"Snow is white... snow is cold... I like snow." My eyes were fixed on the ground and the snow covering it, a tight smile on my face as I expressed my admiration for winter.

"What? really? you like it because it is cold?" A man wearing a military outfit with a black cattleman hat, Zane said "I thought cold is what people hate about snow?" The man looked to be in his pristine condition, if you haven't seen it, you would never believe that less than a half hour ago he was fighting two Shredders.

"Cold is good... winter is good," moving my shoulders left and right while swaying my head, enjoying the odd feeling in my head while doing so, "people who don't like winter are bad."

"Well, I won't jump to conclusion, I was you," Zane shook his head with a serious look, "you haven't experienced a fine beach day in the middle of hot summer."

"I have."

"You did?"

I shifted myself in my seat, the hard floor of the trunk of the jeep, while my legs are outside, recognizing the blunter I made, I tried to mend it "People who like summer are monkeys."

"Wow! That is... profound," Zane's eyes widened for a moment before closing them and nodding sagely, his arms closed over his chest while his back against the trunk's opened door, "but please friend Vic, I would be immensely grateful if you could enlighten this lost sheep, how did you come with such a pearl of wisdom?"

"Monkey... not sheep."

"No I mean um right monkey, this lost monkey."

"Mmh?" I looked left then right, creasing my eyebrow while maintaining the smile "I don't see it, where is it?"

"Who?" Titling his head slightly to the side, Zane asked trying to follow the jumpy conversation.

"The monkey... oh right, lost, it is a lost monkey... is it our monkey?" My brows shot up at the realization, "we lost a monkey!"

"No, no we did not," Zane sighed, "you said that people who like summer are monkeys, why is that?"

"Why? Isn't it clear?"

"Yes, yes, of course, it is," Nodding his head a couple of times, "I just want to make sure we are on the same pag- um the same understanding, yes, the same understanding."

"Because monkeys peel bananas."

"Oh, I see, and?"

I looked at Zane, and even with confusion on my face, the smile didn't budge.

"What if monkeys peel bananas? Why are people like summer monkeys?"

"Oh, That? Because.... because they don't know how to peel bananas... need to learn that from monkeys... peeling bananas is easy... summer's people are stupid... stupid... and funny... funny monkeys don't even eat bananas in the wild... summer's people gave a banana to a monkey and learned from monkey how to peel... really stupid."

"Friend Vic really has great wisdom," Zane said, the smile on his face not giving enough credit to the enjoyment he is having right now, "and also smart, calling you the Sage is the least I can do."

"Sage?"

"Yes, Victor the Sage, the prodigious Northman who revealed to the world, why winter is better than summer with a monkey and a banana," With arms and hands wide open, Zane said dramatically "It has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"Is that impressive?"

"Of course it is, the dilemma of who is better had plagued this world for ages," Zane nodded gravely "it is almost as impressive as blinding a Shredder with just a knife and not dying."

"Indeed... summer's people are easy to impress."

"...what?"

"Had it taken effect or not? As I was about to answer the monkey person why he and his brethren are impressionable, my attention was stolen by the tall black-haired woman that magically appeared to my left.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"I think it did a while ago." Zane nodded, disappointment clear in his eyes.

"I did say to call as soon as the Opioids marks show, didn't I?" Bell furrowed.

"I forgot." Zane shrugged his shoulders.

Giving him a hard look before stating "Go, Cap is waiting for you."

"What? Why? I can help here, Victor will need my help."

"He won't, now go before I do something you will not forget."

"Yes, yes, the team leader will probably also need my help," saying so, Zane looked at me before walking away "cry my name if you need help, Vic."

"But I am not a summer's person," I muttered, not understanding why would I need the help of a monkey in a hat.

"Now go inside if you don't want to catch cold," Bell pointed to the inside of the jeep's trunk. I looked behind me and then looked at her.

"I like cold."

"Then let's take off your clothes here." Bell put her hands on my coat and started taking it off.

"I like cold when I am wearing clothes."

"Is that so, now, raise your arm." She removed the coat slowly and carefully, especially the parts that stick to my injuries, back, and shoulder. After the coat, she took out the useless axe from my belt, then two other warm but dirty sweaters.

"It is cold." I complained.

"Do you feel it?"

"...no...wow."

"Thought as much, now, stop moving." Taking out a needle and the lighter she won in a bet, then sat down, at the edge of the trunk, to my right before she starts heating it with fire.

After the needle was sterilized with fire Bell turned and put one hand on my shoulder while the other approached the injury with a needle.

"How in the Lady Star's name are you still alive." She muttered, her face showing extreme focus as she begin suturing the lacerated shoulder.

"I hate needles."

"It is not a question Dumdum."

"I like snow."

"You do?" Bell asked automatically, all of her senses are on the delirious patient's wound.

"I like fog."

"What else."

"Blue sky in winter... with big white clouds."

"Mm-hmm." She hummed in response so I started to list all the things I like while she continue the process of closing the wound.

"I like nights."

"I also like nights," Bell said, cutting the threat with scissors before standing, stretching her back, the looking at me "I like the infinite sky and at night, and the shiny stars, do you like stars Dumdum?"

"I like stars."

Bell smiled slightly and then leaned forward until only a small distance between our faces, her eyes locked into mine "What are you hiding Vic?"

"...I like your eyes," I said after a moment of silence.

Bell didn't move nor react in any way, she kept her eyes on mine for a couple of seconds "You really are a sly little shit, Vic." her smile widened a little "and also interesting. Not only have you noticed the side effects of Opioids, but you also find your way to counter them; preoccupying your mouth with what your eyes see so that it doesn't spill out what your brain thinks. Am I wrong?" She leaned closer "So, what are you hiding, Victor Rose?"

Bell's breath brushed against my skin, was it hot? I can see a small me reflected in her black eyes. She wants to know. Know what? There is nothing to know, there is nothing to hide. No, I have something to hide. No, I have nothing. Snow, snow is beautiful, let's tell her how much we like snow. This isn't what she wants to know, she wants... It's alright, everything is fine, the three monsters are dead after all, and it was them who killed them, they are trustworthy.

I bit my lips as silence tutored me to speak, every second felt as if I would explode, it wants me to reveal my hidden secret, it want me to speak my deepest secret, so I spoke, "I dream of a family."

"What?" Bell's beautiful eyebrow creased, and the smile disappeared.

"Two kids, a girl and a boy... more if she want... but not less than two."

"Kids? No, wait, what the fuck are you talking about?" She said, pulling away, her face marred with confusion.

"...she doesn't need to be beautiful or smart... just a reasonable woman with a good sense of naming... I am not good at naming."

"Alright, alright, you sly bastard, you win, now shut the fuck up, I don't want to hear anymore your wet dreams, damn it!" Raising her voice and forcing me into silence, Bell looked then back at me, she sighed "still this made me even more curious, you said your gift was ummh what was it again?... ah? focus target or something to do with firearms? yet with no firearm... you almost took down a Shredder, one, big, bad monster all alone with just a small cold weapon, a fucking knife!"

She looked at me without saying anything for a moment before taking out a small packet with another needle in it, "I don't know what you are hiding nor do I know why you are hiding," she approached the jeep's trunk from my left and got inside, "but I like secrets. So Victor," getting closer to my left ear from behind, she whispered "you better keep it tight to you chest because I will uncover it, maybe not today, but I will," She drew back, "However now, stay still, we need to take care of this ugly mark your blind lover left on you. And for fuck sake, stop with the creepy grin."

And so she started suturing the other laceration, on the left side of my back, and quiet and silence reigned once more. The snow all around us absorbs all sounds making the silence more prominent.

"I hate fighting." Only for me to break that relaxing atmosphere.

"I wouldn't say." Her response was short as got back on full focus.

"I hate fighting, I like sleeping... I want to sleep."

"Soon."

"I want to eat soup."

"What kind of soup."

"The one with no chicken in it."

"You don't like chicken?"

"Yes."

"Be patient, you can buy all the no chicken soup you want at Saint North."

"Really?"

"yeah."

"...I don't have money."

"Guess I will have to buy you one bowl of no chicken soup then."

"Really?"

"Mm-mmh, and if you tell me what you are hiding, I will buy you two or even three bowls... no? then stop distracting me."

I stopped talking for a couple of seconds or minutes. Truly my head right now is all light and funny, if I were to fall on it now I bet I can bounce back from the hard ground. But I can't do it, there is no hard ground, only snowy ground. I like snow. There is not much snow where I lived, only a hot sun in summer and just a sun in winter. I don't like it but...

"I want to go home."

"Me too."

"I can't."

"...me too."