Other Characters Featured In This Chapter: Ryu (sort of)
Summary: Yoh attempts to overcome his teenage insecurities, the bitter cold, a stiff neck, and a grueling chore assigned by Anna. She, meanwhile, isn't ready to tear her walls down quite yet…
Rating: T for language, innuendo and romantic themes.
Written 12/7/2020.
Do You Want to Build a Snowman?
Kiss #38
"With mittened hands, and caps drawn low, / To guard our necks and ears from snow, / We cut the solid whiteness through."
-John Greenleaf Whittier, "Snow-Bound"
Yoh groaned loudly as he struggled his way out of his bedroll. He had fallen asleep almost before his body had touched down upon solid ground the previous night, exhausted from yet another hard day of Anna's training and the chores that had followed. But his sleep had been fitful at best, rife with tosses and turns, odd dreams and ethereal disturbances.
To top it off, as he discovered when he drowsily made his way to his feet, he was contending with more than just the usual muscle aches. A crick in his neck made its presence known as he shuffled downstairs to the common area. He massaged his neck halfheartedly as he navigated the stairs, knowing the ache would probably persist for several hours.
As he heard someone stirring in the distance, he suspected that the literal pain in his neck was about to be joined by a figurative one. Sure enough, Anna emerged into the living room, blinking sleep out of her eyes. "Yoh," she said simply.
"Good morning, Anna," Yoh acknowledged, stifling a yawn.
Concern briefly flickered behind Anna's impassive gaze. "Bad night's sleep?"
"A little," Yoh admitted. "I just couldn't get comfortable, I guess." He shrugged. "But it's okay, Anna. How are you this morning?" he asked with his trademark wide grin.
"Need. Tea. It's so cold," Anna intoned, rubbing her tired eyes.
Yoh hadn't noticed the chilly air until Anna brought it up. "Come to think of it, it's freezing in here!"
They made their way to the kitchen, where Yoh confirmed what he had suspected with a glance out the window: It had snowed last night. The rock garden was buried under an undisturbed layer of downy flakes.
"Be right back," Anna said as Yoh filled a kettle from the sink. He wondered where she was going, but didn't have long to mull it over. She emerged presently, carrying a battered snow shovel.
"Your exercise for today," she said, thrusting the shovel into Yoh's limp hand.
Yoh didn't dare show his displeasure, but inwardly he sighed. As if to remind him of the full extent of what he was now in store for, the ache in his neck flared up as he took a grip on the shovel. "Yes, Anna." He went back to the stove and basked in its wonderful radiant warmth as he waited for the water to boil.
"Don't go outside dressed like that," Anna said. "Catching a cold won't make your training any easier."
Yoh's shoulders slumped as he reluctantly left the heat of the stove. He trudged back upstairs to change into some more appropriate attire. He rifled through the closet and, despite the general disarray within it, quickly produced a parka, some insulated trousers, a pair of gloves and some long johns. He laid the clothing out on his bedroll, and marveled at how small it all looked. It was the first snowy day of the season, and a year of growth on Yoh's part left him worried his old winter gear wouldn't fit.
Hoping it wasn't going to be too tight, Yoh disrobed and shuddered at the sudden onslaught of icy air. Despite his desire to change and insulate himself as quickly as possible, he looked down at his own body in a way he had never really bothered to before. I guess I have grown a little after all, he reflected, as he raised his arms and gave them a once-over. I suppose I look okay, he thought as he saw his toned torso and fit legs. But will I ever look like Ryu? He's only a few years older than me and his body's filled out. I wonder if I'll be hairy like him someday, too, he thought, as he rubbed at his chin, chest and underarms in vain hopes of finding a Ryu-like outcropping of hair.
A violent shudder interrupted his thoughts. Forget it - I don't really mind looking like a skinny teenager. That's what I am, after all. The real question is whether Anna cares… He shivered again as his fiancee crossed his mind. Still mulling it over, he tugged a long-sleeve shirt over his torso. Oh boy, this is snug. Yoh managed to get the rest of his winter gear on, but knew from the way it sat on his body that everything was about a size too small. He looked a bit like he was playing dress-up with a younger brother's clothes. Nonetheless, he felt much warmer, and he went back downstairs just as the teakettle signaled its readiness with a loud whistle.
Feeling a little constricted from his tight clothing, Yoh waddled his way as fast as he could back to the kitchen. The teakettle's whistling ceased once he removed it from the stove with one of his gloved hands. He thought he heard Anna coughing as he rummaged around for the tea bags and dunked one into the steaming water.
Then he turned around and saw that she was actually trying to suppress a laugh.
"Mmf! Yoh, have you ever heard the expression," she asked behind eyes tearing up with mirth, "'ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag'?"
Yoh made an exasperated noise. "I'll have you know I've grown a lot since last winter."
"Haha! I know, but it's so much funnier to imagine that you swapped wardrobes with Manta."
The frustration left Yoh's body once it dawned on him that he was, however unintentionally, putting Anna in a good mood. A smirk took shape on his lips, and it soon grew into a full-on smile. "I bet I look ridiculous," he said, stretching his arms and legs out like a starfish. His sleeves and pant legs rode up to their apexes, revealing several inches of bare skin.
"You do look ridiculous," Anna acknowledged, beating back another wave of laughter that still showed on her face. She poured herself a cup of tea. "That's what I love about you."
"Huh?" Yoh's expression suddenly grew serious. Anna froze with her teacup halfway between the table and her lips, realizing what she had just said.
"I meant to say," she amended quickly, "that you don't take anything too seriously. Including yourself. And that's one of your greatest assets." The jocundity in her eyes had faded, replaced by the usual dispassionate glare.
Yoh didn't know what to say, but he saw an opportunity, an opening, to voice a concern that had just resurfaced when he had been checking himself out upstairs. "Anna … do you think my looks are one of my assets, too?"
Anna took a hard sip of her tea, as if wondering whether acknowledging the question was something she should countenance. After a moment - and a somewhat disbelieving stare cast in Yoh's direction - she said, "Yoh, baka, what does that matter?"
"Well," he continued earnestly, "I was just wondering. Do you think I'm sexy?"
A fine cloud of droplets drifted its way slowly to the table as Anna spewed a mouthful of her tea in shock. "What?!"
Yoh clenched his teeth at the sight of Anna's reaction. "I … I just want to know," he pressed on. "Does it bother you that I'm skinny, and not that strong, and not … well, not a man yet?"
"Get out!" Anna shrieked, veins bulging at her temples. "This is not a forum for discussing your looks, and certainly not one for telling you my tastes! Out! Out!" With surprising strength, she hurled the snow shovel at Yoh's retreating figure, missing him by a hair. He could still hear her incredulous ranting as he slid the front door closed behind him.
"That was not your opportunity to ask that after all," Yoh reprimanded himself, but was promptly distracted by seeing his own breath. His imagination took hold of him for a moment. He slammed the business end of the shovel into the snow and put it between his legs like a toy horse. "Ohayou, ladies, check out my motorcycle," Yoh said, in the best imitation of Ryu's gravelly baritone that his young voice could manage. "The name's Wooden Sword Ryu. I'm tall and buff and you don't want to mess with me. Check out my hair. I've got plenty of it everywhere. Everywhere." He put two fingers to his lips, sucked in, and watched the "smoke" billow out as he exhaled. "Yeah, I smoke. It makes me look bad-ass. You got a problem with that?"
The shovel slid from between Ryu's - er, Yoh's - legs, kicking snow onto the wall behind him. It dispelled his fantasy immediately. He wasn't a towering, fully mature man, and all he could do was hope that Anna was okay with that. He retrieved his shovel and started in on his task, scooping snow from the walkway. It was more than the typical light dusting he was accustomed to; he estimated that four inches or so had fallen the night before.
"This is going to take forever," he moaned, no longer using his ersatz Ryu voice. "Especially with my stiff neck, and these tight clothes, and…" He finished his kvetching with a drawn-out sigh. The vapor trail of his breath diffused into the frosty air. Yoh shoveled another few feet of the walkway, then paused to stretch out his neck. The sky was steel grey; and the sun, merely a softly glowing blob low on the horizon.
But gradually, in spite of the chilly air, the ill-fitting garb, his stiff neck, and his lingering concerns about his earlier interaction with Anna, the task drew nearer and nearer to completion. He could see that he was just a few feet away from his goal now, and he redoubled his efforts to finish.
With one final, triumphant scoop, Yoh cleared the entirety of the walkway. He stood just outside the gates, facing the Inn, admiring his handiwork. He was tired and sore, and wanted more than anything to go back inside and thaw out, but he wasn't quite ready to face Anna yet. For all he knew, she was still just inside the doorway, bellowing invective about him to all the spirits within earshot. He surveyed the scene again, staring into a yard full of untouched, feathery snow - a virgin canvas - and a bolt of inspiration struck him.
For the first time in years, he decided, he was going to play in the snow. Getting on his hands and knees, he started to pile snow into a mound in the middle of the yard. Excitement helped warm up his cold face as the mound grew, and he started to shape it just so. Orts of snow drifted in the air around him as he reshaped the mound to his liking.
Finally, he stepped back and, with hands on hips, gave his creation a once-over. "Not bad for my first try," he had to admit. Indeed, while it was diminutive - barely protruding above Yoh's waist - it was unmistakably humanoid, and hadn't toppled over yet.
"What shall I call you?" Yoh wondered aloud as he sat next to his creation. "Frosty? Olaf, maybe?" He stretched out his legs and leaned back until he was lying down atop a bed of fluffy snow. He stared up at the sky and watched his breath trellis up to it as far as it could go.
"Ahh," Yoh sighed contentedly. He started waving his arms and legs about in the snow, and a snow angel took shape. "This is the most fun I've had by myself since I learned in health class how to mastur-"
A sharp slam! interrupted his musing. Anna, who had changed into a heavy tan coat and black leggings, stepped out of the inn, a yellow plastic bag in one of her gloved hands. She slid the door closed and advanced on Yoh.
"Oh, crap," he said, scrambling to his feet.
But Anna ignored him and walked past him to the snowman he had crafted. She kneeled down to its level and started to rummage around in the bag. Soon it had eyes, a dotted-line mouth, and shirt buttons courtesy of a handful of grapes. A carrot for a nose soon followed, then a threadbare old hat and a faded scarf. A large wooden mixing spoon and a turkey baster on either side of its body served as arms.
Anna turned around and favored Yoh's stunned face with a faint smile.
"That's better, don't you think?"
Yoh was still speechless. It did look a lot better, but that's not what was making it so hard for him to put his thoughts into words.
"Actually, one more finishing touch…"
Anna pulled a cigarette out from the bag and jabbed it between two of the snowman's mouth grapes. "It's not a corncob pipe, but it'll do."
Yoh was finally able to process what had happened and regained his ability to speak. He asked the obvious question:
"What made you come outside?"
Anna shrugged, her face betraying nothing. "I saw the snowman from the window. It looked like you could use my help." Yoh thought he saw her eyes dart to the side untruthfully, but let it go.
"I have to admit it looks pretty good now," Yoh said, admiring the fully fleshed-out snowman they had created.
"We tend to do a lot better together," Anna said meaningfully. Her cheeks went faintly pink. Yoh didn't miss it. He felt his own cheeks glowing with warmth, and his eyes started darting around nervously. His gaze landed on the snowman's cigarette.
"Where'd you get that from? You don't smoke. Unless you do?"
Anna shot Yoh a "seriously?" look. "Ryu forgot them here the last time he came over."
"Oh." The mention of Ryu's name seemed to take the wind out of Yoh's sails.
Anna cocked a slender eyebrow at him. "Something happened between you and Ryu?"
Yoh mentally weighed the pros and cons of opening up to his fiancee again, and decided that honesty was the way to go. He hoped he wouldn't regret it. "Look, Anna, I got to thinking this morning," he started after a deep breath. "I'm not a big, strong, hirsute man like Ryu is. And to be honest with you, I don't know if I'll ever be like that. Those are not traits that you'll find in my gene pool. So that's why I asked you earlier, you know, if you think I'm sexy, or if you would prefer that I looked more like Ryu -"
"Yoh, you idiot," Anna cut in. She put a gloved finger over Yoh's lips to shush him. "Even in your tight-ass winter clothes, even with layers upon layers covering up all the good bits," she said, "you are the sexiest guy I have ever seen."
Yoh discovered that his lips were still warm from where Anna's glove had just been. It took him a second to digest what she had said. "R- Really?"
"Yes, Yoh. Really. You are just so … so goddamncute," she admitted. "I wasn't lying when I said I love the way nothing really seems to faze you. And of course you're always making me smile, with clothes that are too small, with snowmen, with a million other little things that I'm so grateful for. And yes, of course, Yoh, you're also easy on the eyes. Can't forget that. You are the complete package."
Yoh felt warmth in his cheeks fighting the freezing air. He knew he was blushing. "Anna, I'm so lucky to be with you." He now felt heat at the corners of his eyes and found them unexpectedly watery from his confession. Anna's gaze softened as she looked upon her fiance tearing up. "Really, I am," he continued, a single tear running down his hot cheek. "I love you so much, Anna."
"Yoh…" And without finishing her thought, she tackled him.
Her momentum carried them into the bed of snow that surrounded them. Together they tumbled until they rolled into the depression of Yoh's snow angel. Anna was on top of Yoh, pinning him in a fierce embrace. He looked up into her watery eyes as she said, "I love you too, Yoh."
A new warmth coated Yoh's lips to replace the leathery sensation of Anna's glove. Her lips were on top of his, delivering tender kisses, and Yoh soon reciprocated. Their hot breath enveloped their faces in a pleasantly steamy aura that warded off the bitter December cold, and helped Yoh to ward off some of his insecurities as well. Anna loved him for who he was - a somewhat skinny, smooth-chested teenager of unexceptional height - and was now trying to reassure him, with lips but no words, that her feelings were real and eternal. Neither of them wanted the moment to end, and kiss after passionate kiss was initiated and savored, until at last Anna rolled off of Yoh.
"Really?" she asked, a skeptical frown crossing her features. "You thought I'd be more into you if you looked like Ryu?!"
Yoh shrugged bashfully. "All I know is everyone gives me a hard time in gym class. You know, in the locker room. Some of my classmates have carpets on their chests and big swinging —"
Anna blew a raspberry into the winter sky. "Yoh, I'm sorry those jerks tease you about that kind of stuff. It's not like they did anything to earn it. And for what it's worth, I love you just the way you are. I'm not into that manly-man crap."
"That's a relief," Yoh admitted. A thin smile came to his lips.
Anna shivered. "You know, as much fun as it is to play with you in the snow," she said, "I just can't wait for summer."
"I hear you. It's hard to even think straight in this cold."
"Not just that. I love when the weather gets really hot and I get to watch you walk around the inn with just your underwear on."
Yoh felt the glacial chill at his face warm up in an instant as a furious blush broke out on his face.
"Come on, sexy, let's go inside and get warm together. I have a few ideas about how we could do that…"
The ideas were almost enough to make the snowman blush, too. But it remained frozen in place as Yoh and Anna, arm in arm, meandered their way up the path Yoh had shoveled and back into the inn. The snowman may have been freezing, but inside, things were definitely thawing out…
Thank you for reading! Let me know what you liked or didn't like. It means a lot to me!
