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The cool, crisp mornings and afternoons gave way to frigid air and snow storms as fall crumpled up and died, ushering in the harsh realities of winter. It’s not like Saiki cared about seasons changing or weather because everything was always the same to him–boring and pointless. And cold was inconsequential for someone with the power of pyrokinesis. But this winter was different because he had a girlfriend. Watching the leaves fall from the trees through her eyes was a little bit more magical than his usual perspective.
Aiura wasn’t really that into celebrating Christmas, though she did give Saiki a small token of her love for him by way of a case of coffee jellies and a new sweater that toed the line of trendiness without being too stylish. And he returned her kindness with gifts of his own–lots of small trinkets, since he noticed she liked little sparkly things a lot. Hair clips, nail polishes, key chains, charm bracelets, etc. She really loved the gifts and immediately put every accessory on all at once, which made her kind of jingle whenever she walked. But it was kind of cute.
But now that Saiki had survived his first Christmas in a relationship, he still had to deal with New Year’s. Aiura seemed to have something in mind, of course, when on Boxing Day she handed him a folded coupon that she had dug out of her purse, the bracelets clanking on her wrist as she did. She leaned back on the sofa as Saiki unfurled the note, obviously knowing what it said already.
His mother hovered in the doorway, watching the two interact. If she could read her son’s mind, she would have an idea of just how bad he was at all of this still. His affection for her was almost always balanced by a subtle irritation. This was his own fault, though. Months ago, he had given her a coupon book for their one “monthiversary” and she had been pretty judicious in cashing them in.
One Date of Your Choice. Saiki handed it back to her with an eyebrow quirked.
“Take me ice skating on New Year’s Eve,” she requested. “It would be so totally romantic.”
His mother, eavesdropping from the threshold of the kitchen, clapped her hands and squealed in agreement, babbling about holding hands and gliding along the ice.
Saiki felt his eyebrows twitch. There was absolutely no getting out of this, but this was kind of the most public request she had made of him so far and he wasn’t sure if he was ready to expose their relationship to the world. He had been trying slowly over the course of his and Aiura’s relationship to find a way to break the news to Teruhashi, who would be devastated to find that her quest to get Saiki to say “offu” and subsequently fall in love with her would have to come to an end.
Maybe he should just rip the bandaid off and stop trying to be so considerate of Teruhashi’s feelings. He could find some way to deal with her fanclub’s wrath, when they realized that he was the source of Teruhashi’s distress. Worst case scenario, he would just transfer schools. Aiura had transferred schools for him; he could do the same for her.
In all of his ruminating, he hadn’t yet given Aiura an answer, so after what might have been a few seconds or a few minutes, he gave her a thumbs up. She gave a cheer and collapsed against him, flinging her arms around his neck.
Good grief, he thought. I hope this is all worth it.
It was pretty funny, really, how skeptical Saiki had been about all of this at first: when he made the coupon book, there were no vouchers for any winter activities. Maybe it’s because they started dating in late spring and he never thought he would make it this far. But he should have never doubted. Once Aiura managed to convince him that they were, in fact, soulmates, he wasn’t that likely to change his mind. Of course, Aiura could still get tired of him. Reading her thoughts and checking his likability with her constantly painted a very different picture, though. It seemed almost impossible that she would ever give up on him. And now, he realized that he could have made a bunch of coupons for things like snowball fights, building snowmen, going to see holiday lights, baking Christmas cake together… Those would have been great ideas for coupons. Oh well, Aiura could, literally, fill in the blanks for him.
And so Saiki found himself in his almost-trendy sweater and winter parka, scarf and gloves, holding hands with Aiura, in public, as he paid a man in a booth to rent two pairs of ice skates on New Year’s Eve. In the center of town, they had erected a skating rink. It wasn’t some natural pond and he was certain, since it had been a mild winter so far, that they had to be wasting a lot of energy on cooling the ice to keep it from melting into a giant puddle. But however much they spent on creating the skating rink, they surely made it back the cost of rental skates, since the whole venue was cram-packed with other stumbling, slipping, sliding patrons and all of their frantic thoughts.
I think I broke my wrist…I wonder how many other people wore these skates?...Wow, that guy is such a show-off…Hope that I don’t totally embarrass myself.
Aiura laced up her skates deftly, even with her long fingernails and gyrated with nervous excitement as Saiki tugged his fifty-second-hand skates onto his feet. Skating really wasn’t that thrilling of an activity for him, since he could just levitate over the ice to make it appear like he was skating. He would literally never fall.
But Aiura, on the other hand, definitely could faceplant right into the frozen surface of the rink. A horrible slideshow played in Saiki’s mind as he imagined all the ways she could injure herself as she stood up, wobbly on her blades, and extended her hand toward where he sat on the bench, beckoning him to join her.
He sighed and took her hand, lacing her bare fingers between his gloved ones. “Aren’t your hands cold?” he asked, observing that she didn’t have any mittens.
She waved her free hand dismissively, but her thoughts revealed the truth: she didn’t want to conceal her sparkly gold, New Year’s Eve-themed nails. He tried not to scoff out loud at her girlish vanity. But, like, holding his hand is keeping me totally warm, she thought. Saiki couldn’t stay annoyed at her for long.
Tugging impatiently, she pulled him out past the half-wall surrounding the rink, usering him onto the ice. Her skates immediately threatened to fly out from under her body, leaving her butt to land on the cold, wet ice. Saiki was faster than gravity, though, managing to hold her up with his arm.
“Be careful, please,” he warned.
She rubbed the back of her neck with a nervous, humble laugh. Her cheeks pinked, a combination of cold and subtle embarrassment. I, like, maybe should have suggested a different date.
God, she’s getting cuter, Saiki lamented internally, tugging her closer to him. “I won’t let you fall,” he told her.
Silent swooning filled Saiki’s mind as Aiura waxed poetic to herself about Saiki’s supposed romantic streak. God, he’s so effing protective. It’s hot as hell. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that poetic, but it was as poetic as she tended to get.
Pulling and gliding, Saiki led her by the hand around the edge of the rink, shuffling her carefully to hold his other hand so she could hold the wall if she wanted to. She was acting proud, though, refusing to be a wall-clinger like all the little kids who had been brought by their parents.
She was still pretty unsteady, but Saiki could easily keep her up, if not just with his own skill and strength, with his telekinesis. Her knees knocked together and her arms flailed sporadically, but she was nevertheless building confidence, going so far as to try and push her skates against the ice herself to propel herself forward, instead of just being dragged by her boyfriend.
This was technically a mistake, but it ended well enough, with her circling in front of him and collapsing in an accidental hug against his chest. “I said to be careful,” Saiki scolded, a puff of white breath escaping his nostrils, mingling with a nervous cloud of her own gasp in the frigid air between them.
He could hear her heart pounding, he could practically feel it as she hung on his body.
“You don’t have to be so nervous,” he said. “You know nothing bad will happen to you if I’m here.”
Aiura moaned audibly as her forehead fell into Saiki’s collarbone. Damn, he’s so romantic!
He didn’t get what exactly he was saying or doing that was so impressive to her, but he was happy that she was still so easily wooed by him. He almost felt a smile beginning to form on his lips when he heard that familiar chorus of “offu”s coming toward them. The smile quickly faded when he heard her thoughts come into focus.
Spreading New Year’s hope and cheer by coming to the skating rink… Teruhashi mused. They’ll probably enjoy watching me skate, since I’m so naturally graceful!
Aiura didn’t notice until the goddess of a teenage girl skated easily beside them.
"Oh, Saiki!” she greeted, while her internal monologue was nothing more than a flurry of jealous and incredulous speculation about what he was doing at the skating rink with Aiura. Are they on a date? Impossible!
Very possible, Saiki thought. He didn’t clarify, obviously, simply nodding his head by way of a greeting.
“Hi Terukoko,” Aiura said. “You look so hella cute in your winter coat!” Aiura was being totally genuine, not at all realizing that Teruhashi was going through the five stages of grief right there in the park.
The way she’s clinging to him! It’s way too touchy for them to just be friends.
Aiura managed to pivot her body, still holding Saiki’s hand, and let him continue to guide her along the edge of the rink while Teruhashi practically floated beside them. “You’re so freaking graceful too!” Aiura continued, even as she started tipping forward.
Saiki pulled her back to keep her from face planting.
Teruhashi’s smile wobbled at the edges as she pretended to refute Aiura’s compliment. Maybe they’re just so close because Saiki’s helping her not to fall? Maybe they came here separately and they just ran into each other? It’s all just a coincidence. I bet if I started to fall, he would catch me…
Saiki wanted to shake his head and tell her no, that she shouldn’t run little social experiments on him like that. She was right in a sense. He would normally not let Teruhashi fall, it just wasn’t in his nature to stand by and watch bad things happen to her. They were friends, after all, even if she annoyed him. And besides, if she fell, she would attract a massive crowd of people, clamoring to ask if she was okay. But in this case, he would make a point.
Teruhashi pretended to lose her balance, her skates slipping furiously back and forth under her. Saiki simply watched as her make-believe fumbling became a real fall and her butt hit the ice. She looked up at him, her eyes almost glossed over with tears. For a second, Saiki felt bad for her. He let her fall.
“Oh my God!” Aiura exclaimed. “Terukoko, are you okay?”
Teruhashi blinked in shock as Saiki pulled Aiura along behind him. A crowd of people began skating toward her, to see if the beautiful girl who happened to grace them with her presence that night was okay, just as Saiki predicted they would.
“Poor Terukoko,” Aiura remarked, shaking her head sadly.
“She’ll be fine,” Saiki told Aiura flatly, squeezing her hand a little tighter in his glove. The guilt of letting Teruhashi fall was overshadowed by the satisfaction of her losing her little game.
Teruhashi seemed to simply ignore them after that, having created her own little fantasy narrative in her mind about why they spent the whole night pasted to each other’s sides. No one else at the skating rink seemed to pay any attention to them either, assuaging Saiki’s worries about what it would mean to appear in public with his girlfriend. He was invisible, without having to use his abilities, to all the people who didn’t know him. And on this occasion, they were lucky that Teruhashi was the only person they knew to spot them there. Maybe they could try to go out like this again sometime, but Saiki wasn’t going to rush it.
Later that night, after Saiki and Aiura exchanged their rented skates for their own weatherproof boots, after they settled into a cozy bench in the park with cups of hot cocoa in their hands, after they exchanged a few words about how the last 365 days had been pretty decent, the clock struck midnight and brought in the new year. And Aiura placed her lips against his cheek. In public, on a bench in the park, in view of all of the people still skating in the temporary rink. It was just a small kiss, but it felt monumental. And Saiki was surprised to find that he didn’t exactly hate it.
“Happy New Year, Mikoto,” he said.
Aiura smiled against his neck. “Happy New Year, Kusuo.”