+Author's note

Googled firey names for boys xD well, Pyro's name is Aiden (Little fire in Celtic?) in this story, hope it's not too confusing my dears!

And with the last spot mopped up, you looked up from your work and smiled at the counter.

"Aiden! Is the kitchen ready?"

A man with red hair popped up from below the counter, carrying a box of charcoal.

"Yeah! We're all set, let's get started!"

You walked towards the door and saw through the huge windows, there already was a long line outside.

"Honey, we need to get more benches"

"What? Don't we have enough?"

"No, the lines are getting longer each day!"

The line of people beamed as you walked up to the door. You flipped the plastic sign on the door backwards, making the long line brighten up.

☆The Burning Unicorn☆
Open for business!

The crowd gushed into the restaurant. Plastic palm trees shrouded the ceilings with their leaves, bright colorful lights brightened up the dark place like a club. Everyone would gush about the modern, clean interior with it's strange Havanah touch.

You smiled as you saw the crowd find places to sit, and Aiden greeted the customers.

"Hello everyone!! Welcome to the Burning Unicorn! Are you all ready for a show?!"

The crowd cheered, and you playfully rolled your eyes. Your husband was nothing if not for his showmanship.

He took his usual place at his huge grill, spinning his spatula and a bottle of oil in his hands, the crowd gathering round for the grand show.

"Careful now, don't wanna get burned now do we?"

Many of the people who were crowded around the grill took a step back, and grinned in anticipation.

"And here we go!"

Squirting the oil onto the grill, he tossed some marinated shrimp, pineapples and other vegetables into the middle, and a fume of fire burned in the midst of it all.

Everyone gasped, taking pictures of the fire show with their cell phones. Aiden continued to toss the ingredients into the air, while he grabbed another bottle.

"Now we can't just finish this just yet now can we?"

The audience laughed.

He poured at least 3 different bottles of condiments into the fire, and it burst into blue, green and yellow fire, dancing across the grill as if it was an auora.

"Whoops-a-daisy!"

Aiden acted like he accidently poured alcohol into the mix, and the fire turned twice as big, making the people sitting close scream with excitement.

Expertly tossing the food into the air, he caught it all in one gracefull sweep of his arm, perfectly laid on a plate.

"This one's on the house! Put your hands up if you want itttt!!!!!!!!"

The entire place screamed as they put their hands up, some even jumping for attention.

You beamed at your husband from afar, him winking back at you.

+++

Another day of chaos was at it's end. Chaotic as it was, the people were extremely happy with the food. You even saw two celebrities come in for a bite!

You slowly closed the shop up, with Aiden cleaning up the kitchen. You were glad that he always insisted on cleaning it alone, his fire shows always made such a mess.

You found the box of charcoals that had been delieved earlier near the counter.

Trying to pick it up, you gave it your all, but quickly gave up when you heard a crackling sound in your spine.

"Nope, nope, nope"

Quickly setting the box down, you hollored towards the kitchen.

"Aiden! Can you help me with this thing??"

No one answered.

"Aiden???"

Frowning slightly, you passed the counter and grill, and into the kitchen.

'Where could he be..?'

You walked in the storage, and couldn't find him.

"Aiden!? Where are you?"

After a short pause, you heard frantic footsteps from below, and Aiden popped up from the trap door on the ground.

"Wha??? Honey?? What's going on??"

You looked down at Aiden, and saw that he had a flushed look, looking up at you with wide eyes.. almost looking scared..?

"Oh, I needed some help with that charcoal that came in earlier. Can you get it for me?"

"Oh yeah..! Sure!!"

He scrambled out of the small opening, and you looked at him carefully.

"Is.. something wrong?"

He gave a nervous laugh.

"Oh no no no, nothing's wrong. I just got a little startled, you know how dark it is down there.."

You nodded, but looked at him suspiciously as he walked out of the kitchen.

There was no way that could have been the reason. Aiden was a fearless happy-go-lucky goofball. Nothing in that cellar could ever scare him.

Well... not unless he was scared of boxes of ingredients and barrels of marinated chicken.

...

Yep that's definately not it.

+++

Several days had passed without incident. Customers came and went, always dazzled by Aiden's performance and eccentric dishes. You almost forgot about the cellar.

But one paticular day, something strange happened. It all started when that Frenchman came in.

A tiger's roar echoed from the door, (Aiden replaced the bell on the door with a tiger alarm) an indication that another customer came in.

"Hello! Welcome to the Burning Unicorn!"

You welcomed a well dressed man inside. Slowly adjusting his rolled up sleeves, he looked up and saw you, and widened his eyes.

"Ah! Are 'ou.."

You looked at him questioningly.

"Am I....?"

Just then, Aiden came rushing over, cutting between you and drapped his arm around the stranger, leading him hurriedly towards the counter.

"Hhhheeeeeeeey there Laurent! Nice to see you again!"

The Frenchman gave a warm chuckle.

"Nice to see 'ou again mon ami. 'Ow 'ave 'ou been?"

Aiden sat him down at the counter, and gave a strained smile.

"Good, been doing good"

Suddenly he frantically whispered something in this 'Laurent's' ear.

The Frenchman gave a laugh, and Aiden seemed upset. You looked at the strange scene until some people rang the their table bells for more water.

+++

Since then, Aiden had been acting strangely. He went and made phone calls, and passed back and forth. Not to mention he started disappearing more often.

Another day was over, and you were closing the shop again, when you heard Aiden snap at someone on his phone.

"I said no!"

You flinched at the sudden noise. It wasn't like him to act like this.

Slowly walking towards the kitchen, you started eavsdropping.

"I don't care if we hadn't had a get together in 5 years! We're not doing in our restaurant!"

You were suprised to hear his tone of voice.

"No.. ugh.. just.. let's talk some other time. I had a really busy day.."

Aiden tapped his foot.

"Uh huh, yeah. And don't ever drop by like that again. I nearly hit you with my spatula. At least call me beforehand okay?"

He hung up. Giving a sigh, he walked away.

You slowly peeked in the kitchen and saw that Aiden went down the cellar again.

"Hmnnn..."

+++

Aiden started snoring like a buzzsaw, and you waved a hand before his eyes, making sure he was fast asleep.

Slowly getting up from your bed, you put on a robe, and headed downstairs.

You were glad that your house was directly upstairs of the restaurant. It made it much easier to get to that cellar.

But you also grimaced at the thought of Aiden catching you during your little late night investigation.

Oh well, you'd just have to manage right?

Slowly going down the stairs, (and avoiding the creaking step) you found yourself at the kitchen without any incident.

You gave yourself a mental pat on the back as you put a flashlight on, and headed towards the cellar.

You had to admit though.. it was pretty creepy to be alone in the kitchen at night, especially the cellar.

Of course there was nothing special there, and it was completely sealed off, and the air vents down there were too small for anyone to crawl in.

But still it scared you. Jars of pickled olives looked like eyeballs and the barrels of marinated chicken, shrimp, and other dead animals brought a shiver down your spine.

"I hate you all.."

You glared at the barrels of ingredients and reached the end of the cellar. There was nothing but a big shelf full of all sorts cans and ingredients.

"Huh..?"

You looked around but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.

"There's gotta be something..."

Looking at the shelf, you were startled by a jar of a pickled squid. It's dead eyes locked to yours.

"Eww what the fuck!"

In sudden fear, you slapped the jar, when suddenly, the jar turned horizontially.

"What th-"

To your surprise, the shelf opened to reveal a small room. The room lit up as soon as the shelf made way for you.

With a gaping mouth, you looked inside, and saw various picture frames, glass cases and shelves of strange objects you've never seen before.

There were several newspaper cut out and framed on the wall, with the common subject of some place or person being torched or burned to the ground.

You walked in slowly, and looked at the pictures hung up on the wall. They were all different, but had one thing in common.

A man in a fire suit and a gas mask seemed to be in every one of the pictures, one way or the other.

He seemed to wield a flame thrower, some pictures showed the strange person incerating others, or lighting up cigarettes for friends, he seemed to skip around in some kind of battlefield, or taking a group photo.

'Who is this person... and why..?"

You saw a picture and was surprised to see the Frenchman from a while back, putting his fingers behind the strange person, like a rabbit's ears.

"That man knew this guy..?"

You turned and saw a huge glass case of the fire suit you saw in the picture, a gas mask in another case, and saw various types of guns, weapons and flamethrowers surrounding the room.

"No... no...!!"

A huge picture frame caught your eye, and you looked up, and saw 9 men gathered for a group photo. And in the middle was...

"Who's in there!!?"

Aiden cried out from behind, and you turned a frightened gaze from the shelf you came through.

"I'm warning you, if you touch my wife or anything insid-"

He stopped to see you, and you both gave each other mortified looks.

"(Y/n)?!"

"Aiden!! What is all of this!!"

He faltered, unable to say any words.

"(Y/n).. I can explain.."

"What do you mean you can explain!?! That-that you're some kind of murderer? That you're some socialpat-"

"Mercenary"

You looked at him.

"What?"

He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"I'm.. no I was a mercenary for RED industries.."

"....What?! You mean that place we always order our coal from!?"

Aiden gave a dark chuckle.

"Hey, that's why they give it to us for free"

You gave a disgusted look at your husband, and he immediatly seemed to regret cracking a joke.

He gave a deep breath.

"Listen.. (Y/n).. I've been meaning to tell you.. but I just.. just.."

You looked at him, urging him on.

"I just thought you might leave me if I told you....."

He walked into the room, and ran his hands over the glass cases.

"Look, I'm... I'm not really proud of myself.. I really regret the things I did.."

You looked sideways and saw a picture of him happily burning a man in a blue uniform.

Aiden gave a cough and took the picture frame down and hid it behind his back.

"Look.. all of this changed when I met you. When my team got disbanded, I didn't know what to do! I even considered murd- doing bad things..."

He gave another cough.

"But then I met you..! You really showed me what it's like to be normal for a change!"

He looked at his hands, covered in burned marks.

"I decided to stop.. I wanted to turn my life around.."

He cupped your face in his hands.

"So now you know.. who I really am, what I did.. will you let this weirdo stay in your life?"

You gave a sigh.

"Only.. if you promise not to hurt anyone..."

You hugged him tightly, burrowing your face into his chest.

"Unless they deserve it"

Aiden grinned.

+++

The Burning Unicorn was closed, much to the public's dismay. Instead, nine men occupied the store.

They laughed and chatted, they had their first get together in a long time. They were happy to see you, and somewhat amazed at that.

"Bloooody hell! I knew ya would be tha first one to get married Pyro, but ya really got ya self with a beaut!"

Aiden grinned widely and put his shoulder around you.

"Nah man, I didn't get her, she let me stay"

You blushed, and the men started hooting.

"Ooooooooooooohhhhhhhh!!!"

"Dayum! He's smootha dan you Spy!"

The men laughed and punched the Frenchman's shoulders.

Laughing, drinking and eating the night away, you all had a good time.

And Aiden couldn't have been more happy to finally be able to show you to his friends.