"I hate snow," Sage muttered into his teacup, not for any deep-seated despisal of weather patterns, but mostly because he felt the thick layer of contentment in the room needed some leavening.

"You've a right to," Sai replied evenly, his hand hovering over a pawn on the chessboard. His blue and silver clad samurai had suffered heavily against Rowen's gold and red ones, mollifying Rowen who had wanted to use the blue pieces. He sighed, letting his pawn play kamikaze for the sake of snatching Rowen's mounted Knight. "What with Kail and all."

Rowen tried not to grin triumphantly as he let his knight be taken captive, in turn snatching Sai's Shinto priest bishop and putting his Daimyo into checkmate. "Gotcha."

"Oh, bother." Sai pouted. "How did I miss that?"

"I dunno, I thought it was obvious." Rowen gloated a bit, but wavered guiltily at Sai's crestfallen expression. "Aw, Sai. You've gotten a lot better lately, really. Hey, check it out." He swept his hand across the jade and onyx squared chessboard, sending the remaining pieces to the floor. "FALL OF THE TOKUGAWA!!"

Sai giggled. "Totemo kawaii. Are you going to get a Meiji period chess set now?"

"Nahhh... it'd be nuthin' but bureaucrats."

"Go easy on that set, Ro." Kento glanced up from his "Bastard" manga. "It wasn't the world's easiest thing to make."

"But you DID do a lovely job," Sai helped Rowen replace the pieces to their assigned squares, stopping to turn an intricately painted rook over in his hands. The blue rooks were Torii gates, the Red ones elaborate castles.

"Hey, Kento." Ryou had been lolling on the floor in a sleepy sort of wrestling match with Whiteblaze. He flopped on the yawning tiger's tummy and picked up Rowen's king, a proud Daimyo with gilded armor and a flame pattern on his helmet. "Maybe you should make a set of us, ya know?"

"I've thought about it," Kento put his open comic on his stomach and stared thoughtfully at the slowly swirling ceiling fan. "I'd have to figure out how to make my own molds and stuff." He grinned at his pals and stretched expansively, orange socked feet dangling off the armrest. "But I think I'd make a great rook."

"Yah, ya LOOK like a ton of bricks, alright."

"Ha! You'd be lucky if I make you a PAWN."

"Could I be the other Rook, Kento?"

"Sure, Sai, but Ryou's gotta be the King- So Mia can be the queen!"

Ryou blushed audibly. "Well..."

"Maybe YOU could be the 'queen', eh, Sage? Ya'd look good in- wherah'd he go?"

Sage sighed, having long left his post by the window and wandered into the kitchen. He was in an odd, undefinably sullen mood, and the good-natured bickering, usually something that made him smile, grated on his nerves tonight. It was probably the snow, he thought. By late January he longed for spring with all his soul, and the late heavy snowfall had reminded him that winter wasn't done yet. It would still be a few months before both the sap and his sluggish blood quickened. Steam spiraled up from his mug as he refilled it, brushing against his face like a shy kiss. It made him think of summer rain.

"Hey, Sage. Are ya alright?"

Sage gave a tired smile to the worried archer peering in the doorway. Sage looked pale and drawn, his beauty not faded by the cold but somehow sadder, like an old old photograph of someone dazzlingly beautiful but long since still and quiet. "Yes, Rowen. You know how wintertime drains me."

Rowen frowned thoughtfully. Sage looked less golden than he usually did in the warmer months, true, but Rowen could see the faint outline of his power around him, a potent verdant glow of eternal spring. He doubted Sage noticed how poignant it was against the frozen landscape out the window behind him, how much of a reminder it was that the cold sharpness would not last forever. Rowen walked over and gently grasped Sage's wrist. "Come with me."

Sage raised a gold eyebrow suspiciously. "Where?"

"Jus' trust me." Rowen stopped at the back door, handing Sage his heavy coat and reaching down to pull on his own snowboots.

"You want to go OUTSIDE?" Sage glared at his bomber jacket as though it was a hooded cobra. "It's FREEZING out there!"

"Don' be a wimp, Sage." Rowen retorted without real malice, flipping up the collar of his parka and winding the indigo cashmere scarf- a New Year's present from Sage- around his neck. "Are ya goin out in ya socks or what?"

Sage scowled like a thunderstorm but flung on his coat anyway, shoving his feet into his boots and reaching down to lace them impatiently. "Fine, you blue-haired madman, do what you will."

Rowen grinned delightedly, as though having been given a present, and tugged at Sage's shoulder before hurrying out the back door. Sage followed far more reluctantly.

The cold air hit him square in the chest like an expert blow, sending ice into his lungs and filling his body with the numbing taste of death that was winter. "Rowen, I don't-"

"C'mon," Rowen replied, almost solemn now, and tromped into the black and white night silence. The snowdrift on the porch was up to his knees, the steps having vanished in the motionless white wave that surged up to the house. Kento hadn't shoveled back here, apparently.

Sage sucked in a resigned breath of frigid air, casting a wistful glance back at the warm kitchen and his cup of tea, light puddling in the windows like melted butter. Then he followed his apparently insane lover, tugging on leather gloves as he went.

Rowen made a direct trail into the backyard where they trained in the warmer months, slogging though two feet of thick wet snow and then stomping in a little circle as though making sure he was where he wanted to be. He leaned back, hands in pockets; so far that Sage was afraid he would fall over. Rowen exhaled a long plume of white towards the brittle stars and ebon sky, slowly being overrun by furry thick grey clouds, fat like drowsy old housecats and promising more snow. He nodded approvingly. "Just right."

"Oh. Wow. What do you know. It's just as damn unpleasant as I thought." Sage glared at Rowen from beneath long bangs the color of frosted sunlight. "I'm going back."

Rowen cocked his head inquisitively at Sage. "Ya got summer in those eyes a yours, Sage," he said unexpectedly. "I notice it more in the winter, but it's always the'a."

"Nani?" Sage blinked confusion, halting his retreat. It wasn't the sort of thing he thought he would ever hear Rowen say. Sai, definitely. But Rowen wasn't prone to being poetic, unless he was quoting someone else. Usually he was much more direct. In fact, Rowen was acting downright weird.

"Come ov'a he'a," Rowen stomped the packed snow in front of him as an invitation.

Sage growled in his throat but waded over anyway, facing the archer. "Now what?"

Rowen promptly unzipped the front of Sage's jacket.

"K'so!" Sage jumped as cold air pressed eagerly against him, stealing his warmth. "Rowen! It's too cold for this now!!"

"No shit, really?" Rowen retorted. "I'm not stupid, Sage." His arms slid inside Sage's coat, against his sweater, hugging him within his jacket. The warmth of another body was simply gorgeous as Rowen molded himself against Sage, tucking his cheek against Sage's throat. "Is this so terrible?" Rowen's breath made a small hot place on Sage's earlobe.

"No," Sage admitted, letting his arms go around Rowen. This seemed like a lot of work just for a hug. "It's just so hollow, Rowen. Everything's dead."

"No it's not, you know bettah. Close ya eyes and listen."

Sage reluctantly yielded himself to folding darkness.

Nothing. Complete, utter hushed nothing. Without Rowen's heartbeat pounding so close to his own it would have been terrifying. This is what he hated. No light, no sound, nothing.

Rowen felt Sage's arms go tense, involuntarily clutching him closer. "I'm he'a, Sage."

"It's just so empty."

"No it isn't. Listen harder."

Like the sound of a plane to someone stranded on a desert island, soft traces of life made their way to Sage's ears, stirrings in the woods beyond touched on his empathy. There was the rustle of an owl perched in the branches of a nearby tree, eyeing with wary yellow eyes the almost soundless passage of a fox through the crisp snow below. He could feel the hunter in them both, the fire of survival. His human senses found more comforting proof. From Kento's bedroom came the faint chords of his guitar, blending seamlessly with Sai's voice as they rehearsed something, dissolving into laughter after a few measures. Ryou's voice called up to them, words unintelligible but the tone and pitch unmistakably his, shining in the winter air. The other two answered with an affirmative, stairs creaked, Mia laughed at something he didn't catch.

Silence seeped in again, but this time it was patient, sleeping.

"Ya see?" Rowen chided. "Alla this time ya mopin' cos ya hate winter. But I tell ya what, without it, ya wouldn't value what ya have so much. Summer wouldn't mean mucha nuthin. Never go away from ya friends and ya won't ev'a realize how much ya need them." Rowen tightened his grip on Sage, kissing one ruddy wind-stained cheek. "You're always beautiful, Sage, but in winter... I dunno."

Sage opened his eyes, catching Rowen's shrug.

"It's like, a flower in a green meadow isn't really much, it's not particularly unique. But a flower in snow-" He looked up at Sage, smiling faintly, his voice hushed like the snow that had started to fall again. "That's special. That's somethin. This is when you shine the brightest ta me, Sage. I just wanted ya to know that."

Sage placed one hand against Rowen's cheek, feeling something deep stir in his soul at Rowen's earnest words.

"An'," Rowen's eyes darted nervously to one side for a moment, as if they knew what he was going to say. "Ta tell ya... I love you."

Sage forgot the cold, forgot to breathe. It was nothing they hadn't said before, either in action or in the wordless link between their souls, and Sage had thought that words would be less. But he hadn't realized the impact of hearing it said, that somehow speaking it made it truer, more sincere.

Rowen, taking Sage's silence the wrong way, pulled back a bit and gave a weak laugh. "heh... Boy, that sounded corny. I dunno why I said that- jus' faget it-"

"Never." Sage's breathed avowal was firm, his words a white fog of sincerity. "As long as I live."

Rowen smiled suddenly, and the last remaining stars dimmed by comparison, surrendering to the snowclouds. He hugged Sage fiercely, an embrace that held his strength inside it. "You're my best friend, Sage," he placed cool intense kisses on the warrior's neck. "And I love you."

Sage closed his eyes, savoring the sound of the words hanging in the icy air, keeping them until they frosted silver. It took him that long to find the courage to say them back.

Rowen's second smile was almost triumphant but more personal as he tipped Sages' mouth to his own, kissing him firmly. For a long moment they seemed forgotten to the world in the softly falling snow, holding to what was most important to them.

"Rowen! Sage!" Ryou's voice cut the distance from yard to house like an edged blade. "The movie's starting! Sai's got chocolate! Get in here before I hafta defrost your asses!!"

Rowen chuckled into the kiss, pulling away. "The'as ya life for ya, Sage. Guess we bettah-"

"Wait-" Sage caught Rowen's arm, stopping him. "Just a minute, okay?" He pulled the archer back against him, Rowen's back to his front, and held him. "I'm learning to value something."