A/N: ZareEraz here! I am pleased to present my annual Valentine's Day fic! I hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think in the reviews section and I'll maybe see you all on White Day! :3 Happy Reading! (P.S. I'm not entirely 100% positive that shinkonryokou is the correct word for "honeymoon" so don't kill me if it isn't!)

Shinkonryokou: Honeymoon

Kimihiro rolled over on her futon, and sleepily noted that she was dozing near something very warm. Just waking up was fogging up her brain so she couldn't really pay attention to anything yet. She yawned, her jaw hitting her pillow as she rested on her stomach and cracked her tired eyes open. She'd been up so late last night but at the moment she couldn't remember the hell why. Oh well, it would come to her when her brain finally decided to wake up and caught up with her desire to pee and take a bath. Kimihiro's head flopped to one side on her pillow and she blinked the sleep out of her eyes until it was just the normal blurriness of her bad eyesight and borrowed eye that inhibited her vision. The woman started at the heat next to her and finally figured out who it was. It's my husband. That single thought flitted through her head and short circuited the seer's brain for a moment. She had to repeat that phrase to herself, just like she had every morning since the wedding that had taken place two weeks ago. Doumeki's my husband…Dou…Shizuka is my husband. My husband. Husband. I'm his wife. She frowned for a moment, pausing in her little brain exercise. That's damn weird! I still can't believe I married him!

The seer, shook her head slowly, still trying to figure out when Shizuka had snagged her heart, but couldn't pinpoint the moment. It just seemed to happen after a while and he'd finally asked her to marry him after two years of dating and several semesters of college education for both of them. And that was that. She was Kimihiro Doumeki now, wife to a priest with an annoying habit of eating them out of house and home and pissing off his wife…all the time. Kimihiro Doumeki…Kimihiro Doumeki…Kimihiro Doumeki…it still sounds funny to me…but it's my name. Kimihiro looked at her husband, her eyes tracing their way down his body.

Shizuka looked the same sleeping as her did awake for the most part. His face was smooth, unmarred by the emotions that ruled Kimihiro's every waking moment, he didn't even smile when he had a good dream. The most emotion that Shizuka showed in his sleep was a slight scrunching of his eyebrows, whether out of worry or confusion at a dream, Kimihiro couldn't tell which. It was comforting to know that Shizuka was always Shizuka, but at the same time, the seer wished that she could get more emotion out of him besides what he showed her during their lovemaking (which wasn't much to begin with). But then again, Shizuka was Shizuka and she couldn't do didily squat to change him into something he wasn't. Kimihiro sighed and gently brushed some of her husband's bed head out of his face, her fingers ghosting over her skin. She had thought that her touch was light enough not to wake him, but his bronze eyes drifted open regardless and Shizuka stared at his wife steadily, her face slightly blurry in his right eye ever since he gave her half of his sight. He had already been waking up when he felt her soft fingers brush against his face, pushing back that one strand of hair that had been tickling his nose for about five minutes, but he'd been too lazy to move it himself. The archer's eyes traveled up to meet Kimihiro's, the woman's mismatched eyes staring back at him as they both woke up. Kimihiro's hair always looked so crazy in the morning, her wispy black hair sticking out in all directions and falling into her face. It was cute.

Shizuka pushed himself up onto his elbows, his sleeping kimono falling open to expose his broad tan chest, and Kimihiro just had to appreciate the sight before his face was in hers, his lips softly pressing against hers, a warm hand holding her in place at her neck. Kimihiro pressed back, her lips brushing and pushing against Shizuka's and then traveling to kiss the corners of her husband's mouth before breaking the kiss and resting her forehead against his.

"What was that for?" The seer asked, her lips quirking up into a smile.

"Good morning kiss." He breathed. Kimihiro's nose wrinkled as she smelled morning breath.

"It'll be a 'good' morning kiss once you take care of that morning breath." She poked teasingly.

"You're breath's no treat either." Shizuka pointed out, quickly kissing her cheek before she pulled away to throw her pillow at him.

"I was teasing!" Kimihiro retorted, throwing her pillow at him with all her strength.

"So was I." Shizuka replied.

"Didn't sound like it!"

"Does it ever?"

"No…" The seer admitted, realizing that his teasing and seriousness did sound very similar. "But I was being serious too! Your breath stinks!"

"I was being serious too." Shizuka answered, his face still in its deadpan. The couple stared at each other for a moment before Kimihiro flopped back down on their large futon and grumbled to herself. There was just no way to win when that jerkass was around…and now he was her jerkass. The seer pouted into her pillow until a firm, but still gentle hand wound its way into her hair and lifted her head up slowly. The raven's eyes flicked to the side, her bronze eye the only one that Shizuka could see. It was kind of like he was glaring at himself, but not, because it was Kimihiro's eye.

"What?" She huffed, her neck getting sore from being held up.

"Food." Came the reply, short and sweet and damn annoying. The archer let go of his wife's hair and her head dropped back onto the pillow where she grumbled some more before rolling herself out of bed and headed to the kitchen with minimal resistance. The seer stood up, straightening her sleeping kimono as she rose and walked over to the kitchen of their rented apartment.

"What time is it?" She yawned.

"Eight-ish." Shizuka answered, glancing at the clock quickly. "The question you should be asking is: 'What day is it?' We've been in here forever."

"We went out yesterday to the opposite side of town, Shizuka, so we haven't been 'in here' 'forever.' It's the 13th. But I can understand vacation messing up your sense of time." Kimihiro patted down some of her bed-head so her hair wouldn't get in the way of cooking and turned on the stovetop to grill some fish and reheat last night's miso soup as a start."Any requests today?" The seer asked, as she turned on the rice cooker and got breakfast started. "But no hard ones, I'm too tired to do anything too complicated. You made sure of that last night." She snarked, slightly irritated that her husband had kept her up so late last night because he seriously had the stamina of an endurance trained horse when it came to sex.

"I've got a hard one for you." Shizuka replied, quickly getting up and wrapping his arms around his wife's chest and torso, pressing his body up against her backside. Kimihiro rolled her eyes at his double entendre and huffed at him.

"Oh, I'm sure you do but I'm trying to warm up food."

"I could help you warm it up." Shizuka answered, his usually neutral voice getting a tad husky as he kept up his little game.

"Stop that!" The seer snapped, trying to wriggle out of his arms. "I'm not in the mood! I'm still sore from last time!"

"If you're sore," Shizuka started, "Then I could help you stretch out."

"Yeah, right! You'd stretch me in all of the wrong directions…particularly the kinky ones!"

"There's nothing wrong with being creative."

"There is when I'm trying to make breakfast for your huge appetite!"

"I've got a bigger appetite for something else besides food right now." Kimihiro really just needed to shut up, she was giving him too much material to work with at this point. She also hadn't managed to get out of his octopus grip and finally gave up and collapsed into his body, trying to unbalance him with the sudden lack of resistance and weight. It didn't work because Shizuka was ready for her and just swept his wife into his arms and carried her over to their futon, passionately kissing her lips.

The rice was burned when they finally got back to breakfast, as was Kimihiro, evident by the bright red blush on her face from the things they'd been doing just a few minutes before.

"Can we eat now?!" She huffed, scraping the burned rice into the garbage can and starting another batch.

"I've already had my fill." Shizuka said, sitting calmly on his cushion and leaning on the table with his chin in his hands. He watched as Kimihiro bristled by the sink, the shiver running all the way up her spine until her newly messy hair stood on end like the little Oden fox's tail when he got embarrassed. But mostly, Shizuka was staring at the back of his wife's neck, and watching her angry-embarrassed blush run up her pale skin to her hairline. The rest of her face was probably red, but he couldn't see that part. But he could see the rice scoop heading straight towards his face just fine.

…

"So what do we want to do today?" Kimihiro asked, looking over the brochure for the hot springs town that she and Shizuka were honeymooning in. The packet was spread out on the table with a map of the hot spring town and surrounding area.

"We could-" The archer started.

"And don't say sex because we've already done that today, thank you very much." The seer cut him off before he could say anything. "We did not come all the way to Kyushu just to have sex." Shizuka begged to differ. "There are plenty of things to do in Kurokawa Onsen." (1)

"Like what? The hot springs?" Shizuka answered in his own, emotionless version of sarcasm. They'd been visiting different hot springs for the last week, the volcanic activity from the nearby Mt. Aso the source of the springs themselves and the town's tourist attraction.

"Well…uh…we could go hike!" Kimihiro said pointedly, looking up from her brochure as she found the section on hiking.

"It's February, Kimihiro. There's snow outside and you'll be too cold and you'll get tired and want to come back after an hour of hiking."

"I don't appreciate you calling me a wimp!" The woman exploded, glaring at her husband.

"I didn't say that." He replied.

"But you were thinking it!" Shizuka didn't reply, letting the seer know that she'd hit the nail on the head. Shizuka just rolled his eyes and gave Kimihiro "the look." "The look" was a face that the archer made when the seer blew things out of proportion, kind of like an are-you-serious-right-now face. His eyes stayed the same, but his right eyebrow rose up a millimeter and the corners of his lips dropped down slightly, becoming the smallest frown in the world. Kimihiro glared at that face for a full two minutes before she sighed. "Okay so maybe you weren't thinking it, but you're thinking it now." He had no argument there because he was thinking about how Kimihiro would complain about hiking even though it was her idea and then he'd probably end up dragging her back and dumping her in a hot spring to warm her up.

"Fine. We can go hike-walk-whatever." Shizuka relented, Kimihiro's eyes lit up, thinking that she'd won but he wasn't finished. "But the second you start complaining, we're coming back and doing it."

"Waaahhh-?" The woman gaped at where the conversation had gone.

"Because then I win and we do what I want." The archer finished.

"But…why?" Kimihiro asked, still confused on his reasoning.

"Because I came to Kyushu to have sex."He said simply. The seer stared at the man disbelievingly.

"You're a weirdo." She replied, wondering how somebody could have sex as many times as Shizuka wanted too.

"No, I'm a guy." He answered. "Don't you like having sex?"

"Y-yes, but it's not on my brain all the time like you!" Kimihiro blushed, her brain skipping back to their lovemaking.

"Obviously not." Shizuka pointed to her red face.

"It's only because we're talking about it!" She sputtered.

"I'd like to talk about it more."

"No!" Kimihiro shouted. Shizuka plugged his ears before she really got going, but the seer just reached across the table and shoved his shoulders. She pointed at Shizuka as she talked, and then herself and then at the door. "You're going to get dressed…I'm going to get dressed and then we are going to go!" Her husband just rolled his eyes. Kimihiro raised an eyebrow at him. "Do it, or I'm renting a separate room and you won't have any sex at all." She threatened.

Shizuka was dressed in two minutes flat.

…

"Are you tired yet?" Shizuka asked, tromping through the snow behind his new wife.

"Not on your life!" She snapped back. They'd taken a stroll through town, walking among locals and other tourists (February was a pretty popular month for tourists because of the crappy weather), and watching the hot spring steam rise from behind the slew of inns that crowded in on the streets. The couple wound their way through the town, heading towards the easy walking paths that led up into the hills and forests around Kurokawa Onsen and eventually led into the mountains (but hopefully Kimihiro would give up on her hike before they reached that point). She was huffing and puffing in her winter coat, her boots crunching on the light layer of snow that the sky had dropped down sometime early in the morning. The sky was still cloudy, threatening to drop more snow or rain at some point, but not right that minute. After they'd reached the edge of town, Kimihiro had checked their map and chosen a path up into the hills that wasn't too rigorous, pulled her beanie cap down over her cold, red ears and started stomping up the path; sometimes wading through snow a foot or so if it collapsed onto the path.

"Are you going the right way?" Shizuka asked next.

"Of course! Isn't that why you're still following me?!" Kimihiro swiveled her head around to glare at him. He just stared at her and she kept stomping up the path. They walked for thirty minutes or so in silence before Kimihiro calmed down.

She slowed down and let her husband catch up to her, pointing out interesting things on the path, like small snow drifts that had been blown into waves by the wind and then frozen, or a branches that had been covered in huge, dangling icicles that hadn't melted yet. The weather was cold, but spring was definitely on the way, judging by the puddle and mud on the path. The couple walked together, holding hands and letting their clouds of warm breath puff into the chilly air. Shizuka held onto his wife's hand, feeling the warmth of her skin even through her cold glove. As they walked and Kimihiro flipped her head from side to side to look at new things on the trail, her blue scarf started unwinding from her neck. Shizuka noticed this and the archer reached over with his free hand and wrapped it back around her neck snuggly. The seer smiled at him, her nose and cheeks red from the cold. Shizuka's eyes softened and he squeezed her hand warmly as they walked under the trees.

"Hey, look!" Kimihiro pointed at the sky. Shizuka watched as a large black bird flew down and landed on a tree branch above them. It was a crow. The bird cawed and looked down but Shizuka averted his gaze from the bird's eyes (2). Kimihiro however did not. "It looked right at me!" Now, it might have just been a paranoid belief on Shizuka's part, but he felt that something bad was going to happen because his wife had locked gazes with the bird. But Kimihiro wasn't really one to believe in superstitions, so she really didn't feel the need to be worried as they walked on. As they passed under the tree with the crow, the bird cawed again, the sound echoing in Shizuka's ear as his wife chatted on happily.

"I bet this place is really spectacular in late spring, with everything blooming and all." The seer conversed cheerfully. "I wonder what it'll look like…Hey! I think I spotted a snow monkey!" (3) Kimihiro pointed into the trees and let go of her husband's hand to take a closer look. She ran up to where she thought she saw the monkey, several dozen yards in front of where Shizuka was. The archer watched his wife and followed her at a much slower pace. He looked from side to side, gazing into the trees for anything out of place, the omen of the crow still fresh in his mind. A light snow started falling, the clouds finally releasing their burden. Shizuka glazed up at the sky, watching the clouds drop more and more snow until a strong snowstorm was a very real possibility.

"Oi, Kimihiro. We should probably start heading back." He called.

"Damn thing keeps moving!" Came the reply. The seer was running further and further up the path, trying to see the monkey when she finally answered back. "Are you giving up now? That means I win!"

"Win what?" Shizuka asked, walking to catch up with his wife.

"You said I'd start complaining to go back first but it's you who wants to go back! Ha!" She gloated, still running up the path to the crest of the hill they were on, supposedly following the monkey.

"Can't you see the snow? It's going to storm." He pointed out, his boots crunching through the newly dropped snow on the path.

"Whatever. Just give me a minute, okay? I've almost seen the monkey!" Sometimes Kimihiro's curiosity really bugged the man, because now she was basically ignoring him and the coming snowstorm. He sighed and she kept running. "Stupid monkey! Wait up!" She reached the top of the hill, panting and covered in snow and when she looked in the trees, the seer couldn't see the monkey at all. "Damn!" Then a huge gust of snow and wind knocked the air out of her, throwing her back and Kimihiro felt as if cold, icy hands were clawing at her. Maybe Shizuka was right about the snowstorm. The woman looked back to find her husband and realized that she couldn't see him. She was surrounded by a wall of wind and white snow. She called out for Shizuka, and then screamed when a pale and beautiful but menacing face appeared through the snow, staring at her with cold dead eyes as the world around her when completely white.

Shizuka heard a shout from up ahead, followed by a blood curdling scream. It was Kimihiro! His head snapped down from the sky to look for his wife, but all he could see up ahead was a whirlwind of snow and ice. He ran, feet pounding into the snow, scrabbling for purchase as the late winter storm piled up around him. He reached the top of the hill, covering his face with his hands as he pushed through the wall of snow and wind in front of him, desperately trying to find his wife. He could hardly breathe, each breath he did manage full of cold air that hurt his lungs. Endless minutes passed, each growing more and more frigid in the snow until the wind just disappeared as quickly as it had come and most of the snow disappeared with it. Shizuka looked at the path, standing right where Kimihiro should be.

His wife was nowhere in sight.

The only sign that she had been there was her blue scarf lying on the ground, listless and half frozen in the light snowfall.

…

The snow and wind disappeared just as suddenly as they had come, leaving Kimihiro shivering on the hill.

"That was damn weird, Shizuka!" She cursed, sneezing. The woman was standing up to her calves in snow, and when she finally got around to looking around her, the seer would find herself far from where she used to be. "What the hell just happened?" She looked around for her husband but couldn't find him anywhere. "Shizuka? Shizuka? Shizuka!" She shouted, cupping her hands over her mouth. Kimihiro's voice echoed back to her from the mountains. She stared at the peaks of the mountains that used to be so far away, the rock face of the nearest peak looming above her. She was far out of the foothills where she'd been walking with Shizuka, so far away that the town was almost a speck, nestled in between the hills. It was still snowing, the flakes drifting down to fall on everything, including Kimihiro. She was stranded…no path…no way back…no Shizuka…and that woman was still staring at her. Kimihiro's eyes widened, a shiver running up her spine as she felt a cold gaze boring into her back.

The wind picked up, the snow flying through the air in swirls that would be prettier if the presence behind her wasn't so menacing. Kimihiro turned around slowly, staring at the woman standing behind her. She was all dressed in white, from her kimono to her tabi socks, her night black hair flowing with the wind, her dark eyes boring into the seer's eyes. Her cruel blue lips twisted into a smile and she drifted closer to Kimihiro, the snow under her feet freezing into crystals…if she had any feet to begin with. She's…she's…she's a snow woman! A yuki onna! (4) Kimihiro's scream got caught in her throat as the spirit drifted closer. Kimihiro wanted to run...she really did…but the snow woman's presence was freezing everything solid, from the snow in the air, to the snow on the ground, to Kimihiro's feet in the snow. She was trapped. The ice traveled up from her feet, to her calves to her knees, thighs, hips and higher as the yuki onna drifted closer. She couldn't breathe anymore…it hurt! The cold air of the mountains mixed with the freezing aura the yuki onna was putting off was frosting the woman from the inside out.

Kimihiro gasped, her insides feeling more solid than they ever had before, and not in the good way. More like in the icy, freeze-y type of way. The yuki onna's smile grew larger as she floated closer. Kimihiro felt her vision blurring in more ways than one – the snow storm forming around her blotting out everything else and her vision failing from the cold. The snow spirit laughed, her voice drowned out by the wind as she reached her white fingers towards the seer's throat.

…

"Kimihiro! Kimihiro! KIMIHIRO!" Shizuka shouted, cupping his hands over his mouth. The only answer that came back to him was that of his echoing voice. He panted in the freezing air, still searching for his wife after several hours of walking through the hills around Kurokawa Onsen.

After she'd disappeared off the hilltop, Shizuka had wandered up the path, yelling Kimihiro's name, hoping that she'd just been pushed out of sight and that he'd find her safe and sound. When he'd walked for several miles without a response to his yelling, the archer instinctively knew that his wife was in deep shit, because…let's face it, she always was.. Kimihiro…where are you? Shizuka cast his gaze around the hills and noticed how much closer the actual mountains were. They were beginning to loom over him as he walked closer and closer in his search, the tops of their peaks rising up to pierce the snow clouds and disappear among them. The temperature was dropping the higher he went, but still, he kept moving.

Shizuka reasoned that the spirit that attacked them was a snow spirit of some kind and if it wanted an advantage over a human, the colder and snowier the playing field the better. That meant that Kimihiro had been dragged to higher ground and probably near or in a storm. It would make sense for the spirit to do that, to cut off its victim as quickly and efficiently as possible. And no matter how stupid it was, Shizuka headed up into the mountains, towards the clouds dropping snow.

Shizuka kept walking, calling for his wife when it was safe too. He didn't want to start and avalanche, especially in the mountains where they had no gear and no way to contact anyone. He stopped for a moment, reaching into his coat to pull out Kimihiro's scarf, the bright blue color standing out in the white landscape. He clenched it in his fist, holding onto the last thing his wife had been wearing like his life depended on it. He vowed to find her and stuffed the scarf back in his coat. It was all he could do, but he'd keeping doing what he could to find his wife. She had to be here somewhere, and he'd find her. The archer narrowed his eyes, glaring into the storm and kept walking, his footprints following close behind in the snow.

…

Kimihiro ran, her legs buckling as the yuki onna's white hand touched her right eye, freezing her eyelid shut when she winced against the icy skin of the spirit. The cold zapped through her body and she screamed, fear overtaking her. Her paralysis was shattered and she ran for her life, kicking and stomping through the snow in an attempt to get away.

She was lost in a world of white. Surrounded by peaks and snow and ice, the seer was hopelessly lost, but she needed to get away from the snow woman, if it was even possible. It was the only way that she was surviving at all because if the yuki onna got her hands on Kimihiro, she'd be frozen in seconds rather than hours. Kimihiro would rather take her chances with the storm, even if it prolonged her suffering. She started plodding through the trees, disappearing among the branches as the yuki onna let her go.

…

The white woman smiled, her blue lips thinning as her teeth stretched her skin. She'd done what she'd come to do…an now…all she had to do was wait and watch as the frightened human suffered and died painfully, the pull of the cold to strong to resist. The spirit started ghosting after her victim, enjoying the show as the woman tried to run, tried to hide. It was all futile, but it was entertaining to say the least. This woman would satisfy her for a while, until the next winter and the next human came across her path. This woman was just another human victim in a long succession of victims. She would die like the rest as the yuki onna's icy touch spread across her skin, starting at her bronze eye as the frost expanded to engulf her whole body. And then she'd become another beautiful, frost-covered corpse. It was inevitable.

Her cold smile widened. The yuki onna laughed, her voice lost among the wind as she dematerialized into a cloud of snow, watching her victim from afar as she froze to death.

…

Kimihiro knew she was starting to die, her body temperature dropping steadily as her sweat soaked body cooled in the mountain air. The heat she'd generated from running was slowly freezing, the wet patches under her arm pits, on her neck and in between her once-warm legs beginning to freeze with contact from the wind. She felt numb, her blood flowing away from her extremities like her fingers and feet, and coming to her core to keep her temperature up as much as possible. She ached, everywhere and her muscles started to involuntarily shivering, trying to generate body heat but failing in the storm. When she moved her leg, it would take longer to contract up for a step, and then, when she tried to put it down, it didn't want to, staying contracted until she muscled her foot down. She was an ungainly, weak-kneed hazard now, her chances of running into a tree and falling into the snow ever increasing. And as silly as it sounded, if she did fall and get snow into her clothes, it would melt and lower her body temperature even more, hastening her death. Kimihiro needed shelter and she needed it now.

The seer cast her one working eye around, her bronze one still frozen shut in a webbing of ice that was slowly spreading across her face, going down over her cheek bone, up her forehead, beneath her hairline and across the bridge of her nose. It was slowly working its way down to her lips and over to her ear, where it would freeze her mouth shut and crystallize her ear and then start down her neck to her heart…and once it reached her chest, it would seize the organ and kill her. But Kimihiro didn't know all the details of the yuki onna's touch, she just knew that her face was locking into place and as soon as her other eye froze she wouldn't be able to find shelter at all and she would freeze faster.

An hour passed as the seer trudged through the snow covered forest, her face numb from the wind, her hair frozen in knots in her coat, plastered to her neck, Her hat was probably frozen to her head and would probably have to be pried off with a crow bar, but she still kept searching for some place to hunker down, a cave, the base of a cliff, anywhere just to get out of the wind and snow. Her neck endless turned her head from side to side, her good eye squinting into the snow-laden wind for shelter. She'd almost given up hope when her legs stopped working and she fell into the snow, barely catching herself on her hands. Her limbs were numb, her body shivering more violently. She crawled forward, feeling the cold wind on her neck, like the yuki onna's touch all over again. Kimihiro kept moving, until she realized that she wasn't moving at all. She thought she'd been crawling forward for some time, but in fact she'd been kneeling in the snow, staring at a small cave that was nestled against the mountain's side. She'd been staring at it for who knows how long, her cold-addled, oxygen deprived brain refusing to process the new information until it slapped her in the face. Kimihiro laughed at her stupidity, her voice breaking and hacking as the cold air invaded her lungs in larger quantities and stumble-crawled to the cave. She managed to push herself to her feet, to move marginally faster towards shelter.

If she was going to die…she was going to die in some play dry, damn it!

Kimihiro started stumbling towards the small cave, her footprints disappearing in the storm as the snow filled them in behind her. She swayed on her feet, her one good eye blinking furiously as it tried to see through the white. The woman panted heavily, the last of her strength fading as she stepped into the cave, the darkness embracing her. She tracked snow onto the semi-dry ground and collapsed against the cave's wall once she'd gotten out of the wind. Kimihiro slumped against wall, feeling her numb legs ache with pins and needles from the change in temperature – no matter how slight – and from the exhausting work she'd made them do out in the snow. Her breath puffed into the air but she couldn't see it anymore.

She sat there for hours, or minutes, she couldn't tell which at this point and just breathed, her bronze eye frozen shut with half of her face, her blue eye way too exhausted to even open a little bit. Her breath slowed down a little more, each lift and lower of her chest a little bit harder, a little longer. She could hear the splashing of spring water, right next to her ear. If she opened her eyes, she would be able to see the hot springs below their rented apartment, the warm waters ready to greet her. She would leap into their warmth and never come out, splashing around in the heat-filled paradise for the rest of her life. She'd never felt so warm, so alive, as she did hearing the sloshing of water, of hearing him call her name. She could hear him now too, right next to her calling out to her, shouting her name. He was so close, his voice flowing over her like the waters of the hot spring. She floated away on that sound, like the steam rising into the night sky. It was so calm here, and she never wanted to leave. But then she remembered the cold, the snow and the spirit…her unfortunate luck at being caught in a storm. She remembered the agonizing crawl in the snow, the elation at finding a cave and now, she remembered that she was going to die in that cave…alone. He wasn't there with her, no matter how much she wanted him to be. His voice was a hallucination, a dream…a wish. One that would never be granted. But it sounded real, felt real…so she'd let it be real. To make the pain of death a little less terrible. She listened to his voice, whispering to her in the darkness and let his arms wrap around her. It was alright…as long as he was here.

…

Shizuka was starting to feel the beginnings of hypothermia, the involuntary shivering trying to generate body heat. He needed to find someplace to get out of the storm if he was ever going to be able to find Kimihiro. The archer hoped that she had found someplace to take shelter and worried for her if she handed. The man started casting is eyes around for a cave as he searched for his wife, walking calmly so he didn't sweat too much. He couldn't stop his body from generating moisture, but if he could help it, he wouldn't soak his coat through. Then he'd just freeze faster.

"Kimihiro!" He called, checking to make sure that his shouts wouldn't generate and avalanche. He was in the middle of a small forest, so it wouldn't be too bad. He still had to find her. Kimihiro was smart and she'd know at least to get out of the storm, but if a spirit was after her she'd have a harder time doing it. Shizuka worried. It was afternoon now, if night fell before they found each other and got out of the mountains, they were both dead. He kept walking, scanning the trees for people and shelter. He wished that he could see through Kimihiro's eye – their shared eye – but ever since he'd caught a glimpse of the yuki onna reaching towards him, he'd been unable to see anything. He hoped that that meant that Kimihiro had just shut her eye and not that she was dead. If she was dead, he'd feel it in his gut, as if someone had torn out his insides. Right now, his stomach was turning, worry eating at him, but still there. She had to be alive. She had to be. He kept walking. He kept walking. He kept walking.

An hour later he spotted it. As Shizuka was tromping through the snow, he saw the cave, hidden behind some trees and opening up into the mountain's side. It was small, but it was shelter. He ran towards it, thankful to be out of the wind and snow. He'd rest for a while and then set out again to look for Kimihiro, but first he needed to rest. The archer reached the cave, peering into the darkness and ducking his head to enter. It was mostly dry, but even more important, it was out of the storm. Shizuka hunched over as he cautiously crept into the cave, praying that and animal didn't live in here, and if it did, that it was still hibernating or out for the day.

He felt along the wall with one hand, carefully walking so not to trip on anything, not that it helped. Shizuka did trip on something and crashed to the floor, his legs landing on whatever he'd tripped on as he caught himself on his hands. Whatever it was, it was pretty big. But it didn't move as the man crawled off of it, his stomach in his throat as he thought about the possibility of bears or other mountain predators, but on the outside, he still looked calm. When whatever-it-was didn't move, Shizuka crawled forward for a closer look. His eyes had adjusted to the dimness of the cave somewhat so he picked out the body in front of him, his gaze following up the feet, legs, hips, torso and chest of the…person in front of him. He squinted, trying to see better and leaned in close. His face was right above the person's and as he stared down, he recognized her. It was Kimihiro! She'd made it out of the storm!

"Kimihiro! Kimihiro! Kimihiro! Come on! Stay with me! Open your eyes!" Shizuka shouted her name, his hands flying to her shoulders, trying to shake her away. She was unresponsive, her head flopping back listlessly. She was ice cold to the touch, her skin almost blue except at her nose, cheeks and ears where they were red instead. The archer's eyesight was getting better and he could pick out the shades of her clothing, her coat, her pants and the icy, glass-like webbing that was skating across her skin.

It looked like frost, swirling in graceful patterns across the seer's eye, cheek, ear, forehead and neck, disappearing down into her clothing as it spread towards her chest. Shizuka looked at the frost and realized that it was something like a curse that the spirit had placed on the woman, like the spider's web that had sealed his own eye shut. It was the physical representation of the spirit's intentions – its will to kill. He had to get it off her, but how? Shizuka ripped off his gloves, hoping that his pure aura would be able to do at least something to help his wife as he brought up his hands to her face. If it wasn't a grudge, he might be able to get rid of it on his own. Otherwise, he'd have to pay Yuko to get it off, if Kimihiro even lived long enough for them to get back to Tokyo.

His fingers touched her icy skin, pressing into her eyelid and cheekbone. He felt something ripple underneath her skin, something coming loose. He kept his hands still, praying for the best and watched as with each passing minute, the frost covering the girl's skin started moving. It was unperceivable at first, but the frost was disappearing bit by bit and Shizuka only noticed it after twenty minutes of holding his hands to his wife's face, when the frost on her neck receeded bit by bit. Whatever he was doing, he was doing it right. He just hoped it was enough. Another hour passed in silence as the archer concentrated on getting rid of the frost, but once the frost had reached Kimihiro's cheek and eyebrow, shit hit the fan.

The storm outside intensified, the wind howling and throwing snow everywhere. Shizuka glanced outside, seeing the cold creeping into the cave and carefully used his knees to push-shuffle his wife's body further away from the entrance. The wind and snow clawed at the cave, as it trying to get in, but Shizuka shielded Kimihiro with his body, his back taking the brunt of the cold. The wind howled, screaming at him and sounding so much like a person that the archer's head whipped around to see if someone was there. He could see a face in the snow flurry behind him, the face of a woman. She snarled at him, her face appearing, dissipating and then reappearing with the snow. She was trying to get to him, to get past him and to Kimihiro. She was trying to finish the job she'd started and kill the seer. But Shizuka wouldn't let that happen, he scooted closer to his wife, pressing his hands into her face and chest harder, his presence eating away at the frost curse on her skin. It was receeding, the frost only covering her eye and cheek…now only her eye…and as the frost disappeared from her skin, the woman in the wind screamed, the sound echoing through the cave. Shizuka grabbed his wife and pulled her close and the storm outside surged, engulfing them both as he huddled in the cave, shielding Kimihiro as much as possible. He closed his eyes and hoped that what he had done and what he was doing now would be enough to protect her. The wind and snow swirled around them, permeating their clothing and whipping across their skin, but it receded just as quickly as it had come, the spirit disappearing with the storm.

When all was quiet, Shizuka opened his eyes and looked up; staring down at the town of Kurokawa Onsen from the hill Kimihiro had disappeared from hours ago. They were right back where they'd started for some reason, sitting on the hill, considerably warmer and out of danger. Maybe the spirit's power had been broken like her curse and whatever spell had kept them on the mountain was broken too, or the spirit had no need of people she couldn't curse and brought them back. Or they'd just been damn lucky. Shizuka looked down, concerned for his wife and checked her over.

Kimihiro was breathing normally now; most of the symptoms of her hypothermia disappearing with the web of ice that covered her skin. Whatever that thing had been, it hadn't natural, but it seemed to be the reason that the seer had been in such a bad condition. But she was much better now, some of her color returning, her body shivering in the cold to generate heat. Shizuka sighed as his wife rested, knowing that she'd be okay as long as they got down to the town before nightfall. He knelt by her and managed to get her onto his shoulder piggy-back style after a few minutes of struggling. Kimihiro slumped onto the archer, her arms dangling down over his chest, her head resting by his neck. Shizuka shrugged her into a better position and wrapped his arms around her thighs, placing one on either side of his hips. Once steady, the exorcist stood up and started walking down the path to the town. He'd get them inside and into the hot springs for a warm soak and then off to bed because he was exhausted, and she was half dead. That should make Kimihiro happy, he thought.

As he walked down the hill, the seer was jostled, her movement waking her up from her unconscious state and she opened her eyes slowly, expecting to still be on the mountain freezing to death. What she saw was dirt and mud under feet that weren't hers, her thighs and hands. She was being carried by someone. The seer groggily looked up, too tired to move her head and saw a tan neck right next to her face and smell a scent that was familiar to her.

"Shi…zuka…?" She whispered, her lungs and throat aching from the effort.

"Hm." He said back. Kimihiro laughed brokenly, wondering how in the world the man had found her.

"What…hap…ened?" She asked.

"I'll tell you later." He replied, tipping his head down to kiss whatever part of her he could reach. It was her forehead.

"You'd better, you crazy bastard."

"Just don't try to find any monkeys." Kimihiro rolled her eyes before she closed them again and let herself be carried down the hill, hoping that Shizuka was headed straight towards a hot spring because the seer felt like she'd never be warm again if he didn't.

…

Kimihiro would've jumped into the hot spring just like in her hallucination, but she ached too much to do it. Instead, she shuffled into the couple's bath and fell into the water when the pins and needles feeling attacked her legs. She gasped in pain and flailed around in the water, trying to find the bench to sit on before she drowned herself. That would've been the most ironic thing about the whole day: Kimihiro, spirit seer extraordinaire survives an attack from a yuki onna, survived freezing to death only to perish by drowning because she was unable to swim on her own.

Luckily, her arm managed to find the underwater bench and the seer pulled herself up onto it, sitting down to relax until the inn staff kicked her out. She settled into the water, wincing as her legs kept pricking at her blood warmed up fully. The heat of the hot spring pool felt like fire for the first few minutes, but slowly, her body was getting used to being warm again. Kimihiro sighed and sank into the water up to her chin, the stray hairs from her hastily constructed bun floating around her. She made sure her towel was wrapped securely around her torso and then drifted off into warm thoughts. The only thing that could disturb her musings was the entrance of another person, which did happen when Shizuka walked into the outdoor pool, wearing only a white towel around his hips.

"Kimihiro." He said, looked down at his wife sitting in the tiled pool, the light and shadows cast by the few lanterns outside hitting her skin beautifully. Her skin had been blue up in the mountains, but now it was its normal pale tone, accented by red where the hot spring's water lapped against her body and the steam caressed her face.

"About time you showed up. I almost drowned when I couldn't move my legs." She replied, not opening her eyes as her husband stepped into the water. He felt the same rush of blood to his legs, but not as bad as she had and gracefully drifted to the bench to sit by his wife.

"I told you to sit on the edge of the pool and dangle your legs in so they could get used to warmth. You obviously didn't listen to me."

"Shut up. I was too cold to wait." She snapped, cracking her blue eye open to glare at him.

"And you nearly drowned because of it. Don't waste all my effort to save you." He replied. Kimihiro would've hit him, if only she had the strength to do actual damage.

"Whatever. Let's just soak." The couple sat in relative quiet as they soaked in the bath, their hands intertwined beneath the water. A cool breeze drifted through the air, but they couldn't feel it in the heat of the hot springs, nor did they want to feel it. Thirty or forty minutes later, the couple got quiet the surprise in their soak when something quite sizable splashed into the pool. Kimihiro screamed as a wave of water started her out of her doze and she leapt into Shizuka's lap, her muscles fully relaxed and able to move again with her normal spaziness as she gripped his shoulders with both hands. "Gah!"

"What was that?" Shizuka asked calmly, letting the water wash over him and then stared into the steam to see what it was, his arms coming to rest on his wife's hips. The thing that caused the splash came up out of the water and stared at the couple in the pool with it. Its eyes blinked at the man and woman staring back at it and the monkey chattered at them, its pink face screwing up like he was the one disturbed by their presence instead of the other way around. The white-furred monkey chirped and clacked for a few moments longer, gesturing with its hands like it was speaking to the two humans and then went back to what it came to do: soak in the hot spring. The snow monkey started grooming and cleaning itself after its cannon ball and ignored Shizuka and Kimihiro. Shizuka pointed a finger at the animal sharing their bath.

"I found your monkey." He said, referring to the seer's search at the beginning of the day when everything had gone wrong.

"I can see that." She grumbled, still staring at the monkey. But she still rolled her eyes and lightly smacked him for his sarcasm.

…

They returned to their apartment well after midnight, both of them warmed to the bone and ready for some rest.

"I am not leaving this room for any reason other than going down to the hot springs." Kimihiro declared, falling onto the futon, her wet hair slapping against the pillow. She was so exhausted that she never wanted to get up.

"I'm fine with that." Shizuka agreed, aching after his jaunt through the mountains to find her. He sat down on the futon and reached for his wife's hand, lacing his fingers in hers. Kimihiro looked over at him, smiling at the man who would always be by her side.

"And…as thanks…" The seer started, her cheeks burning. "We can have all the sex you want…only…you have to do all the work because I can hardly move." Shizuka's mouth crooked up in the smallest smile known to man.

"I'm fine with that too." He leaned down and kissed his wife's lips, wrapping his arms around her as he laid down.

"I figured as much." She grumbled when they broke for air. Shizuka reached down with his top arm and pulled the blanket over them both before settling down to sleep. A few moments passed in comfortable silence before Kimihiro spoke again.

"I'm cold." Came the understatement of the year. "Can you get another blanket?" Shizuka sat up and crawled over to the drawers that held the other blankets and pulled another one out. "Better make it three." He rolled his eyes.

"That's all we have." He stated, grabbing all the blankets.

"Then that's perfect." Kimihiro replied. Shizuka brought the blankets back and spread all three of them across the futon, the weight of each another layer of warmth that was endurable if it'd make Kimihiro more comfortable. Shizuka wriggled his way back under the covers and reached for his wife, pulling her closer and into his chest.

"Oi." Shizuka whispered as he snuggled into Kimihiro's back, wrapping her up in a warm cocoon of his arms and legs, skin on skin where their kimonos slid off their bodies. She shifted back into his chest, still shivering slightly from her ordeal that afternoon and breathed a contented sigh.

"What?" She said irritability, trying to fall asleep as quickly as possible.

"I have a request." He stated.

"What is it?" The seer rolled her head back a little bit to catch a glimpse of Shizuka's face, her hair falling over her eyes.

"Chocolate." Came the answer.

"For breakfast?" She asked, confused.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Because it's Valentine's Day. Idiot."

"Go to sleep!" Kimihiro snapped, rolling over to sleep and wondering why she married her husband in the first place if all he ever did was shove her back into the kitchen at any given moment. But…she did want chocolate too, so… it wouldn't be too much trouble to make him some as well. After all, it was Valentine's Day.

End

A/N: And there you go! I hope you enjoyed all of that and had a Happy Valentine's Day! See you all later!

Note 1: Onsen is a term for hot springs and usually refers to the bathing facilities and inns around the hot springs.

Note 2: Is a bad sign to catch a crow's gaze in Japan. It foretells misfortune or a unfortunate event.

Note 3: The Japanese macaque or "snow monkey" is and Old World monkey native to Japan. They are the northern-most living, non-human primate. They live on three of the four main islands (Honshu- the big island, Shikoku – the smallest of the four, and Kyushu – the southernmost island) and as an added peculiarity, they take baths in the hot springs to keep warm, and as a social ritual. The occurrence happens so much that several onsen towns have baths specifically for snow monkeys so that they don't take baths with humans (hygiene observance for both species).

Note 4: Yuko onna are snow women that appear on snowy nights or during snowstorms and are tall, beautiful, have long black hair and blue lips. She sometimes wears white kimono but in other legends she's nude. She floats across the snow leaving no footprints in the snow, in fact, some tales say she has no feet (a feature common for Japanese ghosts) and she can turn into a cloud of mist or snow if threatened. Yuki onna can be the spirits of people who have died in winter storms or are spirits from the beginning of their existences. They are beautiful are serene, but are merciless in killing in unsuspecting mortals. Leaving travelers as frost-covered corpses, leading them astray to die of exposure, or invading homes with a killing wind, the yuki onna has been depicted killing mortals in many ways. But in recent years, the yuki onna has been represented as more human, emphasizing her ghost-like nature and ephemeral beauty.