Notes: I found myself in the somewhat unique position of being able to write for a fandom that, so far as I've seen, has no English-language fanfic yet, so... why not? *shrugs*

General disclaimers: post-movie, so spoilers for the whole thing I guess, heh. I've only seen the movie twice (soon to be thrice...), and I'm still not totally fluent in Japanese, so there might be some inaccuracies? In about a day or so I suppose some people will be able to see it with English subs and come here to point out what I got wrong, but I ask that you please be kind when you do so! It's gonna be a long time before I have access to English subs myself!

With that said, I hope you enjoy! And please watch Promare if you haven't already (if you haven't... what are you even doing here I said there are spoilers please don't spoil yourself).

A Space of His Own

"Here, put these on."

Lio stared blankly at the pair of boots being thrust at him before glancing up at Galo's stupid grinning face, one eyebrow cocked in confusion. "What?"

"I said, put these on! Don't tell me you're gonna go into that crumbled building wearing those flimsy shoes of yours, are ya?"

Lio had half a mind to retort—his shoes were not flimsy, thank you—but he considered the rubber tread of the thick-soled boots and the mountains of concrete and drywall they'd need to traverse, and he had to admit that the boots would be an improvement over his own footwear. Besides, it wasn't like Lio could use his flames to enhance his own clothing anymore.

"Fine," he conceded, taking the boots. "Thank you."

When he slipped the boots on, they were just a touch too big, but indeed, they ended up being an invaluable asset in navigating the collapsed buildings of Promepolis.

Over the next several weeks of recovery and rebuilding, Lio found himself accumulating an ever-growing collection of rescue gear.

Next was a thick pair of gloves. "You'll get blisters if you try carrying all this rubble out without 'em!" Galo had said.

After that was a pair of pants when they had to wade through a flooded storehouse. Then there was a helmet, when they were securing a construction site with a compromised foundation.

It was when they were attending to a small fire—an old-fashioned, non-Burnish, electrical fire—when Galo had draped a jacket across Lio's shoulders and he suddenly realized that he was fully clad in a Burning Rescue uniform.

"Hey," he said, after the adrenaline had worn off and he stood safely away from the dying embers. "I'm fully clad in a Burning Rescue uniform."

"Huh?" Galo glanced over his shoulder at Lio. "Well, I mean, Lucia's still working on some tech for you, but pretty much!"

"Galo."

"And hey, good news! The captain told me today he finally cleaned out a locker for you to use at the station!"

"Galo."

"And, well, it might be a while before we can get you nametags and stuff, since that's not really a priority while we rebuild, but once everything's settled down you can be sure that you'll—"

"Dammit, Galo, that's not the problem!"

Galo stopped mid-ramble, his expression one of utter bafflement… and then his gaze crept to the matoi he was holding, his lips stretching into a grin. "Oh, I see. You just want one of these bad boys like—"

"No, Galo," he cut off. "What I mean is why are you acting like it's a foregone conclusion that I would be joining Burning Rescue in the first place?!"

Galo was silent. He blinked once, then twice. Finally, he opened his mouth and said, with a tinge of betrayal, "You said you'd help me clear up this mess, though."

"Yes, sure," Lio conceded, a gloved hand going to his forehead in exasperation, "but that wasn't necessarily a permanent arrangement. And to have an ex-Burnish on the squad—"

"Shouldn't be a problem, right?" Lio snapped his gaze back up to Galo, flabbergasted, just in time to see the taller boy break out into a brilliant grin. "I mean, who's to say you shouldn't? Kray's not in charge anymore, and the captain's okay with it."

"I hardly think the general public would be supportive of it. Anti-Burnish prejudice will still exist."

"So isn't that all the more reason why you should?" Galo slung his matoi over his shoulder and grinned. "If you want to atone for everything you've done up till now, what better way than to take an active part in fixing it?"

"Idiot. That's easier said than done."

"Better to actually try doing it instead of doing nothing."

"And what if I don't even want to join Burning Rescue?"

"Then shouldn't that have been your argument before bringing up what other people will think?"

Lio opened his mouth to snap back again, but was shocked to find that he had no prepared counter-argument for that particular point.

Why hadn't that been his starting argument?

His mouth hanging open lamely for a moment, he finally settled on, "I... don't want to join Burning Rescue."

"I see, I see," Galo said, crossing his arms and nodding sagely. Lio got the distinct impression that he was being mocked. "And… why not?"

Lio's frown deepened. "Why would I want to? There's nothing driving me to do it."

"You'll get to work alongside the great Galo-sama!"

"Riveting."

"Listen, Lio." Galo draped an arm around Lio's shoulders, and it took all of his willpower not to immediately shrug him off. "You've spent all this time burning stuff up because that's what the Promare wanted, right? Now that it's gone, you gotta figure out for yourself what you wanna do. So why not trying stuff out here and there to see what sticks?"

Lio pulled a face, still unconvinced. "But Burning Rescue..."

Galo's grin widened. "Hey, it's not like you'd be the only ex-Burnish on the squad, right?"

"What do you—"

"Boss!"

They both turned around to see Gueira and Meis sprinting up to them and why the hell hadn't Lio noticed that they had been saddled with all the same rescue gear as him—

"Boss, we finished the headcount!" Meis reported. "Everyone made it out safely!"

Lio could do little more than just stare in silent disbelief for a short while, before finally deciding to just say what made the most sense at the time:

"Well then go make sure they're all hydrated and uninjured!"

"Right!" the two men responded before returning to help those they had rescued.

And stupid Galo and his stupid grin didn't deserve any more of Lio's attention.

But, Lio had to admit: after a long day of work, it was sort of nice to return to the station to find that cleaned-out locker, a space that was genuinely his own.