Karma was standing by a frozen lake at the edge of a jetty, shivering a little as a few lonely snowflakes floated down from the sky on his bare skin. He was wearing nothing but swimming trunks.
“I mean it,” Nagisa said, his voice worried. “This whole idea is idiotic. I bet it’s some kinda joke played on stupid foreigners. I wouldn’t have said anything if I thought you’ll take it seriously!”
“I said I’d do it, so I will,” Karma muttered, curling his toes as he stared at the lake. A hole had been cut into the ice, big enough for swimming around a little, and in front of him a ladder went down into the water.
“Karma… please. You’ll catch a cold, or worse. Let’s go back inside.”
Nagisa was beginning to sound a little desperate. Probably, Karma mused to himself, because he was worried about what Shuu would do to him if he returned back to Japan with a human-shaped icicle.
But it was cold. He’d better make a move soon, before his feet froze into the jetty. He moved his weight a little from foot to foot. Good. They weren’t yetfrozen, it just felt like that.
“Are you going?” someone asked in English with a strong accent, and Karma glanced over his shoulder, seeing two men behind him.
“I, umm…”
“It’s alright!” A big fat man smiled at him and went by him. Karma and Nagisa watched numbly as he stepped on the ladder and lowered himself into the water, followed by the other man. They swam around a little and rose then up, seemingly enjoying themselves. The man gave Karma another smile. “It’s alright!” he repeated. “Take it easy!”
And they went back into the warmth of the sauna.
Nagisa stared after them. “These people are crazy,” he muttered. “Karma, you…”
Right then Karma bent forward and dove into the water.
...
It had all started one hot summer day, when they had been lying in the shadow in a park, drinking cold drinks and trying to survive the heat. Karma had been dreaming of winter and snow, and Nagisa mentioned something about an article he had seen online about winter swimming.
“I swear, they had cut a hole in the ice and were swimming there! There was lots of snow and people who were in winter coats, and those weirdoes just floated happily in the lake!”
“Sounds great, doesn’t it.” Karma’s eyes were half-closed and he had a dreamy look on his face. “Mmm, ice cold water…”
Nagisa laughed. “Maybe it sounds good to you now, but I bet you’d think differently when it’s cold outside. You’d be freezing!”
“I don’t know, it can’t be that bad. Sounds a lot better than this awful heat anyway!” He wiped his sweaty forehead with a groan. “I hate this! I swear, give me a frozen lake and I swim in it any time! It’s nothing to this hell!”
Nagisa snorted. “Sure. Let me remind you of that on some cold winter day. I doubt you’re so happy about it then.”
“Oh? Well, mark my words: if I ever just get the chance, I’ll be sure to give it a try!”
They continued talking of other things, with Karma still complaining about the heat, and soon enough they had all but forgotten frozen lakes and winter swimming. Until next winter, when Nagisa happened to win a week’s skiing vacation in Lapland. (“Why not, Karma? It could be fun! Besides, I really want to see the northern lights, and that’d be more fun with a friend, too.” “Why don’t you ask Kayano to join you?” “Huh? Well, she’s filming, you know. And I don’t think she cares for skiing that much.” “…you’re hopeless, you know.”) In the end, they did go there together. And one day Nagisa had pointed out to Karma that there was a place for winter swimming nearby…
“So why don’t you try it?” he’d asked with a grin. “You sounded so eager last summer.”
...
Now, Nagisa was kneeling by the edge of the jetty, staring into the water with horror, certain he was partially guilty in the murder of one of his best friends. Or if not murder, at least involuntary manslaughter.
“Karma!” he yelled. “Damn!” He glanced at the sauna. Should he go to get help?
“AAAAAAH!” Startling him so he almost fell into the water himself, Karma’s head broke the surface. Nagisa gave a deep breath of relief as his friend started splashing around in the water. “Burns! Ih… it… burns!” Karma paddled to the ladder and started climbing up, limbs shaking, panting hard.
“You okay?” Nagisa asked, panic beginning to give room for annoyance.
“Ye-yeah,” Karma stuttered. “Can’t… breathe,” he panted on, collapsing on the jetty.
“I think you’d best go in the sauna now,” Nagisa said after a while, as Karma just stayed crouching there, panting and shivering.
“Sauna! Yes. Good.” He got up and started hurrying toward the building. Nagisa stayed outside, shaking his head.
Well, at least the idiot lived. And no one would murder him for returning back home with an icicle.
It took a while, but finally Karma came back out. His skin was quite red, almost matching his hair, but otherwise he didn’t seem to have suffered any great harm. He was still wearing the swim trunks, though, and he stopped to chat happily with a couple of women, his hot skin steaming in the cold air.
“Karma?” Nagisa said, going to him. “Aren’t we going now?”
“What?” Karma paused. “Already?” He grinned. “I’m going to do it again!” And he headed back toward the lake, a happy smile on his lips and eagerness in his steps, with Nagisa staring incredulously at his back, the first pale green lights appearing on the dark sky above his head.
................................
WARNING FROM THE AUTHOR: if you ever go winter swimming, don’t do it like this! No diving, you shouldn’t wet your head. Otherwise, I do recommend it. ^^
This fic is totally cheating. You know what I did? I took my old Hikago fic and changed the names. xD That’s basically it. I think it works fine with Karma and Nagisa too.
This is all because I realized I've been winter swimming only once during this winter and I really wanna go again....
