Of Warmth and Cold

The icy cool wind swept at the dead leaves sinking into snow across the frost-covered pavement. The trees overshadowed and blocked out the small light exerted from the near full moon, draping over the world lazily and wearily. The innocent pale of the snow was licked with untouched and untainted softness. The curve of every bump and crevice looked a polished smooth glimmer, so pure. Yet, the trail of crimson stained it.

He stood still as he felt the cold air beat at his physique. His frail body was drowned in the drying blood that belonged to another. He trudged silently beside the headmaster leaving a trail of crimson drops along the white of the snow. His exterior exerted hostility, one that went hand in hand with the coldness of the winter, of death. He made no sound, and looked nowhere but straight, all the evidence of his existence was non-existent, except for the bloodied footprints in the snow. However, when the sky cried tears of frozen ice, his footprints would be masked and disappear completely, ceasing to ever exist.

Cross paused in his steps as they reached concrete steps, he looked down to the near lifeless child.

"I'll be just a minute,"

Zero showed no signs of any life and did no actions; he simply stood at the first step, watching as the man faded into the building. He stood frigid, observing his surroundings in discreteness his pale eyes peering from corner to corner. Endless amounts of snow, and a path of concrete covered in the like, with a parallel of skinny, hauntingly dead trees evident on both sides. As the wind played with his skin, he heard light footsteps approach from behind him. His heart raced a little, he couldn't help but feel frightened, a tint of fear displayed across his sharp face. He built up a small handful of courage and slowly turned his head, ready to meet with whatever supernatural creature existed. However, no monster appeared, only a small pale girl. Her hair was short and eyes wide filled with content and what Zero, thought was a tint of fear.

But he was wrong; it wasn't anything of the like. She took modest steps towards him and examined the blood-covered figure from a short distance away.

"Is that blood?" She asked, curious

He stared into the autumn of her eyes, the shivers of cold finally pelted through his veins and coursed from his toe up. He didn't reply to her question. She went quiet as a pregnant pause immersed the young kids, but she remained close to him, now within arms reach. Then a smile plastered itself on her lips as she took a step towards him. He unconsciously took a step back.

"Close your eyes," She said

"What?"

"Just do it! Don't you trust me?"

He gave her a look that would soon become one of his trademarks. But she remained smiling softly.

"Now close your eyes." Her voice had no tone of harm in them, just pure soft innocence.

He did as she asked and closed his eyes, unaware of what the little girl was about to do. He felt nervous, scared, confused and even excited with this thought of the unknown scouring in the depths of his mind. He controlled his breathing to even inhales and exhales from his lips, causing small huffs of cold smoke to evaporate into the air. He half flinched away when he felt something warm touch his cheeks. The sensation of wool grazed his neck and jaw as he felt small fingers lightly fiddling and twirling something around him. The dance of materials finally halted and he brought his blind hands up to touch the item now wrapped around his neck.

"You can open your eyes now!"

He did what he was told, his glowing pale eyes stared into hers, then fell down to his neck to reveal an oversized scarf around his bloodied neck. The innocent white of the material was already soaked in crimson, the frayed ends of cotton hung loose around his shoulders.

He looked back up and gave her a confused, yet warm look.

"Have it," Her voice was soft and genuine

He lifted his fingers up to touch the material, feeling the soft furs and gentleness of the cotton. His eyes looked back up to lock with hers, his lips slightly curving upwards, a smile.

"Wear it whenever you're cold!" She said as she began running down the snow infested path, her smile still etched in his mind, and as her small figure disappeared into the cold night, his cold exterior started to melt under the scarf she gave him. Innocent white now stained with the crimson of blood.

"Zero, wake up! Its already the afternoon" A voice complained from outside his door, he simply stirred and found a comfortable position allowing slumber to creep back in, "Zero!"

The loud bang of the door threw him from his sleep, the door was wide open to reveal a short haired Yuuki.

A now full-grown Zero simply yawned as she stormed to his bed,

"We're meeting Yori at the Winter festival today! I promised her we'd go, remember?"

He nodded and gestured for Yuuki to leave the room so that he could get ready. She gave him a look before proceeding to exit his room with a dramatic bang of the door.

He sat at the edge of his bed in long cotton pants, stretching the knots out of his back. His faded eyes were half dazed and still semi asleep, as was his numb legs. A small sting of the cool air snuck its way up his spine, causing him to unconsciously shiver in response. He quickly shook it away, casting it aside as he stood form the bed and made his way to the shower. He turned the shower knob to hot and began stripping his garments off and embraced water as it hit his skin.

Dressed in casual attire, he looked outside the grand windows of his room and saw the flakes of snow drip from the sky. Zero reached down to the bottom drawer and pulled out an old semi-reddish scarf and wrapped it around his neck comfortably. He touched the material and breathed in the cold winters air with a refreshing sting.

"Zero, are you done yet" Yuuki's voice peered from outside his door once again,

"Yeah," he quickly grabbed his last item before opening the door to greet Yuuki

She looked up at him with a small smile then studied his attire from toe up.

"That's such a girly scarf!"

The winter festival was one of the more looked forward to and eventful festivals of the school year. Students from and outside the school attended, frolicking in the cool embrace of the winter's air. The Cross academy was drowned in stalls and shops filled with endless amounts of various items. As the gates of the school opened, students flooded the grounds and the quiet winter's day turned into deafening laughter and happiness. The sun was mildly visible and acted as an adequate source of light. Stalls, games and fireworks were all set up with hot chocolates and hot noodles being the most popular items, followed by game prizes such as over-indulged teddy bears and knick knacks.

Wakaba Sayori sat along the edge of the bench, playing with her fingers as she waited for her friends to arrive. Flakes of snow had assaulted her hair with droplets of white, which tangled itself among the strands of light chocolate. Her autumn eyes stared up to the sky through the black branches of the trees, taking in all that was her favourite season. Winter was always forgiving, and always renewing. It never stopped giving, she pondered.

She heard the snow crunch under the approaching footsteps. She looked up to meet with an embrace form Yuuki, smiling, she quickly hugged back.

"Yuuki, you're looking very lively today," She said, her voice soft and cheerful

"Of course! I love the winter festival, and I get to spend my day with you and Zero!" She laughed light heartedly,

"Hi Zero," Yori gave him a little wave,

He gave her a small nod in response.

The day continued with endless celebrations, Yuuki won a very generously sized penguin plush, and made frequent trips to the food stands. She lost count on how many hot chocolates she went through. They talked about anything and everything that passed through her mind, the weather, the sky, school life, boys, girls- everything. She linked arms with Yori and wandered aimlessly through the crowds.

With his hands deep in his pockets, head hung a little low and eyes staring at whatever caught its attention, he followed the two like a non-existent ghost. However, his presense remained acknowledged by Yori, she turned her head around every now and then and gave him a warm smile. He stole her glances, and simply pretended he took no notice, but when she would turn her attention back at Yuuki, he would smile to her back.

The day slipped by quickly, they ate lunch together at a student-organized café. He had some coffee and ramen, and as they finished, he even took some interest in frivolous stalls. Yuuki and Yori commented at everything their eyes could touch.

Hours had passed and dawn began to creep in with the subtle disappearance of the sun. The cold sneaked in and entwined itself with light teardrops of the sky, causing small droplets of snow to dance towards the ground. The cool smoke that escaped past the lips showed that the temperature definitely depleted significantly.

"Hey guys, I'm going to go and get some more hot chocolate!" Yuuki said sheepishly, rubbing her hands together in attempt to keep warm, "You two want any?"

"No thank you Yuuki" Yori smiled

Zero shook his head, signalling a no as well.

"Okay," she said as she walked down towards the more populated areas, fading into the crowd.

The two stood in sea stone silence, in an area cut off by trees and bushes, from the rest of the festival. The snow slipped through the branches of the trees and lightly landed on their bodies, entwining into the strands of their hairs. Yori made for the bench and sat down, rubbing her near frost bitten hands together and shrinking her neck lower into the collar of her heavy woollen navy coat. She breathed in and out from her mouth, letting the heat hit the cool of the air and turn into cold steam, like that of an addicted smoker. Zero followed her steps lightly and stood a fair distance in front of her as she struggled with her battle against the cold.

"Its getting quite cold isn't it?" She said

"Yeah,"

She looked up at him and gave him a small smile before looking back down to the porcelain white snow.

"Did you have fun today?" She said as she fiddled with her fingers,

He gave her a look, before looked up. "Today isn't over yet,"

She looked up to him and tried to repress a shiver quaking through her skin, causing goose bumps and small trembles. He looked down at her and smiled, a small simply smile.

"Close your eyes,"

"What?" She said, confused

"Just do it."

She complied and closed her eyes, feeling nervous and anxious at what was about to happen. She thought about the possible outcomes, one, that when she opened her eyes she'd be alone, two, something scary or just a plain trick, or three, something in the realm beyond her thinking.

She let out a breath, then suddenly she felt his rough hands scrape against her jaw line as a woollen material found its way around her neck. His fingers kept feeding at her skin, greedily staining her porcelain paleness with his own.

"Open your eyes," his voice half whispered into her hair

Her eyes locked with his at first site, his face merely inches away from hers. She peered down and toyed with the pale sallow coloured scarf that snaked around her neck, immediately warming her body toe up. She snuggled into the scarf as she gave him a smile.

"You can have it," He recited, "Wear it whenever you're cold."

So, where do I even begin? I wrote this, to hopefully satisfy your hunger for a new chapter of 'Bite Me' which I have yet to update, yes I have a draft of it so far, but I still need to revise it! This little plot hit me a while ago, I just never got around to writing it! So here it is, a little snack, if you like, to hopefully keep you put until I update my other story. And yes, there is going to be spelling errors, grammar errors, just the whole lot because i rushed this. I was too excited that i wanted to post this the second i finished!

Hope you're all well, thanks for your support and reviews and whatever else. It means very much to me! Until next time.

V