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The winter wind rushes by, tickling You’s face. She huffs and scrunches her nose in response, attempting to get rid of the itchy feeling. It’s cold during this time of the year. But as You looks ahead and sees the group of girls battling it out in a snowball fight, she feels that it’s stupid that she’s feeling this cold while the rest are not.
“Stop sulking. I can feel your sulk a few metres away.”
You recognises the voice. They have been hanging out quite frequently for the past few months. She didn’t like the girl at first but she chalked it down to just her being silly. However, she wasn’t able to keep her intense jealousy in check and it ended up bubbling up in nasty ways. Eventually the other girl confronted her to talk it out. To think back on it, You admits that she was being ridiculous for the childish tantrums she threw. Letting out a deep sigh, You puts her hand into her thick warm coat before it freezes over in this terrible cold weather.
“Hey Riko-chan. Not joining the fight of the century?”
Riko giggles as she sat down on the cold bench beside You. “No I am not. I believe that it is pointless to join this fight when we both know that it is going to go out of hand in just a few more minutes.”
You looks over to the group and sure enough, the fight is getting more intense by the minute. Kanan is no longer standing behind the ice fort that Chika, and Hanamaru, and her built. Right now, she is in the front line, facing off with Dia and Mari who is on the opposing team. You knew, the fight is not going to be over any time soon. The three of them gets really competitive all the time and shit ALWAYS goes out of hand.
While deep in her own thoughts, You did not notice Riko sliding closer to her until something warm came in contact with her cheeks.
“W-what??” You raised her hand to cover the spot on her cheek that was invaded by the heat that she probably need in this weather.
“A hot drink. For you.” Riko smiles sweetly at You, waiting for the other girl to grab the drink from her. You is terrible with the cold weather. For someone as athletic as You, one would had never thought that she would easily succumb to the snowy weather. Riko don’t think it’s a bad thing though. It just shows that Miss Perfect Sunshine is still human after all.
A light tint of pink coloured You’s cheeks before she accepted the hot drink from Riko. You used both hands to hold the only source of warm she could get right now, “Ahh… So warm… Thanks Riko-chan.”
Satisfied that You is more comfortable and not as sulky as before, Riko leaned in a little closer to You. “So, why aren’t you over there with Chika?” Riko heard You sigh loudly before she felt You snuggle a little closer her, to seek for an additional source of warmth perhaps. “I don’t know. I just don’t feel like it. Plus it’s cold and… I just don’t feel like it.”
Frowning, Riko grabbed You’s hand to get her attention. She doesn’t like this sulky version of You. Ever since the confrontation, Riko has been even more determined to help You out. She didn’t know that You was jealous of the amount of time she spent with Chika. Honestly she didn’t realise that at all. I should had. I’m an idiot. Now, after clearing the air with You, knowing You’s real feelings towards Chika, the both of them got a lot closer. Riko feels like she can talk to You and You, in return, seems to be able to open up to her too.
“You-chan, you know that you can talk to me about anything right?”
You looks over to Riko and see this fierce determination in her eyes. It kind of reminds her of Chika. “Yeah I know but…It’s hard to even begin explaining what I am feeling.”
Riko hugs You from the side as she offered the only support that she could provide right now. You leans into the hug a little. The both of them stayed in the same position for a minute or so before You got forcefully pulled out of the hug.
“YOU-CHAN WE NEED YOU. TEAM LIVE-OR-DIVE CAN’T LOSE.”
“EHHH??”
Riko was momentarily stunned by the action but as soon as she recovered, she saw the back view of Chika dragging You over to the snowball fight, while You was barely resisting it. She smiled to herself, knowing that Chika saw the hug they shared after all.
As predicted, the snowball fight took ages to end. There was no clear winner. Somewhere along the fight, Kanan, Mari and Dia somehow managed to destroy a house nearby. Mari promised the owner that she would compensate them. This is how things has always been between those three — goes all out to compete against each other, goes overboard, destroys things and then Mari would pay for the damages.
Riko has only been in Hogwarts for a few months but she could already count the amount of times those three got into trouble in school with more than one hand. Mari is usually the instigator. She would challenge either Dia or Kanan, sometimes both at the same time, and things swiftly gets out of hand the moment all of them are involved. Riko thank the god for the times when Dia decided not to join the chaos Mari created because when she doesn’t, things actually does not get too crazy.
Right now, after the long snowball fight, the group is having dinner at The Three Broomsticks Inn at Hogsmeade. The sixth years (kananmaridia) are sitting at one end of the table as they continue to argue about who is the most likely winner of the snowball fight. Riko shakes her head, knowing that that conversation isn’t going to end any time soon. Looking across her, Chika is pasting a bandaid over You’s cheek.
“Ow! Chika! We could just use magic to heal this?”
During the snowball fight, Mari cheated and used her magic to create an ice hawk that dived towards Kanan. However, Kanan dodged that attack without realising that Chika was standing right behind. Seeing and knowing that if she doesn’t do anything, the ice hawk was going to hit Chika straight on. Without much thought, You dived towards Chika, intending to push her out of the way.
Puffing up her cheeks, Chika pasted another bandaid, “Yes but this is your punishment for trying to save me from that ice bird! You didn’t have to!”
Riko smiled to herself, glad that these two are showing more of their feelings than before. Beside her, she could see Hanamaru and Ruby trying to patch Yoshiko’s wounds up. In the midst of the chaos that the sixth years created, the collateral damage was mostly on Yoshiko.
“I told you I am fine! The great Yohane doesn’t need these to heal.”
“Y-yoshiko-chan…”
Sighing, Hanamaru tried to hold Yoshiko in place. “Seriously, just stay still while I try to help you.”
Yoshiko forcefully pulled herself away from Hanamaru’s grip and stood up, “NO! I TOLD YOU I AM FINE.” She stormed out of the place and out into the snow outside, leaving the rest of the girls confused at the sudden outburst.
“That idiot…”
Riko turned towards Hanamaru who whispered so softly under her breath. If it wasn’t for the fact that Riko has a rather good sense of hearing and that she was sitting rather close to Hanamaru, she wouldn’t have heard it.
Taking a quick look around the table, seeing everyone’s concerned and confused face, Riko made a quick decision. “I’ll go check on Yoshiko. I’ll be right back.”
Standing outside in the cold, Yoshiko silently cursed herself for not at least wearing her winter coat before storming out of the place. She couldn’t possibly waltz back in, she just made a scene.
Just me and my dumb luck.
Groaning loudly, Yoshiko sat down on the bench outside the Inn, pulling her knees up towards her body as she laid her head on them.
Shit. It hurts
Yoshiko wasn’t hurt much from the snowball fight earlier. Those were nothing major. She could take those minor injuries. No, she’s hurting because she was meddling with the dark arts just the day before. It wasn’t as if she meddled with those to become a dark wizard. No, she needed to know about dark arts so that she can fight against them one day. Her dad was a great auror and has put many dark wizard and witches into Azkaban. But one day when Yoshiko was 8, her dad went out for another capture mission and that was the last time Yoshiko saw him. She loved him greatly and knew that he didn’t went down without a good fight. She wanna be a great auror like him, and maybe if it is possible, find the dark wizard who killed her dad and put him in Azkaban. But knowing that the dark arts can be cruel and brutal, she wanted to learn it so she wouldn’t lose or die at the hands of it.
Yoshiko held onto her right arm tightly. A spell she tried out yesterday backfired and her entire right arm was hurting so much that Yoshiko could barely sleep. Yoshiko wasn’t too sure what the injury was but she didn’t have the time to sit down and analyse to find the problem and then she got dragged out for a snowball fight by Mari this morning. She didn’t want the others to find out so she sucked up the pain and pushed through the entire snowball fight. Yoshiko is pretty sure that Hanamaru might have realised something is wrong and hence, all the fussing just now. But she didn’t want Hanamaru to worry.
Yoshiko curled into herself tighter as the pain on her right arm continues to intensify.
Rainbow puppies kitten. Rainbow puppies kitten. Rainbow puppies kitten
As she was chanting random musings to distract herself from the pain, she felt someone sat down beside her. Without lifting her head up, Yoshiko had an idea who it might be.
“Go away Zuramaru. I’m fine. Just go enjoy the meal with the rest.”
“And leave you here alone in the cold?”
Yoshiko whipped her head and looked the newcomer. Sure enough, sitting beside her was Riko, not Hanamaru. Steeling herself in her Yohane mode, Yoshiko raised her right hand to her signature pose although flinching a little at the pain that coursed through her arm.
“Kukuku. I see that you have been attracted to the mysterious beauty of mine. Fear not young maiden, for your valorous effort for coming forward, I shall bestow you the gift from hell, made by g-“
A hand chopped gently on her head.
“Did you honestly think that your Yohane act is going to work after how you’ve been acting for the past hour?”
Frowning a little, Yoshiko looked away, unable to hold her gaze on Riko. “It could have.”
Riko gently probed Yoshiko’s right arm, and Yoshiko winced.
“You’re hurt.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s not when you winced like that when I barely touched it.”
“Seriously. I am fine,” Yoshiko turned away from Riko, indicating that the conversation is done.
Riko knows that Yoshiko is not fine but she didn’t want to push her anymore. Sighing to herself, she gently grabbed Yoshiko’s right arm.
“W-what?? I told you I am f-“
Yoshiko immediately shut her mouth the moment she realised that Riko has held her hand and put it into her coat’s pocket.
It’s warm.
Silence filled the air for the next few minutes. Yoshiko’s arm still hurts but she couldn’t deny that she felt a little better with Riko’s holding onto her hand in the warm coat pocket.
Snow was still gently falling onto the ground and noises of someone screaming, probably Mari, in the background. The two girls outside were simply enjoying the moment between them.
A start of something new.