Hello there! Hah, did you think I dropped this story? No way in hell that I would! I'm sorry for the waaaay too long hiatus, but I broke my wrist… seriously Dino must have had some influence on me… I fell down the stairs so "elegantly"… *ahhm* Anyway, here is the chapter that I tried to finish for like 3 month or something? There will be just a few episodes of the Daily Life Arc, since I guess most of you would be happier if I'd start with the Varia Arc as soon as possible^^
So anyway, I'm sorry again, thank you for reading this chapter even if you want to strangle me and I hope you enjoy it^^ Also sorry for any mistakes.
Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, just my Ocs.
Lost Before Light 11
~Snowy Winter and Chaotic Minds~
"….Over my dead body." Crossing her arms, Nike looked at the young mafia boss calmly, yet her eyes began to narrow. "You're seriously asking me to go out? Now?"She jerked her thumb slowly over her shoulder as she still looked at him, pointing at the closed window. It was snowing outside, and the temperatures had been really low for a few days now. And if there was a season she hated, then it was winter. Snow was just something Nike couldn't be friends with; just like with syringes, or laboratories.
It was like this ever since her childhood. Nothing good came of it whenever one of those things showed up in her life.
Dino just scratched the back of his head clueless upon noticing that Nike really had no intention of backing down, like usual. Then he responded:
"C'mon. It'll be fun! The weather is way too nice to stay indoors today," he tried to persuade the young soldier enthusiastically. But it was no use. She looked at him as if he was making silly jokes.
"Nice weather? It's winter. And it's snowing."
He shrugged with a smile. "So? Don't tell me you never played with snow when you were younger?" Then he bit his lip. Of course she didn't. Since Nike had been a soldier for most of her life, he knew that she never had a real childhood.
Simply letting out a sigh, Nike collapsed into the chair perched behind the desk in the corner of the room, swung her legs up, and propped them on the desk in the position she affectionately called the 'old hag-bastard position' whenever Rika made herself comfortable the same way. Then she threw the magazine that laid on the desk over her face to cover it for a nap.
"Go, have fun. I'll just sleep until the winter is over," she told him while lazily waving him goodbye.
Dino shook his head and walked over to her, snatching the magazine to look at her. "You can't be serious?"
Nike opened one eye. "Dino, what you call 'playing with snow' or 'winter' is a diving exercise in the Antarctica for me. Also, I'd have to spend the day with Reborn and those brats."
Dino had to chuckle, then looked at her with a certain smile that Nike couldn't help but be charmed with. And he knew that. A crooked smile, charming, somehow sexy, with a bit of sly- and mischievousness to it. When Dino started to ruffle her hair on top of that, he managed to spin her around his little finger in no time.
Nike groaned and threw her arms up. "Okay, okay! I give up! Just give me 10 minutes." With the tingly feeling that was harder to suppress every time she got it, and annoyed at herself for giving in, she got up and walked to the door. With a smile and a short laugh, he put his hands in his trouser pockets and walked after her.
"Then I'll see you downstairs in 10 minutes."
…
"Huh!? What's everybody doing here?" Tsuna asked while gaping at his friends, Dino and Nike. He would have never thought to see them at Namimori Middle School in the middle of a Sunday morning. Especially not with such low temperatures.
"We were waiting for you," Dino answered and Reborn told Tsuna after that: "They called us out today."
"Nope, I was dragged out," Nike commented dryly and ignored any reaction she triggered. Her eyes fell on Lambo, I-Pin and the boy named Fuuta, also knows as Ranking Fuuta, that were about to build a snowman as she rubbed her hands to warm them.
"If you think about it, the 10th is always taking care of the kids," Gokudera told Tsuna as Nike's ears got back to their conversation.
"At least on a day like this, we could give you a hand," Yamamoto agreed. Tsuna seemed to be amazed how nice his friends were.
Yet it wasn't quite like Tsuna thought…
The atmosphere suddenly heated up as Gokudera said:
"If we do something, it should definitely be a snowball fight!"
"Oh! That sounds exciting!" Yamamoto grinned.
"Fight! Music to my ears!" Tsuna's upperclassman Ryohei Sasagawa said, almost screamed excited. He had always been more on the extreme side how it seemed…
And now even Dino was joining in. "All right! One packed snowball coming right now!"
"… Brats…" Nike mumbled as the others, excluding Tsuna and her, already prepared for the snowball fight.
"Okay, we have to divide into two teams," Yamamoto said, and Reborn interrupted like always, this time wearing a samurai costume: "I have already decided for you!" Then he explained: "I put a lot of thoughts into making sure the teams are balanced and had to stay up all night." While pointing at his eyes, he added: "I didn't get much sleep. Look at my eye bags."
"What's with you making me feel guilty!?" Tsuna shouted at him. Nike meanwhile turned her head away slowly, already having a bad feeling.
"What are you planning now, huh?" she asked Reborn warily and crossed her arms.
"Hoho~ You'll see~" he answered.
However, besides her and Tsuna, everyone seemed to be completely fine with Reborn deciding the teams. Even Dino's reason for playing along was the same as always; because Reborn wouldn't listen to them anyway.
Then the home tutor announced the teams.
The first one was Tsuna, Fuuta, Yamamoto and I-Pin, while the other team consisted of Dino, Nike, Gokudera, Sasagawa and Lambo. Especially Gokudera complained, being not on the same team as Tsuna. But knowing Reborn, he simply shrugged it off with a simple lie.
Then he explained the rules. Both teams had 30 minutes to fight for Leon who had transformed into a ball. Whoever managed to hold Leon after the time passed was the winner.
"It doesn't matter how often you're hit with a snowball, but you're out if you lose consciousness," Reborn continued. Everyone agreed and even Dino seemed like a kid when they started preparing snowballs for the fight; at least Nike thought so. Quite amused at that.
And then the mess already started before they started playing. Lambo fell asleep in the middle of the now, which made even Nike almost get frostbite, and Gokudera angry. Tsuna was so nervous that he started shaking, and Ryohei was so heated up that he ran out of hiding without a snowball right after Reborn gave the signal to start.
Yamamoto used his chance and threw a snowball at the over-excited boxer, but Ryohei simply hit it. His fist was so fast, that eyes could barely follow. While Ryohei was still under bombardment, Dino picked up a snowball."Sorry but you can't have Leon!" he said and threw it.
But because his subordinates weren't there he threw it into another direction by accident. He would have hit Nike if it wasn't for her reflexes to move her head to the side. Unfortunately, that caused the snowball to meet Gokudera's face.
"Watch where you're aiming at, idiot!" he shouted.
Nike looked at him in disbelief. "Oh man…"
After some more time of meaningless thrown snowballs, I-Pin's attempts to help that resulted Ryohei going down, and Gokudera switching sides, someone else appeared, hidden inside the barriers the teams had build with snow. "Protect the Boss!"
Nike recognized the voices immediately upon turning her head to look what was going on.
Tsuna's jaw dropped after he saw what was happening as well. "Dino-san's subordinates?"
Dino looked at Romario, Ivan and Bono quite puzzled as well. "How long have you guys been hiding!?"
"We don't know. But it was so cold!" Romario said as his teeth cloaked together.
"And the judge is okay with this chaos?" Tsuna asked Reborn in anger and disbelief as he pointed at the messy battlefield.
"Yup, it's just as I predicted," Reborn answered casually. Nike wanted to bang her head somewhere. "This is ridiculous…."
Within the next seconds, Gokudera started to throw bombs. Since Dino's subordinates had arrived, however, he deflected them easily with his whip.
"… And that's really a snowball fight? Looks more like a fight on snow," Nike wondered and grimaced, her elbows resting on her knees.
Tsuna seemed to had noticed the same thing and started to panic, while Nike felt someone's presence that was covered with snow behind her. Without making much of an effort to move, she simply looked over her shoulder, her head resting lazily in her palm. "Just who the..?"
Suddenly a girl with rose-coloured hair appeared out of the snow, a mask covering her eyes. She wanted to grab Nike by her collar, which she prevented and said threatening "Join my team."
Nike first looked calm, then changed her expression to puzzled, until she was simply looked irritated. She didn't bother to say anything than a bored: "No way."
With a simply shrug, the girl disappeared. "Okay."
Nike gaped after her. "She just leaves after trying to threat me?" Then her thoughts were interrupted when Dino was about to take Leon with ease, if it wasn't for someone else that interfered, Lambo and I-Pin at that someone's side.
"What are you doing here, Bianchi?" Tsuna asked, not pleased that they were more weirdos showing up.
"So that's the Poison Scorpion," Nike asked to herself after hearing her name. It was the girl from before. Dino had heard her.
"Yeah." A shudder went down his back. "She tried to kill me a few times with her food when Reborn was still my tutor …"
"So it's another weirdo," Nike snorted.
Then Bianchi answered Tsuna with a glare. "Do you understand the feeling of those not invited to play?"
Tsuna ruffled his hair in frustration. "What, you're sulking!? And why are the kids on her side?" he wondered.
"It was pure threatening," Bianchi simply answered.
"Man, she's scary!" Dino and Tsuna said in awe.
"Nope, she's just a psycho," Nike remarked casually.
"She said that so calmly!" Tsuna shuddered after hearing Nike.
It wasn't for long that the snow fight was out of control; even more than it was before. Now that Bianchi had started throwing her poison cooking in form of balls, and Leon started to move around thanks to a pair of wheels, everyone started running around and it started to be really difficult to tell who was leading.
Just a moment later, the first of Dino's subordinates fell unconscious after receiving a direct blow with Bianchi's poison cooking, the second one plus Lambo after Gokudera charged another attack with his bombs. When the others were under attack of poison cooking and snowballs too, Fuuta suddenly started to do his rankings.
"I can't hold back anymore! Since everyone is here, I just have to get everyone's rankings," he said and the snow that surrounded him started floating, creating a defensive wall around him. While Fuuta then started gathering rankings about speed, firepower and other things, Yamamoto saw Leon hurrying up the stair-rail that lead the school's roof.
Dino saw his chance and hurried past the others. "Well then, I'm going ahead!" he said confidently and started running, Romario rooting for him.
"We count on you, Boss!"
"Ah, he got ahead of us!" Tsuna observed nervously.
Yamamoto however, calmed him down. "Don't worry, Tsuna. Leave it to me!" he said and ran after Dino.
"Wow! A personal battle between Yamamoto and Dino-san!" Tsuna said in amazement.
Nike watched everything with boredom meanwhile, not moving from her spot for a second. She predicted what was about to happen after seeing Romario stayed behind.
Knowing Dino, he would fail, in a cute, but clumsy way that only he could manage. Just as she finished thinking about the possibilities how he would come down the stairs, they were surpassed by all meanings.
Dino came down the stairs faster than he had gotten up…
Actually, he rolled down the stairs, encased in snow, only his head sticking out of the rolling snowball.
"I missed it!" Dino shouted.
Nike gaped at him. "What the hell could you have missed to make this happen?"Then she shook her head. "This is the weirdest battlefield I've ever seen..."
And so, Nike retired due to laziness...
When the snowball finally reached the end of the stairs, Dino fell on top of Yamanto. Now both were trapped inside the massive amount of snow, though they were still laughing about the incident.
"Sorry!" Dino apologized, still in a really good mood.
"Can't be helped," Yamamoto laughed.
But now Bianchi saw her chance. Together with Lambo and I-Pin she tried to go after Leon. "Let's go! The only one left are Tsuna, Hayato, Fuuta and Romario!"
"I wouldn't be so sure. I seem to have dropped someone on the snow that had been melted by dynamite explosions," Dino told her. At the same time Bianchi noticed what Dino meant by that as she saw Enzo crawling in the puddle. Only a second later, Enzo already grew as big as a house.
While Gokudera stood shocked next to Fuuta, said boy started ranking again. "Wow. From all 202,126 animals I have seen, its size puts it at the top list!"
"Stop doing that and start praying!" Gokudera yelled at him. When he turned his head, he saw his sister Bianchi running over to him. She took her glasses of and shouted worried:
"Run a way, Hayato!"
Unfortunately, Gokudera would get a stomach-ache every time he saw his sister's face…
And so, Gokudera retired from the battle due to loss of consciousness…
However. Suddenly, Enzo was quiet. He had fallen asleep. Turning her right hand into a fist, Nike hit it into her left palm like she had noticed something, though it happened in a very monotone manner.
"Oh, it's the hibernation season..."
Nike simply had time to shrug, already starting to roll Dino and Yamamoto out of the way as Enzo fell over, burying Bianchi, I-Pin, Fuuta and Romario beneath him.
Now Nike turned to Dino and her attention away from the others, a knowing and lightly sly expression on her soft-featured face.
"And that's what you call a snowball fight?" Her voice had something mockingly amused.
He smiled a bit sheepishly. "Well, that's what Reborn calls a snowball fight…"
She eyed him and the snow that covered him. "Every snowman would be proud of you," she said with slight mock and a grin as she started poking his cheek.
"Are enjoying this?" Dino asked her.
She nodded cheekily. "Can't complain."
With this, Tsuna got his chance to catch Leon. He tripped before being able to do so, though. When the Vongola 10th looked up, he noticed that someone else had managed to catch Leon. It was a boy with black hair, his jacket hanging loosely down his shoulders.
"What's this? And that big turtle?" he asked coldly, but with hinted arrogance.
"Hibari-san!" Tsuna seemed to know him. "Why are you here on a Sunday?"
"It snowed so I was thinking of a snowball fight," he answered curtly. "Though I just want to hit a bunch of targets."
"How come this person doesn't get arrested?" Tsuna thought in shock. Only moments later, it seemed like the Namimori Middle Disciplinary Committee-leader was making Tsuna his target, but changed his mind within seconds again and left just like that.
"I-I'm saved!" Tsuna gasped relieved, at least until he noticed that I-Pin stood completely dazed next to him, her eyes heart-shaped.
"What is going on?" Nike asked herself silently as she started paying attention to what was happening again. Tsuna was running around like a flushed chicken, I-Pin in his hands.
"No way! I-Pin's in love with Hibari-san! Ah! She's going to explode!" The moments he sad it, she did.
And so, Reborn was the winner as Tsuna retired due to missing in action…
…
After the snowball fight, Nike, Dino and his subordinates were on their way back to the hotel they were staying in. After reaching it, they noticed that the well in the middle of the driveway seemed to be lacking. End of the story was that the whole inner courtyard was covered with a thick icesheet.
When Dino and Nike stepped out of the car, he suddenly turned to her and asked in a really good mood, looking like he had an idea: "Do you know how to ice-skate?"
"Why am I hesitating to answer that question?" Nike asked jokingly back.
"You should try it," Dino said and titled his head with a grin.
"You're the boss," she answered with a tone that showed she was making fun of him.
When they reached the accidentally made icesheet, Dino slid onto it and tried to keep his balance with is arms. When he stopped, he turned around to face Nike who still simply watched him, and waved at her.
"C'mon! Don't tell me our little-miss is scared of some ice?" he called over to her with a slightly teasing smile.
Nike started grinning and crossed her arms defiantly. "Just wait and see!" She couldn't just ignore that. For her, that almost sounded like a challenge. Just like her name suggested, she really hated losing and couldn't ignore it, no matter if joke or not.
Stepping forward, Nike eyed the ice and looked like a cat that was forced to jump into a puddle as she tried to step onto it. But then she did and jumped onto the icesheet.
"Heh, that was easy," she said with a confident tone. However the second she had said it, her feet slid away under her and she fell backwards. Dumfounded, she sat there, her hoodie of her jacket fallen over her face and the white, fake fur attached on its edge minimizing her sight. Her expression changed into an annoyed one.
Meanwhile Dino watched her. After noticing she wasn't hurt, he couldn't hold back anymore and started laughing. Nike jerked her head up to look at him.
"That's not funny," she grumbled. Now determined, Nike decided to stand up again. Trying to support herself with her hands, Nike adjusted her feet, but it was no use. Once again, her feet found no support on the ice, neither her hands did, and she fell flat on her stomach.
"What the heck-!" she brought out with gritted teeth. That game continued for about 2 minutes until she finally managed to stand up again, still feeling like she had legs of jelly.
"'Ice-skating is fun'…Yeah, sure.." Nike muttered sarcastically. There was no way she would be giving up! The moment she tried to bring her leg forward, she slipped again and almost fell down once more. Dino noticed it early enough this time and grabbed her arms to stabilize her.
"Are you okay?" he asked, trying to hold in his laugher. With her right hand, she swatted him on his shoulder, which didn't hurt him at all.
"Don't laugh…" Nike started pouting and turned her head away. Dino bit his lip not to start laughing again. She puffed out her cheeks whenever she was sulking. She looked like a little kid. Nike realized his attempts not to laugh and narrowed her eyes at him, still not noticing her own habit.
When seeing her sullen, but still cute expression, that was crowned with the fur of the jacket reaching into her face, he suddenly bursted out amusedly:
"You look like an aggressive hamster."
"What!?" Nike started hitting him again, even more so after hearing Romario and Ivan, who watched them from the cars, started laughing as well.
Dino calmed down again and clapped his hands together in an apologetic matter with a sheepish grin. "Forgive me, please?"
Nike eyed him warily with a raised eyebrow, then turned her head away: "At least I'm never falling down any stairs," she mumbled teasingly.
"Hey!" Dino protested.
Nike chortled shortly after seeing his reaction. "See? Leave the teasing to me."
"You…" Dino gave up and sighed. "Okay, okay, you win." Making sure she stood safely this time, Dino let go of her and started chuckling. "I don't think ice-skating is the right sport for you."
"Can't do anything about it. The winter just hates me." Then she added with an assuring nod: "That includes all winter sports."
"Well then, I'll just have to teach you," he told her after a short silence of thinking and winked at her. Her expression changed into an amused one.
"You? Teach me something? Now that's a nice joke," she teased him playfully, but almost fell again if it wasn't for Dino holding her arms another time.
"And?" Dino grinned knowingly, and held out his hands for her to take.
"Yeah, yeah, fine, teach me," Nike responded with a 'hmpf' and put her hands into his, but not before making sure Romario and Ivan were still in sight.
Better safe than sorry.
"Ah!" Dino made a sound as if he remembered something.
"Huh?"
"I forgot something."
"What do you mean?" Nike asked as Dino started to pull on his black scarf. With a swift motion, he adjusted it around Nike's neck.
Puzzled, her eyes widened. "Eh?"
He smiled warmly "You're pretty sensitive to the cold, right?" Pointing at her numb hands, he added: "I couldn't see you freeze any longer."
Nike didn't know what to say and felt somehow embarrassed looking at him as she noticed her cheeks colouring. Not wanting him to see it, she pulled the scarf over her mouth and nose and looked to the side. "T-Thank you," she mumbled, trying to hide her embarrassment she could hit herself for.
"Argh! Idiot, what's wrong with me? So stupid getting embarrassed!" she thought, more frantic than she would show.
Dino however noticed it and chuckled softly. He knew that she usually was honest with others in a very blunt way, but never honest when it came to herself. She was simply bad at showing feelings.
"Now, should we start?" Dino asked friendly and reached his hands out for her to take.
When their hands touched, a shudder ran through both of their bodies; a warm, tingly feeling. But while Nike did her best to ignore it, shutting her eyes tight for a second, Dino didn't. He looked embarrassed away from her a few moments, then glanced back. "Ahem…"
"Yeah?" Nike payed attention to him again, even though it felt strangely hard to look into his eyes. Dino tried his best to concentrate on teaching her to move rather than staring at her.
"Just move slowly. I won't let you fall down," he told her calmly. It was unbelievable how much his voice calmed her down. Nike breathed in and slid one foot forward whenever he slid back with one.
"See? It's easy, right?" he smiled. Nike nodded a bit embarrassed and her chest began to tighten as she studied his expression. When her chest tightened even more, her heartbeat rose so much that she could hear it drumming in her ear. Heat coloured her cheeks from the inside out, and a warm and happy feeling filled her before she suddenly became serious and somehow, insecure all at once.
"If I knew what this feeling is, would it be a good thing?" she thought and looked at her hands that still laid in his. Distracted as she was, Nike didn't notice the little rock on the ice and tripped. Dino reacted within a second, stopped, and pulled her hands to the height of his shoulders, making Nike fall with her face first into his chest instead of meeting the ground.
It took Nike a few seconds to realize what happened. Her face was still buried in his chest and noticed Dino's lightly heavy breathing.
"Woah, that scared me. So I'm not the only one that's tripping sometimes after all, huh?" he laughed, but Nike was silent and didn't move. Her heart beat even faster. It was the only thing she could pay attention to, along with the fact that Dino was really close to her. Her mind was just a mess; so much that she couldn't even order one of her thoughts.
"Nike?" Dino asked with a worried tone. Her head flew up and her eyes shone at him widely, filled with shock.
...Somewhere deep down, Nike had realized something...
...Something that would not only change her, but also her whole situation...
...And so, her subconsciousness already began to deny the truth…
"What's wrong?" Dino asked and sounded even more worried. Knowing he was, Nike shook her head, trying to shake of her chaotic thoughts.
"Nothing."
Dino looked clueless. He knew something was wrong, but just couldn't tell what. To make her at least feel better, he held her hands up one more time and dived through them, turning around after. Now he felt her against his back, her arms past him and her hands still in his. Then he led her hands to his shoulders and pulled her up on his back.
"What are you doing?" Nike brought out in surprise, suddenly finding herself piggyback.
"I just thought it's faster this way," Dino simply answered and started moving on the ice.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Nike asked and wrapped her arms around his neck to headlock him. "I told you the teasing is my job," she added and lightly pulled on his right cheek.
"Is that so?" he responded cheerfully.
"Oh man you're such an idiot…." Nike mumbled jokingly.
"What?" he asked faked indignant. Both then noticed that they were quarrelling like kids. Nike snorted and stared laughing as he started as well.
Meanwhile Romario and Ivan watched them puzzled. "What are they doing?" Ivan laughed.
Romario smiled. "I don't know but I've never seen the Boss having that expression."
"True. He looks very happy," Ivan agreed. His eyes widened. "Could it be…?"
Romario started grinning. "Yeah, I think so too." He smiled after observing Dino and Nike further. Nike was laughing like she only did when Dino was around. She didn't look like she had seen war; she looked like a happy, normal girl, and smiled like one as well. And Dino, Dino wore the gentlest smile his right-hand man had ever seen on him. Seeing his Boss' loving, affectionate expression that he only had when Nike was around made one realize he was with someone very special to him.
Romario let out a heavy, satisfied sigh.
"That's gotta be love."
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, even though it took me way too long to update; I'm sorry. Hopefully it's at least a bit satisfying xD Anyway, I guess that there will only be another chapter before the Varia Arc starts! Hope you don't mind that^^
Note: I finally decided that the rating will change to "M" if the Varia Arc turns out like I think it will (also, the following arcs...) I musn't forget how I wanted to picture Genesis after all... sorry about that
Anyway, hope to see you soon and that you hug me review button! He didn't get any love in so long xD
With that said; see you again to the EXTREME! :D
