A/N: I was telling AutumnMobile12 that when we got our first snow fall, I'd probably post this story. The next morning, I wake up to a snowstorm taking over everything. What the heck is that all about?
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A soul freezing blizzard on a mission was not something Black Star, Kid, and their respective weapons appreciated in the slightest. The white flurries made fighting kishin harder and Soul Perception was needed the entire time. What's worse, it wasn't until after they'd defeated their enemies and collected their souls the snowstorm immediately died down.
When he'd seen the mission tacked to the board, Black Star had begrudgingly agreed with Tsubaki when she had timidly pointed out they probably needed a few more people for it. He didn't believe any assistance was required, of course, but Tsubaki insisted so he'd seized the first person he saw: Death the Kid. After a quick conversation mainly involving Black Star's loud mouth and Tsubaki's attempts to calm him down, Kid accepted to go on the mission.
The weather accompanying their destination must have been delivered by Bad Luck and Nuisance. When Tsubaki was able to convince Black Star to wear a coat, scarf, and other winter gear, Kid knew he'd seen it all. The thick coats and long scarves were distracting while fighting, but they managed, ending the harsh battle and glaring up at the sky when the snow ceased to attack them.
They could have easily returned to Death City after that, back to the heat, sand, and sun, but Tsubaki threw out the idea they stick around for a bit. Without a snowstorm, the weather was actually pretty nice. They could find a place to stay for the night and return to Death City in the morning. Thinking for a few moments, everyone agreed the idea sounded pretty good (Black Star praised his weapon for 'thinking like him'), and they found a cozy hotel near the edge of the town.
Tsubaki, Liz, and Patty went inside to check in and clean up after their battle, filing in through the front doors. Kid could vaguely hear Liz and Patty chanting, "Hot tub! Hot tub! Hot tub!" as they disappeared inside.
With a sigh, Kid turned back to the chilly world outside, watching traffic race by on the highway. It was a small town, but busy, and exhaust could be seen almost everywhere, staining the already grey sky and putting a bitter smell into the air. Wrapping his arms around himself, Kid huffed into the chilly breeze and began yearning for Death City again.
"Hold this."
Before the Grim Reaper could blink, the wadded up ball that was once Black Star's coat flew into his face, followed by a twisted scarf, and the assassin's sweater. Tossing the projected laundry aside, Kid watched with some amusement as Black Star threw himself off the hotel's front steps and flopped down into a feathery snow bank.
The blue-haired teen swept his arms through the white fluff around him, grinning maniacally as it turned to slush on his bare arms. Looking back at Kid, the assassin exclaimed, "This is an awesome break from all that sweltering dryness in Death City, huh?"
Kid glanced about at the colorless landscape around them, keeping his fingers curled deep within the pockets of his long, wool coat. "The heat doesn't bother me back home," He answered with a shrug, wiping away a snowflake that settled gently on his eyelash. "My skin isn't affected by the sunlight, and I wear black all the time, which probably shows you how little it affects me."
Black Star rolled his eyes, sitting upright and viciously attacking the laces on his boots with determined fingers. "Affected by hellish weather or not," he began, wrenching his left boot off and sending it hurtling in Kid's direction without so much as a 'heads up'. "After a tiring mission spent wrapped up in how many layers, snow is my new best friend."
The Grim Reaper sidestepped as the matching boot joined its comrade where it had landed next to Black Star's steadily growing pile of winter reinforcements.
Looking up with some alarm, Kid began contemplating how far the assassin would go to cool himself in the snow. He'd heard from Tsubaki that during a mission in London, Black Star had mentioned something about standing naked in the snow without it numbing him.
"Black Star," Kid began hesitantly, lowering himself down onto the next step and raising both hands slowly. "We're in public."
Black Star kicked a pile of snow with a sock clad foot, glancing over his shoulder at his comrade. "And?"
The black-haired reaper looked around, seeing only cars hurtling by on the freeway before the hotel. "I once heard from Tsubaki that you claim you can't get cold from snow and will sit in it without wearing anything if you wanted to."
The blue-haired assassin raised an eyebrow, looking momentarily bewildered and then broke out laughing. "Oh, yeah. It's totally true, but I've never tried it. At least not yet anyway. Though, I guess I could prove it now, then Soul will owe me. We've had a bet going ever since I brought it up."
"Don't!" Kid yelled, jumping two more steps and balancing precariously on the last one, waving both arms at Black Star when it appeared the teen's shirt was soon to join the pile on the porch.
Black Star snickered, pulling the black fabric down over his torso once more and kicking a flurry of snow at the panicked reaper. "He'd owe me thirty."
"In cash, you mean?" Kid guessed.
Black Star snorted. "No, in pineapples. Duh, in cash!"
Kid rested back on his heels, closing his eyes and breathing a sigh of relief. And then he felt a sickeningly wet and cold snowball ram into his nose, exploding up his nostrils and stinging his lips.
The Grim Reaper gave a cry of alarm, impatiently wiping the melting projectile from his face while Black Star cackled insanely from his resting spot in a large drift.
"Have a little fun!" the assassin chided, leaning over and hugging the snow, pulling a monster of a snowball to his chest and patting it down. "We never really get to do this during missions because we're always attacking the bad guys."
Kid folded his arms, warily studying the other boy as his chilled sphere of destruction grew larger and larger. "I never cared for the snow, even as a child. It reminded me of what my ancestors would say: 'Keep your soul frozen and detached, eyes cold and uncaring. Death may be unfair for some, but must be done for all. Cage up your emotions and carry their lives to the beyond…'"
Black Star stopped smoothing down his task at hand, frowning thoughtfully. Gently tugging off his gloves, he stood and trudged over to the porch where Kid was watching the snow fall around them. "Take these, too," he muttered, extending a his gloves towards the other teen.
Kid reached forward, but before he could grab the leather material from his friend, the assassin seized the Shinigami's wrist, planted his nearly bare feet in the snow, and pulled Kid off the porch, sending him hurtling into the fluffy ground.
The Grim Reaper watched with wide eyes as snowflakes exploded into the sky from his landing. Tilting his head back, he watched Black Star jab a finger in his face, exclaiming, "So what if some old death gods told you about their years of taking souls and sending them on their way? Did they have you sign some stupid old parchment made of bear skin stating you'd forever vow to be cold like the snow? Did you cut open your palm and slap some blood on it, too?"
Kid blinked, opening his mouth to say something but closed it again when nothing came to mind.
Black Star's upside-down face stared back at him, uncharacteristically stern looking. With a sigh, the assassin dropped to the snow as well, cupping the cold in his hands and crushing it in Kid's face.
"Don't be stupid," the assassin muttered with an irate snort. "What's this snow got to do with someone you'll never be? Besides, cold or not, I like it anyway." He grinned brightly. "It's a good friend."
The Grim Reaper in front of him slowly raised his hand, wiping away melting slush as it trickled from the corners of his eyes. Slowly, his mouth tilted upwards in a smirk and he said, "Well, don't forget that your good friend snow can give you frostbite and have you lose a limb."
"Please," Black Star snorted, unimpressed. "If I command a limb not to fall off, it won't fall off. I bet I could be an icecube all the way down to my—" A fistful of snow was crushed into the teen's mouth before he could finish his presumably crude hypothesis.
Sputtering, Black Star tried launching a snowball at Kid, but the reaper was already on his feet, dodging the attack and grinning. The blue-haired assassin growled in annoyance and sent another frozen missile at the teen, barely ducking out of the way when another snowball flew at his face.
"Is the cold making you slow, Black Star?" Kid inquired innocently from a few yards away, smoothing down a chunk of white in his fingers. "I thought that last one was going to hit you."
"Don't get cocky, Symmetry-Fanatic," Black Star retorted, arming himself with frozen clumps. "Haven't you heard of the mission when I turned three kishin into snowmen and took them all down where they stood?"
"That never happened," Kid deadpanned, narrowing his eyes at his opponent. "That's a story from Grimm Reaper Tales." A snowball came shooting towards his face like a bullet, catching him in the ear as he sidestepped. He raised his arm to begin a counterattack when something slammed into his stomach, too solid to be a regular snowball or even a snowball reinforced with ice.
The Grim Reaper struck the ground instantly and inhaled sharply before a harsh coughing fit ran through him and he collapsed in the snow. It didn't take Soul Perception to know what had thrown him down.
"I didn't break anything, did I?" Black Star's semi-concerned voice spoke up from beside him.
"Did you just punch me?" Kid wheezed incredulously, closing his eyes and putting a gloved hand over his aching mid-section.
"It was just the side of my arm, actually. I intended to slow down, but the ground's really slippery."
"Sure," Kid agreed half-heartedly, releasing a long sigh of pain.
"This help?" Black Star asked as he shoved an armload of snow onto the Grim Reaper's stomach.
"Not really," Kid muttered before cracking an eye open to see Black Star raise an eyebrow in suspicion and admitting, "Okay, a little."
"And the snow reminds you of…?" Black Star prompted.
The thought of his old relatives came back to him with their icy stares of gold and thin lines for mouths. Their stern words echoed throughout his head, ran through his soul, reminded him of what he was supposed to be. Each figure was cloaked in black with sunken eyes and bone faces, white as the snow around him.
'Keep your soul frozen and detached, eyes cold and uncaring. Death may be unfair for some, but must be done for all. Cage up your emotions and carry their lives to the beyond…'
'What's this snow got to do with someone you'll never be?'
Kid opened his eyes, staring up into the gray sky and thinking about how out of place it looked in his mind when all he saw in Death City was lapis lazuli. It was quite the change going from vibrant to monochrome, but he couldn't say he didn't like it.
Black Star was still planted in the snow beside him, waiting intently for the Grim Reaper's answer. When Kid's eyes fell to the side to look at him, the assassin grinned widely.
"Snow is snow," Kid spoke calmly. "It reminds me of cold, storms, and stubborn friends."
"There you go, Death God," Black Star said with a grin. "You've got it."
"It reminds me of my ancestors, too," Kid added, watching Black Star's triumphant expression turn to one of bewilderment. "I'll still remember them and everything they believed in, but perhaps over time, I'll find I don't believe in those thoughts myself."
"I said it once before, didn't I? You're a god who can fall until he's on the same level of regular human beings. If you join your ancestors in their circle of detachment up on Pompous-Shmuck Mountain, how will we know if you'll ever come back down?"
Kid smirked at that and stretched his arms above his head before letting them fall into the snow. "I would think you'd tear your way onto this 'Pompous-Shmuck Mountain' and drag me back down yourself."
"Damn right I would," Black Star muttered crossly, digging his feet into the snow. "So save your friend the trouble and stay down in the realm of the mortal folk, okay? You owe it to all the mortal people like Liz and Patty. You owe it to me, one superior being to an even more superior being."
"Even more superior?" Kid asked skeptically, frowning at the assassin. "Who's the one that got a mouthful of snow?"
"And who was the first one to drop? Hmm, let me think," Black Star mused sarcastically, snickering at the glowering Shinigami.
"Fine." Kid looked back up at the dull sky, watching as darker clouds carrying more snow ambled in. "Alright, I'll admit it. The snow is pretty nice."
"Told you."
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A/N: Started this story… eh, sometime in January. It was cold out, I was sick of snow, and the wind kept blowing it everywhere. When I finished the story, it was about ninety degrees out, I was sweating, and I started writing this again in hopes it would keep me cool. It didn't… And now, how many months later, I post it... Wow...
Anyhow, thanks for reading. I hope you found it cute and reviews are welcome as always. I hope your weather is better than mine. :)