Of all the chapters I've written for this story so far, I think this one has to be my favorite. I really do. It's going to be hard, at least in my own eyes, to top this one. Although I do have a few plans on how it could be done.
That said, hello! It's Saturday again, and I'm running it down to the wire to get this chapter up! Thank you again to Nora for staying up with me on a Friday night when you should have been sleeping; I keep getting bit by this insane "stay up very, very late to work the night before deadline" bug and it's great to know that someone is there.
Random note: Cats are natural performance artists. They can do a really great tightrope act. Right across the curtain rods, I tell you... right across the curtain rods...
Honestly, I don't have much to say except thanks, as always, to my readers and to those of you who take the time to review. It's not that I wouldn't love to dish about this chapter, it's just that I think the chapter speaks for itself. So let's go!
Jin was starting to go more than just a little crazy. Spending three days stuck inside and only a fourth to look forward to tended to do that to a guy, he thought. Spending two days stuck inside with Suzuka certainly wasn't helping. Even Touya's considerable patience seemed to be wearing a little thin. Mana had gotten quiet and sort of withdrawn, especially when it came time to do her schoolwork; she had begun to border on downright irritable if they tried to talk to her while her books were out. He thought it may have had something to do with the phone call she'd received late Monday night. The three fighters had been forced to sit, perfectly silent, while Mana had a little conversation with her father, the majority of which consisted of the phrases "I'm fine," "really, I'm fine," and "no, you don't need to call the neighbors to keep an eye on me. I'm fine." By the time she'd hung up, she'd seemed quite perturbed. Now, Wednesday night, he wasn't sure her mood had improved any.
"Hey, Mana?"
The girl had been shifting slightly, but when he said her name the sounds stopped. After a moment he heard her reply softly. "Yeah?"
He listened carefully to the wind outside. "Sounds like things are getting' quieter out there. We may be seein' a break come tomorrow."
"That would be very nice." He could just see her peering up at him in the darkness. "Honestly, I've never cared for storms."
"Ya haven't?" Well, that might explain the irritability. "How come?"
"I've just never liked them." The girl tugged her blankets up to her chin. "My mother used to have to sit with me during thunderstorms. Snowstorms weren't quite as bad, but I still don't like them."
Jin tilted his head. "Well, that's ahright. Lots of people are afraid of storms, I imagine..."
"I'm not afraid." Mana's voice was a low hiss. "I just don't like storms. Lots of people don't."
"Ah. Em..." The wind master reached over to pat the girl on the head once. "Well, I guess that's okay, too. Me, I've never liked them much either. Have a hard time stayin' indoors, I do."
"I've noticed." She couldn't have sounded any more flat if she tried. Jin frowned slightly as the girl rolled onto her side. "Are you sure things are getting more quiet? I honestly can't tell."
"I can tell by the wind. I thought ya could hear it talkin', couldn't ya?" He reached down and gave her shoulder a poke. The little blonde shifted further under the blankets.
"I can't do that when I'm inside. I have to actually be out in the open air to hear anything."
"That's a sign ya need practice, then." Jin tugged the blanket down away from her head. "Give it a listen, wot do ya think ya hear right now?"
The healer frowned lightly. "Are you serious?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Jin settled more comfortably against the back of the couch. "Come on, Mana, give it a try. See wot it says to ya!"
"It says you're an idiot." He stared her down. Finally, she sighed and sat up. "Fine. I'll try seeing if I can hear anything from here."
Jin waited patiently for several minutes while Mana sat with her eyes closed. He was starting to wonder if she had fallen asleep when she finally opened them again. "It's no use. I can't understand it if I'm not standing in it."
"Just practice and ya could learn it, so I says. I bet-" A loud snore from the other side of the couch cut him off. The redhead turned and peered over the back of the seat, eyes wide. "Well, how's that for rude? We're tryin' to have a bit of a chat here, ya know."
Mana made a soft sound that was almost like a chuckle... but not quite. "I don't think he did that on purpose, Jin."
The wind master shrugged, eyeing the back of the couch speculatively as another, slightly smaller snore disturbed the relative peace of the living room. "I ought to tip him off the couch, I should. Yer the one who should have dibs for sleepin' there anyway."
"I don't mind." The girl snuggled back down into her blankets. On a whim, Jin reached over and brushed her bangs back from her face. Mana stared up at him. "What was that for?"
"No reason, really. Ya ought to be gettin' some rest now." The girl stared at him doubtfully for several long minutes before sighing. He frowned. "Wot?"
"Your impossible sometimes..." The girl turned away slightly, curling up to sleep. Jin couldn't help a small smile as she peered back over her shoulder at him. "Good night."
"G'night, Mana. Sleep well." There was no answer from the girl. Jin settled against the couch, listening to the soft hum of heater and the whistling of the gales outside.
He woke the next morning to blinding white light streaming into the room as Mana threw the curtains back. The girl's mouth was steady, but her eyes seemed to be smiling. "Finally! I was going to go crazy without light!"
Jin rubbed his stinging eyes. "Storm's over, eh? Just like I told ya, it was quietin' down. Ya ought to listen to me more often!" Mana nodded half-heartedly, staring out the door. Jin blinked and looked out the glass; the snow was piled at least two feet deep on her little balcony. "Whoa, now, there's a problem. Wot ya gonna do about that?"
"I have no idea. I've never seen it that high before." Mana frowned. "I suppose I should just push it over the side once I can get the door open. I think I'd rather get something warmer on first, though..."
Jin stood up, trying his best to stare outside. He'd had no idea that the sun reflected off of snow that brightly. "That makes a body's eyes sting something fierce, it does. Is it supposed to be that bright?"
"You get used to it." Mana turned, eyeing the couch speculatively before heading into the kitchen. Jin used the time she took to make breakfast to stare out the window, studying the world outside. The entire balcony was coated in white, the roof across the alley was covered, and from what he could see of the alleyway there was more of the same below. The morning sun was shining off of the blankets of snow in a blinding reflective array, so he looked to the sky instead... and that was where his attention stuck. He had never seen quite that shade of blue before, perfectly clear and looking like it went up forever. There were still more than a few gray clouds on the horizon, but everything above the apartment building was positively ethereal...
The next thing he knew, Mana was actually giving him a poke in the side. "Hello, Earth to Jin..."
He blinked, staring down at her for several seconds before he thought to speak. "Em... wot?"
The girl sighed. "Breakfast, Jin. Breakfast is ready."
"Oh." He followed her back over to the table. Mana sat down, legs curled beneath her, eating politely as she usually did... he'd noticed that she hadn't bolted her food down even once in front of Touya and Suzuka. Frowning, he looked around as he picked up his plate. "Where'd Touy go?"
"He said he wanted to see if he could get up to the roof." Mana chewed on a mouthful of egg before continuing. "With any luck, we'll all be able to go outside later today."
"Outside is good, yeah. I could do for goin' outside." Jin tucked into his breakfast, letting the girl eat in peace and pausing only to jab Suzuka in the leg when the fighter rolled over and nearly kicked him in the head. If there was any chance he could help Touya and get them out of the apartment that much faster, he wanted to try!
As it happened, Touya got downstairs before he finished. "The doorway is clear. We can get upstairs now. I also managed to get across to the front of the building. They're starting to clear the roadways."
It was all he could do not to jump up and cheer while he was holding his breakfast. Even Mana seemed distinctly more cheerful at the news. "Thank you, Touya. That should make things a lot more pleasant for everyone."
"I'll say it will!" Jin swallowed the last of his meal. Mana stared at him as he set the plate down. "Wot?"
"Nothing." The girl stared down at her plate silently for a moment. "With the weather clear, I should probably try to go to school today."
"Yer kiddin', right?" The girl fixed him with a flat stare. "Ya haven't even looked outside yet. How do ya know ya'd be able to get there?"
"Well, I have to try. I can't very well sit out the whole week, you know." She set her plate down half finished. "Someone probably took care to keep the main doors downstairs clear, so if it's okay to go up on the roof it should be okay to go down to the sidewalks, too."
"Right..." Jin looked over at his old friend; the ice apparition was shaking his head silently. The wind master sighed. He knew what that look meant. "Good luck with that, then."
The girl wasn't even gone half an hour upon leaving before she was back in the apartment, a definitive scowl on her face as she dropped her bag and pulled her boots off by the door. "I give up. It's not possible to get through that without snowshoes, not as far as I have to go. They can clear the roads first."
"Looks like yer takin' that week off after all." Jin ignored a soft grumble from Suzuka; it was always best to leave him be when he first woke up. "So wot do ya think we'll be doin' today?"
"I have no idea about you, but I'm going to study some more. Why do you always ask me, anyway?" Mana looked around before he could answer. "Where did Touya go, back on the roof?"
"Yeah, he said somethin' about the view bein' good." Jin got to his feet, grabbing the coat he'd been borrowing and pulling it on. "I was gonna head up myself. Ya ought to come with me. It'd do ya some good to get the air."
"I just did, thank you." Mana started to unravel her scarf. Jin frowned to himself. That wouldn't do at all. Mana was pale enough as it was without hiding indoors all the time. It took him four steps to get across the room next to her; the girl blinked. "What are you doing?"
"Wot does it look like?" Reaching out, he took hold of her by the waist. "Ups-a-daisy!"
"No!" Too late, the girl started to squirm. "Damn it, you're not going to do this again! Put me down!"
"But if I do that, ya won't come outside." Jin ignored the stare Suzuka was giving him as he settled the girl over his shoulder. Mana gave him a few solid thumps on the back and even tried giving his hair a yank in the process. Scowling, he jostled her lightly. "Hold still up there. It's not real polite of ya, flailin' around like that."
"And it's polite to just... manhandle a girl like this?" The angry half-growl came from somewhere around his mid-back. "If you don't put me down right now, I swear I'll shoot you."
"And I'll drop ya on yer head if ya do!" He jostled her again before bending down to grab her boots. "We're all gonna go outside today, and yer gonna enjoy yerself like a good little lass, and that's final."
If he'd thought she was growling before, he knew she was now. "Jin, I'm serious. Put me down."
Rolling his eyes, the redhead turned towards the other male in the room instead, ignoring the girl's threatening tone. "Eh, Suzuka, could ya get the door for me? Me hands are full."
The master of a thousand shook his head. "I think I'm going to have to stay out of this one. I'll be upstairs if you need me."
Pushing past them, the blond fighter slipped out the front door on his own. Jin barely managed to catch it with his foot before it closed. Easing out, he managed to make it into the hallway and had almost started down the hallway when he hit a new snag; namely Mana's hands clutching the door jam. "Hey, now, let go of that."
"Jin, I am serious." The girl's voice was low. "Put me down."
"Nothin' doin' of it, now let go of the door." He tried pulling gently, but she held on. The wind master frowned. "Yer only makin' this harder on yerself, ya know. Let go of the door."
"Put. Me. Down." She wasn't just holding on to the wood now, she was pulling on it. Jin sighed to himself. He didn't want to think about what she would do to him if they managed to break that door frame.
"Fine. I'll put ya down, but only if ya promise to come onto the roof with the rest of us." There was a sound like a sigh from behind him. "I mean it, Mana. I want ya to promise. Ya been stuck inside, same as all the rest of us. Ya can't be not needin' to stretch a bit."
After a moment the girl stopped pulling at the doorway. "Fine. But I don't want to go out in this. At least let me change first?"
"I can do that." Jin backed his way back into the apartment; it seemed easier than trying to turn around. "I'm waitin' in here 'til ya get done, though. I'll even watch the clock on ya, so no thinkin' ya can hide in yer room!"
Mana was glaring as he set her down. "I can always lock the door, you know."
Jin couldn't help a small laugh. "Mana, do ya honestly think that little wooden door is a threat to me?"
The girl narrowed her eyes, obviously not appreciating the sentiment. "You break my door and I break you, got it?"
"I got it, I got it..." Jin flopped onto the couch as the girl headed down the hall. Somehow he'd get her to socialize a bit more, he decided. She put way too much focus into schoolwork and solitude. He'd known it was bad, but he didn't realize it was bad enough for her to pass up the first chance they had to get out of this apartment. That just wasn't right.
He was just getting up to knock on her door when the healer came out on her own. Jin had to smile to himself at the way the girl had bundled up; layered skirts, heavy coat, gloved hands and a thick scarf. "Okay. Let's go."
"Ya know, all that is gonna get soaked out there." The girl ignored him, heading for her front door. Jin shrugged to himself and followed along. "Fine, then, don't ya listen to a word I'm sayin'. But that's not gonna make it any less true, so I say. Those little gloves are gonna wet right through."
"I'll be fine." Mana pulled her boots on and stepped out into the hall. The wind master tagged along at her heels, his hands in his pockets. He waited until they were in the elevator to try speaking again.
"I bet ya don't even know how to throw a snowball, do ya?"
The girl scowled. "Yes, I know how to throw a snowball. Everyone knows how to throw a snowball. That's a stupid question."
"Good. Then I expect ya to prove it."
"I'm not going to throw snowballs." The little blonde shifted her feet slightly as the elevator moved upwards. "Don't even get your hopes up."
"If ya say so." Jin blinked at the sudden brightness as the doors slid open. The air was crisp and cold, and the sunlight reflected almost blindingly off the snow. He could see Touya standing towards the front of the building- standing on the snow, as he always seemed to do so easily- but Suzuka was nowhere to be found. The wind master frowned, glancing around, and finally spotted him peering off the side over the balcony. "Ello, there!"
Touya waved silently back at them rather than shouting across the full length of the roof, but Suzuka seemed to be puzzling over something again and didn't reply. Jin shrugged it off and stepped into the snow- it came up to about the middle of his shins. Mana wasn't so fortunate; the girl was buried almost to her knees the moment she stepped off the elevator. "Eh, jeez, it's worse up here than it was downstairs. I hope the roof can handle all this."
"It should be fine." Touya was making his way on top of the snow; Jin had never been able to work out exactly how he did that without sinking into it. "It's not packed down that deeply, so it looks like there's more than there is. It doesn't way as much as you'd think."
"That's good." Mana stomped down the snow around her a bit, examining the level once it was packed. Jin found he was having to resist the urge to fling a snowball at the back of Suzuka's head; there certainly seemed to be enough of the stuff to form a nice arsenal. Looking around, he could see the buildings around them glistening with their own white caps and decided that he liked snow in the human world. It looked good under the sunlight!
Mana was making her way across the roof to look down at her balcony. Jin studied her a moment before turning his attention back to the snow itself and scooping up a handful to test the consistency. It would be rude, he told himself, to actually throw it at his hostess, even if it did seem to be the right weight for a projectile. So he threw it at Suzuka instead.
He heard Touya groan as he let a good sized junk of snow fly. It hit the back of the 'beautiful' fighter's head with a delightful soft splattering noise, some of it even sticking to the hair that, for just an instant, seemed to spike up even more than normal. He could feel himself grinning as Suzuka whirled about. After all, the aqua-eyed fighter had no way of knowing that he'd scooped up another handful before he'd stood up. He let the second fistful fly just as Suzuka opened his mouth to start yelling, whooping a bit himself as the second target hit it's mark with an even more delightful effect than the first; there was something about the sound of a large clump of snow hitting someone in the face that just appealed to him right then. "There we go! That's a point, it is!"
That was about when Suzuka charged at him.
If they managed to make the roof cave in, Mana decided then and there, she was going to find a way to kill them both.
The healer sighed to herself. She should have expected this... in fact, she realized, on some level she was fairly sure she had. She wasn't nearly as surprised as she should have been when the two started grappling, trying to fling each other down into the mounds of frozen white. They were both completely insane, she decided. Totally, completely insane.
"It might be a good idea to step back." She blinked as Touya strode over beside her. Hadn't they been roughly the same height? Glancing down, she saw where the difference came from immediately; he didn't sink into the snow the way she did. "Once those two get started, it's better to clear the area. You might-"
The small apparition didn't even get to finish his sentence before a mass of snow struck him in the side of the head. He turned, casting a cold glare at his more rambunctious fellows that sent a chill down Mana's spine. "Do you really think you want to play that game with me, Jin? You already know how it would end."
"If it gets ya over here and doin' somethin', I will!" Jin threw a second ball that his friend easily ducked under only moments before Suzuka appeared on the roof of the elevator room with a ball of snow larger than his own head. The yelp Jin let out as it crashed down onto him was almost comical. "Hey, come on, now! That's cheatin'!"
"You're only saying that because you didn't think of it first." His smug expression only lasted as long as it took Jin to scoop up two large fistfuls of snow, pack them into one large mass, and let it fly. The healer raised an eyebrow. That was a combination of swears she'd never heard before...
Mana turned her attention back to Touya and saw that he was looking at her with a small smile. "Well?"
She blinked. "Well, what?" The ice demon was smiling a crooked little half smile as he tilted his head towards his fellows. Mana cringed as Suzuka jumped down and the snowball fight turned back into a grappling match in the snow. "You're joking, right?"
Touya shook his head. "He's letting you off easy right now. It won't last, I can assure you of that. Once he has a few people involved he can't help but try for the rest. It's in his-"
They were cut off by a howl. Jin leapt out of the small pit they'd been making, a wicked scowl on his face. "Wot the hell was that?!"
Suzuka stood up calmly, brushing his hands together to get the clinging crystals of ice off of them. "That was a technique I learned years ago for quickly ending one of these petty fights. I call it the direct approach."
Jin's fists clenched at his sides. "Direct approach, hell! Stuffin' snow down a man's pants is no way to get out of a decent, fair fight!"
"It gets the job done."
Mana could feel herself cringing as Suzuka headed for the elevator. The girl turned away as Jin bent down into the snow, certain she didn't want to see what was going to happen next. Sure enough, Suzuka's yell was even louder than Jin's had been. She shook her head, turning to ask Touya if this was normal or not, when she realized he wasn't standing next to her any more. Frowning, the healer turned back to where the fighting was going on just in time to see the snow literally slide off the roof of the elevator hutch, momentarily burying both of the thrashing figures. Touya seemed pleased with himself as he looked down at them, pulling themselves out of the new drift and swearing enough to remind her of a few American movies she'd seen. "I trust that settles the matter, then?"
"Oh, so that's how ya be wantin' to play it, is it?" Jin was already scooping up the makings of another projectile. Mana had to question the intelligence of anyone who would go throwing snowballs at an ice demon, especially one that could actually jump down off the small shack without leaving footprints where he landed. The girl scooted back, far enough that her back pressed against the railing around the roof... and then, without even thinking about it, she bent down and started packing the snow at her feet with her hands. When Jin let his snowball fly, so did she... right at the back of his head. He turned slowly, staring at here with a stunned expression. "Wot was that? Wot did you just do?"
"Do you need me to spell it out?" Mana's hands were already fast at work. Her height gave her one advantage; she didn't have to bend nearly as far as he did to get to the snow. She had a second ball worked up precious seconds before he did, getting it into the air with just enough time to dodge the shot he threw her way. Jin shouted as the dense ball hit him square in the chest. Mana just shrugged. "I guess that's a point for me, then."
The sides became divided all too quickly; Jin and Suzuka both seemed to forget that they had attempted to freeze each other's general seating areas once Mana and Touya proved to be enough of a threat. The clean white surface on the roof proved to be the perfect playing field; the unpacked snow was easy to scoop up and throw... or, she discovered with some dismay as soon as Jin got his hands on her, to throw someone into. The girl shrieked, flailing her arms and legs as she tried to get back to the surface and out of the blindingly cold cocoon of white. It took her a moment, but she managed to figure out which way was up after bashing her elbow on the ground a time or two and right herself.
By the time she could see clearly Touya had driven the redhead back enough for her to get to her feet; the snowballs that Suzuka frantically pelted him with from behind seemed to be doing nothing. Scooping up an entire armful of snow, Mana ran over and did her best to hurl the attack at the back of his head, but it broke in the air and she wound up splattering his back instead. Suzuka turned towards her just as Touya ducked under a frantic counter-shot from Jin that ended up hitting his partner square in the side of the head. Something inside of Mana seemed to bubble over; she let out one short laugh and threw herself back into the fray, as much snow as she could reach and one loose glove flying into the battle. It was soon trampled into the snow, a victim of the fighting who would very likely remain unrecovered until spring thaw.
And that was how the twins found them as they stepped on to the roof ten minutes later, four soaking wet fighters laughing like maniacs as they tried to drown each other in the snow, the evidence of the skirmish reigning in the form of a crater on the perfect white rooftop. Hachiko, the unshakable twin, had a startled expression on her face; Sachiko, easily the more dramatic, looked downright stunned. "What the hell is going on here?"
"Um..." Mana glanced around at the three apparitions, quickly appraising how bad they looked. Suzuka was panting, his sweatshirt soaked through and his hair falling flat into his eyes. Jin's face was nearly as red as the top of his head, his coat soaked through almost as badly as hers was. Touya's hair wasn't the picture of neatness she was already used to; instead it was tousled about and looked rather damp. She could feel the flush over her own cheeks as she panted for breath and see, on her own shoulders, that her own hair was wet, stringy, and very nearly starting to curl. She couldn't help it; she grinned in spite of herself. "Snowball fight?"
"Snowball fight," Sachi repeated. "We rush over here the moment the weather clears, worried sick over the fact that you've been trapped in your home with a bunch of... with... with them," she waved her arm to specify Mana's rooftop companions, "and we get here to find shouting we can hear all the way down to the ground that damn near gives us both heart attacks and you're having a snowball fight?"
Mana tried to still her expression and get a straight face back on, but it didn't work. She couldn't stop smiling. "I think that sums it up."
Sachiko fell silent, Hachi picking up the scold for her. "And I suppose you have something brilliant to say for yourself, don't you."
Mana had to fight back a giggle at the twin's very dry form of sarcasm. "Well, now that you mention it..." She glanced over at Jin. "We call Sachi."
