a/n: Hello! It's envysparkler and nutellafueled here with a collab! She wanted to write a story about Fubuki and Fudou snowboarding and I, of course, insisted that there be a lot of Fudou/Haruna and boom! How to Completely Screw Up a Love Confession was born.

dedication: to teamwork.

disclaimer: neither of us owns I11.

summary: Exactly What It Says On The Tin. – Fudou/Haruna, [collab with nutellafueled] Warning: Atsuya.

how to completely screw up a love confession

Fudou leaned back and hissed when the cold ice came into contact with his skin. Despite the many layers he was wearing, the snow still found a way to creep past all the layers of parkas and jackets to torture his sensitive skin. Glaring at the first object he could find – his snowboarding instructor – Fudou wondered how exactly Fubuki survived the frigid Hokkaido temperatures with only a light sweater.

Said person slid up to him, skidding to a stop and showering Fudou with snow – again. "Fudou-kun," the seventeen-year-old had an impish grin, "How are you going to learn if you just sit there?"

Fudou looked down at his feet, bound by the locks on the snowboard, and then up to the teen. "I can't get up," he gritted out through clenched teeth.

Fubuki chuckled. "It's easy," he said, holding out both hands, "You just have to make sure that your weight is distributed evenly between both feet, and push yourself up with your hands. I'll help you."

Fudou gave him a withering look, "If I can run up and down the football pitch for kilometers, I should be able to push myself up. Thanks for the advice."

He rolled forward so that he was resting on his knees and tested the snow with the tips of his toes. An unwelcome chill started to form just under his kneecaps as he sat there, the cold biting through to skin.

Use his hands to push himself up, was it? Gingerly, Fudou leaned back so that he was now squatting like a frog and placed both hands on the snow in front of him. One quick push and a long moment of teetering, and he was back up on his feet.

He looked back at Fubuki, who looked like he was trying to hide a wide smile (Fudou wasn't sure what was so funny) and wiped his hands against each other to get the snow off.

"That was easy."

"Yes," Fubuki nodded serenely, and Fudou got the impression that he was trying to be polite. Well, excuse him for not being a snowboarding master!

"So, Fudou-kun, why don't we try that again?"

Twenty minutes and several curses later, Fudou was lying on his back for the thirty-fifth time, staring at the funny shapes the clouds made as they drifted across the winter sky. He didn't bother getting up again and heard the click as Fubuki's boots detached from the snowboard.

"Maybe we should stop for today," Fubuki suggested, as he sat next to Fudou. The broody teen grunted in response, nearly missing Fubuki mutter, "I've never seen someone so bad at snowboarding."

Fudou turned to glare at the boy, but was met with blank indifference that wouldn't have worked if Fubuki wasn't so cute.

There. He said it.

It wasn't like he liked him – Fudou preferred girls, thank you very much – but he could see how the Hokkaido defender had half the girls from here to Tokyo wrapped around his finger. Not only was Fubuki good-looking, but he also exuded an aura of friendliness, and a charm that had girls falling for him left and right.

Fudou wondered what would happen if he tried to be charming – Kidou would probably die of shock. He chuckled lowly. Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea after all…

Fubuki raised an eyebrow as he heard his companion's sinister chuckle. "Something wrong, Fudou?" he inquired politely. Unlike the rest of Raimon, Fubuki had not seen the boy at Shin Teikoku, and, as a result, had actually managed to start off on the right foot with the reclusive gamemaker.

"Actually, yes," Fudou nodded decisively, "I need your help."

Somewhere not too far away, Kidou felt a tremor through the floor as the natural order was violated.

"So, let me see if I have this down properly," Fubuki cupped his mug of hot chocolate with both mitten-covered hands, and breathed in. He knew he had a smug smirk on his face, but he could get away with it just this once. "You want some advice on how to chat up girls."

Fudou folded his arms and looked away. Fubuki could practically see his thought processes as he then glanced back, presumably having decided there was nothing in that question to actually be embarrassed about. Looking past all the arrogance, Fudou was actually kind of cute in some ways.

"Anyone you're thinking of in particular?"

Shock passed through Fudou's face, and he struggled to regain his composure. It was probably a good thing he hadn't ordered a drink. "Of course not," he said, "What makes you say that?"

Fubuki chuckled, "I'm just asking, because how you talk to people depends on who those people are, right? For example, you wouldn't approach Endou-kun the same way you'd approach someone like Someoka-kun, or Tsunami-san."

Fudou's brows creased for a moment, but he nodded, "I guess."

"But if you really want to be general, then you should pay attention to what the girl is like. Start by asking what her hobbies are. If you want to talk to her, it's better to talk about something that she likes. So if she's obviously paid a lot of attention to her appearance, compliment that. For example, I would try that on someone a bit more elegant, like Natsumi-san."

"What if they're not that fashionable though?"

"The girl you're looking at doesn't care about how she looks?"

"It's not like that. She doesn't need to dress up to look good. Wait, I mean, what if you're talking to those kind of girls?"

Okay, now Fubuki had to control his growing smile. He had dragged this on for long enough. He hid his face, taking another sip of his hot chocolate, before looking back up at Fudou.

"Well, like I said, talk about what they like, or what you both like. Find out more about them. Be interested. It doesn't really differ from girl to girl."

Fudou still didn't look convinced. Fubuki got the feeling he was looking for some kind of perfect way to make everything go smoothly.

"So," Fudou pressed, "Is there anything I can say to make it start off well?"

Fubuki sighed, "Well…" He paused for a moment, wondering how to word it, "Talk to her naturally."

Fudou blinked, sure that he hadn't heard correctly. He rubbed his ears, and blinked again. "Sorry, what?"

"Talk to her naturally."

He scowled as Fubuki repeated the same line. The idiot of a defender had been stalling for nearly a minute, building up the suspense, and this was the measly piece of advice he had to give?

"That's your master plan?" Fudou scoffed, turning his head to the other side to avoid showing Fubuki his disappointment. He was hoping for some kind of miracle, obviously, but Hakuren's ace hadn't measured up.

"Sorry, Fudou-kun, but that's the best I've got," Fubuki said, getting up and throwing his empty cup into the waste basket, "Talking to girls isn't exactly rocket science, you know."

Fudou followed Fubuki out of the store, and they walked down the path that led back to Hakuren's campus.

"What if –" Fudou paused, clearly torn about something and Fubuki sensed that this was the true problem, the root of the matter, "What if you can't? I mean, what if you can't talk to her naturally? What if you freeze up and remember the horrible things you've done to her in the past? What if she hates you?"

Fubuki was staring at him and he swore that behind that easy smile was a series of increasingly critical judgments about him. Well, that wasn't his problem! He just needed what he came for.

"She doesn't hate you," Fubuki said instead, putting both hands on Fudou's shoulders. Fudou had to struggle not to instinctively jerk away. "People aren't that harsh. They'll listen."

Fudou quirked his eyebrows and stared him down. Fubuki only smiled.

"You're more popular than you think, Fudou-kun," was all he said before he headed down the path again, Fudou hurrying up to join him.

"GET BACK HERE YOU –"

Kidou's voice thundered over from beyond a ridge. A girlish giggle accompanied his statement as a blue cannonball barreled down it, somehow managing to skid into a surprised Fudou's arms.

"Save me, Fudou-kun!" Haruna giggled and ducked behind him. Kidou appeared at the top, his normally pale face red, clutching an enormous snowball.

Fubuki looked at Fudou, who seemed frozen as Haruna used him as her human body shield. His face was also a startling shade of red, as he stared blankly to the front.

The pieces began fitting together – a girl who didn't care about her appearance, the things he had done in the past, the way she was sure to hate him and his expression right now –

Oh. Oh.

Fubuki knew it was out of character, but he finally gave into letting the shit-eating grin spread across his features.

Haruna decided to fix dinner for the group of them today, for old times' sake. Of course, she couldn't manage it alone, so Tobitaka and Toramaru were helping. Fudou was also in the kitchen, but only because he didn't want them sneaking any tomatoes into his food. Yep, that was definitely the only reason. That was probably why Kidou was also in the room, chopping onions, chatting to Tobitaka, and keeping a careful eye on him out of the corner of those annoyingly opaque goggles.

"How're those carrots coming along?" Haruna sidled up next to him, pressing up almost too close to him in her typical friendly manner. Sometimes he wondered if she did it on purpose. Fudou had to keep himself from stiffening up, and when he turned to face her he tried to keep his movements natural.

"Pretty good. I'm almost done."

Haruna bent down to peer at the carrots, and something in his heart twitched as he caught a whiff of some kind of flower scent, probably her shampoo. For better or for worse, his restraint quickly changed into genuine surprise when she shot up and clapped him on the back.

"You are pretty good at this, Fudou-kun! These look like they were done by a pro!"

Suddenly, everyone was looking at him, and since the days of Shin Teikoku, Fudou had grown to dislike such attention focused on himself unless it was on the football pitch. He averted his gaze and started chopping again, mumbling a few words.

"Guess I have a lot of practice." They could take that statement however they wanted to. He still wasn't over Hibiki spilling his entire life story in that match against South Korea the first time he played for Inazuma Japan.

The door clicked open, and a cackle came in from outside, "I'll tell you what else Fudou has had a lot of practice doing. Wait, it probably isn't my business. Oh well!"

It was Fubuki, except it wasn't really, and Fudou felt a sense of déjà vu as this Fubuki sidled into the room. He hadn't thought that he would ever see this side of Fubuki ever again. And judging from the silence in the room and the faint waves of confusion from Toramaru and Tobitaka, he'd wager that nobody else had either.

Kidou strode forward, "Aren't you Fubuki Atsuya?"

Atsuya smirked, but it wasn't ugly like it had been three years ago. Fudou supposed he'd mellowed out a bit, too. Wait, wasn't he supposed to be dead? What was even going on?

"Yeah, you could say that, in a manner of speaking. I mean, I'm supposed to be dead, but obviously, I'm here, but I'm not taking over Shirou's body like I used to, well strictly speaking that's a lie…"

"Just spit it out. What do you want?" Kidou demanded.

Atsuya held both hands out in front of him, "Hey, hey, relax. The others out there just wanted to know how the food was getting on and if you guys needed any help. Well, that's not exactly the reason I'm here, but that was the reason they sent Shirou. Anyway, smells delicious!"

"Thanks," Haruna stammered, "Um, do you want some? I mean, where's Fubuki-kun? And you know which one I'm talking about. What have you done with him?" This final statement was punctuated with one finger pointed straight at Atsuya. Fudou's heart fluttered again, and despite the situation he couldn't help but think that Haruna looked really cute at the moment.

Atsuya did a mock bow, "Don't worry about Shirou. He's fine, and he'll probably eat enough for the both of us. A~ny~way… I guess I should get to the main reason why I'm here… I mean… I just found out something pretty funny, and I mean interesting, not hilarious. Well, it is a bit hilarious I suppose. All right. You guys ready? Guess what?" Atsuya's smirk turned into a full-fledged grin now, and he turned to face Fudou.

"Fudou-kun's got a little crush on Haruna!"

Fudou's heart stopped beating and the knife neatly slipped out his hands to skewer the floor. The finger that Haruna was pointing at Atsuya wavered. The silence lasted exactly three seconds before Kidou blew up.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN, FUDOU HAS A CRUSH ON HARUNA!?"

Everyone turned to look at Fudou, who had managed to tug the knife out of the floor and resume chopping as if nothing was wrong, withdrawing into his apathetic persona. "That's the best you could come up with, Atsuya?" Fudou drawled out, slicing the carrots with a little more force than necessary, "You should stick to the field, you were never any good off of it." He knew that his ears were red, but hopefully his statement had sufficiently distracted them away from the topic.

That is, until Atsuya opened his mouth again.

"Was that what you told Shirou?" Fudou paused in his chopping, hesitating only a second but he could tell that Kidou had noticed.

"What makes you think that I told Fubuki anything?" Fudou said, his calm demeanor concealing his rising panic, "Last time I checked, we were nowhere near the best of friends." Fudou knew that he had hurt Shirou, who was probably listening, but as far as he cared, the elder Fubuki could go fuck himself. Who told the idiot to let his twin take over his body? A twin that coincidentally hated Fudou?

Tobitaka and Toramaru relaxed, satisfied with this explanation. However, Kidou was not.

"What does Fudou have a lot of practice doing?" the gamemaker asked with an air of practiced manipulation. There was no need for it – Atsuya was just as eager to spill Fudou's secrets as Kidou was to hear them.

"Oh, nothing," Atsuya waved it off, "Just practicing his confessions. The latest started off with a 'Haruna, I think you're really pretty and I kinda like you – I've liked you since the match with Shin –"

A knife sliced through the air and embedded into the wall behind Atsuya. The younger twin shot a stunned look at Fudou before fleeing his brother's body, leaving Fubuki Shirou slumped on the floor.

"What was that for?" Kidou asked, his words sharpening with fury.

"I don't like liars," Fudou forced out through gritted teeth, "And Atsuya was never a friend." Fudou turned away from the others, who were now staring at him in a mixture of shock and fear.

Realizing that he had just damned himself with his furious and irrational action, Fudou sneered cruelly, "As if anyone would go for that blue-haired pixie."

He instantly knew that he'd crossed a line. Tobitaka and Toramaru looked disgusted and Kidou looked ready to punch him in the face. But when Fudou turned to Haruna, intent on apologizing for the words he had said thoughtlessly, the girl was nowhere to be found.

An open door and the echo of a sob was all that was left.

Fudou turned just on time to see Kidou stalk up and draw one hand back. For one terrifying moment, he thought that the gamemaker was actually going to stab him, and jerked back. Then he saw that Kidou's hands were empty.

Fudou was not the kind of person who made mistakes very often. That meant that when he did, he wasn't good at dealing with the fallout. He stared at Kidou without really seeing him, only registering the tension rapidly flooding into the room. Kidou opened his mouth, but Fudou saw only the steam coming out of his ears. He couldn't believe that he'd thought that Kidou would knife him.

He started towards the door.

"Save it," He pushed past Fubuki's prone body, practically flinging the door open, "I shouldn't be here right now."

But Haruna was nowhere to be found in the corridor. And something told Fudou that going to her room would be useless in the best-case scenario, and a very bad idea in the worst. He couldn't very well go back to the kitchen after what had just happened, either. This was the first time in a long time that he'd well and truly dug himself into a hole.

He realized he had been pacing up and down the hallway, and decided to go for a walk. His legs had already been going for it, anyway. The fresh air would do him some good, and hopefully it would help him forget what just happened.

The air was crisp and cool. Fudou closed his eyes and breathed – the air rushed in through his nose, electrocuting his airways. Icy pain built up in the bridge of his nose just for that one second before flooding away. After the pain subsided, he felt cleaner and lighter. Almost like he hadn't demonstrated a spectacular example of foot-in-mouth syndrome just now.

He shook his head and started walking.

After living in Tokyo for the better part of half a decade, the sight of stars had become a novelty. It was always too bright, even at night, and that wasn't to mention the skyscrapers clawing up towards the sky, blocking the view, and the many flickering lights that always seemed like stars until they started to move. And while Fudou wasn't a sentimental tree-hugger, he appreciated the rare times he got to look at the stars. It wasn't long before he took one step off the path to get a better view, and then his feet moved to a cliff edge to get the full view of the stars overlooking a valley.

He didn't know how long he stayed there, resting until he could no longer feel his ears and the uncovered parts of his head. Only when the lights in the valley below started to vanish one by one did he think that he had perhaps been out for far too long. In fact, judging from the extra stuff he had to blink out of his eyes, the snow was getting heavier.

Only Fudou didn't know which way led back to the lodge anymore.

He breathed in again to calm his beating heart, taking no solace in the fact that it no longer hurt to breathe, and thought about the situation. The extra snow coupled with the already low visibility meant that it would be foolish to try to find his way back. Maybe, if he'd had the foresight to bring a flashlight, it might have been possible, but Fudou Akio had no intention of trying without one and dying alone in the Hokkaido countryside.

The wind picked up, and he shivered. He had rushed out without even bothering to grab a scarf, or a pair of gloves, let alone a proper ski jacket. And while the Teikoku tracksuit he was wearing had been enough for the warm and cozy kitchen, it was nowhere near sufficient for Hokkaido's blizzards. This wasn't good. He needed to find shelter and he needed to find it soon.

He squinted, thankful for his long lashes, and in the distance, he could see a large shadow. Come to think of it, there had been a hill there just now, if he remembered right… He approached the mound and noted with relief that there appeared to be a cave where he could hide from the snow and wind for the night. What's more, as he neared, he could make out a voice calling out from it. A very…familiar, if unexpected, voice. One part of Fudou's brain told him to turn around and run for the hills. Another much more sensible part told him that survival was the priority at the moment.

He took step after tortuous step towards the cave. With the way the winds were buffeting him, when he finally reached the mouth of the cave he felt like he had just climbed a mountain. But he had no time to revel in his triumph, because a particularly strong gust of wind picked him up off his feet. It was just fortunate that it happened to hurl him into the cave, depositing him in an undignified heap at the feet of Otonashi Haruna.

She could say she'd been in worse situations, but she didn't really remember her parents' deaths anymore and she'd mostly forgotten how it felt to have her heart ripped out, torn into pieces, dunked in kerosene and set on fire.

- "As if anyone would go for that blue-haired pixie." –

She couldn't believe that she'd been stupid enough to think that Fudou might've, sort of, could've liked her back. She wasn't pretty, she wasn't quiet – she was nothing the Shin Teikoku captain probably looked for in a girl, but she'd still harbored a tiny hope.

A hope that had been crushed the minute that the barbed insult ripped itself out of Fudou's mouth.

Running helped calm her down, and she was enjoying sitting in the cave, watching the blizzard blow itself into a frenzy as she huddled into her toasty-warm parka when a pile of snow dislodged, causing a heap to slide to Haruna's feet. Feeling a bit adventurous, Haruna prodded the lump with her toe.

It moved.

Stifling a shriek at the thought that it was alive, Haruna backed away, watching as it stirred and groaned, uncurling to reveal a vaguely human-shaped body. Then the body sat up, brushing snow off its pale face and out of its brown hair and Haruna almost screamed again at the sight of the white highlights and distinctive hairstyle.

Fudou Akio turned slowly, his gray eyes widening at the sight of her.

"Shit."

"Wh–what are you even doing here!?" Haruna shrieked. But this was one of the situations where she felt her volume was justified for once. She had come out here to avoid people, especially this one person! It was just her luck that a snowstorm happened to start. But she'd brought a torch, and had fully intended to make her way back after the storm died down. Or at least signal for help. Despite all that, she was still stuck with this guy? And she couldn't even escape because of the storm!? Which sadistic deity up there planned this?

Fudou rubbed his head, "Ugh… Damn, that hurt…"

He straightened his hair out, trying to fix it as much as possible, before facing her properly. "What are you doing here? It's dangerous to be out so late, especially when there's a snowstorm."

Huh. He was as arrogant as usual. He'd probably forgotten what he said to her just now. Either that, or he didn't care. Haruna was going for the latter.

Haruna folded her arms, "That's what I just asked you! Especially since you don't even seem prepared for the weather." Fudou wasn't even wearing a snow jacket. He probably hadn't even thought of it when he left the lodge. Typical boy.

"Well, excuse me," Fudou replied, looking around furtively, "If only someone hadn't run out so quickly. Then I wouldn't have had to go after her without a chance to get ready."

A twinge of anger from some recess of her heart swelled up and burst out from her mouth. "Is it my fault now? That's such a lie! I left an hour ago. If you were actually trying to find me, you would've done so a long, long time ago. Don't try to make yourself sound like such a hero! I haven't forgotten what you said – I bet you have, though!"

"Of course not!"

"I don't believe you!"

"I don't care what you think!"

"Yeah, I kind of figured that out!"

Fudou stopped. Good! No time like the present to start feeling bad! Haruna turned away, towards the cave mouth to watch the storm, and buried deeper within herself to stay warm. It was quiet for a good few minutes.

She sneaked a peek off to where Fudou was. He had crawled further into the cave, and was sitting against the wall, staring into space. Like her, he was curled into himself. But he shivered every so often. He had to be freezing. Just how much heat was he losing from the bald bits of his head, anyway?

She watched for a few more seconds, as she mustered up the words. Getting them out was very, very difficult.

"Let's huddle together, to stay warm."

Fudou's head whipped up. His gaze flickered briefly to her parka, and she knew him well enough not to miss the look of envy that flashed across his face. But he shook his head.

"I'm fine."

"Surely you're freezing. And pooling body heat is the best way to survive in these situations."

"I told you, I'm fine!"

Irritation surged up again. "All right then!" she snapped, "I'm not the one shaking like a rabbit here! Since you're so fine, forget I asked!"

She turned back to the cascade of snow. What she wouldn't give for some hot chocolate right now… It really was too bad that tension couldn't conduct heat, because if it did, she could even roast some marshmallows to go with it.

Fifteen minutes of increasingly cold weather and Fudou had finally decided to boot his dignity back to hell. It was unfortunate he couldn't go along with it – at least it was hot in hell.

"H-Haruna?" he called out, cursing inwardly as his voice stuttered. The shadowy figure crouched at the cave entrance turned, shining the torch straight into Fudou's eyes. He winced, and lifted a hand to shield his face, his shivering intensifying as more warmth deserted him. Thankfully, Haruna realized his discomfort and moved the torchlight to hover on the icy wall a few feet to his left.

"What do you want, Fudou?" He winced. Her tone was as cold as the snowstorm blazing outside, perhaps even colder. He'd realized he'd hurt her with his words when she stormed out of the kitchen, but he hadn't imagined it would hurt her this much.

In fact, this was the first time Fudou had fucked up on such a large magnitude since Shin Teikoku, and he had dealt with the fallout from that for a year after it had happened.

He wondered if this was the universe's way of telling him to stay in practice. Fudou quickly decided that the universe was a bitch.

"It's cold-d-d-d." To cement his pitiful statement, his teeth had apparently decided that they weren't going to listen to him, and started to chatter again.

"I've noticed."

Fudou swore under his breath. She was obviously not going to make this easy for him. But then again, his stupid pride had rejected her initial offer of help. Haruna may be nice and sweet but even she had a limit and apparently being rejected twice was it.

He had royally fucked up. Haruna hated him – if not before, then definitely now. Kidou mostly thought he was a psycho, what with his breakdown in the kitchen. Hell, the entire team probably thought he was a psycho. Atsuya hated him, no change there. He'd hurt Fubuki's feelings, if the elder twin had been listening to his harsh words.

And it was again time to shelve his pride and dignity to reach out for help.

"Haruna," Fudou said softly, his eyes on her. With the torch pointing in his direction, he couldn't see much of her, only a vague black outline but he figured it was enough.

"I'm sorry. I should've never said what I did. I told Fubuki secrets in confidence and when Atsuya showed up, I panicked. He's hated me ever since Shin Teikoku and what he could've done with Fubuki's knowledge scared me. I never meant the words I said, I was only stressed. I'm sorry." He continued to look in her direction, but couldn't see the flash of emotions across her face as she processed his apology.

Then, because Fudou wasn't Fudou without his snark, he continued, "Do you want me to grovel some more, or am I good?"

He could hear Haruna choke a little bit before she started snickering, "No, that seems like it covered it. I think the storm's lessened a bit – want to try finding our way back now?"

Fudou agreed and lurched to his feet, swaying for a moment before regaining his senses and joining Haruna at the entrance. She wordlessly offered him her hat and he took it, surprised at how much warmer he felt. She was right, the snowstorm had stopped and he could see clear night skies above them. Hopefully they would be back soon – he was cold, starving and exhausted.

But then, the universe being the universe, a gigantic bear decided to lumber through the snow and come to a halt in front of the very cave they were about to exit.

Haruna froze. She whimpered, which was impressive. He, himself, felt like screaming and taking off in the opposite direction.

He didn't need his hands on the cave wall to know that unfortunately, that was an impossibility.

"Wh-wh-wh-what do we do?" Haruna's voice was a far cry from the heights it had risen to during her bout of righteous anger just now. She backed into the cave, but stopped after a few steps. Clearly she had realized the futility of it as well.

Fudou began to concoct elaborate plans in his head. The bear would pounce on them. In that moment, they could split up and leave it to Lady Luck. In the resulting confusion, they could escape out of the cave and high-tail it back to the lodge. But would there even be space? This bear was huge!

The bear stepped forward. Fudou and Haruna shrunk back against the hard cave wall. Well, so much for that plan.

Bears only attacked when they were hungry, right? (Or threatened, but that could hardly be the case.) There could be some kind of sacrifice in order to ensure the other party escaped safely. But as much as Fudou wanted to save his hide, he wanted Haruna safe, too…

Haruna pressed into him. Normally, her warm, trembling body would have been the source of much excitement. But now, when they were engaged in a stare down with a bear, it was oddly comforting.

Then there was a loud crash. The cave walls shook, and snow (that had probably built up from the blizzard earlier) slid down…mostly onto the bear.

What had that been? A freak avalanche? A butterfly that flapped its wings on the other side of the world? Or had someone attacked the bear from behind? Were they being saved?

When the snow settled, Fudou could make out a figure scraping through the snow. Wait…was he holding a football!?

Fubuki – Shirou this time – eventually stepped into the cave. His caterpillar eyebrows almost rocketed out of his face. Around that time, Fudou became keenly aware of how tightly he was holding Haruna. They jumped apart just as Fubuki spoke.

"A – Am I interrupting something?"

Behind him, the pile of snow twitched.

"Sorry…should I leave? I guess you guys can find your way back yourselves…"

"THE FUCKING BEAR!" Fudou yelled, just as Haruna screamed, "Behind you!" Fubuki's expression paused in comical surprise. The bear had risen up behind him now, and swung one heavy paw back.

But Fubuki spun with a speed that shocked Fudou. He hadn't seen those kind of moves for a long time, not since Inazuma Japan. The ball in his hands fell, but just before it reached the ground, Fubuki drew up his right leg and shot it straight into the bear's gut. The bear stopped, shuddered…and crashed into the floor, still this time. Fubuki hadn't even used a hissatsu technique.

Fubuki turned back to them, "Sorry about that. Forgot about him. You guys okay?"

"Yeah…" Fudou struggled to find words to articulate what they had just seen, "I guess they don't call you the Bear Killer for nothing."

"That's right," Fubuki picked his ball back up from the bear, and turned back to them. "C'mon. It's getting late, and another storm could start at any moment. The guys are frantic with worry. I'm glad I found you two when I did. I knew following the bear was a good decision!"

Fudou shook his head. The numbness had begun to recede from his limbs. Judging by the colour slowly returning to her face, Haruna was feeling the same.

"Thanks, Fubuki-kun," she finally said, before extending an arm out to Fudou, "Let's go. Can't wait to get back indoors where it's warm." And bear-free, she was probably thinking.

Fudou took her hand and let her lead them both out of the cave. When he passed Fubuki, he nodded at him, and reached to clasp his hand. Fubuki returned it before pointing towards the distance.

"The lodge is that way. Be careful, since there's a lot more snow around now."

The two of them nodded, and they started to walk along the path. But before they had even taken a few steps, Fubuki spun around.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about earlier…I lost control."

Fudou felt the anger that had been drained away from him in the cave return, "You lost control? You lost control? Fubuki, you let your dead twin brother possess you! I think that qualifies for a lot more than sorry!"

Fubuki looked sheepish, "Winter was always Atsuya's favorite season. I told him that we could build a snowman, I never thought he was going to…"

"Atsuya hates me!" Fudou felt like shaking Fubuki until he understood the magnitude of fear Fudou felt when he saw those psychotic eyes, "He's psychotic and he hates me and he has access to everything I've ever told you!"

"Fudou-kun," Haruna said sharply, "He apologized."

"No, Haruna-san, Fudou has every right to get mad at me," Fubuki said, stopping and looking directly at Fudou, "I'm sorry, Fudou. I abused your trust. Please forgive me."

Fudou made a muffled noise and continued walking, though Fubuki realized that it was an acceptance. Haruna gave a curious look at Fudou's retreating back and turned to Fubuki, "What exactly did he tell you, anyway?"

Fubuki gave her a strange look, "That he likes you, of course."

Up ahead, Fudou groaned, covering his face with his hands.

"What?" Fubuki looked from Haruna's reddening face to Fudou's flushed ears, "You mean you still haven't told her?"

le fin

a/n: /snickers/ Oh, god, I love this. It is the product of several weeks of hard work and threats [mostly on my part]. It's our little baby. Hopefully you'll see more work from the both of us soon!