It was done. The war was over, and things seemed peaceful. Not everyone survived, and not everyone got to smile because of the experience.
The Illuminati headquarters were in ruins and were now but old burnt walls in the middle of nowhere left to rot. Its surviving members were imprisoned and interrogated.
Demons like Lucifer, though, returned to Gehenna to try and claim Satan's throne. Lower level kings like Amaimon or Egyn didn't bother to fight. They just made their way back to their territories to try to pipe down their kin and wait for a new commander.
Assiah, on the other hand, seemed calm, as if the world itself had nothing better to do, but stare out into a warm, orangey sunset from windy fields of long grass. It felt like it, really, but anyone who stopped daydreaming could realize that that was just a thought and it never really happened. So instead of that serene setting ever being a reality, cold winter was just around the corner. Hell, as soon as the conflict was over, it just randomly started snowing.
True Cross Academy, now ghost town of what it used to be, was close to becoming an ice kingdom in Assiah. It looked a lot like one of those ice festivals that were held across the country every year. Towers and rooves had the decoration of thick ice covering their entire surface. Icicles hung and snow slept, and through all of it, a single less frozen building stood tall over much of the rumble. Its walls old and worn down, while its windows were dirty and iced, it still seemed like a safe and comfortable home. It, itself, didn't seem to be as frozen as the rest of the town, granted, it had a few icicles and snow covering parts of its roof and ledges, but it wasn't too bad.
One of the building's front doors opened as Rin came out, wearing his snow jacket, the one he wore when he went to Aomori, and some snow pants he had closeted away a month or two prior. Rin had not expected to wear the clothing ever again. Hell, he thought he was going to die during the human-demon war. In the end, he survived, a bit shaken up, but still kicking.
He took a step and felt as his snow boots slipped with the soft layer of ice. Rin moved his foot looking for a spot that was a bit less slippery until he found most of the ice that went around the dorm didn't seem wet. He looked around, expecting to see someone out in such a tranquil setting, but only met silence along with the occasional atmospherical sound of wind.
Rin stared up at the somewhat cloudy sky, watching a few rays of sunlight emerge and part from the pewter grey clouds. His blank expression softened into giving a serene look, as if he was pondering, remembering something. There would probably be another snow storm tonight. It wasn't currently snowing, and the weather wasn't giving him immediate frostbite, so, it was perhaps lovely enough to go out and enjoy the clouds' shade.
Rin stood just a few steps in front of the dorm, surveying the snow surrounding everything else in the ghost town. He noticed how the city now resembled an ocean of shiny glass. It was... scary to see it so quiet and deserted.
Rin snapped back into reality and shook his head left and right a few times with his eyes closed before turning back to look at the dorm and making his way towards it again, much like a child that went to their backyard to try and sneak off only to take a sigh and go back inside. His eyes wandered onto the snow.
It looked normal, seemed to act normal, but something about just gave him a feeling of nostalgia. It reminded of a time Rin and Yukio had been kids that would go outside during their birthday to play with the snow. To when they would have snowball fights with their dad and clergymen, how they would hide in the snow, and even when they made disfigured Snowmen. Rin chuckled as he remembered every year, the exact day after playing in the snow for hours, both kids would both wake up completely sick. Yukio would always return into the monastery with a cold, while he would get sick in the middle of the night.
He squatted down, staring at the growing layer of snow that ran around the area.
Without thinking, Rin reached for the snow. He touched it but quickly pulled his hand back in the cold pain. He stared back at the snow as if it wasn't palpable that it would have a frozen condition to it. He quickly lit a small flame at the face of his palm and engulfed his hand in the fire until it wasn't feverishly cold anymore.
Rin flicked his wrist a few times before getting an idea that made him run inside and come out several minutes later with a set of glasses, two sets of leather gloves (Each different), five sugar plums, a carrot, and a single cinnamon stick. Rin carried everything in his jacket's pockets as he made his way back to the place he had first reached for the snow. He smirked in such a childish way, knowing silly little snow couldn't get in his way now. He quickly reached for some of the snow again but pulled his hand back with a yelp once again. He forgot to put on the gloves he had specifically gone inside to get.
He silently cursed at himself before slowly tugging at gloves in his right pocket. As he checked them, he found he had pulled out the wrong gloves. They had been some old fingerless (and palmless!) gloves Yukio would wear on missions. Rin cringed at the thought of trying to do absolutely ANYTHING with such monstrosities. He quickly searched his pocket again, got his desired gloves and put away his brother's old gloves.
Now with the gloves on, Rin reached for the snow, for the third time, and grabbed some. A cold chill went up against his spine as he switched and molded the baseball-sized piece of snow into a rough sphere. Rin watched as it slowly melted into tiny drops of water that started sliding to the edge of his hand until they eventually fell off the back of his palm and back onto the snow. It reminded him of teardrops — so many tears. He shouldn't think of that.
He shook his head in denial of the thought of tears, and then he flicked his hand to get rid of the water droplets. He looked back at all the snow, seeing the memory of his mother, that time when he had seen her alone and hopeless in the middle of the snow-covered house remains. That time after everyone she considered family was gone. Once again, Rin shook himself away from those thoughts and instead started thinking of the idea he had a few minutes ago about how he could take advantage of the cold weather. His pondering look was now turning into his signature smirk.
Rin squatted down in front of all the snow again and started gathering more and more, collecting it and figuring it into a giant snowball. He then repeated the process two more times until he had a snowball that went up all the way to his waist, a snowball slightly taller than his knees, and a final snowball that could barely even fit inside his own head. He carefully rolled the largest closer to the dorm entrance where there was a bit more shade than out where he had decided to roll up the cold packages. After finally placing it, he went back and carefully carried the other two snowballs to the same place, putting them on top of the more massive snowball. Rin then walked over to a nearby tree and took two branches that lay around it, thinking of how they must have been ripped off the tree with the current snow storms that have been passing by. Rin went over to the stack of snowballs and dug them into the medium's side. He then reached into his pocket for the "Monstrosities" that were the palmless gloves and slid them onto the branch ends. He stepped back and watched. Big, medium, small, arms... and what was next, again?
Rin's eyes squinted at the snowman as he put his hands in his pockets and felt the materials he had brought from inside. Oh yeah, THAT. Rin bit the inside of his cheek as he went over to the snowman, fidgeting his hand with the remaining items in his jacket pocket. On the smallest snowball that stood at the top, he pushed two sugarplums horizontally away from each other. The snowman had eyes now. Rin started placing two more sugarplums vertically under the snowman's right eye. The snowman was becoming close to done.
The builder pulled out a cinnamon stick out of his pocket and put it in an under-middle length away from the sugarplum eyes. Then placed another sugarplum under the cinnamon stick mouth, to the left side of the snowman's face. Next, Rin carefully pushed a carrot into the middle of the face, making the nose. Now, the final touch. Slowly and carefully, Rin put glasses over the sugarplum eyes.
Rin took a few careful steps back and made a full look at Yukio the snowman. The four-eyed snowman...
A sad smile spread over Rin's face, only making his regret and sadness visible. The fact the snowman's presence strongly resembled Yukio's just made Rin regret his actions even more. Yukio was always really quiet, wasn't he? Rin couldn't remember. It has been a long time from when they last met. It's also been a long time since Rin even dared think of Yukio.
Everyone has moved on from the war, everyone has found his or her ending whether good or bad, and everyone has reached his or her own goal. Rin did too, but he wished his victory included his brother. It was only a wish that may never become a reality, and it will take an eternity and a half for them to meet him again. That will be if he doesn't end up in hell because of his heritage, who knows and who cares? All Rin wants to do is to see the rest of the people he cares for again. It doesn't have to be any heaven, but Rin hopes to see Yukio and everyone else again one day. One day.
Rin smiled at the snowman again, this time, hope filling his gaze. In such a cold environment, he felt a little warmer. He walked back into the lightly unfrozen dorm. "Kuro! I'm making sukiyaki tonight!" Rin yelled, shutting the door behind him. The icicles, snow, and the snowman had eyes that only waited with hope too.
A/N: Happy Holidays, everyone.
This is connected to one of HMS Siren's concepts (Which hasn't been posted yet ;_;), please be sure to check her stories out.
(Thank you for letting me use it-)