Disclaimer - 1/2 Prince and all of the characters belong to Yu Wo

Gui's head hurt. A dull throbbing was beginning to start where he had collided with the ground. The icy snow he was laying in hadn't been much help when it came to cushioning his fall. He didn't like cold weather to begin with, and feeling the soft white powder slowly melt and soak through his clothing was almost unbearably uncomfortable. Whose brilliant idea was it to make it snow in-game during the winter holidays?

A hand firmly pressed against Gui's chest and he slowly opened his eyes, only to wince as the dazzling sunlight beat down on him with multiplied intensity as it bounced off the snow, increasing the pain of his headache. With his eyes barely open, he looked down and watched as Prince carefully lifted himself off the soggy bard. Prince suddenly looked up and angrily glared as if Gui had been the one who put that patch of ice in that particular spot, purposefully causing them to slip and fall into the annoyingly deep snow drift. Gui often went out of his way to look for opportunities to get closer to Prince, but getting buried in snow together was far from his preferred methods. But he'd still wrapped his arms protectively around Prince along the way, thus allowing him to enjoy the fall itself, if not the landing.

"Gui, you moron! Did you have to grab me like that? Let me go, already yet!" Prince snapped and suddenly increased his hand's pressure on Gui's chest.

Feeling his ribcage steadily becoming compressed, Gui reluctantly unwound his arms from around Prince, and lifted one hand to brush the snow out of his eyes that had fallen when Prince moved. "I'm so sorry, your highness! It was on reflex, I didn't mean to!" he managed to wheeze out as his lungs continued to be crushed. Disappointment began to creep across the numb discomfort brought on by the snow while Prince finally stopped squishing Gui, and stood as he started shaking the snow off himself. Gui sighed and smirked inwardly as he noted the majority of the snow Prince was removing was aimed to fall on him.

Gui stood up a moment later and did his best to hurry across the ice to Prince's side, and began to help him clean himself off. "I'm sorry," Gui repeated as Prince shrugged his flittering hands off. "You aren't hurt, are you?"

Prince backed away and glared at him again. "I'm fine! Just–"

His sentence came to a premature end as Gui stepped the wrong way and his slipper-clad feet suddenly flew out from under him a second time. He gasped as he reached out and grabbed the nearest solid object, which once again happened to be Prince, and held on for dear life as they both tipped over. A cloud of powdery snow puffed into the air once they landed and slowly floated down to settle on them.

Gui didn't dare try to apologize again as he watched the anger rise to a dangerous level in Prince's eyes, though his snow-covered face looked strangely calm. Gui, knowing that was a very bad sign, instead attempted to scramble off the elf, but only managed to fall several more times.

"Ouch! STOP!" Prince finally yelled as Gui repeatedly squashed him, driving him further into the snow. "Quit moving!" He grabbed Gui's shoulders and held the panicky man in place.

"Sorry," Gui mumbled as he tried to look anywhere but at Prince. Since the only other thing to look at from his position was the inside of the snow drift, it was both easy and hard to keep his eyes fixated on one spot. As Prince let Gui's arms go, he planted his hands firmly in the snow beneath himself and cautiously sat up. Gui's gaze involuntarily snapped back to its former position as Prince's chest moved extremely close to his face. It was getting increasingly difficult to not continue his frenzied struggling, but he forced himself to stay still. Gui faintly wondered if Prince had any idea what horrendous torture he was going through.

Prince slid backward a few inches and Gui was flooded with relief at being able to breathe again. He let his eyes glide upward to Prince's face. It was covered in a discomposed frown. As Prince noticed Gui staring at him, his cheeks flushed and he awkwardly looked away. The unexpected reaction caught Gui off-guard more than slipping on the ice had. Shouldn't Prince be violently punching Gui's teeth out at that moment?

A tiny thought sparked to life in the back of Gui's mind as he continued to look at Prince's slightly embarrassed expression. Acting on a wish to confirm his musing, Gui leaned forward a little bit. Prince's breathing suddenly stopped.

A grin automatically spread across Gui's face at his little discovery, and Prince's frown deepened into a mistrustful glare. "W-what are you smiling about?" Prince asked, attempting to lean further backward, which only resulted in more snow spilling down over his head.

After a long, silent moment, Gui opened his mouth to answer, but stopped himself as an echoing call came from somewhere on the snow bank far above them. He scowled inwardly at the interruption and leaned away from the pinned elf.

Looking immensely relieved, Prince started squirming impatiently underneath Gui once more. "Get off me," Prince ordered. "And be careful this time."

Gui nodded sullenly, and carefully drew his feet underneath himself. His knees felt weak as he stood up at last, and he moved backward out of the snow drift with trembling steps. Prince immediately stood once he had enough room, and hurried as fast as he could away from Gui, toward the spot they'd climbed down the snow bank.

"Why are you two down there? I told you it was slippery!" Lolidragon's voice called down to them. "Get up here, or we'll leave you behind!"

"Shut up, we're coming!" Prince yelled, attempting to scramble up the side of the snowy hill.

Gui watched, feeling a bit amused, as Prince waved his arms and legs wildly, looking as though he was trying to swim up the slope. Sighing slightly, he began his own ascent, thinking that perhaps the snow wasn't completely terrible as he'd initially assumed.