Whew, another chapter that a good portion of it was written beforehand. 874 words to be precise. Folks following my main Tumblr (kessielrg) may recognize a certain section too. But if you don't remember it, that's fine, it was posted all the way back in June. xD

Thank you for reading!

Turns out, Anora had not been joking that her hometown was a lot colder than Departure County. They hadn't even been there for a day and the temperature was teetering very close to the single digits. Brain couldn't even remember the last time the temperature went more than 20 degrees below freezing in Departure County.

Anora, on the other hand, seemed far more alive than she had in awhile. She and Kieran didn't waste any time going out to a drainage pond by the house to see if it was thick enough to ice skate. If it wasn't for Dawn, the two would have starting ice skating right then and there. The old woman denied them the chance the next day to go out as well- citing that Anora and Brain still needed time to diffuse from their trip. But the day after? Brain could only imagine that the cousins would have been very bad at sneaking out of the house for more thrilling adventures, since they absolutely were not quiet on their way out.

Brain, himself, had opted to stay inside for a bit longer. He definitely was not as accustomed to the cold as Anora's family was.

He decided to head on out around lunchtime. The closer he got to the pond, the easier it was to be able to see Anora and her cousin. Kieran must have been taking a break, as Anora was the only one that was still on the pond. Brain stopped some feet away from the pond- tipping the back of his fedora slightly as he watched her. Even where he was, he could see the joyful expression on her face as she flit around the iced over pond. Every so often you could hear Kieran shout at her to perform a certain jump, to which she acted on once she had the momentum. When she stuck the landing, Kieran would cheer, and Anora's smile would only grow. Admittedly, Brain's smile would grow too.

Anora and Kieran weren't truly siblings, but they still had that same amount of energy and love.

Kieran was the first to notice Brain coming up to them. He waved him over, which caused Anora to notice Brain as well. Her face was pleasantly flushed- likely the result of both a good workout and the cold.

"Come to skate along with us?" Kieran asked with a broad grin.

"Oh, no, no, no." Brain smoothly disagreed. "I've never before. I don't want to take time away from your bonding."

"Nonsense." Kieran insisted. He then held up his pair of skates. "Here, you can have my skates."

"Oh, no… I really shouldn't…" Brain continued to argue. Both cousins were uncomfortably close to him now- peer pressure was apparently a well kept weapon in this household. This was a losing fight. An incredibly unfair one too. Brain had no choice but give up and put the skates on. Kieran helped him to make sure they were properly adjusted, helped him to his feet, and even made sure he was steady as he brought him onto the pond.

After that, everything Brain knew about gravity was proved moot.

"I'm not very good at this!" Brain declared as he started to lose his balance. Just when he thought he was going to land flat on his face, Anora calmly skated over to him and took him by the shoulders, helping to bring some of his balance back.

"Tha-" he started to say before making the mistake of moving a foot forward. His balance once more disrupted, he landed right into Anora's arms. Anora hadn't even flinched- did being on skates rank up this girl's strength by 11? Brain knew he was a good 130 pounds in muscle alone. There was no way that Anora weighed more than 100 pounds herself; but then again, she was built like a brick…

Brain made the mistake of looking Anora in the eye as he regained himself. Her gentle smile was reflected in her eyes. He gawked at her in wonder. As he contemplated how much of an idiot Ephemer was, Anora gave Brain a small chuckle before taking his fedora off in one smooth motion. She made a generous glide backward so he couldn't immediately grab it back.

"Hey, hey, hey!" he demanded once his senses came back. "Give that back!"

Anora just laughed, putting his fedora on her own head, then casually turned away and starting to skate in the opposite direction.

"Anora, get back here!" Brain demanded. He tried to shuffle his feet forward but remained in place. "This isn't fair and you know it!"

"Race 'em Razzie!" Kieran cheered from the sidelines. Brain shot him a dark glare.

"Aren't you supposed to be the adult here?" he spat, despite the lack of malice in his voice.

Kieran only laughed. "I'm not the adult." he claimed. "I'm the cousin."

Of course.

. . .

"You know, I don't appreciate it that you two left me for dead."

Anora looked up at Brain with a little noise of inquisition. An hour had passed since Brain's first skating lesson. They had come back inside because Kieran got a text from a friend of his, and had gone to help them out. Dawn left not long after that, realizing that she needed to do some extra grocery shopping for the week. This only left Anora and Brain home alone. The duo were in the guest room that Brain was using; Anora had come in to find something that she was sure had been left behind in this particular room. Brain had been casually sitting on the bed until she came in. Now he was standing beside her, trying to find that lost object.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Anora informed Brain, but the teasing grin on her face detailed that she did. Then she let out a little noise of happy discovery as she found what she was looking for. "I knew Charlotte had an extra lightning cable here."

Brain looked over at her. She was ignoring him. How dare she.

As Anora started to leave the room, Brain brought his hands around her middle and lifted her right up off the ground. The charging cable dropping to the ground with a small thunk.

"Let me down!" Anora squealed as she playfully tried to hit Brain's arms.

"No way!" he grinned, starting to shake her around. "You're a very bad girl, and bad girls need to be punished!"

And with that, he started to spin them around the room, eliciting another surprised squeal from Anora. Brain grinned as he spun the two around before colliding into the bed. They both fell over on the mattress with a small plop. With the both of them still laughing, Brain quickly let go of Anora to straddle on top of her, pinning her hands beside her in the process.

"Got you now." Brain teased, his hands holding hers just a bit tighter. The two were still laughing before the slow realization of their position dawned upon them; their giggles slowly melted away into a deep, tense silence. After awhile, all Brain could do was let out a low, rasping "Wow..." in awe.

Anora's heart started to race as she looked into Brain's eyes. She tilted her chin up, just slightly, in a silent request. Brain was more than pleased to oblige. Funny how, despite the cold, frigid air outside, the two were now incredibly hot under the collar.

Downstairs, Kieran was beginning to wonder how thick the walls were at Daybreak Academy. He was just glad that his mother wasn't home, or else the young couple would have been stopped at the first scuffle. He also kinda figured that they didn't know he had come back home either. Or maybe Razzie forgot that the walls were thin here. Maybe both?

He should probably stop them- she was only 16, after all, and Brain had said that he was 17. But wasn't it close enough in age that it didn't matter? It's not like Kieran wasn't curious at either of those ages to have tried a few things. Despite himself, Kieran kept an ear trained on the sounds coming from upstairs as he carefully sipped his cup of coffee. Ma didn't need to know about this. He'd have to remember to remind Brain of protection though, if there was ever a chance they happened to be alone again. He wasn't sure how he'd start that conversation with Anora though; his cousin would be blushing six ways to Sunday if he so much breathed a word about making out.

The noises from upstairs now did not quite indicate boot knocking yet, but were starting to sound eerily close. Kieran shivered as he started to get up from the kitchen table. If he kept thinking about how often his little cousin got cozy with boys close to her age, he was going to get nauseous. Not his circus, not his monkeys, as they say. And, boy, it sure was a nice day to go ice skating.