Chapter Text
This was the time of wars.
Wars, Rin thought, were more than winning battles. Wars were fights between ideologies, beliefs, their stands and most importantly, grudges and pride. And if there was one thing she would never let get to her, was the damage to her goddamn pride.
"Rin?"
She blinked.
Kitay nudged her side. He frowned as he adjusted the turtle neck of his dark sweater, shivering against the cold. "Focus," he said. "Don't want them to go for the offense first."
Rin shook her head to clear her thoughts and narrowed her eyes. The other side was quiet, and she couldn't really catch where they were positioned at. Going offense meant they would be able to attack relentlessly once they caught on the upper hand yet when it was recklessly done, they would only give away their position with no avail.
Snow had fallen with full force last night, and all of them woke up to a world covered in thick white blankets. Naturally, the first thought of the four students of the most prestigious university of Nikan was that they definitely should have a snowball fight in the middle of the woods down the hill.
Oh it was definitely a war.
Rin kept on making snowballs. The more, she thought, the better. "I'm not going out without at least 10 of these at my disposal," she said.
"You can't carry 10 snowballs at once."
"I can and I will."
Kitay's response was interrupted by a sudden hail of snowballs over their heads. They both yelled as Rin desperately raised her arms to block with no use.
"Did they just abandon their post?" Kitay said, incredulous, shaking snow off his hair.
"Oh, they really mean war war." Without hesitation, Rin grabbed two of her newly made snowballs and hurled them in the direction where she was sure had seen Venka run between the trees. Her aim was accurate, but Venka was faster. She narrowly avoided the blow as Rin's snowball sailed past her and smacked into a tree. She didn't have time to curse herself as she immediately ducked to avoid a snowball thrown by Venka, small but deadly accurate and vicious. It hit the spot on a tree where Rin's head was just a moment ago.
"You missed!" she shouted.
"I never miss!" Venka's voice shouted back.
"Are you cowering away, Rin?" Nezha's taunting voice reached through their snow barricade.
Rin turned around to face Kitay. "Make larger snowballs. I'm going to shove it down his—"
Kitay's eyes widened. "Rin—"
She caught the warning too late; as she turned, Nezha was already upon her, tackling her to the ground. Rin yelped as she felt snow digging into her bare neck, and down her hoodie, sending cold shock everywhere.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" She yelled as she glared up at Nezha's face, which was flushed and smirking.
"Got you—"
Rin's fistfull of snow found its target as she shoved it upon his face. Nezha choked and spluttered and Rin burst out laughing.
She heard a loud thump and twisted her head to see Venka also tackling Kitay to the ground—but Kitay twisted at the last minute, and both of them fell on the snow sideways.
Rin used a distracted Nezha to wriggle out of his grip and ran to the nearest tree. Glancing up for confirmation, she grabbed the trunk and shook vigorously.
It was like a slow motion—a pause, then a cascade of snow in branches fell on all of them, some shredded away into thin bits of snowflakes but most still in chunks.
"Why did you do that to me too?" Kitay yelled as he shoved snow off his face.
"I can't manipulate snow!" Rin dusted off the snow she had caught on her hair too.
"I," Venka said, "am going to make you pay for this."
"You're going to miss the chance." Rin ducked once more as Venka threw snowballs Rin had made and gathered in the corner. "Those are mine, you cheater!"
"No rules here!" Rin turned a bit too late to see Nezha dump snow on top of her head.
"I'm going to kill you—"
"Guys," Kitay interrupted. "Please shut the fuck up."
He had his eyes closed and now was spreading his arms and legs, a sigh escaping his mouth. "This is so relaxing."
Rin, shaking snow off of her hair with her hand, poked at him in the side with her foot. "You'll get pneumonia, get up."
"I'm not stupid enough to actually fall asleep here." But he did grudgingly get up, blinking. "Let's stop smashing snow and actually build something with it."
"A snowman?"
"No, even better. I brought snow duck mold," Kitay said, rummaging through his bag.
"You brought what now?"
Kitay pulled out a strange looking yellow tool from his bag. "Been waiting weeks to try this out. I want to figure out the perfect pressure needed to make a pristine duckling."
"Sometimes, I worry about your mental being."
"That being said by you is a bit funny, Rin."
"Are you saying that I'm mentally not fine?"
"Yes."
"Just checking."
Kitay quickly gathered snow inside his tool, squeezed, and opened to reveal a small snow duck. Rin gasped.
"Neat, isn't it?" Kitay quickly made 3 more. "Look, it's us."
"Who's me?"
"Definitely the smallest one," Nezha said. Rin threw bits of snow in his direction.
"They're all literally the same size, dumbass."
"Still, you're the smallest one." Nezha leaned down and brushed his lips against the side of her mouth; she turned her head and caught his lips in a kiss but quickly pulled away. “Your mouth is so fucking cold.”
“You’re the one who shoved snow in it.”
“You’re the one who deserved it.”
"Please stop flirting and help me arrange these," Kitay called.
"By what?"
"By the strength of pressure I applied."
"God, Chen Kitay, they're all just cute little ducklings," Rin knelt to coo at the small ducks sitting neatly in a row. "They're adorable!"
"Wait, I think you can hang them in the tree." Venka snatched the mold from Kitay's hand, scoop snow inside, found a narrow bare tree branch hanging low and squeezed the mold with the tree branch in between. After several moments, she opened the mold to reveal a snow duck hanging by the tree branch.
"Oh shit, let me try, too." Venka handed Rin the tool and Rin quickly gathered snow and copied Venka. She laughed as the same snow duck appeared hanging in the tree, delighted. A click echoed, and she turned to see Nezha with his phone out. "What?"
"Nothing."
"What did you take that for?"
"He was grinning like a fucking idiot watching you laugh," Kitay said without looking up from the ducks. Nezha kicked snow in his direction and Kitay yelped. "Don't you dare touch them!"
"Please shut the fuck up."
"Did I lie, though?"
"Nobody asked."
Rin walked up to Nezha and stood on her tiptoes to brush her lips against his cheek. "That's sweet." She felt his lips curve into a smile and she shoved another bunch of snow into his face.
"The fuck—"
Rin and Venka both fell back laughing as Nezha blindly swiped snow off his face.
"That's for the snow you dumped on my head!" Rin gasped between laughter.
"Oh I will get you."
Sensing an impending doom, Rin turned to run but Nezha was already upon her—he had always been faster than her, so fucking unfair—caught her around the waist and shoved snow against the back of her neck.
"Fuck you!" Rin gasped as she felt the ice melt against her back. She glared when she caught Kitay and Venka laughing. "It's supposed to be us against Nezha, what the fuck is wrong with all of you?"
"I don't know, Rin," Kitay said between laughter. "You're the one who decided to date him."
"I'm immensely regretting my life decisions."
Nezha pressed a kiss against her cheek from behind her, still holding onto her waist. "No you're not."
"I hate you."
"Too bad."
Later on, they all gathered in Nezha's room, warm drinks in everyone's hand, coffee for Venka, hot chocolate for Rin and Kitay and a latte with syrup for Nezha. Rin curled up on the couch with her head against Nezha's shoulder, his arm pulling her close to him.
"I feel like I've seen enough snow for a lifetime," she said, yawning.
Nezha's voice was muffled by her hair. "You're going to regret saying that when they all melt."
"I don't care. Right now, I'm warm and I never want snow down my back ever again."
"Thanks for the tip on how to annoy you."
"You sound like you're begging to get hot liquid spilled on your head."
"Do you two ever shut up?" Venka rolled her eyes.
"No, let them, I want to see where this goes."
Rin flipped a finger at her best friend as he grinned over his mug.
This was a time of wars and she loved fighting wars with all of them. But maybe, she thought snuggling closer to Nezha and letting him drop a kiss on the top of her head, little bits of peacetime in between were her favorite moments.