I'll Bow for Your King When He Shows Himself

I slammed the door and started running down the hill after him. "Oliver, come on! It's freezing!"

At the bottom of the hill, at the edge of the trees, stood a small lake, or a pond I guess. Oliver was pulling off his shoes, a wide smile plastered to his face. "Don't be a pansy, Carrion."

"I'm not a pansy," I mumbled.

I watched Oliver take his coat off, even though it was below zero outside and there was snow on the ground. "Have you ever gone polar bearing?" He took out an object and clicked a button. A knife popped up, mocking me.

I put two and two together. "Oliver, you are not using that knife. You could fall in!" I screamed at him.

But he was already sliding out into the middle of the pond. "I think that's the point! Are you coming or what?" He got down on his hands and knees and began carving a hole in the ice.

If you don't already know, polar bearing is when you cut a hole into a frozen body of water, take off all of your clothes, and jump in. It sounds fun right? Sadly, it's the leading cause of pneumonia, especially in England, where it's freezing. I had never done it, but Andy has and he was sick for awhile.

I was at war in my mind. But in the end, I took off my boots and my jacket and began walking out onto the ice. The thick solid cracked beneath, freaking me out to the point where I began walking back to safety, but I gathered up the courage and walked up to Oliver. "This is stupid."

He looked up at me through his hair. The circle had been cut and there was a small gap big enough for both of our bodies. "You're stupid."

I put my hands up in defense. "Woah, you sure showed me," I said sarcastically.

His shirt had come off, and he was working on his pants when he noticed me staring. "Are you going to make a fool out of yourself with me or are you just going to watch?"

I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow. "You're only doing this to get me naked."

Oliver looked shocked. "Who said anything about getting naked?" I shook my head at him and sat on the edge of the hole, dragging my fingers along the top of the water.

"It's not that cold, actually."

"Good."

Before I knew it, my entire weight was being pushed into the freezing water, without my consent. Just my luck, I forgot to hold my breath, so I was nearly choking as huge amounts of water went into my mouth and nose.

I resurface, gasping for air. Immediately, my body was shaking and Oliver had to help me out of the water, me being immobilized.

"That wasn't funny!" I whisper-yelled at him, grasping my arms and trying to warm myself up.

He laughed, throwing his head back. I shook my head at him. With all the strength I had, and with chattering teeth, I yanked on his arm and dragged him into the water below. He broke through the surface and wiped his hair out of his eyes.

His stupid smirk pissed me off. "What?" I asked him, harshly.

"Oh come on! You can't be mad at me. This is probably the most you've done in a while."

I couldn't yell at him with a comeback, because he was right. I haven't had this much fun in years. And this isn't even that fun, so that's saying something. "How are you not freezing?" I hissed at him, pretending to act mad when I wasn't.

He shrugged and began treading water. "Maybe I am freezing, but I'm trying to not look like a wimp in front of a pretty girl."

I choked back air and silently thanked the sky for being night so he couldn't see my cheeks turn red. "You have a girlfriend. That's the last time I'm reminding you."

He shrugged again. "It's none of her concern," he joked.

I rolled my eyes playfully. "What about Matt? You were trying to hook us up."

Oliver stared off into space for awhile. "Oh ya."

I shook my head in disbelief. "Okay, Romeo. Let's get back to the van before we freeze to death."

His mouth curved down. "But that scene in The Deathly Hallows-"

"If only this was Harry Potter."

I grabbed onto his hand and helped him up. He bundled up his warm, dry clothes and we began walking across the ice again. I gathered my shoes and jacket again, but it didn't even matter. Oliver would be dry and warm in moments, and I'll be sitting in the passenger seat, soaking wet.

Thanks for the heads up.

Oliver turned the heat to full blast and La Dispute continued playing in the background. We laughed and joked each other the whole way back to my apartment.

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The front door swung open, the heat from inside instantly warming me up.

"Sorry it's such a mess. I don't get to live to good life," I told Oliver, already stripping before making my way to my room. I changed into an oversized t-shirt and warm pajama pant of Andy's, then I made my way back out into the living room where Oliver stood, glancing around my apartment, trying to make it apparent that he wasn't judging me at all. "I know. It's not the best...but it's home." I shrugged and got out the kettle.

I threw him some clean, warm clothes and he escaped into the bathroom to get changed. The kettle started screaming, so I inserted the tea bags and waited patiently on my counter.

Oliver emerged again, looking clean and warm again.

"That was a horrible idea, by the way," I said bluntly.

"I know. I told you a thousand time, Carrion. We could get sick from doing something like that. But you insisted..." I shot him a glare while taking two mugs out of the cupboard.

"It's not Starbuck's good, but it's-"

"Carrion, will you stop it? I like the way you live. It's way more comfortable than a huge house." He said it so sincerely that it caught me off guard. Nobody would want to live this way.

After we had our tea in the appropriate appliances, we sat on the couch (nowhere near each other) and watched Insidious until daylight broke through the window.