Snowfall

Yes, this is inspired by the recent snowstorm that hit the Middle East. This can also be seen as the "Christmas special" but only because Aaron refused to participate in such matters because he's Jewish and therefore the obligatory Christmas special had to be canceled.

The apartment was empty and silent, with Ishizu, Marik and Odion leaving to work at the museum today. They were busy authenticating a series of artifacts from the 17th Dynasty for an upcoming exhibit and the curators needed all the help they could get, which left Sivya alone for the day. Not that she minded really; she was used to being by herself. She softly padded out the hall, bundled in one of the many heavy blankets the Ishtars had on hand, wondering how it could be so silent. Sometimes she could hear the roar of traffic up and down the street next to the apartment complex but today was silent, but not the eerie sort of silence, but the peaceful, soft silence that heralded the onset of winter.

She went to the window, wondering what could cause such a marvelous and blessed quiet. The exterior of the windows were covered in a thin layer of frost. She scowled, unable to see anything, so she decided to open it-

-And was promptly greeted by a blast of cold and a flurry of snowflakes.

She hurriedly slammed the window shut once more, realizing that it had indeed snowed. must have snowed the previous night, blanketing everything in a thick layer of white.

Sivya had heard of snow before, when she was younger, her parents told her stories of snowfall in the mountain ranges of their homeland, the cold and the purity of the substance. She had never seen it herself however and she decided to take it upon herself to see it in person. It wasn't going to hppen often you know. So she trundled back to her bedroom, still under the heavy blanket, and decided to go on a little adventure, like Bilbo Baggins.

After getting dressed, she headed towards the hall closet, recalling how Marik and Ishizu would bundle up in layers of clothing to ward off the chill. Odion seemed impervious to the cold, for he usually wore a hat and a coat; how he could withstand it, nobody knew. She wrapped an impossibly long and multicolored scarf about her neck, remembering that Serenity had knitted for her as a gift. Next came the hat that matched the scarf and atop of that, a pair of woolen gloves and a long navy blue coat that went to her knees. The boots that she had laced up to her ankles were warm, but clunky and awkward on her feet. She usually never wore such heavy footwear. As she headed out, she caught a glimpse of her reflection and giggled to herself at the almost ludicrous sight. Sivya had never pictured herself in such garb, ever.

She grabbed the spare set of keys and headed out, eager to set foot in such a foreign world.

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The snow crunched under the heavy soles of her boots as she stepped out of the building. The city seemed to be absolutely silent, snow still falling to the ground. It was absolutely freezing and for a second, Sivya had the urge to run back inside and duck under multiple layers of blankets with a mug of tea. She fought it off, determined to make the most of this most unusual occurrence. The snow was everywhere, covering just about every flat surface it could. Tree branches were laden with the substance, as were all the park benches and tables. It continued to fall and Siya looked up, the sight nearly taking her breath away. The snowflakes fall all about her, tumbling and colliding, like starfall and she was in the midst of it.

She watched as her breath turned into steam in the frozen air. It was like she was Smaug, the King Under the Mountain. She laughed at this, watching her breath float away into the sky.

She wedged her hands into the pockets of her coat and began to meander through the park that was next to the building watching and enjoying the blissful silence. Out of curiosity, she knelt next to a nearby snow drift and pulled off one glove. She scooped up a handful of snow, inspecting the substance. It was wet and cold, melting rapidly in her palm. After withstanding a few moments of the bitter cold, she flung the remnants away and tugged the glove back on as quickly as she could.

"What lady, haven't you ever seen snow before?" Sivya stood up hurriedly only to discover a young boy, about the age of ten, bundled up save for a pair of electric blue eyes and a smattering of freckles on his nose and cheeks that peeked out from a scarf and hat.

She flushed. "I must admit, I've never seen snow before in my life. Snow doesn't usually fall in my home country."

"What, you lived in a desert or something?"

"Something like that."

"Oh, you must be like Marik then. He's never seen snow before he moved here too."

"You know Marik then?"

The boy nodded. "He's pretty cool. Does snowball fights with us and sometimes he'll let us ride on the back of his motorcycle. He also gives those king sized candy bars on Halloween. Nobody else does that."

"I see."

"You his sister?"

"I'm uh. . ." Sivya fumbled for the proper words, her face flushing.

"Oh, so you're his girlfriend then."

"Yes. . ." she admitted, turning ever so redder. "I must ask, what do you do in the snow?"

"Well let's see, you do snowball fights, make snowmen, snow angels. . ."

"That sounds like a fun time."

"Well, there are a bunch of kids over on the other side of the park." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Wanna join?"

"You would let me join you?"

"Why not? Besides, you're Marik's girlfriend so that makes you cool too."

"Thank you."

As the boy led Sivya through the park, she asked. "What is you name, might I ask?"

"Oh me? I'm Scott, but everybody calls me Scottie, like the Scottie dog. What's yours?"

"My name is Sivya. It is nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

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Scottie led Sivya to the other side of the park, where a group of kids, all wearing their winter coats, were laughing and throwing the snow at each other. Their coats, in an array of color, reminded Sivya of a quilt, with the white snow as the background. There were a dozen of them and Sivya recognized a couple of their faces as children from their apartment building.

"Whose that?" Someone asked, Sivya couldn't see who.

"This is Sivya," Scottie answered. "She's Marik's girlfriend, so she's cool."

"She's lucky," one of the girls, a willowy brunette, whispered wistfully to her friend. Sivya caught this and blushed.

There was a sudden flash and she blinked rapidly in surprise, like an owl encountering daylight.

"What was that?" she asked Scottie.

"Oh, that's Kelsey," Scottie pointed to one of the shorter girls, a redhead, holding a disposable camera. "She wants to be a photographer when she grows up, so she practices by taking lots of pictures.

"Oh, well I am very honored that you would take a picture of me," Sivya said, offering Kelsey a half curtsey."

"She does that for everybody," one boy snorted, one with a sloppy mop of black hair under a gold and red hat.

"That's not nice, Tony!"

"Oh cram it, Steve."

"Will you two play nice?" Scottie sighed in exasperation. "You guys be nice to Sivya, she's never seen snow before, so we're gonna show her all the stuff you can do in the snow."

"Like snowball fights?"

"And snow angels?"

"And yellow snow?"

"Tony!"

"Let's do the snowball fight first!"

"'Snowball' fight?" Sivay asked.

"Yeah, I'll show you." Tony bent down to grab a handful of snow. "You just grab some snow, make it into a ball, and then you throw it!" He flung the snowball at Steve, where it struck him in the back of the head.

Shortly after that, Steve retaliated and the area burst into chaos.

But it was the nice sort of chaos.

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Marik stepped through the door, shaking out the snow from errant strands of hair. It was cold, very cold out there and he was grateful that his boss had let him go home early. Of course, it didn't hurt that his boss was his sister. What struck him as odd however, was how quiet the apartment was. Normally, he would hear Sivya humming nonsensically to herself as she read one of the dozens of books she always seemed to be reading at once as she was curled up on the couch under a blanket, an endearing sight that always managed to melt Marik's heart.

But she wasn't in the living room, she wasn't in her bedroom nor the restroom either.

Marik took a steadying breath, trying his best not to panic. She had been missing once before, in that city in Turkey, and that incident did not end well for any party involved.

If she wasn't in the apartment, then where would she be?

He looked frantically about, looking for any clue to her current location. He saw that the hall closet was slightly open, a scarf, one of his, dangling in the door jam. That combined with her keys missing, lead Marik to the conclusion that she was more than likely outside. Why he didn't know; it was freezing out there.

So he turned right back around to go find her.

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The snow crunched under his boots and he ploughed through the ever growing snow drifts. How that city still managed to function under such conditions, he couldn't even fathom. He had to admit though, it was a rather peaceful scene, the snow softly falling, the trees elegantly draped in ice and snow, the laughter of children-

-He paused.

Among the laughter, he caught the giggle of one particular person.

"That has to be Sivya," he remarked to himself, and stomped off in the direction of the noise. A few minutes later, he found himself leaning against a tree, watching the children engage in the mother all of snowball fights—and Marik had participated in quite a few-, with Sivya the tallest among them, dodging and dancing away from the flying snowballs. She had unerring accuracy as she pelted Tony in the chest with a well placed snowball. He suspected that it was from her years of defending her goat herds. She laughed as Kelsey, the girl with the camera, walloped her in the arm with a snowball of her own. Marik smiled to himself; he would need to thank that camel for throwing him and causing him to almost literally land in her lap.

She spun about with a snowball, clearly not recognizing him, and threw the ball of ice and snow that would put most professional baseball pitchers to shame-

-Where it struck Marik clean in the chest. Snow flew up in his face and hair and Sivya froze, throwing her hands over her mouth, eyes wide in panic. The snowball fight fell to a lull.

"Oh Marik I am so sorry! I did not even realize you were standing there—I must have mistaken you for one of the children-" She stopped mid-sentence as she saw the mischievous smile fall over Marik's face as he emerged from under the tree.

"Oooohhh, you're in trouuuubleeee," the willowy brunette cooed.

"Run Sivya, he's gonna get you!" Scottie cried out.

Sivya had little time to run before Marik had somehow managed to scoop her up, bridal style, the smile now broad on his face, the chunks of snow still on his cheeks and hair. Sivya squealed and squirmed but he held her fast as he carried her over to a snowdrift.

"You wanna play rough?" he teased her. "Trust me, I am the master of snowball fights-oof!" As he attempted to dump her unceremoniously into the snowdrift, the heel of his boot slipped on an icy patch and the pair of them found themselves flying into the snowdrift, Sivya landing on his lap. Scottie and the others watched as the drift exploded in a plume of snow. As the snow settled, the heads of Marik and Sivya, both liberally covered in snow powder, peeking up.

There was a pause, then all the children burst into hearty peals of laughter.

Marik turned to Sivya. "I think there's snow now in my pants."

"It would seem that there is snow everywhere, pants not withstanding," she replied, her cheeks and nose bright red from the cold, making her eyes shine even brighter. Marik had to fight the urge to kiss her, at least, not in front of the children.

There was the flash from Kelsey's camera and both spun about to find the little girl with the camera in her hands.

"I want the negatives," Marik told her.

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A few days later, there was a knock at the Ishtar door. Ishizu was in her bedroom, typing out a report on her laptop, and Sivya and Marik were on the couch under the blankets, reading The Fellowship of the Ring together. They looked quite comfortable and unwilling to budge from their position, which left Odion to answer the door.

He opened the door a crack to see Kelsey, the girl down the hall, with a wrapped package in her hand.

"Why hello Kelsey," he greeted.

"Hello Mr. Odion, I have a present for Mr. Marik and Ms. Sivya," She offered the flat, rectangular package to Odion, whom took it delicately.

"Why thank you Ms. Kelsey. I will take it to them. I think they will enjoy it very much."

"Thank you Mr. Odion. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas to you as well, Ms. Kelsey." With that Kelsey bolted down the hall, leaving the man both slightly confused and yet bemused. But he paid it no mind as he headed back towards the living room. "It would seem that you two have received a Christmas gift from Ms. Kelsey down the hall," he told the pair.

"A present?. . ." Marik began but stopped when he realized what was more than likely was underneath the multiple layers of brightly colored wrapping paper and practically the entire roll of Scotch tape. He glanced over at Sivya, who was slightly confused at this as well, before adding:

"Those had better be the negatives."

One of the things to notice is that Marik and Sivya don't really do too much PDA, because Marik feels really awkward about that sort of thing, and he doesn't want to make Sivya feel uncomfortable either. But every once in a while it happens and the aftermath is usually hilarious, as we've seen in AR.