( Tessa )

▬♦M♦▬ Snow wasn’t magical. It didn’t make for cheery winter wonderlands. And it didn’t leave her itching to go ‘play’ in it like some silly child. It just made for frozen toes, frost bit fingers, and finding food much harder. Snow simply made you cold, wet, and hungry. Which was the trifecta of a bad fucking day in Tess’ book, so she wasn’t about to argue with his logic.            ”Indeed—-“ The word was crooned softly as she shivered, tugging the throw she’d found in the charming bachelor more tightly around herself. She’d been right about the place being clear and quite high enough to afford them some small sense of security, seeing that it was positioned above a small bar that had been well boarded up before the owners either left or turned.  The only problem was it faced the storm that was rolling in, and had no means of keeping it warm unless they started a fire in the damn electric oven.  Wind howled, gusting snow and whipping it in big swirls around the large window at the front, making her wish they’d have had time to scout out a more practical place before the storm hit.            ”—-Though maybe we coulda kept lookin’ a lil longer.            This place is comfortable, and decently stocked,             but damn, I’m gonna freeze t’death here.”

Sitting with one knee up and supporting his elbow, Kazu looked up from his whittling at her agreement. The pile of shavings he was going to use as tinder, while the wood itself he was tapering to be used as a shank or stake.

He ran hot, and while he too was chilled, he was nowhere near as cold as she apparently was. The place had been a jackpot, as far as he was concerned, even if it did need a few repairs. Winter was already upon them, and they had to start somewhere. First things first was to get a fire going for her, even if he had  to rip apart the busted oven for a pit tomorrow. Potentially dangerous and loud, he was reluctant as he scanned their surroundings one more time searching for any other durable canister. 

          “ No. ” He answered her as he went back to whittling.           “ —any longer and we would have been caught out                      in the storm and froze to death out there. ”

Setting the wood and knife down he stood up and moved towards a metal filing cabinet that was overturned in the back corner. Opening one of the drawers, as quickly and as hard as he could, he tugged and ripped it free on the first go. Walking back with the metal drawer that would suffice until a more efficient means was presented as their fire-pit, Kazu set it down and began to build her a fire with the tinder and books he had pilfered along the way.