Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Thin Ice ❯ Thin Ice ( Chapter 1 )

Thin Ice

 

A/N: Yami no Matsuei is my newest obsession and I just couldn't resist writing a story for it. This will be a one-shot with fluffyness for you Tsuzuki/Hisoka fans. Also, for those of you who have only seen the anime, Yuma and Saya are the Shinigami team in charge of Hokkaido. They love Pink House clothes and are always fantasizing about Hisoka in a Pink House dress. In the manga, there is a short random story about the gang's vacation to Hokkaido with Yuma and Saya, and it is during that fiasco that this takes place.

 

(xxx)

 

“Ahhh!” Tsuzuki whined as he stared dejectedly at his breakfast. “This vacation went by too fast! It'll already be over tomorrow!”

 

“Shut up and eat!” Tatsumi and Hisoka both ordered in unison. Tsuzuki winced and obediently fell silent. Tatsumi had been in a bad mood ever since the Snow Queen incident a few days ago. He really didn't like to work for free. And Hisoka, well he had been moody the whole trip. To be honest, it worried Tsuzuki. It wasn't right for someone to be so incapable of relaxing.

 

“I know!” Yuma cried from across the table. “Let's go ice skating on your last day!”

 

“Yeah!” Saya agreed, “It'll be fun!”

 

“Alright!” Tsuzuki said enthusiastically at the same time that everyone else muttered, “Pass.”

 

“Don't any of you want to go?” Saya asked, feigning a wounded voice.

 

“I'm not much of one for skating, Saya-chan,” Watari said apologetically.

 

“The last time I went skating, I threw out my back,” Konoe grumbled.

 

“No,” was Tatsumi's only explanation.

 

“Come on Hisoka-kun! You at least have to come!” Yuma urged.

 

“Come on, come on Hisoka-kun!” Saya encouraged.

 

“It'll be fun `Soka,” Tsuzuki said, pulling at the boy's sleeve.

 

“I don't even know how to ice skate,” Hisoka retorted, yanking his arm away from his partner's grip.

 

“Tsuzuki-kun can teach you,” Yuma suggested.

 

“Yeah,” Saya agreed, “he's such a good skater!”

 

“Good?” Tsuzuki echoed, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. “Well, I don't know about that…”

 

“You're like a pro!” Yuma cried in admiration.

 

“You make it an art form, Tsuzuki-kun! You're amazing!” Saya added. Tsuzuki blushed, still rubbing the back of his head. Hisoka sighed.

 

“If I say yes, will you all shut up for the rest of breakfast?”

 

“YES!” the tree of them yelled in unison.

 

And that is how Hisoka, Tsuzuki, Yuma, and Saya all found themselves sitting at the edge of a frozen lake in northern Hokkaido lacing up pairs of rented skates.

 

“This is working perfectly,” Saya whispered to her partner from where they sat a few yards away from Tsuzuki and Hisoka.

 

“Yes, Operation Tsusoka is going just as we planned,” Yuma agreed. Ever since they had first met Hisoka, the two girls had taken it upon themselves to bring the boy and his partner together. They had codenamed this plan Operation Tsusoka and up until now it had been failing miserably. The incident with the Snow Queen had been the main cause of their lack of success, but things had been going downhill even before that. It certainly didn't help that Hisoka spent most of his time by himself, even refusing to enjoy the hot springs with anyone else, preferring to bathe alone. Really, what fun was taking a bath by yourself? But it didn't matter now. Now, things were finally starting to look up.

 

`What are they whispering about?' Hisoka wondered suspiciously as he watched the girls talking in hushed voices a few yards away. Despite his curiosity, however, he kept his emotional shields firmly in place. He'd learned over the last few days that letting them down around Yuma and Saya only succeeded in flooding his mind with visions of Pink House.

 

As he pondered this, Tsuzuki finished lacing his skates and stood up. Glancing at Hisoka and finding the boy just finishing with his first skate, he decided to warm up a bit and headed towards the ice. Hisoka watched him go remembering the praise Yuma and Saya had given Tsuzuki that morning. Was he really that good?

 

Emerald orbs widened as Hisoka got his answer. Tsuzuki glided gracefully between the other skaters on the pond. He moved so swiftly and fluidly, he really did look like a professional. Bored with merely skating around in circles, Tsuzuki began to twist and turn, exercising more complicated moves. Hisoka could have sworn he saw his partner smirk at him before turning violently into a perfect spin. Tsuzuki was clumsy by nature, but not on the ice. No, here he moved with more grace and beauty than Hisoka had ever seen before from anyone.

 

“He really is good,” Hisoka whispered out loud. He heard giggles and found both Yuma and Saya watching him with strange expressions on their faces. Blushing, though with no idea why he was embarrassed, Hisoka lowered his eyes to lace up his other skate. Tsuzuki looked towards the grass and, disappointed that he no longer had his audience, resigned himself to skating circles around the lake again.

 

When the second skate was finally laced, Hisoka stood up. He nearly fell as he did, throwing his arms out like a child for balance. As he carefully made his way towards the ice, he wondered how much harder it would be to stand on the slippery surface. One step onto the frozen lake and he soon found out.

 

The world fell out from beneath him and then he was sprawling on the ice, sliding forward a few feet. A pair of legs stopped before him and he heard a very familiar laugh. Looking up, he saw amethysts eyes twinkling down at him in amusement.

 

“I guess you really haven't ever gone skating before, eh `Soka?” Tsuzuki teased.

 

“Isn't that what I told you?” Hisoka growled pushing himself up to his knees. Unfazed by Hisoka's anger, Tsuzuki extended both his hands to his partner.

 

“Take my hands,” he instructed. Hisoka looked up at him for a moment, fighting a blush, but obeyed. Tsuzuki pulled the boy to his feet and held him steady while he found his balance. As Hisoka began to slip, Tsuzuki moved his hands to grasp the boy's elbows, making Hisoka blush. His shoulder pressed against his taller partner's chest and he was uncomfortably aware that Tsuzuki was practically holding him.

 

`Get a hold of yourself!' Hisoka growled in his mind. `It's just Tsuzuki!' But that was just the problem, it was Tsuzuki…

 

Hisoka heard giggling again and glanced to the side to find Yuma and Saya gliding past them on the ice. He narrowed his eyes, filled with new determination. Planting his feet firmly, or as firmly as he could, he straightened his back. His legs shook unsteadily, but Tsuzuki moved his grip back down Hisoka's forearms, taking just the boy's hands in his own. Tsuzuki remained perfectly still, letting Hisoka get used to standing on the ice. Finally Hisoka felt he could manage standing and looked up to meet purple orbs, wondering what Tsuzuki would do next.

 

“You okay, `Soka?” Tsuzuki asked, smiling. Hisoka nodded and Tsuzuki smiled wider. “Okay, now skating is just like walking. I want you to take a step forward with your right foot.” Hisoka hesitated, looking down at his foot uncertainly. “It's okay, I've got you, you won't fall,” Tsuzuki added. Hisoka blushed and was glad he was looking down.

 

Slowly, he moved his foot forward, his left foot sliding backwards at the same moment. His face exploded in heat as Tsuzuki grabbed him to stop his fall. He really was holding him now.

 

“Careful,” Tsuzuki said quietly. Hisoka fought the urge to push him away and just concentrated on regaining enough balance to stand. Finally he managed to get himself balanced again and Tsuzuki released him from the unintentional embrace and took his hands again.

 

“It's okay, no one's the best on their first try. Let's just try again,” Tsuzuki said. Hisoka nodded and looked down. He moved his right foot forward and they slid forward a few inches. Nothing else happened.

 

“Good!” Tsuzuki cried happily. “Now move your left foot the same way.”

 

Hisoka did as he was told and again managed it successfully. Tsuzuki gave him an enthusiastic encouragement again and they continued their slow progress over the surface of the lake.

 

“You're a natural, `Soka!” Tsuzuki praised after Hisoka had taken twenty or so hesitant steps. “I wish I was this good when I first started.” Hisoka looked up at him, taking his eyes off his feet for the first time. A strange feeling swelled within him, one he had never felt before. Tsuzuki…he was being so kind, so patient. Hisoka had been taught by many different people over his life time: his tutor, his martial arts sensei…his father. None of them had even been like this. If he did something wrong, he was beaten for it, not encouraged to try again. If he did something right, he was rewarded with silence that was really only a reward because it didn't involve getting beaten. But Tsuzuki, he was…

 

“Hisoka?” Tsuzuki asked. His partner had such a strange expression on his face. He was usually just angry: his defense against the world. But not now. Now, Hisoka wore such an odd expression of sadness and confusion Tsuzuki didn't know what to do.

 

Hisoka was so deep in thought he didn't even notice as he unconsciously let his shields drop. So lost in memory was he that he didn't even realize what he was doing as he leaned forward and rested his head against his partner's chest, eyes slipping closed. All he consciously knew what that his mind had suddenly been filled with Tsuzuki's concern and all he wanted was to make that worry go away. Tsuzuki was so happy and carefree, it wasn't right for him to worried, especially not about Hisoka.

 

“You're different,” Hisoka whispered, not even aware of what he was saying. Something in the back of his mind was fighting to stop this before it went too far, but Hisoka's mind was too deep in the haze of long forgotten pain and the desire to make it go away. “You're not like the others. They were cold. I felt nothing but hostility and hatred from them. But you…you're warm. You only let me feel what's on the surface, but that's enough because it's always…comforting.” That voice in the back of his mind was getting louder…Hisoka was starting to wake up. “Sometimes I think…I really think that maybe, maybe I might just lo—” Hisoka's eyes snapped opened halfway through the word. He looked up, horrified, and saw Tsuzuki staring at him in compete shock.

 

`What have I done?' he screamed at himself, feeling his cheeks grow warm. In one violent motion he tore away from Tsuzuki's grip and flung himself forward, past the sign proclaiming the danger of thin ice on that side of the lake.

 

“Hisoka!” Tsuzuki cried after him. Hisoka felt his inexperienced legs give away and he crumpled to the ice. Then there was a sickening crack and he was submerged in freezing water.

 

“Hisoka!” Tsuzuki screamed. He dropped onto his stomach and skidded to the edge of the hole in the ice, making sure to keep his weight spread evenly across the dangerous ice.

 

Hisoka's body was in shock from the cold water. He gasped as though someone had punched him and gagged when his lungs tried to breath in water. His moves were sluggish and unsure and the surface was drifting farther and farther away. Somehow, perhaps through his Shinigami healing powers, the shock faded in seconds and he was suddenly fully aware again. He tried to kick upwards, but the thin blades on his skates hindered more than helped his clumsy attempts to swim. He was starting to panic.

 

Then a hand plunged from the world above down into his icy prison. He felt it grip the hood of his coat and yank him upwards. Contact with the outside air sent his body into a second shock and his mind began to fade to black even as he felt strong arms wrap around him. He heard voices as if they were coming from far away and then everything faded into nothing.

 

(xxx)

 

“Tsuzuki,” Tatsumi said quietly, “you should get some sleep. Don't forget, you have to go back to work tomorrow.” Tsuzuki looked up from where he was sitting by Hisoka's bed to see Tatsumi and Watari in the doorway. Though they had both assured him that his partner would be fine, Hisoka still had not woken up yet.

 

“He's right,” Watari agreed. “Bon will be fine. Today just tired him out, that's all.”

 

“I know,” Tsuzuki admitted, smiling at them both. “I just…I just want to stay with him a little longer.” Tatsumi nodded.

 

“Alright, but don't forget what I said. Get some rest,” Tatsumi admonished.

 

“I will. Good night,” Tsuzuki said.

 

“Good night,” Watari returned, closing the door as he and Tatsumi left.

 

Tsuzuki sighed and looked back at the sleeping boy. He reached out and gently moved Hisoka's bangs away from his closed eyes, the same way he had the first night they had met.

 

“You really scared me today, `Soka,” he muttered quietly. Then he smiled gently, taking Hisoka's hand in his own, rubbing his thumb over it affectionately. “There are times when I love you too.”