Author's Note: Here's the second in the series. Hope I didn't take too long to get it out. And summer's ending... but I'm going to keep these coming out as long as I still have ideas. I don't move back to school until late September, and actual class doesn't start until a week later (hooray!) so I'll have the time.

--

Summer Lovin'
by dreamcruiser

2: Ice Cream Isn't Always Cold

"I'm in the mood for some ice cream."

It was the middle of winter, and they were currently on their way home after school, trudging through the snow covered sidewalks. Unfortunately for them, the small snow storm had come earlier than the weather man had predicted, having come and gone during school hours. But it left them coat-less, boot-less, and glove-less. All that protected them from the hardly unbearable but quite uncomfortable cold were their school uniforms. And considering she was in a skirt, she found the cold a little more uncomfortable than her companion.

So the sudden need for ice cream came a bit uncalled for. Sora stared at Tai, eyes going wide with disbelief. "Are you crazy? It's freezing."

"Crazy? Maybe a little. But when a man's got a craving for food..." he trailed off, patting his stomach.

Sora let out a noise that sounded something like something between a laugh and a scoff. "Since when were you a man?"

"Ouch." But the two laughed. An insult was never really an insult between them. Unless one decided to throw up in the other's hat without telling her. Or if the insult was hidden within a seemingly kind gesture, such as giving a really nice hair clip for her birthday when he really thought she needed a new hairstyle. But I digress.

Tai dragged Sora into the deserted shop by her sleeve and approached the counter. Sora was horrified by the fact that it seemed colder inside the ice cream shop than outdoors with the already biting cold. The employee at the counter (a college student most likely, he couldn't be more than twenty) was dead asleep. Sora wondered to herself if that glint on the employee's face was drool.

Tai cleared his throat and looked at the worker-who-should-be-working expectantly. The employee replied with a loud snore that indicated he was still in dream land. Tai cleared his throat again, louder and more insistently. Another snore. Tai leaned over, his mouth positioned right next to the employee's ear. "HEY!" The employee woke up with a jump, sniffing and wiping the moisture off of his face with the back of his hand. He blinked several times before his eyes focused, and looked up at the two teens.

Sora rolled her eyes and turned to Tai who was attempting to stifle his laughter. "Jeez. I don't see why you can't wait for summer for this."

The guy grinned sheepishly before going to a nearby sink to wash his hands and wipe his face clean of the drool. "So kid, what can I get you?" he asked Tai as he wiped his hands on a paper towel.

"Well," Tai eyed the worker's name tag, "Mitsuro, I'll have a double scoop of chocolate." He was a bit miffed at being called a kid when the idiot who called him that was obviously not that much older than himself.

"And for the lady?" He gave Sora a wink. She resisted from rolling her eyes again. If that was his idea of being smooth, it still needed some ironing. Tai glared at Mitsuro and put an arm around her. The look on Mitsuro's face clearly read 'oops'. "My mistake," he muttered red-faced before getting to work on Tai's order.

They looked on as Mitsuro brandished the ice cream scoop and stabbed into the mound labeled chocolate. Sora's horror only increased to see that the ice cream seemed to be completely solid as Mitsuro continued to hack at it.

"Summer's the only good time to have ice cream," she claimed, staring at Mitsuro's work.

Mitsuro finally had one scoopful, and gestured to the array of various cones Tai could choose from.

Tai scanned them before quickly deciding. "Yeah, a waffle cone," he chose as Mitsuro's hand hovered over it.

"Why would you want to freeze yourself from the inside anyway?" Sora continued. "Especially when it's like negative a hundred degrees outside! So I'm exaggerating, but still..."

Tai started to fish out some money out of his pocket (they'd been there plenty of times during the summer, he'd had the prices memorized).

"Honestly, we should be going for hot chocolate, not chocolate ice cream!"

Mitsuro accepted Tai's money and gave him the change. All the while, they ignored Sora's complaining. "Thank you! Please come again."

"What's so great about winter anyway? You can't even play tennis or soccer with all the snow!"

"Want some?"

"Hmph." He wasn't even listening to her rants, only relishing in the rich chocolate-y goodness of the ice cream. Typical. She gave the offending ice cream a look of disdain.

He merely shrugged. "Your loss." And they continued on their way out the door, a small jingle parting goodbye.

"I guess winter can have its good points. I mean, snowball fights can be fun and all. But nothing can beat summer. Going to the beach, camping, soccer in the park-"

"Are you sure you don't want some?" he interrupted, "It's really good." He taunted her by waving the half finished ice cream around her face.

She glanced between the halfway finished ice cream to his grinning face. She let out a grumble, but discontinued her rant. "Fine."

He held out the cone to her, but it was too far from her mouth. She reached out to pull it towards her, fingers grasping his wrist lightly. She was startled by the warmth of Tai's skin in comparison to her frigid fingertips. Goosebumps made their way down her arms, a reaction that couldn't possibly be blamed on the cold. For a moment she reveled at the idea that such minimal physical contact still gave her butterflies. She gave the ice cream a lick and despite all logic, she found the chocolate flavor warming her up.

"It's good right?"

She didn't answer, just smiled back. Of course it was good (it's chocolate ice cream!), but there was no way that she was going to submit to Tai's strange ways. But in her head, she decided that around him, it would always be summer.

End.

--

End Notes: It ended up not having as much Taiora as I had planned in the beginning. Er... sorry. In my next one I'll try to have a lot more. Personally, I've always found it quite difficult to write out physical contact in comparison to conversations and whatnot. But for Taiora, I'll try to get more physical. Heh. It's not a promise, by I'll try.

Anyway, review and please tell me what you thought!