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Why are they even a thing, by the way?

But damn. He missed the opportunity to lay her on his wide-ass shoulder.

Anyway, Every sprints away with his lightweight girl in his arms, going at such a high speed that an unrealistic trail of light and color is created behind them, not unlike in the old Looney Toon cartoons.

Just for extra stage effects, of course.

And for that matter, he has always had a twenty-mile morning run routine, since he’s the generic male lead and all, so this feat ain’t that challenging for his stamina.

His poor knees, on the other hand, must be quite fucked up from all the tarmac and trails they endured throughout the years.

“Hey, Every, I think you can let me down now,” Lily breathes into his chest. The man in question looks down at her, still clutched tight to him.

Tucked beside his heart.

Kept safely plastered between his generous pecs.

Held fast in his strong arms.

“Nah, you’re a slowpoke,” he tells her, being a total mood killer. “I’d outrun you in seconds, and when I come back for you, it’d be too late ’cause you’d be kept warm and tight in that alien caribou’s belly.”

“Damn,” Lily sighs dryly.

After a few minutes, the boredom reaches a new high, and she informs him about that. “Bro, I’m bored.”

Every just gives her a disapproving look. “Don’t ’bro’ me, Lily. We’re boyfriend-girlfriend now.”

And this marks the end of Lily using the specific term with her man.

For now, at least.

“Alright. So, can you put me down now?”

Every looks back behind him, where trees tower over the snowy ground, no caribou or crazed animal in sight. “Actually, you’re right, Lily. Running for the past half an hour was total overkill. We lost Rudolf the reindeer completely since the first five minutes.”

Lily Lissy Lisbon takes that as her cue to hop down from his warm embrace, which, ironically, is starting to get a little too warm, even in the minus forty-five Celsius temperature of the legit-icy ice planet.

No shit.

Then the cold wind invades her body system once again, and she instantly regrets the earlier decision. She sure should have stuck with Every a while longer, even if getting carried bridal style was getting a little uncomfortable after thirty minutes.

The dear heroine pulls her fur coat on tighter.

“So, my man, what are we going to eat?” She asks just as a shiver runs through her. How her man is even surviving with a sole fur coat pulled over his nearly naked body—save the duck print boxers under it—she does not know.

He smiles down at her fun-sized frame. “Maybe we should try fasting? Or go on a diet. I heard from my gym buddies that it’s all the rage these days, girly.”

Lily girl rolls her eyes. “Not in this lifetime.”

As if it had been summoned, a mouse runs forward, its grey fur completely covered in snow, making the fuzzy thing look nothing more than a rolling ball of ice. Hence why Lily nearly missed it. And she would have, the ignorant, careless girl, if not for the animal’s high-pitched squeak. Quite a stark contrast to the frosty wind current’s low hum.

“Bingo,” Every exclaims with a clap of his hands, as if he were a magician whose trick managed to make the Utopia manifest itself.

He forgets his fear of nocturnal animals and rodents, and goes to pick up the mouse, running away from him with puny little legs. And since the CEO’s confident strides are, obviously, much longer, he reaches it and picks the thing up between his forefinger and middle finger.

Like a cigarette.

How detailed.