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Rhodes Island, like any other big company, truly never had vacations. Even on big holidays, like Christmas and New Year, people like Doctor and Kal'tsit went through their regular daily schedule. Operators, however, were having day-offs from time to time, especially since there simply wasn't enough work to keep every single Operator busy everyday. And of course they were allowed to have a 2 week vacation at some time of the year. Today was a special day, Valentine's day, and many Operators, you included, were completely free of any RIIC work. All you had to do was to go through a regular training program, and you would be free to do pretty much anything you wanted, as long as you didn't break any of Rhodes Island's rules.
While you didn't show any special skills as an Operator, you were very hard-working, and almost never slacked off. You joined Rhodes Island after Doctor got rescued, and you couldn't be assigned to any of the Reserve OP Teams, so you trained together with one of them everyday. Naturally, Operators of Reserve Teams were ones you spent your time with, and you considered most of them your friends.
After finishing the regular drills, it was still morning and you were free for the rest of the day. At first, you wanted to plan something for today, since while you had day-offs, they were not very often. But the more you thought of this day, the more you realised that you had pretty much no interesting ideas on how to spend this day. While it was a little dissapointing, it was still nice having a whole day for yourself, or so you thought, because while walking through a hallway to your dorm thinking about where to start your day, something, or rather, someone crashed into your back, sending you to the floor.
"Ah, Y/n, im so sorry, are you ok?!" once you changed into a sitting position, you finally saw the person who crashed into you.
"Im fine Merry, but how did you manage to run into me? The hallway is long afterall." you were still not used to calling Operators only by their code names, so outside of battles and trainings you called them by their real ones. She helped you getting back on your feet before saying, "Oh I was running because I wanted to see you, but I got lost in my thoughts so I didn't realise you were this close hehe" she said while scratching the back of her head, which made you sigh. That was very typical for her.
"Well, anyway, what was it you wanted to see me for?" this made her blush a little, but you didn't question it, wanting to hear her first.
"So, you know that today is Valentine's Day right? And well uum..." she paused for a moment and averted her eyes. After a small but awkward silence, she took a deep breath and said, "well I wanted to spend this day with you!"
"With me? Why so?" Valentine's Day was supposed to be a holiday for those who love each other. You were rather close, and you did find it very fun and nice to spend time with her, but you couldn't say you loved her.
"Well I don't know myself to be honest, I just felt like spending it with you, we are friends afterall." you couldn't help but smile at that, you knew how much she cherished her friends, always trying to protect them during battles and helping them with anything they need.
"I don't mind that, I didn't have any specific plans anyway." you could see her tail start to wag a little upon hearing that, and her smile widened.
"Okay, then i want to gift you this." she said while taking out a pink box out of her jacket. It had a heart printed on the top, and it was tied with a ribbon made with a soft fabric.
"Is it..."
"Yeah, it's chocolate, I gifted it to all of my friends." knowing her and how she often caused unintentional damage to furniture and equipment, it probably costed her quite a bit, especially since she considered friends pretty much everyone she talked to more than once.
"Thank you Merry, I guess we can have tea together and eat it." you were now speaking while walking to the living section of RIIC.
"Oh, I'm sorry to say but I can't have much chocolate, because my stomach hurts when I eat more than a couple of bits." you were a little surprised to hear that, but that was probably something about her being a Perro.
"Well it's not a problem, I have some other snacks we can have."
"Actually, it's not necessary, because well, I uhh... have different plans for today" this made you raise a brow since she sounded a little nervous at the end of her phrase, so you decided to lift her spirits a little.
"So you prepared for today? That's very interesting to hear." you said with a smile. She did indeed relax a little after hearing this. That still left you wondering about why she is nervous in the first place.
"Yes, I actually wanted to go with you to a different place." she was really trying to extend the explanation as much as she could, as if she wasn't sure on how you would react, "So, you know that Rhodes Island is passing mountains right now right?" this was true, the landship was near Ursus mountains at the moment, a place with plenty of winter resorts. You thought that she would ask you to take a walk with her to the snowy mountains, but what she said actually surpassed all of your expectations.
"I...I wanted to go skiing with you. If-if that is fine with you of course." being used to how energetic and excited Merry always was, seeing her shy like this made you feel very strange, "She looks cute like this" you thought, but despite this you didn't want her to be doubting her decision, so you put your hand on her head, patting in between her ears.
"Of course it's fine with me Merry, I'd like to go skiing with you." you said while still stroking her head. She clearly enjoyed this a lot, even purring a little, "But where tho? And well, I dont have any gear." you asked.
"Mmm~ i bought a day pass for us to a ski resort nearby, gear is included in the cost" she managed to say inbetween of her purrs, which made you think on how long she wouldn't be able to afford pretty much anything, considering that buying a pass for 2 in the heat of the winter season probably costed her a full month wage, and that is without any of her fines. Thinking about this made you forget that you were still patting Merry, only remembering when she pulled back from you, pouting.
"Hmpf, Y/n, you are a meanie." honestly, she even pouted cutely.
"Hehe, im sorry. When we should get there?"
"The pass is for whole day, so pretty much any time." that was nice, because despite being "nearby", the resort was still like 10 kilometers away, which meant that you would need around 3 hours to get there, so you had to get food, water, anything else that you may find necessary and pack all this.
"Okay, then how about we get prepared and meet at the cafeteria in an hour?" you asked.
"Fine with me." she said cheerfully. You were amazed at how easily you could make her happy.
---
After an hour of preparing and 3 hours of walking through snow, you finally arrived at the resort, which consisted of multiple small cabins, that worked like changing room aswell as place where you can relax and get warm after a long day of skiing, plenty of slopes and even a ramp for Ski jumping. Merry was right, and in the cabin reserved for you there was 2 full sets of gear for skiing, even tho that Merry came with her own, saying that she was more comfortable with it. After getting changed, Merry wanted to immediately go to one of the slopes, but you stopped her, saying that you actually didn't know how to ski, and that you were worried that you probably won't be able to handle a slope. She looked a little dissapointed, but she shook her head, saying, "My bad, i didn't think about that. Well, then i guess i will have to teach you!" she was so excited about the simple fact that you went skiing, that she didn't mind that she can't immediately go and have the fun she wanted.
You managed to find a place with flat enough ground, and she started teaching you. It turned out to be not that hard at all, and you didn't find any problems on smooth snow. Going downhill was what you were a little afraid of, since it required not only being able to keep your balance, but also knowing how to slow down, or else you might crash into something, and while snow here was very soft, there still were trees nearby, aswell as a possibility of a stray rocks right beneath the snow. And this is where the problems began. To not accelerate on a slope too quickly, you had to keep turning from side to side, descending in an "S" shape, and you just couldn't make it work. It was normal, since this technique requires practice, so you had to just use the simpliest one, which was turning your knees slightly inwards, so the tips of your skis almost touched. You were dissapointed that you couldn't use more advanced techniques, but Merry explained you that it requires lots of days to perfect, and that she herself spend a lot of time practicing.
After you were confident that you wouldn't go downhill on your face rather than skis, you went onto one of the slopes, which wasn't too steep, so it shouldn't be hard. Merry smiled at you, and with a happy cry rushed downhill. You could see how happy she was doing what she absolutely loved after so long just by looking at how she descended, taking the most strange and chaoting turns in an outburst of pure ecstasy. This made you chuckle. With a deep breath, you made the first push, and...
Cool February wind blowing in your face, feeling of your skis moving through the snow, the speed of your descend, trees and scenery rushing past you. For a moment you forgot about anything else other than this. It felt so amazing, you instantly understood why Merry loved this so much. It didn't last long tho as you reached the bottom of the slope, with Merry already waiting for you, her smile wide and her tail wagging.
"That was soooo amazing! I missed this so much!" she happily exclaimed.
"Wow" was all you could say.
"Y/n, did you like it?" while she was happy that she finally was able to go skiing, she still wanted you to have fun too.
"Yeah, it felt very good." you said as your hand went to pat her, which made her giggle.
"Hehe, im happy that you liked it too." going downhill and feeling all this was fun, but there was a problem now, "Uh, Merry, how are we supposed to go back up?"
"Oh, let's see" she said, but it didnt take long before she pointed to a uphill pathway behind a barrier, so if you fall during your descend, you can't crash into those who are climbing up. Well, going a good 100 meters uphill on a slope with skis... surprisingly didn't take as long as you expected.
You had your fun like this for a while, riding downhill and going uphill, switching to a steeper slope, untill during one of the rides, Merry started slowing down intentionally do give you a smirk, teasing you for not being able to catch her. You knew she was just too excited and that she didn't have wrong intentions, but you still decided to teach her a lesson. Your plan was to get closer to her once she was side by side to you, and pat her on the head. You knew how much she enjoys this, and you had no doubt she will get confused if you do it. However, you did it at a wrong place. This slope unlike others had plenty of artificial bumps, made specifically to practice stuff like Mogul, although the bumps were not too close, they still required a specific approach, which you didn't know obviously. So when you got closer to her, you hit one of these bumps, and if you were focused on the snow ahead, you probably could've manage to clear it. However, you were not looking at the snow, which made you lose balance and crash straight into Merry, sending you both falling and slide down the rest of the slope. Luckily, you were close to the bottom, so you didn't get hurt. You had your eyes closed the whole time, so when you finally hit the bottom you opened them...
"Ouch, my head..." to see Merry right above you, stroking the top of her head. She had you pinned down in a compromising position. She opened her eyes too, and your gazes met.
"Uh, i'm sorry Merry, that was my fault." you apologized to her, she still wasn't getting off of you, probably not yet fully realising what happened. And you couldn't get her off of you either, because she was simply stronger than you.
"It's fine Y/n, i am equally at fault for teasing you, hehe." the more you looked at each other, the more you realised just how she looked. She already had a rather toned body, but with her ski gear she probably had for a couple years, she looked even more pretty. The fact that her cheeks were pink from skiing in the cold, aswell as the fact that you could almost feel her breath as she was relaxing from the descent didn't help you either, and you could feel your cheeks turning even more pink than they were from all the skiing. After a couple of seconds, which felt like ages, Merry finally climbed off of you, apologizing again.
"I think we should call it a day here." you said, she nodded. While it was lots of fun, you were now both very tired. So you climbed uphill one last time and went into your cabin to relax and have some hot tea to warm up from the cold outside.
---
The return to Rhodes Island took you a little more than in the morning, due to the fact that you were, well, tired. When you finally returned to the landship, it was already evening. Merry wanted to call it a day here, but you suddenly remembered something.
"Hey, Merry, remember in the morning I asked if you wanted to have tea with me? Well, I want to know if you want to extend our day a bit more?" she was a little confused at first, but then seemed to remember what happened, and said cheerfully, "I'd love that, Y/n!" you couldn't resist patting her again upon hearing just how excited she was. After you finished unpacking, you heard knocks on your dorm door. Merry was standing outside, already in her Rhodes Island uniform.
"Hi-hi~" she almost sang that simple phrase, which made you chuckle.
"Alright, this is my place i guess" your dorm wasn't anything fancy. It had a standard layout: a single bed near the window, a bedside table, a closet and a carpet in the middle. You had the same pay as any other Reserve Operator, so you really had to save up a little to afford something fancy. Your plans were to one day be able to have a party with your friends here, so you spent your savings on buying a sofa and a TV big enough so you could easily see everything from the other side of the room. You also moved your bedside table inbetween the sofa and TV to put various snacks on it, as well as 2 cups of tea. It didn't have enough space on it however, so some of snacks aswell as electric kettle had to be placed right besides it.
"Oh it looks very cozy, I like it." said Merry after taking a look.
"Thank you hehe." you still remember just how much even this little furniture costed you, but you were glad that she liked it. After a small pause, you invited her onto the sofa and turned on the TV. You didn't want to watch anything that might be difficult to understand after such a tiring day, so you settled for a comedy movie. That was fine with both of you, as Merry was instantly engulfed into what was happening on the screen. The jokes themselves were not very fun for you, but Merry laughed at almost every single one, which made you join her. You didn't understand at first why you were laughing on something you found unfunny, but you quickly realised why. Merry had a cheerful aura around her, which lifted mood of anyone who was talking to her. You even joked inwardly that this was her real Arts: being so happy that everyone around her became happy. This made you adore her even more. The movie finally reached the point where you started finding the jokes funny, and focused on it more. At some point you stopped hearing Merry laughing and giggling, and you thought that she got tired from doing it. Once the movie ended tho, you realised why she quieted down: she fell asleep somewhere in the middle of the movie, and she was now laying her head on your shoulder.
You didn't know on how to react to this. Your first thought was waking her up and helping her get back to her dorm, but when you looked at her face you instantly turned that idea down. She looked so peaceful, so pretty, that you didn't have the heart to do so. You started thinking on what to do, and you decided that the only way to go is getting her onto your bed, and sleep on the sofa yourself. You carried her very carefuly so she doesn't wake up, all the time looking at her face. You mentally punched yourself for staring, but you couldn't help yourself. She was so pretty, so cute, and her smile melted your heart. Yeah, this day didn't go as you planned, but you are definitely not complaining.
"I wish we could spend more time together like this." you thought to yourself right before you fell asleep. Tomorrow you both will start going through your regular routine, but you will keep remembering this day for a long time.