Chapter Four

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The snow was coming down heavily as Carl blankly stared out the window. He was stalling, waiting around in the dorm lobby, anything to not go back to his room right now.

Ding. Ding. Ding. *Pause* Ding. Ding. Ding.

Attention all students, please return to your dorm rooms at this time, we will be calling all rooms beginning in ten minutes to do a head-count and check-in so that we can make sure that each student is inside and safe. Students will be permitted to leave their personal quarters and congregate in their dorm lobbies and entertainment spaces after the process is complete. Thank you.

Carl groaned and then sighed as he made his way towards the elevator. Once he begrudgingly arrived at his room, he removed the key from his pocket and unlocked the door. He expected a tongue lashing from Blake, or at least some sort of whining or complaining or smart-mouthed remarks, but there was nothing. The room was silent. "Gripling?" Carl asked with a slightly inquisitive tone in his voice. There was no answer. "Okay Blake, you can come out now, I don't feel like playing hide and seek." Carl began to wander the room, lifting up boxes and blankets but there was still no sign of his roommate.

"Carl?" Carl startled and turned around. There was a voice, but it wasn't Blake's. When he saw that it was only Remy and Kei, he was slightly disappointed. He froze for a moment and pondered on why he felt that way but then quickly dismissed the thought. He didn't have time to analyze it, nor did he really want to.

"Hey guys, you two haven't seen Blake, my roommate around have you?" Carl continued pacing the room, occasionally flipping over boxes and bins. "No... we haven't. And based on your behavior, it's safe to assume that you haven't either?" Remy said as he looked up at Carl with an expression of confusion and concern. "Right. I came back to the room after they made the last announcement and he's not here. They're going to be calling to do a check-in in less than ten minutes, will you guys help me look?" Remy and Kei both nodded to him. "I'll check the bathrooms, Kei you check the vending lounge, and Carl you stay here in case he comes back."

They raced off and Carl just stood there. He looked out the window and saw the snow spiraling down in large flakes. "Gripling is a pansy, if he's out there ...he won't last five minutes." Carl didn't want to admit that he was worried, but he was. "I don't like Blake, but I guess I really don't want him to freeze to death in a snow storm either." He turned back to the doorway as Remy and Kei returned. The boys shook their heads. "No luck man. And some of the other guys said the lobby was empty now as well. Pretty much everyone are in their rooms now." Kei said as he gave Carl a some-what apologetic look.

"I have to find him." Carl said without giving the idea another thought. "The snow is really coming down out there, sure you don't want to just report him missing to the R.A.?" Kei asked. "No. If I report him, he'll get in trouble. And hell, knowing my luck, I'll get in trouble for some fucked reason as well. I'm going to go find him myself." Carl replied with a solidified tone to his voice. "I'll stay here in your room in case he comes back, and that way I can answer the phone and cover for you guys when they call to do the room check. Kei can go back to our room to cover ours."

"Do you have a cell phone?" Carl shook his head. Cellular phones were finally starting to catch on with the general masses, but it was mostly just the adults... and overly wealthy youth whom had them. "Take mine, Remy said. Kei's number is '3' on speed-dial, just press it and hold if you need to call us. And here, take this too." He tossed Carl a key-ring and Carl looked at him slightly confused. "It's parked out-back under the port shelter, parking spot 17." Carl gave Remy an even more confused look. "I don't have my license and you expect me to drive a car into the woods during a snow storm?" Remy and Kei both gave a laugh. "No man, not a car, it's his snowmobile. And you'll be able to cover a lot more ground in less time that way."

"Alright. Thanks guys, I seriously owe you both big time." Carl finished lacing his snow boots and making sure he had everything he might need in his backpack. "Don't worry about it. You better go before the storm gets worse. Once you find him, give us a call so we can meet you at the back door to let you guys in." Remy flopped down on Blake's bed. Carl gave him a look but then just shook his head and rushed out of the room, down the hall and to the stairs. Taking the elevator was too risky. He made it to the first floor and was already out of breath by the time he was sneaking out of the back exit. "Damn it Blake, if you're not dead by the time I find you I might just kill you myself."

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Chapter Five

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Carl had been searching for what had felt like hours. The air was bitter cold and even with a full snow suit on, he was already freezing. He pulled out the phone to check the time. He'd only been out there for fifteen minutes, and there were no missed call from Remy or Kei to say that Blake had made it back. He had to keep looking. The snow was coming down hard and the wind was whistling around him in an icy bustle. He knew he had to find Blake soon.

He hopped back on Remy's snowmobile and kept moving, looking for any sign of his former enemy turned roommate. He knew that foot prints were almost out of the question at the rate that the snow was coming down. Carl's mind began to wander again. He thought back to earlier that day when he had Blake pinned against the wall. His mind was painting a vivid picture of the petite boy nearly cowering beneath him. His skin was fair and his bright blue eyes had been gleaming with something that Carl couldn't quite place his finger on. But most of all, he was warm; and his silken blonde hair was tussled into gentle waves that smelled of vanilla and spice... Why did he notice that? Why did he remember that? And why on earth was he thinking about that now? After all of the years of pranks, jokes, and general tormenting... Could Avii have actually been right? Did he secretly have feelings for Blake?

Carl must had been deeper in his own head than he realized, because the next thing he knew he was being slung from the snowmobile and was sent tumbling to the ground with a hard thud. The snow compacted beneath him and did very little to cushion his fall. He brushed the snow off of his face and lifted up his goggles. "Fauuuuck, Remy is going to kill me." He looked up and saw that the front of the sledge was crumpled against the tree and smoke was rolling off of the now exposed engine.

"Stupid Gripling, stupid snowstorm, stupid art school." Carl was about to throw himself back against the snow when he head a faint sound in the distance. "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeelp." He froze and kept listening. "Someone please heeeelp." The voice sounded again. It was coming from the south of where he was. He quickly jumped up and then grasped at his ribs as sharp pains jolted through him. "Suck it up, Carl." He told himself. "You've come too far to give up now."

He started walking in the direction that the cries were coming from. "Blake?" Carl called out. "Is that you?" His pace quickened, and so did the beating of his heart. It was nearly racing within his chest and he still didn't know why. "Hello? Carl?" The voice was getting closer. "Blake! Yes, it's me, I'm coming, where are you?"

The snow had turned vicious. It was coming down so thick that Carl could barely see directly in front of him. "Foutley, I'm down here." He rushed over to where the voice was coming from. He made it to the edge of a ravine, it was a steep drop-off about 20-25 feet down. He held onto a tree and looked over, and there was Blake, huddled beneath the branches of a large pine.

"What the hell are you doing down their Gripling?" Carl asked as he started shuffling through his backpack. "Oh, I don't know, Foutley, I thought it was a lovely place to stop for afternoon tea. What does it look like I'm doing? The snow was so blinding that I couldn't see where I was going and I slipped and fell down here and there was no way to get back up."

Carl took out a long length of rope and tied one end in a loop and wrapped it around a nearby tree. "Careful, Blakey-Boy, you're not in much of a position to be making snarky comments." Blake would have blushed if his cheeks weren't already blistered with frost bite. "Sorry... Carl." Carl tossed the looped end up the rope down to Blake. "Loop this around your waist, I'm going to pull and you're going to have to try and walk up the bank. And before you get a chance to comment, you have to try because it's freezing out here and we don't have any other options.

Blake did as he was told and nodded his head. He took a few steps and then Carl tugged at the rope that was around the tree and made the length shorter so there was more tension on the rope. He wasn't sure where Carl had learned this skill, but he was genuinely impressed. He was moving slowly, a few steps at a time, but finally he made it to the top and Carl quickly pulled him up with so much force that Blake toppled over onto him.

The boys laid their for a moment, panting and just staring at one another. And there it was again, that same gut-twisting, heart-racing feeling that had come across Carl earlier when he had Blake close to him, and again when he realized that Blake was missing, and again when he started thinking about Blake before crashing into the tree... Carl finally snapped back to reality and spoke up. "Umm Blake, glad to see you too, but you can get off of me now." Blake stammered and quickly rolled off of Carl and rose to his feet. "Right. Well... Thanks, Carl. I um... You really saved my life." That was the first time Carl had ever heard Blake be so genuine. "Not yet I didn't, we still have to get back to the dorms and to our room without getting caught."

The two boys started back towards the school, they walked past the remains of the snow mobile and Blake looked to Carl. "Did you..." Carl quickly cut him off. "No idea how that got there." Blake was about to comment again but decided to just let it go. They were about a quarter of a mile away from the school, but in the midst of a snow storm, it felt like they were going five miles straight up hill. Once they finally reached the school grounds, call pulled his gloves off and took out the phone to call Remy. Kei met them at the back door and let them inside, where they both collapsed in the stairwell. "I never thought I'd be so happy to see stairs." Blake said. Carl and Kei both laughed. "Alright guys, I'm going to run back up and tell Remy you made it, they called the rooms, you're both good. Stop by our room after you get warmed up." And with that, Kei left the stairwell and headed for the elevator.

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Chapter Six

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Carl sat down on the steps and took off his boots. He was about to stand up when Blake grabbed a hold of his wrist and gently tugged him back down onto the stairs. Carl sat down next to him and raised an eyebrow to look at Blake. The smaller boy stilled for a moment before gaining the nerve to speak. "Why?" Was all that he said. Carl sat his boots back down, his gaze fixated on Blake. "I should be asking you that. You could have froze to death. Why were you out there in the first place? Or do you always make it a habit to go site-seeing during natural disasters?" Blake blinked and said nothing. He wasn't quite sure, but it almost sounded as if Carl had been.. concerned about him. "I.. I needed to clear my head. And besides, I'm nobody to you, so I figured you'd be the last person to even think about caring about my where-abouts."

Ouch. He did say that, didn't he? Carl sighed and looked away for a moment. Could he have actually been the reason that Blake had wandered off in the first place? Did his comment really hurt the boy that much? "We've never been anything near being friends, Blake, but I guess I was a bit harsh with my remarks earlier.. Did you leave because of me?" Did he really want to know the answer to that? And what was he going to do if the answer was yes? He guessed he was about to find out.

Blake nervously chewed on his bottom lip and gave a small nod. "I know we've never been close, but when you said those things earlier, they really got to me.. And that bothered me more than the actual comments themselves had. The fact that I even cared as to what you thought about me after all of these years.. or what I meant to you.." It was Carl's turn to stammer and stare blankly. Blake had been having the same conflicting thoughts and feelings that he had been faced with throughout the day. "You still haven't answered my original question, by the way, Carl. Why? Why did you come looking for..." Before Blake had the chance to finish his question, Carl had scooted in closer and cupped Blake's left cheek with his right hand. "This is why." Carl said as he closed the distance between them, capturing the blonde's soft, and still chilled lips with his own.

When the two pulled apart, Carl looked up at Blake and their eyes locked with one another's. "If you'd have disappeared, or worse.. I never would have been able to forgive myself. Because not going to look for you was never even an option. When I realized you were gone, I didn't think twice before suiting up and going out to search. I.. I was scared, worried that something had actually happened to you. I did care.. I do care... a lot more than I was willing to admit, even to myself. "

"Does that answer your question well enough?"

Blake said nothing in response and instead reached forward with both hands and grabbed a-hold of Carl's coat, tugging the older boy towards him until their lips collided once more.

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End Part Two

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