HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!
Well, I came up with this story idea last year on April Fool's Day as a joke, and then I started having fun with the idea, so I saved it for this year. Possibly inspired because last year it snowed on March 31 where I live.
Anyways, here's a random story that I'll update throughout the spring accordingly to the plot of the story, though since I'm still working on it, I apologize in advance if the dates in real life don't always quite match the dates in the story. I guess this celebrates what hopefully will be spring, and of course, April Fool's Day. Because I'm perhaps too nice to prank people in reality. XP
April 1 – 8 a.m. – Winter Base
Kaito awoke with a groan, kicking at the tangled blankets around him with little success. Everything was hot, too hot. His blankets were clinging to his sweat-stained skin, sticking to him like a cocoon. He fought with his covers for a while, still half-asleep, struggling to find the edges in order to plot his escape. Even when he did wrench himself from the grips of his humid blankets though, something still wasn't quite right.
Kaito sat there at the edge of his bed for a while, eyes closed and tongue stuck out like a kid to taste the air. It was humid, humidly hot and sickening to the taste, pressing down on him like heat waves threatening to melt him into a puddle...
Wait, a puddle?
Kaito's eyes snapped open to look down at himself. His eyes bulged at the sight of his casual clothes now hanging loosely off his body, the collar of his shirt gapingly large on his tiny shoulders. Kaito could barely see the tips of his toes poking out from underneath the scrunched up folds at the end of his now oversized sweats, but that didn't stop him from leaping off his bed, racing towards the door shrieking, "WHO TURNED ON THE HEATER?"
He tripped over his pants before he could reach the door, his cries of pain echoing loudly throughout the base. Luo Tianyi found him just like that, flat on his stomach, feet kicking at the air with his face pressed into the carpeted floor. It was a pitiful sight, seeing the leader of Team Winter reduced to the form of a tantrum throwing child, but in the four years Tianyi had worked for Kaito, she'd pretty much gotten used to it by now.
"Honestly, is this something worth crying over?" Tianyi sighed, crouching down to pet Kaito's head, his bedhead sticking out in all directions.
"If this is an April Fool's joke, it's not funny!" Kaito sniffled, kicking at the floor even harder.
"I'm sure no one would ever dare to prank you," Tianyi laughed, an image forming in her head of an embarrassed red-faced Kaito. The image of him embarrassed wasn't as funny as the implication that Kaito's embarrassment and subsequent overflow of anger would most definitely cause a giant snowstorm. Oh, how she'd love having fun sending the storm all over just to wreck havoc, but alas, with spring here, she'd have to wait another for her fun.
Kaito very obviously took no heed of Tianyi's shallow comfort, continuing on with his muffled whining, if only for his self-satisfaction. "It's too hot in here! It's too hot!"
Tianyi paused in the middle of a yawn, realizing that Kaito was right. She hadn't noticed at first, too preoccupied by the cries that had roused her from her beloved sleep, but it was strangely warm inside the base, which usually averaged a temperature of 5 to 15 degrees Celsius. At the moment, the temperature might've at least been an average air temperature for a normal human to live in, which for Team Winter, translated back as warm, maybe borderline hot. Not that the warmer temperature actually affected her, but for Kaito, who represented the snow and storms of winter, warmth killed. Just as snow melted with heat, Kaito melted too, back into the form of a temperamental brat.
"Okay, okay, stop crying!" Tianyi said, grabbing Kaito's arms and pulling him up onto his two feet. "I'll go check what's wrong with the heater, so go hide in the freezer for now or something."
"Why can't we get rid of the heating system all together?" Kaito grumbled, grabbing his blue scarf and wrapping it around his skinny neck a few times before plodding along after Tianyi. "Then we won't ever have this problem again!"
"Because someone new just moved in, remember?" Tianyi answered, entering the kitchen and flinging open the freezer. "He's not used to the cold yet, so just stay in here until you're back to normal."
Kaito just glared back at Tianyi and stuck his tongue out her before getting into the freezer. Currently, the only thing inside was ice cream, leaving enough space for the kid-sized Kaito to return back to his adult form once he was cold enough. Tianyi shut the freezer with a sigh once Kaito got comfortable enough with an ice cream bar in his mouth before heading off to check on the AC system.
Her brow only furrowed deeper at the sight. The system was currently set to 0 degrees. It was supposedly colder than normal, so why in the world was it still so warm?
"What's the matter?"
Tianyi turned to see Oliver peering out from his room, fully dressed with his blonde curls sticking up off his head, yet still matted down enough to cover his currently bandaged left eye. As usual, that yellow goldfinch Oliver called James was sitting precariously on the shoulder of Oliver's sailor suit as he walked over.
"Well, it's really warm in here, right? But apparently the AC is working, so I can't figure out why it's so warm," Tianyi replied, still studying the screen with a confused expression.
"Maybe it's just because it's springtime now?" Oliver suggested, moving to open the shades over the window before his mouth promptly fell open.
The sight outside left even Tianyi, the most collected of people, speechless. It wasn't much, but the tiny white particles floating outside was most definitely snow. Snow that definitely shouldn't have existed on the first of April when it'd been so warm just the day before.
"Kaito, what did you do?" Tianyi shouted, pulling open the freezer door to reveal a now adult-sized Kaito finishing up the last bits of his ice cream.
"Do what?" Kaito echoed, confused as he stepped out, shaking out the crystals that'd formed in his hair, now feeling more rejuvenated than ever.
Tianyi pointed outside with an accusing expression on her face. Kaito's eyes followed the direction her finger was pointing in out the window, expressionless as his deep blue eyes reflected the sight of gently falling snow.
"Oh," was all Kaito said, just as the telephone began to ring. Kaito sighed, knowing what was coming. He picked up the receiver, holding it far away from his ear as the person on the other end shouted, "What's the meaning of this, Kaito?"
"Sorry, I just panicked when I woke up this morning, that's all," Kaito said, chewing on the end of ice cream stick. "It was really warm in the base for some reason."
"Don't give me that bullshit. What the hell are you up to now?" Luka hissed, her words causing Kaito to frown. The entire time Kaito had known her, Luka never cursed, never even said a word that resembled a curse word. The fact that she just did was a bad sign. A bad, bad sign.
"I honestly don't know what you're saying. You're calling because I accidently caused it to snow outside, right? Though aren't you supposed to prevent that? What's your sun doing if she can't melt a little snow before it falls?" Kaito shot back, careful to keep his tone from getting too hostile.
"The sun you're talking about has been kidnapped," Luka said, her tone oozing with venom. "And from the note we found, you apparently thought this was a funny April Fool's prank to play on us even though you of all people should've known better, so stop playing dumb and give Rin back!"
Kaito winced at the loud crackle over the transmission as Luka hung up. He carefully set the handset back onto the phone set, rubbing one ear before turning to fix his two teammates with a questioning look. He asked, "Did either of you happen to kidnap a sun?"
"Huh?" Tianyi's eyes narrowed in confusion, sharing a look with Oliver before staring back at Kaito like he was crazy.
"Hmmm… Well if what Luka's saying is true, Rin must've been kidnapped and brought here, which would explain why it's so warm in here, and I didn't do it, and I trust the two of you wouldn't ever be crazy enough to do so, so the only one who could do that would be…" Kaito trailed off as the answer struck him. His teeth suddenly gnashed down on the wooden stick in his mouth, cracking it in half as anger once again took hold of the man.
"MIIIIIIKUUUUOOOOOOO!" Kaito shouted, storming away to the farthest room down the hall. While Oliver and Tianyi watched in amazement as Kaito's figure once again began to shrink the closer he got, Kaito flung upon the bedroom door of the newest recruit, his glare ready to kill.
A gush of hot air exploded from the doorframe, burning Kaito's skin as he tried to shield himself from the heat that escaped from the room within. By the time everything had calmed down, Kaito was left once again in the form of a child, this time even younger looking than he'd been when he'd woken up. One look revealed Rin lying serenely on the bed, fast asleep and dressed in a petite spring outfit without a hair out of place. There was a serene, gentle glow about her, fitting for the one who represented the spring sun, a scene that would've calmed even the wildest of hearts if not for the sight of the newest recruit standing beside the bed, frozen in his spot as he stared down at Kaito with a shocked look. Whether it was shock from having his prank exposed, or shock from seeing Kaito as a kid, Kaito didn't bother to find out as he glared up at the boy's vividly blue eyes framed by his turquoise bangs.
"Want to explain yourself, Hatsune?" Kaito hissed.
Mikuo could only crack a nervous smile as he weakly quipped, "Happy April Fool's Day?"