• Act VII-First Snow

    Don’t let me go…ever.



    9 days have already passed. Surt-Lim is now a mere 24 hours away, and all of us are actually ready fro him. I have mastered the art of my gun, Zero and Hotaka just know how to kick some serious wolf tail, and Sparks will just barbeque anybody who dares to attack him. But that doesn’t mean we weren’t scared out our minds. I couldn’t get my already crowded mind off of Zero, and how I wished I could’ve been a better friend to him, I didn’t have time for those kinds of thoughts…so why did I think them?

    After learning about Sparks’ past, I felt as though I needed to be that much closer to him, and even closer to Zero? Gah! No! Surt-Lim is coming and all I can think about it smoochy stuff with Zero! Get it together, man! I shook my wolf head back and forth as I tried to clear my thoughts. As our last marathon came to a close, I wanted to get just the last bit of gun training before our blood-drenched battle with Surt-Lim and his band of soulless wolves. I walked up to Zero with my gun in my hands, “Just a little more?” I asked with eyes that I don’t think Zero could refuse. He gave a sigh of defeat.

    “Ok, fine. But as soon as you get hurt, we’re stopping,” he ordered so stone coldly. Almost like once he’s made his decision, there is no stopping his air-filled head. I walked behind him, holding gun close to my chest.

    “What’s your problem?” Zero asked, sounding very annoyed. I gasped a little, he scared me half to death in the dark woods. It must’ve been at least 9 at night, and the temperature was dramatically dropping. I let one small shiver out, “What do you mean?”

    Zero looked at me with a particular look that would pretty much make anyone scream the truth at the top of his or her lungs, but I was pretty much used to it. “I don’t have a problem!” I lied straight to his face. That is one of things I very, very rarely did. Honestly, I was scared out of my mind. Surt-Lim was now a miniscule 15 hours away, and I was denying my possible feelings for Zero instead of worrying about important things like…our LIVES! I shook it off with another small shiver. I took a step forward, without looking, and fell into a small hole in-between the ground and a tree’s upward protruding root. I struggled to get out; I might have scratched my gun in the process of my meaningless struggles. I heard Zero mutter some swear words before lifting me out of my squalid position…by my hips. Even with the frigid weather, my blood found my face and made it a nice and embarrassing cherry color. And what made me mad was that he lifted me up seemingly with no effort, making me feel like a weakling.

    “How do you do that?” I asked looking away trying to hide my face. Zero put me down, reluctantly it seemed. He just shrugged; making me even more annoyed his smug attitude. Before we could start walking again, something so small and insignificant pulled my eyes away from in front of me. It was the tiniest speck of white that just randomly fell from the sky.

    “Zero?” I called; it was weird how intrigued I was by something seemingly unimportant.

    “What, now?” he asked as he dramatically turned around.

    “What’s this?” I questioned as I pointed to the falling dot. Zero chuckled, “It’s snow, stupid.” I gave him a confused look.

    “Frozen rain that falls when it gets cold enough. I guess we went really north, huh?” Zero said, almost like he did something wrong. I exhaled and smoke came from my mouth. I flinched and kept breathing out. What’s going on? First the temperature goes way down then frozen water falls from nowhere, and now; I’m making steam with only my carbon dioxide breath. It was so interesting how much the climate can change in just over a week of almost non-stop running. When I looked up again, all of this “snow” was floating down everywhere. It covered everything in a small sheet of this silly frozen snow. Zero was nowhere to be found.

    “Z-Zero?” I called as more steam escaped my chattering teeth.

    “SURPRISE!” I heard a familiar voice howl. Immediately after, an enormous pile of snow fell on top of me, forbidding me to move even an inch.

    Zero burst out on wolf laughter, “Gotcha, KiKi!”

    I popped my black wolf head out of the mountain of powdered rain and shook some away from my face. Zero laughed even harder and fell off of the tree branch he was on, only to land on top of me, “You- you look like a reverse Dalmatian!” He teased. I flashed back into my human form and stared up at Zero with daggers. He gave me a sad look and as well became his white haired human self. He on top of me, seeing our breath caress each other’s frigid faces, white pixies falling from the ash clouds above us; it was all the perfect place at the perfect time with the perfect person. Zero helped me up out of my snow coffin, took off his orange over shirt, leaving his white sleeveless shirt for himself, and gave it to me.

    “You’re freezing, we should get out of here and back to Hotaka and Sparks,” Zero said looking away from me. I exhaled and it felt like my emotions went out with it, trying to reach my ZiZi. I couldn’t move my legs they were practically frozen stiff.

    “U-uhm, ZiZi?” I called with a small human whimper. When Zero turned around, he didn’t look at all upset. He actually seemed happy to hear his old nickname.

    “Hm?” He returned softly. I felt my face get warm again.

    “Can…can you help me? I can’t feel my feet.” That was a lie, my feet were fine, it’s the fact that I was stuck that I needed help with. Zero rolled his eyes and sighed with a smile. I used to do that all the time to him when we were kids, it felt kind of weird to be in the receiving end of that.

    Without the slightest delay, Zero picked me up in his arms, “You’re useless, KiKi,” he said smiling slightly. Zero’s scent on his orange shirt danced in my pink nose, his bare, warm arms cradled and comforted me in that bitter cold. I couldn’t stop myself from gazing into his soft green eyes; he was looking back just as lovingly. Right then, right at that exact moment, three things slammed into my bustling mind,
    1) I could very well die tomorrow and never see Zero again.
    2) Ichio is with Surt-Lim and he also very well be dead and will be gone forever
    3) I am uncontrollably and irreversibly in love with Zero.
    /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


    I almost fell asleep in Zero’s arms as we approached our small sleeping area. Sparks had lit a fire for warmth and light. Not too much though, there was always the precaution of Surt-Lim finding us in the middle of the night. Zero set me right nest to the fire and he went to sleep shortly after. I didn’t understand how everyone could fall asleep so easily, my body refused to slumber. So, I stayed awake; staring at the full moon. For nine whole days, more than a week, I have let the fact that everyone on my family was killed and that Ichio has been kidnapped and might as well be dead. I haven’t cried over them, not once. Now, that my small pack was asleep, I decided to just let it out. All of my built up emotions, all of my worries and regrets were about to come out like a volcano eruption. It’s started out as just a couple of tears falling but as I thought about it more and more, sobs, river of tears and hiding my face emerged. I kept repeating the same phrase in my head was; “it’s all my fault.” I felt so pathetic just sting their crying like the pup I used to be. I felt something warm on my shoulder, it was Zero’s chin. I jumped a little at his sudden presence but his drowsy face made me smile, even in my saddest moment Zero found a way to make me smile again.

    “You shouldn’t beat yourself up. We’ll be all right. We promised remember?” Zero said as he made my pinky twirl around his. “No one’s going to die,” he murmured.

    “I’ve been dieing I a little everyday since I’ve seen you,” I whispered back. Oh, come on Yukiru! Can I be any cheesier?!

    “Huh?” Zero returned with one raised eyebrow. His ignorance and stupidity was the straw that broke this camel’s back.

    “I love you, stupid!” I blurted, quickly followed by more face hiding.


    {Zero’s Point of View}


    “I’ve been dieing a little everyday since I’ve seen you,” Yukiru said quietly. Her eyes looked so helpless, so vulnerable. But, I still had no idea what she meant.

    “Huh?” I replied, hoping I would get a straight answer. Yukiru looked like she about to explode, “I love you, stupid!” That’s the very next thing I heard. Even thought her face was streaming with tears and her voice was slightly shrill, that was the thing I’ve waited to hear since I was a pup. I turned Yukiru around and held her in my arms almost as tightly as I could.

    “I’m…I’m scared! I don’t want to lose you again, ZiZi!” Yukiru sobbed into my chest. To be honest, I was scared as hell. Yukiru means everything to me, and I could very well loose her tomorrow. At first I was just consoling her but, my passion and feeling clouded my every thought and I separated me from her the slightest bit and kissed her.

    “All this time. All this time I’ve loved you so much, Yukiru,” I said while I hugged her tighter. I felt her quivering arms around my back. I felt like a leaf on a breeze, I didn’t know where I was going. But, I liked where I was. My mind was going around in circles and I always came back to the same conclusion; that I was so damn wildly in love with Yukiru. Surprisingly, Yukiru was the one to kiss me and also first to speed it up.


    My hands journeyed up and down her back. One hand stayed planted on the back of her head, excising my fingers in her silky black hair. I could feel Yukiru’s tears on my own face; I pulled away and looked at her face. She wasn’t sad or hurt, happy tears were all that I saw.

    {End of Point of View}


    I stood up, walked over to the other side of Sparks’ self-made fire and pat the ground next to me, “I might get cold in the middle of the night,” I lied. I was right next to the fire and getting cold was completely impossible. Zero laid on his side, his chest facing my back. He gave me a small and almost meaningless hug, which triggered me to flip over so I was facing him. After a prolonged Goodnight kiss I drifted off to sleep, completely una ware of the immense blood shed that awaited me.

    End of Act VII