Log; Complete

[deathbyhearts.livejournal.com]

When; Today
Rating; PG
Characters; Tot and Nagi
Summary; Tot and Nagi meet up shortly after she arrives in the City.
Log;

Tot; Ah, so that's what it felt like when you died, Tot inwardly mused. She often heard the other members of Schreient mention it in passing but thought little more of it, because she wasn't ever going to die. It was an idealistic take on life, a childish fantasy where the visionary was invincible, invincible to everything but reality itself. And when reality hit, it hit hard.

Neu, Schoen, Hell--

She watched them all die, be it at the hands of Weiß or of Schwarz, and she hated them for it. Weiß, Schwarz, she absolutely hated every last one of them. The one who killed Schoen, the one who killed Neu, the one who had come to steal away their trump card, the one who killed her, Nagi--

No, no.

Nagi-kun was different from them, so much different. Nagi-kun made her smile come back when it went away, he worried about her. They might have even had a life together if things didn't decided to fall apart. Mm. It was mean, she thought, and unfair. Despite her best judgment, to stay where she was and continue playing dead, she allowed her eyes to flutter open and squinted almost immediately against the light.

"Ah!" She cried in surprise and pulled her hands up to shield her field of view. It was much too cold to be her field of flowers and, what was this? She didn't recognize anything, especially not the pretty fountain. Something brushed her cheek, something she immediately shot her hand out to catch and tilted her head back to locate the source. It rained rained down in soft, fluffy flakes and painted the ground around her feet white. Snow. Immediately, her initial suspicion and chill forgotten, she rose to her feet and, in a fit of giggles, began to spin round and round amidst the snowflakes.

"Pretty.. it's pretty!"

And, she found, it reminded her of him.

Nagi; As the weeks had passed in this pit that sparkled and and flashed just like any other city, Nagi had decided that true death would have been better. It would have been peaceful, at least.

But here... There was nothing to do. No real missions, unless Schwarz simply felt like doing a meaningless hunt on the backwash of society. There was no actual goal here, and there was nothing to do that felt...meaningful. Day in and day out, he could be on his computer, or even just sleeping, and it didn't matter. He was just like the rest of the insane people in the City.

Without a purpose. It was disgusting.

So dead to his senses was he, that he didn't even bother wearing an actual coat in the snow. By now he didn't care anymore if he got hypothermia. Maybe it would put him out of his misery.

It was that familiar voice that jerked him out of his thoughts on the way to the library to return a slew of books that he had read without really absorbing. Almost afraid to turn, Nagi just stood there listening for a minute.

"It's pretty!"

The snowflakes shifted, and Nagi turned, eyes actually flickering with signs of life as he looked in shock towards the center of the square, where a few people in the mass of of a moving crowd had gathered to chuckle at the cute girl dancing in the snow.

"Tot...?"

Tot; The people around her didn't exist in Tot's mind and she paid little attention to what crowd may have gathered to observe, simply because she was having fun. There was little effort on her part to attain grace but, even as childish a dance as it seemed to be, she achieved it. With her hands outstretched to either side, fingers twitching on the breeze as if trying to steal each and every snowflake that fell from the sky, she certainly was a sight to behold.

It was sad when they hit the ground and melted, because they died then. Dying was bad.

It wasn't until perhaps the third or forth twirl that she caught a familiar silhouette out of the corner of her eye, something so familiar that she nearly tumbled over due to the fact that she stopped so suddenly. Her back was to it now, she was sure, and she couldn't turn around because it just wasn't fair.

After a small pause she ducked her head down and then slowly, almost painfully slowly, a pair of curious blue eyes directed a hopeful stare in Nagi's direction. The wind was cold, it hurt to look directly into it, but she had to, because Nagi-kun was standing right there and he was looking at her.

"Nagi-kun," she whispered under her breath, as if not quite convinced that the find was genuine.

Nagi; It was her.

Suddenly he didn't feel so numb anymore. The cold bit into his skin, and once again his breaths shuddered in the frigid air. The visible puffs came a little more quickly as he began to walk forward, then just dropped the books and ran over to her. Of course, even when he yelled it wasn't incredibly loud, but he knew it would be loud enough for her to hear.

"Tot...! Tot!"

Anybody that was in his way was blown back to fall in the snow, but fortunately there weren't a lot of people willing to get in his way. Unfortunately, he didn't take into account just how icy the ground by the fountain was thanks to the water occasionally spilling over and freezing.

When he tried to stop, it...didn't work very well. And he was a little too close to react in time to stop it, so instead he caught Tot in his arms and turned as he fell. This made it so he landed on his back with her on top, which certainly knocked the wind out of him, and the ground was freezing, but he didn't care.

"Tot. You...were sent here, too? You don't belong in Hell."

Tot; "Nagi-kun!"

The little dancing princess had been smiling as wide as she possibly could clear up until she saw the disaster coming. With a tiny yelp, she braced for the impact that never really came, thanks to Nagi's split second decision. Thus, once all was said and done, the boy had that same pair of curious eyes on him, the owners pretty pink lips parted in quiet awe.

"Ah! Did you hurt yourself? Let Tot put a band-aid on it!"

Without further ado, she went about checking him for anything that could have been band-aid worthy, before she caught his face in her hands and hummed. "Nothing hurts?" And she tilted his face, gently, from side to side. Mm. It was him; she remembered it, everything about it.

"Eh? This is Hell?" She sat back, practically straddling his hips, and proceeded to observe the area and the crowd that she had suddenly become aware of. "It's too pretty to be Hell, Nagi-kun! I don't want to be in a scary place!" She stared back down at him, looking all but two seconds away from bursting into tears.

Nagi; Nagi was suddenly very glad that it was freezing cold, or Tot's sudden position might have become very awkward.

Instead, the problem at hand was Tot's trembling lips and wide eyes. "Ah. No... I mean... I haven't yet concluded that it is Hell. Don't cry..."

Sitting up, Nagi shook the traces of snow from his hair and reached up a hand to brush at each of the girl's cheeks, as if wiping away the tears that had yet to spill forth.

"This place is actually called the City... But it isn't like any of the ones you've been to, Tot. I'll explain more of it to you, but we can't stay here... It's cold, and we should get you inside where it's warm."

And where the others can't find you, he thought as he tried to take her hand and stand up

Tot; "Mm," Tot thought aloud as she proceeded to stand up with him, taking up her stuffed toy rabbit with her free hand. "Can we come back later and build a snowman? Like them?" She pointed towards a gathering of four or five people, a family maybe, who were currently involved in constructing one of the snowy delights.

Her thoughts then drifted elsewhere as she tucked closer to his side and sheepishly linked their fingers together, awaiting his reply. Or maybe not. "Nagi-kun, how long have you been here? I--" She lowered her voice a little and murmured the rest into her stuffed animal, perhaps unknowingly, who had just been promoted to a makeshift scarf.

The City, was that what he had called it? It couldn't have been Hell, it just couldn't have been. Nagi was too nice a person to go Hell, and nobody could tell her otherwise. But, if this wasn't home, then.. what was she supposed to do? Schreient was no longer operational, there couldn't be anymore missions, so-

Could she be normal, too? With Nagi?

If he was here, she found herself wondering, were they, too? Schwarz.

Nagi; Realizing that Tot meant to continue holding hands, his cheeks tinted a bit of a darker shade as he averted his gaze and walked off. "If you want... Later."

Nagi couldn't take her to his apartment, though. He didn't want any of them to know she was here...and he certainly didn't want her to know that they were there. It would be best if she thought it was just him.

If a fight broke out...Tot wouldn't survive. ...Again.

"Close to a month," he murmured, as he headed towards building 3. Then, rather shyly, he tightened his grip on her hand a little. "I'm glad to see you."

Tot; "Mm! For now, I want to go to a warm place. Tot's skirt," she half-whimpered, "wasn't made for snow!" If she had seen his cheeks flush, she hadn't made it very obvious, as the girl hummed and idly swung their intertwined hands through the air.

Tot remained blissfully unaware of the thoughts that ran through Nagi's head and it was, perhaps, for the better. If she saw them she surely would have picked a fight -- or at least wouldn't have been particularly high-spirited. She'd pay them back for what they did to her family, however makeshift it was.

She was torn from her train of thought when the pressure on her hand increased and when he spoke up. In a most prompt-like fashion she tilted her head up, closed her eyes and smiled before leaning in to present him with a kiss. It was then, unluckily, that something dawned on her. Pausing in mid-pucker, only a breath away, she turned her face away and glanced behind them.

"Nagi-kun, you forgot your books!"

Nagi; If his heart had a beat, it certainly would have skipped it when he saw her lips drawing nearer and nearer. Still, he found himself quite entranced, and unable to deny the obvious invitation. Nervous and uncharacteristically shy, he had just begun to close his eyes when she spoke up and completely startled him out of his moment.

...As cute as it could be sometimes, her attention span really did need some work when it came to serious moments.

Releasing a breath he hadn't realized that he'd been holding, Nagi motioned to the books lying a ways away in the snow, and slowly they began to spiral up into the air. He released Tot's hand so that he could gentle catch them as they landed one by one in his grip.

"I was taking them to the library... But I think it would be best if we found you a warm place to stay first. You can even borrow the books, if you want..." She probably wouldn't find them very interesting, though, considering they involved history on other worlds and mathematics.

Tot; She stared at him for a second or two, almost as if she were confused, before her lips twitched back up into that adorably naive smile. "I can really borrow them? Nagi-kun doesn't mind?" Tot let out an enthusiastic whoop and proceeded to snatch the books up from the boy.. which was an awful idea on her part.

With a startled yelp, both her and the books met a clumsy end in the snow as she wobbled, almost comically, and finally toppled onto her behind. It was from her place in the snow that she looked up at him, somewhat surprised, before her bottom lip poked out in that pout, and she proceeded to playfully scold him -- as if he were the child.

"How mean, Nagi-kun didn't tell Tot they were so heavy!"

Nagi; Nagi had to sigh a bit at the incredible scene Tot was making, not to mention she was injuring herself. Still, he was quick to crouch down and gather up the books in one arm before taking her hand in his free one and easily picking her back up so she could stand. It was easy with the assistance of a psychic push, of course.

"I'm sorry, Tot. I should have warned you."

Only too painfully aware that they were holding hands again, he dropped hers like a hot tamale and stepped back to nod towards ones of the apartment buildings. They would need to be quick. He didn't want to risk being caught.

"Will you be able to walk without tripping?"

Tot; "Mm!" Tot chimed back, turning to press a soft and sweet kiss against his cheek, though it lasted no longer than a second. Nagi-kun was always so nice to her, she decided, and walked ahead of him with her hands linked behind her at the small of her back. He was nice, the snow was nice and, soon, they would be able to stay in a nice place.

A fairytale?

Yes, it was almost like the stories she had read, where the prince whisked away his princess and they lived happily ever after. She wondered briefly, as she tilted her face and glanced over a shoulder at him, how long ever after really was. She opened her mouth to speak then snapped it shut again before she faced forward and began to sing a lullaby under her breath, Rabbi-chan bobbing lifelessly against her hip.

"Golden slumber kiss your eyes, smiles await you when you rise.."