"Agh! What is this? Another new story, when you should be updating your other stories, Loss of a Dear Friend chief among them?"
I know, I know. Just...please bear with me. And in case I haven't given you this message yet, happy New Year, everyone! Please read and review.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Halt and Pauline were enjoying the few quiet hours they had together before the enormous New Year's party that Baron Arald was hosting. Both husband and wife were drinking coffee from their favorite mugs; Pauline with the winter wonderland mug she'd received from Alyss, Halt with his Ranger cup he'd received from Will.
They had been sitting on the balcony of their suite in Castle Redmont for some time now in content silence. But, after Halt had finished his cup, sighing and smacking his lips, he judged that it was time to say something, which totally cast off his normal grim and taciturn manner, he knew, but then, since when had Pauline been a normal woman?
"You know," he said quietly, smiling at her, "I'm impressed. You've come a long way since the day you met me."
Pauline did not reply at once and looked over the surrounding scenery instead of back at her husband, who noticed, however, that she was smiling faintly.
"I've come a long way...in what aspect? There are many parts of life I've improved in since the day I met you."
"Well," Halt said slowly, "that's true. But, if you were to take a guess, what would you say I'm talking about?"
"Hmm...you mean how I stopped hating you and eventually grew to love you?" Pauline teased him, smiling triumphantly as she saw his blush.
"Try again," Halt said.
"All right then...what about the ways I got myself to impress you?"
Halt smiled. "Closer, but no. Not quite."
"What about my letting you influence me?"
"Well, that's a more general phrase for it...but I need more detail," Halt said, raising an eyebrow at his wife, who sighed and leaned back in her chair, sipping at her coffee again.
...Wait a minute. Pauline narrowed her eyes. Suddenly, the answer came to her, and she cried, "Coffee! That's it!"
"You got it," Halt replied, smiling again. "Remember when Crowley and I first introduced you to coffee? You reacted pretty much the same as I did the first time I tasted it...but then, Crowley had given me pure black coffee as a joke, while we'd given you a cup with loads of sugar already stirred into it, not to mention some wild honey to sweeten it up even more."
"Well, I certainly let you influence me there," Pauline said, looking down at the mug in her hands as she remembered how much honey she'd spooned inside earlier that chilly morning.
"How's this, Halt," she said after a pause. The grizzled Ranger raised his eyebrows inquiringly at her. Pauline continued, "For my New Year's Resolution-because everybody has to have at least one-I'll always drink one less cup of coffee than you."
Halt snorted. "And how long is that resolution going to last? Fine then, I resolve to always drink at least two more cups of coffee than you do."
Pauline drew herself up to her full height and arched her eyebrows at him. "All right then, my dear husband," she said icily, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Since you have questioned my ability so, we shall make a bet on it. I wager you fifty royals that, by the end of the year, I will have succeeded at my resolution, and you will have failed miserably at yours."
Halt would have choked on his coffee, had there been any left in his cup. Fifty royals was more than he got as his monthly salary for being a Ranger!
But, so that his wife would not consider him weak, he replied, "And I wager fifty royals back, my dear, that by December 31st, you will have quite regretted the thought of your resolution completely, and that I will rise triumphant in my own resolution."
"And I wager both of you one hundred royals that neither of you will succeed at your goals!" a voice shouted from below them.
"What in the world do you mean, my dear apprentice?" Halt called back, leaning over the balcony's railing to see whether his suspicions were correct.
They were.
"What brings you here, Gil-Ow!" Halt cried, rubbing the back of his neck, which had been viciously attacked by a ball of snow and ice, which had been thrown from a certain annoying someone that he knew was standing behind him.
"Will," the grizzled Ranger growled, "what the devil did you think you were doing?"
He could just imagine the cheeky grin on his former apprentice's face as the boy replied, feigning innocence, "I'm sorry, Halt. I was aiming for Gilan, because I knew if I actually succeeded in hitting him, you'd be so proud of me while laughing your head off that you'd never threaten to tan the skin off my backside again, and then if I missed you'd only laugh at the reaction on Gilan's face and wouldn't get mad at me, so I threw the snowball, but then you suddenly stood up because Gilan just had to call at the very moment I threw it, and your neck got in the way of the snowball, and...that's basically what happened!"
Halt completely forgot about Gilan at that moment and turned to his wife.
"Pauline, forgive me, but I am afraid that I will have to forget about my previous resolution, because I will be too busy trying to keep these two under control!" he cried, admirably snatching the snowball Gilan had sent at him right out of the air.
But his pride disappeared as he received another snowball at the back of his neck.
"Will, do you know what my New Year's resolution is now?" he asked, gritting his teeth as he tried to get all of the snow and ice off his shirt.
"No, I'm afraid I don't, Halt," Will said, grinning as he popped up on the balcony next to the grizzled Ranger. "I wonder what it could possibly be?"
Halt did not reply until Gilan had unsuccessfully sent yet another snowball at him; the senior Ranger's eyes were strangely shining, and Will found that he didn't like the smile on Halt's face at all.
"Maybe, just maybe," Halt said slowly, "it could be..."
"...To pelt you with these things every day it snows!" he finished, throwing the snowball directly at Will's face. His former apprentice quickly ducked, but the snowball still hit his forehead, and Halt smiled at the sight of his former apprentice frantically clearing all of the snow off his face.
But while he was distracted by those thoughts, he hadn't noticed that Gilan was quietly forming up another snowball, this one the biggest and heaviest yet. The young Ranger knew that he'd have to compensate for the fact, so when he threw it, he aimed at a spot about a meter above Halt's head.
Will noticed it sailing through the air towards his mentor and smirked. Halt, suddenly realizing that something bad must be coming for him if Will looked that triumphant, whirled around to see what Gilan had done this time.
And received a huge mouthful of snow and ice.
Which was soon followed by another snowball, this one landing right between his eyes. Halt sighed and tried unsuccessfully to wipe the wet slush off his face. When he was finally able to look his normal dignified self again, he found his two apprentices doubled over and choking as they tried to prevent themselves from laughing.
"Nice...New Year's...resolution...Halt!" Gilan cried between fits of laughter. "I'll...do...the same thing!"
Suddenly, Will stopped and became dead serious. "Gilan," he said, "if you do that, I will make sure to personally tell Jenny about it. And I will keep telling on you for every single misdeed you perform. So now I have a resolution that will prevent yours from happening, my dear friend!" he cried.
Suddenly Halt and Will found themselves pummeled by snowballs, and Gilan cried out as another wave fell on him.
"Or perhaps, fine gentlemen," Pauline said, eyes twinkling as she lowered the snowball she'd been about to throw at her husband, "we could all behave civilly and come inside. Alyss, do join us, won't you?"
The Courier smiled and nodded, escorting Gilan firmly towards the Castle doors.
The young Ranger shook his head. "I believe I now know what your New Year's Resolution is, Alyss."
"And what do you think that might be, Gil?" Alyss asked, the ghost of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
"To torture all of us men, of course."
Alyss laughed merrily, gray eyes shining as she replied, "Not a bad idea, Gilan. Not a bad idea at all."
Gilan eyed Will's girlfriend a little nervously, not liking it one bit when she added, "Much thanks for the idea, Gilan. Now I'll have something to occupy me all three hundred and sixty-five days of the year! Gentlemen beware..."
O.o Who knew that Alyss could be so deadly? XD In case you haven't done so yet, you really should click that little button at the bottom of the screen (you know, the one with the speech bubble) and let me know what you think.
Or, if you choose not to, I could set a raging Alyss upon you. ;) Your choice.