. When he had first emerged from his house and spotted the pair on the beach, making attempts to stoke the flames of a bonfire, he had considered just staying inside. Octane had a tendency to be abrasive, and Caustic was... well, Caustic was Caustic. However, given the little conversation that he and Octane had one night at his home over Octane feeling like everyone hated him and questioning Michael's secrets, it felt a bit mean to do so. Octane was obviously hurting, even with Caustic now here at his side – or at least, he was growing bored without multiple companions to badger.

Crossing over the cooling sand of the beach, Michael could feel his little bob of a tail twitching anxiously behind him, able to hear the gruff growl that had just left Caustic's muzzle. Despite this, he found his way over to an empty spot at the bonfire, sitting down and eyeing the flames as they slowly began to reach up towards the sky. It was kind of beautiful, in a strange way, and it reminded of the many evenings he had spent in the past just listening to Trevor babble away about flames, and how amazing they were. He always figured that those nights were Trevor being... well, Trevor, and giving in to his arsonist side by going off on grandiose speeches about how he was bringing beauty into the world. Now, however, he thought that maybe he could see a little bit of what the other had been talking about. Despite this, when the flames flicked and flared up a bit too quickly for his liking, the thief found himself pulling away, just the faintest bit. He didn't want to be intimidated by something that clearly wasn't sentient, but he had seen the sort of destruction fire could bring in the past, and he wasn't keen on seeing a repeat of such events again.

Taking a deep breath – with his muzzle pointed away from the smoke that billowed off of the fire – Michael glanced over at Octane and Caustic, watching them idly for a moment. He still found their relationship to be strange as all hell, but he supposed that he could see the way it worked. Octane was the spark, constantly full of energy and rampaging in any direction that it could find, eager to devour, injure, and enjoy doing so. Caustic was the surge protector, defending against the threat of the spark all while enjoying himself doing it, accomplishing both the job that he had set forth for himself, and appeasing the spark all the while. It hardly seemed healthy, but Michael wasn't about to complain if Caustic kept Octane from having a breakdown and killing people. Feeling a little awkward getting lost in his own mind about a pair of people that were right there, Michael finally quelled his rampaging thoughts, swallowing thickly. After this, he chose to look at Octane, preferring the sort of odd mania that existed in the cheetah's eyes to the cold clinicalness that lingered within Caustic's, "Hey, you two. I'm assumin' this bonfire is open to all of us? Cause I'm pretty sure even if it isn't, there isn't any way that you're gonna be able to keep the kids away from here." Children had an odd way of gravitating towards danger, and that included fire. Michael wasn't sure he particularly trusted Trygve around an open flame either, but could he really stop the boy? He already knew the answer to that quite well.

[glow=#75603C,1,000]" oh, it's a setup, no, no, we won't fall. "[/glow]