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Factually speaking, the sweater was terrifyingly ugly.
And there was no one on the entire campus – aside from, perhaps, someone who was colour-blind – could deny this because the colour clashed and it simply hurt to look at it for longer than a few moments for this reason. It did not surprise anyone that it was quickly said on all the hallways that Ur Frost was on the warpath – as she was the one who had to put up with the sweater most of the time.
No one ever said what exactly had caused her ire in the first place – if it was the sweater itself or her boyfriend’s refusal to trade it for one that looked less like a fashion crime – but this did not matter, anyway. Because the battleground had been opened and nobody knew how things would develop. Some said that before long, the sweater would end up burned with a manically laughing Ur dancing around the flames like she was some kind of evil witch. Others believed that while she would confiscate the sweater, she would not burn it because that would be disrespectful.
“You should do the eyes of everyone a favour,” Cornelia Alberona insisted as she reached for one of the textbooks on the stack she had built up in front of her. “Get rid of the sweater for us.”
“Even if you gave me the outlines for the one and only class we share, I wouldn’t do this,” the black-haired woman replied, pushing her books away from her with a scoff. This was not the first time someone had asked her to take matters into her own hands and it was also not the first time that she shot them down – although the reason was unknown.
“If I gave you the outline and some of my prized chocolate cake?” the brunette tried, a hopeful glint in her eyes as she leaned over the table and smiled extraordinarily friendly.
“Bribery, really?” Ur asked as she arched her eyebrows, her smirk ever growing as she started to collect her things from the shared workplace. “That’s kinda weak.”
“If you’d just tell your man to get rid of this atrocity, I wouldn’t have to be this desperate,” the other snapped as she pouted, trying hard to look as childlike and innocent as it was possible for her, considering that she was definitively no child and was wearing a short skirt that was not helping her act at all.
“My man?” the future doctor asked as she scratched her neck and rolled her eyes. “Really.”
“Oh, c’mon, you know what I mean,” the brunette said as she continued to sulk, trying to appeal to the other’s sympathy. “Do it for everyone. And yourself. Free the world.”
“Well, I don’t think I have to free myself,” Ur replied with a careless shrug as she grabbed her bag and her scarf. “And who said I got to deal with the sweater?”
She smirked as she turned on her heel, counting the steps she took before she heard the scandalised exclamation of “UR FROST!” from the woman she had just left behind but she merely waved over her shoulder before she slipped out of the library and crossed the campus, reaching the dorms where her boyfriend was living quickly.
He was sitting on his desk, his brows knitted together as he seemed to be Christmas shopping. As she entered, he looked up with a frown on his face. “Red or blue gloves for Layla?” he asked as he titled his head, watching how she kicked off her shoes and threw herself onto a chair, one hand already reaching for the bowl of cookies on the little table.
“Red, works better with Jude’s ice hockey jersey,” she said as she threw her jacket onto the floor, for once not caring about being a neat freak which was something he usually accused her off. “Oh, and I studied with Cornelia before,” she added with a grin.
This gained the full attention of the man because he shut the laptop before he turned around to face her. “Let me guess, she brought up the utter distaste she feels about the sweater,” he said as he rolled his eyes, crossing his arms behind his head.
“She offered me chocolate cake if I’d do something about it,” Ur said as she yawned, stretching her body like she was some kind of cat, her smirk still holding a vibe of contentment.
“Aw, her cake is good,” he said as he pouted for a moment before he went back to grinning. “I think you should’ve accepted … we could have shared the cake. It would’ve been fun.”
“Well, her attempts on bribing me grow more desperate,” she said as she reached behind herself, getting a hold on the sweater – that was, in her humble opinion – not quite as ugly as everyone made it sound. “We need to be patient, she’ll make a better offer soon,” she added, her voice muffled from within the sweater.
The truth was: she did not mind the sweater. At all. Yes, the colours could have been coordinated better. She was not going to deny this as it was true. But the sweater was warm and on her, it was huge and it felt like a portable hug. If she did not have to look at it, Ur might even say that the sweater was great. Well, she might say it if her boyfriend was not so insufferable whenever he felt like he had been proven right.
But where her problems with the sweater were not quite as grave as she had made it sound, everyone else was on a warpath against it and as they were both quick-minded, they had seen the chance and taken it. So far, there had been quite a few attempts on bribery and blackmail which was actually pretty entertaining for them.
“And I’m sure that our patience will be well-rewarded,” he said as he abandoned his laptop and his Christmas shopping to squeeze himself into the same chair she was already sitting on which was a hopeless endeavour and so he surrendered, wrapping his arms around her as he lifted her up. “Really, I made a good call – you’re like a benevolent evil genius, Bambi.”
She smirked as she closed her eyes, resting her head against his shoulder as a sigh escaped her. “I can’t believe no one caught on,” she said, a mixture of amusement and disbelief in her voice.
“Well, I may have told someone that you’re trying to get me to burn it while Clive was listening,” he replied, his body shaking with laughter. “And you play your part like a pro.”
“Why, thank you,” she said as she briefly kissed his cheek. “How’s Christmas shopping going?”
“Still not going to tell you what I’m getting you,” he said and although her eyes remained closed, she rolled them. It was not like she really wanted to know what he was buying. It was just far too amusing to listen to his reactions whenever she seemingly tried to figure it out. And this was what she was doing it for, not to spoil the surprise for herself.
(She was no idiot, after all.)
And even though this was the first Christmas that had come around since they had started to date a few months prior, she was in no mood to stress out over this. Not with the exams lurking right behind the corner, staring only a week after winter break. And frankly, academic pursuit was what mattered most to her. It had been one of the few things her father had taught her: that as long as she took good care of herself, she did not have to fear the future because in the event that she ended up alone, she would not be lost because she knew how to handle herself.
And as much as she disliked the man, he had a point there.
The positive effect of these teachings was that while everyone was freaking out over the Christmas presents they wanted to get their boyfriends and girlfriends, Ur was taking it easy because she doubted that Silver really cared about it (if his determination to do all his Christmas shopping online was a hint) and because she had never believed that a love that had to be bought with fancy presents was real. After all, her father had tried to bribe her with the most fantastic presents he could get her after she had turned seventeen and he had realised that in the end, she was his child and that he was obligated to play nice. But even the car she had received for her eighteenth birthday and the diamonds she had gotten when she had graduated high school on top of her class had not been able to soothe the anger that had been growing inside her chest for as long as she could remember because she hated to be ignored.
“Cruel,” she said drily as she jabbed her elbow into his side when he attempted to tickle her. “I’ll probably be killed by the suspense before Christmas even comes around.”
“I think the chances that you’ll freeze to death on your way back to your dorm are higher than the risk of dying from suspense,” he said as he kept his arms wrapped tightly around her and rested his chin atop of her head. “And yes, I know it hasn’t snowed yet,” he added with a scoff.
“You really look forward to that snow,” she said as she shook her head, a smirk growing on her face because she knew why. They had started to hang out in the winter before and she remembered the snowball fights she had been dragged into by him and Gildarts very well. Silver Fullbuster loved snow and winter in general – and Ur Frost would be a liar if she said that it was any different for her. Winter was one of the seasons that were associated with strictly positive things in her head and she was, to quote Igneel Dragneel, ‘all fired up’ for the season.
“Well, of course I do – and you should too,” he said as he laughed, again. “Once we have enough snow for a decent snowball fight, we need to defend our title from last year, after all.”