shhhhhhhhh i know isa already has his ears pierced by bbs shhhhhhh shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Been walking my mind to an easy time, my back turned towards the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around

It was a cold day in late autumn, the kind of day that promises winter soon. Lea only wore a light jacket to compensate; his favorite knee-length shorts were still on his legs, despite his knees turning red and chapped from the wind. In contrast, Isa wore jeans and a heavy canvas coat over his blue jacket. Their breath ghosted white in the air and Isa pulled his neck into his shoulders as hard as he could, looking like a disgruntled turtle. "This is ridiculous," he muttered.

Lea shrugged. "It's probably just a cold snap," he offered. Isa couldn't decide where he wanted his hands, it seemed; he kept taking them out of his pockets to rub at the tips of his ears, where the wind was burning them raw, then he would put them under his arms to warm them, then breathe on them, then put them back in his pockets for a few minutes.

"It's only going to keep getting colder," he finally said. "They'll cut the pipewater to the Outer Gardens after the first frost."

"We could try and sneak in through the pipes after that," Lea said, sticking his hands in his pockets as well.

Isa shook his head. "We tried that two winters ago and they put those grates in, remember?"

"Oh yeah..." Lea scratched his head. Isa rubbed his ears again. "We could steal a hose and put water down on the front steps and sneak in after the guards slip and fall down—"

"Three winters ago. Dilan sprained his ankle and we wrote him a note of apology, remember?"

"God, that was forever ago. And I don't remember a note."

"Probably because I wrote it and signed your name."

Lea hummed tunelessly and cracked his neck, while Isa breathed on his fingers and rubbed them. "What if I dressed up as Santa, and you—"

"Last year." Isa sighed. "Please don't tell me your memory is that short, Lea."

"Naw, I just thought it was so good we could give it another go." Lea glanced over. Isa was rubbing his ears again. "Do you need a hat or something?"

"No," Isa said, but he said it a lot faster than anything he usually says. Lea pulled his yellow scarf off and moved to wrap it around his friend's neck; it caught Isa by surprise when it snagged over his eyes, and they both had to stop walking to disentangle themselves. Isa might have said some uncomplimentary things.

"Come on," Lea said, for he'd gotten a glimpse of something, "lemme see, lemme see—"

After a minute of hemming and hawing, Isa finally pushed his hair back on the left side. "I got them pierced," he muttered. Lea reached out and tried to touch his earlobe—it was a single, dull silver stud—and Isa jerked back. "Don't—they're still tender. This cold's killing me."

Lea remembered Isa had talked once about getting his ears pierced (he suspected it had something to do with an Ability Stud he'd been eyeing every time they walked past the accessory shops in the marketplace). He'd always talked himself out of it, though; reasoned that it might be easy to rip out in battle and it could get infected and they had no cash anyway and he shouldn't be selfish. Lea reached out more slowly and this time Isa let him put his fingers over his ear, which was freezing cold. "When'd you get them done?"

"A couple days ago. One of the vendors finally talked me into it." Isa looked uncomfortably to the side. "I-I figured I could take them out if it doesn't work out, and it wasn't—"

"Shut up. It looks cool." Lea cupped his other hand over Isa's other ear and knocked their foreheads together, grinning. "You should do something for yourself every once in a while." At this distance, Lea's nose was brushing Isa's much colder nose.

"I do that already. I let you do whatever you want," Isa said. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and stuck them into Lea's jacket pockets, pulling their hips together. "God, why are you so warm? You must have better circulation."

"It's because I have such a warm heart." Wow, at this distance, Isa's eyes looked way bluer than green. Lea took his hands off Isa's ears and put them back into his pockets with Isa's hands. "What do you mean, you let me do whatever I want?"

"So I don't have to hear you whine when you don't get your way. That's my gift to myself," Isa said. His fingers laced with Lea's and pulled their hands out into the air together.

Lea gave his hand a squeeze. But he didn't let go. "Maybe that's a super lame gift to yourself."

"Maybe it's not," Isa said quietly.

They stood like that for what seemed like a long time.

In a tone Lea was far more used to hearing from Isa: "Are you going to just stand here while I freeze, or are you going to kiss me?"

"You're a big baby," Lea said, and just to show him, he kissed him square on the lips. There was a long pause. Isa stared at him.

Now it was getting weird.

"...Don't—Don't give me that look!" Lea sputtered.

"That was it?"

"Whaddaya mean, 'that was it'? I kissed you, didn't I?" The growing flame of wounded pride was crowding out any lingering feelings of 'did that just happen' and 'why did that just happen.'

Isa dropped Lea's hands to cross his arms. "That was pathetic!"

"Y-you're pathetic!"

"I'll show you pathetic—" and suddenly Isa's cold, chapped hands were at his cheeks and Isa was kissing him, not just a kiss and a pull back like Lea had done, but something passionate, something that clouded the chill air with their breath. When they broke apart, the color was noticeably up in Isa's cheeks.

Lea was breathing hard, and had absolutely no words to express what had just happened. "...I," he stammered, "I, uh—"

But suddenly Isa had turned his head and was looking at something with an expression of near-horror, and Lea turned as well, to see that weedy little kid from the castle—Yenzo? or something?—standing at the other end of the path outside the Outside Gardens, staring at the two of them intently. The three of them stared each other down, Lea and Isa staring at the kid and him staring back at the two of them.

He broke first. Backing up several steps, the kid suddenly turned on his heel and ducked for the garden gate, apparently on his way back to the castle proper. Lea and Isa watched him go, utterly silent, until the last of his footsteps faded; then, they turned back to one another.

Lea rubbed the tip of his nose. Isa fiddled with his left ear.

"Let's go get ice cream," Lea finally said.

"You are absolutely insane," Isa said.

"Come on." This time, Isa didn't resist when Lea tucked his scarf around his neck. "Maybe we can get a discount for buying some in this cold." Isa muttered something inaudible into Lea's scarf, but he also didn't protest when Lea grabbed him by the hand and led him back into town, past a fountain with a crust of frost at its edges, under a mostly-clouded sky with a rim of grayish sunlight peeking through near the horizon.

Well there's hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground
-James Taylor, "Fire and Rain"