The Winter Tyrant-Chapter 12: Archetypical

Dean put away his equipment and swapped into his swim trunks. Taking only a towel and a beer from his bedroom’s mini fridge with him as he walked out onto his balcony.

The moment he exited the building he could feel the freezing air attempt to steal his warmth.

But he didn’t stand there waiting in the cold like a fool. Instead, he pulled the lid off the hot tub and revealed its steaming water hidden within.

The cover was designed to mask the thermal signature of the tub that was built into his balcony and concealed beneath the railing.

Once inside the warm water, Dean allowed himself to relax, truly relax for the first time since he regressed.

An audible pop accompanied the opening of the can, and Dean indulged himself for the slightest of moments with its cold and crisp flavor.

"It truly is the little things in life that make it worth living...."

Dean sat there, staring out at the winter wonderland that threatened to become a mass extinction event, and said nothing for the longest time.

It was only when he heard the door to his bedroom open that his attention returned to reality. Standing in the doorway, with a towel barely wrapping around her impressive figure, was Yuki.

She naturally averted her gaze from Dean, but it wasn’t her appearance that stole his attention. Instead, it was the cans of beer in her hand that she had fetched from his room.

Yuki eyed Dean, and then darted her gaze away as swiftly as it had stared, before doing it again.

"Do you have room for one more?"

Dean didn’t say anything; he simply motioned with his eyes towards the pool. Yuki however didn’t immediately enter. Instead, she bit her lip and flinched. Almost as if she were bracing herself emotionally for something Dean didn’t quite understand.

Until he did...

The moment Yuki threw of her towel onto the nearby hanging rack, Dean couldn’t look away. He hadn’t expected the woman to choose such a... provocative swimsuit.

Yuki practically dived into the tub after seeing Dean silently gawking at her appearance.

And it was only after she could bury her body beneath the water life, and conceal it beneath the bubble that she anxiously broached the subject.

"You stared...."

Dean simply chuckled and shook his head before fetching one of the floating cans in the tub, that Yuki had dropped when she entered. He opened it and took a gulp before raising his hands in a traditional Yamato prayer.

"Thanks for the meal...."

Yuki’s face turned redder than a tomato, her eyes opening wide in disbelief, and then after realizing the sheer shamelessness of the man in front of her, dunked her head underwater, as if trying to hide her shame.

Frankly speaking, Dean didn’t know why she was so embarrassed. It’s not like she was wearing something wildly inappropriate like a micro bikini that concealed less than necessary.

It was simply that her swimsuit was elaborate and striking. Enough to instantly capture his attention and keep it.

When the girl finally resurfaced, she kept herself deliberately low in the water. Staring at Dean as if he had committed some cardinal sin.

Dean, of course didn’t speak. He continued to look directly at Yuki while sipping his beer until finally she couldn’t take the awkward silence anymore.

"Well!?!"

If Dean could translate what that actually meant, he likely would never have had problems with Avery. Instead, he bluntly told Yuki what she least wanted to hear.

"Well... I’d say if your goal was capturing my attention, you most certainly succeeded. I wasn’t expecting you to have such a... bold sense of fashion. But then again... I don’t know why I believed such a thing considering your archetype....."

Archetype? The mere idea that she could be defined as such was like an arrow being shot into her heart. If her parents could see who she styled herself as after moving away from Yamato, they might have a heart attack.

She wanted to dispute Dean’s claims, but couldn’t find it within herself to do so. As she sighed and muttered under her breath.

"I know the stigma associated with my looks... but I’m not like that, honestly.... I only changed to look this way when I moved to the Union of Columbia, as a way to reinvent myself from the totally respectable Student Council President that everyone needed to be absolutely perfect in every way...."

Dean honestly didn’t know all that much about Yuki. But he could tell she was telling the truth to him. Not only because of the tone in her voice but also because of the glowing letters surrounding her that assured him she wasn’t lying.

He ultimately cracked open the last floating can of beer and handed it to the girl. Using it as his peace offering.

"I was just teasing you is all. It was supposed to be some light-hearted fun to take your mind off things. I didn’t mean any offense. Besides, I kind of like the Gyaru look...."

Dean didn’t say anything more, nor did he continue to awkwardly stare at the young woman. Instead, his eyes drifted out to the snow beyond the safety of their little abode.

For a long while, neither of them spoke.

"It’s... beautiful," she finally said, watching the flakes dissolve into mist.

Dean leaned back against the edge, placing the can on the stone beside him.

"Yeah," he replied quietly. "It usually is."

She turned toward him, frowning slightly. "Usually?"

He took a slow drink, eyes never leaving the world beyond the balcony.

"Sometimes the most dangerous things in this life are the most beautiful."

That did it.

The question had been clawing at her chest for days now, and the quiet made it impossible to ignore.

"This storm..." she said. "It’s not going to end anytime soon, is it?"

Dean didn’t answer right away. When he finally did, his voice was steady. Almost indifferent.

"If I had to guess," he said, "this is the end."

Yuki swallowed, fingers tightening against the edge of the tub. She didn’t ask what he meant. She didn’t need to.

Instead, she asked the question that scared her more.

"Why me?" she said softly. "Why did you let me stay?"

Dean reached for his beer, cracked it open, and took a long pull.

"I felt like I could trust you," he said.

Nothing more.

The answer left her more unsettled than anything else he could have said.

---

An older woman led a group of concerned residents as they trudged through the snow, bundled up in clothing as the icy winds whipped across their faces, threatening to leave frostbitten lashes with each strike.

The woman in charge had represented the HOA for as long as Dean had lived in the neighborhood. And he had lived there practically his entire life.

She knew Dean well enough to have witnessed him grow up. And she had never much cared for the man.

Dean had always been a man with little concern for the neighborhood. He seldom interacted with his neighbors, and had never once stepped foot into an HOA meeting.

He paid his dues and caused no significant problems worthy of her watchful eye. But his reclusive lifestyle had been an eyesore for too long.

And recently he had changed entirely. A month ago, he began remodeling his house completely outside HOA regulations. And when she showed up to scold him, he had behaved in a way which she found unforgivable.

A lawsuit was already being filed with the county to force Dean to undo the changes he had made. And if it weren’t for this damned storm, he already would have been served.

Now, to top it all off, he hid away in his home, which seemed to be impervious to the storm, and openly discharged firearms within the residential area when others tried to coerce him out of his hideaway.

If she didn’t give this ruffian a piece of her mind today, then there was no telling what she would do.

Just when she was about to approach Dean’s door and impose herself upon him, she received a stern voice on the intercom.

"I’ll give you the same warning I gave the others. You are to remove yourself from my property line indefinitely. If you or anyone else in this neighborhood attempts to cross the boundaries of my territory, I will consider it an invasion and use lethal force if need be to repel you. Go away and never come back; this is your one and only warning...."

The HOA representative’s eyes nearly fell out of their sockets after receiving such a blatant and threatening response. She looked over at the people who had followed her, men of considerable size whom she thought could force Dean to concede to her demands if force were required to resolve this insubordination.

Those same men were now wavering, as a few of them instinctively took a few steps back after hearing Dean’s words.

It was now or never...