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It was snowing again, and for a moment, he considered what it might be like if it never stopped snowing. The world would stay white, and people would disappear under it. Part of him was disturbed that he wasn't more disturbed by that prospect, but he still found the cold and silence to be peaceful, if a bit lonely. Arkham wasn't bitter, and wasn't really one to hold grudges, but it was hard to deny that he missed having family around. A half dozen brothers and sisters from different litters and a niece and nephew, all from an infamous family that held no favor in anyone else's eyes. It was still strange for him to be looking in instead of out.
It was something that he would have to get used to, but he had the rest of his life for that too. The wind blew quickly by the window, whistling through the drafty parts of the apartment. The unit hadn't come with a fireplace, but some previous resident had built one in somehow with large stacks of stone and now a small fire burned quietly, mostly outdone by the howling air outside. Arkham sat facing the broken window with a thick throw wrapped around his thin body, toes curling in towards his body. It was a day to be spent at home, so he really wished his Rachias would come back soon from wherever she was.
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[html]  | |  | With the bucket held carefully in one hand, Rachias used the other to grab the knob of the door and force her way back into the apartment, away from the blistering wind and the biting cold. Her immediate reaction upon entering was to take a deep breath, the air was warmer inside and her mouth and throat were dry and cold, it was unfortunate that the warmth in the air didn't seem to help things though. Setting the bucket aside, Rachias removed the now the moist blanket from her head and half of her body, she'd used it to shield herself from the wind and falling snow, at least long enough to go out and get a bit of water. Hanging it from a random piece of furniture to dry, she then lifted the bucket once more and made a quick line for the fire.
"It was better than going out tonight when it's colder." She explained to him quietly, setting the bucket of water down next to the fire so that the ice, which had formed at the top of the water as she carried it back, could be removed and it could get to a proper drinking temperature. The young woman immediately made her way to the couch, curling up next to her brother but turning away from him only long enough to grab a thin blanket to pull over herself. The woman turned to him then, smiling a careful smile as she moved her legs, sticking her icy feet underneath his blanket with the intentions of pressing them up against him. Brothers could be useful for stealing heat from.
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Some days, it seemed almost as if they were trapped in time. The days that passed only cycled back around, and nothing was ever really changing. The rest of the world was far away, and they were in their own secret hiding place where no one else existed. The people of the world were invisible to them, and they were invisible to the rest of the world. There was only a little brick building, an endless carpet of snow, a timid fire, the howling wind, and each other. It was too much like the days in the Concrete Jungle, and sometimes he forgot that it wasn't, forgot that they had grown, and forgot that the world had changed so much in that time, because time hadn't been standing still at all.
Naturally, he flinched when the icicle feet speared into his side, but that flinch turned into a shiver and a tackle as Arkham raised his arms and blanket like a cape and half-pounced, half-fell towards his sister, catching her in the fabric and pulling her towards the ground. You should sit by the fire a while too before coming over here! he scolded, but the mock sternness in his voice was betrayed by the grin on his face.
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[html] | | | Even in all of the time that he was gone, Rachias had kept what they had shared in the Concrete Jungle in mind. The little house had been practically empty and there was only so much that they were able to do to fill it back then, but it was 'their' special place, and her plan had always been to find him again so that they could share what they had before. Luckily for her, things had worked out much better than she had imagined, and even with their father gone, Rachias couldn't have been much happier than she had been in the last few weeks. She had found him, or in reality he had found her, but it was just like she had always told the rest of them, and now that he was back none of that really mattered any more.
Rachias didn't expect the sudden transition, from torturing her brother with cold feet to being swooped up by bat-coyote, which was really what he looked like when he came at her. A very sharp squeak left her as he swooped her up into the fabric, taking her down to the ground with him, and she fought back a fit of giggles as they went. There was an odd grin on her face, something between silly and strained as she fought back the laughter, only to subdue it long enough to speak. "But you're so much warmer!" That said, she pressed herself into him, pushing fabric from between them as she went, in an attempt to press cold appendages against him once more.
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It was an odd kind of sensation, parts of his body suddenly cold while the rest of him was warm. Not if you keep this up! We'll both be cold then! He wrapped his arms and the blanket around them both and held her close. For a while, it almost seemed true; the longer he held on, the colder his chest and stomach became -- he was holding on to an ice ball, but eventually, the heat from his body transferred over and chill went away. They would both be warm in a few moments more.
We should just move where it's warmer in the winter, he said, though he didn't know if he was serious or not. Arkham never did tell his sister about the conversation he had had with their half-brother. It had been enough that she knew that he wouldn't return to Inferni, but sometimes it seemed like where they were was still too close. If Inferni wasn't home anymore, and Laruku was dead, then there was nothing else to tie them to this place. It would be warmer elsewhere, there would be no one to miss, and there wouldn't be ghosts to run into in the forest when there was fog. There was every reason to go, really, but the coyote had never been good at going anywhere. Even though he didn't know it, it was probably something he'd inherited from his father.
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