Yatta!
A story! I can still write! This is so over the word limit but considering I haven't written in weeks, I hope you forgive me. butterflydrming, thank you for this challenge..
Title: To Keep the Cold Winter Away
Challenge: Cold Weather Cuddle
Words: 1695
Canon: Manga
Genre: Sappy fluff. You're warned...
Summary: When a blizzard hits their village and cuts the power, Eriol and Kaho - and Nakuru and Suppi - find a few surprises.
Author's Note: In this story, Eriol is physically in his early 20s. So no cause for alarm...
Like a frozen raindrop, a cerulean diamond, sparkling and glinting in the pale lamplight, hovered above Eriol's open left hand. Tendrils of pale blue magic, as elusive as smoke, rose from the young man's fingers, flashed brightly before disappearing into the gem.
Wavering for a moment, Eriol used his free hand to steady himself against his desk. Creating the diamond from a carbon seed and infusing it with the various protective and beneficial spells had taken more energy than the young sorcerer had guessed would be needed. A few weeks and his magical stores would renew themselves, and Ruby Moon had already begun increasing her food intake to make up for her master's temporarily decreased magic. Kaho already suspected something but by the time she guessed..
Eriol looked down at the small gem and closed his fingers around it as the last of the magics entered it. Feeling less lightheaded, he reached besides him and lifted, from a black jewelry box, a simple silver band, inlaid with six small clear diamonds. Deftly, he set the blue stone in the center, speaking a single word to set it in place. An enigmatic if nervous smile played across his lips as he set the engagement ring back in the box.
"Kaho," he said, figuring it never hurt to start practicing, "will you-"
The rest of the questioned turned into a sharp, if ineffectual curse, as he was plunged into darkness.
*****
"Where did those clouds come from? And it was a full moon tonight!"
Nakuru grumbled as she flounced away from the enormous window, not even noticing the snowflakes that began to fall, featherlike, to the bare ground. The winter in Long Piddleton had been unseasonably warm, causing the residents to grumble about the lack of snow, especially around the holidays. Not that they wouldn't complain about the snow once it fell and how it made the roads impassable. And judging how the flakes outside were picking up into a full-blown blizzard, the residents would have no shortage of grudges against the change in weather.
Suppi looked up from the plush ottoman on which he was perched and, as usual, rolled his eyes at his sister's complaint. A cup of darjeeling steamed away on the table besides him, a copy of 'The Golden Compass' lay beneath his paws. "Were you not, only yesterday, commiserating with Mr.. Plant about the lack of snow thus far?" Their neighbor, a former earl and newly-minted sorcerer, was rather sentimental about the holidays. From the rate at which the snow was falling, the sun guardian imagined he had taken the weather into his own hands.
"That's not the point, Suppi!" Nakuru sighed and plunked her fingers into a dish full of sweets on a table far from the black cat, settling on a Turkish delight. "You get to see the sun *every* day-"
"This is England. Every day is a gross overstatement," Suppi muttered, reaching out for his tea.
"-and the full moon is three days a month. Only three days! You don't know how lucky you are, honestly." The moon guardian popped the pink and white candy into her mouth, licking the sugar off her fingers. As she went to sit down on one of the plush chaise lounges, her tirade was interrupted by a sudden, inopportune darkness. Suppi missed his tea cup and sent it clattering to the floor; Nakuru missed the chaise lounge entirely and crashed gracelessly to the floor.
"What happened? Is everyone-"
"Eriol! You're all right! Nakuru? Suppi?"
"Nothing wounded but my pride. And other parts....itai!!"
"I'm fine - the teacup, however..."
***
A few hours ago, the prospect of a roaring fire and cuddling beneath the covers had sounded like an ideal way to pass the outage. Once the fire had sputtered to ashes and the comforters and duvets turned to polar ice sheets, however, Eriol and Kaho's tender embraces had turned into frigid, desperate handholds to any vestiges of warmth.
"Are you sure you c-can't do anything?" Cradled against his chest, Kaho's words escaped in puffs of frozen air, her teeth chattering together. "Fire? Glow? Is there a 'Glass of Brandy' card you haven't told me about?"
"I wish I could, I really, really wish I could b-but.." Eriol held her even tighter, resting his chin against the top of her head, her silky hair like icy tendrils on his cheek. "I can't use my magic r-right now. Nothing's wrong," he said at her small gasp of worry - or impending hypothermia. "I've been working on something and it took a little m-more than I thought. But the power's bound to c-come back soon...and n-next time I'll be sure we have a d-decent supply of firewood."
This elicited a laugh from Kaho, who nuzzled against the soft flannel of Eriol's pyjamas. "N-next time? As romantic as freezing to d-death would b-be.."
Eriol gently tucked his fingers beneath Kaho's chin, tilting her head back and kissing her forehead. "There's n-no one in this world I'd want to freeze to d-death with more."
"Are you j-just saying that?" Kaho's tone was light and melodious despite the temperature.
"You're very s-silly, you know that," he answered, cupping her cheek with the palm of his hand. "One of the things I l-love about you b-best.." And everything else, he thought, content to just hold her and bask in her faintly glowing, silvery presence. The vague nervousness that had grown into a far more acute anxiety the past few days melted away. Despite a small voice in back of his head urging him to wait until 'the perfect time,' he thought there might not be a time more perfect than this.
"But I wasn't j-just saying that," he said, looking into her amber eyes. "F-freezing to death, growing o-old and playing Scrabble b-by the lake, w-waking up with you every m-morning. Wherever my life goes, and w-who knows where that will be, I w-want it to be with you." With the last amount of his magic, he levitated the box out of a hidden drawer in his nightstand and into his hand.
Kaho's gasp had nothing to do with the cold as Eriol opened the box to reveal the ring, which glowed with a pale blue light, even in the room's near-darkness. She searched for the words even as Eriol struggled to do the same.
"I had always h-hoped we'd have a happy ending," he said, trying to keep his hand from shaking - he knew it wasn't from the cold.
"It isn't a-a happy ending," Kaho replied, and if it wasn't for the warmth in her voice and the light in her eyes Eriol's hopes would have been cut down in one fell swoop. "It's a happy beginning."
It was only blind instinct and adrenaline that guided Eriol's fingers in lifting the ring out of the velvet and onto Kaho's extended hand. The diamond flared in brightness as the ring settled on her finger, settling to a faint, cobalt glow. Eriol entwined his fingers with hers as the shock gave way to a chorus of 'she said yes she said yes she said yes!'
"A very happy beginning," he murmured as all thoughts of cold and snow fled, leaving only unexplained, endless warmth.
***
"Mou! And that was the last of the firewood!"
Nakuru slunk back to the chaise lounge and mountain of blankets, leaving the smoldering ashes of the dying fire behind her. The blizzard had slowed, but the fat snowflakes still fell leisurely to the seas of white below. The taper candles still burned, but their flickering light barely illuminated a fraction of the palatial front room.
No more sweets - she had picked off the last coconut-toasted marshmallow an hour ago. No warmth - she could still see her breath hanging in the air. Barely any light. Only Suppi, who had dozed off shortly after Nakuru finished the sweets. And thanks to Eriol, her magic reserves were running low, which sent a chill through her that even the cold couldn't touch.
With a hearty sniffle, Nakuru pulled the blankets off the lounge to make a plush nest for herself on the floor near the fire. She could feel her master's presence through their bond - annoyed at the cold, of course, but full of love and anxiety in equal measure.
"She'll say yes, don't worry," the moon guardian murmured, a rueful smile on her lips. She had come to like Kaho quite a bit, and had nearly squeezed the life out her master when he told Nakuru about his plans for the engagement ring, but her happiness was tinged by a sadness that had quietly nagged at her since her creation. What good was immortality if you had to spend it all alone?
"Hmmmmm?" Suppi stirred from his slumber, blearily opening his teal eyes. A sun guardian, Suppi didn't seem to be bothered by the cold, unlike the rest of his household.
"It was nothing Suppi, go back to sleep," Nakuru replied, surprised he had even heard her. When her brother slept, it usually took extraordinarily creative (and daring) acts to wake him. She wrapped the blankets around her and rested her chin against her chest, her hands clutching tightly at her arms. "Just a little cold.."
There was a rustling noise behind her, and Nakuru assumed Suppi had gone back to sleep. A sudden warm - and large - presence besides her made her draw her head up sharply. Spinel Sun, his wings conveniently nonexistent, had nosed beneath the blankets to curl up next to his sister. His black fur was warm as summer sunlight, and despite the shock leaving her speechless, Nakuru wrapped her arms around him.
"Spinel?" Nakuru murmured, the warmth slowly turning her melancholy tiredness into a pleasant sleepiness. Beneath her cheek, she could hear a deep purr as her brother considered his answer.
"Go to sleep, Ruby Moon," he said in a surprisingly soft rumble. Her only reply was the gentlest squeezing of her arms before she drifted into a deep sleep. Spinel Sun allowed himself a small smile before he went back to dreams of polar bears and hidden truths.
"Good night, imouto-chan," he whispered to his sleeping sister.
***
Title: To Keep the Cold Winter Away
Challenge: Cold Weather Cuddle
Words: 1695
Canon: Manga
Genre: Sappy fluff. You're warned...
Summary: When a blizzard hits their village and cuts the power, Eriol and Kaho - and Nakuru and Suppi - find a few surprises.
Author's Note: In this story, Eriol is physically in his early 20s. So no cause for alarm...
Like a frozen raindrop, a cerulean diamond, sparkling and glinting in the pale lamplight, hovered above Eriol's open left hand. Tendrils of pale blue magic, as elusive as smoke, rose from the young man's fingers, flashed brightly before disappearing into the gem.
Wavering for a moment, Eriol used his free hand to steady himself against his desk. Creating the diamond from a carbon seed and infusing it with the various protective and beneficial spells had taken more energy than the young sorcerer had guessed would be needed. A few weeks and his magical stores would renew themselves, and Ruby Moon had already begun increasing her food intake to make up for her master's temporarily decreased magic. Kaho already suspected something but by the time she guessed..
Eriol looked down at the small gem and closed his fingers around it as the last of the magics entered it. Feeling less lightheaded, he reached besides him and lifted, from a black jewelry box, a simple silver band, inlaid with six small clear diamonds. Deftly, he set the blue stone in the center, speaking a single word to set it in place. An enigmatic if nervous smile played across his lips as he set the engagement ring back in the box.
"Kaho," he said, figuring it never hurt to start practicing, "will you-"
The rest of the questioned turned into a sharp, if ineffectual curse, as he was plunged into darkness.
*****
"Where did those clouds come from? And it was a full moon tonight!"
Nakuru grumbled as she flounced away from the enormous window, not even noticing the snowflakes that began to fall, featherlike, to the bare ground. The winter in Long Piddleton had been unseasonably warm, causing the residents to grumble about the lack of snow, especially around the holidays. Not that they wouldn't complain about the snow once it fell and how it made the roads impassable. And judging how the flakes outside were picking up into a full-blown blizzard, the residents would have no shortage of grudges against the change in weather.
Suppi looked up from the plush ottoman on which he was perched and, as usual, rolled his eyes at his sister's complaint. A cup of darjeeling steamed away on the table besides him, a copy of 'The Golden Compass' lay beneath his paws. "Were you not, only yesterday, commiserating with Mr.. Plant about the lack of snow thus far?" Their neighbor, a former earl and newly-minted sorcerer, was rather sentimental about the holidays. From the rate at which the snow was falling, the sun guardian imagined he had taken the weather into his own hands.
"That's not the point, Suppi!" Nakuru sighed and plunked her fingers into a dish full of sweets on a table far from the black cat, settling on a Turkish delight. "You get to see the sun *every* day-"
"This is England. Every day is a gross overstatement," Suppi muttered, reaching out for his tea.
"-and the full moon is three days a month. Only three days! You don't know how lucky you are, honestly." The moon guardian popped the pink and white candy into her mouth, licking the sugar off her fingers. As she went to sit down on one of the plush chaise lounges, her tirade was interrupted by a sudden, inopportune darkness. Suppi missed his tea cup and sent it clattering to the floor; Nakuru missed the chaise lounge entirely and crashed gracelessly to the floor.
"What happened? Is everyone-"
"Eriol! You're all right! Nakuru? Suppi?"
"Nothing wounded but my pride. And other parts....itai!!"
"I'm fine - the teacup, however..."
***
A few hours ago, the prospect of a roaring fire and cuddling beneath the covers had sounded like an ideal way to pass the outage. Once the fire had sputtered to ashes and the comforters and duvets turned to polar ice sheets, however, Eriol and Kaho's tender embraces had turned into frigid, desperate handholds to any vestiges of warmth.
"Are you sure you c-can't do anything?" Cradled against his chest, Kaho's words escaped in puffs of frozen air, her teeth chattering together. "Fire? Glow? Is there a 'Glass of Brandy' card you haven't told me about?"
"I wish I could, I really, really wish I could b-but.." Eriol held her even tighter, resting his chin against the top of her head, her silky hair like icy tendrils on his cheek. "I can't use my magic r-right now. Nothing's wrong," he said at her small gasp of worry - or impending hypothermia. "I've been working on something and it took a little m-more than I thought. But the power's bound to c-come back soon...and n-next time I'll be sure we have a d-decent supply of firewood."
This elicited a laugh from Kaho, who nuzzled against the soft flannel of Eriol's pyjamas. "N-next time? As romantic as freezing to d-death would b-be.."
Eriol gently tucked his fingers beneath Kaho's chin, tilting her head back and kissing her forehead. "There's n-no one in this world I'd want to freeze to d-death with more."
"Are you j-just saying that?" Kaho's tone was light and melodious despite the temperature.
"You're very s-silly, you know that," he answered, cupping her cheek with the palm of his hand. "One of the things I l-love about you b-best.." And everything else, he thought, content to just hold her and bask in her faintly glowing, silvery presence. The vague nervousness that had grown into a far more acute anxiety the past few days melted away. Despite a small voice in back of his head urging him to wait until 'the perfect time,' he thought there might not be a time more perfect than this.
"But I wasn't j-just saying that," he said, looking into her amber eyes. "F-freezing to death, growing o-old and playing Scrabble b-by the lake, w-waking up with you every m-morning. Wherever my life goes, and w-who knows where that will be, I w-want it to be with you." With the last amount of his magic, he levitated the box out of a hidden drawer in his nightstand and into his hand.
Kaho's gasp had nothing to do with the cold as Eriol opened the box to reveal the ring, which glowed with a pale blue light, even in the room's near-darkness. She searched for the words even as Eriol struggled to do the same.
"I had always h-hoped we'd have a happy ending," he said, trying to keep his hand from shaking - he knew it wasn't from the cold.
"It isn't a-a happy ending," Kaho replied, and if it wasn't for the warmth in her voice and the light in her eyes Eriol's hopes would have been cut down in one fell swoop. "It's a happy beginning."
It was only blind instinct and adrenaline that guided Eriol's fingers in lifting the ring out of the velvet and onto Kaho's extended hand. The diamond flared in brightness as the ring settled on her finger, settling to a faint, cobalt glow. Eriol entwined his fingers with hers as the shock gave way to a chorus of 'she said yes she said yes she said yes!'
"A very happy beginning," he murmured as all thoughts of cold and snow fled, leaving only unexplained, endless warmth.
***
"Mou! And that was the last of the firewood!"
Nakuru slunk back to the chaise lounge and mountain of blankets, leaving the smoldering ashes of the dying fire behind her. The blizzard had slowed, but the fat snowflakes still fell leisurely to the seas of white below. The taper candles still burned, but their flickering light barely illuminated a fraction of the palatial front room.
No more sweets - she had picked off the last coconut-toasted marshmallow an hour ago. No warmth - she could still see her breath hanging in the air. Barely any light. Only Suppi, who had dozed off shortly after Nakuru finished the sweets. And thanks to Eriol, her magic reserves were running low, which sent a chill through her that even the cold couldn't touch.
With a hearty sniffle, Nakuru pulled the blankets off the lounge to make a plush nest for herself on the floor near the fire. She could feel her master's presence through their bond - annoyed at the cold, of course, but full of love and anxiety in equal measure.
"She'll say yes, don't worry," the moon guardian murmured, a rueful smile on her lips. She had come to like Kaho quite a bit, and had nearly squeezed the life out her master when he told Nakuru about his plans for the engagement ring, but her happiness was tinged by a sadness that had quietly nagged at her since her creation. What good was immortality if you had to spend it all alone?
"Hmmmmm?" Suppi stirred from his slumber, blearily opening his teal eyes. A sun guardian, Suppi didn't seem to be bothered by the cold, unlike the rest of his household.
"It was nothing Suppi, go back to sleep," Nakuru replied, surprised he had even heard her. When her brother slept, it usually took extraordinarily creative (and daring) acts to wake him. She wrapped the blankets around her and rested her chin against her chest, her hands clutching tightly at her arms. "Just a little cold.."
There was a rustling noise behind her, and Nakuru assumed Suppi had gone back to sleep. A sudden warm - and large - presence besides her made her draw her head up sharply. Spinel Sun, his wings conveniently nonexistent, had nosed beneath the blankets to curl up next to his sister. His black fur was warm as summer sunlight, and despite the shock leaving her speechless, Nakuru wrapped her arms around him.
"Spinel?" Nakuru murmured, the warmth slowly turning her melancholy tiredness into a pleasant sleepiness. Beneath her cheek, she could hear a deep purr as her brother considered his answer.
"Go to sleep, Ruby Moon," he said in a surprisingly soft rumble. Her only reply was the gentlest squeezing of her arms before she drifted into a deep sleep. Spinel Sun allowed himself a small smile before he went back to dreams of polar bears and hidden truths.
"Good night, imouto-chan," he whispered to his sleeping sister.
***