Snow on Ice
The SOS Brigade visiting an open-air ice-skating rink during evening. After a while it begins to snow.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
XXX
These things are like way too tight for comfort. It's almost as if someone thought to themselves: 'hey, how can we make people's feet as miserable as possible?' And someone answered them with: 'with these, young one.'
"Necessary." Comes the answer to my unspoken complaints.
I blink. Of course I know that they're necessary Nagato, but that doesn't mean that I have to enjoy them.
"Ignore Kyon, Yuki. He's not happy unless his grouchy!" Haruhi heartlessly commands her silent subordinate.
That makes no sense at all, and you know it!
"D-Does K-Kyon-kun-..." Asahina looks at me, eyes wide, before hurriedly turning away, blushing. "I-I n-never knew t-that K-Kyon-kun was that kind of person..." She says to herself.
Laugh it up Tsuruya-san, if this was a lethal situation, I would so totally haunt you after Haruhi manages to get me killed.
"Ah, Asahina-san, I honestly don't think that Kyon-kun is a masochist." Koizumi tries to assure our senpai, completely ignoring that he's not supposed to look so damn happy about saying such things in public.
Thankfully, Asahina has decency enough for both of them, and turns completely red. "I-I'm sorry K-Kyon-kun!"
Tsuruya falls off the bench, her convulsions of amusement not allowing her to remain seated.
"Oi! No time for talking about Kyon's sex-life! Let's get going already!" Haruhi mercilessly steamrolls everything.
I'm not sure if I should be happy that she manages to dismiss the topic, or annoyed at her for being so horribly blunt about it. Hell, even Koizumi turned a little pink around the edges from that comment.
Tsuruya turned red too, but I think that's more due to a lack of oxygen than any embarrassment, considering how hard she's laughing.
Still, once we get going, I'll hopefully forget just how horribly tight these things are.
"Oh! And don't forget: Safety First!" Then Haruhi nearly makes me fold double as she shoves a helmet into my gut, making me wheeze helplessly for air.
'Safety First' my ass.
"Of course, Suzumiya-san." Koizumi smiles happily at the crazy girl who didn't shove a helmet into his stomach.
How sure are we that Haruhi wasn't accidentally swapped out with someone else, anyway? She's almost acting, dare I say it... responsible.
"Shut up Kyon! Just for that, that's a penalty! Don't slander your Brigade leader's good name!"
What good name? You're already infamous.
Haruhi proves herself to be the real Haruhi when she responds to my logical argument by sticking out her tongue at me.
It's cloudy, it's a little bit chilly, and of course we're the only ones here. Tsuruya and Koizumi have some seriously good contacts.
Fastening the helmet, because no matter what I say, I'm not stupid enough to enter an ice-skating rink for my first time without taking every safety precaution available to me, I wobble my way out towards the ice.
The first few steps convinces me that this is clearly not the sport for me, and that I should probably retire towards the sidelines at first possible opportunity. Because, helmet or not, I'm really not looking forward to spending hours upon hours of falling constantly on my ass onto solid ice, solely for Haruhi's entertainment. And Tsuruya's... If I do manage to get myself killed here, I'm absolutely going to haunt her.
XXX
We've been out here for a while, with Tsuruya and Haruhi moving around the place like hyperactivily unstoppable whirlwinds in all of their athletically talented glory.
Koizumi isn't doing too badly either, though his time is mostly spent trying to keep Asahina from falling on her butt, and they both seemed to be enjoying themselves in a way that – as a single male – annoys me. Whilst Nagato seems to have settled for slowly drifting around the ice-rink in an endless loop, as the lighting is apparently not good enough for her to read by, and Haruhi has given up on trying to beat her in a race across it.
And as for me... well, I'm falling on my ass repeatedly. Pretty much like predicted, actually.
Thankfully, the exertion is enough to keep the cold that should be seeping into my bones by now at bay.
Getting to my feet once more, and distractedly wondering whether or not I'll be able to sit properly in the next few days, something runs into me.
Literally.
The sudden impact of another body makes me – for the first time – grateful that there aren't any actual railing around the ice, allowing me to fall into the reasonably soft snow that surrounds it, rather than crash into them and break my back.
Groaning at the impact that could still have been a lot worse, I look down at the shape that's currently occupying my chest.
Chrome-like silver slowly blinks back up at me.
Nagato? Did I at some point meander my way into the middle of her path? Damn, I should've paid more attention. Sorry, Nagato, didn't see you there.
"Not at fault." She reassures me in her usual monotone, causing my eyebrows to climb.
Obviously, if I'm not at fault for not paying attention, then someone else must be at fault for our crash. Since Nagato has pretty much never failed at anything that I can think of right at this moment, this means that there was outside interference.
Glancing over the small girl's shoulder I spot a widely grinning face. I see, yes that would certainly explain it. Dammit Haruhi! As if I haven't already fallen down on hard things enough already?! Let me have a little bit of peace before you start shoving people at me!
Haruhi, once again proving herself to indeed be Haruhi, looks perfectly unrepentant.
Sighing, I turn my eyes back to the girl that is still sprawled out on top of me. It's not an uncomfortable position actually, but it's... unsettling, I suppose, to be so close to a pretty girl. Especially to an attractive girl that doesn't seem like she's in any hurry to get up.
Considering Nagato's personality at play, I'd guess that she's decided that lying on top of me is her currently most efficient position to be in. Why she would decide that, I don't know.
It's possible that she's gotten cold, and wants to leech of a little of my body-heat – which would be a price that I'm more than willing to pay for all the help she's provided me with over the years, even if she hadn't been an attractive girl that was currently lying on top of me. Another, and probably more likely, possibility would be that she's gotten tired from moving around so repetitively, and thinks that my body is as good a place as any to rest.
Still, I'm not sure how long our honored Brigade Leader will approve of me continuing to be trapped underneath a pretty girl, before she decides that she needs to find some new way of torturing me.
Ah, well, Haruhi is actually a wonderful person, but complaining about her comes as naturally to me as breathing by now, and it also allows me to remember to be pessimistic about my life, which is really an important thing to be reminded of.
All this considered, I should probably try to move Nagato into a less compromising position. Which is the only reason that I'm currently wrapping my arms around her. Honest!
Nagato blinks again, in her usual serenely slow manner, staring up at me with eyes that look startlingly large on her face.
Something wet lands on my forehead, briefly distracting me from liquid chrome.
It's started to snow.
Big, heavy snowflakes falling softly all around us.
I catch Koizumi and Asahina staring up at it, hand-in-hand and large smiles on their innocently red faces. Damn... how can I be annoyed at the two of them when they look that happy? That's just unfair.
Shaking my head softly, I wonder how this will change our Brigade meetings. Haruhi will probably insinuate things, and cheerfully tease Koizumi about everything that Asahina is wearing. So... pretty much just like usual, just with a little less weight of Haruhi-entertainment on my own shoulders. Not bad.
My eyes are again pulled back to Nagato's as she shifts minutely in my arms. It's strange how she manages to be so comfortable for me, considering she's using me as a pillow. She's lighter than Haruhi would probably be, but heavier than my sister usually is when she jumps on me to get me out of bed in the early mornings.
It's... a comfortable weight. Like a proof that she's really there, somehow.
Nagato's lips part in a way that's kind of horrifyingly distracting at this range. "Warm."
I blink, spending a moment to try and wrap my head around the fact that she's spoken at all, before I begin to process the single word and all that it might mean.
I'm not sure what it means, actually. My head seems to be going in circles, because Nagato smells a little bit of shampoo, and I'm suddenly distracted by the realization that Nagato must've taken a shower at some point, which meant that Nagato showers, which is an amazing idea all on its own. But she smells nice, and I'm trying really hard to keep the images of what Nagato might look like without clothes and with water running down her lithe form out of my head.
It's not working.
Something in my head registers a sign of imminent danger, and I catch a glimpse of Haruhi over Nagato's shoulder.
A smugly grinning Haruhi, that looks far too be pleased with herself for it to be in any way related to having pushed the tiny alien into me and caused me to fall on my ass. It's the kind of look that she usually wears when the execution of her plan goes exactly according to her wishes.
I blink, eyes widening in shock at the sudden realization of why she's pleased.
Because Nagato shifts in my arms, and of course Haruhi has planned it all. She's Haruhi, and she won't allow any of her subordinates to pointlessly drag their feet, regardless of the situation. And the only way that she could've known is...
"Devious." I breathe, shifting my eyes to meet those of the girl in my arms.
There's a movement around the edges of her mouth that might've been a tiny smile, and something in her eyes flashes victoriously.
She's breathtaking.
So I kiss her. Because her lips look tantalizingly warm, and they taste a little bit like molten snow.
Ignoring Haruhi's loud cheer of victory is a lot easier than I might've imagined it to be.
XXX
A/n: Living next to an ice-skating rink in a place where it snows damn near continuously through the winter is... apparently inspiring.