Chapter Text
Josuke watched with amusement as Okuyasu entranced himself with the clouds that formed with every puff of warm air. They swirled up above their heads and dissipated into the chilly air around them.
“Bro, have you never seen cold air before?”
Okuyasu turned to him with wide eyes and mulled over an answer for a moment. “Yea, but Keicho always had us stay in tha house n’ its hard to see in the dark with broken lighting n’ all that.” Okuyasu leaned closer. “N’ between you n’ me, I think it makes me look like a dragon or somethin’ and that's pretty rad.”
“That is pretty rad. You know what's even more rad?” Josuke ducked to the side allowing Crazy Diamond to shimmer into existence behind Okuyasu, a pile of snow in its hands. It fell with a thump into his hair and shoulders, surely under his shirt as well.
“Bro! Not cool.” Okuyasu groaned and ran gloved fingers through his easily disheveled mini pompadour, wringing snow out of it.
Josuke made quick work of distancing himself from the other; Okuyasu finally satisfied with the last of snow off him and prepared to start a war. The Hand fizzled in front of him and blocked Josuke’s vision. A clump of snow whizzing just past him with the help of some erasure from the blue and white stand.
Josuke returned likewise, rocketing a snowball at the other teen with Crazy Diamond. Okuyasu made a yelping noise as he brought his arms up to cover his face, The Hand disappearing in the process. He peeked past his wrist at the pompadoured teen and yelped something that fell to deaf ears as another snowball flew past him, hitting a tree and dropping another load of snow on Okuyasu stood below it.
He halted his attacks at the hand Okuyasu held out while he wiped snow out of his eyes. He spoke something again but was too faint for Josuke to catch.
“Just sign it, I can’t hear you dude!”
Okuyasu shook his hands out and repeated his message. “No stands!”
Josuke opened his mouth to shoot a question back before The Hand fizzled in before him. The stand reached to the ground and Josuke brought up a hand to shield himself. The mound of snow never came, instead causing a crack somewhere to his side. Okuyasu had thrown the snowball at the edge of the frozen lake, cracking through what may have been more than ten centimeters of ice.
“Too strong!” Okuyasu signed.
Josuke considered. Yeah, even though he could fix any injuries the other got, it'd be better to avoid them altogether. He let Crazy Diamond fade out behind him and The Hand did the same.
Didn't mean he’d let up however, without a moment to waste, Josuke scooped up snow from the ground and chucked it at his friend. It actually hit and he prided himself on his good aim.
Their snowball fight had evolved into a full-blown snowball war. Josuke was trying desperately, and in vain, to salvage his pompadour. Okuyasu thought it a pitiful excuse and never allowed him the chance.
Thus, snowball war.
Neither of them had been keeping track of the score, or even how to determine a win. Okuyasu would shout out random numbers and Josuke would call him a liar and then chuck a snowball at him.
They scraped the ground clear of snow in record time, powdery white becoming mushy brown the longer they continued. The ground beneath them was showing more and more of the damp earth beneath them. Desperate, not to get his already wet hair muddy on top of the fact, Okuyasu had fled out onto the ice.
Both boys needed to take a breather and Josuke had rolled behind the safety of a tree, chest heaving. The cold had burned his cheeks, heavy breaths billowed into the air in front of him.
There was a shout that he’d brushed off at first, the two were far from likely to be the only ones out on the lake. The shout came again and Josuke sought after the source of the noise, focusing on heads of silver and black hair down the sidewalk.
“Hey Josuke!” Koichi sauntered to Josuke’s place behind the tree, Yukako holding his hand and following behind.
Josuke let out a puff of warm air and gave a smile to his friend, bringing up a hand to try and salvage his disheveled hairstyle. “Hey Koichi. What’re you out here for?”
“Oh! Yukako mentioned this place she wanted to take me! It should be empty now with the weather and the time.” Koichi held his girlfriend’s hand closer to himself. “And you?”
“War.” His smile dropped into the most solemn and sincere expression he could muster.
Koichi found it amusing at least and gave him a wave before walking further down the sidewalk and stopping at the edge of the ice. Okuyasu walked into Josuke’s field of view, better yet field of aim . He was engrossed in conversation with the couple and Josuke took the chance to compress what little still intact snow was around him into a ball.
Something was passed between the two teens on the edge of the lake and the moment Okuyasu was an adequate distance away from Koichi (he wouldn't wish to incur the wrath of his girlfriend) he swung.
And hit right on target.
Okuyasu stumbled back with a shout that traveled to Josuke’s no longer incognito spot. He recovered quickly and shot a challenge to Josuke. Where it was believed the war was nearly over, it had merely just begun. Okuyasu ran at him and Josuke fled onto the ice.
Why hadn’t he thought of this before? It was far easier to slide around on the ice than to run. What the lake lacked in cover, it made up for in potential for evasive maneuvers. Disregarding his several slips and stumbles, there was no way Okuyasu would catch up to him.
He only just managed a wave goodbye when Koichi and Yukako made their way out of sight, the distraction warranting another lob of snow to his face.
His fingers and toes felt like fire. That's what he got for foregoing gloves, he supposed. He clenched and unclenched his hands at his sides in an attempt to ward off the pins and needles that pricked at them, to a little avail.
Once his hands were sufficiently no longer freezing, he crouched down to scoop some more snow off the surface of the ice, compressing it in his hand. He supposed the ceasefire had lasted long enough, this war would be won before the sky grew dark. He wound his hand back and halted.
That was odd. There was a crackling from his surroundings. He squinted his eyes in consideration.
Shit, hearing aid! He’d forgotten to take it out earlier, the snow no doubt damaging it. Tomoko would be royally pissed if he came back with another waterlogged hearing device. He dropped the snow in his hand and reached up to his ear, the world falling into a partial silence once it was out. He held tight as he flapped it around in his hand, trying to shake out any water.
Once he deemed it sufficiently clear he tapped it with Diamond and placed it back in his ear, receiving garbled feedback. Damn, still logged. With the way liquids were considered whole or complete objects at all times, Crazy Diamond could do nothing against them. If they were dry, however, all it would take was a poke with his stand and it would be back in working condition. He still had a fight to win; he could worry about his mother and fix it later.
He shifted his stance again. He caught the tail end of a shout from Okuyasu but was never given the chance to follow up.
There was another crack, one which he felt more than heard. The ice split beneath him and with a gasp, he was plunged into cold, cold, cold. Icy weight took a quick hold of his limbs, interrupting and restraining his movement. His body acted before his mind, Crazy Diamond erupting out of him and trying to fix the ice.
The ice.
That he was trapped under. Fuck he fixed the ice . His mind caught up to him. He pushed against the oppressive force pulling him around and reached out to weakly push at it. It had repaired stronger than it must have been when it broke. He ordered his stand to throw a punch to crack it back open, but the pink stand seemed just as trapped and as weak as he did.
It didn't deter him, however. Josuke paddled and thumped frantically, quickly losing his closeness to the surface. The texture of the ice slipped out of reach of his hands and Josuke began to sink. The intimidating depths snaked icy claws past his clothing and stung his skin, a notable absence of feeling on his scarred side.
Water slipped into his nose and burned his sinuses. An ache shot through his skull not dissimilar to brain freeze. He puffed his tongue up in his mouth, desperate to keep cold water out of his lungs.
But it felt like his body was against him on both sides. His lungs felt so full in his chest, painfully so. He had to- he had to keep his mouth shut, he'd do no good getting a chest full of water. But he had to let out his breath, lest his lungs burst.
He exhaled, bubbles floating sideways past his face, Josuke weakly following with his head. Little light shone through thick ice and did little to right his disorientation. Then he tried to inhale. Water flooded his mouth and chilled his throat. Tears would have pricked from his eyes had they not been washed away and mingled with murky lake water.
A weight settled into his bones and lead into his extremities. He was being dragged down by the water. Feeble attempts at expelling water only resulting in more flooding in. His mind was a cloud, cold and unfocused. Spinning, more notably. He should get out, he really should, break the ice, and have Crazy Diamond pull him up and onto the surface. But movement felt like too much work. The constant cold felt like the only constant in the situation and comforting in a way. He could stay here, maybe he wouldn't mind.
A shadow blotted what little light had reached through the ice. His warped hearing aid turned what may have been a swipe from the stand of his best friend, into a roar that pierced this waterlogged hearing aid. Why was Okuyasu there? He was fine why-
His fatigued thoughts were interrupted when it continued. Roar after roar, Josuke budged little by little. The noise hurt, so loud even through the blocker of water and Josuke put some of his last shreds of energy into covering his ears. The noise hurt and the longer it continued, the further and further it pulled him. Water lashed against his chest, winding him as if there was still air in his lungs.
Static found its way into his hearing ear, a buzz forming in his brain. It grew and competed with the roars above. The encompassing noises melded into one, the roars deafening behind a layer of static.
He was so tired, the pulls and roars at such a rapid pace he didn't have time to recover. As if it had sapped all his energy and left him a sodden husk in freezing water. The calls of unconsciousness were awfully inviting, beckoning him to relax. The last thing he felt was wet hair on his face and tight grips on his shoulders more than strong enough to bruise. Then he listened to the calls, the chilling darkness of rest becoming a comforting feeling.