snowbound!

[velvet_iron]

She couldn't feel her nose.  Her ears hurt.  And her toes had stopped communicating with the rest of her body.  Even for a girl that had traipsed up and down Mount Nibel in a cowgirl outfit when she was younger... Tifa had to admit - it was cold.

Really, really cold.

The next time she left Icicle Inn for a bit of snowboarding, she would not get lost

Comments

*snicker* looks Cloudcicle enough for me ;)

[velvet_iron]

The stove was... working. Considering she'd just gotten the fire started with numb fingers that had wasted too many matches. The heat from it at the moment though was nil. Eventually it would warm up the entire room and, if the piping was right, perhaps the small upstairs loft she'd peeked her head into to make sure no one was home, but at the moment she was still trying hard not to let her teeth chatter. If she did, chances were it would be a long time before she'd be able to stop.

She had found herself a good sized pot though and she forced herself to brave up so that she could dart back outside into the storm long enough to fill it with snow. She was just wrestling the door open with a shoulder against the wind when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and for a minute all her muscles tensed as she thought 'monster'. Because what else would be out in weather like this? The pot was seconds away from becoming a flying projectile when the black thing suddenly went down in an inglorious heap and she realized it was a person. Instincts kicked in and she dropped the pot to hurry over, making a quiet sound when her legs contacted with snow again.

Oh... it was going to be a while before her skin forgave her for that...

"What are you doing out in weather like this?" she started to softly scold as she slipped her arms around them to help them up, ignoring the irony of the question. And then she saw a ruffle of gold hair and her eyes blinked wide enough for the blowing snow to sting them.

"Cloud?"

/whew ;;

[erekhthein]

It would be Tifa. Cloud could've been facing a hoard of rabid moogles, Sephiroth could've reappeared with a sudden interest in braiding his hair, or- like now, he could've just simply tripped on a tree root in three feet of snow, and she'd be there. Embarrassing, but she was a blessing in all the right ways at the right times. Like now, when it was freezing outside and her touch was infinitely warmer than the freezing snow around him.

"...firewood," he said with only a hint of a chatter in his teeth. Mako was good for keeping a body going, but there was only so much cold a human body- even a genetically enhanced one, could take. And ...then Cloud realized what an idiot answer that was. Firewood? What firewood? Everything out here was drenched in snow, and what cabin couldn't be heated up with a quick Fire spell?

At least he was able to make it to his feet quickly enough, with only the slightest stumble now that his everywhere was numbing. Ugh, in his boots and everything.

"Thanks," he muttered, brushing the snow from his hair- yipe, and shivering as it fell down his back. "...what're you doing out here?"

;)

[velvet_iron]

It registered, vaguely as he straightened, that he must have changed his outfit since she'd last seen him. At least this one seemed to have more fabric if still no sleeves. More to the point - he was warm. He was wonderfully warm and she had to fight, surprisingly hard, against the desire to just burrow in against him and tangle herself as close as she could.

And it was even - mostly - the cold's fault. This time...

Still, she was supposed to be the practical one and standing outside in the teeth of a snowstorm wasn't practical. Both hands around his arm she headed for the cabin.

"Snowboarding. I made the wrong jump and got lost. I'm sorry if I worried you. But I found a cabin and there's a fire in the stove."

[erekhthein]

...no sleeves were fashionable. Manly. It said "cold? Psh, we men don't get cold."

But, inside did sound like a good idea, so Cloud wasn't entirely dragged along unwillingly. He was surprised that, of all people, he runs into Tifa in the middle of the snow covered woods, but she was better than running into ...say, the Turks. So this is very much welcomed. Even if Cloud did feel pretty embarrassed after having taken a pretty foolish tumble back there.

"- the stove's on fire?"

...maybe he needed to shake the snow out of his ears first, but that didn't sound very good at all. Warm, yes, but definitely unsafe.

verb tense - I'll figure it out

[velvet_iron]

Despite the cold, despite the fact she couldn't feel her nose any more and her ears were starting to hurt and the fact it felt as if she had a ring of ice around her stomach - she couldn't help the sound that squeaked out of her. She could fake that it was a cough if it hadn't been too high toned for that and instead it came out somewhere between a hiccup and a laugh that was quickly stifled. For just a second her wine colored eyes slanted up at him and they were full of bubbling light.

And then another gust of wind hit - hard - and she was suddenly tucked up under his arm and against his side, giving up on the 'being tough' in favor of being warm. For the first, and hopefully the last time, she wished one of them wore a cape like Vincent's. Even if they had to flare it dramatically from time to time.

"In the stove," her lips were starting to go numb as they finally got to the door and she made it a point to enunciate her words around them. "There's a fire in the stove, Cloud."

Manly sleevelessness all being well and good, she wondered if some earmuffs for him wouldn't be a good investment.