Hello everyone. If you didn't check the summary please know this fic is pre-slash, meaning there's some hinted boy/boy affection. If that's not what you're looking for, I trust you know where the back button is and please have a pleasant day.

For those still here: I hope you enjoy! This chapter works as a stand-alone oneshot for now. If I ever manage to get the rest of my ideas for this story written down I promise the title will actually mean something.

EDIT: Well, I'm back again to write this budding epic in earnest. Please wish me luck!

This story (at least the first half of what I have planned) is slightly AU after episode 27 of season 2 (V-Force), so just imagine if the Bladebreakers took a month off right after their fight in Battle Tower. This will eventually have some spoilers up to that point. However, I think you can still follow at least this first part even if you've only watched the first season.

Rating has been changed to "T" for violence in later chapters.

"There!" Max exclaimed, swiping the last bits of snow from the windshield with his mittened hands. "Now we can go back in, right?"

They had all been enlisted to help clear the front drive and the BBA van of snow, though Max refused to accept it being called 'training.' It was more like chores in his mind, and now his shoulders ached and his mittens were soaked through, and he was past ready to be done.

When he'd first heard about it, Max had jumped at the chance to train in Russia with his teammates. They'd hardly had time to really enjoy the locale properly when they were there for the world championships, after all. Now the place was starting to wear on Max. After southern California it was just so cold all the time. There was nothing but snow all around. The whole landscape was just trees covered in snow, rocks covered in snow, vans covered in snow. . . Max was completely tired of snow.

He was getting tired of everything but training at this point. Any time the four of them weren't battling each other, or occasionally just fighting with each other, it got so boring being stuck out in the middle of nowhere. He'd read every beyblading magazine at the training center at least twice, and he was sick of snowball fights, and outside of training there just didn't seem to be anything else to do.

While everyone else was putting things away and getting ready to go in, Kai seemed to have other plans. The other boy had already put his own shovel away and was heading back down the drive alone.

Max took two steps back from the group to watch Kai. This made the fourth time in as many days that Kai had just gone off by himself. Down the driveway, out to the road. . . and then Kai would be turning left on the main road, away from any civilization Max knew of out here.

A restless breeze caught the fabric of Kai's white scarf until it billowed out behind him, then suddenly made it flick back, like a beckoning finger. It might have been curiosity, or just plain boredom, that prompted Max to respond.

He trotted after Kai, catching up halfway down the drive. Kai glanced over at him, and Max grinned at the characteristically Kai-like lack of reaction to his company.

"Hey, Kai. Can I join you?"

"Why?"

"Why not?" Max didn't really have a reason. He was just bored. Bored enough to sincerely wonder where Kai kept wandering off to, even.

Before Kai could bother to reply, something cold smacked into the back of Max's neck. He yelled, more in surprise than pain, and whirled around to find Tyson doubled over laughing.

"Hey!" Max yelled back at his friend, rubbing the stinging spot where Tyson's snowball had hit him. "What was that for?"

"I was aiming for Kai!" Tyson laughed. "Calm down."

Max scooped up a double handful of snow and charged at Tyson. He was far too competitive to let that go, not with Tyson laughing at him.

"I'll fix your aim!"

Max's first throw went impossibly wide, which only made Ray dart out of the way and Tyson laugh even harder. Once Tyson was incapacitated by laughter, Max had no problem hitting him in the face with a second loose-packed snowball.

Seeing Tyson splutter and wipe snow off of his face was at least funny, until Max turned and found that Kai had just kept walking without him.

"I'm going to get you back for that one!" Tyson was shouting, scooping together more snow to retaliate, but Max wasn't really paying attention at that point.

"I'll pass. See you later!" Max called back. He ducked under Tyson's snowball and ran the rest of the way down the drive after Kai.

Kai didn't even look over at him when Max caught up this time. Max followed along, watching Kai ignore him for a few minutes, before he got bored with the silence and broke it.

"You could have waited for me."

"I didn't think you were coming."

"I just had to take care of something." Max stretched both arms over his head, trying to look as casual about his little victory as Kai always did.

"Hm."

Max let Kai be quiet for a little while. There was nothing but the sound of their feet crunching on the layer of hard snow in the road to break the silence between them.

Little gusts of wind kept playing with Kai's hair, ruffling it so that strands of soft silver and deeper blue twined together. Max found himself distracted into watching the changing patterns Kai's hair made in the wind. Had he let his hair get a little more wild in the last few weeks, or was it just Max's imagination?

Kai's untamed hair made such a contrast to the immobile set of his face. The firm curves of Kai's lips and jaw could have been carved from marble. Kai was so cool and solid, waiting for him to speak was like expecting a statue to speak. Trying to decode his expressions was like trying to see through someone made of stone. Was Kai this inscrutable to everyone? Even though he was looking at Kai all the time, Max still felt he was missing something.

No, Max corrected his own wandering thoughts, he was not looking at Kai all the time. Just sometimes. Like when he had to go running around sleeveless in this weather. It made Max cold just to look at him when he did that. At least Kai had a coat on today, even though he'd left it open for the wind to catch at. At times the movement would reveal Kai's lean body under the coat, and then hide it again as soon as Max looked.

Kai did not so much catch him staring as finally look over, as if to check if he was really still tagging along, and then look away again without a word. It still made Max jump, even if Kai didn't call him on it.

A few steps later Kai turned and stepped off of the road. Max followed unthinkingly. It didn't take long before the thin scattering of pine trees along the road thickened into a proper forest. Max couldn't see a path anywhere.

"So where are we going?" Max finally asked.

"Nowhere. I just wanted to go for a walk."

It was only because Max was looking at Kai's lips again that he noticed how Kai hardly opened his mouth when he spoke. Conversation came out of Kai with the same reluctance that Max would have expected to see if a statue had been prompted to speak.

"What, just to get away from the rest of us for a while?" Max suggested. Kai did seem to step out right when everyone else was getting bored and rowdy.

"More or less."

It actually sounded like a good idea to Max. Just being able to get away for a little while would at least stave off cabin fever.

"You don't mind me tagging along?"

"Not if you're quiet."

Max laughed at that, but he got what Kai was hinting at and stopped asking questions.

It was eerily peaceful under the trees once they stopped talking. The wind didn't touch them here, adding to the stillness. Pines stood with their lowest branches well over Max's head. When he tilted his head back to look he found the afternoon sun blocked out by mats of evergreen needles mantled in heavy snow.

Sometimes the snow really was too heavy. Every so often there would be a distant 'fwumf' as one branch or another bent too far and dropped its weight of snow to the ground. There was no other sound but that of the wind sighing through the treetops above.

The only clear personal memory Max had of evergreens covered in snow was of shop displays at Christmastime. It was hard to even hold up that mental image for comparison. That and this were such completely different things.

This was. . . Max wasn't even sure he recognized the pine forest when he took the time to look. It was all so cold, stark in spite of the green of living needles, but somewhere on the unfamiliar edge of beautiful. There was a breathless quality to it. Not absolute silence, but a frozen stillness in the dim light under trees and snow.

The scent of the pines was everywhere. Even with the air so crisp that Max was half-sure he could smell cold itself, the sharp scent of pine lingered in the back of his throat.

Max finally gave up slogging through snow, and simply stood to stare up and around himself. He hadn't thought he could be taken by surprise by something so everyday as trees and snow, but when he stopped and just looked and breathed, and had to strain his ears to hear even the distant impact of snow in snow. . . .

Kai stopped as well. Max hardly noticed beyond the fact that Kai was suddenly as still and silent as he was. It took a minute for Max to realize that Kai was watching him, not looking around and appreciating the forest.

"Is something wrong?" Kai asked, after they had stared silently at each other for a bit too long.

"Nothing." Max felt suddenly embarrassed, though he wasn't sure why he should care if Kai caught him mooning over the scenery. "My hands are cold," he invented, holding them up as if to hold back Kai's scrutiny, though the complaint did nothing to explain why he had stopped walking. Kai just looked at him, and if he was phased by the odd switch in subject it didn't show.

Max thumped his arms together, trying to warm his hands and had to correct himself. "Actually, they're more numb right now."

Instead of accepting his brush-off Kai came back to him, taking off his own gloves and tucking them into one pocket as he came. That was enough to confuse Max into standing still and just staring at Kai once more.

"Let me see."

Without even waiting for Max to offer his hand Kai had snatched it up and pulled off Max's wet mitten. The skin of Max's hand was a bloodless white from the cold, mottled in places to a faint yellow like the last fading tint of a bruise.

Max had thought his hand numb, but there was a searing heat from Kai's bare hands around his that proved him wrong. When Kai breathed onto his frozen hand it felt as if Kai was breathing fire.

Kai ignored Max's yelp of pain and put Max's fingers in his mouth. That only prompted a louder yelp. Kai's mouth was so hot it burned. Max couldn't even seem to curl his fingers, trapped between Kai's tongue and the roof of his mouth. Both of Kai's hands were wrapped around his, warming it to the point of agony.

With his eyes squeezed closed, Max couldn't even guess the expression that would be on Kai's face at that moment. It wasn't until Kai's body heat stopped being torture and started feeling properly warm that he could even yell at Kai properly.

"What do you think you're doing!?" Max demanded.

Kai released his fingers and pulled a handkerchief from inside his coat to quickly wipe the saliva from Max's hand. Once his fingers were released from Kai's mouth he found the heat had brought a visible change. His skin was blotchy white and red now, and suddenly he could feel the chill of the air on it all over again.

"I'm thawing your hands," Kai snapped at him. His voice was sharper than Max could remember it being in a long time. Sharp enough to cut off Max's complaints at his odd behavior.

Kai took his own glove and forced it onto Max's hand. It was still warm from having Kai's hand in it. Max wasn't used to having his hand ache with warmth like this. . . He curled his fingers together, finding the sight of Kai's black glove on his own hand oddly surreal.

"Don't take that off."

That was all Kai said before he grabbed Max's other hand, which Max didn't exactly think to try and keep from him. He snatched off the second soaked mitten, and took Max's frozen fingers in his mouth once again.

Thawing his other hand was agony all over again. Max kept his eyes open this time, but he knew he still had to look like a fool. He was panting, open-mouthed, unable to find the breath to say it burned when Kai's tongue arced up between his fingers and forced them to separate. How could Kai's body heat feel like sudden fire on his skin?

Again the heat and pain slowly faded into simple warmth. Kai's mouth finally released him. He dried Max's hand again and took out his other glove. Max curled his fingers before Kai could put the glove on him this time.

"What about you? Aren't your hands going to be cold?"

"You're the one who's already frozen."

"I was used to it a minute ago. What's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal?" Kai repeated. Max leaned back, confused by Kai's anger. "Do you understand why you can't let your hands freeze?"

"If you don't want them to freeze, then do this."

Max stuck his hand in his coat pocket, taking Kai's still ever-so-warm hand with it. Kai stared at him, then readjusted his hand to warp more comfortably around Max's. The pocket was soft and dry, lined with fleece, and felt cozy with both of their hands in it together.

"Okay, now you put the other one on," Max insisted.

Kai at least went along with it, using his teeth to pull his other glove back on rather than freeing his hand. Max picked up his soaked mittens from where Kai had just dropped them in the snow with his free hand and tucked them in his other pocket. It wasn't until about then that it occurred to Max that they would have to continue their walk holding hands if Kai was really serious about keeping him warm.

"We're going back," Kai told him. No room for argument. He just turned Max around and started off, dragging him along as quickly as possible without yanking Max's hand out of his pocket.

"Shouldn't we follow our tracks?"

"No. We're going straight back."

That left Max to just hope that Kai had a good sense of direction, because he wasn't sure himself which way they were going right now. He couldn't even tell where the sun was through the snow-covered branches, and there were no landmarks other than the trail they had left.

For a little while Max was just concentrating on keeping up with Kai through the snow. The stillness under the pines was less awe-inspiring with Kai pulling on him, anyway. He did notice the way Kai's hand clenched around his, and the way Kai's lips were now pressed into a hard, thin line, but he wasn't sure if Kai was angry with him or upset about something else.

Kai kept giving him little sideways glances, which didn't embarrass Max into breaking off his staring as they might have normally. Kai was the one acting strangely right now, after all.

After the third or fourth time Kai glanced over so that their eyes met, his hand suddenly tightened on Max's as he looked away. The tense atmosphere had begun to feel unbearably heavy to Max by the time Kai finally spoke up.

"I've known a few bladers who had to quit because of frostbite."

There were too many questions that suddenly occurred to Max for him to voice just one. How many was 'a few?' Who were they to Kai? How had they ended up frostbitten so badly? What did that have to do with Max, anyway?

"We haven't been out long enough to get frostbite."

Kai just looked at him, and that look was enough to kill all the questions clamoring around Max's head.

"Right?" Max managed.

"You don't have to lose any fingers for it to affect you. Even if just your skin freezes your hands could be oversensitive for months." Kai's tone was as neutral as ever, but Max felt thoroughly chastised, just the same. "What would you do if you couldn't even handle a launcher normally for months because of the heat?"

"Oh."

Max had gotten used to the warmth his blade gave off every time he launched it. It was a lot more obvious after he had gained a bitbeast, but it was still hard to imagine that burning him. At the same time he had seen the. . . conditions that Kai had first trained under. Even a small, temporary injury would mean the end of one's beyblading career in a place like that.

"Kai," Max started, but let the other blader's name simply hang in the air without adding to it. He didn't know how to thank Kai for looking out for him.

As they reached the edge of the trees, Max suddenly found that the training center was less than ten yards straight in front of them. Kai had found a more direct path after all.

"So you really did know where you were going," Max exclaimed. He meant it as a compliment, but the look Kai gave him suggested that Kai hadn't quite taken it that way.

"Come on."

Kai's impatience didn't let up even after they reached the training center. He did release Max's hand once they got inside, yanking his own up and out of Max's pocket. He had unzipped his coat and shrugged it off almost before the front door swung shut behind them.

When Max started trying to take off his own coat, he found Kai dragging him inside by the arm. The sudden pull almost made him trip over his own feet. He had thought Kai would be done jerking him around once they made it back safely.

"Kai! What are- oof!" Max started to protest, but he was interrupted by running into Kai's back when the other boy stopped suddenly to yank open a door.

As soon as Max started to step back Kai was dragging him forward again, into the cramped half-bathroom that was right outside the front common room in the training center. He stopped facing the sink, shoulder-to-shoulder with Max in the narrow room.

"You could just say 'come with me.' You don't have to drag me around!" Max complained, and tried to pull his arm free just as Kai chose to let him go anyway.

"And you could have said earlier that your hands were hurting you."

Kai turned on the water and let it run over the inside of his bare arm. Max wasted a few seconds watching the serious expression on Kai's face as he tested the water on the inside of his elbow, then sighed and reached over to flick on the overhead light.

"Are you complaining about me not complaining?" Max wanted to know.

"Yes."

"You told Tyson to stop whining when he got snow down the back of his shirt yesterday."

"You can't compare that to this."

Kai stoppered the sink. He took both of Max's hands in his own and guided them under the running water.

The water running over his aching fingers felt boiling hot at first brush. Max tried to jerk away on the instinct that he was about to be burned, but even before he moved Kai's hands around his wrists had tightened into a stone grip that he couldn't seem to break.

"Ow!" Max protested. Kai was making hushing noises at his protests, which only irritated him. "No, you told me to complain and that hurts!"

"You have to keep your hands there until it doesn't hurt anymore."

As the sink started to fill Kai forced Max's hands down into the water. Suddenly it was heating every inch of thawing skin at once, prompting a pained gasp from Max.

"Why do you have to have it so hot? I'd almost rather you used your mouth again," Max whimpered. Even when he thought Kai was looking after him, why did he have to do it in a way that hurt?

"It's only lukewarm," Kai informed him. "It won't hurt in a minute."

"Are you kidding? You're some kind of sadist, aren't you?"

Kai didn't answer that last comment, but released Max's wrists and stepped away. He was out of the bathroom before Max could even ask what he was doing. Max wasn't sure if he had gone too far somehow, or if Kai was just fed up with arguing with him in general.

Either way, Kai was right. It didn't hurt after that first flash of surprise heat. The water didn't even feel as warm as Kai's breath had been. Of course it couldn't be anywhere near as powerful as the sudden agony of heat he'd felt with his fingers in Kai's mouth, but at least Kai hadn't been able to get both of his hands at once.

The blotchy flush coloring Max's skin became uniform as blood returned to his no-longer-numb hands. Cold and pain slowly faded until the water hardly felt warm. Finding that Kai was right didn't make Max feel any better. He clenched his fingers together in the water. He could pull out his hands any time he wanted, without Kai to make him stay.

"Okay, you were right. It doesn't really hurt now," Max begrudgingly admitted, though Kai wasn't there to hear. His hands tingled with pins and needles, and they ached in time to his pulse, but Max didn't voice any of that.

Then, when Max looked up, Kai was silently standing right there in the doorway. He was holding a steaming mug in one hand, which he set down on the counter with a loud 'thunk' before turning around and walking away again without a word of explanation.

"Wait a minute, Kai!"

Max didn't get an answer. The rich, unmistakable smell of hot chocolate was rising from the mug along with the steam. A handful of tiny marshmallows bobbed at the surface, and something about their presence was just out of place to Max.

"Max? Are you okay? You two were gone for over an hour."

Ray's calm, concerned voice broke through Max's confusion. In a moment the older boy was standing in the doorway right where Kai had been, though his expression was nowhere as inscrutable as Kai's.

"Sorry. I didn't realize we were gone so long."

Max shut off the water and drained the sink. He dried his hands absentmindedly. There were other things to think about.

"Did Kai just bring me hot chocolate?" Max asked, even though the evidence was sitting right in front of him.

"Yeah, I guess so. I was making some for everyone after you got back and that's the mug I gave him."

Kai was looking out for him. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling, but it was one that Max had to stop and think about sometimes. Kai was often antisocial and aloof and irritable at anyone who he judged less capable than himself, but he was also really dependable. Maybe, Max was starting to think, he was the sort of person who didn't like seeing the people around him hurt. Kai was usually so ruthless in the midst of a beybattle, but the way he had sounded over the possibility of Max having frostbite. . . .

Max shook his head to clear it. He still didn't understand Kai, but it was enough to just get these little glimpses of what lay behind the antisocial wall that was Kai's attitude.

He picked up the hot chocolate, relieved that the mug just felt nice and warm against his palms, and turned to grin at Ray. "Please tell me the marshmallows were his idea."