Chapter Text
While in Milwaukee, Johnny had an idea come to mind to deal with the snowfall they had been begrudgingly tolerating while camping out. It wasn't their horses walking through it that was the issue, but instead whenever they stopped by a nearby river or waterhole at the end of the day to camp out, having to deal with catching food and foraging for dry sticks. Gyro entrusted Johnny with those tasks, despite his obvious condition making it infinitely harder than an able-bodied person to accomplish, but Johnny didn’t mind. He was even happy to do it.
For most of his life after his incident, everyone had treated him softly, like he couldn’t do anything by himself, and with Gyro’s appearance in his life, that changed. It’s a reason as to why Johnny admired the mysterious man in the first place, despite really not knowing each other for a long time, they had a close trust based relationship that Johnny wouldn’t trade for the world. Now, that never changed the fact that hunting bunnies was difficult, even with his mastery of the spin, those animals were fast, and he was lucky if he even caught more than two that weren’t skinny to the bone and slow. And so after their encounter in said Milwaukee town, Johnny pestered Gyro to make a quick trip to one of the nearby stores.
After their previous money spending spree, Gyro was counting how much real cash they had on them, all the while thinking about why they were there in the first place. Johnny had been rolling in his wheelchair that they had gotten earlier for around 25 dollars, and was observing one of the small isles with large shelves. Gyro walked up beside him, hands on his hips and a slight scowl on his face. Leaning down to reach his face while still staring at the shelves, he spoke:
“So?”
“Well there's these sleds that i noticed and got an idea, think we can afford one?”
Gyro moved back up and observed the rough wood that clearly needed more sanding down, he looked to their right behind the row of shelves at the store clerk’s desk, which was a small dirty dark brown counter-top with a rocking chair that seemed just as old. After asking about the sled's price and bargaining it down to under 1 dollar, Gyro had trouble fitting the object on his horse. Johnny proposed the idea to tie it to one of the horses, to which Gyro stared blankly and realized how obvious said idea was.
After making some progress in the snowy mess they had gotten themselves in, they unanimously decided to instead stop near two large ditches, one empty and one filled with frozen water.
"Quite the horseshoe we've got here right Johnny?"
Gyro asked as he took his bags off his horse, drawing Johnny's attention who let out a light hum. After giving them light pats, Gyro let the horses stick to each other for warmth, letting out one of his weird laughs quietly. As they settled down, Johnny untied the rope they had attached to his bag with the sled on it, letting his fingers glide across the rough surface. Gyro walked over and crouched, observing as Johnny raised his head to hold eye contact for a few seconds.
"Is it good?" Gyro said as Johnny blinked for a small moment.
"What, – the sled?"
"Yeah! Does it have splinters or shit like that?" Johnny looked back down at the solid dark object under his hands.
The paint was bumpy and there were patterns haphazardly painted on with a seemingly shaky hand, yet it seemed in good condition.
"Yeah I think it's good."
"Perfect, because I didn't wait for you to find the one with stars on it for 30 minutes for nothing!" Gyro stood up, his knees cracking in the process, and he let out an instinctive groan as he stretched.
"Hey, it matches my outfit!" Johnny said, leaning towards Gyro's direction.
"That silly hat? Whatever makes you happy Johnny.."
"Coming from the guy with that hat –"
"Hey don't insult it! This cost a fortune I'll have you know!" Gyro tsked and shook his head, raising his hand up when Johnny tried to talk, shushing him quickly. Johnny moved on from the argument quickly, moving his body on the sled.
Thankfully his upper body strength was much better than an average guy's, and he could carry himself a lot better than before. Moving his legs with his hands to place them under him, he fit well enough on it, although it seemed a bit small. While he adjusted himself, a basket suddenly hit his chest. Looking up he saw Gyro taking out a bunch of utensils from his bag, he laughed when he looked to see Johnny's expression.
"Hoho — I thought I saw some berry bushes around here, I'm tired of the same shitty food we've been storin' up." Johnny's face remained unchanged, even a tad annoyed, although that seemed like his regular expression more than any sort of malice expressed.
"You say 'we' as if you're going to go find these berries of yours."
"Nyohoho, what's with the snarky comments today Johnny? I bought you a sled and everything! And speaking of, are you planning to use that?" Gyro pointed at the other man’s sled, who took the basket in his hands and sighed.
"I guess I'll thank you for that, here, give me a hand so I can get out of this hole." He extended his arms out as Gyro got up and over to him, huffing as he picked Johnny up and placed him on the ditch's edge along with his new sled. They agreed to meet up in one hour, which seemed like enough time to wander around in the cold snow before they got lost.
“Oh and don't forget!” Gyro added quickly as Johnny stared at him, a tad confused. He opened his small ball holders and took out a steel sphere, tossing it over to Johnny who caught it with one hand.
“Wouldn't it be better if you kept both of them? Someone could sneak up on you while we’re separated, you know.”
“I could say the same for you, I still have my other ball! And nobody can sneak up on Gyro Zeppeli, they should even try!” Johnny didn't laugh even though Gyro did, his concern showing clearly on his face.
“Alright look Johnny, I know you’re worried but tomorrow will be the final stretch to this stage, and I doubt anyone will be riding around near us in this weather anyway. You don't have to use spin only for executions! I would know, I'm a doctor.” Gyro flashed his iconic smile, which made Johnny sigh but accept his explanation, he knew it was true in any case, considering they had used it before for non combat related affairs. Gyro patted Johnny’s leg for a moment and turned around to go back to his usual routine, and Johnny put the steel ball in the pocket of his starry pants.
—
Getting used to the sled took a bit, it wasn't quite like a wheelchair, one of those nice ones with the bars on the wheels, though they sucked when being used in the rocky, frozen terrain of these sparse woods. His basket, which was uncomfortable to hold, was disappointedly empty. Had it been 20 minutes now? Usually he'd be able to at least find something, a bird or a lizard, even without the intent to eat said animal, but the forest was oddly quiet, except for his crunchy steel sled legs which carried him through the difficult ground.
His favorite part was sliding down, as going back up seemed like a bother. He'd use one of Gyro's steel balls that had been so generously blessed upon him to get back up through friction, but even so it was annoying to get the right angle. At some point Johnny stopped for a moment to let his wrists rest from pushing himself around so much, at the top of a pretty steep hill, the way down being led by a beautifully untouched carpet of white powdery snow.
He didn't know it at the time but hills in winter were dangerous, as nobody knows what hides under them. As Johnny closed his eyes, he felt something move under him, when his eyes opened he noticed his sled slightly gliding across the ground, and before he could take control of it, it slid down the hill. Holding onto dear life, his adrenaline pumped hard as he tried thinking about how to take hold of the sled and not crash into a tree and die.
Soon enough, a large mound of the same fluffy snow broke his speed instantly, and he seemed engulfed by the thing. Flailing his arms around, he managed to shake the large amount of snow off, although that didn't change the amount he got in his mouth, nose and all over his bright blue clothes. Struggling to pull himself and the sled out, he observed the situation while shivering terribly, pulling down his hoodie after it raised up a bit from the force of impact, causing his stomach to feel the taste of frost along with his numb fingers.
The hill he was resting upon didn't seem incredibly tall, but its steepness combined with the fact that the fluffy snowflakes hid an icey underbelly caused the thing to become an effective hill slide. The pile of snow he crashed into had become more visible, and it was obvious that it was actually a big patch of bushes. Bushes which at a closer notice had small red berries hanging onto their thin, dry branches.
“ This really is a horseshoe place huh... ” Johnny thought to himself as he blew warm breaths onto his freezing hands, trying to decide how to pick said berries off their shrubs while being so obviously restricted in his movements.
Fetching his basket, which flew away in the resulting accident, gave him an idea. He took out the steel ball Gyro had handed to him before he left and held it firmly in his hand as he pushed himself with his free one. Placing the basket under the shrub, he doubted himself a little before regulating his breathing and making the ball spin, carefully and gently throwing it at the snowy bush body. The impact caused the branches to twist and shake in spin fashion, causing most of the loose berries at the top to fall into the snow, which was flattened by the sled’s iron legs.
“Not bad.” Johnny mumbled out loud as the ball eventually stopped rolling and fell in front of his sled, he picked it up quickly and started collecting the small red orbs, which seemed edible at the very least. Although not able to fill up the basket to the brim, it was better that way, considering he’d have to carry it all the way back to camp without dropping any. Instinctively looking down at his watch before remembering that he left it back at the ditches, he sighed, wondering if enough time had passed.
The way back was more rough than the trip there, that along with the weather worsening didn't help Johnny’s sniffles and shivers, having to dig his hands into the snow to actually move around by pushing his sled and the weights on it. Eventually making his way back, slowly but surely, proud of himself for not getting lost in the blinding whiteness of the scenery around him.
—---
Back at the ditches, Gyro had a fire going on with the numerous sticks and dry grass he found in a small patch of forest protected by most of the snow, although silently worried by Johnny’s disappearance, he trusted the man in finding his way back, and as if on cue, a yell was echoing through the clear cold air. Gyro stood up slowly, once again feeling his bones crack. Their last fight was a close one, and it caused spirits to go down a bit, but the two of them had always managed to learn from their past and keep pushing forwards, the race especially motivating them. Gyro’s thoughts sprinted faster than their horses in this moment, and he got over to the edge of the ditch, looking out from inside it at the figure slowly creeping his way over.
Deciding to help, he got out of said ditch, leaving the fire temporarily unattended to. The snowflakes blinded him a bit as the wind decided to go against him, but he found Johnny and his sled buried a little under the rough snowfall.
“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! Come on buddy let's get you to the fire, god you’re freezing.” Gyro mumbled as he touched Johnny’s hands to take the basket from him, holding his hands for a few seconds hoping to warm them up. Johnny nodded weakly, his eyes half closed as he recognised Gyro’s voice.
“I already can’t walk, going blind because of the snow would suck even more.” Johnny said under his breath, causing Gyro to chuckle. Even in situations like these, they always were able to cheer each other up in different ways. Although Johnny was still struggling with making gags, he was definitely taking inspiration from a certain man, who was carrying him at that moment on his sled, moving quickly to get into the ditch for brief cover.
After setting down the basket near the almost dying flames, Gyro picked up Johnny over his shoulder, hugging him tightly as he grabbed the end of the sled and jumped into the ditch quickly. Gyro wasn't warm, if he was then Johnny would've recovered faster, but the close contact still helped, even if just emotionally. God how long had it been since someone hugged either of them? They couldn't place it themselves, Johnny would probably say it happened before his incident, but he didn't like remembering that era. His era of infamy, of love by everyone, an idol for people less talented than him. He had struggles back then definitely, many many that plagued his brain to this day, and that was a reason as to why he pushed the past away and clung to the present, just how he clung to Gyro at this very moment.
Gyro was similar yet different, so so different. A generational expectation, some may call it a curse, a curse that required precision, attention and focus, emotionlessness, things that Gyro never truly felt was his real purpose in life. He liked showing emotions, he liked connecting with people, usually in a romantic sense but his platonic love for people was also a pivotal driving force in his actions, I mean he was in this race because of those emotions right?
Luckily for them both, Gyro had set up their sleeping bags beforehand, although they seemed buried under the growing mound of snow building up. Gyro reluctantly put Johnny up against their horses, who seemed to already be asleep. He hurried to dig the two sleeping bags from the snow, but quickly realized it was pointless. They were already extremely wet on the inside and seemed like they wouldn't retain any warmth. Sighing deeply, Gyro decided to do the next best thing. He put the two together and pulled out the blankets from their inside, figuring they'll just have to sleep on the darn things.
Looking over at Johnny who tried curling up (and failed) he sighed again and moved the bags closer to him, tapping him on the shoulder and holding him in his arms again as he moved the sleeping bags right in front of Valkyrie's side to lean onto, before placing him against her. Pulling out his blanket, he tried wrapping it around Johnny, who swatted his hands away despite his extreme exhaustion and coldness in his body.
"E-Even if I'm freezing to death, it's still embarrassing to have a man wrapping me up in blankets y-you know." Johnny said as he pulled the fluffy cloth over his neck, his red cheeks kissed by the frost turning slightly more red from embarrassment. Gyro put his hands up and chuckled, turning around to revive the barely alive fire, which still somehow hung on. The snow was slowing down, though it still was not pleasant, the winds had calmed down, only leaving the gentle flakes dancing in the frozen air to land where they were meant to from the beginning, where fate decided where they'll rest.
"Alright this should be good enough, hey Johnny you're holding' up?" Gyro looked back at the shivering man behind him, who tried to let out words back, but only squeaked out short noises. Gyro got up to get the basket they had left out near the opposite walls of the ditch, as he put it down he smiled at what was inside it. There weren't many, but it was clear Johnny had found the ones Gyro had noticed while they were on the road here.
Crawling over to Johnny with the basket, he placed it next to him, more focused on his friend's status. Johnny had his eyes closed and was clearly rubbing his hands under the blanket, like a fly getting ready to clean itself. He smiled and pulled the blanket down, not fully but enough to expose Johnny's hands. It startled the other man, who opened his eyes immediately. Gyro took his hands and rubbed circles in them, bringing them up to his mouth and blowing warm air on them.
"What are you-?"
"Listen up, lesson 4.2, dealing with frostbite." Gyro smiled wide as he looked at Johnny, who's glare was soft and forgiving. "We can't boil water to warm up your hands, that could cause harm! So the best way is to slowly warm up the freezing body parts and keep them dry, here." Gyro pulled gently on Johnny, who leaned forward how Gyro wanted. With Johnny's hands still in his palms, he approached them to the flames of the fire, not too close though as to not cause burn or shock. The dancing flames tickled their hands with a reassuring warmth, slowly bringing life back into their frozen fingers. Gyro looked back at Johnny and laughed in his usual weird way, which was a reassuring sign for the other man.
“Aren't you cold too? You should take care of yourself first since you’re more useful than me.” Johnny said quietly, staring into the fire for a few moments before scooting closer to it, now on the edge of their ‘sleeping bags bed’. Gyro was silent, but still had a smile on his freezing face, gently squeezing the other man’s hands, specifically the spots that were the most affected, like the tips of his fingers.
"You're useful as well Johnny, don't say that about yourself." Johnny didn't respond, his breath was the only thing audible from him, as well as visible. Every time he exhaled, a large cloud would leave his face. Gyro stared off for a bit before speaking again.
"You know what, here get comfortable Johnny, I should heat up some food for us. That should warm you up hm?" He let go of Johnny's now slightly warm hands, which rushed to his blanket, immediately making himself comfortable near the fire. Gyro started scrambling around anything he could find, pots, matches, and the numerous different cans of soup they had stored up. Dumping it all out in the pot, he popped it over the fire using metal rods, and while that was slowly heating, Gyro had also gone on a small mission to find more fire wood, since their stock had almost run out.
—---
"Wh- is that my blanket Johnny?"
Maybe he didn't notice it at first, but as Gyro stirred the soup in his hands sitting crouched onto the flattened snow, he took a better look at Johnny, who was wrapped up in both of their blankets.
"You said to get comfortable, not my fault." Johnny said, his words mildly muffled by the soft cloths covering the lower half of his face. Gyro sighed, internally agreeing that he in fact did tell Johnny to get more comfortable, but he was still glad that he seemed to regain some of his strength, considering how he had been barely able to speak 20 minutes ago. He sat himself right in front of Johnny, his knees almost making contact with the other man. As he stirred the soup, he coughed lightly to indicate that Johnny should clear up his face so he could eat. Begrudgingly, Johnny lowered the blanket to his neck, trying to awkwardly free his hands so that he could grab the spoon himself. As he attempted to do so, Gyro raised the pot up and over them, with Johnny giving him a weird look.
“Frostbite! No sudden warmth! Don't forget my lesson Johnny, it's for your own good.” Sighing, Johnny put his hands down. With a smile, Gyro scooped some soup up, making sure to have some vegetable bits in the spoonful as well, and brought it to Johnny’s mouth.
“I'm not letting you feed me Gyro.”
“Would you rather starve then?”
“N-No but my hands aren’t frozen anymore, I can take care of myse-” Johnny stuttered, having trouble thinking of a way to defend himself on the spot.
Interrupted by a spoon hitting his mouth, Johnny couldn't help but temporarily accept his fate, if only for this one bite.
“Aha the baby trick works every time! Do not underestimate the Zeppeli family Johnny.”
“You’re flaunting – about being able to force feed someone by tricking them to open their mouth–”
“Yes, that's what I said.”
“-- That isn't as impressive as you think it is.” Gyro raised another dose to Johnny’s mouth, who reluctantly took another bite at the wooden spoon, mentally marking that ‘ okay.. this is the final one. ’
“Geez you’re tickled when hungry, I see why you were so snappy at me earlier.” Looking down occasionally to mix the chunks in the light color of the soup, Gyro made sure to attempt to make each bite have a different unique taste, though it was still regular warm soup.
“I’ll have you know I ate back in Milwaukee before we left the shop.” Gyro let out an exasperated gasp while his face remained mildly the same, calmly raising his head up to bring another spoon to Johnny’s face.
“How could you! Without me? Cristo Johnny, I’m hurt frankly." Johnny sighed lightly before taking another bite, once again breaking his own promise. He couldn't help it, the soup was warm and it made his body heat up faster than anything else they had tried.
"You seem more emotional than me today, maybe you should've ate as well while we were back there." Johnny said, his tone awkward, but clearly phrased in a way where it should be taken as a joke. Usually people wouldn't understand that, they would think his tone meant that he was a sarcastic asshole, but in reality Johnny just had a bit of trouble talking.. in general. (Although he still enjoyed sarcasm and being a snarky asshole)
Gyro played around with the spoon in the pot, faking sadness, to which Johnny smiled lightly. "Oh come on now, I'm gonna be sad just looking at you if you keep it up." Gyro picked up some of the soup and brought it to his own lips. "Che peccato, devo mangiare da solo" Gyro mumbled as he sipped the contents of the wooden spoon. Johnny looked at him, not really having anywhere else to look at.
"Alright I'm sorry, I'll eat your soup. Good grief, this is embarrassing. " Johnny said after Gyro gave another one of his dramatic sighs and Italian mumbles which made his back shiver. What followed was a quiet few minutes where Gyro fed Johnny, who occasionally sighed dramatically, letting him know that he was not enjoying the situation.
The sun, which was already obscured by the gray clouds, had started setting, and the two moved on to finding leftover warm clothes to change into for the night. Their horses breathed slowly, any small wounds they had gotten during the day being treated by their two owners. Johnny had been throwing sticks into their small fire, not really paying attention to anything, his thoughts carrying him through his past like usual, as well as planning for the future.
“Hey, Gyro, what do you want to do after this?” Johnny asked the man who had just sat down beside him, rubbing his hands like a cricket and putting them up to the fire.
“What do you mean?” He responded, happy to have another one of their late night talks.
“I mean like after this, after the race is over. I joined so that I could chase you and see if you could help me, and to an extent you have.. You’ve helped me so much, but I'm worried about what's next.” Gyro looked into the fire as he listened to Johnny speak, it was nice having another private moment like this.
“I have a lot of work left to do in Italy, so I’d hope I can finish it after I'm done here.” Gyro looked at Johnny and grinned his usual toothy smile, and Johnny smiled back, maybe a look of sadness on his face along with his calmness.
“..Would you mind if I joined you? Even if I can get back into riding horses with your help, I don't have much left here for myself.” He leaned back on the soft body of Valkyrie, looking at the sleepy horizon. Gyro didn’t answer, he put out the fire carefully and sat himself next to Johnny, grunting a little as he pushed himself onto his horse and then slid down on his feathery pillow, looking back up at Johnny who seemed to be looking at him. He looked away after a second of eye contact, and Gyro wordlessly and gently yanked on his warm sleeve, but Johnny didn’t slide along with him.
Pulling himself up with some grunts again, Gyro rested his elbow on Johnny’s shoulder, looking directly at his rosey face. "Is there something wrong?"
"You didn't answer my question. " Johnny said, turning his head to look at him.
Gyro took his elbow off and gently took a hold of Johnny's warmer face in his warm hands, causing the other man to be a little confused.
"Johnny, you've been following me for so long that I don't doubt that you'll follow me 'till the end of the world, but I've been following you too. This quest about the corpse, you started it, and i'm following you along it. I don't think I'll stop at just some ol' saint's corpse." Moving his face a little, Gyro said warmly with a bizarre determination that seemed to both fit and completely be out of character for him, but that seemed to just be how he was.
Johnny put his hand on one of Gyro's, closing his fingers around it slowly. He didn't say anything, but the look of determination on his face was stronger than words for Gyro. He smiled, squishing his cheeks for a second before pulling his hands away.
"Nyoho! I'll take that as a yes." He layed back down onto his horse, his hands behind his head. Johnny only smiled before looking away to cough and layed next to Gyro, who quickly pulled him even more down to lay on his back, his head on his pillow. Gyro pointed at some stars and came up with a gag about a Greek God thinking the stars were an elaborate puzzle, connecting them all with strings. The stars being people and their strings being fate.
..Johnny remarked that it wasn't really funny, more like philosophical, and Gyro gave him a friendly push as a show of annoyance about technicalities. The more they stayed up to talk, the sleepier they got, Gyro more than Johnny, and in the middle of their conversation about languages, Johnny suddenly heard Gyro's light snores. Turning over, he watched his chest rise and fall, wondering how snoring worked in the first place. Since he was a surgeon, Gyro would probably know, he'll have to ask him in the morning.
Scooting a little closer, Johnny positioned his head in between Gyro's arm and torso, hoping he wouldn't wake up, and after a few minutes, 2 sets of snores could be heard from that lucky land ditch. Only the cold air and the fated stars above them saw the two sleepily entangling limbs, and the fated stars along with the two men fell asleep under the guidance of the moon.