Title: Freezing Temperature
Rating: G
Summary: Yuuri was very cold.
Notes: Play with me a little. Let us completely scrap the Betrayal Arc for a minute, but not the Box-Arc. Which means that when Yuuri and Co. went to Dai Shimaron with all its frigid icy coldness, Konrad was with them. With me so far? Okay then. THAT will be this flashfic's setting. As an added warning, my plot devices are so cheap. Like, REALLY cheap. Cheap like a cheap-y thing. It's kind of laughable, if you think about it (which you shouldn't; your head will hurt).

Freezing Temperature
by the Green-ish Hue Ranger

To everyone else, it was simply, "Today is very cold."

To Shibuya Yuuri, however, hereby called The Boy Who Gave Away His Mittens, it was more, "Today, Pluto's temperature decided it was lonely all by its lonesome self so it went on a journey to be happy. Upon finding the Artic Pole's temperature, the two fell in love and mated like only two frigid personifications of temperature could and TODAY'S TEMPERATURE WAS BORN!"

It was quite a mouthful, especially said in such a fast manner. Later, upon a reenactment for Konrad, Konrad will think so too.

At the moment though, Yuuri kept his focus on pushing his balled fists deeper into his pant-pockets. He would have crossed his arms against his chest, huddled within himself to drive the cold away but everyone would see the lost mittens. Then Murata would look at him in a patronizing manner, Wolfram would yell at him for doing such a stupid thing and Konrad would get that look in his eyes and Yuuri will feel guilty.

And those children seemed to need the warmth more than him, anyway. Yuuri thought it was just the right thing to do. He had his coat and somewhat heat-inducing clothes, but the children only had themselves and their very thin clothing.

The wind blew gently to ruffle his hair, making Yuuri shiver; Yuuri thought the gentleness was somewhat mocking.

Hoping for a source of warmth, Yuuri eyed the white ball of fluff that was T-Zou, irrationally disliking the animal a tad bit for having so much fur. "I wish something warm and fluffy covered me too," Yuuri whispered, pushing his balled hands deeper still.

Suddenly, a shadow fell upon him, and within moments, his hands were drawn carefully out of his pockets, a pair of mitten-clad hands grasping his closed hands lightly. Surprised, he glanced to his right, connecting the hands to a familiar face and gentle eyes, the faintest tint of red at the tips of high cheekbones, and Yuuri wondered if Konrad might actually be blushing or if that just meant the hybrid mutant temperature was cold enough to affect veterans with eighty-years of military training.

"You're feeling cold, aren't you, Yuuri?" Konrad said softly, almost as if in answer to Yuuri's whispered complaint, and Yuuri watched as Konrad covered his mitten-less hands in his larger, mitten-covered ones, not letting go as they continued traveling on this cold snow-filled country.

Yuuri, somehow, found it a suitable set-up.

Apropos: If you're wondering why Konrad just didn't, you know, give Yuuri his mittens so Yuuri wouldn't be cold, well. Uhh. It's cause he didn't want to be cold either! (never mind the fact that soldiers are actually trained to resist weather changes more than the average person. That'll be including Earth-logic here, and this is me being insane. Duh.) That and, uhm, well. Excuse to indirectly hold hands! Imagine them in the snow holding hands! I wish I could draw, dammit!

Edited 04 September 2010 in order to fix the formatting because FFNet killed it.

(four-hundred-sixteen-words. ; 09112006)