Black Coffee

            "DO-YOU-SPEAK-ENG-LISH?"  Mac Fraser inquired loudly for perhaps the eighteenth time in a consecutive two minutes, much to the boarder girl's delight.  She giggled brilliantly and continued to skip around her fellow competitor, rambling in incoherent Japanese –something about flying high and being number one, not that he knew.  Mac watched as she waved the card in front of his face, a delicate mixture of annoyance and bewilderment on his face.

            "Hey stop bouncing, would ya?"  She took no heed, and stopped circling him only to dance with her hands waving the air.  Mac flushed –the other boarders stared at him from the corner of their eyes while they checked into the hotel, watching on with either amusement or disapproval.  And this girl, he mentally motioned to her, was deliberately being a Grade A…well, he'd rather not say.  He glared once more.  What kind of psycho manic was this chic anyway?

            "Are you just going to bounce all day-"

            "Hey, Kaori!"  Kaori Nishidake stopped bouncing and swiveled, where the other female snowboard competitors were waving.

            "Girls night out!"  Zoe was hollering, "We need a designated driver!  You game?"

Kaori started to bounce again.

            "Excellento!  Just wait a minute while I change my clothes, okie dokie?"

Mac gaped.  Why that little-

            Her brown eyes took in his funny face –something like Keiichi from Ah!  Megami-sama.  She giggled again, and patted his fuzzy blonde head.

            "Cute kiddo."  She then spun towards the elevator.

            Somewhere, someone laughed.  But it wasn't Mac.  Actually, he was rather cross, primarily at the fact that a five foot nothing, one-hundred pound, one year older than him Japanese girl had said he was a 'cute kiddo'.  Him.  He puffed indignantly – calling him that was like entrusting Jurgen with small animals and fine china.

            Mac cast a stray glance where Kaori was spinning, dashing after her in a short second.

            "I'm not a kid."  He was saying as he hurriedly stalked behind her, "And you speak English."  Kaori hit the button, then leaned on its panel.

            "English is required, and yes you are."  The silver elevator doors slid open and she swayed inside, yawning lazily as she waited for Mac to step inside, as though she knew their conversation would take a while.

            "What floor?"  He glanced absently at the card as the door slipped shut.  "Seven- no, nine."  She jabbed the button and waited.

            "And…"  No, he thought mindlessly, he wouldn't let the topic fade.  "What diddily squat of an opinion do you have calling me a kid Miss One-Year-Older-Than-Me?"

            "Didiri squat."  She covered her mouth as she giggled wildly.  Mac glared.  Kaori took a deep breath and calmed herself, giggled madly again, then finally managed to retain her laughter into a bright smile, though she didn't murmur a word.  Mac shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and sighed impatiently –the door slid open, neither stepped out –and Kaori mimicked his expression with a jovial smile.  Then, in a dazzling swing she glided out of the elevator and gleefully marched down the hall.  Mac barely managed to skim out before the elevator doors shut on him.  He jogged to keep up with her exuberant pace.          

            "You never answered my question."  He breathed quickly.  Kaori slowed to a pause, lifting her face towards the white ceilings while she thought.  Then she smiled and asked,

            "What question?"

            "How can you call me a kid?"  He demanded, though only half irritated, the other half tired from the jogging and jumping to keep up with her previous pace.  Kaori tapped her finger on her chin for a moment.  Then turned to him with a strangely neutral expression.  It lasted, and Mac actually counted, for three and one half seconds before another excited smile exacted itself on her thin lips.

            "Because you are so cute."  Mac opened his mouth to retaliate but she filled the air with giggles, softer than before.

            "You get so angry –it's a com-pli-men-tu."  She circled slowly, her smile fading into a look of gentle inquisition, "I wonder…is your head really so big?"  Her fingers shot out and pinched the sides of his stomach.  Mac yelped and threw his hands in the air, confused not so long as he didn't catch her maniacal laughter trailing down the hall.  And not really knowing why he sprinted madly after her.

            They shot down the hall, the American snowboarder rapidly gaining on his Japanese competitor.  In a final burst of speed, Mac caught up.

Somewhere, someone jumped.

            But Mac wasn't jumping.  In fact, he had just tripped over his foot and went crashing, with his natural grace of course, into Kaori.  And, by the law of gravity, their momentum sent them sprawling to the ground, where he rolled and she reeled, and they both ended face up and side by side, as if to inhale the ceiling.

There was a long moment of silence, either motionless except for their heavy breathing.

            "Why do they always paint ceilings that color?"  Mac asked, quoting from some recent movie he'd seen in the theaters but couldn't remember the name of.  As if she'd seen the same movie,

            "They say taupe is very soothing." Kaori replied unblinkingly.  From the corner of her eye, she saw Mac's gaze shift, and as always his look of boyish inquisition made her giggle, helplessly holding her stomach as she rolled to her side.  His chest moved up and down lightly, and he folded his arms behind his head.

            "You're a lot more fun when you're angry, Ma-chan."  Mac automatically rolled to his side, shaking his head avidly.

            "No way yo, double-nicknames suck."

            "It doesn't suck!  Ma-chan is cute!"

            "Oh like me?"

            "Yep!" He rolled his eyes, rolled into a crouch then rolled to his feet.  Kaori made snow angels on the carpet.

            "Whatever.  Aren't you going to change?"

            "They can wait."  She bounced to her feet and started to dance again.  Mac shook his head.

            "No more complimentary provisions for you." He muttered beneath his breath.

            "Catch me!"  Kaori threw up her hands and tipped backwards.  For a second, Mac wondered what would happen if he simply let her fall.  He envisioned a sharp smack in the head and a stream of violent mumbo-jumbo, and a week of being run off of the course by an maniacal Japanese girl under influence of coffee.  It could be fun.  But before he had a choice he'd reached out and caught her from behind.

            "Watashi no HERO!"  Her hand went across her forehead in mock faint, "Carry me away, White Knight Ma-chan!"

            "It's Mac.  And I carry your butt nowhere."  Kaori pouted, crossing her arms while he supported her lithe weight. 

"Hidoi…"  She whined.  Yet it was less than two minutes later that he was dragging her off to her room.  Her feet dragged along the ground.  "Arigatou, White Night Ma-Chan!"

"Yeah, yeah.  Blah, blah, blah."  He dropped her in front of her room.

KURASHU!  Itai, zuru shinai de…

"Don't you have to get changed?"

"Oh…sleepy…"  She stared up at him with bright, inquisitive brown eyes.  Mac sighed and took the hint –she handed him her room key –and he dragged her inside, leaving her on the floor near the bed.  The room was dark, and the white snow of the Elysium Alps flickered outside.  He paused to watch the delicate snowflakes dancing on the windows.

"When I was little,"  Kaori pulled herself on top of her bed, her knees tucked into her chest, "We lived where it used to snow one week every year in winter.  I used to hate the snow, because I could never go swimming or ride my bicycle…then one year it just stopped coming, I don't know what happened.  I missed it.  I wanted to find it, so I went to the mountains when I was old enough.  And I learned how to snowboard, so I could be by the snow all the time, and never miss it again."

Mac was quiet for a long moment. 

            His own reasons for becoming a snowboarder were his own, he decided, and made a pact with himself that if he told anyone, it would be her.  He dimly realized that Kaori was staring at him.

            "You know…"  He said in a rare, introspective voice, "the snowflakes dance like you do."  She smiled.  And when he returned to his normal state he coughed quickly and turned towards the door.

            "Ma-chan."  Mac stopped and turned around.  She stood behind him, and touched his shoulder.  He swallowed slowly.

            "Yeah?"  In the dimness of the room, her smile was white.

            "PIGGY BACK RIDE!"  Flop.  Mac flapped his arms wildly and tipped back for another satisfying flop as they landed on the bed.

            "Ow…"

            "WAI!  Super Ma-chan Piggy Piggy!"

            "Mac."

            "Ma-chan."

            "Mac."

            "Ma-chan."

            "Mac."

            Against his back, Mac could feel Kaori making snow angels again.

            "No more coffee for you, Kaori."

            "Okie dokie."

Disclaimer: I own not SSX Tricky nor any of its affiliates –all this belongs to E.A. Sports.  Okie dokie?  Okie dokie.