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Prompt 5 (Ice Bath): Rainfall is rare in Destiny City during Winter; there have been a few light showers between the occasional snow but it’s never been enough to be significant. In some places, it’s just enough for a thin layer of ice to cover the ground and make it a little slippery, but ultimately it’s not enough to worry about. In an inconspicuous place in town, you step into one of these icy puddles and the thin layer of ice shatters. The hole itself seems maybe three feet wide and if you’ve ever been in the area before you know it’s just a pothole a few inches deep at most. Except, when the ice shatters, you fall, plummeting into it as if it were a lake of icy water. It’s pitch black around you and only pale blue lights shimmer above you. The darkness is never ending and you can’t make out the details of anything except the shrinking hole above you. Maybe you remember how to swim and pull yourself out, maybe you black out and feel someone else pulling you out--either way, your frozen, soaking body is pulled from the puddle. The chill is immense, but if you look at the hole after being pulled out, all you can see is the ground below. There’s no sign that what you just experienced is real--except for the fact that you’re still soaking wet.
Cleeia's thoughts had been a storm ever since his encounter with Gelria. He could never seem to get them together--there was so much to turn over, so much to wonder about. The way Gelria had started out hostile, and then become...almost tender, even if it was the kind of tender that had a knife behind its back.
It wasn't that Cleeia didn't see what was going on. All the kisses in the world couldn't change that Gelria had clearly threatened to kill him. Not exactly out of the ordinary, considering that they were on opposite sides of a war, but still a thing that had definitely happened and that was making things very complex and confusing for Cleeia. Because the other thing was....that kiss...it had been so brief, and Cleea hadn't had time to respond, or kiss back, or anything, and that made it an extremely lame first kiss, and Cleeia hated that. He didn't like to think of himself as a romantic, or even over-concerned with all that nonsense at all, but he was certainly thinking a whole lot about how disappointed he was in Gelria's kiss and how much he wanted a proper one.
Honestly. The man threatened him, pinned him down, wrapped a hand around his throat, and didn't even have the courtesy to kiss him with some tongue. It was a gratuitous disappointment.
Then again, they had plans to meet again. Cleeia supposed he might have to correct that egregious oversight himself. That was something he could do. He could be bold, he thought--go forward and initiate the next damn kiss himself, if that was what was going to happen anyway. No, he wasn't going to fall for all Gelria's gentle tenderness, because it was tender with a threat, Cleeia was pretty sure, but that didn't mean he couldn't have a little fun. Especially since it was obvious that Gelria thought he was pretty.
Which was very much not something Cleeia was used to. He wondered, briefly, if Gelria would be disappointed if he ever saw Constantin--messy, geeky Constantin, even though ever since he'd become a Senshi, Cleeia had let his hair grow out, because he'd found he rather liked it long, and he guessed that might make him a little prettier. Not as long as in his corrupt form, sure, but still something. But most people still didn't look at Constantin Lacroix and see someone desirable. Someone they wanted to kiss. Aimee and Desiree, sure, but never him. It was almost certain, he supposed, that Gelria would be disappointed if he ever met him outside of his powered form, then, which was....deeply unfortuante.
Cleea really, really did not want to disappoint Gelria.
He sighed, softly, pausing briefly in his patrol as he felt a wet splash up his pant leg. He'd been wandering in the dark for a while, and there had been an unseasonable shower recently; the street was covered with frozen-over puddles, and he had stepped in one. Cold water covered his toes, and he groaned, quickly moving to step forward. He was too far in his own head; Gelria had gotten to him very, very badly. But that was the problem, wasn't it; he was too far in his own head all the time, lately. Gelria had done something to him, and he wasn't sure what it was, but it was incredibly frustrating and had him massively distracted.
Ugh.
He took a few more steps, and groaned as he felt ice crack under his fett again. More cold water, more of a splash--
But this time, it wasn't some tiny little splash.
The ice gave, and gave, and gave, and there was suddenly no ground under him, and he was plummeting down into dark, freezing water. He screamed as he went, but when his head hit the water and he just kept falling, he shut his mouth. He had enough presence of mind not to try and breathe underwater, at least, and he tried to turn upwards, but there wa sonly a small circle of light, and he kept slipping--
Deeper--
And deeper--
Horror seized him, and he tried to struggle upwards. This had to be some kind of nightmare, because this should have just bene a tiny little puddle in a pothole, a few inches deep at most, but here he was, far enough udsnerwater to be totally submerged, and he could feel the cold sinking into his bones.
He could die here.
He did not want to die here.
He couldn't disappoint Mirzam, or--
Or Gelria--
He had to show up to his and Gelria's next meeting. he had to get a proper kiss. he wasn't going to die only having had that stupid, chaste little peck Gelria wanted to pass off as a proper one.
He struggled upwards, heart racing the entire time. It wasn't easy, his sense of direction was thrown off by the dark water and the cold, but he focused on the light he could see, and finally, he breached the surface and scrambled for the edge of the hole through the street he'd fallen into. It took him a few more moments to flail out of the water, but he made it, hauling himself onto the street and gasping for breath. His hair clung to him, long and wet and sticking, and as the adrenaline surge that had carried him up and out began to fade away, Cleeia felt something worse settle in around him--the cold of the icy night air. He began to shiver, and slowly staggered to his feet. He had to get out of here. Had to find somewhewre to warm up. Had to--
Had to make sure he didn't freeze to death on the surface, having avoided drowning in that strange, awful water.
He glanced back for a moment, and what he saw sent a chill through him that was not at all related to the environment.
The hole he had fallen into was gone.
In its place, an eerie, innocent-looking little puddle.
[wc: 1002 words]
