Too Cold to Shiver
by Otte, because the idea would not leave me alone and I feel the need to figure out what happened after the end of that game. Darnit why do you play with my heart so, Itoi? Also, just as a note - this isn't a KumaxLucas fic - they are just the main characters I focus on in the story. Sorry if you're disappointed! Anyway, do enjoy Too Cold to Shiver and shut up Otte this note is getting long.

Lucas had never quite felt loneliness like he felt after you left.

It was strange. He hadn't been aware you were there, but he'd somehow understood that you had been guiding him, putting an arm around him, helping him fight and live and breathe the way he did, all the way to the end. He knew you as soon as he saw you – there was a name there, a name that had been there all the time. He knew you saved them all; you were a friend he'd never known he'd had.

Yet for the life of him, he couldn't remember your name. The second you took that doorknob and left his world for your own, he couldn't name you; he couldn't picture your face. He just knew you'd help them – he just knew that your world had collided with his, just for a second, just to save him, and all the people around him. You hadn't wanted to give up on his world - that much he understood, and he was thankful.

He'd felt sadness before, he'd felt sadness so terrible he'd wondered if his little heart was breaking, but it was the first time in years, he'd ever felt completely alone.

He had to accept it though. You were gone, you had your world, one bigger than his own, and he had his. He suspected that you couldn't come back if you tried. At least, not after you left.

There was still more life to live, and he would have to live it himself.

Chapter 1

"But why do I have to do this work? My estate was the biggest in Tazmily! I had a butler, a sophisticated family, a well-stocked wine cellar...I can identify two dozen types of cheeses from smell alone! I have to say, I'm more qualified for your job than you are, princess."

Kumatora inhaled deeply through her teeth, trying to repress every normal urge inside of her to simply punch the old man until some sense got through the thick bald skull of his. It was bad luck that her enemies couldn't be taken care of by a few swift punches to head anymore – she had to actually have patience. With other people. She had not realised rebuilding the world would involve this.

"Look, dude, everybody has to do it," she said, and with some effort, bit back the 'even old geezers like you' on the tip of her tongue. Pusher sighed exaggeratedly, looking up at her with the expression of a small child scorned.

This whole leadership business could be a complete pain in the backside, she thought wearily, and sometimes she just wished she could go back to Oshoe Castle, with the lovely drunken ghosts and haunted suits of armour. They were endearing, compared to some of the more idiotic villagers.

Of course, the castle was gone now, and her somewhat dubious title of "Princess" had landed her straight into the middle of the mess – suddenly she was their magical pink-haired and rather awesome leader. Leder had thought it was a good idea that Kumatora supply them all with some direction, since she was, of course, their princess and apparently "had the constitution for it".

She was very aware this probably meant not many people had the balls to argue with her, and that knowledge, at least, was satisfying.

"Why back in my day, we would have never been ordered around by a little girl like you," Pusher complained, but still kept a good distance from Kumatora. "Little girl" wasn't a very fitting title - she was very tall, lean and quite capable of wrestling with a half-hippo-half-cannon and winning. Something she was delighted to mention at every opportunity.

"Back in your day, you never had to have a little boy save your collective asses either," she said sharply, "Now stop griping and help."

Pusher avoided her eyes and cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Very well then, I see that I'm needed here. I very well can't let my villagers run amok without my guidance," he said and shuffled away swiftly, not sparing a second glance at her, off to join the other villagers in foraging and collecting. Kumatora sighed and rubbed her face, as if trying to wipe the exhaustion and stress away.

It had been hard since The Reset – Tazmily Village hadn't been preserved when the Dragon rampaged and neither had New Pork City, or even Oshoe Castle. She had seen the ruins of her castle a while back, a ghost had found her and taken her to it – it had sunk into the ground and mostly collapsed into rubble. Seeing the place she had spent so many years in – lonely years, but good years – in such a state of irreparable destruction was more than a bit heartbreaking. Still, the Dragon had presented them with a completely clean and uncorrupted world - not a trace of that depraved man-child's work was left, as far as they could tell.

The railway, though, hadn't been destroyed – perhaps just from sheer luck, and she'd been surprised to find all the Magypsies' homes completely untouched. She suspected there was still something protecting them now, and there was a quiet hope at the back of her mind that this meant they weren't gone forever. The Magypsies, despite their general reluctance to try and care for the short-lived humans around them, had been her first family.

Hinawa's grave and the sunflowers had also remained preserved. It made sense, Lucas did pour his little heart into the Dragon – if there was anything he didn't want destroyed it was his mother's peace. The poor kid.

"Princess," a polite voice said behind her, and she twisted around to see a more amiable short, balding man behind her. Well, more amiable towards her at least.

"Have you seen doofus anywhere?" Wess asked, his arms folded across his chest and his eyes narrowed in frustration. She rolled her eyes a little – Duster's relationship with his father had improved none since The Reset.

"No, I haven't seen Duster anywhere," she said, emphasising his name pointedly, "He's probably taking care of the kids."

"Good to know that idiot's spending time with people on his level," Wess mumbled grumpily to himself, "Anyway, princess, what needs to be done? I'm old, but I'm more use than half of the young'uns around here."

Kumatora smiled despite herself, and removed a crumpled piece of paper from her hoodie pocket. She couldn't help but appreciate it when people were actually actively trying to help, rather than complaining like Pusher or just moping around and chattering incessantly like Nan.

Or, alternatively, just disappearing from the face of the earth for hours at a time like Lucas, she thought with a sickening twist in her gut. She shook it off – she worried about Lucas, but he was very capable of taking care of himself, and he'd been through far too much for them all to pressure him for help after the whole fiasco. Perhaps he needed some time to himself, as annoying (annoying, she told herself, not worrying – she wasn't some broody mother) as it was.

She smoothed out the paper and looked through the checklist, fumbling in her pocket for her pen.

"Kay, so we've got a team out foraging, some of the guys have went to gather materials for building if you wanna help with that. The doc might want a hand as well, he said he's gonna plan out the buildings, and invent some "really useful stuff"," she said, gesturing with her hands to indicate she didn't have any idea what that was supposed to mean, "Else you could go out and look for the other Saturns, a lot of them are still wandering around lost."

Wess looked at her oddly.

"I thought Saturn Valley was fine? And the Saturns are all supposed to be pretty smart, I'm sure they can manage," he said. She shrugged.

"They're geniuses, but they have a horrible sense of direction. I dunno man; I don't really get them at all. Last one I found was chasing after this dragonfly with a balloon tied to his nose. Ask if anybody has some Strawberry Tofu, they come running if they smell it," she said. Wess nodded and ran off in the other direction

She glanced around at the makeshift tents pitched around her, and suddenly felt as though there was a lot more work to be done yet. They weren't even living in house yet, their new world hadn't even been mapped out, they didn't even know if they could go beyond the island. There were so many things they didn't have and didn't know.

She folded her arms across her chest and wondered how the hell she was going to pull this all together by herself.

She should go find Duster – it was probably due time for another excursion, she still felt as though the land hadn't been sufficiently explored.

Duster was pretty good with kids. They liked him; he was quiet, gentle and patient so of course they liked him. He just wasn't authoritative, that was the key problem when he was actually supposed to teach them and make them care about stuff they didn't, rather than just take care of them and befriend them.

"Okay kids, if you could all sit down please, I want to go over some stuff today," he said, to the three kids in the tent, who were pretty much paying no attention at all.

"Richie, have you seen Lucas around today?"

"No, no, Fuel, he's gone again. Wouldn't you rather talk about me?" she said, batting her eyelashes. Fuel looked at her as if she was a complete freak of nature, it clearly going over his head.

"Hey, Duster! Duster! Wall-staple the cliff again, that was cool!" Nichol shouted exciteably.

"Nichol, do you want to be a thief or something?" Richie said wearily.

"It was pretty cool, Richie. I still like when he put that sheep to sleep!" Fuel chimed in.

"Boys are so weird."

"Wonder what sheep count to go to sleep…"

"Goats probably."

"No really, what's wrong with you two?"

Kumatora watched the scene unfold before her with a smirk. She might want to rethink having Duster give the kids lessons – he didn't have the best control of his class, as tiny as it was. He was reduced to helplessly trying to tell the kids to sit down and be quiet, and she covered her hand to block a slight snigger.

She gave him a few more minutes, but the kids didn't show any sign of shutting up anytime soon. She sighed and walked across to stand next to him.

"Oi! Kids! Shut up!" she shouted, making a PK Fire Alpha flare from her fingertips.

Fuel, Nichol and Richie stopped chattering and look up at the adults, as if they hadn't quite realised there'd been other people under the canopy. Duster smiled gratefully at her and nodded for the three kids to sit down.

"Okay you three, I know it's…weird, lately, but everybody still thinks you should have some schooling going on," he said, "It's gonna be loose at best, at least until we can get anything normal set up, but we do still have a couple of books –" he was interrupted by all three children groaning in union, and Kumatora resisted the urge to laugh, or rub their faces in it, "Yeah, yeah, I know it sucks. It's just some maths, a little bit of literature and some useful stuff for surviving out here. We're living rough right now, so you need to know some basic survival stuff."

"Will we learn thief arts?" Nichol asked eagerly, pushing his glasses up his nose. Duster laughed nervously and scratched the back of his neck.

"Well I don't think so. That's…a family matter," he said, gesturing with his right hand and smiling apologetically. Nichol slumped back, and looked bitterly disappointed, and Richie rolled her eyes.

Duster cleared his throat awkwardly, and passed a slightly beaten-looking textbook to the three children. They looked at him sceptically and Kumatora saw his face go red and she suddenly wanted to knock their heads together. Yeah, the whole state of the place was a bit pathetic, but she would not let them be ungrateful for it. Fuel seemed to understand the most, but Nichol and Richie didn't seem to realise what they'd all been through just for this. Or, well, what Lucas had been through for this.

"Just have a look through the first chapter of that between you, I'll be back in a sec," he said, glancing over at Kumatora. They walked around the back of the canopy, neither of them exactly sure why they chose to talk away from the kids.

"Hey, you want to go scouting?" she asked cheerfully. Duster raised an eyebrow at her.

"Kumatora," he said, "I'm kind of in the middle or something here?"

Kumatora waved a hand dismissively.

"We'll bring the sprogs with us, Duster, you damn well know the more they know about actually staying alive at this point the better," she continued with a shrug, trying to pretend that had been her intention all along. He smiled weakly at her.

"Well, yeah, you have a point there," he admitted. She grinned and slapped him on the back roughly.

"Right then, it's decided!" she announced and rushed out around the other side of the canopy, where the children had been listening intently, "Right you brats, scouting mission and basic survival today. I'm coming with."

The three exchanged looks but didn't say anything. After all, you had to be stupid to argue with Kumatora.