The Fox and the Raven

Surviving the Snow

"I'll be a moment. I want to shower before I have to sit on a plane for 12 hours with that filth..." Nicolas said in a business like-serious tone.

They arrived at the hotel and Nicolas made his way inside calmly while Kelile staying in the car.

As soon as he entered the hotel room he screamed and collapsed to the floor, crying and holding his head roughly. He could still feel Kaede's throat closing under his grip. His skin taring under his knuckles. It made him want to cut his hands off completely. The rage boiling up inside him was uncontrollable.

Nicolas burst from the floor and stormed towards the bed, ripping all of the linens off of it and flipping the mattress. It hit the wall hard and made a night lamp fall to the ground and shatter. He ripped through the nightstand, scattering its contents across the floor and finding nothing of importance. He slammed the wardrobe open, ripping one of the doors off its hinges and throwing everything out of it again. Again he found nothing of any use to him. He was getting more and more blind with rage by the second. There was nothing in the bathroom that he cared about expect a bottle of pills. Nicolas recognized the name, they were for Kaede's heart arrhythmia if he had an attack. He stuffed a few tissues into the bottle so it wouldn't make any noise before stuffing it in his pocket. Depending on how Kaede wakes up, the tranquilizer may give him an attack. He didn't want to risk it.

Nicolas continued to search through the room, throwing and ripping everything to shreds. His tears never stopped and they only increased. He need to find something more to go on. Something more to help Kaede. This was the only resource he had right now. He realized the only placw he hadn't check.

'Sneaky...' Nocolas thought, rushing towards the piano and lifting the top. There was a thick manilla envelope slid discreetly against the inside wall. Unnoticeable to the untrained eye.

Nicolas took it out hastily and poured into contents on the ground around him. There was a file with his name on it. Pictures of him doing almost anything. His heart stopped. He just froze. This could only mean one thing. Kaede Kaneshiro had been targeting him and, he never knew. Nicolas covered his face with his hands and screamed out again, crying hard and letting his forehead fall the the floor. He couldn't breathe at all. Was it all really a lie? Was any of it true?

Nicolas opened the letter and read it. It was in Japanese so he was glad he had an obsession with languages and could read it. It was from Akimi to Kaede.

'LUKA KUZNETSOV IS FRIENDS WITH THEM!?' Nicolas had known Luka since he was very young and he was always extremely loyal to him snd his parents. None of them would have ever suspected him to be in relations with The Kaneshiro family. For right now, he was glad he didn't have to leave Russia to execute his plan.

Nicolas finished the letter and placed it along with everything else back in the envelope. He took Kaede's phone which he had stolen from him before he threw him in the trunk. He had watch Kaede open his phone once, the day they met and he remembered the password instantly. He opened it and went immediately to his text messages, reading them all one by one.

The most recent contact was with someone labelled: 🏳️‍⚧️中尾くん 🖕🏻😗

Nicolas knew that read "Nakao-kun" and the transgender flag was already a give away. Most of their conversations over the past week have been about fighting, something called 'the tigers', A person named Etsuko, and Nakao scolding Kaede for falling in love with "Nicolas mother fucking Korsakov". One thing was for sure, Kaede's love for him was real.

The next contact was labeled: ❤️ママ🌈🥰

This was Akimi for sure since it read "Mommy". Their conversation was mostly about if Kaede was safe or if he needed anything. Also some gossip about people called 'Cargo organizers' as well as them asking each other for fashion advice. Akimi was a harsh critic.