The third time Aster saw him, it was through a window.

It's not as bad as you think.

Aster stared down at the little metallic rabbit in his palm. It looked better now that he had fixed it up. The little charm almost looked brand new. The painter smiled, his craftsmanship shined through on this piece. It really did.

He place the charm back onto the table, again. His gaze was torn from it when the waitress went by and filled his half empty mug with fresh coffee. They exchanged smiles before she fleeted to the next customer.

No that he minded. Though, the waitress just ruined his cup of Joe. He had the perfect balance of sweetness and cream. He grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest. Aster slouched slightly in his booth while mentally crushing at the waitress. Stupid hospitality non since.

He looked around the diner. He was one of the only ones in. And, who could blame him. It was almost ten. He wanted a moment to himself before his friends arrived.

His gaze returned to the saucer that his lukewarm coffee sat. He didn't even want the coffee in the first place. The caffeine would keep him restless all night long. Tossing and turning; trying to at least dream. He sighed. This was, certainly, not good for his health.

He rubbed his eyes with the pads of his thumb and pointer. He was exhausted, but not tired. He couldn't and he wouldn't fall asleep. He almost had an idea on 'Why?', but not necessary the reason behind the 'Why?'.

The bell chimed above the door, indicating new arrivals in the diner. Aster didn't look up. He just waited patiently with his head cradled in his hands.

When he heard the sound of the bench sit protesting, he didn't look up. Nor did he when the waitress took his friends orders. The waitress left, saying empty promises while taking the menus from the table. A hush fell over the table. No one said a word. It was unnerving.

A small hand rested on his clothed forearm. He didn't react to it.

"What's the matter, Bunny?"

It was an open question. A rhetorical question. An innocent question. Aster didn't know how to respond.

He lifted his head.

"I-I" He cleared his throat. "I haven' seen him for a tic."

The woman across from him arched a brow.

"Who, Bunny?"

Aster looked to the see. He watched the wall as he thought about his next words, carefully.

"Him. Frostbite."

He got a head tilt in return, from the party across from him. He swallowed. Great, he thought, time to explain.

"He is the air that I breath. He is the inspiration that I seek. He is the perfection that I know. He is my m-"

A hand with teal manicured nails covered his mouth to stop him from going on. He looked into the violet eyes of the female across from him. Her eyes held pity.

"What's the matter, Bunny?"

She removed her hand and allowed him to answer.

"I-I haven' seen 'im in four days."

She raised an elegant brow.

"And, what's the problem in that?"

"I normally see 'im every couple o' days."

The waitress came and sat the desired drinks down in front of each of his friends. A peppermint latte for North and a super-duper, sugar-infused frappe thing for Tooth. The waitress asked if they knew what they were going to order and Tooth told her the polite way to get the hell lost.

Tooth turned back to Aster after the waitress left. She made the universal sign to continue with a wave of her hand.

Aster ran a hand through his hair. "He-He's just a kit. And, I think he lives off of the streets. Not like a hobo. Like a prostitute. He's always dressed in these ridiculously revealing outfits. But, they're sheila cloths. So, uh…"

Aster sank lower into the booth, embarrassed. He didn't like talking to his best friends about his uber gay feelings for someone he hasn't met properly. It made him sound lonely. Super lonely.

Tooth processed the information. She twirled the straw in her drink while she stared a hole into the table. Aster knew her long enough to know not to interrupt her while she was in the middle of concentrating.

Aster chanced a glance at North. The white haired painter sipped his coffee quietly. He must be thinking too.

Aster looked down at the white rabbit in his hand. The metal back felt cold in his hand. He caressed the white fur with his thumb. This little rabbit had sentiment. Aster wanted to know why.

Tooth shifted in Aster's peripheral. North and her talked in hushed voices amongst themselves. The debate got so heated, Tooth was using hand gestures. And, not the good kind.

North cleared his throat. Aster looked at them. Tooth looked away with her arms crossed over her chest. She huffed and slid down in her seat, the clear loser of what had been discussed.

Aster looked at North. He looked serious. The childlike wonder always present in his azure eyes, gone. Aster sat up, posture perfect. It seems those etiquette classes that his mother forced him to go to didn't go to waste.

North bore into Aster's soul. "Where'd you get the rabbit, Bunny?"

Aster looked down at the charm in his hand. Simple question; easy answer. But, how does one phrase it not to sound like pedofile? The first three responses Aster thought of weren't it.

Aster exhaled, "From the beaut dressed like a sheila…"

It wasn't a lie and it wasn't the complete truth. Half truths didn't need explanations. Well, most of the time. And this time, Aster didn't luck out.

North leaned forward onto the counter of the table. It inclined under the weight of his elbows. Enough to see, but not to have the potential energy of falling objects become kinetic. He brought his hands together under his biker bread. He raised a bushy eyebrow. It was Russian sign-language for, "Continue."

Aster sighed and slouched. Tooth mumbled death threats under her breath as she recrossed her legs under the table. Well, this was going to get awkward.

"Um…" Aster had to start from some point. Where, though? Maybe more half-truths.

Aster cleared his throat. "You know the alley on the corner o' Ninth and Bennett?"

That got the other bushy eyebrow raised. More death threats from Tooth's teal painted lips. Who knew Tooth could cuss like a sailor?

"The kit; he's always in there. Doin' what? I don' know. But… He normally comes out onto the street corner, runnin'."

Tooth sat up a little, her mouth set in a frown. Whatever caught her attention, it went right over Aster's head. North still looked as stoic as ever.

"And, I. Ima waitin' at the bus stop. And…"

Tooth looked irritated. North's face was blank. Aster swallowed, watering his dry throat. He could already feel his cheeks heating.

"It was like one of those cheap sheila moments. Time slowed down. It'was jus' the two o' us. Him, wearing faux fur that match his soft hair."

North grunted. Tooth rolled her eyes. Aster looked out the window and rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. Christ, this was difficult to explain.

Aster continued while looking out the window. It had started to snow.

"I-At first, I though' it'was because I hadn' been laid in awhile, but… The feeling became more palpable. Sensual, even. But, I… I want more. More than his beautiful body, I want his heart, mind, and soul."

Aster looked away from the scenery to his friends at the table. His blush still dusted his cheeks.

"Does that make me selfish? For cravin' a total stranger? Or, does it make me… sick?"

Aster spat out the last word like it was venom. He didn't want to be one of those men, that got off to children. He didn't. Yet, here he was, pining over a kit of all things.

Tooth's facade fell when she saw the look of disgust that was on Aster's face. She came around the table and wrapped him in a one arm, side hug. Her other hand combed through his deep cobalt hair. It was nearly navy, at this point.

Tooth cooed at him. North patted his arm from across the table.

"Aster, look at me."

Aster looked at the Russian.

"You won't become him."

And that's all it took. It was as if a dam broke. Aster couldn't stop the tears from falling. Tooth cooed over him and brought his head down to her chest. His ear over her heart.

"Oh, Bunny."

And, he cried. All of the pent up emotion of a struggling gay man. All the heartache he hadn't allowed to get to him. All of the stress. It was finally free.

"It's alright, Bunny. Let it out. It isn't healthy to let all of this stay bottled up inside. Let it go… God, I'm going to kill Jack. No more Frozen for you!"

Tooth continued to talk to herself as Aster released his liquid emotions. They streamed down his face. Each painstakingly drop of the oxymoron that is his emotional level coming down to his physical level. It was hard to deny something when could be touched, felt; named.

He cried, until he ran out of tears. Aster hiccuped. Tooth had his snot and tears all over her blouse. It was going to have to be dry-cleaned. He sat his head down on the table. It felt cool against his heated face.

Tooth continued to run her fingers in his hair while she spoke in quiet voices with North. Aster rolled his eyes under his eyelids. His head was killing him, but he felt better. He felt lighter. It made him feel at ease.

A glass of a lukewarm liquid was pressed against his forehead.

"Hey, Bunny. You need to drink something. You're dehydrated."

Tooth's soothing voice convinced him to crack one eye open. A glass filled with water was against his head and the diner's artificial lights hurt his eyes and his head. He sat up enough to drink. He grabbed the glass in a weak grip and downed the contents in three, generous gulps.

Setting the glass to the side, Aster laid his head down on his crossed arms on top of the table. Tooth smiled down at him, obscuring the white light. She went back to petting his head, until their meals arrived. They ate with light conversation. Mainly, his friends talked. However, when he was promoted to answer, he would nod or make an agreeing sound. He felt rather drained from his orbital valves leaking.

/line break\

It got close to Aster's favorite part of the night. The one hour of the night where it didn't feel too late or too early. It was a compromised medium. The hour that has been bewitched infinite times to repeat or be skipped. Within the hour, it held the secret of time travel and obscuring sleep patterns.

And, in the magical hour, lives change. For better. For worst. Till death do us part because this was the one true marriage no one could divorce. Time.

Aster ate his second piece of carrot cake. He stabbed a bite with the silverware he had been given with his meal. Every now and then, he would get a hint of mint that was on his spring salad.

When the bowl of leaf lettuce got to the table, Tooth muttered, "Rabbit food."

Aster snorted, but said nothing. For, he knew too well, about the on-again-off-again relationship Tooth had with anything that was green. It was just easier to trick her into thinking she was eating ripe tomatoes or colored squash. Worked every time, too.

North bit into his nothing-junior-about-this-heart-attack-on-a-bun and Tooth dung into her chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes with brown gravy.

It has to be brown gravy. The white gravy makes me think of other white stuff and… It makes me think that someone in the Back of the House jized all over my food and graded black pepper on i- Hey! It's not funny. It's exactly what cum tastes like. Why else do you think I quit eating biscuits and gravy?

Aster savored the last bite of his dessert. It was the best and worst part about the end because it was delicious. It made you crave for more, yet there was no more to be had. Moderation was a bitch.

He looked out the window. The snow fell like powdered sugar; lightly dusting the ground with sweetness. All of the street lamps were on, casting the evening darkness in honey and gold. The streets were abandoned, the cars isolated. It was beautiful. Like stepping back from a seen in a painting; yet, this masterpiece had no decorative boundaries.

However, reality reared its ugly head. A shadow stumbled into the pristine picture of a far off paradise. Aster sighed. Stupid drunks.

He looked back into the diner, at the booth across from him. Tooth and North fed each other bites of apple pie à la mode. They giggled at some inside joke that they only knew. Tooth took the spoon that they shared. She scooped a part of the pie, ice cream, and caramel sauce into the tip of the spoon. She presented it to North, who opened his mouth. She fed North the bite. A little of the vanilla ice cream got into the corner of his mouth.

Tooth giggled. North looked at her.

"You got some ice cream on your mouth."

North stuck out his tongue and licked around his mouth. Tooth giggled again.

"You missed it. Here, let me get it for you."

Tooth dabbed her checkered napkin against North's face. He smiled down at her, azure eyes sparkling. She pulled away and he pecked her on the lips. She giggled when he pulled away.

Aster smiled at them around the spoon still in his mouth. They were one of the sweetest couples he knew. Too adorable for words, really. And, with them being together, it reminded him of what he want out of a relationship. Someone that will stick with you, even through your faults. Love.

Clank. Clank.

Aster looked out the window. He gasped and the spoon fell from his mouth. It bounced off of the booth and loaded on the tile floor with a sharp ringing. Time stopped.

Outside, on the other side of the window, stood his Frostbite. In the white light of the diner, injuries came to light. He had one black eye. His bottom lip was split and dried blood in the wound. His hair was disheveled. His faux coat, dirty. He hugged one of his sides and favored a leg over the other. His eyes - his beautiful eyes - held several emotions. Fear, pain, shame, relief.

He placed a pale palm to the glass. He left a bloody handprint. Aster sucked in a breath. Oh God.

Tears flowed from his emotional eyes, cascading down his face. His mouth moved, yet Aster couldn't hear what he said. The blood smeared on the window as he fell to his knees on the sidewalk. Before he fell completely out of sight, Aster was already out of the booth. He exited the diner and fell beside the kit.

Blurred, blue eyes looked up at Aster. The painter caressed the white hair and cooed at him, an emotion clogging his throat. What happened to him?

Two shadows flanked Aster, as he knelt on the powdered concrete. North talked into his phone, reporting the emergency to the person on the other side. Tooth cried and chanted one name over and over, under her breath.

North closed his phone.

"Ambulance is on its way."

Tooth clung to North's sleeve like a lifeline. She buried her face into his chest and cried. North held her, his eyes on the empty street.

Aster moved one of his hands to the kit's head and brushed some of his hair away from his face. He rested his palm on the non-injured side of his face. He cooed over him, pressing his other hand onto his side wound. The warm life oozed from beneath his fingers.

A siren could be heard off in the distance.

The kit puffed out two words that would change Aster. For better. For worst. Forever.

Thank… you…

At that moment was when the EMTs decided to wedge in between him and the kit. They lifted the kit onto a stretcher and packed him into the back of the medical vehicle. He whimpered as he bounced from the force.

The ambulance sped away, sirens blaring. After that, the night returned to its tranquil self. The painted paradise.

Aster turned around to see his friends. North still held Tooth as she cried. He brushed his lips against her temple. She hiccuped. Aster didn't know what to say. Every time he tried, it didn't seem right. So, Aster stared after the medical vehicle.

Clothes rustled. Words exchanged. Aster turned at the sound of his name.

"Aster."

He looked at Tooth's red rimmed eyes.

"How… How do you know Jack?"

Author's Note: Hello my pretties~ Sorry for the later update. Finals kicked my ass... I think I manged to think of a schedule that would work for updating. I will update SA on the fourth of every mouth and I'll update TDF on the twenty-fourth of every mouth. However, I will not be updating TDF on Christmas Eve. Spend time with your families! T'is the season and all that jazz... Hope you enjoyed this as much as I had fun, (I didn't have fun writing some of this) writing this! See you later! *waves*

P.S.: Brownie points to people who review!

Guest: Thanks for the praise. Phoe is a great friend and inspiration. She's the one who got me writing again. I loved her works so much that I wanted to try it for myself and here are the end results - SA and TDF. I'm glad you liked the story thus far. I love hearing from the readers. Keep reviewing! C: