Author: TippierCoffee

Disclaimer: I do not own—nor do I claim the rights to—any of the characters from the show Codename: Kids Next Door. All credit goes to rightful owner: Mr. Tom Warburton.

Ps. Their age in this fiction is thirteen (going fourteen) and they're in seventh grade.

Enjoy :)

A/N: 2014 continuation from 2012

Friday December 14th

"Kuki dear?" Kuki looked to her mother curiously, feeling a lot better that things seemed to be back to its usual.

No eating breakfast at the television, no mugshots with a headline encouraging to vote for this year's mock king and Mushi had been hard to get out of bed as usual this morning.

"Yes?" Kuki asked curiously, looking to her mother with a little smile.

"Remember, after school, to go looking for who you want to donate to during Juvenalia."

"Hai?" Kuki asked, a little confused.

"Mithra's birthday will start on December twenty-fifth and last for twelve days. During those twelve days I want you to give to one or more children less fortunate than you, just like we do every year."

Kuki darted her eyes around in the room a little uncertainly, then send her mother a smile which she really hoped was convincing. Of course, she had understood the aspects of bringing the traditions from the past to the present after having seen them, but she still wished she would at least get some knowledge about the traditions as well, other than what she had seen, while everyone around her knew everything. She got up from the table and walked to the bus stop, where she quickly spotted Wally, who for once was alone.

"Good morning." She greeted, sending him a little smile.

"Morning," He greeted back, flashing her a smile of his own "Seems the mock king tradition disappeared. When I asked my mum about it she said that tradition died hundreds of years ago, so now it seems we'll be celebrating Juvenalia and Mithra instead."

Wally watched the bus come up to the stop and motioned for Kuki to go ahead, she, in return, remembered to sit herself at a right-side window so Wally could still watch the people boarding the bus. Even though it somehow felt there was still the smallest awkwardness between them, it had lightened up ever since they had gotten home and made them get along just a little better. It didn't feel as suffocating to be near each other as it usually would, which at least was some sort of progress.

"I'd really like to know more about Mithra though." Kuki contemplated "I feel like the only one in the world who doesn't know."

"Well," Wally scratched his neck a little nervously before turning his head to Kuki "I asked Vicky about it, and according to her Mithra is some sort of infant God. He's the God of the unconquerable sun, believed to be born of some sort of rock. I didn't really understand it that well, she was really tired and slurry when explaining it to me, but I'm guessing he's a sun, infant, God; made of rock."

"Speaking of Vicky, where is she?" Kuki wondered out loud, darting her eyes about a bit.

"She's still at my house, no doubt hogging my bed. She was really tired this morning, but she asked when we were off, and I told her around three p.m as usual. So she told me to have a good day, say hi to you from her, hi, and to meet her at the base after school."

"Only you?"

"No, both of us." Kuki shivered ever so lightly by the sound of Wally's words, because meeting Vicky at the base could only mean one thing.

"We have to travel again?" She whimpered.

"Seems like it. I asked her why, seeing as this tradition seems a lot better than the Zagmag—"

"Zagmuk."

"Zagmuk then, but I said it was a lot better than that and it seemed okay to celebrate, but she said it wasn't the right thing. Times need to change, or catch up, or something."

Kuki looked confused to Wally who just gave her an apologetic look because, honestly, he didn't really understand a lot of it either. All he knew was what Vicky had told him and according to her words, even though Juvenalia wasn't exactly a bad thing for them to have, it wasn't the right thing. So they still had to travel, reliving, rediscovering, rewriting. Bringing back these traditions in order to get what they needed. It was a little confusing and hard to understand, especially considering that neither of them really knew what they had to look for, if there was one thing they should look for. Only Vicky seemed to know, but she wasn't allowed to tell. It was weird, listening to her nonsensical rules, but if that was how she said it was the two of them would just have to take her word for it.

"I feel like hiding." Kuki sighed, sinking into her seat "I hate time travel."

"You and me both, Kuki. You and me both."

It could have been easy, it really could. His concentration was in order, he didn't randomly glare at Kuki because Vicky wasn't there, his focus should be on the chalkboard alone; except it wasn't. Wally kept flickering his pencil between his fingers, dotting down notes and listening with an almost supernatural focus—compared to what he was used to. It was starting to give him a headache, but he had to do it because he could sense Ace next to him, glaring his way constantly, and he hated everything about it. Mostly because he couldn't just torn his eyes to confirm, or to tell Ace to back off because his right eyes was still covered by that dumb patch. Two days to go, that was all, then he would be able to see the way he was used to, supposed to, but for now he would have to live with the discomfort of being stared down by Ace, having his concentration stolen by Ace. It was excruciating and, quite frankly—though he would probably never admit to it out loud—frightening. Wally sensed Ace lean into him, lowering his voice to something that sounded like a threatening whisper.

"What is going on between you and Kuki?"

"What do you mean?" Wally wished he could shoot Ace a glare, but he couldn't. Cruddy eye patch.

"Not that it's any of my business, I'm just wondering. Ever since she got out of the hospital it seems like she's been with you a lot of the time."

"Look, Ace. We just realised we're at the same bus stop, we get a long a bit, so we sit next to each other. Is that a problem to you?"

"Is there something you wish to share with the class, Beetles and Kid?" Mrs. Cory asked strictly, her arms crossed and her eyes resting on them like a hawk's.

"Sorry Mrs. Cory." Ace mumbled "I was just asking Wally something, which had nothing to do with your lesson, he only replied to me out of annoyance. I apologise."

"Very well," Mrs. Cory exclaimed with a bit of a sigh "don't let it happen again."

She turned to the chalkboard again and Wally looked flabbergasted to Ace, whose lips turned up in the smallest of smiled—a sinister one at that. He had gotten completely out of the loop, simply by shooting off a formal and sincere-sounding apology. If Wally and Nathan had done this in the past, both of them would probably have been send to the principal's office or been ordered to stay inside during the recess, to do extra work. Wally wondered for a moment if Mrs. Cory would ever had accepted it if he had apologised rather than Ace, or if she would have given him a detention. He could somehow see her give him a detention because he was already dubbed 'troublesome', though that wasn't fair in the least in his eyes.

"Hey Kuki." Kuki stopped in her tracks and turned around, only to meet the smiling, yet begging eyes of Ace Kid.

"Yes?"

"I was just wondering," Ace started, popping his collar a bit "if maybe you want to do something after school today with me. Like a, you know, hang-out-thing. I'm really serious about it."

"I know you are.," Kuki smiled, putting her hair behind her ears before looking to the floor "but I can't today. Maybe tomorrow?"

"Oh, okay, sure. Tomorrow then." Ace smiled, going for the door "I'll come to your house around two p.m then?"

"Sure." Kuki smiled while waving to him, watching as he left, then her eyes fell on Wally who had come up to her.

"Are you sure you can run around promising him to meet up?" He asked, giving her a telling look "Not that I can tell you what to do and what not to do, but what if Vicky wants us to time travel tomorrow about that time, what will you do then?"

"I'll just tell her I can't." Kuki said crossing her arms "I think I stood Ace up too many times, don't you?"

"Why do I even care about it?" Wally scoffed defensively "Like I said, I can't tell you what to do and I won't, which means I also don't care. I'm not your dad or anything. I'm hardly even your friend."

"Nope, you're just a person I got stuck on."

"Actually, I'm the one who got stuck on you, and Vicky. I bet you wouldn't survive her being with you constantly for even a day, I swear she blabbers constantly, even in her cruddy sleep."

"Served you right," Kuki teased, sticking out her tongue "now you know how it feels to have someone bug you all the time."

"Since when have I bugged someone?" Wally defended "I know I haven't been incredibly nice a lot of the time, sorry for being a cruddy person with a lot of bad habits, but I've never intentionally bugged anyone."

"But you hurt people." Kuki went on, leading the way to the base without even realising it "It's not very nice."

"Sue me," Wally growled lowly "or better yet, stop playing so righteous with me just because you're little miss perfect who never does anything wrong, I'm very sorry all of the world can't be like you since you are obviously always right."

"When did I ever say that?" Kuki scoffed offended.

"Didn't you just do that?" Wally pointed out "By saying I'm super mean because I have flaws?"

"I never said that! I said you weren't nice to people, I never said anything about your flaws."

"But you're not denying yourself being perfect?"

"If by perfect you mean: stay out of trouble, then yes, I'm 'perfect'."

"Ha!" Wally threw his bag pack to the ground in the base where Vicky was already seated "That's gotta be the most vain thing I've ever heard out of anyone's mouth! You are selfish and stuck up your own butt."

"Excuse me?!"

"Yeah, I cruddy just said that, it's called the truth. What 'ya gonna do about it cry-baby?"

Vicky looked between the two, her hands covering her mouth as she watched tears sneak into Kuki's eyes, while regret settled into Wally's face, before he send a hand straight to it, mumbling lowly to himself—no doubt scolding himself for being insensitive. Yet, despite Vicky sensing him, knowing he had been out of line, it didn't seem like he was interested in even attempting to apologise to her. Vicky gave out a sigh while watching Kuki wipe away tears with her sleeve and Wally strolling over to her with his hands in his pockets. He kicked some invisible dirt before putting a foot softly on top of Kuki's.

"Let's just cruddy go and get this over with." He sighed, his eye fixated on Vicky, full of irritation.

She let out a sigh and went over to the two, hoping they wouldn't fall apart once they were there, then went and touched Kuki's knee softly with her hand, before looking up to the two with strict eyes—though her worry seemed to rise when she saw the two not even facing each other.

"I guess I should do this before going this time." Vicky sighed lowly to herself, changing their clothes into warm fur coats, made of pelts from wolves and bears "We're going to Scandinavia, a long time ago. It will be quite dark and twice as cold, so just… Be careful."

Then Vicky proceeded to mumbling the spell underneath her breath and the three of them skyrocketed through time, the two teens feeling as sick as ever by the fast pace and the crunching feeling of the vortex-kind-of travel. When they landed though, Vicky sensed it before she saw it. Wally was missing.

Vicky and Kuki walked through the snow covered landscape, the snow being the only source of light. If it hadn't been there, the darkness would have been overwhelming and drowned everything out, so even despite the fact that the snow made the ocean of black, look more like a dark blue colour, Kuki couldn't help but feel uneasy. She wearily looked everywhere possible, between trees in the wooded area, feeling more on edge than she had any other place. In her head it was due to the fact that she had seen a wolf stop up and look at her, though that was all it had done, but in her subconscious mind something told her it was because she was walking around out here alone—technically.

"I hope we'll find Wally again." Vicky said worriedly "Even though I am not physically bound to him, per se, I cannot leave him behind here. We can't be separated like this, it will make my power weaker. I need both of you near me, because both of you believe."

"You seem fine to me though." Kuki contemplated, hugging herself a little closer, trying to focus on the snow creaking below her boots so she wouldn't feel to guilty about wearing actual animal fur.

"Right now, I'm not too weak, luckily. If it had been like this last time, where I had torn on my own powers, and the two of you had split up like you have now, I might have started to falter."

"Does that mean you'll start faltering now?" Kuki asked worried, following Vicky further into the woods, until an opening came which looked like the exit.

"I might. It depends on how much time passes before the two of you find each other. I am definitely depended on the two of you to be near each other to even be able to send you to your own time. My magic is only strong enough to travel to another part of the world now, as it degrades, another part of this country, until it's just another part of this city. I need both of you, I always have."

Kuki frowned before giving out a huff. Of course, she sort of understood what Vicky was saying, but a part of her just wanted to leave Wally behind here. Would serve him right for being so mean to her! She was just about to complain loudly to Vicky about his behaviour when she stopped dead in her tracks because her eyes had caught sight of a wolf to her right.

"Vicky?" She whispered lowly, her voice shaking.

Vicky looked to Kuki before following her eyes to the grand wolf, her eyes lingering on its silver fur and golden eyes. It stood perfectly still, its eyes focusing somewhere between Kuki and Vicky, so Vicky couldn't really tell if the wold was focusing on one or both of them. However, Vicky couldn't help but smile at the wolf as it twisted its ears, cocking its head up and down curiously. It made no sound or other form of movement, it just stood there, making Kuki feel a bit uneasy.

"Don't worry Kuki." Vicky smiled, taking a hold of her hand softly "It's not going to hurt us, you can clearly read that on its body language. It's just a bit curious about us, but it won't attack. If we just move on without bothering it, it will move on without bothering us."

"Really?" Kuki asked, drying away a few tears she hadn't even noticed working their way to her eyes.

"Really." Hardly had Vicky let out those words before the wolf looked wildly behind it, its ears twitching, then it gave out a loud hollow howl and ran into the forest.

Kuki and Vicky watched it run deeper into the forest, and just as it was out of their sight they felt a wind picking up from seemingly nowhere, blowing wildly at them. It carried snow from the ground with it, chilling them to the bone, and Vicky started running ahead, holding firmly onto Kuki's hand who found it odd that she was the one who had to keep up, when Vicky had shorter legs than her. Their legs were heavy to lift through the snow covered ground, snow reaching above their ankles, and it was hard to see through the winds, which kept tossing stone, ice and snow into their faces relentlessly.

"Look!" Vicky screamed, trying to be louder than the howling winds "This is our destination!"

Kuki looked ahead of her, already feeling like her face was going to burst into flames because of the uncomfortable cold. It was a grand cabin made of wood, the small cracks filled up with hey, wool, fur and dirt. She could vaguely hear—carried with the winds yet also drowned by it—voices cheering and laughing from the inside. It sounded like a feast was being held inside there, like a newfound hope had spread through the masses. Vicky guided Kuki up to the door, just as snow started falling, mixing with the heavy winds. Up close, the 'house' was creaking and moaning under the winds, roof desperately clinging on to stay in place.

"Knock the door and ask for shelter!" Vicky yelled to Kuki while, tugging her own fur coat—which she had produced shortly before anding—closer to her.

Kuki looked a little doubtfully to Vicky, bit her bottom lip softly and then she knocked the door as hard as she could, squinting her eyes against the snowstorm. Her cheeks were buzzing and burning, her nose felt numb, her lips felt like they had become icicles, and she kept wiping away tears because she was scared they would freeze to ice on her eyeballs. She listened closely thought the heavy door, just able to hear someone standing up in there and walking to the door. She felt Vicky tug a little at her so she would step away from the door a little. Barely had they taken a step, before a large man with a wild beard looked to them, his blue eyes barely visible in the darkness surrounding them, which made their shimmer look strangely threatening.

"A female?!" He roared over the winds "What are you doing out here alone?"

"You got lost!" Vicky hissed.

"I got lost!" Kuki repeated "Could I possibly ask for shelter in here?"

"Why of course!" The man roared "We do need a few extra hands keeping the fire lit, and I am sure our dear women would appreciate a helping hand. We are cooking pork stew in celebration of the first light which was seen just moments ago."

He led Kuki inside the cabin and hurriedly closed the door behind him, then he guided her to a grand dining room and a little further until they came to a circular room, linking with the living room. Kuki inhaled carefully trough her nose, the smell of roasted pork making her mouth water and her stomach growl in response. Though pork wasn't exactly her favourite food and she would have preferred calf, she would not complain. She took off her gloves, looked to Vicky who gestured to a pouch Kuki hadn't even noticed she had until now, then she put her gloves into it and went over to the women.

"May I help you?" She asked as politely as she possibly could.

"More mouths to feed?" A woman complained, waving her wooden spoon above her head "You don't think we have enough people to feed Björn?"

"Astrid," Björn sang, a little pleadingly though still stern "This young lady was lost outside looking for shelter in the horrible storm. If she helps along with the cooking, do you really think it is any worse for the wear? She will do her part in return for shelter."

"Is that so?" Astrid asked, her eyes narrowing as she looked Kuki up and down suspiciously.

"Yes!" Kuki confirmed hastily, looking between Björn and Astrid pleadingly "I got lost, please let me help in return of shelter."

"Very well." Astrid sighed "You may assist in setting the table. You can dispose of your pelt coat at this chair over there" She pointed to an empty chair near the window, where Kuki put her pelt and was left in a wool blouse, with an under blouse made of something which she definitely tried to ignore because it was quite itchy.

She looked around in the house, to various cupboards, looking to another girl—a little younger than her—fr help. The younger girl gave Kuki a bit of a nervous smile, while pulling some hair behind her ear and started guiding Kuki around, telling where things were, and together in silence they went to work, Kuki not complaining in the least because it somehow remained warm in here. Even though she sometimes would feel a bit uneasy about the winds seemingly tugging at the house, the structure stood strong and unbreakable, clearly having been build for this sort of weather. If this house had been seen by many of the people from her class, Kuki figured that not only would they call it old fashioned—which it was—but they would probably think it would fall together at the gentles tug of winds.

The door got torn open, lending way for the winds and a couple of snowflakes to travel inside, and although the snowflakes didn't reach Kuki the cold of the winds did and made her shiver ever so lightly. It made her stop for a moment to watch the door, where a couple of grown men—along with boys roughly her age—came carrying logs inside. Among the masses she spotted blond hair below a pointy hat, clearly designed to keep the head warm—though she doubted it actually could. His right eye was covered by the ever-present eye patch and he worked without much complained, though his lips were set in a frown he desperately seemed to try to hide. He kept walking back and forth with the men and boys, carrying in, not only logs, but slain rabbits as well.

"We bring more food" a man roared.

"And Yule logs" another contributed.

"This boy is incredible as well!" the first laughed, putting his arm roughly around Wally's shoulder, who in turn just looked a little uncertain and suffocated "He is a very capable hunter, even more capable wood chopper. He is sure to go places."

"If I could get a hold of his parents, I might want to suggest he wed my daughter." The second man laughed, making Wally blush in embarrassment. Kuki noticed the girl next to her mimicked him.

Kuki looked between Wally and the girl, then back to Wally who caught her eyes with an annoyed look crossing his face. She noticed him looking down while looking sour, but something on his face suggested that he might not exactly be proud of what had happened between them, just like Kuki wasn't. It has been wrong for her to claim she was perfect too, but he had egged her on with his rude behaviour and indifference, so maybe she wasn't in the wrong, maybe she was allowed to be annoyed just like he also seemed to be. SO se decided to mimic his decision of putting that energy into completing her tasks, though to be fair she wanted—just like Vicky did, which was obvious from her yelling—to go and make up with Wally. It was a bit hard though, because he kept being dragged back and forth, carrying logs and rabbits, then he was send to find apples with some other young guy his own age, while Kuki was guided to the kitchen to skin the rabbits—much to her discomfort—and cook them.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when all of them finally sat down, Kuki and Wally landing next to each other by chance, though the girl Kuki had been setting the table with was on Wally's other side. She kept ogling his messy blond hair as well as the eye patch, but she could not see the colour of Wally's eyes, because Wally's good eye was in Kuki's viewpoint. They ate in silence next to each other, everyone around them roaring and cheering, celebrating the scouts having finally seen the first light, though someone said he was a little worried about a snowstorm appearing with such force just the day after.

"Hey, you two!" Björn yelled from across Wally and Kuki, which made them look up from their place "Are you from the same village?"

Vicky nodded frantically underneath the table, though she hardly had to for Wally and Kuki to know the answer.

"Yeah," Wally said nonchalantly "We were send out together to fetch some things, but we had an argument, so we got lost from each other and our village out of spite."

"Yeah…" Kuki shuffled, thank you so much for letting us feast with you."

"Feast and drink." Björn rumbled, ordering someone to pour a drink to the two.

Two mugs were put harshly onto the table, liquid splashing in there. It smelled really good, better than what they'd had the first place they went, the occasion was also much better in their eyes. Curiously they looked to Vicky, who shrugged lightly while mumbling to them to be careful about how fast they drank it, for even though it was sweet like honey, it would kick harder than they'd realise.

As the moment passed them by the feast disappeared and their mugs were refilled time after time. It wasn't because they didn't care for Vicky's warnings, but this tasted sweet and delicious, it also heated them up perfectly and made them giggly. It was hard to hate something that made you feel like you had so much fun, and it had helped them put the whole episode behind them, as well as loosen up to the people they were with. They had been dancing merrily with them, playing their games, threating their apples and now got prepared to walk outside, where the snowstorm had seized at long last.

After having pulled on their coats, Kuki and Wally made sure to stay close while finding it hilarious that they could hardly balance. Vicky, however, shook her head and shot them glances which were never met by the two. They followed the crowd of people to a bare tree, looking curiously at its many branches, then they observed as the people started hanging their apples on the tree, holding back snickers. Wally and Kuki looked curiously to Vicky, their eyes slurry though their minds still clear enough to remember not to speak out loud to her.

"The apples represent growth and life. They're inviting back light and spring." She explained, her arms crossed "And once you two have hung your apples we're going home. These people have you drunk on mead!"

Vicky's patience was put further to the test by the two of them giggling idiotically before staggering to the tree where they hung their apples. They looked to their new 'friends' not seeming to want to leave, but in Vicky's eyes they had already been here for far too long, back in their time it was getting late, and neither of the two's parents would be very happy with having their kids come home from God-knew-where, completely drunken. She went up to the two of them and pulled as hard as she could after they had hung their apples and looked strictly to them, her eyes shooting fire.

"What?" Wally whispered in a slur, only for Kuki to giggle in response.

"We're going home, now!" Vicky scolded firmly "Say goodbye to these people, thank them for everything and let's leave!"

Wally and Kuki looked to each other, small pouts upon their lips, but they obeyed regardless, saying goodbye, laughing along with the men women and young people their age and a little older. Then they gave a wave while stomping away in the snow, leaning onto each other because they kept almost tripping over themselves—which they in their state of mind found quite funny but Vicky regretted not having them leave earlier, it had just been hard for her to find an excuse for the two of them to suddenly leave up until now. They followed Vicky into the woods, talking nonsense between each other, and when they sat down to prepare for the travel they seemed to be a jumbled mess of overly amused and overly anxious, but it was done quickly and mostly painlessly, Vicky guiding the two of them home with much difficulty.

Tomorrow morning would not be a fun experience for either of them.

End of chapter fourteen, I hope you enjoyed it.

Criticism and/or advices on improvement is/are highly appreciated and welcome :)

~*~TippierCoffee~*~