-I had talked Brahms into giving me a thick jacket and mittens, as well as boots. The poor old delivery lady is too old and frail to go through all that snow, Brahms. I convinced him with that, yet he was still unsure about letting me go. But, when I informed him he could come with me, he was even more against it.

-"Brahms is never to leave." Brahms tells me, stomping a foot down in argument.

-"That's a funny way of telling me you'd look at reddit if you could." I say, and he tilts his head in confusion. I refuse to elaborate. "C'mon Brahms, it's just snow. There's no one out there, and if there is, you're big and strong."

-He shakes his head, and takes my hand and pulls me along with him towards the stairs. He brought me to the room he through his first tantrum in, the papers that used to be all over the floor were in the drawer that he opens, and he pulls out the newspaper article. Handing it to me, I reread it, before catching on.

-"You're presumed to be dead, then." He nods, and I look at him. "Why are you hiding then? Wouldn't it be better if they all knew you were alive?" He reaches over and points down at Emily, and I recall the details. Severe head wounds. "...Did you kill her Brahms?"

-He stares at me, before nodding slightly, fiddling with his hands. "Didn't mean to." He mutters, looking away from me in shame. "Scared me.. Best friend."

-I feel my heart pang just slightly, yet I still find it the littles bit frightening that he's been taking lives since he was eight years of age. I set the article down, and I just force down my fear.

-"That was years ago, Brahms. Only old people would recognize you, and let me tell you this, getting here took me forever. Walking through all that forest? No one in their right mind would come here in the snow for no reason other than to rob the place or something, and robbers are not going to be old enough to remember Brahms Heelshire and Emily. It's old news. No one's going to see you and Winona comes in three days from now basically."

-He crosses his arms rather than responding, thinking. But then he looks at me, looking me up and down before he sighs.

-"Do you wanna help me shovel the snow?" He nods silently, and I smile. "Alright, then get some boots, winter clothes, and I'll meet you outside."

-Brahms had covered himself head to toe in everything he could find. He was overdressed, but at least he was warm, and I couldn't help but giggle at him as half of his face was submerged in thick scarf and his black curls were pushed down by his winter hat that was just a bit too small.

-"Don't laugh at me." Brahms hisses in the cutest voice ever, and I can't help but laugh even more. "Stop!"

-"I-I'm sorry, sorry." I clear my throat. "You're just cute, is all."

-"Cute?... Thank you."

-I smile and I hand him one of the shovels, the other held tight in my gloves hand. I stepped past him, careful on the steps, I offer my hand to him when I notice the ice. He takes my hand and then steps on the first step, before slipping off and just barely catching himself as he lands at the bottom. His feet skid for a second, his hands grabbing my shoulders for support, and here I am holding my breath as to make sure I don't burst out laughing at him. He looks at me and notices this however.

"This isn't funny."

-I let it out, putting my hand on his shoulder, and dropping my head. "It so is Brahms." I argue, giggling a bit more along with it. "Just be careful, alright? I-I'll make sure you don't fall."

-He grumbles, letting go of me and reaching down for the shovel he just dropped. I watch as he holds it in both hands, and then he watches me begin to shove the snow. I scoop, and I toss it to the side. Scoop, toss, scoop and then toss. Soon enough he's following with me, copying my moves.

-We're about halfway through when the sweat on my body is just making me colder. I stop, stabbing the shovel into the snow and taking a deep breath before I turn to Brahms. He stops when I do, and then rubs his hands together, before lifted his head and then flinching at the sight of the sun.

-"Yeah don't look at it." I smirk, and he looks at me. "Does it feel nice to be outside? I know it's cold, it's much nicer other times."

-"I don't like it. I'm cold."

-"Aw. It'll get better Brahms.. Because when you go outside and it's cold, you get to go back inside and then it's so cozy." I smile, and he looks away from me to look at the snow.

-He sets the shovel aside before he crouches down, and reaches into the snow. A clump of it sticks to his hand, and he looks at me as he does so. I put my hands up, expecting him to throw it at me, but then he tilts his head as if he was confused.

-"What?" I ask. "Have you never had a snowball fight before?"

-"...No?"

-"Bruh." I drop my arms, and he stands up. "Have you ever had friends over? Just threw snow at each other??"

-""

-I pause, before I nod quietly, and I pick up a clump of snow, and I look at him. Suddenly, I chuck it in his direction, being nice about it of course, and it splats on his chest. He jumped at my advances, and he must've thought it was more solid than that, but as he looked down and wiped it off, he began to catch on. He packs his snow and then tosses it back at me, but then I step out of the way. I can hear him chuckle in response.

-At that point, I should've started regretting having given him the idea. Rather than shoveling the pathway to the door, I had been running across the yard in hopes to get away from the mad man that was suddenly an absolute God at snowball fights. I couldn't help but laugh as I got pelted in my side, before I hid behind a tree and just barely missed the next one. My hands scooped up as much snow as I could, before rounding the tree and throwing it at him hard. He ducked under it, the snow in his hands then getting shot towards me in an instant. I jump back, and he rushes towards me, rounding the tree in pursuit as I circle around the trunk. I crouch in time to pick up the next snow ball and shot it back at him.

-He blocked it with his forearms, the freezing cold mush melting against his arms and flinging off his body as he continues pursuing me. If it wasn't for the snow, he'd be so much faster, easily catching up to me, but I was quicker this time around since I knew what I was doing. He caught up to me when I turned around to throw snow at him though, and I couldn't help but laugh when he got his hands on my shoulders. I didn't reckon this snowball fight would turn into tag.

-"Gotcha." Brahms' voice was bordering on in between childish to masculine, and my giggle choked in my throat as he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me off the ground. "Mine."

-"Put me down you dork!" I laugh, my hands going to his shoulders as I look down at him. He simply huffs, carrying me off. "Where are you taking me?"

-"You'll see." He grumbles, and I turn my head over my shoulder to see us approaching a big pile of snow. I gasp, and I listen to him chuckle as I wiggle in his grasp.

-"Brahms!" He attempts to toss me into it, but I grab the collar of his jacket just in time to pull him down with me.

-He grunts when he lands on top of me, causing me to laugh as he hops up onto his knees and yelp at the coldness sinking through his pants. He's batting all the snow off, and I wrap my around around my stomach at his pettiness. He looks down at me as he stands, and then he just stares, his creepy murderous vibe not affecting me like it used to. When I finally quiet down, he reaches down for me, helping me to the feet like the gentleman he is.

-"Thank you." I take a deep breath and let it out. "I don't think I could do anymore running... I haven't had a snowball fight since I was a kid."

-I smile up at him, and his hands go together, holding them tight and rubbing his hands together. He looks away after the long amount of eye contact, before looking back at the house. He looks at me then, grabbing st the scarf that was now hung loose around his neck.

-"Inside?" He asks me, and I nod.

-"Yeah, but then I gotta come back out here and finish this up." I point out, my finger waving at the two shovels. Then I walk past him, and he follows with me towards the steps.

-My first few steps are careful, grabbing the railing tight as I look down and try to keep my footing. It's too slick, my feet shifting to the side as I step upward, and I jump slightly when Brahms' hands are on my hips. I glance back at him and give him a quick thank you before I step up all the steps, and I turn around.

-I reach for him, and he's a bit more scared of the stairs than I was, glaring down at them as he holds my arms and steps up them. He did much better than I until the last step, and he slipped onto his knees, grunting as he did so.

-"Shoot, I got you." I tell him, and he gets up onto the porch, standing in front of me. "We're gonna have to figure out how to thaw the stairs. C'mon."

-I sat in the living room, huddled on the side of the couch as Brahms sat on the other side, rubbing his hands together. He turned to look at me, and I flashed him a smile before looking down at my lap instead. I was still nervous around him, having every right to be, but I'm glad that I'm not terrified anymore. I've come to realize that he's a man of his word, instead I'm just uncomfortable, especially as I look at him and his eyes are full of black. Much like this time around, as I realized he was still staring.

-I tensed slightly when I lifted my head. "Are you good Brahms?"

-"..What else did you do.. As a kid?"

-I pause, blinking a couple times before shrugging. "I'd color, draw, play with toys. Just about anything that any other kid has done.." I pause, recalling he probably hasn't done half of the usual kid stuff. "Nowadays kids just watch TV and stare at their tablets. Sometimes though they go to the park, play on the jungle gyms. But my childhood had a lot more to do with my friends.. Like Sarah."

-I sprawl my legs forward, looking at my lap as I recall memories that I haven't brought back up in years. I take a deep breath, and then release it. I look up and finally gain the courage to look Brahms in the eyes.

-"Sarah and I knew each other since forever, she was my Emily. Except, when we grew up together, she decided to do all the wrong things, talking to the worst people. Like the ones that you killed; the ones that wanted me dead. It was Sarah who introduced me to them.. Edgar and her fell in love after she broke up with some loser named Malcolm, and they got along so well, they had a kid together. But, Edgar sold bad things. Things that could get you put in jail, and Sarah was his best customer. She took my money, bought this stuff from him, and when the cash was cut short; she blamed me... Then she died of an overdose the same night as all hell breaks loose."

-"Overdose?"

-"Do you know what drugs are?" He shakes his head. "Sheltered.. Drugs are things that make you feel really good, but it's killing you from the inside. Like a special kind of dessert that is filled with razors and it rips up all your intestines." I explain the best I can, and I did it the right way as he seemed to tense up at the idea. "Exactly. Sarah loved the dessert, and then she died. My family, everyone I loved, thought I bought drugs and did them, and Sarah just had to tell so many lives to save her own ass that she told everyone all of these rumors. That I sold them, did them, that I had guns and talked smack about people, and more. Nothing that I ever did, and everyone decided to not believe me. All the people I trusted backstabbed me and listened to some deadbeat--"

-I had to stop myself, a temper rising the longer I think about it.

-"I won't backstab you." He assures, scooting closer and sitting at my feet. "I'll love you no matter what."

-...love?

-"Love me?"

-"I love you."

-My lips parted slightly, the childish voice telling me that made me feel soft, given kids being so nice is just cute. But this is a grown man that I only officially met four days ago. About two weeks plus that if you were to count the day I met the doll.

-"...Thank you Brahms. I.. I won't backstab you either."

-This time, I didn't cross my fingers.

-"We also used to make snowmen." I told Brahms, balling up a big bit of snow. We finished the walkway a good five minutes ago, but Brahms wanted to know everything else he could about snow. "Get me another giant ball of snow and then we'll put it on top of this one."

-He's quick to follow orders, walking away from me and picking up as much as he can. He's scooping it all in his arms, and I can tell he's having a difficulty picking up as much as he wants. I can't help but giggle as I pat down the bottom half, and I realize that this will probably have to be the middle, especially as Brahms turned around with a ball of snow as big as half of his torso. He wobbles back over and drops it down on top of mine, and it just engulfs it, and makes a mound at the top.

-"..Alright." I giggle, standing up straight. "We need to get one more, but uh.. Smaller than this one." I pat the mound. He nods at me, and walks away from me to do so.

-I dig into the old pockets of the jacket I was wearing, having not even bothered until now, and I pulled out a dead pen and a used napkin in one, and a few coins in the other. I put the napkin back, and I watch Brahms come back with the top, and drop it on top of the body. I smile at him, and then I stick the pen into the middle as the nose, and the two coins I've got in for the eyes.

-"Now we gotta find two sticks for arms, and some tiny rocks for it's mouth." I say, and Brahms tilts his head in interest. "Snow-Man? Man made of snow??" He lifts his head and then nods. "Alright, you got it."

-He takes my hand and drags me through uncharted terrain, ruining the beautiful sheet of snow. He crouches down by the tree and digs his hands into the snow after he lets me go, and I follow along with him. But of course he finds the sticks quicker than I do.

-Long story short, Brahms becomes ecstatic when the snowman is finished, a bit too excited about it. He clapped his hands together in applaud, and then turns to me. If I could see under the mask, I'd be he'd be smiling.. I come to realize that he must act like a child, because he never got the childhood that he needed, and that idea nearly makes me sad for him.

-"I wanna make another one!" He turns to me, using his real voice, and I can't help but smile a bit wider at his childish excitement.

-"Alright, help me with the snow."