-Morning-

The air was brisk and strikingly cold, the thick jacket and fuzzy scarf he had on did little to warm him up. Slender, pale arms clutched tighter at the coat, hoping somehow to keep the warmth in just by forcing it down in his jacket. He took a shuddery breath, strands of his long, black hair dancing over his face. He took a gloved hand and brushed the strands of hair behind his delicate, now reddish, ears.

"He still hasn't come…." Yao said, his dark eyes watching the horizon of the frozen field. Snow, snow as far as the eye could see; even the small forest of trees that surrounded it seemed to blend in to the landscape. The trees were powdered with white, icicles hanging down from their branches; they reflected some of the orange light from the slowly rising sun.

Yao sighed and began to pace a little, retracing the path he had made in the snow to avoid getting stuck in the deeper snow banks. His boots were resistant to the cold weather, lined with a warm fur on the inside (a gift from that person he had been waiting for, for the last…. How long has it been? Half an hour?)He sighed again and looked down at his feet.

"Ivan. If you're not here in the next few minutes I swear I'll-"

"Eh? You'll do what Yao?" Yao's eyes widened and he quickly spun around to face the voice that answered back to him. He was greeted by glistening amethyst eyes; they stared happily into his own dark ones.

"Ivan! I thought you said you'd be here almost an hour ago!" he scolded, staring up into Ivan's eyes (sometimes he wished he wasn't so small compared to Ivan…. It would certainly make it easy to intimidate him.) Ivan laughed and reached his hand over to toy with one of the strands of silky black hair on Yao's head.

"Hmmm, I ran into traffic." He gave Yao a sincere smile and then proceeded to stroke his cheek a little.

Yao growled and smacked the other's hand away. "I had to wait out in the cold middle of nowhere for you!" He hissed, a little annoyed that his so called friend could be so carefree about having someone wait out in the cold for so long. Ivan chuckled and suddenly grabbed Yao by his shoulders, pulling him into a hug.

"I'm sorry Yao; I really did try to make it here as fast as I could." He gave him a small kiss on the lips, Yao's cold ones meeting Ivan's warm ones. "I'll make it up to you later, how does that sound Yao?" Yao pouted his lips, a small blush dusting across his face; he could still taste the smoke from Ivan's cigarette… how he wished he'd stop his smoking. He hated the smell that clung on to him afterwards, and yet, he couldn't imagine him without that lingering scent.

"I hope by that, you mean you have warm food waiting for me after our classes are done." Ivan never let his smile falter, "Of course Yao! Anything you want!" He held on to the smaller man's arm and led him back to the car he drove there.
He got into the passenger's side of the car; Ivan took the driver's seat.

Yao felt the warmth seep into his clothing; he tugged off the scarf while Ivan started the car and started down the long icy road. "Why on earth did you decide to live so far away from the school, hm Yao?" Ivan asked, his eyes still looking ahead towards the road.

Yao looked down at his lap, his hands clasped together trying to warm up again, "It was the only place available in town," he laughed "that's what I get for registering into school so late."

Ivan made a "tsk" sound with his tongue. "You could always move in with me, I live alone, there is another room that isn't used in my apartment."

Yao looked up at Ivan's face, half expecting a joking grin across his face; much to his surprise, Ivan had on a serious expression, as if he had been thinking this for some time now… "What would make you think that I want to move in with you?"

Ivan flicked his eyes over at Yao, then back at the road, "Well… we have been friends for quite a while now… Love." Yao could feel a little bit of heat rising to his cheeks; he turned away from Ivan and rested his head on the cold car window.

"I suppose that's one reason…" From here he could see the school's parking lot, snow mounds pushed against the sidewalk from the snow plows that cleared the area that morning. "I'll think about it."

With that Ivan parked the car and the two left quietly, each going their own separate ways, blending in to the waves of students walking to their own classes.

-Evening-

His long black hair, tied neatly into a ponytail, hung over his shoulders; Yao was resting his head on the table, his arms becoming a nice pillow for his head. His eyes were closed and he flicked his pen across the table. All the course work the professors left him with was harder than he thought. He cracked his eyes open a little bit, the dim orange light of the setting sun reflecting in his eyes. He looked at the small pile of papers stacked neatly next to his shoulders. Yao sighed and buried his face deeper into his arms. "All this work… it gets worse and worse, I swear." He pushed the stack of papers a little bit so they hung precariously over the edge of the table.

The chair felt much too comfortable and he only slumped deeper into it. He felt his mind wandering, his thoughts slowly disappearing as his eyes began to close again…

"Yao, it's late, I think it's time I drove you home. No? ~" Yao lifted his head at the voice, mind cloudy from exhaustion. "Yao, it's not good for you to be working so hard when you're falling asleep at your desk and tossing your papers on the floor."

Yao blinked. "On the…?" he stretched and sat upright in his chair again, looking down at the papers he pushed aside earlier, sprawled all over the ground. Yao let out a distressed grunt and brought his hand up to his head to rub at his temples. He hoped that all the papers somehow stayed in order when they fell; he really didn't want to put them in order again.

"Eh, I must have pushed them off…" He was about to pick them up from the floor when Ivan was suddenly at the side of the table, carefully picking up each page and stacking them neatly together before changing his gaze towards him again.

"I thought you were going to try sleeping more, you've been losing sleep lately. It's not good for you, Yao," Ivan said, stacking the last few papers on the table.

Yao stretched his arms out and then stood up from the table, "I have to get up so early just to get here Ivan. It's not easy getting enough sleep when you get home so late and still have homework to do."

Ivan frowned and watched as Yao scooped up all the papers and placed them in the appropriate shelf on the wall. "Did you think about the offer earlier?" Ivan asked, fixing his eyes on Yao. Yao stayed silent for a moment, if he stayed with Ivan, he wouldn't have to worry about getting up so early for class, he wouldn't have to stay at school so late to try to finish as much work as possible before he had to go home, and he wouldn't have to wait outside during the winter. Yet, he was hesitating.

"… I've been thinking a little bit about it…"

"Then? What do you think?" Yao bit his lip before turning to face Ivan again,

"I want to… It would make things so much easier…" He felt Ivan wrap his arms around him and pulling him close, he could feel Ivan's breath, still smelling of cigarette smoke.

"Why won't you take the offer then?"

The room felt silent for a moment, "I… I'm already so close to you… I don't want things to change between us." Yao said, letting out a shuddery breath.

Ivan pulled away from him to lift Yao's chin up, and give him a kiss. "Things won't change," he said against Yao's lips, "I really want you to, it would be nice don't you think?" Yao could still feel the warmth of those lips lingering on his. It was hard to say no, just to this one person.

"Maybe… Maybe it would be for the best…" Ivan smiled and pecked his lips once more before pulling away and handing Yao his coat and hat.

"Then, when can I help you move out?"

"I still have to fill out papers to leave my current apartment you know."

Ivan laughed a little, "We can still move some of your things right?" he said as he began to walk alongside Yao, back outside to the parking lot.

It had snowed again during the day it seemed; the parking lot was dusted with white powder, save for the tracks of the students that left earlier.

Once again they sat in the car, letting the engine run as it began to warm up slowly. Ivan put an arm around Yao, leaning towards him a little. Yao turned to him and rested his head on Ivan's arm. It began to snow again; the white flakes hitting the windows of the car, melting and running small droplets down the side of the windows. The two inside the car enjoying this moment, a moment of silence in which only their breaths were heard along with the quiet rumble of the engine.