Hello again! I'm sorry about the confusion, or me deleting the first chapter accidently… I'm not that good with computers so if you happened to read the story, then couldn't find the second chapter which was my bad… In any case, keep on reading and reviewing!

Title: If We Were Different

Rating: T

# of Words: 1,223

Chapter 3: Stranger's House

Where am I? Everything is black… Am I falling? I can't move my body… The light is fading from above me… I can't breath well, something's clogging my lungs… What's going on? Oh? I feel someone holding onto me… Is it a hand? Wait, I'm floating upward… No, I'm being pulled upward by whom?

Natsuo's body was suddenly forcefully lifted from whatever he had fallen into and thrown upon the ice, his stomach pressed on top of the cold surface. He could feel someone prop his body up into a sitting position, then shaking him, rather hard he might add. He could also tell that this person was shouting a jumble of words at him. All Natsuo could register was that the person seemed very concerned about him for some reason. Once his mind cleared the haze that surrounded him, he could faintly make out the blurry vision of Yoji's face. Terror was written clearly across his face, his entire body shaking. Natsuo tried to sit up straight, only to have Yoji push him back down so that he was lying down on the ice. Coughing slightly, Natsuo gave Yoji a reassuring look in attempt to soothe the frazzled boy. In turn to this, Yoji put his body over Natsuo's protectively, shielding him from the coolness of the elements.

"You scared me half to death there, Natsuo," said Yoji shakily, his voice quavering slightly in places.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, it just happened I guess," replied Natsuo, taking deep breaths to try to regain his vision. "Could you tell me exactly what happened anyway? I can't seem to recall…"

"Well, you were sprinting ahead of me, and then, all of a sudden, I didn't see you in front of me. I kept running, thinking you may have tried to pull another prank on me, but then I remembered that would be impossible to do because there's no cover for you to hide behind or underneath. A few feet before I reached where I thought I saw you last, I found a huge crack in the ice. Apparently, you weren't paying attention to where you were going; you ran right over thin breakable ice! And you're the one who's always telling me to be more careful," chided Yoji, trying to put on an annoyed face. Natsuo shot Yoji a sheepish glance, before his entire body writhed out of cold. This caused Yoji to turn on his complete serious side of him. He gently picked up his frozen stiff friend, carrying him bridal style, and headed off in search for cover.

"God, we need to get you somewhere warm. You're turning blue," said Yoji, fear etched into his voice. Natsuo managed to dip his head down just enough for him to nod, then let his eyelids flutter shut. Yoji held Natsuo's body closer to his, kissing the latter's chilled forehead lightly.

"I have to find somewhere fast, before he… No, I certainly will not let that happen!" Yoji shook his head, shaking the thought out of his mind. His pace picked up drastically, until he was running with the other clutched tightly to his chest.

Pound, pound, pound, pound. His feet thumped against the ground, the icy ground cracking with each step. Faster. If he went faster, he could save Natsuo. So he did exactly that. Every stride caused the pair to surge forward, moving with the speed of a cheetah. Well, maybe not that fast, but pretty darn close. The problem was how long Yoji could keep that pace up. He had to be able to last for quite a while, in case they didn't find somewhere safe soon.

"Damn this," cursed Yoji as he scanned the area, only seeing white. The land was completely barren; no place to go but across. And avoiding the ice colored waters was going to be even harder because they blended in so well with the surrounding whiteness. After twenty or so minutes of searching, the duo was still seeking refuge.

"Every minute passed is a minute gone in Natsuo's life," thought Yoji, his heart thumping wildly in his chest. While thinking this, Natsuo shuttered violently, coughing seizing his body. Yoji placed Natsuo down on the ground, setting him upright. He then rubbed small circles on Natsuo's back, easing his lungs and allowing air back into his system. Once the coughing fit stopped, Natsuo slumped forward, allowing Yoji to sweep him into his arms once more.

"It's getting worse. There has to be somewhere we can go," murmured Yoji, walking fast for his legs were too exhausted to carry them at a faster pace. His head swiveled from side to side, eyes peering out into the white seeking anything that could be feasible for a shelter. Just when all hope for finding shelter dissipated, Yoji thought he spotted a fleck of brown around a hundred meters to the left of where they currently stood.

"Yoji, I'm cold," croaked Natsuo, his body convulsing into spasms. His eyes were shut tightly as if in pain. After seeing this look, Yoji felt a piece of his heart chip off.

"Hang on, we're almost there," pleaded Yoji, forcing his limbs toward the building.

"Everything is turning different colors." Yoji gave Natsuo a bewildered look, increasing his speed even more if that were possible.

"This isn't good, he's hallucinating… Urgh, why us?" Yoji stroked the other boy's arm, curling the hand that was supporting Natsuo's upper body upward to rub some warmth into the rigid body.

He had to make it to that building, no matter what. His worn down body somehow found himself at the front of the brown shelter that he had seen previously. Up close, he could now see that the shelter was actually a small wooden house, its structure built steady and strong to hold out the cold. A large door stood in the front of the building, the last obstacle in the way of Yoji and Natsuo's protection. Smiling slightly, Yoji threw his back against the door of the house, praying with all his might that the door would budge. It did.

Yoji then found himself in the house, body laying on something soft. Carefully, Yoji stood up, wary of the quaking body in his arms. The soft thing he landed on was carpeting, completely covering the entire floor. It was possibly large enough to comfortably hold a family of five. There were a couple couches facing away from the door, arranged in a U around a small table. A desk and large table were positioned on the other side of the room, their surfaces bare. Other than that, there weren't decorations; the area was completely clean. Finding this a bit peculiar, Yoji subconsciously held Natsuo a little bit tighter to himself, an instinct to protect lingering in his thoughts.

The sound of footsteps echoing from somewhere up above the room they were in, causing Yoji to tense up even more than he already was. Eyes looking straight ahead, he thought he saw something on the wall move, causing the slamming of a door to shake him back into awareness. Whirling around, he found that the door that was open only moments before had shut. An ominous feeling reverberated in his gut as felt the door to see if it would open again. The door was locked. And they were locked inside it.

Well, another chapter successfully completed! How did you like it? Personally, I thought it was a little too sappy for some readers but I felt like adding some sappyness to the story! There isn't really any important information in this chapter (that comes for the next chapter!) so I'm not going to inform anyone about anything just yet. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm happy to accept and maybe add them to this story, so please PM me or review… Or both!