Year Walk

Veltrop, Sweden.

December 31, 1893.

The icy air pierced his lungs when he tried to breathe.

Sweden had always been merciless when it comes to winter. His coat was too thin to make him survive the raging snow, and his scarf proved meaningless. His hands were gloveless-he could barely feel them now.

But that does not matter.

He held on to his scarf and trudged through the thick layer of snow, moving through the white woods with such determination. His eyes hurt, but he forced himself to look up. He allowed a sigh to escape his lips.

The windmill.

Finally, he's here.

With numbing fingers, he opened the door of the old establishment. Smiling to himself, he cupped his hands around his mouth and blew his breath to them; A desperate effort to warm them up. He pushed the door closed with a sway of his hips and went in further.

"Mathias?" Behind his hands, his lips widened into a wide grin. "I've been waiting for you all day."

"Niels! I'm here!"

Upon instinct, he threw himself to the smaller Norwegian man as he obnoxiously exclaimed his arrival. The other's expression (which is normally that of silent fondness and feigned irritation) turned into a pained one-an expression that Mathias didn't see. He immediately changed his expression and pushed the other away, as he normally would.

"What are you doing, going through this harsh weather without a hat?" Mathias smiled. Ah, there goes the Niels that I love. "Your ear could catch a frostbite, you know?"

Mathias sheepishly smiled at his, well, lover? "Nah, I'm doing pretty good, see?" He tapped his fingers on his ears, as if to prove his point.

"Still," Niels insisted. He paused, and let a small, soft smile grace upon his lips. "I'm quite fond of the man whose those ears belong to."

Mathias gave a quiet 'Mhm.' as he sat down the floor and pulled Niels down with him. He held the shorter man close, snuggling him, sharing the body heat. The latter didn't say anything, and so did he.

The silence-both comfortable with a sense of uneasiness, stretched out for a long time.

Niels finally said something.

"Did anyone see you coming here?"

Mathias didn't attempt to hide his affronted expression. "No, not that I'm aware of." He didn't say anything else. He looked away, and his facial features spelled out how upset he was because of the question.

The other blinked. "Don't get any funny ideas. You know that I'm not ashamed of you."

"Maybe you don't really love me, then?" Mathias allowed a frown fall on his lips. His expression greatly resembles that of a puppy that has been denied of a meal after doing his master's every bidding.

Niels huffed; Breathlessly. Silently. Nobody said anything for the longest time.

"It's not that," He softly said, snuggling closer, but hesitated after a while. "I love you very much."

"But you and I come from different worlds." The light-haired boy pulled back, and Mathias looked flabbergasted. The former didn't stand, but he kept a good amount of distance nonetheless.

"He is waiting for an answer. I said I'd give it to him next year." He stared at Mathias' wide eyes, and looked down. "And this is the last day of the year."

"Tch." Mathias stood up and looked down at Niels. He looked awfully pained. "Do you want him? Is that it? Have you just been leading me on?" Mathias felt something snap within him. It made him see red, warmed up his insides-squirming. It made him feel incredibly restless.

Upon the statement, Niels abruptly stood up. "Now you're being unfair! This isn't any easier for me!" He stopped short, startled with how he raised his voice. He never lost his cool. Not when Mathias almost drowned that one time, or the other time where his brother came home with bruises. They both stared at each other.

Mathias, however, continued to feel the rage.

Ah, a lover's scorn.

...Or maybe it's an ex-lover's scorn?

"Oh, so you think you have it worse? Tell me then, Niels: had you ever thought of anyone other than yourself in this whole ordeal?" He kept on speaking, though his words made no sense to him. They just kept on coming out. The flooded his thoughts, filled the room-and he felt sorrow. He felt anger. He wanted him to feel his pain; wanted him to understand what he is feeling.

Cold son of a bitch.

"Tell me!" His voice bellowed, echoing throughout the windmill.

The resonance of the Alto voice that Niels always had loved is now pressuring him. He felt like crying-The taller blonde's words felt heavy, his voice crushing. But he didn't. "I don't like it when you're like this!" He tried, regardless of his fear and own restlessness, to calm his better-half (ex-better-half?) down. "Calm down."

A long string of silence suddenly occurred. Niels looked on to him, and he felt afraid of what he saw. All sign of cheerfulness left Mathias and his eyes-oh god, his eyes-they looked darker than ever. It sent a huge wave of chill over his spine that vibrated throughout his body.

The atmosphere suddenly grew heavy.

The temperature dropped down-the interior of the windmill, where the walls are surrounded by millions of spinning mechanical gear and a long stretch of ladders leading upwards-they all felt cold.

Mathias looked on to him.

The next few words the man uttered made him want to crawl and beg.

"I'm going to Year Walk."

In the old days, man tried to get a glimpse of the future in the strangest of ways.

They locked themselves in dark rooms, not partaking of food and drink.

At the stroke of midnight, they ventured out into the night through the dark woods where strange creatures roamed, to see if they would be wealthy.

To see if they would be happy.

To see if they would live.

To see if they would be loved.

Author's Note:

Oh my god, I'm back. :(

Maybe I should host a drinking game called "take a shot whenever Czel abandons a story"? Kidding. But here's a new DenNor story! Well, kind of. You'll see why soon enough, hehe.

It's based off a game named, well, Year Walk. The game is awfully pretty and touching, although it's quite creepy (this statement underestimates it all, beware). There's Swedish folklore involved and it's very interesting. The game is set in 19th Century Sweden, in a fictitious town called Vedtorp. Regarding this story's setting, let's go with that too. :-)

This is yet to be Beta'd (I DON'T HAVE A BETA I''M GONNA KMN) so please pardon any grammatical mistakes, haha :(

Anyway, I'm really excited to write about this, so please do enjoy! I'll be frequently updating since Sembreak is as cool as my fridge.

So please leave a review? Pretty please, with a huge cherry and bits of raspberry on top? c:

-C.