I still haven't really written any romance into this thing!
Argh, what the hell? Must change that!
But first... we'll see.

To heat up cold winter nights

'It's wintertime! ...so cold..."

All characters belong to Yu Wo, CatMuto does not own 1/2 Prince


Snow... beautiful white and delicate snowflakes falling slowly to the ground with a soft hiss,

after dancing easily through the air. Everything coated in a thick white blanket,

hiding all kinds of secrets and mistakes made. Nothing making a sound except the crunch of footsteps.

"Aaaargh, too damn cold!" Prince complained, jumping on the spot with his arms crossed.

Most of his team members and other companions heaved sighs, ignoring his antics which didn't get him warm as he hoped,

but ended up getting snow into his boots. While he balanced on one boot to shake all the snow out of the other,

the rest, except a few, went on ahead.

Deciding to train for the day, the OddSquad had teamed up with Dark Emperor and headed to the Ice Caverns.

It had been Lolidragon's suggestion and Wolf-dagé had wholeheartedly agreed to going there,

since the monsters were, of course, all of the Ice element and fighting them would be easy with Prince's weapon and Yu Lian, who was a fire-oriented mage, after all.

After Sunshine had dropped them all off at the entrance, heading into the caverns made them all stop at first.

It was like they were incased in a large, cracked glass with crystals sparkling on every edge and the white snow reflecting in them.

Aside from the danger of slipping on the ice that was hidden beneath the thick layer of snow, the monsters were nothing.

They were sick of seeing Ice Bats trying to peck at them all the time, but they were easily defeated - with horrible EXP and loot.

"Lolidragon, these monsters will get better the deeper we go, right?" Yu Lian asked, grumbling over the fact that,

after about thirty minutes of non-stop bat-killing, they had barely made a dent in their experience bars and bad loot.

It wouldn't bring much money to sell them or exchange them - and as far as she knew, the bat teeth had no real purpose,

even for Alchemists who used all sorts of monster loot for mixing potions.

"Of course. Plus, the Boss of this dungeon - Fenrir - is supposed to give a huge amount of EXP!" Lolidragon consoled the mage,

fumbling with her fingers to calculate it. "Plus, his loot contains Celsius' Tear - except for being used in the best healing potions,

it could be sold for as much as 2400 Crystal Coins to an NPC store. Even more on the player market!"

"Boss-Schmoss, where is he?" Prince complained, after getting both his snow-free boots back onto his feet and catching up.

"Oh, Prince, I am so pleased to see your enthusiasm about obtaining such valuable loot." Yu Lian sighed.

"I hope he's tough, so I can get into a real fight. That ought to warm me up!"

The mage's expression grew colder than their surroundings in an instant.

And Prince hurried to the front of the group.

As they got deeper into the cavern - Prince was wondering out loud what idot would make it snow inside a cave - the monsters got tougher,

starting with Ice Skelletons that used long and sharp icicles as spears, going further to meet Mermen, humansized fish that used swords.

Standing in front of a huge ice wall, the Squad and Emperor were dumbfounded.

Despite the map they had brought, the were now at a dead end.

"S-since we're stuck, can we go back?" Prince asked, clenching his teeth to stop them from chattering.

"No!" Yu Lian hissed at him. "We made it this far, we will not leave until we have defeated Fenrir and got our hands on that tear!"

"Yu Lian, bosses spawn randomly. What if we make it to the end of the cavern and he's not there?" he asked,

stepping towards the wall. "And besides, considering this wall, we probably are at the end!"

He stretched out his hand and wanted to knock against it to perhaps prove it's stabil mass,

but within a blink of an eye he was thrown back and a large gash across his chest stained his shirt red.

"PRINCE!" several cries came at once.

[System Announcement: Player 'Prince' has received heavy damage: -500 HP. 'Bleeding' is in effect, Player will lose -50 HP every 3 seconds]

Wolf kneeled down beside the warrior, healing the injury but could only watch as Prince lost more hit points, having no spell to rid him of that status ailment.

The only thing he could do was to use minor healing spells to prevent consequences, until the effect ended.

Meanwhile, the rest of the players had grabbed their weapons, ready for the slightest movement of whatever had injured Prince.

They stared as the wall of ice began to move, taking on a slightly smaller form and obtained two gleaming red eyes at the top.

"Is this Fenrir?" Black Lily yelled.

"No! It's an Ice Titan!" Lolidragon said, using a Spectacle - a monocle-like item that gave various information about the inspected monster.

With the massive monster approaching, they could only begin to retreat with Wolf carrying Prince.

While running, Black Lily buffed her party and the members of the OddSquad and Ming and Yu Lian threw pitifully weak Fireball spells at it,

barely making a stratch into it's HP. But the Ice Titan kept following them, swinging it's large fists at them, his frame just barely scraping the walls.

With a loud roar, the lunged forwards and managed to squish Black Lily and Doll against the wall,

both disappearing as white lights back to the Rebirth Point.

"Yu Lian!" Wolf bellowed. "Run ahead, prepare Meteor Shower!"

Nodding, Yu Lian lifted her skirt slightly to move easier and pumped her legs until she was further from the rest,

stopped and tightened her grip around her wand, beginning to chant the incantation.

Still running and getting closer, Lolidragon began to lag behind to distract the monster with her fast movements and tried to keep an eye on the mage,

trying to see when she was done and ready to use her best fire spell.

Wolf noticed a slight change in her within an instant.

"DOWN!" he yelled, his voice echoing in the cave and the players almost threw themselves onto the ground,

dodging the meteors that were rushing above them and hit the Ice Titan with pleasingly sounding whacks.

Again and again it got hit with the meteors still coming forth, although their size was much smaller than they usually were

and Yu Lian guided them in a direct horizontal line at the titan.

The monster thrashed around, trying to dodge the spell but had barely any room to move and scraped the walls.

"Wah, stop - what if he causes the cave to collapse!"

"Inferno Slash!" a voice called out and a large red streak slashed across the Titan's body and, within seconds, it melted,

flooding the ground of the cave with loot on the floor.

Prince shook his hair back and straightened up, his black dao still crackling with flames.

"Prince!", "Your Highness!", happy cries reverberated in the cave. And with a sigh, Prince held the flaming sword close.

"So warm..." he muttered, ignorant of the actual problem.

The others crowded around him, happy to see him alright and the monster defeated, slipping slightly on the water that was beginning to freeze.

Prince, still close to his sword, let his eyes glide over them for a minute. "Doll and Black Lily?"

"Sent back..." Gui sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Shall we ask Sunshine to bring them back?"

"Tch, too much work. Can't we go back ourselves, already?" he said annoyed, bending his leg to avoid it from being stuck in one position.

"We still haven't got anything good out of this place, nor have we met Fenrir yet-"

"Ah!" Lolidragon gasped and bent down, carefully picking something out of the ice. "Look!"

She was holding up something that looked extremely fragile - a rose that seemed to be made out of ice, it's thin stem barely visible in her hands.

"It's a Frozen Rose. These are worth a few Gold Coins." she told them, inspecting the glittering leaves and icy petals.

"Well... since we have that... and goodness knows, I wouldn't want to meet any more of those titans..." Yu Lian muttered,

finally nodding her head and agreeing that going back to Infinite City might be a better idea.

Happily leading the way, Prince was the first to exit the Ice Caverns and the rest followed him while he PMed Sunshine to pick them up,

Lolidragon carefully putting the Frozen Rose into her inventory. While waiting for the flying carpet to appear, Prince walked around,

gradually beginning to bend his legs more until he jumped in place again.

"Stupid game... damn cold... Screw 99% realism, man..." he grumbled. "Great and all, but why do I have to feel the cold...!"

"Your Highness, if you need warmth, let Gui embrace you...!" the bard called a while away.

"I'm fine!" Prince snapped and turned away, sneezed and rubbed his nose.

A shadow appeared over them and grew larger as it descended, the yellow carpet hovered a few inches from the cold ground,

waiting for everyone to hop on. Everyone did and, after making sure no one was forgotten or about to fall off, it ascended again.

With amazing speed, the carpet flew through the air and headed towards Infinite City.

Prince was sitting a bit off from everyone, hunched together as small as he could and pulled his jacket over his legs,

shivering. The wind whipping around him wasn't helping much and he felt his body shaking with several sneezes again.

"You should immediately take a bath after we reach Infinite City." Wicked suggested, slightly worried.

The elf turned slightly towards him and his eyes darted towards the female thief.

"Can't. Not with her running wild." he said, feeling his teeth chatter, he also felt his cheeks flush,

thinking that most of them would be heading for the baths and the thought of bathing with everyone... Prince sneezed again.

"Prince, let me warm you~" a voice cooed into his ear and he felt arms wrapping around him,

a warm body touching his back and beginning to thaw it. Wanting to thank Gui, Prince was downcast when he felt the warmth gone after a second.

"You stay away from him...!" Wicked hissed as he grabbed Gui away from Prince and shook him.

"Argh, watch it, we're extremely high!" Gui snapped, his eyes looking down for a second when he almost slipped off.

"You will reach the city much faster, then!"


Prince was running.

He was running down the longest hall in Infinite Castle, feeling his lungs ready to burst with strain.

Everybody had reached Infinite City in one piece, nobody was sent there early as a white light, and had met up with Doll and Black Lily again.

Both knew that they had managed to defeat the Ice Titan, thanks to the EXP Sharing option of the parties. Although Doll had first whined,

saying that she didn't get to see Yu Lian-jiéjié's strong meteors or Prince-gégé's final move, but she was quickly consoled with cookies.

Most of them were heading towards the bath to warm up, but Prince had made up an excuse saying he first wanted to sell the Frozen Rose,

which he did, and then headed to his personal rooms. Having changed his clothes that were so cold, he could've sworn he heard them crunching,

he had decided to not take a bath. Instead, he had opted to run the entire length and all the halls the Infinite Castle had to offer.

It was bound to get him to warm up and it was a chance to work on his endurance some more.

Now, though, he felt... well, not really warmed up, but exhausted.

Stopping, Prince put his hands against his knees and coughed, catching his breath.

Wondering if he should head to the Infinite Café and drink some tea with Kenshin and Cold Fox, Prince wiped his hair out of his face.

"Xiao Lan." Almost jumping a foot into the air, the elf gasped and looked up, seeing Wicked rounding the corner and approaching.

"Wicked... don't scare me like that!" he sighed, trying to stop his heart from beating too fast. "I thought someone found me out!"

"Sorry. What have you been doing?" the dark elf asked, studying his opposite's slightly drenched clothes.

"Ah, some running..."

"You were trying to warm up, right? If you would take a bath, you'd be warm much faster." Wicked sighed.

"No, really, I'm fine. I don't need to-"

"Xiao Lan, if you don't take care of yourself now, you might end up getting sick in real life." he told her.

"No big de-"

"Correct me if I'm wrong," the dark elf said. "but don't you have a series of tests coming up?"

Horrified, Prince twitched when he remembered that Wicked was right. He had completely forgot that test week would be soon.

And getting sick at that point would be pretty bad, he'd have to re-take the tests later... although he heard the make-up exams were always easier.

Thinking, Prince scratched the back of his head and sighed.

"You're right, I'd better... But first..." he mumbled and took a long chain out of his inventory.

Staring, Wicked looked at the chain and then at him. "Um... what are you-"

"Ahh~, it's so hot~!" Prince moaned loudly, his voice almost echoing in the hall. "I'd better take my clothes off~!"

Wicked stared, his blush not that noticeable on his dark skin, and wondered why Prince had done that and heard footsteps rushing towards them,

then Lolidragon rounded the corner with her eyes already sparkling with anticipation and blood about to burst out of her nose.

Prince rushed at her and, within seconds, managed to tie the chain as tightly as possible around her arms and legs, ignoring her protests.

"Just one peek, what's so bad about it-Ow, hey watch it! You should know, a woman's skin is very delicate-!"

"Wicked, could you watch her while I take a bath?" the elf asked, smiling sweetly.

"Sure..." he agreed, sighing at that extreme measure. "By the way, the bath's completely empty now."

Prince, already walking down the hall, gave a lazy wave to show he had heard him and headed towards the large bath,

happy to know he wouldn't have to fear of getting a nosebleed by stumbling onto one of his very hot and very naked aquaintances.

When he got to the bath, he threw his clothes onto a pile in one corner and entered the room holding the large bath itself,

feeling the steam already sweeping over his body. Just as Wicked had said, it was completely empty except for the elf himself.

With a sigh, Prince slipped into the hot water and already felt his limbs loosening, thawing from that cold that had creeped into his bones.

Closing his eyes, he leaned back and relaxed, listening to the almost silent sloshing of the water and shut his mind off.

After a while, he felt his head nodding to the side now and then.

"Prince, we-" Gui contacted him over the PM channel.

"Shut up, I'm soaking." he replied via PM and said it out loud, hearing his voice echoing.

"Um, that's-... okay." Gui stuttered and, true to the elf's words, shut up and let him be.

When Prince noticed that he had almost fallen asleep and completely submerged himself in the water,

he got out and dried off, putting on one of the thick, fluffy white bathrobes on and slipped his feet into fitting slippers.

"Ah, I feel so much better~" he cooed when he left the bath and headed towards his room to dress,

oblivious to the few female players who spotted him in the bathrobe and gasped, torn between pleased and surprised to see him like that.


How beautifully shortlived that precious warmth had been.

Later, once night had fallen, and all of Infinite City had gone to bed and sleep, Prince was in his room and awake.

He was lying in his bed, underneath three rather thick blankets and two furhides from once-slain monsters,

and yet he was still cold! Annoyed, he slipped completely underneath the blanket, although that made it hard to breathe.

"Dammit, why am I cold again?" he snapped at no-one in particular and sat up in bed.

Despite having closed the windows and putting extra blankets into his bed, he was freezing again.

He was shivering so much, he thought he heard the bed shake along with him.

Sighing, Prince pulled the blankets around himself again and wondered if he shouldn't have become a beastman, after all.

They definitely didn't have the problem with cold, although... they were so ugly...!

Giving up, Prince threw the blankets off again and felt even colder.

"Crap..." he mumbled. "How to get warm...? I can't take a bath again..."

The image of wandering through the dark castle in the middle of the night and taking a bath,

it sounded like something from a ghost story. What if another person, who had trouble sleeping, would hear him?

And it was bound to be found out, since it was him, and then the entire city would know about his 'hobby' of taking late-night baths,

Yu Lian would scold him about the image he had to hold up as City Lord and listen to Lolidragon whining about him not coming to her.

"I would've warmed you with my body!, is what she would say." Prince muttered, mimicking her voice.

Frowning, Prince stared at the sheet beneath him for a second and followed his train of thoughts to the end,

jumping off the bed and wincing at the cold floor under his feet.

Throwing his jacket over his shoulders, the elf left his bedroom and closed the door.

Finding himself in a dark hall, the elf made his way to the only lightspot he saw ahead - a single torch on the wall.

Taking it down, he held it up high to see as far as he could but to no avail. He barely saw anything.

Walking down the hall, he got to the winding staircase leading to a lower floor of the tower.

He couldn't help but hope that he wouldn't run into anyone - one thing to be found out about taking baths at night,

another to be found stalking his castle's dark hallways at night. People might mistake him for a ghost, considering his light complexion,

and that would be even weirder! Trying to stop himself from thinking up weird stories that would make headlines, he shook his head.

Coming to a three split-way, Prince looked down the left and right hall.

The only things down the way he had come from was the stairs that led to his room, so he only had to choose between left and right.

"God, I hope I don't pick the wrong one now... it could get embarrassing..." he wondered, creeped out by his voice in the dark.

Looking both ways again, Prince took the left one and hoped to be right. Seeing the hall with several, identical looking doors ahead of him,

he tried to think straight. He felt like he was getting colder by the minute... putting the torch into a frame close-by,

the elf wondered if he remembered correctly and slowly opened one of the doors, attempting to make no sounds whatsoever.

Stepping into the dark room, he closed the door as quietly as he could and... then what?

Hoping he got the right room, Prince dared to take slow steps, almost dragging his feet over the floor.

And right away, he knocked into something that made a loud dong sound and was about to hit the floor even louder.

"Aw shi-" he stopped himself and, trying to ignore the pain in his stubbed toes, managed to grab whatever it was he had knocked into.

Feeling the long, wooden shape and the fine strings of the guqin, Prince almost cheered and put the instrument on the floor.

Not daring to breathe for a few seconds, he waited to hear a muffled groan or a snore or something,

but the figure in the bed didn't move. Apparently, Gui was a heavy sleeper.

"Well, all the more better for me, I hope..." Prince thought to himself and shuddered, slipping his arms into his jacket.

Feeling his way towards the bed, he felt his fingers touch the silky blankets and up to the head of the bed.

Squinting his eyes slightly, he could just make out Gui's shadowy figure lying on the other side of the bed, turned towards him.

The elf didn't move for a while, he had this weird feeling that Gui was awake and watching him... barely breathing,

he tried to look like a random object in the room, in case he was being watched. But when he dared to lean down a bit,

he saw the bard a bit better and noticed his eyes were closed, a few strands of his long hair obscuring them and-

"This is no time to be gawking at his beauty, dammit!" Prince yelled at himself mentally and grabbed the blankets a bit.

Suddenly blushing furiously, the elf remained standing for a bit and then, like he was pushed, slipped underneath the blankets.

Wondering if his face was flushing bright enough to be seen in the dark, Prince looked at the still sleeping bard.

Under the blankets, it was already warmer than his own bed, but... remembering for a second the comforting warmth Gui had given him on the carpet,

the elf carefully scooted inch by inch towards him. Shaking, more with adrenaline than cold, Prince was close enough to Gui now to see him clearly.

Gui was sleeping, his right arm was bent and used as a pillow and his left hand slightly underneath his cheek,

the elf had a close up of the bard's long, dark eyelashes curled on his cheeks and his lips slightly parted.

He was really very beautiful... Prince slapped himself for such thoughts at such a moment and finally scooted closer to Gui,

his fingers just barely touching the bard's chest.

Gui... was really very warm. It was the same type of deep-hearted warmth he had felt before, he already felt much warmer.

Wondering why he emitted such warmth, Prince knew now why Gui didn't even need furhides as blankets during cold nights.

Closing his eyes, the elf felt himself relax.


Sun was spilling into the room, the light reflecting off the many glass sculptures in a cupboard and on to the papers strewn on the desk.

Suppressing a yawn, Gui was waking up and didn't want to open his eyes, he was feeling way too comfortable in bed.

But he finally did... and felt his heart stop for a second.

Stopping himself from almost screaming in surprise, he stared at the person next to him.

Not just next to him, but completely snuggled up to him - and he noticed his own arm was loosely lying over him.

Backing away slightly, the bard tried to collect his thoughts and see if he came up for a reason why Prince was sharing the bed with him.

Finding none, he just looked at the sleeping face.

"Hm... mhrr..." Prince frowned slightly, making bubbly noises with his mouth and was annoyed with the sudden lack of his source of warmth,

scooting up to Gui again and wrapping his arms around his chest, burying his face. Blushing slightly, the bard finally smiled.

Running his hand through the elf's hair a bit, he leaned down and kissed his temple before holding him close.

"Do that again and I'll hit you..." Prince's muffled voice came out and the bard chuckled.


Iyah~
I felt like writing something like this for a while now.
Does this count as romance? I don't think so...
By the way, monsters and items taken either from Tales of Symphonia or Ragnarok Online.