Lyra-
"Cat," Nathan grumbled.
I growled and made another tick-tack-toe on the floor in the corner. That's the eighth cat (tie).
"Let's do something else?" I suggested. We both felt cooped up and frustrated.
"Like what? It's been snowing for like, three days straight," Nathan muttered.
He especially hated being trapped in here. I think he wanted to go out just to go out. Baine lounged by the door, also looking bored.
"So? We could...play in the snow?" I offered.
"Or you can come over here and take a nap with me and not freeze our toes off," he grinned.
I smiled at him, "That's all we do now; take naps. I have enough energy to run a marathon. Let's go do something."
"Has it calmed down outside yet?" Nathan sat up and draped his arm over one knee.
I peeked out of a crack. The wind wasn't howling like it had been. It was no longer a white out but I could see snow flurrying down still.
"Yeah. Wanna go play?" I grinned.
"Your version of play and my version of play are completely different," he smirked with a chuckle and I blushed involuntarily.
I ignored his comment and started pulling on my snow stuff. Gloves, boots, my leggings under Nathan's sweatpants, my fur lined jacket under one of his big jackets, and my hat pulled over my ears.
Nathan got on his snow getup too. I opened the door and Baine almost knocked me down when he rushed past me. Nathan steadied me and chuckled. I huffed and walked out into the snow. Baine plunged into the deep snow bank pushed against the rock wall and yipped happily.
We walked around my valley and looked around.
"Hey Jay, look at this," Nathan said and I turned to see him standing on the bank.
"What?" I waded through the snow to him.
He grinned before turning and jumping off the bank.
"Oh my gosh!" I yelled only to see him slide away from me. The water had finally frozen over. The waterfall was thickly covered in ice and the stretch of river was completely covered. Now I was afraid it would crack.
"You dumbass!! Get off that ice!" I shouted and held my hand out for him to grab.
"Jay, it's fine," he smirked.
"It's gonna crack and suck you under and I'll have to save your ass," I growled, using my common sense.
He rolled his eyes, "The ice is about six inches thick. Come skate with me."
I hesitated. I have actually fallen into a frozen lake before when we went ice fishing. It was cold, so cold, it was painful.
Nathan bounced on the ice and scooted around, "It's safe."
"I...don't know how to skate, we don't have any blades," I murmured. I've had bad experience with ice, twice.
"A world traveler, who's probably been to Iceland, doesn't know how to ice skate? Well that's okay, because this Texan doesn't know how either. I don't think we need any," he grinned at me, slid forward and held his hand out to me.
I bit my lip but stepped down and took his hand. My foot touched the ice and didn't move anywhere else, so I added the other to put all my weight on the ice.
I grinned and tried to move around, only to skid and slip constantly. I barely kept my footing and gripped Nathan's hand.
"I'm going to fall on my ass," I hissed and hugged my body to his to keep from sliding away.
He wobbled, slipping around a little and laughed, "Nah, we just have to get the hang of it."
Nathan grabbed my hand and pulled, I gasped as I scooted forward and followed. He tugged me around until I started to move my feet myself. It was like roller skating. You pressed off with the inside of your foot to propel yourself forward. We skated in circles for a while.
It wasn't as fast or functional because we didn't have blades but it turned out to be pretty fun.
I whooped when I finally seemed to get the hang of it and skated around Nathan.
"I think you've got it," he chuckled.
"Maybe," I smiled and went by him.
On my second round about, I attempted to stop in front of him. Attempted.
"Woah, shit!" I yelped as my foot came out from under me and I went down fast.
Nathan reacted and reflexively tried to catch me. You know in the movies when the guy keeps the girl from falling? Yeah that didn't happen. I took Nathan down with me and we totally ate shit. He just happened to land beside me.
Hitting the ice knocked the breath out of my lungs and it took me a moment to pray that it hadn't cracked underneath us. My back and butt landed before the rest of me and whacked the cold out of me. Owwwwe.
"You alright Jay?" Nathan coughed.
I giggled, then chuckled and then full on laughed. I laughed my ass off for like, five minutes straight.
"Okay, you hit your head," Nathan rolled onto his elbows and looked down at me worriedly.
"We totally ate shit, oh my gosh!" I laughed, holding my stomach.
He only had to look at me for a second before he busted out laughing with me. He rubbed the snow out of his hair and grinned, "You ate it. I just tried to prevent it."
"You didn't have to try to catch me," I giggled.
"Well what kind of best friend would I be if I just watched you fall? And then laughed at you?" Nathan raised an eyebrow.
"A normal best friend?" I just shrugged and peeled myself of the ice.
"Damn that hurt though," I groaned.
"Hurt bad? Or just hurt?" He gave me a worried look.
I smiled at him, "I can still walk Nathan."
"Oh thank god, I'm not carrying your butt around," he smirked.
"What's wrong with my butt? Anyone would love to carry this around," I scoffed playfully, attempting to sit up.
He gave me a look and I held my hands up in surrender, "Fine, fine, when we get home, I'll just find someone who wants to have this gorgeousness."
I started to get up until he grabbed my wrist and pulled me down into his lap. I almost faceplanted again and scowled at him.
"Um, no," he scowled back.
"Well you don't want to carry me so.." I pouted and went to stand again until he locked his arms around my waist.
"You can't just go hang out with some weirdo. You can't trust weirdos," Nathan growled.
Oh I just knew he'd get jealous, I thought evilly.
"I trust you," I said flatly.
"I'm not a weirdo," he sputtered, looking offended.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," I snickered and flicked his nose. He scrunched it up and still held me down.
"C'mon Jay. Say I'm not a weirdo," he whined.
"Shhhh, do you hear that?" I hissed and looked around.
"Hear what?" He looked around nervously and tightened his arms around me.
"How good it sounds when you're not bossing me around," I grinned and laughed.
He rolled his eyes and dumped me onto the ice, "Oops."
I glared at him and tried to stand. My feet just kept slipping out from under me and I just couldn't find my balance. Nathan watched bemusedly as he leaned back, smirking at me.
"You know what!?" I yelled at the ice.
I stayed on my hands and knees and crawled to the bank. I was nearly there, "Ha! How's my ass look now Nate?"
"Extremely engaging," I heard him chuckle.
"You're so missing out, weirdo," I mumbled and tried to haul myself up the bank.
"I'm not missing anything back here," he replied cockily and I happened to blush, damn him.
"Do you need help dear?" He chuckled when I kept slipping on the ice with only my arms on the bank.
"No thanks hun, I happen to have this down if you give me a minute," I grunted and tried to pull myself up again.
I heard him scrabble around until the noise stopped. Then I heard creaking and I knew I needed to get moving because I've heard that noise before.
"Ohshitohshitohshit get on the bank!" I yelled and scrambled to pull myself up but all there was to grab was freakin' snow. My rock was under ice, therefore leaving me too short to get back up.
"I am on the bank. Why?" He appeared in front of me. Apparently he was tall enough.
"Pull me up!"
"So demanding. Why?" He asked casually.
The creaking behind me turned into crackling. We did crack the ice a few inches under and now we relieved the pressure, so it was cracking to the top.
"The ice is going to crack!" I snapped and grappled at his feet, desperately trying to catch his pant leg for a hand hold.
"It is not-"
A very loud crack sounded and I looked over my shoulder. A large crack in the ice danced over the surface and towards my feet.
I could feel it trembling under me, "Nathan! Pull me up!!"
He grabbed my hand and pulled hard. The ice beneath my feet shattered and sunk into the cold water.
"Hurry up!!" my feet pushed off the top of the bank and I was out, still dry. I landed on top of Nathan with a thud and looked over my shoulder. The ice cracked from the middle and out. It turned in different directions and ground together from the current before sinking.
"Oh shit, that could've been bad," I sighed.
"Why didn't you move?" Nathan demanded and I looked at him.
"Me? You made me get on the ice! I was too short!" I snapped, sitting up to look down on him.
"Can't you jump or something? Geez that ice cracked fast," he sat up with me in his lap. I grabbed the front of his coat so I wouldn't fall backwards.
"You made me get on the ice and you almost let me drown in ice water. I've been there before and it's not fun Nathan! It makes your legs go numb and you can't swim and you get sleepy and you think you're going to die," I growled and glared at him.
"It's not my-.." He started but closed his mouth quickly. I stared at him unhappily.
His eyes softened and he furrowed his eyebrows. I dropped my glare and just looked at him. Well?
"Alright, I'm sorry. I should've listened to you when you said the ice was cracking and I probably should've never dragged you onto it. But you know full well I'd never let anything happen to you, right?"
Okay, now I feel bad for snapping. I lowered my gaze and played with his coat zipper.
"Yeah, I know."
"Are you hurt?" He put his finger under my chin and made me look at him.
" No, I don't think so. I'm just cold," I shivered.
A bitter wind slashed down from the mountains and seemed to burn our skin. Wind burn sucked some major ass, so I figured we should get inside. Plus, it was getting darker. Baine waited by the door of the cave, almost covered in snow.
I allowed Nathan to pick me up an carry me inside. He was an excellent wind breaker.
"Even after all that and you still carry my butt around," I laughed.
He rolled his eyes but smiled at me, "Let's just keep it that way okay? No weirdos."
"Yes, one weirdo at a time," I smiled and jumped down when we were all inside.
I threw some wood on the fire and shed Nathan's coat. He took his off and tossed it with mine. I pulled at the damp clothing that stuck to my skin. I turned around and stripped my top off.
I heard Nathan gasp a little.
"What? You've seen me before so.." I turned around and looked at him.
He briskly walked over to me and gently grabbed my shoulders. My cheeks reddened, "Uh, what is it?"
He turned me around and prodded my lower back. Pain followed his fingers and I flinched away.
"Hey! That hurts! What are you doing?" I yelped and pulled away from him. I faced him and tried to look over my shoulder at whatever he did.
"I thought you said you weren't hurt," he said, trying to see around me.
"I'm not," I squinted at him.
"You are too! There's a huge bruise on your back!" He grabbed my hips and spun me around.
I jerked away when he started poking around again, "Ow! Easy! How big is it?"
"Sorry Jay," he said and poked a little gentler with feather light touches.
"It's about the size of my fist. Starts here," he touched where the bruise started, "And goes down to.." He trailed his finger down and I shivered when it reached my waistline.
He rolled down the waistband of the sweatpants a little and touched where the bruise ended "Here. Does it really hurt?"
"Hmm no. I didn't even know it was there. Does it look bad?"
"Well...it's pretty dark," he murmured.
"Great," I sighed and started to shrug off my pants.
Nathan also started taking of his damp clothes. I watched as he pulled his shirt over his head and revealed his chiseled chest and abs. I smiled and threw a shirt of his on, then some shorts because it was getting warm in here.
I plopped down on the floor with a sigh. It whacked my new bruise and made it sting.
"Ow," I muttered and turned on my side, which also hurt a little but was better.
Nathan put on his favorite flannel pj pants and dark shirt.
"Is it dark out?" I asked.
"Yup," he fussed with the blanket.
"It's like, eight o'clock," I groaned.
"That's why I don't really like winter. Gets too dark too early," he sighed.
"Ugh, now my back hurts," I grumbled.
"I'm glad it's just a bruise. It'll get better soon," Nathan said.
I stiffened when his hand brush my back under my shirt but relaxed when it started to feel better. I breathed out before getting still and letting Nathan rub my back where it hurt. He did that for a while until we got tired. I smiled to myself when he sleepily wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me to him.
I twisted around in his arms to face him. He smiled at me before closing his eyes and dozing.
I yawned and threw my leg over his hip, nestling to his chest with a contented sigh.