Y - Yearn - Yuki-onna and Yasha (SR) for subsiding_leaf
**
After so long in the West, Yasha was sick of lush, verdant vegetation and cool breezes. She disliked the chill of the mornings and nights, the dew that condensed on the grass that grew everywhere, and the sun cheerfully lighting up everything with what felt like the mere memory of heat. What she really missed was the sky with a real sun and no clouds, shining with real heat down on her head, making the air ripple as if they were under water, her breath warm and dry in her lungs, the earthy red and gold and brown tones of the South.
If she had a choice, she would be back in the South in the split second that it would take to teleport there. But instead, snow crunched under her foot and the sun above her head didn't even pretend to emit heat. The air in front of her fogged with every breath. The plaza that they were entering seemed to be completely devoid of life, the ice blue of the sky and the slate gray of the walls bleaching until they all seemed to be variations on the same shade of 'snow'.
"Kinda depressing, isn't it?" Yuki-onna said with entirely too much cheer for the words of her statement, even though Yasha thought she could also detect the barest trace of discomfort in the other demoness's tone. But she doubted that Yuki-onna could dislike the North as much as she herself did: after all was said and done, Yuki was still half ice-demon.
"I do not get depressed." She said instead, breathing out another cloud. The sense of desolation was an illusion - they were in the middle of the Northern Capital, and the day was starting. Northern merchants obviously did not prescribe to the same selling methods as their Southern counterparts (mainly in that Yasha had yet to have one demon or demoness yell in her ear, and she was out and about yesterday too), but they were just as obviously still present, and doing their jobs. She could see movement and hear activity along the more major roads. "Are we quite done with your walk? Need I remind you that the mere fact that we're here has caused an uproar?"
Yuki-onna grinned impishly, an expression jarringly out of place on her face if Yasha considered all the other pale-haired, pale-eyed ice demonesses that she had seen in this trip alone. "Uproars are great fun," she replied flippantly, "and besides, everyone will be expecting us to keep our heads low because of the uproar. Isn't it better to do the unexpected?"
Yasha sighed. "Please find your informant soon and conclude your business. Geir and Feng and Sada aren't used to Lord Amatsu's quirks yet, and it would be a poor showing for the South if we caused some sort of mishap on our first attendance."
"They would be poor Lords and Ladies if they aren't expecting his quirks by now," Yuki-onna laughed. "Still, I wish it had been Diablo and Enma...can you imagine the looks on their faces?"
Yasha grimaced. "No, and I do not wish to." If the former Lords of the East and West were still among the world of the living, they would no doubt be doing exactly what their successors are doing right this minute - pondering on why Amatsu Mikaboshi decided to grace the Demon Lords meeting with two of his Generals (considered to be myth, by some) in tow, when no one had seen hide or hair of anything resembling an honor guard with him ever since he started attending those meetings as the Lord of the South. Yasha wanted to know too - there was the chance it was perverse whim, but she highly doubted it was just perverse whim.
"I'm sure," Amatsu's Head General said with certainty as she turned down a street that Yasha hadn't even noticed was there, "that Lord Amatsu had a good reason for bringing us."
"And potentially blowing whatever cover you had here in the North, and mine in the West," Yasha said with a roll of her eyes, exasperated but unsurprised.
"Oh yes, I'm sure he's up to something." Yuki-onna laughed, even though there was a darker thread in the light sound. Her breath, Yasha noticed, did not fog up in the air.
She sighed and thought longingly of baking heat as she followed her companion deeper into this frozen land. Whatever her lord was currently plotting, she hoped it would be concluded satisfactorily, soon.
**End
for the one person who knows this story and these characters - this is set after Diablo & Enma's 'death', during of the Demon Lords' meetings after their successors/replacements have been found)