smash_logs | baby it's cold outside

Byrne was neutral about the snow. He didn't like it or dislike it; it was just there. The only annoying thing was that he had to add another layer to his clothing, although it wasn't completely necessary. He could do without the jacket if he had to.

His scarf he always wore was convenient, shielding the lower half of his face from the cold.

He did have to admit that seeing the campus blanketed in snow was a beautiful sight, but he wasn't one to stop and admire.

So, if you see Byrne, he's probably on his way to do some training or whatnot. Will you approach him?

Of course Nabooru would because she was entirely a glutton for pain.

Actually, the plan was going to be completely different this time. She had followed him quietly, trailed after him, spied on him, and would have eavesdropped if he'd been making conversation. She was good at trailing people, even more so when she did it as to not get caught. And the academy was filled with various obstacles for her to hide behind, or under, or in - depending on the subject matter. She thought she had it pretty good, actually.

But it was cold. She still hadn't ignored that and never mind the consequences, she was still dressed like she thought she ought to have been.

Somewhere along the lines, she'd made a snowball. Just one to start and she'd been carrying it to the point where her right hand lost all feeling and required moments of her blowing onto it to warm it back up. I hate winter so damn much. And she spent the longest time looking at Byrne's backside before she decided it was the opportune moment. Hopefully the snowball aimed at his rear wasn't going to miss its mark.

After all, throwing a snowball wasn't quite like shooting arrows.

Really, Byrne should have been more on his guard. Why wasn't he? Why did he let that cold ball of snow strike him right on his rear? Well, he wasn't pleased at all. Not in the least.

He hastily turned around with with a murderous glint in his eyes to see who would dare do such an annoying thing to him? He figured it would be one of the students, stupid little pranksters, but no, it wasn't. It was a teacher. The dance teacher. The one who had slapped him a couple weeks ago when he was only trying to save her. The one who had pestered him on the network about his snow-playing habits as a child.

He wanted to ignore her and continue walking, but he knew that if he did that, she would probably keep chucking snowballs at him. So, he had to deal with her.

"Do you exist just to aggravate me?"

What a good way to get someone's attention. Nabooru was beginning to think snow was useful when it wasn't making the rest of her frozen solid. Or maybe that was the lack of clothes, because she was pretty sure if she didn't keep moving, she'd start chattering, teeter over, and be lost to the snow.

She emerged from her hiding place and stopped beside him as she nodded, "You got it in one, Byrne. I exist solely to aggravate you. I can't do it forever. I might as well take advantage of the moment. Besides..." Her arms lifted and she raised them over her head in thought, "I was thinking."

Then she paused and eyed him, "I do that sometimes. I really do." As though she'd assumed he was going to accuse her of being a thoughtless creature. Was he really that cruel? Maybe. "But yes. I was thinking that maybe a period of redemption is about in order. I thought I was done with all of that, but seeing you reminded me that I wasn't."

He really hated seeing Nabooru here. He really did. He had seen her cozying up to Ganon on the network more than once, and it really irritated him. She thought she could "save" him by using her seductive, womanly charms? What, was that her solution to everything? What did she hope to accomplish by making men everywhere fall into her grasp? Was that the only thing she knew how to do, was to seduce men? She really was an idiot then.

"Well fine, you've had your fun, now leave me be."

No, he wasn't going to fall victim to Nabooru's charm again. He wanted her out of his life. If she was too much of an idiot to do the logical thing and save herself before sacrificing herself for absolutely no reason, then she wasn't worth his time.

Besides, if he convinced himself of that, then it wouldn't be hard to let her go.

"Oh. You're angry," she observed.

Way to state the obvious.

"How long are you going to get bent out of shape? It's like I could bend over backwards and nothing I do is good enough for you. Is that what it is? You're just going to make me run around everywhere and stress myself out in hopes that you'll stop being constantly pissed off that I'm either--"

She paused and settled a hand upon her hip, "A, trying to do something good, which apparently just doesn't fly with you. Or B, trying to do something nice, which you just don't know how to accept. Or C, just trying to enjoy what little time I have left, which according to you, I'm not allowed to do."

Nabooru raised an eyebrow and she frowned at him prominently. "Do I expect you to thank me at all? No. Of course not, because pretty much everything I've attempted to do has come back to just blow up in my face constantly." She neglected to mention that usually when things like that happened, it was because of him. "But I do expect you to respect me. Because I respect you as a man, as an opponent, as a friend, and as a romantic inclination."

There, Byrne. Choke on her honesty.

Why was he angry? Because Nabooru was a complete moron, that's why. Giving up her life to seal away the man she was cozying up to, only for him to escape and Flood the land, killing her among millions. That was the first stupid thing she did. Second, she ignored the very obvious solution to this by just killing Ganon before he obtained the Triforce of Power. Third, the only thing she clearly knew how to do was to seduce men, and she thought she could redeem the King of Evil himself by doing just that. When he tried to instill reason in her, she slapped him.

However, he had a couple weeks to digest this, so he wasn't angry anymore. He was just frustrated and annoyed. She was still persisting, and he wanted her gone. Things would just be easier if she was gone from his life. Fine, be a Sage, it doesn't matter, just leave. Leave him be.

However, when she started going off on him, he had many things he wanted to say. Oh yes he did.

"Doing something good. If you were actually doing something good, Nabooru, then I'd be applauding you. What I am seeing is a complete waste of time that benefits no one." He wanted to unload on her about Ganon, but the last time he did that, he was slapped. If that happened again, he would easily hit her back, but they were outside, where there were potential witnesses, and authorities didn't look too kindly upon men hitting women.

"I'm not going to thank you for being a complete idiot," he continued, "So I don't know why you keep coming back to me when you would be better off to leave me be."

"You keep saying that," Nabooru argued with a bit a soft scoff. "Just because it's not benefiting you doesn't mean it's not benefiting someone else. Besides, didn't it ever occur to you that maybe it's benefiting me? Yes, all I've done lately is talk about how I want to save the Gerudo, how I will, even if I have to be sneaky about it, but isn't it a little obvious that this is chance for me to be needed?"

She slipped her hands behind her back, temporarily forgetting about the cold. "Of course I want to feel useful and needed and like I have a purpose and not some stupid thing that was made so men would fall in love with me and procreate with me and I'd just have babies my whole life. Of course I want to be more than just a nice set of tits and ass. This is my chance to do that, isn't it? I'll go down into history as a hero. A Gerudo who was a hero. Not a disgrace. Not whatever Lord Ganondorf is going to become. I can be living proof that the Gerudo aren't the most horrible people ever."

"I'm not pure of heart to say that I'm doing this completely for them. No way. I'm doing a lot of it for me, too. What kind of purpose do I have if I can't help them? I'll wind up stuck at this academy, not doing anything with my life. Yeah. Maybe some time a really great guy will come by and remind me what it's like to be wanted and adored. And you know, I'd love that. I really, really would. I'd sometimes love that more than anything. But come on. Honestly. You're the best example of it all."

She pointed to herself, "You look at me and see one thing only. And every other guy in the world is going to see the exact same thing. I might as well be condemned to my solitude."

"How many times do I have to say it?" His voice was raised a bit, and his frustration levels were rising. Why was he bothering with her anymore? "It doesn't benefit anyone. Your Gerudo are doomed, whether you seal Ganon away or not. The Flood is coming. The only way to save yourself is to stay out of Hyrule, or to kill Ganon before anything happens, yet you refuse to do either. So, what you do now is none of my concern, because I can't get logic through that thick head of yours."

He wasn't holding back now. Nabooru was annoying him, frustrating him, almost angering him, that he wasn't going to sugar coat any words for her. Not that he did much sugar-coating anyway, but he knew there was nothing to gain right now from a relationship with her, so he didn't care how he treated her.

He wanted to be offended when she said that he only saw one thing only in her. Because as much as he had convinced himself that he just wanted to bed her, there was much more. But now, he couldn't think of why. He was so frustrated with her that all he could see now was a complete airhead with a nice body.

"I do see one thing only in you, Nabooru, and that's your complete stupidity. You're even proving it now by wearing practically nothing out in the snow."

It's a pride thing, she started to say.

But she didn't. Part of her wanted to just say all the mean things she could. Except... there weren't any mean things there. And if there had been, she's not sure she would have said any of it.

"As much as I want to fight with you, I... don't think I can anymore. Not because I'm afraid. Not because I think you'll say whatever you need to say to make me mad. But mostly because... I just can't."

It's like you've killed every desire of mine to fight with you.

"I look at you and I don't want to fight with you. I just want to say you can say whatever you want about me or to me, as long as you're not angry with me anymore. So can you at least call a truce with me?"

If I'm wrong about all of this, I need someone strong behind me. Even if it's just someone saying 'I told you so'.

She paused. And then... "...Please? I'm not going to go back inside until I can at least try to fix this." Which wasn't something she often said. If at all. Because it was polite. And good etiquette was sometimes lost on her.

"I'm not angry," he said, "I'm just extremely frustrated." After all, he had had a couple weeks to let the initial anger die down. But it would build back up again if they continued like this. If he said more of what he truly felt, about her stupidity, about Ganon, about the Flood, about everything, then it would have developed into a cathartic anger. He wanted to be angry at her, because then it would be easier to let her go, to let her die in the Flood. Besides, if she altered the timeline by giving up her Sagedom or even killing Ganon, that could rewrite Byrne's entire existence.

But he hated her for how she could latch onto him and beg him not to be angry with her. She was, again, acting like the abused wife, coming back to him for more verbal abuse. He didn't know what to do. He truly wanted her gone from his side so that he could leave the timeline alone and let her do what she wanted. She could marry Ganon or Shinon for all he cared.

And she wasn't going to go back inside until he relented.

Fine, then freeze to death for all I care. He wanted to tell her that, as he knew she wouldn't actually do it. Her precious Gerudo King or Shinon or someone would rescue her from this miserable cold, and she could run off and do whatever she wanted. Away from him.

Though he had already said he wasn't angry. Would this get her away from him then?

For a moment, she simply stared at him, and just increasingly got angrier.

"Okay. I get it," was all she said to begin with.

Then she looked past him for a moment. "I shouldn't have to do this. If you honestly cared at all instead of pulling me back and forth because you're a damn coward, you wouldn't put me through it." Her eyes rested back on his and her stare hardened. Then her right hand lifted and with an accompanying flip of the 'bird', there came, "So fuck you."

And then there was a Gerudo storming off in the snow. But at least she was leaving him to his peace. Just the way he wanted.

~~and then byrn sed 2 anbs: "im sry bby plz dun leave meh."~~

That was exactly what he wanted. Byrne wanted her to leave, to get out of his life, his mind, his heart. But she had to push his buttons by calling him a coward, and he couldn't have that. He wasn't a coward. He wasn't a coward at all. Now his anger had built back up.

"Fine!" he yelled, not caring who else was around, "You want me to stop being a coward?"

He quickly walked up to her as she was storming off, blocking her path before she walked any further. Anything he said now was the result of his fury at being called a coward, and absolutely no thought would go into what he said. However, he did lower his voice, as now he was closer to her.

"I can't sit here and watch you die, after all you've put me through. I can't sit and watch you spend the rest of your life locked away in some Temple, only to be killed. There's nothing I can do to stop you, and it's making me furious."

Part of his resentment was due to the fact that he couldn't control her, he couldn't exert any sort of power over her when it came to this situation. But that was only a small part of it. In reality, he was angry because he couldn't save her. She wouldn't let him save her.

She would have continued right along if he hadn't directly stopped her. She didn't readily know what to say either. In fact, she was pretty sure if she just stood there and ignored him eventually he'd either blow up entirely, or he'd finally take his leave and just stop trying to break her down even more than he already had. But while she supposed she could have been cruel, she chose not to do that to him. She did remain silent, however, at least for a few moments after he was finished.

It must have been brief, but it felt like hours, and days, and perhaps like time had stopped as he addressed her. And she played each thing over in her head carefully, the analysis kicking in to figure out what he actually meant.

"...after all you've put me through."

He didn't have to go through anything. If he did, he wanted to. And if he'd wanted to, it must have been because he was doing so for her.

"There's nothing I can do to stop you, and it's making me furious."

That was probably true. She doubted she'd give him the chance to control her in such a way. She didn't want to give that kind of power to anyone, though.

Her weight shifted onto her right foot and she lifted a hand to rest upon her hip as she finally looked towards him. She still didn't know what to say and she was ninety-eight percent certain that whatever she said he was going to throw a tantrum over. So she watched him and waited to see if there was anything else he needed to get out. In that moment, she felt as unchanging as stone beneath rain and sleet.

But very attentive stone.

Nabooru had said nothing to him, but merely looked at him, waiting to see what else he had to say. What else did he have to say? There was only so much he could say without completely damaging his pride and dignity. Why had he put up with Nabooru for so long? Putting up with her teasing, her annoying attitude, her utter stupidity was not worth it for a few hurried kisses here and there, so why did he ever bother to stick around?

"Somehow, despite your stubborn, idiotic attitude, I've managed to stick around, and now you're doing this. I have no choice but to remove myself from your life, because I can't watch you, with a sane mind, let the damned Goddesses and Spirits control you."

He didn't know what he was saying. He was ranting, venting, letting out those feelings that caused him to be so angry with her. He should have stopped himself. He was revealing too much. He was getting too far into that place he didn't want to go when he met Nabooru. After that first kiss, he shouldn't have let her into his room to rekindle their relationship. He should have listened to that sane part of his mind telling him to stop before something like this happened.

But it was too late, he was already saying too much.

"Don't you see, Nabooru, that I care about you? If I didn't care, it wouldn't matter to me whether you lived or died, whether it was for just cause or not." His voice lowered now, and he looked away from her. Now he was filled with instant regret for revealing that much. If Nabooru were to yell at him more or slap him, he would probably deserve it, though it would anger him at first.

"I have no choice but to remove myself from your life, because I can't watch you, with a sane mind, let the damned Goddesses and Spirits control you."

She almost argued that. What, had he forgotten the part where she was doing her own thing? But then she hadn't said what her plan was in the first place. Of course he had no other option than to assume. Although she still would have liked it more if he'd had more faith in her. That he didn't, upset her a bit. But she couldn't say that. She had to keep it to herself. Just to prevent being anymore yelled at, or anything else of the sort.

She looked aside for a moment and nodded slowly, as if to silently agree with him. It was more understanding for the situation. And then he continued and she felt a lot of her insides simply... drop.

"Don't you see, Nabooru, that I care about you? If I didn't care, it wouldn't matter to me whether you lived or died, whether it was..."

No, she protested to herself. Don't say that. You know better than to say anything like that to me. This isn't good. This isn't what you're supposed to... This wasn't what... Don't do this to me. Don't do this to yourself. You know what's going to happen. The moment you knew, we weren't supposed to get any closer.

What was she supposed to say? She guessed the way her cheeks were reddening was saying more than enough. "If you get hurt," she began quietly. "It's my fault." Because emotionally he just owned up to his feelings for her. Which meant if something happened to her it was... all of her responsibility.

I don't know what you want me to say. Here, just twist the knife in my heart a bit more.

"I won't let anything happen to me. I mean, I'll try. If I'm wrong. If I fail. You can... do whatever you want. I just want to try my way, first. I don't have plans of playing into the hands of the goddesses. I have plans of using what they gave me to my advantage. For my own use. Not for theirs. I never had plans of following whatever it was they wanted me to do. My plan was to do whatever was in my agenda. To do things my way, not anyone else's. Not the goddesses. Not the Goddess of the Sand. Not Ganondorf's. My way."

She hesitated. "I'm... sorry, for worrying you." Her arms lifted and she absentmindedly embraced herself, considerably quieter and more thoughtful.

Why would he get hurt? Physically, if he got hurt, he knew it wouldn't be Nabooru's fault, unless she specifically warned Ganon about his hatred of him. But Byrne had a feeling she wouldn't do that. He did promise her he wouldn't kill Ganon. At least not yet. However, the minute Ganon tried anything funny, those metallic claws would be through his heart in a microsecond.

Emotionally, however, it would be Nabooru's fault if he was hurt. At least, that's what he told himself. But no, it wasn't true. It would be his own damned fault for letting himself feel anything for her, for letting himself worry. If Nabooru were to die, it would be her own fault. And he would grieve. He would grieve that her stubbornness killed her.

And yet, it was that very stubbornness that Byrne himself possessed. The path he chose in life was a result of his own desires, despite Anjean and any others trying to shove reason into his face. He didn't want any of that. It was then, as Nabooru explained herself, that he saw that younger version of himself. He hated it with every fiber of his being, but at the same time could find no fault.

It actually relieved him to hear that Nabooru was not going to let the Goddesses control her, that she was going to use that power for her own goals. He knew that she was still trying to do good instead of being like himself and just out to get power, but perhaps, just perhaps she wouldn't be swept away in the Flood. Perhaps she could stop Ganon before he obtained the Triforce.

He paused for a minute, closing his eyes and collecting his thoughts after Nabooru finished speaking. Finally he looked back at her and relented, just as he didn't want to do in the first place. "All right. If you say you won't let anything happen to you..." He nodded, showing his acceptance in the matter.

She watched him, rather uncertain as to what she was supposed to do. Her eyes turned away from him momentarily and she shifted her weight between her feet again. She'd forgotten about the cold of the winter, thanks to him, but a lot of her heart grew heavy. Although she didn't eye him with her concern, she certainly had it and she couldn't pretend it didn't exist. He'd constantly pushed her away for the sake of not having to deal with the feelings. And yet he had to, anyway.

Then she looked back to him with all of the professionalism she could muster up. "Right. I'll be careful. I'll do my best." She shifted again and for a moment, she thought about teasing him regarding his concern for her. Because she would have some time before. But this time... It was... awkward. Not exactly unrequited, but Nabooru couldn't have answered anyone if they'd asked her how she felt about Byrne.

Or Shinon. Or Ganondorf. Or anyone, actually. What a wonderful position to be in.

"We okay?" she asked. "Or do you want to wrestle in the snow?"

Byrne all of a sudden felt a huge weight in his chest, realizing just what he had said to her. He cared about her. How could he care about anyone? Perhaps there had been recent times when he might have had a small fraction of a worry about another person's well-being, but he wouldn't have admitted that. But now, he had. It wasn't even necessarily the fact that it was romantic that bothered him. It was the act of putting his emotions onto another person, leaving him open to any sorts of trouble.

He wanted to take back and deny what he had said, to reinforce the image that he was an uncaring man, but she wouldn't believe him. He didn't know whether Nabooru thought he cared for her platonically or romantically, because he wasn't even sure either. Did it matter? No, not particularly. The act of caring itself was unfamiliar, so the boundaries eluded him.

And then she asked if they were okay. He didn't know how to answer that. He may have begrudgingly accepted her position as a Sage and her unwillingness to abandon it, but he wasn't sure if he could handle anymore of this relationship. He didn't want to stand by and watch as she got herself killed, and it would just be so much easier to break it off, to stop caring, to be angry at her all the time.

But when looking at Nabooru and her beautiful, pleading eyes, he couldn't say no. Perhaps he should trust her. She was wise beyond her years, he knew, despite telling her otherwise, so perhaps she would succeed. Just perhaps.

So, he nodded at her initial question, but when she asked about the wrestling, he had to decline. Out in the public, with everyone watching, even if the "wrestling" was purely just what the name was and nothing more, he couldn't stand to see Nabooru's desert-tanned skin succumb to frostbite.

"I'd rather not, seeing what you're wearing."

Her head inclined and she looked over herself for a moments. "Right."

Because the cold hit her again. She pulled her hands over her face and drew in a deep breath, as though her mind was trying to play catch up and just get over all of the obstacles he decided to put down in front of her. I'm cool. I'm cool. Literally. Because of the snow.

"Proof that I look good, even in the snow," she managed to get out, except it didn't quite sound like her when she said it. "I guess. I should go find Ai. And then go back inside for the next three months."

Jeez, I hate winter.

Byrne had a feeling that Nabooru's refusal to wear warm clothes out in the snow wasn't due to stupidity, though he didn't know what it was. The air and the snow were very cold, and she could easily get sick, due to lowered immune activity, or get hypothermia in general. That wouldn't do.

"If you're going to stay out here," he said, "You should attempt to warm up."

He removed his jacket and offered it to her. "Here, I don't need it. I'm used to the cold, since I wasn't raised in an arid desert."

He wasn't raised in a cold environment, no, but he wasn't accustomed to incredibly high temperatures like she was. Surely the cold would bother her a lot more than it would him. Besides, he needed to build up resistance to the temperature anyway. He could easily do without the jacket.

What was it with guys giving her jackets? She seriously wanted to sink down into the snow and just curl up. She eyed his jacket, his hand, and then his face as she hesitantly reached over. Then she settled her hand over his and simply blinked a few times. "It's embarrassing to have you doing that."

Then she paused, "Not that you, yourself are embarrassing, but-"

I'm not used to it. You're making these stupid pitter-patters on the inside. Stop it.

"-it'd be like you letting me do something like that for you," she mildly protested. "If I really need to, I can go run and buy one." Which really meant if he was really that worried about her, she'd reluctantly go do exactly that. "But I'm not refined enough for a guy to be treating me like a princess," she coughed, mildly shy by the treatment.

Or a lady, evidently.

"I'm not trying to treat you like royalty," he assured her, though if she wanted to feel that way, then she was certainly allowed to. "You're from the desert and you're not used to the cold. Your clothes are thin and not built for the snow. It's just common sense."

Byrne was unaware that Shinon had already done the same gesture earlier, though if he had known that, he would have wanted to punch the lights out of the archer for reasons he couldn't figure out.

However, if Byrne thought the gesture was anything more than simple common sense, out here in public, he might not have offered Nabooru his jacket. Though part of him did know that he was both being polite and more, so it irked him slightly to see Nabooru refuse his gesture. He tried not to show it, though.

He sighed, then, and simply draped the jacket onto her shoulders (also unaware that Shinon had done the same earlier). He really didn't need the jacket as much as she did. But if she refused again, then that was her own damned fault.

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And then Skull Kid pelted Byrne with a snowball and ran away giggling.

"..."

Byrne turned around, ready to grab whoever did that and intimidate the hell out of them, but they ran away too quickly.

All he could see was a distant figure giggling.

When I get my hands on you...