They could never refuse each other anything, which was a weird dynamic for Fire and Water to have.  Even they knew it, but it never stopped them.  Further and further down the rabbit hole of destructive desires; it was a spiral of bad decisions and it was inevitable it would end up like this.

Water was laughing, a panicked sort of laughter.  Fire was just sitting there, trying to take in this information neither of them had even known was possible.

“A freak of nature?”

“A mistake?”

“Whatever it is... it’s our child.”

“What the hell do we tell them.”

She couldn’t stop crying.  This was utterly ridiculous for the living embodiment of Fire.  The streaks on her face and neck burned with salt and tingled as the tears evaporated from her skin.  In a minute she would probably set the comforter on fire.  She almost missed the knock on the door before Earth slipped into the room.

“Go away; I’ll burn you up accidentally,” Fire sniffled.

Earth ignored the warning and set a clay bowl full of mud on the bed.  “For your skin,” she offered,  “Whenever you’re finished.”

Through her tears, Fire smiled.  Maybe everything would be okay.

--

I don't even know what this is.  A very sad Fire, evidently.  And I like the tears evaporating; that's pretty cool.

She expected Air to make a move, but she didn’t expect them to gang up on her.  Fire grabbed her around the waist and pinned one arm behind her back.  Water sat on her ankles so she couldn’t kick them away.  Air snatched her wrist and yanked up the sleeve before she could wrench away.  She heard Fire suck in a breath at her ear, seeing the neat rows of parallel lines crawling their way up her arms like zebra stripes.  Air traced a finger over the scars.  She flinched.

“Why?” Air whispered.

“To make maple syrup,” she answered bitterly.

--

Mash-up of elementals plus an actual experience with a zebra-striped person.

I enjoy that Earth is never named even though it's in third person limited.  And her dark joke at the end made me smile.

Searing heat on my face, smoke in my lungs, clawing my way up – out –

I must have woken up because it’s dark but I still can’t breathe and I hear screaming. Something comes at me from one side and picks me up and then my head is underwater and someone’s saying “BREATHE, DAMN YOU” and the screaming stopped.

I take in great gulps of water until I stop sobbing but I’m still shaking. Someone lets my head up – Fire? He pushes dripping hair out of my eyes, pulls me to his chest to keep me warm. “Breathe,” he orders again.

--

More elementals. :3  I like the Fire/Water interaction, and the way the scene totally isn't complete.  And going from breathing water to breathing air is pretty awesome as well.

He knelt and took one of her hands in both of his. He couldn’t look at her face.

“You asked me once what the worst part was. I think I said having three sisters, like the gods couldn’t pick one other boy. That was a lie. The worst part is this. You’re going...” He choked. “You’re going to die. And I have to spend the rest of my miserable magical life without you. That’s the worst part. Five hundred years of heartache.”

He dropped her hand on her chest, rose, and ran away. He couldn’t let her see him cry.

--

Sad sad drabble.  I think this is a Fire elemental, but it doesn't appear to really matter which it is.

I like the phrase "miserable magical life" a lot.  I don't like the last two sentences; they don't feel right.  But I'm too lazy to tinker with them anymore, so there they are.

Definitely based on the phoenix's five-hundred-year lifespan.

The water surrounded her, cradling her.  Comforting.  Warm.  Not warm enough.  She turned up the heat.  Better.  A few moments later she had to turn it up.  Then again.  Higher, higher.  The heat went as far up as it could and she still wasn’t satisfied.  It would have to do.

There were strange marks on her arms.  Webs of red lines crisscrossing her skin.  She scrubbed at them.  They only clarified.  Panicked, she ran the hot water over her arms.  They deepened still more.

She turned the heat off.  Ice cold water flowed over her body.  In agony, she screamed.

--

Another elemental growing into her power.  She's not Water though, but Fire -- which explains why the heat of the water will never satisfy her, and why the cold water is so painful.  She needs fire.

I, too, take showers where I turn the heat up and up and up until I feel I will scald if I go any higher (I can't make it as far as this elemental can). One night Corby sat on my bathroom counter leaning against the mirror and told me this story (in more than 100 words). He tells this type of story so well that I feel it. I become them. I became the girl scrubbing at her arms and panicking when the Marks don't go away.

It was surreal. Experiences with Corby usually are.