Chapter Text
Losing track of time wasn’t uncommon for Tobirama, and she was smart enough to know that this would lead to consequences. However, she thought the consequences of doing her Christmas shopping at the eleventh hour would only result in her purchasing ‘less than mediocre’ presents for her family, friends, and students.
Boy was she wrong…
How did she end up in her current predicament?
Well… the answer to that is simple.
Tobirama cared for her research more than anything else. Often, she would be cooped up in her lab, too focused to realize what time it is, or even which day it was. She would skip on meals and sleep, which made those who knew her wonder how she had fair skin that glowed, and luscious long hair that looked remarkably healthy.
The answer to that too was simple, and more or less the same… research!
She had found the solution to maintaining her health a long time ago. It’s needless to say, of course, that she had been highly motivated since she would never let anything interfere with her finding the answers that she sought.
Not a growling stomach, and certainly not her heavy eyelids beckoning her to get some rest, would ever prevent her from losing her focus and completing her research.
Tobirama was simply amazing, so she wondered how she could have allowed herself to end up in this situation. Then a familiar face popped into her train of thought, Hashirama…
This was her brother’s fault! He made her promise to make it to this year’s Christmas party since she missed out on all the previous holidays, and Tobirama could not turn her brother down since he had come to her personally with his puppy dog eyes, and pouty face, which he knew she could never say no to.
It was a cheap shot!
He’s the real reason she ended up in her state. If it wasn’t for Hashirama, she would still be in her lab instead of racing around town trying to find presents, and she definitely wouldn’t be dragging her legs through a foot of snow IN THE MIDDLE OF A BLIZZARD!
“Damn you, Hashirama!” she yelled loudly to vent her anger. She wouldn’t really be heard by anyone since,
ONE
There was a blizzard!
And TWO
No one in their right mind would be out here in a damned blizzard!
Yet, she a brilliant scientist who worked for a renowned pharmaceutical company was.
“Damn him indeed. I know my reasons for cursing your foolish brother, but what are yours?” a voice that she had been intimately familiar with caused her to freeze in place, when a darned blizzard had failed to do so.
Why?
Why is this happening to her?
She was already having a very crummy day, yet somehow it got worse.
Wasn’t she a good person? Most of the solutions she dedicated her life to finding were cures for diseases. Hadn’t she saved countless lives with her research?
Yet, it seemed to her that the universe decided it was ‘Let’s fuck with Tobirama’ day, because why else would her EX-BOYFRIEND suddenly appear, in the middle of a BLIZZARD damn it! if some omnipotent God did not desire it?!
The coincidence was just too unlikely.
She was definitely being punished for something.
She looked up and muttered under her breath, “Whatever it is I did to piss you off, I promise I will do right by you. Just please, PLEASE, don’t let me turn and find him there” she begged the God who caused her current misery.
However, when she turned around, it was clear that her pleading prayer was futile.
Sitting in his car with his window rolled down and his head popping out of it to speak with her, was Madara Uchiha, her brother’s best friend and the man she dated in college.
“What are you doing here?” she asked in the most indifferent tone she could muster.
There it was… that sexy smirk of his. What an asshole!
“It’s Christmas, the season of family and joy…” He said in that infamous sardonic tone of his.
“Family and joy? I’m surprised those two words are in your vocabulary” she jeered back at him and turned away to continue shuffling her feet in the snow.
The storm had caused a couple more inches to pile on and her efforts were laboured.
“In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a blizzard” He called at her, and she yelled back, “Oh is that what this is?”
If she was to engage in this banter with him, then she might as well walk while doing it. If she stayed in place any longer, she would likely be buried in snow and would freeze to her death.
“Get in!” Madara called out to her through the roaring blizzard.
“No way in hell!” It was the last thing she wanted to do.
“You’ll freeze to death!” He tried to talk some sense into her, surely her tenacity ended when her life was threatened?
“I’d rather freeze out here, than in there with you!” Or perhaps not…
“Tobira, don’t be stupid. If your brother learns that I found you in the middle of a blizzard, and didn’t take you home myself, he’ll hunt me down and kill me”
Tobira…
The nickname irritated her. That was the name he called her by when they were together.
“All the more reason not to then” she spat back.
At this point Madara got out of his car and swept a stubborn Tobirama off her feet and onto his shoulder.
“PUT ME DOWN!” she barked at him.
And he obliged by putting her into the passenger seat of his car.
“Listen, I know you hate my guts, and believe me I wouldn’t be offering you this ride if there wasn’t a damned blizzard! Now stay in there and let me take you home damn it! This is faster and better than letting you freeze to death.”
She was pouting, and he knew this meant another round of objections would come his way, so he beat her to it.
“With you dead, who will carry on your precious research? Unless you want it to be given to someone else. Someone incompetent who would end up botching the whole thing” he said… a smirk so evident on his face because he knew he won.
He did win, because as soon as he said those words, Danzo popped into her mind. That bastard doesn’t care about saving lives. He only cares about getting ahead and he would definitely do whatever it takes to get his hands on her work.
He did have snow tires on, so it would be safe too…
Tobirama resigned to let him take her home. She folded her arms, looked at the dashboard, and pouted heavier than before as she conceded this round to the Uchiha jerk.
Satisfied, Madara ran to the other side of the car, got in, and drove off to get out of the storm, and the possible second storm that could be unleashed from them being in a confined space together if he doesn’t get her home ASAP.
They drove for a while in complete silence, which was ironically deafening, so Madara turned on the radio to rid the discomfort it had created. Cheerful Christmas songs were playing on every channel, and although this type of music irritated him, it was better than the silence. Therefore, he had given up on finding another channel that played better music.
A while later, he found himself preferring the silence, but recalled he had another option. He had some tapes in the back, so he reached back to grab anything and the first thing he grabbed turned out to be Metallica.
Jackpot.
He put the tape in and cranked the music.
The Four Horsemen was playing and Madara sang along and bobbed his head to the music.
Tobirama hated this music. It brought back way too many memories for her, and something about the intensity he displayed to jamming to this song made her stare at him. He looked so sexy; it was so damn annoying!
He turned and looked at her, which alerted her that she had been admiring him, and wishing for him to not notice this, she scowled at him. However, he wasn’t deterred and sang louder.
A very petty Tobirama then leaned forward to eject the tape and threw it to the back.
Madara deadpanned.
“It’s too loud” is all she said for an explanation.
“You used to love this song” he claimed, and she retorted, “No I didn’t”
“Yeah, you did, you used to play Jump in the Fire all the time”
“The Four Horsemen” she corrected, and he smirked as she fell into his trap. He knew she couldn’t resist correcting him, and she didn’t realize what he did until it was too late.
There’s that smirk again! Damned jerk…
“I was concussed back then” she attempted to save some dignity.
He raised an eyebrow at her, “Huh?”
“I definitely wasn’t in my right state of mind if I liked this crap”
“Pfft, you still like it” he said self-assured, and reached back to grab another tape when Tobirama yelled, “WATCH OUT!”
A deer had hopped onto the road from nowhere, and Madara quickly turned the wheel to avoid hitting the animal, when the car skidded and swerved into a hill of snow. They were wedged in deep as the pile descended to completely burry the car.
Thankfully the airbags didn’t come out, but Tobirama’s breaths were still exacerbated from the seatbelt pull. She was sure that she would find a bruise on her chest the next day.
“Are you alright?” Madara asked worriedly as he reached out his arms and grabbed her shoulders to inspect that she was fine.
“I’m just fine” she said irritated as she swatted his arms away.
He took the aggression to be a confirmation that there was nothing wrong with her at all, and they both inspected their surroundings to discern the extent of the circumstance. Every window revealed the same predicament, as they could see nothing but white snow all around them.
They were buried entirely beneath the snow and with no way out.
Fuck!
It was clear what they needed to do, but she refused to believe that her day could only get even worse!
WHY?!
This God must be really having a good laugh right about now. Was her misery really that entertaining?!
Madara spoke again, “Tobira, we’re trapped-” and she interjected, “No shit! Your powers of observation are quite keen”, but he let her have this since he knew she didn’t want to be in this situation just as much as him. “Listen, we don’t know when the storm will end, and from the looks of it, I don’t know if anyone would even notice that we have been buried beneath the snow. We could potentially be stuck here for hours or days even”
The gravity of the situation they were in suddenly hit her. She could be stuck with Madara for days!
“We could freeze to death” he added.
Oh yeah, and that too…
But he didn’t stop speaking.
“I have a blanket in the back, and… I’m sure someone as smart as you are, knows the basics of how to survive in situations like this…”
Tobirama turned to meet his gaze with eyes so wide.
Fuck!
This was only going to get much worse…
“NO FUCKING WAY!” she completely refused, “Hell no! it’s not going to happen, Uchiha!”
Was he mad?!
Curse you Hashirama!
“I’m not going to get naked and cuddle up with you!” she yelled back at him with a scowl on her face.
“If you know of any other way, then please tell me. I’m all ears.” He retorted and stared at her with complete seriousness in his gaze.
There was no other way…
FUCK!
After a moment of her scowling at him in silence and being incapable of producing any solutions, Madara attempted to offer a few words of comfort and encouragement.
“It’s not like we haven’t seen each other naked before”
They were anything but words of comfort and encouragement…
The knot forming on her brows grew tighter in disapproval and Madara feared for his life even more than he already had at the thought of freezing to death.
“Look, Tobira, it would suck to die this way. You and I are fighters, and you know it. I need to get to my family, and you want to get back to yours…”
Tobirama sighed and said, “It would suck to die in a car buried under snow with you. Fine, I’ll do it, BUT IF YOU TRY ANYTHING I-” and he interjected, “Don’t flatter yourself. Just make sure you don’t try anything either”
She scoffed, “You’re worried about me trying anything? Seriously?”
Like this bastard would say no if she did?!
Which she wouldn’t!
But if she did…
which, again, she wouldn’t!
Then no way would this asshole turn her down. Would he?
Madara moved to the back seat and began to take off his shirt.
“What are you doing?!” she asked alarmed, and he stared at her with a blank expression which was basically saying, ‘Seriously?’
But he did say it with words, “I’m trying to stay alive” in his matter-of-factly tone, “You should do the same”
Fuck, she was really stuck in a car with her ex-boyfriend, buried in the snow, and about to get naked and cuddle with him to save her life…
Fuck…
.