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There was a lake, conveniently located a few miles past the outskirts of Destiny City, that was a traditional spot for Fourth of July celebrations and other summertime festivities -- fireworks looked just that much more spectacular when their mirror image sparkled across the still waters; it was a nice place to have barbecues and treat youngsters to their first case of having their entire epidermis covered by mosquito bites. It was a nice place to go... in the summer. During the winter it kind of sucked, the lake's surface never froze quite enough to go skating on and it wasn't worth going out of the way to have a snowball fight out there, so the place remained pretty desolate until it thawed and warmed again.

It was the dead of winter, snow was all over the place, the lake had its obligatory CAUTION: THIN ICE signs set up around it even though the city's entire population had stopped trying to recklessly test its thickness years ago, and yet for some reason there were still a couple of people making their way up towards it.

It was about 11:30 PM. For Franz and Janice this meant the night was still young; it was usually another two or three hours before their now near-ritualistic phone conversations began, but tonight they were making an exception to the rule (rules were meant to make exceptions for). Janice made it up there first, in a peacoat and a new scarf, and... a hat.

For most New Year's celebrations, people wore the standard cone-shaped party hat or those cheap glitter-covered plastic top hats. Janice was wearing a nice fedora she'd gotten from her friend Nora for Christmas.

It was quiet outside, the air still and the sky clear. Nice weather, relatively, as good for going outside as it was going to get until spring moved in. Janice was carrying a somewhat large box with her, she carefully set this on the ground near the lake's edge once she made her way up to it. And she sat on it, and waited.

Franz was kneeling down in the snow in front of Janice her box and, for lack of a better way to describe it, was all over her like a rainbow on an oil slick. Janice did not mind this. His spiked, blonde hair was scraping up under the brim of her hat as he emphatically kissed her again. She did not mind this at all. She kept having to readjust her fedora, and this was perfectly acceptable. Preferable, even.

"Murder, death, and tyranny?" she quipped, while lightly stroking the side of his face with her fingertips (he was blissfully leaning into the touch like an overly affectionate cat). "These things still happen, you know that, it doesn't need to blare across the headlines to be a reality. The more watchful eyes -- our more watchful eyes, they see, they know these things."

How aware she'd become of that, now more than ever. Someday she would tell Franz everything and he'd be so thrilled, so proud of her.

That day would not be coming for a very long time, however.

"But I digress. Sasha," and, in a somewhat dismaying motion, she gently took Franz's shoulders in her hands and pushed him off of her, so she could stand up. "Forgive me, I'm afraid one of my gifts to you arrived a little late. So I brought it with me." She gestured towards the box, smirking mischievously. "Would you like to open it?"