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Chapter Text

Moon Smokes Some Low-Calorie Pot and Has an Idea

It was Moon’s best idea ever. The best, and most probably inspired by her mom’s prime weed. After Sam told her of the terrible Christmas assault on her house, Moon knew she had to act.

“I appreciate what you said at LaRussos’ the other night,” - she told Demetri, when she called him the next day. - “That we all kitties need to keep together, stay strong and love each other. Just how I’ve been telling you all along!”

“Speaking of kitties, Hawk is here. Come, Eli, stop hiding.” And Moon was treated to a disheveled red mop of hair belonging to a rather uncomfortably-looking Hawk.

“That’s so great, boys, you are on the right track already. And Hawk, I heard what you did, too. You’re my favourite bird, I’m so going to kiss you when we meet!”

Hawk somehow looked even more embarrassed.

“Now we all need to heal, relax and rebuild. So, I asked my parents if I can invite all of my friends to our chalet in Aspen for the Christmas break, and they said yes! All I need is to get the house ready, and invite all the others! Are you in, my kitties?”

They were in.

Better Skis Than Swimming Trunks

Everything was coming together just perfectly. Moon’s parents praised her idea to make everyone friends again (“Moon Galadriel Horowitz, we are so proud of you!”), and she already arranged with the caretakers to get the chalet restocked with provision and other essentials.

Everyone she invited was coming. Most of her friends already knew how to ski, and Sam’s dad was happy to lend Miguel his skiing apparel (after all, that was a nice change from a bunch of teenagers wearing his swimming trunks without asking).

Moon already anticipated how they would drink mulled wine at the fireplace. And sing their favourite songs together, and Moon would accompany them with the old piano in the living-room. They would bake cookies and cook nutritious holiday meals for each other. And her parents even gave permission to use their collection of lightsabers for some friendly sparring, provided everyone stayed respectful to the Force and complied with the Jedi Code.

Demetri and Hawk, as it turned out, used to go skiing together as kids, with their families, so that was shaping up pretty well to mend the friendship between the two. Moon congratulated herself and the Universe on making it all work, again.

Even Anthony somehow got an invite and tagged along.

Most importantly, Yas was coming.

Yasmine was, actually, the first person that sprang to Moon’s mind once she heard of the terrible fight. Life was short, there were bad things in it aplenty, and it was too easy to lose your dear friend or a darling sweetheart. She had to tell Yasmine how she felt, and she had to do it immediately.

If Moon were younger, she would have done what any other reasonable girl would have done. She would have started sending herself flowers and chocolates, and making elaborate schemes to make her crush jealous and provoke them to make a move. Not this time, though. Moon discovered recently how good it felt to be direct about her feelings and desires. It felt good, and, she had to admit, brought much better results.

So, Moon drove to Yasmine’s place right after having her breakfast. (In her experience, in love, just like in shopping, being well-rested, serene and not hungry was most important.)

So, she came to her friend, and told Yasmine about her feelings, and they kissed, and Yas said she thought Moon was beautiful, and her best friend, and then they kissed some more.

Thus, the most important thing was settled. Now, Moon was looking forward to going through with her big plan and spending her holidays together with her girlfriend, and their other friends, in their cute chalet in the mountains. She left Yasmine to pack her fanciest European skiing apparel and the loveliest outfits for their après-ski activities, and proceeded to plan her operation “Secret Santa” (aka “Ten Little Snowmen” aka “Kitties rise at dawn” aka… But never mind just yet.)

Put The Shit On Hold

Demetri had a suspicion he’d been in shock ever since Hawk somehow decided to switch sides during the house fight (talk about ho-ho-horrible Christmas parties). Since he felt like the terrible weight he’d been carrying for months was unexpectedly lifted off his shoulders. Since Eli looked him in the eyes (yes, yes, Demetri knew it was cringey phrasing, but that was what happened, okay?) - since he looked Demetri in the eyes, and shook his hand, and they fought together like one, and Demetri was suddenly overcome with a wave of such intense, and decidedly non-platonic, emotion, that both awed and terrified him.

This lifted weight, and their twisted history of the last months (the kind of Demetri would never have expected to have with Eli, of all people), and, finally, the emotion, too huge to wrap his head around it even by itself… Yes, it was safe to say Demetri was in shock.

It was also hard for him to comprehend that Eli was indeed back on his side. If anything, it seemed too much like a dream that would dissipate any minute. Since Demetri had had his share of those, he was not excited to experience that waking up moment yet again. So, right after the fight ended, Demetri, without a word, grabbed the closest part of Eli he could reach (it was his sleeve), and could not bring himself to let go whatever happened.

He felt as if he could not afford letting Eli out of his sight, and Eli was somehow getting it, since he did not complain, and looked a little bit shelled-choked himself. He did not say much either, and only glanced at Demetri with the very round eyes once in a while. It seemed Eli felt surreal, too.

Demetri remembered holding onto Eli through all the time they were cleaning up. (At some point Eli did remove Demetri’s hand from his sleeve only to lace their fingers together, and that turned out to be even a better arrangement.) And after they finished, Demetri tagged along to Hawk’s monstrosity of a motorbike, and held on to Hawk’s waist for dear life, as Hawk drove them both to his home for an impromptu sleepover.

After they got to his house, Hawk brought some sandwiches upstairs for both of them. It was only then that Demetri remembered his friends and himself had to go through the whole ordeal of the night without dinner! He’d usually be thrown off his game by a mere hole in his sock. Food, and familiar surroundings of Eli’s bedroom, finally let Demetri calm down enough to start speaking.

“So, Eli – Hawk...”

“Eli is fine,” mumbled Eli.

“Is it for real? That you are back on our side,” Demetri got hold of Eli’s sleeve once again then, just in case. He knew he was being ridiculous, but those were emotional times.

“I am.” Eli took Demetri’s hand clutching his sleeve, with both his hands. “I am on your side, Demetri. And I am sorry. For real.”

“I missed you,” Demetri felt his eyes filling up with moisture.

Eli clasped his hand tighter.

“I missed you, too, man. And I am not going anywhere. I promise.”

Demetri pulled his friend into a hug, and buried his face in Eli’s shoulder. Some time later, he raised his head and spoke again:

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, Eli – I do! But there’s a part of me that has trouble comprehending it, and sends me spiraling. So, could we, hmm, keep maintaining this physical contact between us, until it calms down a bit?”

“Sure we can,” Eli nodded and hugged him tighter.

They spent the night curled together on Eli’s bed, Demetri still holding fast onto his friend’s arm.

***

After Moon video called and invited them to her chalet the next morning, Demetri turned to Eli:

“So, what do you think?”

“I could use a holiday,” said Eli, his face half-covered with the fluffy wisps of red hair.

“That’s my thought exactly,” Demetri finally felt relaxed enough to smile at his friend. “So, I was thinking. Theoretically, we need to work through all the shit that happened… But may I suggest that we put all of it on hold until the end of holidays?”

“No problem, Dem. Put all the shit on hold,” Hawk nodded solemnly, and then grinned. “We are going skiing, man! I’d love to ski together again!”

Hell yes, they were!

Speak Friend And Enter

The Universe was a real sweetheart to Moon this season, and everything was lovely – all of her friends were coming with her, and their flight was nice and safe, and they did some making out with her beautiful Yas along the way, and the weather in Aspen was perfect, with the crisp snow sparkling in the sun.

Everyone loved her place, too! Moon had always enjoyed staying here, it was a lovely chalet, with its red roof, supercute intricate carving on the wooden eaves and doors, and the runes at the entrance saying “Speak Friend And Enter”. Nobody in her party wanted to say it, initially. Finally, Demetri said it, because he was a sweetheart, and after that – Anthony Larusso, because Moon had a leverage over him.

So, here they were. They would have the coziest time together, but also – and that was the most brilliant part of her idea – but no, they would have to wait and see for themselves. And after her plan’s realization, they would all love and cherish each other more than ever. Moon put her hands together in silent thanks to the Universe, and smiled mysteriously.

And, as she and her friends settled down, it seemed to work out exactly as planned. They fell into the glorious routine of lazy waffle breakfasts (courtesy of Chris and Mitch), fun days on the slope (Miguel making great progress under Sam’s and Hawk’s instruction), and silly fun together in the evenings. Except for Bert and Nate, of course – their chess/checkers/backgammon daily duels were anything but silly, and could often get intimidatingly intense.

Moon enjoyed seeing her friends looking content and becoming carefree so fast. She also enjoyed observing their skiing fashions. Yasmine was an absolute queen, no doubt, showing off her collection of fashionable ski pants in any possible colour, and her snow-white jackets, which were becoming her wonderfully.

Hawk looked like a star of the slope, too, what with his perfect mohawk, stylish skiing goggles and fluffy hot pink ear muffs. Mitch wore a ski hat with a huge neon-green mohawk on top of it, and they looked very cute together.

Demetri brought his old and trusted Firefly knitted hat that he used to wear when they’d been skiing with Hawk as tweens. Bert was awed by the hat, and was announcing “A man walks down the street in that hat, he’s not afraid of anything!” every time he saw Demetri wearing it, until Demetri agreed that Bert could sometimes borrow and wear it, too. After that, Bert started singing “The Hero of Canton” every time he was putting on the hat. And before plunging down the slope. And while waiting in the ski lift line. And anytime he generally felt like it. That was a lovely song, and Moon was considering learning it, since she brought her guitar, too, but something in the glint of everyone’s auras was telling her to refrain from it just yet.

A Bird in the Snowy Cloud

Demetri remembered, when they’d come to ski with Eli as kids, how his friend would have transformed the minute he got off the ski lift on the top of the trail. He’d been a fearless little fury on the slope since the very beginning, even when he’d been still falling every couple of minutes. Demetri, unsurprisingly, had turned out to be a more cautious skier, and had been progressing far slower than Eli, before he had become equally good – in a little bit longer time, but with far fewer falls, as he’d liked to remind Eli. Demetri remembered fondly how Eli used to swoosh downhill and almost disappear from the view, until he decided to wait for Demetri (he always did), and abruptly stopped somewhere far down below, disappearing in the clouds of snow dust.

They were not going for years now, but it looked as if some things never changed. Eli, Hawk now, was swooshing down the ski slope like a rocket, and took great pleasure in braking suddenly beside Demetri, covering them both in a snow cloud. When the snow settled, Demetri could see a very happy Eli, flashing him the sunniest smile Demetri saw from him in ages – most probably since the last time they went skiing together all those years ago. Sure, there also was that one time at the All-Valley Fair, when Hawk snapped in two the board Demetri was holding, but this time the smiles were directed at him, and not at the admiring audience. Not that Demetri was not an audience admiring enough.

With the Little Help From Young Anthony

Now, about to the most brilliant part of the Moon’s plan. She was still under the impression from reading that Agatha Christie novel, where a party of people were secluded on a cute island. The setting of an island getaway in a comfortable mansion was SO cozy – except that all the people in the party were later killed off one by one in the atmosphere of pure terror and crushing guilt. But otherwise!

So, Moon surmised, if the peril was not mortal, or, even better, not real, this could become a fun addition to their holiday experience, and an interesting bonding exercise! What if she were kidnapped by a mythical mountain creature, and Yasmine would have to come and save her? What if Hawk was trapped in a secret underground catacomb, and they would all need to work together to find and rescue the little bird, and Demetri would get to do the actual rescuing, since poor darling had such huge heart-eyes for his friend? Chilling adventure and budding romance, wasn’t it the best combo ever! With a bit of unsettling mystical atmosphere, which was never amiss, either.

And they definitely needed to do the classic – make ten little snow figures, with the sinister villain unknown taking them down, one at a time, to ensure a pleasant tickle to everyone’s nerves.

And that’s where Anthony Larusso was supposed to come into play. Moon gave Anthony some very simple instructions. Create moderate chaos in their surroundings and put random people in the party in moderate peril. The key word was “moderate”! The plan was really foolproof.

Moon praised herself for recognizing a fellow puppeteer spirit when she saw one, since Anthony set to his task with vigour.

Just in the first two days he managed to introduce some satisfying amount of chaos in their humble mountain chalet. When Anthony swapped salt and sugar, that was annoying, of course, – but no doubt unsettling and sowing the seeds of mystical wonder in the party!

He also did some impressive job of stealing everyone’s socks and hanging them around the place on the chandeliers and doorknobs. Of stealing all the toilet paper from one of the bathrooms, and of turning off the heater on a very cold morning.

He also tried to lock Hawk in the bathroom once, since this was the closest approximation of getting him trapped in a catacomb that Anthony could come up with.

On their second evening in the chalet, while everybody was happily playing drinking games, Moon and Anthony slipped outside to leave mysterious tracks in the snow, supposedly belonging to a terrifying outworldly creature.

The problem was, nobody really cared or noticed, and was only mildly annoyed with the socks or toilet paper ordeals. Anthony even managed to cut the phone line, and the next morning Moon told everyone, making appropriately big eyes when making her announcement. Everyone just finished their breakfast and set off to ski.

The locking of the Hawk in the catacombs turned out to be the greatest, but the last feat of Anthony’s. Demetri caught him red-handed, and forced him to unlock the bathroom immediately, and Moon had to rush to Anthony’s rescue. Then they both were quite a bit shouted at, and rolled eyes at, and, most importantly, forced to swear to abandon the ‘moderate mortal peril’ component of their holiday, for good and without reconsideration.

Moon tried to explain to silly Demetri how the plan was for his own benefit, but dear heart would not budge:

“I won’t pretend I understand how human feelings operate well, but I’m pretty sure locking your friend or potential love interest, as you put it, in or out of the toilet is not the way to go.”

The only thing that Demetri agreed to, is that they could all still make ten little snowmen representing each person in the party (except Yasmine, of course – the queen of Moon’s heart caught them in the middle of negotiations, and put a firm ban on making any snow images of herself), and let Anthony destroy them cruelly afterwards. But that was okay, since the snowmen scenario happened to be Moon’s favourite.

Demetri Prepares To Make His Kitty Move

It was almost dinnertime, when Moon stumbled upon rather panicky looking Demetri in the corridor upstairs.

“Demetri, do you need any help?”

“I… In fact, yes, please.” Demetri cleared his throat. “I’d appreciate someone’s opinion on my fashion ensemble for tonight, could you take a look?”

“Demetri, you player!” Moon grinned. “Want to look good tonight for someone, huh?”

They were in Demetri’s and Hawk’s ‘Binary’ room, as Moon loved to call it, and Demetri had all his pants and T-shirts strewn on the bed. 

“Wow, guys, you moved your beds together! Is there anything you want to share, Demetri?” Moon was so excited – it seemed her plan was already working!

“No, that is not what you think,” explained Demetri patiently. “We only moved them to maintain physical proximity to one another at all times. Or physical contact, if needs must.”

“Of course you did,” Moon looked at Demetri’s sweet face and smiled. “So is it what this is about? You want to make it what I think, don't you?”

Demetri made a vague gesture with both hands, and then pointed back to the pile of his clothes.

“Sure, let’s make you all cute and fashionable. Not that you’re not cute already.” Demetri looked appropriately bashful, but still mostly panicky. “No, seriously, Demetri, don’t worry, we got this.”

“You look good in skinny jeans, so wear these,” Moon pointed at the right pair. 

“And for the T-shirt, I was thinking maybe this?” Demetri showed her the blue t-shirt with a picture of a very fluffed-up cat and an inscription “MEOW OR NEVER”.

“Oh, I see what you’re doing here,” approved Moon. “It’s time to make a kitty move, isn’t it?”

“You realize you’re mocking the wrong person about the whole kitty thing, don’t you?” sighed Demetri.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Moon smiled brightly. “A kitty waits for the right moment and pounces, and that’s what you are going to do. And you’re going to pounce on your little bird looking stylish”.

“You know, I am not even sure there is a point of, hm, pouncing on Eli,” said Demetri, suddenly sad. “I have no idea what to do so that he liked me. So that he chose me.”

Moon stepped closer to Demetri and put a hand on his back.

“Demetri. From what I see and hear, Hawk already chose you.”

“I know, I know, just the other night he refrained from breaking my arm again, that was very romantic.” Demetri threw his hands up. “But if you like a person, you don’t usually do that to them even once, do you?”

In response, Moon just clapped him on the shoulder.

“Demetri, trust me. Just wear that t-shirt and make that alpha kitty move.”

“Still teasing the wrong person!” cried Demetri after her, but Moon had already left the room.

Chapter Text

Clothes Repel Off Him

Moon went to her and Yasmine’s room to see if her girlfriend was ready for dinner. Yasmine made it clear that she was not ready at all.

When some time later Moon and Yasmine came downstairs, they found that everyone had already finished eating. They also found Demetri, sulking alone in the living-room at the piano, playing the Gravity Falls theme with one finger.

“So, how did it go?” asked Yasmine. Moon had told her about helping Demetri with his fashion for his great move.

“Can’t you see? He obviously did not talk to him,” said Moon. “What happened, Demetri? You looked so brave when I left!”

“I came too late,” said Demetri. “Eli already got drunk, then took off his shirt and went outside to dive in the snow with Mitch and Bert. Why does he always take off his shirt?” 

“It’s Hawk, clothes repel off him,” said Moon fondly. “But you, of all people, should not be complaining, should you?”

“Why?” asked Demetri, confused.

“Well, you agree that he’s hot, right?”

“You know I do. Eli’s very hot,” Demetri said sadly, and switched to playing Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. Or the Emperial March, with Demetri’s skill it was hard to tell.

“And when you can see more skin, and he’s showing off all those muscles of his...” Yasmine started making quiet hissing noises beside her, and Moon had to slap her shoulder playfully, so she’d stop. “Does not he look even hotter to you?”

“Well, no? I mean, he’s the same person, and he always looks the same amount of hot to me. Which is a lot.”

***

Half an hour later, their snow-diving friends came back to the house, Hawk approached Demetri at once looking flushed, dripping with snow sludge and happy.

“Let’s play Twister, people! Demetri, are you in?”

Demetri hesitated, but Moon was already on her feet.<.p>

“Of course, he’s in, Hawk! Me and Yas are playing, too, aren’t we, dear?”

“Merde,” mumbled Yasmine, being manhandled together with Demetri toward the game setup, but she did not sound really annoyed.

The evening, after all, seemed to shape up pretty nicely for everyone, even though Hawk eventually put some dry clothes back on.

Moon Introduces the Way of a Raccoon

There had been a big snowfall the previous night, and the roads were still being cleared out. That looked like an opportunity try out a cool group exercise Moon had planned for all of them.
She rounded everyone up in the living-room, and made sure everybody had a fluffy blanket and a pillow. Anthony was supposed to make some soothing tea for everyone, but the boy said he had an important business to attend to in his room, so Moon had to delegate the job to Miguel and Sam.

“Today, my friends, we will be doing a raccoon meditation.”

Moon did not let the rolling eyes of some throw her off. Instead, she tried a narrative that would sound more familiar to her karate friends:

“There’s only one animal that does not take anyone else’s pooping. It’s a raccoon. It makes its move at night, and then sleeps all day in the treetop – and, presumably, poops from the treetop on everyone else from above,” she announced in a firmer voice. “But we won’t do that here. We will only snooze and relax. Are you ready to learn the way of the raccoon, class?”

The class was supposed to say “Yes, sensei!”, but that did not happen for some reason. Except that Hawk started whining how raccoons were dumb because they were feeding from the dumpsters.

“All right, everyone will be doing the raccoon meditation, except Hawk. And Hawk will follow... the way of a Nighthawk!”

Hawk looked pleased.

“That would be basically the same,” explained Moon. “Nighthawk is a cute and round fluffy bird, who sleeps up on a tree all day long, too. And they have the sweetest long eyelashes, just like our dear kitty Hawk here.”

“Can you stop calling us kitties?” groaned Hawk.

Moon smiled, and turned on the nature sounds on her stereo.

We Could Be Evil Together

“We could be evil together, you know”, said Eli, sprawled on the couch after dinner. “If you stayed in Cobra Kai with me.”

“Evil binary brothers, I like that.” Demetri moved the wood in the fireplace, raising sparkles.

Eli proceeded excitedly:

“We could mess with Kreese’s cutouts! We could… I got a sledgehammer at home,” he added for some reason.

“We could hack into the school system,” said Demetri dreamily. “Or rob the gift shop at the LA Zoo, which, in fact, you already did. But you did not really need me for that. You had your new cooler friends, didn't you?”

Hawk lowered his gaze. 

“It was not like that,” he mumbled, although it was. “I did ask you to join, multiple times!”

“Anyway,” Demetri waved his hand dismissively. “While everybody else is playing cards, we could behead all those little snowmen they built earlier, maybe? Does that sound evil enough?”

“Let’s do it,” Eli grinned, and went to put his his boots on.

***

“So, how about we go and destroy our snowmen, or build a beautiful snow fort?” suggested Moon a little bit later.

“I don’t want to go anywhere,” groaned Miguel, and snuggled closer to Sam, while Bert looked out of the window and announced that their ten little snowmen had already been mysteriously destroyed.

“That’s fine,” smiled Moon, and took her guitar from the stand. “I have a backup plan! I have a whole playlist of songs here about friendship that we can sing along.”

“Did anyone say snow forts?” said Miguel. “I’m on the team with Hawk. And Sam!”

For some reason, Sam did not look especially pleased. Hawk did, although he already looked suspiciously damp-haired and flushed from the cold.

Chapter Text

Our Babes Must Be Friends

So, it looked like Demetri and Hawk’s friendship was starting to bloom again, and that blossom was beautiful. But then, Moon surmised, there was an issue of Yasmine and Hawk, and took another drag on her joint.

There was some bad blood between her friend and her girlfriend, but nothing Moon’s genius could not fix. It was not nearly as bad as what had happened between Demetri and Hawk, and look, those two had nothing but heart eyes for each other since day one, in fact, Moon expected the boys to kiss any moment now.

***

”So, I’m thinking we should arrange that our babes wouldn’t hate each other anymore,” Moon told Demetri, while they were making salads on their kitchen duty a bit later.

Demetri had stopped correcting her about Hawk being his babe, and Moon considered it a success.

“Should we get them to spar together? Hawk could teach Yas some sweet moves, and Yas would let out those mean energies of hers, what do you think?”

“Are you mad?” said Demetri. “Hawk breaks Yasmine’s nose, and Yasmine breaks our necks. But there’s another thing they can do together.”

***

So, the next day they sent Hawk and Yasmine racing together through the craziest ski trails (‘les pistes’, as Yasmine was referring to them). Both of them proved to be absolute beasts on the slope, and surprisingly found a perfect company in each other.

“Aw, Demetri, look at them go!” Moon pointed from their chairlift at two colorful dots, dashing downhill at a frightening speed. “They are bonding! And I bet you a strawberry smoothie, that by the end of this workout our mean sweethearts will get all relaxed and mellow.” Moon clapped her hands. “They’ll become sweet and cuddly, and we’ll be feeding them cocoa, and cuddling them all night!”

“They are having too much fun showing off to each other, don’t you think?” said Demetri, watching two racing figures melancholically.

“It’s a good thing, silly,” explained Moon. “There is no such thing as too much love. If they become good friends, nobody is being robbed.”

***

“I’m sick of putting on all these layers every morning,” whined Hawk, adjusting his goggles and ear puffs as they got off the ski lift.

“I know you wish you could go shirtless, Hawk. We all wish you could.” Moon winked at Hawk.

“What about me?” asked Yasmine. “Would not you rather wish <i>me</i> to be shirtless?”

“Of course I would not, babe!” Moon made very big eyes. “It’s too cold out here, and not at all safe without cold and wind protection. I’d rather have you shirtless somewhere indoors.”

Moon winked at Yasmine, too. Her girlfriend and her friends were <i>so</i> cute.

“By the way, Yasmine and I are going to check out the trail that goes through that forest,” said Hawk. “She says there is not trail in there, and I say there is. So, there’s only one way to find out.”

***

The sun started setting over the mountain, and everyone decided to have dinner in the restaurant at the head of the trail.

“Did anyone see Yasmine and Eli in the last hour or so?” asked Demetri.

It turned out, nobody did.

Chapter Text

Moderate Mortal Peril

Demetri knew it, he always knew it! One could not afford to let their guard down, one should have always expected the worst.

Especially when skiing, skiing was basically gambling with Death! Demetri’s Mom had a skiing accident on one of their trips, and she hadn’t even raced as crazy as these two. It had been scary, and had taken ages to heal, and his Mom had never been her own carefree and extreme sports loving self after that. They also never went to ski again.

Eli loved his extreme sports! Karate, and skiing, and even all the stupid stuff like ‘training’ in the junkyard. It was something that was finally making him happy, and it was an amazing sight to see – now that Eli learned he did not need to beat up other people as a part of it, of course.

Demetri gave himself about 30 seconds to think all of the things above. Then he stood up, calm and collected, his phone in hand. Expecting the worst paid off when the worst happened, and Demetri knew everything about skiing accidents, injuries and the necessary actions. He had investigated it all back when his mom had been injured, and made everyone in his family, plus his best friend Eli, to learn that, too. He really hoped Eli remembered at least some of what they learned.

Demetri contacted the rescue team right away, while Moon tried calling and texting both Eli and Yasmine. It seemed like their phones had died in the cold, but Moon eventually got a message from Yasmine. They were in the forest off the trail, and Eli had injured his foot.

Getting a text from Yasmine was a huge relief. But it seemed they were facing another ordeal of the night without having dinner.

***

Demetri, Eli, Moon and Yasmine came back from the emergency room pretty late at night. They were lucky that Eli’s accident was far from the worst-case scenario, and even waiting times in the ER were reasonable.

Now that they were safely back in their room, Eli with his sprained ankle in an ankle brace and rested on a pillow, they were finally having their dinner on their shared bed. Sam and Miguel made sure to save lots of food for all four of them, and Demetri commended them for their personal growth. That was a nice change comparing to their fake Christmas party.

Once Eli had been located by the rescue team and safely transported to the ER, Demetri had taken a moment to go outside the clinic and have a little breakdown. That had helped to release some of the stress of the evening, but he still felt quite a bit shaken.

Eli, however, looked cheery, if a bit annoyed with being prescribed rest for at least a week. But he had been excited to be transported from the slope by the real rescue team, and had held Demetri’s hand a lot while waiting in the ER. Which was weird, since Eli did not look like he was in any distress at all.

“Well, at least you did not break any bones this time around,” Demetri shifted to sit more comfortably on the bed, once he finished eating. Eli flinched nervously by his side, and Demetri looked at him, realizing he was not exactly lightening the mood, as intended. “Sorry, Eli, too soon, right?”

Eli shrugged.

“But, seriously, don’t ever flaunt safety rules like that again,” Demetri let out a heavy sigh, hoping to release some more tension of the night. “They’re written...”

“In blood, I remember,” said Eli, and smiled at him. “Thank you for leading my rescue operation, Dem. That was very badass.”

“Oh, don’t remind me,” said Demetri. “But I’m so relieved it was nothing too scary. And that you’ll have to stay indoors for the rest of the trip. Mind you, I’ll be staying in with you. Someone needs to make sure you don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“You’ll be keeping me company? That’s so sweet of you, Demetri!” Eli was apparently doing an impression of Moon, but was looking at him with genuine fondness.

“Of course, I will. I had more than enough of skiing, anyway.” And because Eli’s smile was almost blinding, he blurted out: “And not nearly enough time alone with you.”

Demetri looked at his friend. Eli was smiling at him so gently that he felt his chest might explode.

“I want more time together with you, too,” said Eli, and tugged Demetri by the hand to pull him closer.

Demetri felt entranced, what with Eli’s eyes sparkling, and his lovely, lovely lips so close.

Demetri pressed his lips against Eli’s, and their kiss was the sweetest thing he could ever imagine. He placed his hands on Eli’s shoulders, then buried them in his hair. Eli was kissing him with increasing passion, too, and in some time had his hands under Demetri’s shirt.

“Yeah,” said Eli finally, when they broke the kiss, never taking his eyes off Demetri’s lips. “We need to make up for lost time.”

Demetri felt completely dazed, but remembered to ask:

"Is this for real? You’re not high on painkillers right now, are you?”

“No,” said Eli. “They just gave me two pills of Advil, that was so lame.”

He took Demetri’s face in his hands and brought their lips together again.

We're going to be friends

Okay, when the mild peril occurred for real, that was not even closely as fun as Moon would have thought.

But, in the end, it looked like everybody was still enjoying their vacation.

Nobody was locking the toilets or cutting the phone lines, and no foreboding of the murder mystery was enlivening their holidays, but it was cute all the same! Everyone was having fun skiing and spending time together afterwards, and Hawk was recovering in the company of his cute boyfriend.

In fact, Hawk became frighteningly good at hopping on one foot around the house, and he even somehow managed to play twister, once. That created quite a chaos, so everyone agreed to not allow him doing that in the future. So, dear Hawk had to be content with throwing popcorn at them from the couch, aiming for the extremity last called.

All in all Moon was sure all her friends would be coming back well-rested and happier people, just as she wanted. Most of her friends still had that tournament thing looming over them, of course. It was not nice of their teachers to drag them into their karate wars at all. But Moon was sure she’d come up with something to help that, too. Her genius, universe’s grace and her mom’s weed were a combo that never disappointed, after all.

Also, Demetri and Hawk finally realized they were in love, and were utterly adorable together. And she got Yasmine for herself at last, and that was, well, beyond amazing.