Author's Note: NaNoWriMo has officially begun! :D As part of the challenge to write 50,000 words over the course of November, I have decided to try to update every single one of my unfinished fanfics that up here so I want to go ahead and apologize now to those of you who subscribe to me and are getting all kinds of messages about me updating all at once. XD I'm also sorry if I'm pushing other deserving authors off of the front pages! :O I'm not trying to just crowd you guys out I swear!
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Chapter 6
Ora sank into the water, letting her black curls dampen and cling to her shoulders. He had never had this much leisurely time when she was alive. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the cool, white tiles, staring meditatively at the fluorescent light above her until a dark shape caught her eye and she looked down to see Seishirou standing in the doorway, leaning casually against the doorframe, watching her.
"Well hello Mr. Tall-dark-and-handsome." She teased. "Care to join me?"
"No thanks."
"What's wrong, worried your suit will get wet." She stuck her tongue out. "There's a simple solution to that you know."
"If you're requesting that I perform a little striptease for you, I'm afraid I'll have to decline."
Ora sighed regretfully and stretched, making sure that her breasts were exposed just above the pearly surface of the bubbles.
Seishirou gave no sign that he even noticed however and she prickled slightly in irritation. "What did you come in here for?" She asked, trying to hold back the snap.
She didn't care for the way his lips curled ever so slowly into an icy smile.
"I ran into an interesting fellow earlier." He announced languidly.
Fear curled around her heart and the once warm bathwater seemed to chill around her.
"Oh?"
"Yes, he seemed to have been a soldier who recently died."
"Kazuhiko?" Ora leaned forward so quickly that water sloshed out of the tub as she gripped the edge of it.
"No, I'm afraid I didn't catch the man's name himself, however he was not Kazuhiko."
"How do you know?"
"I asked. He said he wasn't himself, but that he had met Kazuhiko not too long before he was killed."
Ora's fingers tightened on the cold porcelain of the bathtub. "What did he say about him?"
Seishirou raised an eyebrow ever so slightly. "That he's been on the move, travelling lately apparently."
"Travelling? On a mission?"
"So it would seem." Seishirou leaned forward a little. "Only… does Kazuhiko normally go on missions with young girls?"
Ora frowned in puzzlement. "Young girls?"
"Yes, funny thing about their last encounter. There was a young girl with him whom Kazuhiko seemed particularly fond of."
Ora felt paralyzed suddenly and slightly nauseated. "A young girl… what was her name?"
"Sue."
She stared at the bubbles, suddenly grateful that she was covered by them. She had only ever met one person by that name and the memories of all the times Ora had told her all about Kazuhiko and what a wonderful man he was suddenly came spilling back in.
"Look like your soldier moved on?"
Ora pulled her knees up to her chest. "Maybe. It's probably for the best though right?" She gave Seishirou a pleading look that went unanswered. "I mean, I never wanted him to spend the rest of his life miserable."
"But you didn't want him to fall in love with someone else."
A tear slid past her forced smile. "It's selfish and silly. But I guess that's just how love goes isn't it?"
To her surprise, Seishirou for once did not quite meet her eye.
.
.
The train had been stopped again, this time because ice had formed slick and dangerous cocoons around the rails.
It's so cold… Sue noted as they wandered down the street in search of temporary lodging. I didn't know it got this cold in winter. Then something cool and wet kissed her cheek and she glanced up at the dusty gray clouds rolled across the sky like an ancient duvet. Tiny drifts of white were fluttering through the air like dust brushed off them.
"Where is that coming from?" She asked Subaru, perplexed.
"Where is what coming from?"
"The white stuff."
Subaru froze and stared at her. "You mean the snow?"
Sue held out one hand and watched a few grains of the small white flecks gather in her palm like sand before swiftly melting, leaving a small drop of pooled water, cold against her skin. "Snow?"
"It's like rain but frozen." Subaru gave her an odd look. "You've never seen snow?"
Sue shook her head, fascinated. "It looks like sugar." She commented with a chord of delight in her voice.
Subaru stared as she stuck out the tip of her tongue to catch a gently drifting flake.
"We should get inside." He announced after a few moments. "It's getting colder."
Sue agreed and followed him into the hotel, a paragon of docility.
However, the next morning she glanced out the window and gasped in pleasure. The world was covered in a milky white blanket of untouched perfection.
"I guess the train won't be leaving today either." Subaru noted softly, joining her at the window, then seeing the way Sue stared with her hands pressed to the glass, asked if she wanted to go outside.
She nodded with more enthusiasm than he had ever seen her show and he suddenly realized that she was young. Certainly, she did not look past her mid teens but somehow it had never occurred to Subaru to think of her as young or innocent.
Once outside she gingerly stepped in the snow, her eyes widening in surprise at the slight crunch it made beneath her feet.
"Someone mentioned snow to me once." She remarked thoughtfully. "She said that she would go outside and make people out of it." She turned to Subaru with a baffled look. "How do you make people out of it?"
"Snowmen." He bent down and gathered up a bit of snow in the palm of his hand. It had been a very, very long time since he had played in snow and it brought back hazy memories of Hokuto in wintertime and snowball fights that left them both soaked and exhausted. He felt the corner of his mouth twitch just slightly. "You have to roll the snow in a ball." He explained, kneeling down beside Sue. "Well pack it into one more I guess."
Sue scooped up a small amount of snow and tried to roll it around in her palms but was surprised when it simply crumbled.
"Like this." Subaru picked up some snow himself and began packing it into a small ball before pressing it into her palm. "Now you roll more snow onto it." He gently moved her hands, showing her how to hold it just right. He got so caught up in the snowball didn't realize that Sue was watching his face more closely than his hands.
"Do you like snow?" She asked softly.
"Huh?"
"You seem like you really like the snow."
Subaru stared at the white powder beneath them. "I guess. It makes me remember my sister. We used to love playing in it together."
Sue had never heard Subaru speak of any family members and so had assumed all this time that like her, he did not have any. The discover that he did in fact have a sister, at least at some point in time, ignited her curiosity. If he did have a family after all, where were they?
At last Subaru had rolled his small snowball around enough that he had established a solid base for their snowman. He proceeded to help Sue create the midriff and then the head, showing her how to stick rocks in the snow for eyes and a mouth. At last they stepped back to admire their creation. The lopsided smile, the drooping left side that she had never been able to get quite right, the broken twig that served as a limp arm, it was all too much and Sue suddenly giggled.
Subaru turned to her in obvious shock. "What?"
"It's just… he looks so silly." She replied, trying to cover her mouth with one hand. "He doesn't really look much like a person does he?"
Subaru considered the snowman somberly for a moment, then stepped forward and much to Sue's surprise, unwound his own scarf and wrapped it around the awkward base of its head.
"There." He announced, returning to her side. "How does he look now?"
The wind caught the end of the scarf and blew it into the snowman's face, knocking away one of its makeshift eyes and Sue dissolved into more giggles.
"Perfect." She choked, doubled over with laughter. She was surprised to see when she finally sobered enough to straighten up, just the smallest hint of an upward curl to Subaru's lips. But the sun had since set and they were both hungry and shivering with cold, so he suggested that they head back inside.
Before they went to bed however, Sue made sure to look out the window and check on their snowman. He was still outside beneath a streetlamp, scarf billowing around him, steadfastly waiting and holding his ground despite his many imperfections. To Sue, he was wonderful.
