Royalty

Drowning in Confessions

Kevin tried his best to chase Alix down, but soon ran out of breath. His throat stung a bit from the cold air he was inhaling and soon came to a stop. However the place he chose to stop, which he initially thought was just a field of snow, happened to be a frozen lake. He couldn't stop and found himself sliding, quickly starting to fall towards the hard ice. Before he fell too far, someone grabbed him. Alix had stayed close, knowing when he stopped and seeing him start to fall. He quickly ran to him and grabbed his waist, trying to keep him upright. Kevin had reacted quickly to the touch and as soon as they stilled, he found his fingers gripping tightly to his biceps. "Gotcha." Alix grinned, helping him back to be steady on his feet. Kevin smiled, but didn't let go, gaze falling simply to the other man's face. His cheeks and nose were flushed red from both the wind and the cold and the proximity seemed to make his eyes flood and swirl to a much deeper red. The snowflakes in his beard hadn't melted and even though Kevin was sure his face was already red, he could feel his cheeks start to get warm. Alix noticed how harsh of a blue his eyes had gotten and how he would no longer meet his gaze but simply chewed hard on his lip and searched his face with his eyes. Kevin looked back up at him and felt his heart stop momentarily in his chest. For a short moment, he could feel himself start to lean in before Alix, who hadn't realized what was happening, pulled away.

"So....ice..." Kevin murmured, trying to change the subject and hide that he was actually a bit hurt. "We could skate?"

"Neither of us have skates..." Alix chuckled.

"Shoes work. Come on."

Kevin let go of him and moved, starting to slide his feet along the surface of the ice and slide around the lake. Alix watched more that he partook, finding both the way he did it so easily and the smile on his face as he went to be quite adorable. It was after a few rounds when they both heard the loud crack of ice that both men froze in fear. Alix started to move forward, to trek across the surface to Kevin's side when he reached out a hand to stop him. "Don't move..." He ordered cautiously. "We don't know where it's breaking."

"Well what do we do then?" Alix asked in quiet worry.

"Wait it out...it may settle and we can just carefully walk off..."

Both men fell quiet and stood as still as possible for what felt like ages. Eventually, they made eye contact again and Kevin nodded once, taking a step forward. Alix did the same and there was another awfully loud cracking sound before the ice under Kevin's feet broke completely. He cried out loudly in panic as he fell into the freezing water. As soon as his body was submerged, the cold shocked him and he inhaled deeply on impact, filling his lungs with water. The ice all around was falling in and Alix quickly jumped in after him before the area he was standing on was gone. The cold instantly made it hard for him to move, but he resisted it, diving towards where he could see Kevin struggling to move back towards the surface. There were large bubbles occasionally escaping his mouth and floating up towards the surface and his movements were become more and more sluggish from both the cold and the lack of useable oxygen. Alix quickly grabbed him and clamped a hand over his nose and mouth, pulling his back to his chest and swimming back up for the top. The moment he broke the surface, he inhaled harshly, letting the welcomed, yet painful cold air burn his lungs and throat. He pulled his hand from Kevin's face and shifted to hold his chest tighter. The moment, his hand was gone, some of the water Kevin had inhaled came pouring from his mouth as he exhaled the air he tried to pull in. He quickly started coughing painfully and Alix pushed himself over to the edge, grabbing some of the thicker ice that was left and pushing Kevin towards and up onto the bank. Kevin landed on his hands and knees, coughs shaking his body as he struggled to bring up the water residing in his lungs. Alix got out and fell next to him, rubbing his back and murmuring softly to him as his body fought to expel the foreign substance.