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Isamu grunted as he forced his way through the snow. Fuckin’ a, his side hurt. It was bad enough that his parents couldn’t hold back from being complete jackasses for one night—when Morioh was hit with a surprise blizzard no less (thanks for the warning, weatherman). But when he went to his usual haunt where hid out when his parents kicked him out, who did he find but Namikawa, Shimono, and Tanezaki sitting on their asses?
And yeah, it probably wouldn’t have kept him completely safe from the blizzard. It was just a nook in the middle of nowhere that made a natural barrier that kept Isamu’s back protected when he needed a place to crash for the night. He had even carved out hidden storage places where he could store nonperishable food when his parents didn’t bother grocery shopping. In this weather, he’d probably need to build a shelter for himself, but he’d rather do some building and probably get frostbite than risk breaking back into his room.
But nooooooo. He had to be ambushed by three guys who haven’t figured out their asses aren’t hats and they should really get their heads out of them. And they couldn’t be happy with ganging up on him and beating the shit out of him. No, Shimono had to bring a goddamn knife!
Didn’t stop Isamu from kicking their teeth in. Never say he didn’t give as good as he got.
He didn’t think he got straight-up stabbed, not enough blood for that, but having this many open cuts in these temperatures couldn’t be safe. Would his blood start to freeze after a while? Gnarly in one way, but also scary as shit. So, he turned around and started walking back into town, hoping that he’d find a place to get out of the cold.
He grabbed onto a light pole and tugged himself forward onto the sidewalk, or it could’ve been the road (hard to tell with all of the snow on the ground). Before he could start making his way down the road, a noise managed to break through the wind and reach Isamu. It wasn’t hard to find the source—all it took was looking slightly to the right and following the tracks along the road. There was a car fully stopped on the road. At first glance, he couldn’t quite tell what was up with it. Maybe it had stalled out, which he might’ve been able to help with if the driver would let him. If it was something more than that, something that would require tools or a real mechanic, he could at least help them walk into town.
It stung to move, but Isamu tightened his posture and walked over to the car with as sturdy of a gait as he could manage. He was still shambling a bit, but he’d like to see someone else stay perfectly upright when the snow was this deep. As he got closer, he was able to see the issue. As far as he could tell, the car was stuck in the snow. He shifted to the side as he approached the car, hoping that the driver would catch him in one of the mirrors.
And yeah, she did. “Wh-What do you want? Go away!”
Isamu took a quick look through the rear window. The woman in the driver’s seat was glaring daggers at him, but the backseat showed him a different side of the picture. There were two kids in the backseat of the car: one little kid and a toddler in a car seat. Both kiddos looked absolutely miserable. They seemed feverish, and both were bundled up in blankets and cold compresses. He got briefly distracted by a cute little dog in the middle seat that was alternating between growling at him and sniffing at the two kids in concern.
His muscles hurt just thinking about what Isamu needed to do, but he didn’t really have a choice. Like he said, it’s what he needed to do.
Tightening his core muscles aggravated the cuts and bruises, but he needed to shout to be heard past the wind and through the window. “Those kids are sick right?” She nodded. “I’ll push your car for you.”
He didn’t bother keeping his ears pricked to catch if the woman said anything that might dissuade him. He couldn’t be a coward and go back on what he said. He shed a mental tear as he tugged off his jacket, leaving him in a somewhat thick shirt, but nowhere near thick enough to protect him from the elements. The rotation of the car wheels had completely polished the snow underneath. There was no way that it would get moving if it stayed in that divot. It needed something with friction to carry it forward. Usually, he would be able to run off and find an abandoned cardboard box somewhere, but usually the snow wasn’t four hundred kilometers deep, so he had to make do. He laid out his jacket and looked through the rear window again.
He snuck a brief glance in the backseat before he spoke to the driver again. The toddler in the car seat was still asleep but it definitely wasn’t a restful sleep. The kid seemed awake, though it was hard to tell through the foggy glass. The dog had stopped growling, at least for the moment. Instead, it was standing to its full height—which wasn’t that high for the little terrier to be honest—and was sniffing in the air, only stopping to cock its head to the side.
Isamu tapped the window to get the driver’s attention again. “Hurry up and step on the gas.” He shifted his feet, bracing himself before pushing. “Once you get moving, don’t stop. Just keep going, or your tires will get stuck in the snow again.”
When the car started to rev, Isamu knew it was showtime. The wheels kicked back snow in a solid wave, sending ice shards flying right toward his legs. His pants and shoes weren’t built for the snow, but he could stress about the cold cutting into his legs when the family was safe. His muscles screamed as they tensed. The frozen metal sent pins and needles shooting down his bare hands. The bumps on his head throbbed, which seemed unfair when the world was trying its best to ice them. But that didn’t matter. The minutes, maybe even seconds, stretched on and on before the wheels caught on his jacket. With a few more shoves, the car launched forward. It didn’t fly down the road, no matter how you shook it, but it was moving and keeping up a steady clip at that.
He stared at the car as it rolled over the packed snow until the flakes started to bother his eyes too much. Isamu wrapped an arm underneath his ribs to put pressure on the cuts that were stretched past their breaking points when he shoved the car. Slowly, he crouched, knees popping along the way, and picked up his jacket. The tire tracks were about as bad as he expected, but they should come out in the laundry. There were some popped seams here and there as well. But as he’d probably be able to stitch those back together later.
At least the jacket was still in one piece. He hissed through his teeth as he pulled his arms through the sleeves, aggravating his injuries with every rotation of his limbs. He turned and started trudging through the snow. His toes were freezing as melted snow sank into his shoes. His socks were well past soaked at this point. With the snow as deep as it was, it took minutes for Isamu to reach the telephone poles on the opposite side of the road, rather than the usual five seconds of jaywalking. He stopped for a moment, leaning against one of the poles while he got his bearings.
If he kept walking this way, it was almost a straight shot to town. But were there businesses still open at this time of night that he could duck into? What time was it anyway? He couldn’t see any lights in the distance, but the storm could’ve knocked out the power ages ago and Isamu wouldn’t know the difference. Damn, he really needed to get a new watch. If he went to the left, he’d be able to make it to Natsuno’s apartment building eventually. But even through the storm, he could see that there was nothing in that direction for kilometers, apart from a little dog charging at him like it was riding a snowmobile. He’d be screwed beyond belief if he collapsed. If he made it to the building, there’s no way he’d be turned back into the storm, right? Their break-up was messy, but it wasn’t that bad, right?
An unidentified flying animal slammed right into his chest and forced all of the air from his lungs. The force was enough to send Isamu falling right back into the snow. He wheezed as his back crashed into the snow, feeling little bumps nudge into his bruises. When he cracked a snowflake-dotted eyelid open, Isamu was greeted with the sight of the little dog from the back of the car.
“Hey, little guy,” he said, calmly so he didn’t aggravate the dog. “What are you doing here?” He stretched his neck and looked down the road as far as he could, hoping to get a glimpse of the taillights somewhere in the distance. Did the dog jump out of the window? There’s no way in hell that the lady driving would’ve opened the window. Did one of the kids hit a button? “Why aren’t you with your family?”
If a dog could actually glare, then Isamu would’ve been intimidated by the dog’s narrowed eyes. It huffed and walked around his chest, its paw pads finding every bruise dotting his skin. Isamu reached up to rest his hand on its back to get the dog to relax enough to stop moving, maybe sit down if Isamu was lucky enough. No dice. The dog shook its back until Isamu dropped his hand. With another huff, the dog carried on looking around.
Accepting his fate of heavy paws pressing into the wounds on his chest, Isamu dropped his head back into the snow. He closed his eyes, working up the motivation to get back to his feet. The thought of walking himself to safety was rough enough, but having to carry a squirming dog alongside him added a whole new level of difficulty. There was no way in hell that he’d abandon the dog in the snow, but he needed to build up the mental strength to trudge the both of them through the storm.
Something brushed against Isamu’s ear. He opened his eyes again and jolted back at what he saw. Snow was rising all around them. It wasn’t the blinding white that had seared into his eyes since he left the house. Instead, it was dingy and dirty, like the grit from the road had already gotten mixed up with the snow piling over it. Steadily, the gross snow built on top of itself, and when it reached a certain height, it started curving into an arc. By the time it stopped, there was a pretty well-built igloo around Isamu and the little dog.
“What the fuck?” Isamu whispered, looking around with wide eyes. This was a hallucination. He was dying and starting to hallucinate. That was the only thing that made sense. His brain was making up that they were in a shelter to comfort him as he froze to death.
The dog huffed, looking down at Isamu smugly.
It was batshit, but he had to ask. “Did…you…make this?” Isamu was having a conversation with a dog. That’s the night he was having. The cold had to be making him lose it because the little dog nodded, his collar and tags jangling. Isamu shrugged and scratched behind its ears. “Good,” Isamu leaned his head to the side to look beneath the dog, “boy?”
The dog barked and walked in circles until he curled up on Isamu’s chest. Isamu smiled and lightly stroked the dog’s back. Just being out of the wind and falling snow was making Isamu feel warmer, not even counting the new heater on his chest. He didn’t realize how much the weather was irritating the wounds all over his body until he was out of it. His body still stung, for sure, but it was settling into a tolerable throb.
This little guy really was a good boy, wasn’t he? As Isamu’s head lolled to the side and his exhausted eyelids dipped, he promised himself that he’d do anything to reunite the little dog with his family. Those kids would be missing him after all.
───※ ·✥· ※───
Isamu blinked himself awake to a commotion coming from every direction. He pushed himself up with a grimace, rubbing at his head along the way. His hand sunk into the mattress below him, and sheets just as white as the snow drift where he passed out. Hair brushed against his cheeks, and Isamu huffed, blowing away the strands that had fallen from his pomp.
“What the hell?” he breathed as it finally registered where he was. How did he get to a hospital? It didn’t look like the main building, more like an emergency clinic. Beyond the curtain walls, nurses and people with large SWF logos on their jackets ran back and forth, moving patients around the heaters set up in the walkway. Isamu lifted his arm, noticing the bandages around his body for the first time. His mood immediately dropped when he looked to his right.
“Oh fuck me. What do you want?”
One of the caterpillars above Officer Higashikata’s eye twitched as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Hello, Seki. How are you feeling?”
Isamu leaned back, skepticism clear as day on his face. “Alive. What’s it to you?”
“Young man, we dragged you out of the snow an hour ago, and you’re only just now waking up. I think I’m well within my rights to be concerned for your health.”
Isamu resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Higashikata’s BS display of concern. He was always like this whenever he had to drag Isamu’s ass back home, always sticking his nose right where it didn’t belong.
Higashikata continued when it was clear Isamu wasn’t going to say anything. “So, how did you get out there? Parents giving you trouble again?”
Isamu did scoff at that. “Do they ever stop?”
Higashikata shrugged in agreement. “Well, it seems like you were pretty far away from home out there. Care to explain why we found out there?”
Isamu had a biting response on the tip of his tongue, but it died when something flashed in his mind. He twisted to fully face Higashikata, ignoring the flash of pain in his side. “Wait. There was a little dog with me out there. Black and white. Some type of terrier, I think? About this big.” He held his hands in an approximation of the dog’s size.
Higashikata’s mouth twitched in a small smile. “Oh, Iggy?” He waved his hand dismissively. “He’s fine. Probably bundled up in blankets somewhere with the Foundation team. Don’t worry about him. He’s in much better shape than you; that’s for sure!”
“…Iggy?”
“Yeah, that’s his name.”
“Is…he your dog?”
“Yeah, he's the family dog.” Higashikata taped his fingers as he continued listing. “You also met my daughter out there. My grandbabies too.” His eyes were glassy when they returned to Isamu. “I don’t want to imagine what would’ve happened to them if you weren’t out there.”
Isamu blinked in shock. Sly bastard already knew what happened. He was just getting a kick out of watching Isamu squirm. Dick move, but still... “That was your family?”
Higashikata’s lips were pursed as he nodded. He wiped the corner of his eye with his thumb.
“Are the kids okay? They didn’t look too good when I saw them.”
Higashikata let out a stressed, breathy laugh as he leaned his head on his hand. “I don’t know. I really don’t. They’re checked in and under observation, but it’s touch and go right now.”
Isamu’s stomach dropped right out his body. “Shit. What’s going on? Do they have pneumonia or something?”
“…Something like that.”
“Damn, that really sucks. I’m sorry, sir. I hope they pull through.”
Higashikata smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Thank you, I hope so too. We have people looking into it, so we have to trust that my boys will stay strong in the meantime.”
“Eh, they’ll be fine. They looked like little fighters from where I was standing.”
A large hand dropped onto Isamu’s shoulder. “I cannot thank you enough for what you did. I don’t think they would’ve made it if you weren’t there.”
Isamu was so close to saying that anyone would’ve done the same thing, but there’s no way that anyone other than him was crazy enough to be that far away from the main streets of Morioh in a freaking blizzard. Instead, he rubbed the back of his neck and responded. “Yeah, man. No prob. ‘s not a big deal. I was walking past anyway.”
Higashikata smiled, but Isamu saw him roll his eyes as he put his hat back on. “I’m going to check in with my family. My break is only so long, after all. If you need anything, feel free to call over one of the nurses or Foundation members. Alright?”
“Yeah, yeah, go do your damn job or whatever.”
Officer Higashikata gave a belly laugh as he slipped his winter coat on. Isamu huffed as he settled back on the bed. That man must be a complete joke of an officer. He swore that Higashikata always laughed at some point whenever he dealt with Isamu and his classmates. Morioh must be teaming with criminals if the entire force took their jobs as seriously as Higashikata.
Still, didn’t mean Isamu wanted his grandkids to suffer. Poor kids. Isamu was rooting for them.
Isamu pulled the sheets up his chest and settled into the warm bed. He let his eyes droop shut to get as much sleep as he could before he was sent back home, only for them to shoot wide open when the question of ‘how the hell did that dog build an igloo’ flashed into his mind.