(no subject)

[kacfrog711.livejournal.com]

Theme: Winter
Title: Some Kind of Comfort
Word Count: 450 ^^;
Warnings: nah


Sora pushed the back of his hand against his nose, sniffling loudly. He coughed, and the breath was visible as a sigh of white air. It was cold-- very, very cold. "Riku," he breathed and sniffled again. "Why're we out here?" He couldn't help tacking on the obvious, "It's cold."

Without glancing up, Riku replied, "We're looking for something, remember." His hands pushed through the cool, dry sand. A hole was forming, but the sand always fell back in, and the work was slow-going.

"Yeah, but how do you know it's here?" Sora's teeth were chattering, and his arms, crossed against his chest, shook violently. "And it's really cold."

"You just said that." Riku didn't stop digging, his expression unmoved.

"Well, it is." Sora stood indecisive for another minute before sitting down. He pulled up his legs and hugged them, his bare fingers like ice against his thighs. Every other breath was a sniff. Riku seemed unaffected, though his hands were now the same ghostly shade as the sand he sifted through. "Riku," Sora said in a breath, then fell silent.

After a long moment, his hands paused in their rhythm, and Riku looked up, "What?"

Sora sniffed again and wiped his nose on his knee before saying, "It could be anywhere, y'know. There's a lot of beach. And it's really cold." After a pause, he added, "It's not your fault that--"

"If you want to go home, Sora," Riku resumed digging at the sand with determination, "Then go already."

"I don't..." Sora muttered, then added a bit louder, "But I can't even feel my toes anymore."

Riku continued digging for a few moments, only to stop abruptly with a long puff of a sigh. "Yeah, me either." He stood up, and Sora followed the action somewhat more clumsily. Riku kicked the sand hard, and some of it filled in the hole he'd been digging. "Useless," he muttered.

After a moment, Sora asked somewhat desperately, "Can we go?"

"Yeah."

The two began a hurried walk away from the empty, windy shore. On the way, Sora chanced saying, "Don't worry. We'll find it. We'll look more tomorrow, if it's sunny."

Riku scoffed, "And if it's not?"

"Then we'll look when it is."

With a sideways glance, Riku countered, "What if it's never sunny again?"

Sora laughed, but the sound wavered in the cold. "Of course it will be."

"How do you know? It could be winter forever."

With a half-shrug, Sora replied, "I don't know. But it's never happened before."

Riku dug his hands in his pockets. "Doesn't mean it won't."

They stopped in front of the little wooden shack, and Sora reaffirmed, "We'll find it."

Shaking his head, Riku opened the door and followed Sora in. It wasn't much warmer than outside, but it was some kind of comfort, anyway.