The truck was stuttering down the road. Nezumi was skidding every few hundred feet, cursing under his breath as he squinted through the windshield. The storm was upon them.
"We should pull over," Shion offered.
Nezumi flashed a glare at him. His eyeliner was still absolutely perfect, and he hadn't smeared his lipstick yet. Shion clamped his hands between his knees and stared out the window, into the darkness and the white.
There was a series a strange noises, barely audible over the wind. Nezumi immediately slowed down, though, and Shion scrabbled for the oh-god handle. They were both completely silent now. Nezumi frowned and tapped the gas, then cursed viciously when the truck kept decelerating.
"Motherfucking shit goddamn this fucking machine," he said evenly, hands clamped to the wheel. "Get the radio, Shion."
Shion reached for the CB, flicked the same switches he'd seen Nezumi tap. "Um, break. Break." He looked over at Nezumi. "I don't hear anything."
"Twist the dial on the left and start saying 'radio check.'"
"Radio check? Hello? Radio check. Radio check." There was only static, no matter what frequency Shion turned the radio to. All Shion knew for sure was that there were no trees a foot in front of them, and the truck was still slowing down. Otherwise, it was just the two of them trapped in a snowstorm. Shion turned off the radio without another word.
"Fuck." Nezumi's mouth was a tense line as he steered them off the road gently, easing them to a stop and slamming the keys into a cupholder. "Wait here."
"Don't!" Shion said the minute he realized what Nezumi was doing. Nezumi already had one leg out the door, though, and he was not listening. "It's a blizzard!" Shion yelled after him. The door slammed.
Shion sat in silence, hearing his own harsh breathing. The truck had been off for a minute and he could already see his breath crystalizing in front of his face. His hands were fists. He tried counting the number of times air left his lungs. He hit three hundred and ninety eight before launching himself over to the driver's side and fumbling at the door handle, then pushing it shut behind him.
The world was white. The wind was intense. Shion pressed himself against the side of the cab and kept moving around towards the front. He counted his steps. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven…
Shion had turned around the edge of the truck and was on twenty-one when he almost tripped of Nezumi. The man was crouched almost under the truck, scraping snow away from the undercarriage as he tried to get a look underneath the vehicle. Shion grabbed him and started backing away, counting down steps this time. Twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen… Nezumi wasn't fighting him. Shion tried to ignore this fact in favor of the numbers. When he hit zero, he felt around for the door handle, eyes closed against the snow and wind. He found it on his third pass across the side of the truck, tugged at the door until it opened enough for a person to squeeze through, then dragged himself and Nezumi into the truck. The door slammed behind them.
Shion was still gasping for air when Nezumi said, "What the f-f-fuck did you do that f-f-for?"
"Saved your life," Shion wheezed, sitting up. "Here." He dug under the passenger's seat and unearthed Nezumi's sleeping bag. "Get in this."
"What?" Nezumi's hair was clouded with snow that was barely melting. That wasn't good. Shion brushed at it, definitely not noticing that Nezumi conditioned his hair, then started unrolling the sleeping bag with numb fingers.
"You need to get warm," Shion said. "I told you not to go out there, this is a serious blizzard. I haven't seen one like this in, um, since I was eight or so I think."
"M' f-f-fine." Nezumi was glaring at him, but he snatched the sleeping bag and slid off his boots and coat so he could cram himself inside. Nezumi shifted his hips until he was in the bag, then dragged it over his shoulders and closed his eyes. Shion watched him for a moment, then reached over to brush more snow away. He noticed his hand shaking, then realized that Nezumi's eyes were slitted and he could see Shion shaking.