It's not thaaat long but here's the next chapter ^^. I think the second chapter will be a bit longer, there are so much things in my mind haha. Thanks for reading and feedback is appreciated. It really helps me to keep my fic going aand it's really nice to know if you liked it or not.
1. Winters coming
"Hold on!", a very familiar, womanly voice shouted above the rigid water surface while keeping hold on his rather broad wrist. Compared to that dainty hand it was in fact pretty broad. After a few seconds of asking himself who this person could actually be Caius suddenly realized, that the "calm" water surface was frozen. With this new knowledge a flash of coldness rushed through his nearly motionless body. He began to tremble like an aspen leaf. Never ever had the chaotic guardian felt so helpless. Or at least it felt like it. In some way he was ashamed because of his weakness.
Just before Caius drifted off into his confused thoughts, his unknown savior pulled him with an powerful jerk out of the bone-chilling cold water. The tall warrior spat some of the cold liquid out of his nearly blue mouth before he gasped violently for precious air. The high-pitched sound of a siren buzzed in his sensitive ears. It was awful. Why would someone turn this monstrosities on by free will?
The unknown stranger that saved Caius's life dragged him further out of the little water hole. As the sharp coolness of the frozen surface beneath his body touched his bare torso, he groaned agonized. Not only that this damn, frosty ice plate was bloody cold. A medium sized shard slashes it's way from his chest to his nude hips. A pained gasp was released from his nearly blue lips. The purple haired man with the light tan wondered where the hell his armour could be. Just by now he realized, that he was completely naked. How silly must he look. It was embarrassing, yet no one laughed at the quivering man. Fortune smiled upon him, ironically.
"Damn..", the familiar stranger cursed in a muted tone. While hot, red blood dripped on the white surface beneath him, he was entirely pulled out of the slowly expanding water hole. Panting like a nearly drowned person Caius lifted his head up. His dark gaze met the frosty, light blue eyes of his rescuer. A surprised gasp left the tall mans shivering lips. It was her! The ex-soldier of Cocoon, guardian knight of Etro, the savior! It was Lightning. "Come on big boy.", the rose haired woman that was dressed in a police officer uniform gasped while supporting the heavy, injured body of the trembling stranger. His dark red blood seeped into the clean shirt of her uniform and colored it nearly red. Lightning seemed to have her problems with his weight but didn't complain at all.
Caius tried his best to drag himself over to the riverside, but wasn't really a big help for her. Because of his heaviness the crumbling coat of ice started to break. The brave police officer frowned at the frozen surface, while supporting the foreign looking man with all her might. She didn't want to take a bath in this freezing cold water!
After a few steps more the ice made a loud, creakily sound. The frozen water underneath their shuddering feet gave in and broke into a few ice shards. The blue eyed woman was slightly startled, as her and Caius legs began to sank into the dark fluid of the winterly sea.
"What the..", Lightning gasped a bit desperate in this particular hard situation. The amethyst haired guardian twisted his mouth a in despair. He sure didn't like prospect of another cold bath too. In the momentum of their downfall he pressed the fair skinned woman with his left arm on his bare chest and leaped forward. It was a pretty good move. With his broad back first he fell into the muddy snow, making an terrible sound. A medium sized stone drilled itself into his poor spine.
Lightning clenched her light colored eyes while she fell on the strangers cold, bare torso. Her weight caused the nasty stone to drill itself further into Caius's back. One could feel really bad for this poor guy. His first day in the new world and his surroundings already tried to kill him. Lovely.
Groaning slightly pained the police officer pulled herself together and got up, using the pretty foreign looking mans ribcage as support. "That was a hell of action.", her a tad low-pitched voice trembled slightly. "Now we need to get you to a hospital.", the delicate pink haired woman examined carefully the nearly white colored environment. The cold hearted winter had claimed once green landscape for himself.
Sneezing softly a short woman with white roses in her sapphire colored, pinned-up hair pulled a little floral arrangement out of a dark, wooden rack. It was truly beautiful. It had a wintry theme. Twigs of evergreens were positioned in a circle on a little, wooden disk. Within the circle one could see a little red plastic apple. It was adorned with golden glitter and a little likewise golden coloured ribbon on its top. With the little fake presents, a few more golden ribbons and white golden glittery snowflakes in it, the floral arrangement looked a tad cheesy. But the tiny woman didn't seem to care. In fact she liked all this cheesiness.
"Bless you!", a cheery voice tinged from the decorated entrance, after the christmassy chime of little, golden bells. They were hanged up above the red, newly painted doorway. The owner of this shop was truly excited about the coming of Christmas. "Oh, I'm sorry.", the short woman with the silverish, blue hair rubbed the tip of her nose slightly. "Good day to you Noel.", another sneeze followed. "Good day to you too Yeul. You're getting ill hum?", the dark brown haired, young man that stood in the glittery doorway raised his likewise brown, a bit thin eyebrows in deep worry. He wore a long, nearly black, dark brown coat that was made out of wool. It was covered in countless snowflakes and on its front, greyish-golden buttons found their place. Little cat paws were stomped into their surface. Underneath the thick coat his dark blue jeans were seen. They seemed to be newly bought. On his feet were heavy, black imitation leather boots. This dark fellows owned pretty thick, removable inner lining. His boots were a bit drenched from the melting snow. Like the blue-eyes mans brown hair, that was slowly soaked from the melting snowflakes on it. Noel looked a all in one kind of funny, because the golden glitter from the garland, that was pinned above the doorway, fluttered slowly down on his damp head.
"Oh no no no. Don't you worry.", Yeul's little, slender hand reached into her dark blue coat pocket to pull a soft, white handkerchief out. The silver, with ornaments adorned buckles that were designed to hold this winterly piece of clothing together, jingled a bit in response to her movement. After that she brought the handkerchief up to her sickish red nose. "I'm fine, Noel.", she mumbled muffled into the white fabric. After a few, deep breaths were taken she sneezed again. But this time into the soft piece of cloth. "If you say so...Still you should take a bit time off for yourself." the young but dark voice Noel's sounded worried. The short woman shook her head in refusal while she set the beautiful floral arrangement down on the dark brown lacquered oak shop counter. "I can't. It's almost Christmas!", Yeul was sincerely upset. "I have no one to cover me. Who will take over the duty of running my flower shop?", crossing both arms before her in thick layers covered chest the green-eyed woman furrowed her left eyebrow.
"I will.", came it quick like a shot out of the young mans smiling mouth. Yeul was indeed confused over this fast answer. "No you don't", a warm laugh was heard from the blue-eyed man. "Yes I will.", was his determined repartee. The blue haired florist grumbled a little in response. She didn't like to hand her precious shop over to someone another. But it was Noel, he wouldn't ravage it or anything. He knew that this little, tiny shop meant a lot to her.
"Okay Noel..But only if you promise that you're open to take a few lessons about flowers to me.", Yeul said convinced while holding up her right index finger. "Okay okay. I promise, Yeul.", he nodded with a big grin on his a little blue tarnished lips. It was deadly cold outside. "Oh by the way Yeul, why are you so..how should I say. Uhm why are you so...nicely dressed? Because you know your hair and yeah." Noel's big grin disappeared. He was a bit flustered one could say. "Well y-you look v-very pretty today.", he spluttered while scratching the back of his head because of his nervousness. That was almost always his big problem when he wanted to make Yeul a compliment. Most of the time he failed and his green-eyed crush would giggle gently.
And even this time a gentle giggle was heard from the pale, little woman with the bright jade colored eyes. "Thank you Noel. It's because...well I just wanted to try something out" a faint blush appeared on her sickly pale cheeks. "So uhm...Y-yeah nicely done Yeul! Well, I-I will come b-back later aaaaaand take s-some lessons from you! See you later Yeul!", Noel stammered awfully before he tried to flee out of the flower shop, but failing horribly. The dark brown haired, young man ran right ahead against the cold glass door of the shop.
It caused Yeul to giggle even louder. Poor Noel, he could be so clumsy in her presence. He took a step back and rubbed his forehead. Mumbling something of being utterly embarrassed, the chocolate brown haired man shook his head before raising his hand to wave goodbye to Yeul. She returned the gesture before Noel disappeared through the doorway.
Outside the flower shop he took a deep breath while a rush of coldness rushed through his bones. He closed his bright blue eyes. The icy winter breeze had a fresh scent. It was mixed with a note of cinnamon, probably because christmassy floral arrangements that took their place in front of Yeuls tiny shop. As Noel opened his eyes again he clenched his fist to an victory move.
After a while Yeul heard a loud "YES!" coming from the outside of her shop. She was truly irritated, but didn't bother to go after her euphoric friend.
It was a bit difficult to write the Caius being rescued part. Because he is pretty tough. I hope I didn't made him too weak, haha.