A World So Cold

[Mikkel Vargenson]

There was that nagging sensation at the back of his mind again. All he could remember is that it had started sometime around the first time he had taken some guy out for slapping his sister. He sighed lightly and rubbed his temples, letting his legs fall to the side of his bed. It was night, as it always was. He looked out the window and gave a brief sigh of annoyance. He wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep now unless he took a walk and wore himself out.

So he stood up and walked to his closet. Pulling out a long coat, he slung it around his shoulders and let it hang to his knees where it ended. He was dressed, therefore, only in a pair of black and red plaid pajama pants, tied onto his hips with the drawstrings, and the coat. Eh, he figured no one else would be about at this hour anyway, so it didn’t matter how he dressed. His bony body bent in half, pulled on a pair of running shoes he had lying about for just this reason, and stood back up.

Moving to the door, he was down and out and away from the dorm before he really let his mind go back to that sensation. His feet fell on the ground as he ran, ebony hair flying about him in the light breeze. His chest was completely bare, and the wind on it felt incredibly nice. Refreshing. For the first time since he’d come to Eastwick, and for several weeks prior, he grinned. The grin was large and filled with pleasure. It was nice to feel good sometimes, rather than to always be aching. A fighters body was never fully rested though, now was it?

[River Yates]

Mikkel was wrong, however, he wasn't the only person up. There was at least one other girl on campus awake at this time of night. Why? It was only because she slept four hours a day. River only slept four hours a day because she'd slept enough already. She didn't need to sleep more than a third of her life away.

However, there were very few things River expected to see at her new school as she walked around the grounds, looking at the stars. One of these things was a half-naked guy just... running. The violet-haired girl had seen a lot in her life. She'd seen a man die... and die herself simultaneously. She had once had a woman either drugged up or drunk and half-naked knock on the door of her apartment and try to come in, but never any half-naked guys unfortunately.

River watched him a moment, her mouth gaped open, before deciding for some weird reason, probably horomones, to run after the guy. This was slightly diffucult since River was wearing a pair of violet drawstring pajama pants with her smaller combat boots which happened to be untied, and a nice big black t-shirt with a fish skeleton on it. Her purple hair was looking the way it usually did when she went on her random nightly excursions: sticking up in random places and something like a purple bird sitting on her head.

As could be expected, River tripped, almost fell and instead lost her boot. So, she didn't get to catch up with the weird half-naked guy. Instead, she needed to get her boot back.

[Mikkel Vargenson]

He was only vaguely aware that there was someone else out in the late night with him. He wouldn’t have noticed at all if he’d remembered his mp3 player, however for tonight he had neglected to bring it along. Therefore the sound of the girl running caught his ears, though soon it stopped. The running hadn’t been what interested him, he’d have been content to continue on his merry way, ignoring others around him. It was the sudden stop that took hold of his curiosity so that he looked over his shoulder to locate the source of the sound.

His eyes fell on the girl and an instant thought came to mind. It went a little like this, “Oh wow, that is purple. Yes. Very…very purple. Nice.” He stopped dead and turned to face the girl, though he was several yards from her. His long coat flapped around his legs, moving in the wind that also rippled through his jet hair. He blinked a few times, his viridian eyes leveling squarely on the girls form.

Because she was missing a shoe, he was all the more intrigued. Seriously, oddities interested the boy more than anything else. That simply was who he happened to be. His sister would have understood. Had she been watching, she probably would have rolled her eyes and left him there with this girl. Because honestly, she was very impatient with his views of the world sometimes. Ah, but he loved the little rebellious brat. He tilted his head at the girl and began a slow walk toward her, ignoring the fact that the wind grazed over his bare chest. It felt amazingly good. Like being caressed by a lovers cool hands, nature itself wrapping around his slender form, running cold fingers up his spine.

[River Yates]

River didn't notice half-naked guy had stopped and was now heading towards her at first. Mostly she was worried about her lost boot because she only had two pairs of shoes and only one pair went with all of her outfits instead of just the ones that didn't involve pants. River liked pants. They were definately more comfortable than the skirts, though the jeans chafed if she got them wet. That was mostly why River didn't swim in her jeans... or at all.

Of course then she remembere that guy was around and went looking to make sure he didn't catch her in her stupid Cinderella mode. Of course, she was wrong because there he was, coming towards her. All half-naked and handsome and weird. What right did a violet-haired girl have to call a guy weird? Just enough.

"Umm... hey," she said with a slight chuckle, "I should've tied my shoes before I decided to run... but, you know me, impatient as Hell, lost my boot. Can you help me find it? Or are you too busy being shirtless?" River scratched her head and then went back to looking.

[Mikkel Vargenson]

She looked up at him, and he gave her one of his half smiles. The type that never looked like it really had any emotion behind it. The type that was simply there as a reflex to being noticed. That was what happened. Standard procedure. He then let it fade away, his face returning to neutral, his eyes locking on her face, on her eyes. He watched her for a moment, listened to her speak.

Then he chuckled.

“I’m not -too- busy, no. I’ll assist you.”

He stepped up to her so that their bodies were very close, inches even away. He then leaned to the side, looking behind her. He nodded some, and lifted his hand, pointing around her, his body all the more close to hers. He then stepped back, looking her in the eyes. Nice eyes. He gave that same smile that was completely unbelievable, his eyes relating only the constant misery that seemed to cling to him.

“As long as you aren’t too busy being intriguing to get a cup of tea with me.”

What? Mikkel, oh Mikkel. You devil you.

[River Yates]

River watched and listened to the guy's response. She followed his point to the location of her poor boot. She swore mentally to polish it later. Then she turned back to the guy.

"Well, I've got to do something to repay my new knight in absolutely no armor," River said with a very different half-smile than the ones this guy kept giving her. For one, her half-smile was genuine... mostly.

"I think tea could work, if you don't mind waiting for me to actually tie my boots," she added as she stuck her boot back on her now dirty foot and began to tie it first, pulling on the shoe strings with the zip that came from pulling loose strings across the metal shoe holes. "I don't know about you, but going Cinderella twice in one night sound more redundant and less intriguing."

[Mikkel Vargenson]

He smiled lightly and nodded his agreement. He could certainly wait for the indigo child to tie her boot. It would make their walk much more pleasurable if she was not tripping over herself every few steps. He watched her and smiled that strange, sad smile. She was a pretty girl, admittedly. Good thing Lille was asleep. He felt a touch of shame at the thought.

“Alright, Cindersoot. Are you ready to go then?”

He smirked, this seeming slightly more honest. Then he stepped to her side and lifted his arm, offering it in a gentlemanly fashion. She didn’t have to take it. She really, very much didn’t. But that was the type of person that Mikkel had the habit of being. Perhaps because he’d always had someone to look out for, he instinctively looked out for others anyway. Wasn’t as if it was out of his way.