Being In Love Is Never Easy!
By: Sailorjj07
14. Winter Wonderland
A/n: YO PEOPLES! Wazzzzzzz uuuuppp? Yup, I'm totally excited cause I've updated and lemme tell ya, this'll be a GREAT update. I hope everyone likes this chappy as much as I do!
THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS READ AND REVIEWED!!
Disclaimer: I do not own!
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Actions
(Me!)
Natalie snuggled closer into Tory's arm as the previews began rolling. Tory blushed brightly and was immediately thankful for the darkness of the theater. Otherwise, he'd probably have to tell Natalie WHY he was blushing.
"I'm so glad we got tickets for this movie early in the week, Iceman," Nadalia whispered, as she and Iceman got comfortable in their seats. They were hooked inside the movie theater's system, which was a Cybertheatre for all the navis to watch movies too.
"Yeah, from what that usher guy said, they sold out of ALL of them two days ago." Iceman commented, though he too spoke in a low whisper.
Nadalia giggled and kissed Iceman's cheek, "You're the best almost-boyfriend ever, did you know that?"
"Almost-boyfriend? Lia, what's that supposed to mean?"
Nadalia sighed before she began her explanation, "Well I can't very well be your girlfriend if you haven't asked me yet. That's just not fair for me."
"For you? Huh?"
"I mean, it'd be entirely too easy if I just became your girlfriend when you never asked me to!"
Iceman was quiet for a moment as he contemplated Nadalia's words. She did have a point. Iceman opened his mouth to respond, but Nadalia hushed him immediately.
"Shhhussshhh! The movie's starting!"
Two Hours Later
"Ah, that was great! The Mummy was awesome! And his wife and son were so cool too! I liked his son's girlfriend the best, though!" Natalie cried, pumping her fist in the air. The movie had turned out to be much better than she expected, which made Tory just as happy.
Anything that made Natalie smile gave him joy, it seemed.
"It was pretty good," Tory added, blushing faintly at Natalie's joyous smile. She was so beautiful...Tory stopped walking without realizing it and in turn Natalie nearly tripped over herself when she realized no one was beside her.
"Hm? Hey Tory! T-Tory! Ahhhhhhh~!"
Natalie closed her eyes as she expected to collide with the hard sidewalk, but thankfully that never came. Tory had caught up quickly and grabbed hold of Natalie's wrist before she could fall completely.
"You know, you've been falling an awful lot lately," Tory said, with a warm smile. Natalie blushed red in embarrassment and righted herself, then straightened her clothes a little bit.
"Hehe, I guess I'm still as clumsy as before."
"You, clumsy? Nope, I never saw it."
"Are you kidding? I used to break EVERYTHING at the World Three...Plates, cups, you name it, I dropped it, stepped on it or tripped over it. Everyone used to call me a klutz..." Natalie trailed off as she realized she had actually been speaking slightly well of the World Three. Her eyes roamed the streets to find something else to talk about and lit up when she saw an ice cream stand.
"Oh Tory! Can we get some ice cream? I haven't had any in a while..."
Tory smiled at Natalie's excited expression and shrugged, "I don't see why not."
"Let's go, let's go!" Natalie grabbed Tory's hand and together they went over to the small corner stand. Tory ordered their ice cream and soon the two were walking with their frozen treats, each licking at their double scoops quietly.
They walked towards the closest park and had a seat at one of the benches, underneath a tree.
"Hey Natalie," Tory started to say, but Natalie's eyes were too focused on his face, so he stopped. When her gaze didn't move, he decided to ask: "Is there something on my face?"
Natalie finally realized Tory was talking to her and nodded when she heard his question, "Yeah, right there." Natalie pointed a finger towards the side of her mouth, and Tory wiped at the spot on his own face, but he didn't feel anything...Had he missed?
"You missed it."
Tory tried again, this time on the other side, but still, he missed.
"Goodness. Here," Natalie unwrapped a napkin from around her cone and moved closer towards Tory's face. He leaned in, so that she wouldn't have to reach far, but soon realized that only made Natalie give into temptation.
At the last minute, Natalie's hand dropped and soon her lips were on the place were the ice cream had been, and she licked it off, a wicked smirk crossing her face as she did so. She moved away quickly so she could see Tory's face and the bright, cherry red blush was reward enough.
"Hehe, Tory, you're so cute."
Tory pouted at Natalie's grin, trying not to feel like he had just been tricked, "You're teasing me."
Natalie looked dramatically horrified and Tory knew then that she had probably been thinking about doing this to him since they got the ice cream.
"Tory, I'd never do something like-! Mph!"
Natalie never got a chance to finish her sentence. To get back at her for tricking him, Tory had kissed her fully on the lips. He was glad he did too, because between the taste of Natalie and the taste of the ice cream, Tory was fairly close to being in heaven.
When Tory felt like Natalie was good and breathless, he pulled away from her, going back to eat his ice cream very nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened. True, he found out that he loved kissing Natalie, but he was nowhere near as frozen as she was.
He had finished his first scoop when Natalie finally snapped out of it.
"TORY, YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!" Natalie screeched and Tory laughed loudly as Natalie's flaming red face filled his line of vision. He continued to eat his cone, ignoring the girl's protests. Natalie huffed and began to eat her ice cream once again, before it melted.
"Natalie..." Tory was looking out at the wide expanse of the park when Natalie looked over to him. His calm eyes turned towards her and he found the resolve to say what he wanted, "Will you...be my girlfriend, Natalie?"
Natalie was shocked, even though she had dreamed of this day for weeks, "M-me?"
"No, the other Natalie in your brain," Tory chuckled at his own joke, then smiled at Natalie, "You don't want to?"
"N-No! Of-f course I want to!" Natalie stood up from the bench and bowed low, "P-Please take care of me from now on!"
Tory smiled and reached up, then cupped Natalie's cheek. He felt so at ease and calm now, since he had told Natalie how he felt. He leaned up, kissing Natalie very slowly and softly. When he pulled away, a bright blush stained her cheeks and her eyes were dazed.
"You've made me very happy. I'll do my best to do the same for you." Tory told her and all Natalie could do was nod. She had no idea when Tory had gotten so calm and mature, but it made her more nervous than before. She had been waiting on him for such a long time to make his move and now that he had, he was determined to kill her from happiness.
"T-Tory..." Natalie felt like her heart was going to pound out of her chest. She leaned forward and kissed Tory again, to which he happily returned. They stayed that way until Natalie felt like her lungs were going to explode, before she pulled away.
Tory gave her another breath-taking smile, which made her blush only get redder. Natalie would never forget today for as long as she lived, she was sure.
Natalie opened her mouth to tell Tory her thoughts, but was cut off by a resounding beep.
"Natalie!! Natalie! Tell Tory that he has e-mail!" Nadalia cried, from the PET, slightly irritated that someone had interrupted the two and ended her favorite soap opera for the day.
"She's right, Tory. We have an e-mail," Iceman got quiet, while he read the sender's name before he gasped, "It's from Dad!"
"Huh? Dad?" Tory took hold of Natalie's wrist and tugged her back towards the bench, where she sat down and waited for Iceman to finish, "Open it please."
"I already did. Dad says we have to come to his new job, now. Somethings wrong."
"Dad got another new job?" Natalie questioned out loud, and Tory only nodded in response. He was a tab more worried about the contents of the e-mail then his Dad's constant address change, it seemed.
"We? Who's we?"
"You, me..." Iceman read the e-mail over before his face brightened up considerably, "Nat and Lia! He says he wants Lan, Chaud, Yai and Maylu to come too!"
"All of us? Did he say what for?" Nadalia asked, from her PET.
"I don't know. He just said something happened and that he thinks it's best if WE come. Something about it being a personal/private matter that he knows we probably want to handle for ourselves."
Both Tory and Natalie began to wonder what on Earth could be a personal matter for them at Tory's Dad's job, but decided that didn't matter.
"So where's Dad at now?"
"In Sharo."
Two Days Later
Natalie shivered as their plane landed in Sharo. She had heard about the Frozen Wasteland known as Sharo and wanted nothing more but to turn around and go right back to DenTech City.
But they were here on a mission.
"It's cold, it's cold, It's cold!" Natalie whined, clinging to Tory tighter than she had on the plane. She was bundled up in a purple pea coat, a black scarf and gloves and black snow boots. Still, she was cold as their group stepped off of their plane and into the airport.
"Come here, I'll warm you up," Tory told her, holding his arms out for her completely. Natalie nodded with a tearful look in her eyes, burring herself into Tory's arms. Their friends laughed at their display, but Tory had been serious. He pressed a kiss into Natalie's forehead and rubbed her back slowly, "Is it any better?"
"Uh-huh," Natalie said softly, a faint blush covering her face. She had no idea Tory would be this bold in public! It was awesome!
"Tory, you came. And you brought all your friends too!" Tory's Dad threw his arms open for his son, who regarded him coolly. After a moment, Tory let Natalie go and went over to his Dad, who hugged him joyfully.
"Aw, I was afraid you had become a rebellious teenager in my absence!" His Dad cried, and Tory rolled his eyes, stepping out of his father's hug to push Natalie forward softly.
"Dad...This is-"
"Natalie, I know. Did you forget that I was still at home when she came to stay with us?" Tory's Dad heaved a sigh at his son's forgetfulness, then turned to Natalie, "So you're going to be the next Mrs. Froid, huh? Tory talks nonstop about you. Sorry that I wasn't able to see you that often, even in the house. I think the entire week you stayed there, you saw me once. I tend to work late, very often."
"And apparently you move a lot too," Natalie replied, a sour tone in her voice. She frowned at Tory's Dad, who burst into sheepish laughter.
"Oh, you're mad that I moved Tory away so suddenly. You have my deepest apologies! I thought it would be better for my family if we were together, but I didn't know Tory would be so miserable without you," Then, as if he had remembered something, "Oh and his friends too. Can't forget you guys."
"Thanks, Mr. Froid." Lan said, grinning at the older man. Tory's father nodded, and continued, "So kids, it seems like something has been hacking into Sharo's water system and making it even harder to keep the fresh water coming. You see, I was sent here to fix a frost problem with the pipes, but it's not something I can control anymore. The programs are being frozen over by viruses."
"So bringing Fire chips here was a good idea!" Lan cried, fingering the chips in his pocket. Megaman proudly agreed and even Maylu had to give Lan a pat on the back. She hadn't expected him to think ahead that well.
"Yes, a very good idea. There are several ice programs floating around but I fear there is more troublesome news. I'll let you guys see it once we get to the Water Treatment Facility. Follow me, everyone."
At The Water Treatment Facility
"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!"
The group of teens (and pre-teens) were in a state of panic as their navis dived into the facility's Net. At first they realized that there really were A LOT of ice-element viri wreaking havoc all over the poor frost-bitten aqua programs. But that wasn't all.
Tory's father made everyone zoom out the viewing camera's on their PETs and upon further inspection, a name was carved into the panels on the floor below their navis
"World Three?! But how? Why?" Natalie was the first to recover from shock. Why were the World Three in Sharo?
Tory's father sighed, "We honestly don't know. At first, we were worried that it was an outright terrorist attack on Sharo. However, I fear it's a tad more personal than that." As Tory's father finished his statement, the entire group received an e-mail from him, "I've sent you the message that was frozen onto one of the water programs. I don't know HOW they managed to embed an e-mail in the poor navi and it even opened right after he was defrosted."
This time, Yai read the e-mail out loud, "Revenge is refreshingly cold and sweet."
"There's more."
As Yai looked down at her e-mail, Gylde added to the older man's comment, "It appears there are pictures attached. Would you like me to open them, Ms. Yai?"
"Please, Glyde. Immediately."
"Right away." Glyde opened the pictures up and Natalie's face grew red as her eyes fell onto a snapshot of her and Tory KISSING in the park.
"CLOSE IT! CLOSE IT!" Natalie cried as her face grew so red that Yai wondered if she was going to pass out.
"Natalie? It's okay," Tory said gently, reaching out to wrap his arm around her waist. He didn't mind. After all, she WAS his girlfriend. To tease her even more, Tory leaned in close to her ear and whispered, "Are you embarrassed to be kissed by me, Natalie?"
Natalie's heart nearly stopped beating as Tory whispered into her ear. Apparently Tory's whispers did bad things to her, "N-No, Tory, that's not it..."
Tory smiled and kissed Natalie's cheek, not really caring who saw, "Then please calm down. You're so red. I thought you were going to pass out too."
Natalie nodded and took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself down. Surprisingly it worked.
"So someone saw you two on your date...And in this picture, you have ice cream, so I'm sure that's what this person is talking about." Chaud deducted and Maylu nodded in agreement.
"That has to be it," she said, before she looked down at her PET, "Roll, everyone, let's take all these viri out and then try to track this e-mail. Between Chaud, Yai, Tory and I, we should be able to get someone found."
"No," Natalie started, while looking down at a grim faced Nadalia, "Let me do it. I'll find this person."
"A-Are you sure? You know, the more heads, the-"
"No, Maylu. Let me do this."
Nadalia nodded from her PET, "Please, let us. I have a feeling this will lead us to someone and I want to find the person."
Lan looked at Natalie and saw the determined look on her face. He knew the girl would probably revert to some of her World Three tactics, but that was okay as long as she didn't tell anyone exactly HOW she would find the person. He turned to the others after nodding at Natalie, "We'll handle the viri. Natalie, find the person responsible for this."
Five Hours Later
"...Is she still going at it?"
Tory didn't want to eat with everyone else while Natalie was stuck in his Dad's house, trying to find the culprit. She had smiled reassuringly at him and told him she could handle being alone but Tory wasn't convinced.
So throughout dinner, Tory had e-mail Natalie about five times and each response had a big smiley face at the end of it. He felt his nerves calm a little bit, but he knew he'd feel better as soon he got back to Natalie.
"Did she say what she wanted us to bring her back?" Lan questioned, spooning stew into his mouth. Maylu broke off a piece of bread and dipped it into Lan's bowl, tasting it for herself.
"What else? She said she wants to taste Sharo's curry." Tory replied, with an amused smile on his face. Natalie was trying really hard to make him feel better, he knew.
"Curry? In Sharo? Wow...Tory, you're girlfriend's wierd." Yai commented, spearing a carrot with her fork. Tory shrugged and bit into his hot sandwich, while his father ordered Natalie's curry to go.
Tory sighed thankfully as his PET beeped. It was another e-mail from Natalie. He opened it quickly, already wondering what it's contents were.
'Tory,
Please stop worrying about me. I'm fine, really! The only problem I'm having is a growling stomach! ^_^;
Miss you bunches!
Natalie
X0X0
At Tory's Dad's House
"Natalie, would you like to-?"
"No, Nadalia, I'm fine. Please look through that file one more time." Natalie stated, clearly irritated by the amount of security she had to watch Nadalia go through. It was like finding a needle in a haystack, but she had found it, and she wasn't going to let it go.
"I can't. There's a security patrol about to come through in a moment, " Nadalia muttered softly, before she added, "How 'bout we just take it?"
"No, Dalia, we're trying to be good now, remember? We can't go stealing files. We don't do that anymore." Natalie typed a few things into her PET, then looked back down at her navi, "Can we at least copy it?"
"It'd be easier to steal it. Copying will take time we don't have." Nadalia told her owner, rolling her eyes. Didn't she know anything since their training in World Three?
"Really? Can't we just copy the important parts?" Natalie questioned, trying to think of a solution to their present problem.
"I can read it and copy it at the same time, however, I might not get the entire thing." Nadalia commented, holding the file up. She opened the file and began reading the top and realized it was just a bunch of technological dribble.
"Ok, you read the top and open the last page for me. We'll go as fast as we can and hopefully meet in the middle."
"W-Wait...I just...found something," Nadalia began to skim through the pages into the middle of the file, "It's a list of names!"
"Really? For what?"
"It's put into columns: current members, past members, and deceased members."
"Can you copy the list?"
"No, we don't have time, remember?" Suddenly, Nadalia gave a gasp, "...Oh my goodness..."
Nadalia dropped the file and immediately logged out, as the security navi came close to turning the corner.
"Nadalia, erase all the cookies in our PET since the last back-up. Oh and save Tory's e-mails."
"Alright." Nadalia's eyes flashed red as the cookies and data were erased from the PET. Natalie heaved a sigh of relief, but then remembered she hadn't asked Nadalia what she had found.
"So Nadalia what did you discover?"
"On the list of past members were you, Mr. Match, Maddi, and the others in the shop. Dex was on the deceased list and so was Gutsman."
"That's not a surprise."
Nadalia held up her hand, "BUT, there was a name on the current member list...Natalie, you might want to sit down for this."
Natalie was slightly worried at Nadalia's words, but sat down on the couch anyway, "And the name?"
"Chisao."
Natalie froze. She knew that name. She knew the person who that name belonged to. But Nadalia had to be wrong! The only Chisao she knew was:
"Dex's little brother?!"
Natalie only heard her own exclamation before everything went silent. She especially didn't hear Nadalia screaming her name when suddenly the world around her went black.
End Chapter 14