Chapter 18 - A day to relax

Sozen was sleeping peacefully back in the mansion, suddenly Tranzarus jumped on his stomach and he abruptly awoke.

"Tranzarus!" Sozen shouted. "What the heck!?"

"It's snowing!" Tranzarus said cheerfully.

"Snowing? What are you talking about?" Sozen said, confused.

"Look outside!" Tranzarus said.

Sozen sighed and looked out of the window, to his suprise everything was covered in snow.

"What?" Sozen said, confused.

"I told you!" Tranzarus said.

"More reason to stay in bed" Sozen said while he jumped back to bed.

Tranzarus pulled his blanket away from him.

"I wanna play!" She said.

"Ask someone else.." Sozen said, still laying down on his bed.

"Come on" Lily said. "I finished all my work to play with you"

"Lily!? Why are you in my room!" Sozen said suprised.

"We're waiting for you" Lily said. "For a while now"

Sozen sighed. "Fine.." he said annoyed. "Jus wait for me outside.."

"Oki dokey!" Lily left his room, dragging Tranzarus with her.

Lily and Tranzarus walked to the front door, where the others were waiting.

"Oh, you two are back" Aiko said.

"Took you long" Shiori said. "Where's Sozen?"

"Getting dressed" Lily replied.

"Well at least some of us are having fun while we wait" Gyou said.

Sho, Silver, Celes and Ume were playing rock, paper, scissors.

"Ha ha! I won!" Celes said.

"Good job" Sho complimented.

"I have lost everytime.." Silver said.

"You chose scissors everytime, what did you expect?" Ume said.

A few minutes later, Sozen walked down the stairs with some warm clothes and a scarf.

"I don't like being in the cold" Sozen said.

"Finally you came!" Aiko said.

"Let's get on with it" Sozen said tired.

They all rushed outside, the ground was completely covered in snow.

"Where's Shiro?" Sozen asked.

"Near the fireplace" Aiko said. "Normal for a ca-" She was interrupted by a snowball to her face.

"Hahaha!" Ume laughed.

"Oh you didn't.." She grabbed a snowball and threw it at her, Ume got hit in the head.

"How cold!" Ume said.

"Ha! Got ya!" Aiko said.

A snowball flew and Aiko ducked, that snowball was from Tranzarus.

"What a shame" Tranzarus said.

"Ha, you missed" Aiko said.

Sozen coughed, he got hit by the snowball instead of Aiko. He looked menancingly "Tran-za-rus"

"Sorry..?" Tranzarus said terrified.

Sozen chased after Tranzarus, she ran away in fear.

"TRANZARUS!!" Sozen said mad.

"SORRY!!" She yelled in the top of her lungs.

She kept running, until Sozen caught her and threw her to the snow.

"C-Cold!" Tranzarus felt.

Sozen carried Tranzarus back to the others. They had built a snowman, with stones as eyes, sticks as arms and a carrot as a nose.

"Looks quite nice" Sho complimented.

"This is the best snowman ever" Silver said. "No one will be able to beat this"

"I agree" Celes said.

Sozen put down Tranzarus and whispered to her, both of them had a mischievious smile.

"Hey Shiori, come here" Sozen called her.

She walked to her and he whispered at her, she had the same mischievious smile as them.

Aiko noticed them. "What are they up to?" she asked.

"Who knows" Gyou said. "But that smile is no good"

"Nevermind them" Lily said. "Let's play" she threw a snowball at Sho.

He responded by throwing a snowball back to her, missing her and hitting Celes.

"Hey!" Celes threw a snowball at him, aiming it badly and hitting Aiko.

"Again!?" Aiko said, but a snowball hits her, it was from Ume.

"Ah.." Ume gets hit by a snowball from Aiko.

Celes tried to throw a snowball back to Sho, but her aim accidentally hits Silver in the head. This started a snowball fight, they all took cover behind things like trees. The teams were Aiko and Silver, Sho and Celes and Ume and Lily.

Snowballs were being thrown in the air.

"What do we do Aiko?" Silver asked panicked. Both of them were hiding behind a pile of snow.

"Counter-attack!" Aiko threw snowballs back.

"Good idea!" Silver immediately gets hit by one of them.

"Good shot Lily" Ume complimented. Both of them were behind a rock.

"Thanks" Lily threw a snowball, hitting Celes.

Celes and Sho were hidding behind a stone wall.

"I got hit again!" Celes said.

"I got this" Sho threw a snowball, hitting the snowman by accident.

"Sho, the snowman isn't playing" Celes joked.

Sho gets hit by a snowball in the head and falls backwards.

The six of them kept throwing snowballs at eachother, without noticing a shadow towering over them.

After a few minutes, they all fell to the floor tired and wet.

"That was a good fight.." Celes said.

Sho gave a thumbs up.

"Hey, I just noticed" Silver said. "What's with the shadow?"

"Shadow?" Aiko noticed, she saw a massive snowman casting the shadow.

"Holy King of Arlest" Lily said suprised.

On top of the snowman were Shiori, Tranzarus and Sozen standing there.

"Ha ha ha!" Tranzarus laughed. "Contemplate our beautiful, glorious and massive snowman!"

"Built with a lot of snow" Shiori said. "Boulders as eyes, a tree for a nose and arms and smaller boulders for the mouth"

"It's 100x bigger than our snowman" Celes said.

"Well, we take competitions quite serious" Sozen said. "We also had help from Gyou"

Gyou was standing below them.

"I quite enjoyed building this" Gyou said.

The three of them hopped off the massive snowman.

"Anyways, let's get back inside" Sozen said. "We've been in the cold for hours now"

"It felt like minutes" Sho said,

They all headed back to the mansion, they all sat around the fireplace, with Shiro sitting on Sozen's head.

"He really likes you" Aiko commented.

"I was always good with cats and dogs" Sozen said.

"The snow will probably melt tomorrow" Gyou said.

"Aww, I was using the snow as an excuse to return to my kingdom late" Lily said.

"It's great that you could sleep here" Tranzarus hugged her,

"C-Can I get a hug to?" Silver asked.

"Well, at least two of us are cuddling" Ume was talking about Sho and Celes.

Both of them were cuddling with eachother.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Celes asked.

"Nothing at all" Ume said.

"I'm going back to my bed" Sozen said.

"Hm? Why?" Aiko asked.

"My bed is more warmer and comfy" Sozen said. "Wake me up at dinner time"

He walked back to his room and laid in his warm bed.

"Dad.. Mom.." Tears started falling down from Sozen's cheeks, "I miss you.."

Even though his father abused him, Sozen still loved him. He felt someone laying beside him, it was Aiko.

"Aiko..?" Sozen said while he wiped his tears. "Why are you here?"

"I noticed that you were acting weird today" Aiko said. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah.. I just miss my parents" Sozen said.

"I see..." She said. "You know! We can invite them here" She suggested.

"They're not in this world" Sozen said.

"O-Oh.. sorry for your loss" Aiko mistook what he meant.

"Relax.." Sozen said.

Aiko grabbed his hands.

"If you feel depressed again just tell me" Aiko said. "I'll be by your side to help you"

"Thanks..." Sozen said. "C-Could you leave my bed?"

"No! It's warm and comfy" Aiko said. "Besides..."

She hugged Sozen tightly.

"Umm... Aiko?" Sozen said suprised.

"I won't let you go" Aiko said.

"Aiko! Let go of me-" Sozen noticed that Aiko had fallen asleep, she was very tired.

Sozen sighed. "Sweet dreams" he said.

He slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep, with Aiko sleeping beside him.