Midnight Snow

Chapter 5: Saviour be damned

"Asuna! Asuna, be careful!" The woman called, "The ice is very slippery there!"

The four-year old girl babbled happily away to her mother, as she picked up yet another lump of ice from the stiff leaves. "Snow!" She cried passionately, smiling as wide as her tooth-less mouth would allow.

The man next to her laughed. "There's your answer, Shiki. She'll be fine."

Shiki bit her lip and surveyed her little girl's progress, as the toddler plopped down on the ground and padded the snow with her hands. "Yasuhara..." She said, "Do you think this is such a good idea? I mean...I don't think..."

"This is the best place to have a picnic? Or the best day?" Yasuhara asked, grinning, "I don't think she minds." He nodded to Asuna, as she shrieked happily, pointing to the two, lop-sided balls on the sidewalk, "Snowman!"

"That's wonderful, sweetheart." Yasuhara called. The girl grinned impishly at her mother, "Mommy, look!"

"Do you want mommy to help you, darling?" Shiki asked. Asuna clapped her hands, "Mommy! Mommy, make me a snowman!"

"Ok, be right there." Shiki carefully made her way across the ice and knelt to her knees to scoop up the snow. "And you don't seem to be complaining either." Yasuhara noted, eyeing his wife.

"I haven't done this since high school." She smiled at him, "Makes me feel a bit like a delinquent."

"Yeah, sure, you were a real trouble-maker back in the day."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Yasuhara just chuckled and didn't answer. Shiki returned back to making a snowman with Asuna, while he stared off into space. As his eyes roved over the area, he paused. And stared at the area of snow-covered trees again.

Was it just him...or was there something strange about that place? He squinted harder and saw...a pair of eyes stare out from under a grey, ice-covered cloak.

"...Who are you?" He asked, taking a step back, towards his wife and child. The figure didn't answer, simply staring at him from the shadow of the evergreen trees. Yasuhara carefully took a few steps towards the grey-clad silhouette and looked harder. Now that he was closer to the figure, he noted something a bit off about the person.

"What...?"

The figure leaped out of the shadows and dashed past Yasuhara, towards the prone figures of his wife and child. The man whipped around, running as fast as he could.

He cursed the blasted white falling above his head, screaming at the top of his lungs, "Shiki! Asuna!"
His wife looked up and her eyes barely had time to register the rotting claws that loomed over her head...

"Look out!" The grey figure pinned the rogue Wars to the ground, knocking it away from the woman. Grunting, he searched inside the robe and pulled out a vaguely-familiar cross-shaped object. The object was raised to the sky, and as it caught the sunlight, it pulsed with a vibrant brightness of its own, fluid-like and from what Yasuhara felt in the shockwaves that radiated towards him, like warm silk.

The grey-clad figure whispered the incantation over and over under his breath and the Wars that thrashed and struggled under him ceased and slowed to a barely-stirring shell of a soul who was struggling under the darkness.

"I'm sorry I have to do this." Their saviour said, as he raised the Bascules above her head. What was left of the woman's eyes found his and finally shed

the tears that they held for so long. "Thank you..." and she slowly crumbled to dust as her soul finally found the Chief of Heaven's side.

"Are you alright?" The boy asked them.

Yasuhara nodded slowly and went to his family at once. Shiki was cradling her little girl in her arms, while Asuna looked on with wide eyes. "You're alright...you're alright." He slowly murmured to himself as he tried to calm down. He helped Shiki to her feet and on ascertaining that the both of them were fine, he looked back towards the boy.

Their saviour was entirely focused on the task of shrinking his Bascules back to a mini-sized cross. Once that was done, he said, "Well...I'm glad that everyone is safe. I'm sorry for spying on you. Goodbye."

"Wait!" The boy turned back at Yasuhara's call and the man grinned at him, "Now what kind of hero doesn't stay to acknowledge the grateful public?"

"Hero? I'm not-!"

"I'd say single-handedly fighting off a rogue Wars with nothing more than a pocket Bascules counts for the acts of being an instantaneous hero. And a kid facing the Wars makes it even more astounding."

"Yes, well, I'm no kid." The boy replied. A little hotly, it must be admitted.

"Has anyone accompanied you out here?" Shiki asked, before her husband could wind up the boy any further. The boy shook his head. "No. I came out here alone."

"But won't your family be worried about you?" At this, the boy said nothing and looked off to the empty landscape, a wistful smile on his face.

"...Where are you planning to go now?" She asked again, tactfully covering the awkward silence. The boy shrugged, "My...teacher is down at the town Square, so I was planning to go down there to watch him."

"Would that be the Bishop in town? That would make you his apprentice then."

He nodded silently and did not elaborate the matter.

"Well, it so happens that we live around there. And it looks like it's really about to snow now." Yasuhara added, as he looked at the drizzle of white that slowly increased the tempo of their flighty dance. He smiled at the boy," If you want, we can drop you off."

"There's no need! I-!" Unfortunately, he didn't argue fast enough, for Asuna at this point, had sneaked out of her mother's death-grip and moved close to the boy, with adoring eyes.

"Big brother gonna play with us?" She asked, in a sweet, high voice.

"B-big...brother?" The boy pronounced slowly, uncertainly.

"And it looks like she's taken a shine to you. Looks like you have no choice." Yasuhara swept up the little girl in his arms and raised her to the air, his beatific smile gracing his face when she squealed loudly. They walked back towards the car, oblivious to the teenager who stood behind them, at a loss for what to do.

"It's alright." Shiki assured him, smiling kindly, "My husband can be incredibly…persuasive, but he means well."

"I see."

"We should probably follow him, before he leaves us behind." She sighed, "I wouldn't want him getting lost in the woods again."

At this, a faint smile appeared on the boy's face. Shiki observed it from the corner of her eye, and, her back still turned, she mirrored it with one of her own. "Come on, then."

"Teito."

"Hm?"

"I...I never told you my name. It's Teito. Teito Klein."

"Likewise, I suppose. Where are my manners?" The woman said in mock horror. She did a little curtsy and grinned at the boy, "My name is Shiki Kaori, my husband's name is Yasuhara Kaori and our little girl is named Asuna. I suppose it's the least I could do, considering you saved our lives and all."

"But I didn't..!"

"Actually, according to us, you did. And I'd think our opinion matters most, don't you agree?"

"Uh, well..."

"You should come along, you know. Yasuhara won't let you off until he's shown you the wonders of Zion. Oh, you've probably seen most of the city, but you haven't truly experienced it until you've faced the ultimate challenge." At the words, she spread her arms out and Teito had the brief image of confetti showering at them from both sides.

"And what's that?"

"How many minutes you can survive the town's toughest challenge: Listening to the mayor's festival speech."

Teito laughed; a startled laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. "I think I can understand." Archbishop Jio is a good man, but Lord forbid him near the podium.

"The longest record was 11 minutes for us." Shiki stated, "Which is almost as long as the time we're taking. We better get back before Yasuhara and Asuna really go at it."

"Alright."

"Besides, we wouldn't want Bishop-sama to worry about you now, would we?"

Shiki's back was turned at this point, so she didn't see Teito's fingers curl inward to fists, with enough force to break skin. "No." He replied, his expression shadowed by the dim grey light, "We wouldn't want that."

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He should be happy about this.

He should.

According to Glasses, anyway.

Frau sighed and restrained the urge to yawn. Not that the mayor would notice. The man had actually walked up the stage, as if it were some auspicious ceremony and started addressing the crowd, thanking them for their patience and to rejoice in the arrival of a bishop, who possessed the ability to stop Kor from harming them and was more than willing to share this protection with the townsfolk.

In all honesty, any mortal would be able to protect themselves with just a minute amount of Church knowledge and a lot of strength-the kind that originated from the soul. But Frau wasn't in the mood to knock the mayor off his high horse, especially when he seemed so absorbed in his own speech.

Plus, he provided excellent lodgings and food. With the hardships they have to endure, Frau and Teito had been trained to adverse conditions, but even then, the rooms had been a welcome change.

Though, he had to admit, the circumstances were more than a little suspicious. The number of attacks and mysterious illnesses had started no less than a year ago, yet he barely found any tension in the townspeople. Indeed, it could be said that they were...more adapted to the curious cases than they should be.

One of the reasons he didn't need Castor to lecture him to be careful.

And the other one...well, he thought with a mirthless laugh, it wasn't like he could entirely forget about it. Not when it was staring him in the eye with that damned arrogant expression he knew like the back of his hand.

What was with that kid? Any feeble assumption that the pressure to fulfil his goal and the stress from travelling finally got at the boy vanished the instant he'd stared at those green eyes, completely devoid of expression; a look so familiar, that for an instant, the Bishop was transported back to a time with little hope and so much blood and tragedy around him, it was a wonder he did not reek of rotting flesh.

Who was that woman? Was it a figment of Teito's own imagination or was she real?

...Someone from Teito's past?

It was possible. But why would Teito try to hide it from him? Frau had already acquainted himself with Teito's demons, Ayanami being an apt example. It wasn't like he couldn't understand what the boy's issues were either, having gone through similar problems himself...

Frau mentally pushed himself away from that line of thought before he could continue any further, willing himself to try to listen to the mayor's speech.

Focusing on any monotonous word he could grasp, anything that would tear his thoughts away from that night.

It was at this point he raised his eyes off the hardwood floors and looked at the crowd seated in front of him. Eyes roving the faces that were entranced in the same stupor; he saw them by the thousands.

He was about to look away when something caught his eye. He paused and scanned the crowd again, uncertain of what he was looking for.

On the third glance, he found it.

At first, he didn't know why the sight interested him so much. There was a family huddled towards the edge of the group, straining their necks towards the stage. This group was exceptionally bright-eyed and, like Frau, they were scanning the crowd for something. The little girl that was with them appeared the most eager, standing on the tips of her toes, shielding her face from the glare of the sun. She was so intently focused, she didn't notice that she was precariously leaning over on one foot hopping like a little jack-in-the-box.

At this point, the other child bent down low and picked the girl up, positioning her on his shoulders. The girl squealed in delight and gripped the child's hair. As he looked up at her with a sheepish smile on his face, the hood fell off and Frau found himself staring at the very face he was trying to forget.

Teito...?

He was brought back to reality by the scraping of chairs and the echoes of clapping in the air, as the mayor finished his address.

"Finally." Frau heard Roland mutter behind him, "That must've been 12 minutes long." The boy got up and hopped off the stage, vanishing among the crowd.

"Bishop-sama?" He looked up to see the mayor stand next to him, "Is everything well?"

The question caught him off guard.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"You didn't seem to appear well this morning."

"I didn't get much sleep last night." Which was true in a way.

"Is that so? Well, I'm sorry if it was impertinent of me to inquire. I merely wondered if all was in order." The mayor looked slightly uneasy now, and Frau wondered what expression he had on his face. Judging by the unnerved look carved on the other's features, it was probably a shade paler than a death glare.

"I'm the one who should apologize." Frau finally admitted, willing himself to calm down, "I was just out of it for a while, to be honest."

"I see."

"The baptism ceremony will be starting in half an hour, right?"

"Yes. But if you want to postpone it..."

"No, I'll be there. Thank you for your concern."

No sooner had the mayor turned towards the stage-hands did something small, furry and very loud smack itself on Frau's head. The man barely noticed, only reaching up and pulling at the little pink fluff-ball that had attached itself on his hair with a sigh. "Where've you been these past few days?"

Mikage squeaked in protest, waving off the gloved hands that pulled at him and settled down nicely among the blond spikes of his hair.

Really. Frau had to appreciate the ludicrously funny situation at hand, albeit with a dry chuckle. He persisted at pulling the fyulong dragon off his hair and finally won the battle; Mikage having consented and going to sit on Frau's shoulder instead.

Unbidden, his eyes swept back up to where Teito stood, looking so calm, so happy...so at peace.

"The kid needs you more, you know. You don't have any reason to be jealous." Frau said softly. Mikage looked up at him with bright, intelligent eyes and back at Teito again, watching as the boy now pulled the little girl off his shoulders and proceeded to teach her how to build snowmen.

Something, Frau thought, that Mikage taught Teito himself.

The fyulong snorted and head-butted Frau on the chin irritably. The unexpected move caught Frau by surprise and he almost barged clean through the wooden stage partition that he was leaning on.

"The hell was that for?" He demanded. Mikage didn't respond, but merely sat there, looking at Teito. As Frau found himself following the line of vision once again, he murmured under his breath, "I'm the reincarnated version of a damn death lord with a scythe that has a mind of its own, who can barely keep all his shit on one plate. The last thing I need is a dead kid lecturing me."

The wind had, by this point, started to howl louder around the stage and the town, but even then Frau could have sworn he heard a soft, warm and very familiar chuckle.

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"Higher! Higher, big brother!" Asuna squealed happily as Teito plucked her off his shoulders and started raising her towards the sun, a bemused smile on his face.

"Is this alright?"

"She's the one that's asking for it." Yasuhara shrugged, "Besides, she's taken quite a shine to you." The man smiled adoringly at her, "I'm surprised to tell the truth. She's never related so well to anyone out of her age range. You should know though, that she's my little girl and if you ever try anything on her..."

"Yasuhara..." Shiki said in an exasperated tone. Teito, however, was more pre-occupied with attempting to balance the girl on one knee to give his arms a rest...that is, until he heard a shout behind him.

"Teito!"

"Oh, Roland-san?" He asked, without turning around. The boy stopped in amazement, "Wow, that was impressive. Do you have extraordinarily heightened senses in addition to your amazing bishop powers?"

"No, I just guessed."

"And who is this charming little lady?" Asuna smiled sweetly back at Roland, as he peered curiously at the little girl. Shiki nodded at him, "That is our daughter, Roland-sama."

"What's your name?"

"Asuna!" The little girl answered promptly, all the while tugging at Teito's robes. Taking the hint, he hoisted her on his shoulders again, while Roland gave him an amused look.

"Better get used to that fast, Teito." He commented knowingly. Teito raised an eyebrow at him questioningly.

"I have two little sisters at home." He admitted, grinning, "They know how to act like angels and all, but they seriously give me hell."

"I bet it's...eventful."

"That's an understatement and you know it, Teito." Roland reached up and tickled the girl under the chin, making her laugh and grip Teito's hair. "Are your sisters here too?"

"No. They're with my mother in the next town." Roland didn't comment further, but Teito had an uneasy feeling that he stepped on shaky grounds. Before he could say anything, Shiki came to his rescue, "So, you've come to attend your father's address?"
"Actually, Bishop-sama was supposed to do the address today."Roland rolled his eyes, but the grin was back on his face, "I wanted to make sure no-one fell victim to a boredom-induced coma." As Roland looked back at Teito, he noticed something...well, off about the boy.

He was still playing with Asuna, a smile on his face, but his stance was stiff, his actions forced. And...there was something in the way he was acting, something in his eyes...

"Are you alright, Teito?"

"No." The latter said, so softly Roland thought he misheard. "I'm sorry, what...?" He was about to ask, but was cut short when Teito looked up, his eyes full of undisguised misery, shadowed by weariness. Asuna looked up at him, concern in her own.

"Big brother?"

And then the world exploded before him.

His body reacted instantly before his mind could catch up; he instantly shielded Asuna with one hand and dragged Roland out of the line of fire with the other, falling to his knees and bracing them against the cold ice.

What the-?

The screams came a second later, as the townspeople broke into a panic, pushing each other out of their path to get away from the area. Teito coughed, forcing the snow out of his throat, cracking an eyelid open to the bleary light.
There was a tiny silhouette against the sun, too small to be an adult, cloaked in heavy grey wool. The child was bent over, gasping for breath and clutching at the wings that grew on the back, skeletal and foreboding, as they flared to the weak sun.

The child seemed to feel Teito's eyes, as she looked up. Through the hood, Teito managed to catch a glimpse of wild red hair before she jumped into the blue horizon that stretched above her, angling low towards where he stood...

"Get out of the way!" He snapped, pushing Roland and Asuna down, as she swept past. He could feel her laugh grate in his ear as she landed on the top of a lamp-post, sneering disdainfully down at him.

No...

She could not be real! She only existed in dreams!

As if sensing his line of thinking, she said, "My talents extend beyond merely manipulating dreams, child. You were never safe, even in your waking moments." The sickly sweet smile was back on her face, and Teito could almost feel the sour taste of bile on his tongue just by seeing it again.

"He was never safe either."

Those words shattered Fear's hold on Teito and he stared at the woman-child with new-found strength, "What do you want?" Even through his calm words, he felt his anger rise every second he looked into those damned mocking eyes.

"You."

The answer caught him so off-guard, he stumbled for a moment, "What?"

"I wish for nothing more than for you to suffer, and for that, it is more satisfying if I, myself, inflict that anguish upon you." The smile took on a blissful undertone. The child with a new toy. "Do you not agree?"
Teito's response was to draw out the Bascules again, which she surveyed dryly, "Oh, that's right. I forgot; you are much more of trouble in the real world, which is, sad to say, much less subjective to my whims. But I tire of this." Her skeletal wings flared out again, as the colour of her eyes started to darken.

"I'm not going anywhere. No-one is!" The anger finally started to show in his voice and he felt his hands sting, as the red Zaiphon travelled up the Bascules.

The smile lasted for a second longer, before it faltered. That was the only warning she gave before she launched into the sky, reaching for him with claw-like hands. On seeing her assault, Teito breathed in and felt the powerful surge of his Zaiphon flood through his body.

Please, Teito whispered fervently, please let me protect them. All of them.

The red calmed to orange, to topaz, to a brilliant blue as he faced the girl. In one single, smooth movement, he whipped his hands out in front of him and threw the energy at her. She snarled and pushed the Zaiphon out of the way with her hands, swooping past him in the process.

"Foolish boy! You have no idea who you are playing with!"

He merely started gathering his energy again, before she could attack. He was about to channel it through the Bascules, when he suddenly noticed the cold feeling that seemed to creep down his back...like ice down his spine...

"The hell you doing brat?" Teito gasped as something hard caught him in the stomach, cold as ice. The movement brought him to his knees, but a sharp, stinging pain in his cheek forced his eyes open.

Frau was standing over him, a stormy expression on his face, as his scythe fed on the sliver of darkness that slid past Teito moments earlier.

"Frau...?"

"That thing would've skinned you alive. Watch yourself." He glared at the girl, and Teito understood that the attack was merely a ploy to get him off-guard for a sneak-attack from behind. The girl hissed at them, her wings angling low. Without any warning, she jumped and flew straight towards Teito again.

"Look out!" As Teito readied himself with a new surge of power, he felt Frau tense up behind him, and felt the cold chill again, this time near his back, a warning that trickled up his spine.

"Frau, no!" Teito tackled the bishop to the ground, as their attacker flew past. The course of action left him slightly disoriented, but he was still able to sense…and see, the dark tendrils that crept out of Frau's tattooed arm…

"Not here, Frau!" He hissed, "All those people…even if they can't see the scythe, if you attack without a Bascules-!"

He stopped abruptly. Frau's eyes stared coldly at him, with a sort of resigned determination that the boy had never seen before. "They'll see what they see." He said with finality, trying to push the kid off him.

"No! I won't let you!" Teito pushed the man back down, avoiding another dive by the cursed woman-child.

"Move over, kid."

"I said no!" He glared furiously at the older man, "I won't let you destroy the life you created! I won't…I'll never let you sacrifice everything you have." To his eternal shame, Teito felt the burning sting of tears in his eyes and he rubbed them furiously.

"Teito…"

"Why?", He demanded, hating the way his voice cracked, "Why do you go through such lengths to protect me? Why would you give up everything to protect someone…someone who doesn't have the strength to raise his arms in defence, a coward who can't even save his own skin?"

Because that's what I am. A coward who drags others to the quicksand that clasps his soul in order to save his life. Frau is going to die by this woman's hand and it's all because of me. Because I…

He felt cold leather touch the back of his hand and long fingers pull his hands away. Teito blinked and looked back down at Frau's eyes. The cold determination was still there, but there was a touch of warmth, a gleam of some emotion that he couldn't place.

"This is the end!" The woman-child shrieked at him, drawing his attention back to her. She crouched into a feral position and launched into another attack, and this time, she was dead centre. There was no way she could miss Frau and Teito this time.

Frau felt the teen move above him and he saw Teito's Bascules gleam in the wintry light.

"This time, I have to try." Teito whispered, holding up the sceptre like a guard.

Bang!

All of a sudden, there was confusion as the snow on the ground whipped around them like a mini-tornado, pelting them with marble-sized pieces of hard ice. Teito coughed as some snow found its way in his mouth but didn't falter, looking around for their attacker.

An anguished scream pulled at his attention and he saw the child struggle against the sudden snowstorm, her wings flared far behind her, attempting to carry her out of the icy onslaught.

"What the hell?" Frau choked from under him. The man struggled, but Teito refused to budge, his eyes trained on the girl's every move. That is, until he saw another flash of white before him.

He froze.

No…that isn't possible. Even as his mind tried to deny it, he saw the white shape again, this time just a few inches from his face. It was human-shaped and the 'arms' were stretched out in front of the boy.

The child shrieked in frustration. She raised her voice over the pounding wind, "I'll get you for this, Teito Klein! I'll get you for this, if it's the last thing I do!" Her wings flared out again with sudden intensity and the momentum propelled her away from the wind and into the safety of the sky.

Teito did not see her escape, nor did he hear what she said. He only had eyes for the shape in front of him, willing with all his might, that he was merely dreaming, praying that he would wake up…

But as he heard Frau curse softly, he knew that what he was seeing was reality; cold, harsh reality. The human-shaped figure turned and as he saw its face, the word…the name leapt unbidden to his lips.

"A-Ayanami?"

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Um…hi guys.

Erk, this is awkward. I…uh…I'm…

I'm sorry! I'm really, really, really, really, REALLY, REALLY sorry!

Oh man, I knew I should've submitted it early. But things have been crazy the whole year, and I've got so much to do! I don't want to leave my stories but I…I just had to.

I'm serious. The last year was really crazy, but this year's even worse. I'll try to do my best to give you all more chapters too! But…don't expect any miracles. *sigh* Story of my life…

Oh, by the by, thanks sooooo much for those kind reviews on Papercuts. I would've just said so on the next chapter of the story (currently under progress), but considering I dunno when I'll have time to finish it, I thought maybe I should get it outta the way. Seriously, I checked the review list, and I was like, holy ajhskdalsd, 10 reviews for one chapter? O_O

I didn't know I wrote it that well. But I'm honoured. I mean, it's my first M-rated story, and I'm still technically a rookie as far as the actual story-writing thing goes (heck, it took me four sugar drinks to get me signed up on Fanfiction; I was pretty much a closet writer before then) so I thought it would be hopeless…thank you all so much for taking time and reviewing it! ^^

Thanks again for giving Midnight Snow a chance and kudos to all the people who faved the story! Y'all really know how to brighten my day, even after a real crappy class!

Love to you all!

-Justanothersinger

(J to you and me~)