Ice Please?
By Miss-DNL
It was uncharacteristically hot in the mountains of China as the country was hit with a heatwave. It was slightly cooler up in the mountains but not by much. The area where the Lin Kuei's secret headquarters was not spared the sweltering heat either. Most of the members endured it in stride….but some not so much. Smoke was one such individual who was oddly enough…not handling the heat well. He made it known to his friend Tundra with his constant moaning.
"Come'on Tundra….can't you make it cooler?" Smoke begged. His friend who was sitting on his knees remained silent as he ignored him. Clearly he was giving the grey clade warrior the silent treatment. Smoke pondered why he was upset with him, "Is this about the walking refrigerator comment from yesterday?"
"Possibly." Tundra answered simply, basically stating it was.
Smoke whined a moment, when his friend was upset with him he'd stay mad until he got a proper apology. He looked past him to Tundra's brother who was sitting beside his sibling, "You're not going to help either….are you?" Sub-Zero shook his head making Smoke flop onto his back, "It was just a joke!"
"You know how we hate ice and cold puns." Sub-Zero grunted dully as Tundra nodded with what he said. Despite the strictness of the Lin Kuei people still seemed to find plenty of time to slip a pun about their element. Primarily Smoke, so it had worn on both their nerves after a while.
"Shouldn't you be tolerant of such heat?" Tundra inquired. It only seemed natural since Smoke could generate a lot of heat himself. He and his brother were tolerant of very cold temperatures after all. Heck if they wanted to, they could stand in the middle of the South Pole in winter during a blizzard in nothing but swimming trunks if they wanted to and not notice a difference!
"Yes, we should be the ones whining about the heat. Not you." Sub-Zero agreed as he lifted a brow.
"There's a difference between hot…and too hot! This. This is too hot!" Smoke complained as he waved his arms around him. Tilting his head to the siblings from where he laid he continued, "Unlike you guys I can't make the air around me colder."
"If it makes you feel better it's still warm." Tundra admitted.
Smoke sighed, "Still better than feeling like I'm being boiled alive…So." He sat up, "Please make it colder! Please!" He begged the half Cryomancers.
"No." They both said in unison as if they were on strike.
"Are you two going to let me die!?" Smoke exclaimed loudly. The two paused for a moment looking at each other before looking back to Smoke, causing him to pause wonder what had just passed between the two cold warriors.
"Don't worry," Tundra started giving his friend a bit of hope, "We'll drag your body inside when you collapse of heat exhaustion."
Smoke's jaw dropped in shock causing him to fall over as he wept to himself, "Přítel….how can you be so cruel…?"
"Oh for crying out loud…." Smoke blinked and sat up again to see who it was, there a few feet from him was Cyrax with a tray of lemonade. Smoke smiled excited as he handed him a glass, "Here now stop your moaning. I could hear you all the way from my quarters!"
Smoke merely grinned posing to take a drink. As Cyrax passed the brothers their drink Smoke stopped noticing something was off with the drink. He stared at it for a moment while Sub-Zero asked, "What brings you over here?"
"One, Sektor isn't very happy about the heat." Both Tundra and Sub-Zero got a cringing look on their faces as Cyrax nodded, "Yeah, and two," He pointed to Smoke with his thumb, "I figured he'd be bother you two about the heat."
"Hey Cyrax." Smoke said. The yellow clad Lin Kuei turned his head to Smoke expecting him to be annoyed but instead got his glass shoved in his face, "Tell me what's missing from this drink." Cyrax furrowed his brows causing Smoke to go on, "Where are the ice cubes?"
"It's too hot. The ice we had all melted." Cyrax explained.
Smoke thought for a moment before a devious smirk came over his lips and he looked to Tundra who eyed him suspiciously. As Tundra expected Smoke held his drink out to him, the ice assassin crossed his arms shaking his head in protest. Cyrax looked from one to the other before doing the same as Smoke. This irked Tundra to the tenth degree, "Oh come on Cyrax not you too!"
Cyrax smiled apologetically, "Sorry, but it IS really hot. Also, Sub-Zero kind of bailed."
Surprised Tundra looked to where his brother had been sitting and saw he was indeed gone. Gritting his teeth he glared at the spot whipping his attention back to his two friends, "No! I will not be used in such away! Just drink them the way they are!"
"You made some ice cubes for yourself." Smoke pointed out slyly as he pointed to Tundra's drinks. As he said the incriminating little chunks of ice were bobbing around in the lemon juice.
Caught Tundra twitched muttering, "Dammit."
Grinning Smoke waves his drink, "So can we have some přítel?"
"No." Tundra said stubbornly still looking very annoyed with his wispy haired friend.
Smoke faltered slightly, "Oh come on, it's not like you'll strain yourself or something!" He protested, Tundra turned his head away from him still refusing. Pausing a moment Smoke sighed in defeat, "Okay, I'm sorry about being a kreténe and using way too many ice and cold puns yesterday." Putting his hands together Smoke begged, "Can we please have some ice O'Lord of ice and snow?"
Chuckling amusedly Tundra grinned, "That's better." One at a time he took their glasses and made them a few ice cubes before handing them back. While they happily drank he got up looking ticked again, "I'll be right back I need to go have a word with my deserter of a brother…." He grunted as he stormed off.
"Someone's going to get an earful." Smoke commented normally as he drank his now cold drink.
"Yep." Cyrax agreed.