One Last Huzzah

Ian reached into his pocket and fingered at the blue thing that had been in there for almost a week now. "A week." he mumbled. "It's only been a week....you're way in over your head, stupid." Reaching down, he started to lightly sketch that object onto his paper. Lately, ideas for paintings hadn't come to him, so he had been sketching random objects her saw. In truth, drawing wasn't really his thing, but he wasn't terrible at it. 'I suppose this is the last Huzzah then."

Winter normally left Kitty in a foul mood. She detested the snow and multiple times had thought of buying land on Hibicus Island and spending winter in a small cabin there. Her mind was changed though, she had a reason for staying here this year: Ian. They recently had started dating and it was akward, but fun. Normally when she'd be mummbling about the stupid snow on the ground or cold weather, she'd instead be humming a happy tune. It was unusual for her to be acting so foolish, but she didn't really care.

Today she was meeting Ian at the lake. It was a rather odd place to meet, since it was pretty much frozen already. In tow she had a little bag and inside a little present for Ian--it may have been a few days early, but Kitty wasn't sure when exactly Winter Thanksgiving was. She had been to embarrassed to ask anyone about it too, so she just decided to give it to him today. When she approached the lake she saw Ian looking over a sketch book puzzled, so she approached him from behind and lightly whispered in his ear, "What are you doing?"

Ian jumped a little, but quickly recovered and smiled up at Kitty. "Waitin' for my other girlfriend." he teased. "What are you doing here?" You cannot be jumpy, Ian. You need to calm yourself. "My, your cheeks are red, do I make you blush that much? I must be better looking than I orginally thought."

Ian was rather jumpy today. When he jumped a little his shoulder almost rammed into her jaw, which luckly didn't happen. She stuffed her hands into the large pockets of her coat to warm them up a bit. "Shut up," she said turning her head away from him. "Don't tease me like that." There was a tiny smile on the girl's face, she knew Ian liked to try to get to her and would often succeed--not this time though. "And for my cheeks, it's the stupid weather," she explained. Easily she was chilled and her pale skin often would turn red from a slight cold burn. It was true that Ian was pretty hot for a guy--even she admitted it. Never would she say so in public, but she thought about. Especially when he didn't have a shirt on.

"uh huh." Ian snorted. "I'll buy that for now." Ian fingered with the thing in his pocket some more before he spoke again. "So, do you notice anything different about me?" He asked. Ian had his winter hat on, so it was kind of hard to tell. Ian pulled it off to reveal his now-short hair. It was still pretty shaggy, but it wasn't touching his shoulders anymore. It looked like what it had looked like when Kitty first met him.

Apparently something was different, but it was hard to tell since he was bundled up in winter clothes. Once he removed his hat it was easy to tell and she burst out laughing. Not that anything was funny at all, it was that he looked so different with this hair short once again and the length sort of grew on Kitty a bit. "Now I guess I don't have to grow out my hair longer," she chuckled. She then paused remembering her original purpose of the trip and took off the bag on her back and dug out a little plastic container. Inside of it was a piece of chocolate cake she had made for him. "Here," she said handing him the container. "From me to you."

Ian smiled widely when Kitty has burst out laughing--he was glad she liked it. "No, you still might have to grow yours longer so I can play with it." he shrugged. Then, Kitty dug into her bag and took out a peice of chocolate cake. "Here," she said handing him the container. "From me to you."
Ian looked down at the container and back up at Kitty. "Thank you." he said taking the cake. No one had every really done something like this for him before, and he certianly wasn't expecting Kitty to do something so...simple for him. Yet this simple thing just seemed amazing. "Ok, so this is what I'll do." Ian began. "I'll eat this cake tonight, then you come to my house tomarrow morning. Knock on the door to Bethoveen's 9th, if I don't awnser the door, it means i'm either uncontious or dead."

"Yeah, happy Winter Thanksgiving," she said all embarrased. It was hard to tell that she was blushing since the weather, but indeed she was blushing then. The moments of happiness when away when she heard what Ian said. Her smile went away and she turned her back to him annoyed. "When you act like that I think I fell in love with the wrong person," she mummbled. She was a good cook despite how it seemed. If she didn't become a blacksmith she would have been a baker instead.

"Whoa whoa whoa." Ian said frowning. "It was a joke, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." He paused and looked at her. "Happy Winter Thanksgiving to you, too." he added with a muffled laugh. He had never heard of 'Winter Thanksgiving', but it seemed to be an important holiday to Kitty, whatever it was. Ian was a little hurt she had said that though, even though he knew she had said it out of irrational anger. He mumbled a quote to himself he had remembered. "Speak when angery, and you'll make the greatest speach you'll ever regret."

"Don't anger the alligators or for sure they'll bite," Kitty responded sticking her tounge at him playfully. There was no way she could stay mad at him for long. Afterall, she made the cake on whim when she heard a customer talk about making a cake for some guy she liked. Therefore, Kitty thought it was custom for her to do the same since Ian probably knew stuff about it so he wouldn't act dramatic over the fact that she didn't know that she should get him something. "Grr..." she mummbled and then chuckled a bit. "I don't know how to stay mad at you."

Ian smiled and laughed. "You'll never find a way." she sighed. "No one ever has." Ian quickly grabbed Kitty and pulled her into his lap. "You can also never avoid me. Never. I will always find ways to bring you back to me, even if you run to the other side of the world."

Kitty felt Ian's hand grab her wrist and she was pulled closer to him. Eventually she ended on his lap making her heart race a bit. They were close, really close and he said she'd never be able to avoid him or get away from him. Knowing Ian, Kitty knew these words were true without a doubt. Once Ian had her heart in his grasp, he'd never let it go or let anyone else have it. He'd keep it to himself and she didn't mind it at all. "I don't think you'd let me go at all, so running would be hopeless," Kitty admitted regaining her cool. "I guess I'm stuck with you, huh?"

Ian shurgged. "Sadly, yes, but you'll just have to get used to it. Hey, remember to meet me on that mountain tomarrow like I said, kay?" Ian felt his ears burn and the thing in his pocket burn harder. "So we can celebrate your birthday. I promise, it won't be one to forget."

"I have one question," Kitty said when Ian brought up Gelato Mountain. A little smile formed at the corners of her lips as she turned her head towards Ian. Her deep brown eyes were fixed on him and she tried to seem as serious as possible. "You know it's winter right? Cause you know it'll be freezing there and that I hate the cold." She ended up laughing a bit, "Beside I'm not really the kind of person to celebrate my birthday, I can't ever remember doing anything for it."

Ian chuckled. "Just put on two pairs of everything and you'll be fine! Besides, I wouldn't let you freeze. I'm not that curel.....usualy...." Something dawned an Ian. Something he didn't know if he should bring up, but did anyway. "Hey, you can't remember anything from your past, right? Then how can you remember things like your name and birthdate? It just occured to me, I don't know anything about you."

Kitty probably would end up wearing about two pairs of everything, since the mountain air was without a doubt cooler that the air around town. Ian then brought up Kitty's past and asked her how she knew her name an things like that. "Well, a few years ago I woke up in the hospital here," Kitty started to explain. "I had been living here for awhile, so Jin had all of my medical information--except family history. So when I came to I was told my name, birthday, and stuff like that. Since I never talked about my family no one knew about it and when I looked through my stuff at my house I found nothing. No clues about my past except for a picture with me when I was still a teenager with a younger girl who looked similar to me. I think she must had been my sister, but I have no way to contact her at all. I don't even know her name."

"Hm." Ian grunted. "I don't want to pry or mess with anything, but if something, I'd like to help you find your family. Perhaps not now, but someday at least. I owe you." Ian thought of his own sibling. It had been so long since he saw him. Too long. How was his brother, anyway? Did his music carrer take off? Did he ever get married? Where was he now? "I'm not really sure where my brother is, either. After both my parents died, we were spearated and taken to two different households. It didn't both me, though. We weren't close."

"That'd be nice," Kitty said her voice getting quiter. Part of her was unsure to continue the search for her past self. The reason she originally abandoned her search was that she found out that she intentionally caused the incident that resulted in her memory loss. She was too ashamed to tell anyone this and too scared to see why she'd purposly do this to herself. Seeing family might trigger her memories and she wouldn't be the same. It might even put her relationship with Ian in jepardy and that was what she least wanted at the moment. She was content with her life as it was. "I don't think it's a good idea to search anymore," Kitty said somberly. "I'll help you find your brother though. Tell me what happened."

"Ok." Ian said quietly. The expression on Kitty's face told him that her past was probably best left uncovered. "There's not much to tell." he replied. "My brother was always the better musician, the better son. He was an absolute prodigy. He learned and memorized things quickly while I had to work harder to achieve my goals. When I did, I was always so proud of myself, but I wanted my parents to be proud of me as well, but it never seemed to happen. It just.... never seemed to be enough, you know? Now granted, my brother wasn't a bad kid, in fact, he encouraged me a lot, but I still found myself growing bitter towards him. Eventually, I learned that you couldn’t please anyone with your accomplishments. Your hard work will never mean anything to anyone--kind of like working for a company for 30 years than getting laid off. Anyway, after my mother died and my father passed away, we were sent to different homes, and that was the last time I saw him. No one ever told me where he went or where he is now. I guess I have somewhat of an inferiority complex towards 'im." Ian paused. "I think my grandfather knew, but he never brought it up--probably because I never asked. He died a few years ago, though."

Ian said he didn't have too much to say, but from the way things sounded he did have plenty more to tell than she did. Being seprated from his family must had been tough as well as being in his brother's shadow. "I like your music," she said almost a whisper. In an attempt to comfort him, she pressed her lips lightly on his for a moment. Pulling her head away from his she looked at him and said, "Do you know where he went atleast? You might be able to find him then."

Ian just smiled. "Na, I haven't a clue. If his music career took off, he could be anywhere in the world, but it would be a heck of a whole lot easier to find 'im then. I don't know if news of a traveling musician would even reach small island downs like these ones. But that's alright, I have all I need right here." Ian pulled Kitty close. "Perhaps we should both forget about our pasts for a while. All that matters is the here and now. And the hear and now tells me I have to go prepare for a special someone's birthday." Ian smiled. "See you latter, princess." Ian kissed her cheek and sent her gently aside before he got up, gave Kitty a salute, and walked off with his hands jammed in his pockets.

There was no way for Ian to find his brother and Kitty let out a dissapointed sigh. She wished there was something she could do for him since he still wouldn't mind seeing him again. Ian said that he had all he needed here, but was it really that wrong to want something? He pulled her close to him and even though they both were bundled up she could feel him breathing and her cheeks getting warm again. "I told you that you don't need to do anything," she insisted, but the next thing she knew he was getting up and leaving. Had that much time really passed?