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It was time.
Mumei shook with excitement as she confirmed her purchase, already planning for the weekend to come. Her screen flashed with the purchased sign, reflecting the dorky grin plastered on her face.
2 Season Passes, purchase confirmed.
The fall had come and gone, and Mumei’s unrivaled anticipation for snow sports season grew with each passing day. Snowboarding was always a sport she relied on for relaxing, appreciating the beauty of the snow-covered mountains while feeling the rewarding burn in her thighs from exercising. The blurring trees whipping by as she tore down a mountain gave her a rush she couldn’t get by simply flying as an owl. She only got this sensation once a season, and she relished the opportunity each passing year.
She was proud of this hidden ability of hers. Even when the sport was first invented, Mumei found herself instantly enraptured with the idea, observing each year the sport grew and developed. It took a long time for her to grow the courage to try it on her own, but the attachment was instant. She assorted a small collection of boards with the time passed, her most recent being her favorite– a rough forest outlined in white, black background stark against it. She loved the simplicity, and the board was great on the mountain in itself.
A lot of people wondered if she had a hoarding problem with the old boards. They might be right.
Kronii was a recent addition to her mountain addiction, sheepishly admitting that she skied on a basic level the year before. Mumei pushed her girlfriend to the slopes immediately, excited to see her in action– and not getting much from it. It was that season that she swore she’d teach Kronii the superior snow sport, that being snowboarding.
And now, it was time for time to get on the slopes. The Guardian threw her laptop to the side, intent on scouring their apartment for her girlfriend.
Mumei found her in her office.
Feet kicked up on the hardwood desk, fully decked out in a robe and old pajama pants, fluffy socks keeping out the cold biting through her window that never seemed to close. Knowing Kronii, the woman was absolutely intent on staying like this for as long as she could, indoors and away from the cold snap biting their area.
“You’re staying like this all weekend.”
It wasn’t a question, merely an observation Mumei made with a tilt of her head. One the warden only answered with a slight nod, peeling her eyes away from the screen to smile at her girlfriend.
“In these clothes? Yes, that is absolutely the plan. I don’t think I want to stay in this chair, though,” Kronii shuffled in her seat, grimacing, “it hurts my back.”
Mumei hummed, knowing full well how much Kronii hated her chair. She skirted around the Warden, placing her arm around her in a back hug, only separated by the chair. Kronii always flushed at close contact, a soft shade of pink dusting her cheeks as she refocused on her monitor.
Selfishly, this was one of many factors in pushing her girlfriend to learn to snowboard. Mumei enjoyed close contact, and being with people she loved. Sana had told her with a smile that touch must be her love language, which at the time she simply shrugged off. But as her relationship with Kronii grew, even before the pair had confessed to one another, Mumei found herself holding onto the Warden in any way she could, feather-light touches onto skin trying to pour out her feelings.
It also just felt nice to hold Kronii. She would inevitably be doing that as she helped her adjust to a snowboarding stance, help her get down a slope, and pick her up when she fell. A lot of holding her dear girlfriend.
So, as she loosely held the warden from behind, she spilled the news of their newly-purchased tickets to a ski resort.
“We’ll go next weekend,” Mumei smiled onto Kronii’s shoulder, resting her chin against her, “so you have this weekend to relish in the warmth. We’ll need to dig out your skiing outfit too.”
Kronii leaned into Mumei’s embrace the best she could, turning her head to softly kiss Mumei’s cheek. She knew Mumei had been excited for this all year, the owl’s contagious smile spreading to her face as well.
“I’m sure it’ll be great.”
—
Mumei couldn’t hold back her giggles at Kronii’s outright grimace, her angry eyes glaring from behind her blue-tinted goggles.
“This is the fucking baby section,” she complained, gesturing angrily at the children flocking the small slope they stood at the base of.
She wasn’t wrong either. The ski resort Mumei took them to offered a slope with a small escalator of sorts, giving the new learners the chance to avoid the lifts before being ready. New learners, unfortunately, meant children.
Even with the kids surrounding them, Mumei knew this was the better choice. She had explained to Kronii before that going on a lift with a snowboard was next to impossible for first-timers, giving her a whole lecture on how to position the board beneath her feet to slide off the death ride to minimize the chance of falling– however, with her first time, this would be a given. She was pleasantly surprised to see the escalator, kids or not.
“Kronii, I’m not taking you to the lifts without you knowing how to at least move on the board . Unless you want to fall on your ass repeatedly.”
Kronii’s mouth opened and closed a few times, trying to find a response but ultimately deciding to go along with Mumei’s idea. After the recountings of her first experience with the lifts, Kronii was decidedly scared away from the machine until further notice.
“That’s what I thought,” Mumei grinned, eyes twinkling after proving Kronii wrong, “now, let's go up this lil’ hill. I’ll teach you how to strap in and get you started on the board.”
“Oh, I know how to strap all righ-”
“Go up the fucking escalator, Kronii.”
The two shared a laugh as they began to stumble their way to the escalator, Kronii’s movement more unbalanced than Mumei’s own. Walking in snowboarding shoes was hard enough even with the years of practice, so the Guardian couldn’t even find it in herself to laugh at the uncoordinated movement. The rental snowboard in Kronii’s hand threatened to slip out several times, but Mumei was intent on leaving her be– she had to learn, after all.
The slope could barely even be seen as a viable option to learn, if Mumei was honest. There was a lot of loose snow, people everywhere, and not a lot of ways to build up speed to increase balance. It would have to do, though.
“Ok, sit. Give me your board, too,” Mumei ordered, planting her own board firmly in the snow next to her. Kronii tossed the rental board to her waiting arms, flopping into the snow without a second thought.
Getting the board onto Kronii’s shoes proved to be more difficult than Mumei originally thought. The act of putting the shoes in the straps and tightening was clockwork to the owl at this point. What made her job difficult was the way Kronii was looking at her, a smile gracing her face as she silently watched Mumei work.
“Stop looking at me like I gave you the world,” Mumei muttered behind a blush, “I’m literally just tying your shoes.”
“You’re so gentle, though. It’s hard not to feel kinda loved right now.”
Mumei huffed out a laugh, tapping her girlfriend’s shoe and gesturing for her to get up. “Do I need to tie your shoes now? Is that your love language?”
No response came, with Kronii being intent on finding a way to stand from her current point. Mumei sympathized– getting up on a snowboard was always slightly tricky. She held out a hand, hoisting her girlfriend up with a little effort– almost slipping on snow in the process. The two ended up in a messy hug, practically falling on each other, holding on for dear life as they began to laugh at the almost fall.
“Very graceful,” Kronii giggled into Mumei’s helmet, her voice echoing through Mumei’s skull in a beautiful way. “This might be a vision of how this whole trip is going to go.”
“I’ll be fine as long as I fall on you, not the other way around,” she teased, reluctantly pulling away from Kronii. “Ok, onto business. Do you feel comfortable on the board? Are your feet secure in the straps?”
Kronii didn’t say anything about the sudden jump in tone, only a twinkle in her eye showing she found Mumei’s seriousness amusing. “Everything feels fine, ma’am. No problems to report.”
Nodding in appreciation, Mumei took a moment to observe where they were standing. The area was decently flat, before dropping into a slight slope. Kids ran rampant around the base of the slope, which she hoped wouldn’t be a problem, but ignored in the meantime. Nodding to herself once again, she refocused on her girlfriend, who seemed to be just watching her think.
“Ok, first step! I’m going on how I taught myself, so bear with me. Do you feel how the board is now, flat on the snow?” Kronii nodded, letting her speak. “Great. I’m going to hold your waist, but go onto your heels for me.” Quickly repositioning herself behind Kronii, she did as she promised, lightly holding onto her waist as she felt her weight shift.
“This feels awkward here,” Kronii complained, a teasing tone cracking through.
“It’ll feel more natural going downhill, I promise,” Mumei responded, the teasing flying over her head entirely. “This is called heel . When going downhill, shifting your body weight onto your heels will face your back to the mountain, and slow you down as well. You’ll be using this a lot when you’re first learning. It’ll put a strain on your thighs, though, so when they begin to hurt tell me and we can rest.”
“Did you have a speech prepared?”
“Maybe. We’re going to try going downhill now,” Mumei walked her to the ledge, Kronii stiffening in her place on the board.
“Wait, already?!”
Chuckling at Kronii’s distress, Mumei continued to hold her waist, teetering on the edge of the slope. “I’ll be right by you, and trust me, balancing while going downhill is almost easier– at least in my opinion. The most important thing to remember is that falling is natural.”
A deep sigh left Kronii’s mouth, followed by muttering Mumei couldn’t quite pick up. She nodded curtly, dropping low as Mumei gave her a light push down the slope.
Her first run started great. Her form was decent enough, adjusting to her weight on the board being used for speed and not grounding. Everything fell apart the second she attempted to go to heel, which Mumei completely expected– though she’d never tell Kronii that. She watched as her girlfriend unceremoniously fell on her ass, grunting in the process.
Mumei slipped down the hill to reach her, falling more gracefully to sit next to where Kronii was now pouting.
“That was actually really good for a first try,” Mumei said honestly, giving Kronii a supporting smile.
That seemed to perk her up slightly. Mumei could almost see her mood shift from disappointed to surprised by her eyes alone, something she loved about her girlfriend more than she ever told.
“Wait, that was actually good?”
Mumei grinned, nodding vigorously. “Now, we do this again and again until I see you go down this slope on heel, ok?”
—
A loud cheer left Mumei’s mouth as she practically sprinted down the hill, where Kronii sat at the base. Her hands were thrown in the air in excitement, cheering as well.
“I fucking did it! Fuck this shitty slope! I did it! ” Kronii yelled, laughing as Mumei fell next to her in a heap of giggles. Mumei’s board slowly slid away from her, almost tripping a kid who scampered by, looking at Kronii with shock on his face.
“Kronii, there are a lot of kids around you,” Mumei gently reminded through her giggle fit, pointing to a particularly offended parent, “but, I’m really fucking proud of you! Fuck yeah!”
The two dissolved into another laughter fit as an audible gasp left one of the parents. Before any could scold them, though, Mumei unlatched Kronii from her board and ushered her up to escape from their snowy seat.
The lodge wasn’t far from the children’s slope, thankfully. Knowing how hard heel was on the first attempt, Mumei could only guess Kronii’s thighs were burning– it was an odd muscle to use in the way she had been for the last hour. Putting their boards up was easy enough, enough space was left on the rack for the pair to set their boards side by side. The comparison was almost laughable– Mumei’s board kept in tip-top shape, the sleek, beautiful design well in tact… and Kronii’s beat-up rental board.
“You know at this rate, I might have to spend a bit to get my own board,” Kronii commented as the two giggled over the board comparison. Mumei perked up almost instantly, honing in on the comment.
“Does that mean you’ll continue snowboarding with me?!” she squealed, clutching Kronii’s hands as her eyes shone with hope.
“No, I want it as a mantle piece. A real conversation starter,” she monotoned, breaking character to giggle more as Mumei laughed once again. “Of course, I want to continue! I’m having a lot of fun with you today, this is a whole new side that I don’t get to see often. I’m really loving it.”
“I really love you,” Mumei winked, making Kronii blush and smile.
“More than snowboarding?”
“Somehow, yes.”
Kronii whistled in fake shock, pulling Mumei away from the boards and towards the lodge. “If you really love me, you’ll buy me some hot cocoa and let me rest for a bit. And do some runs of your own, yeah? You’ve been helping me out for a while now, I don’t want to keep you from going out there.”
Mumei blinked at her. “I’ve been having fun with you, though.”
“ But, you need some time to do what you love without someone restricting you. So, go. I’m telling you to. Buy me hot cocoa first though, I wasn’t kidding about that.”
At least the line in the concessions was short, the pair making small talk over everything and anything, hands held tightly as they talked. Mumei loved this about Kronii, too. She was always considerate of what Mumei wanted, ensuring she was ok doing what Kronii herself wanted to do, and pushing her to have time to herself as well. She was simply considerate, a trait she really appreciated in her girlfriend.
Once the hot chocolate was bought and cradled in Kronii’s awaiting hands, the two shared a parting kiss before Mumei ran away to hit the slopes on her own. Her helmet thrown on, goggles tightened and a single foot strapped in, she skirted over to the line for a lift, already bouncing with anticipation.
Kronii had made her promise one thing before she left– one single run filmed on her GoPro. Mumei had remembered to bring the camera’s handle with her, which she fiddled with on the ride up the slope. It embarrassed her to record herself while going down runs, as most people who did so were viewed as assholes– at least, that was her perception.
Anything for Kronii, I guess , Mumei thought with a hushed laugh, careful not to disturb the other people on the lift.
She got off the lift with practiced movements, already recording the process, just to show the ordeal to Kronii. Lift foot onto the board, shuffle to face perpendicular to the landing, skateboard off, and stay balanced. It was like clockwork to Mumei at that point, but was always extremely tedious.
“See? Getting off those fuckers suck ,” Mumei said to the camera, laughing at how stupid she probably looked. It would make Kronii laugh, though, which kept her going as she quickly strapped her other foot in, shuffling towards the beginning of a blue run– a nice warmup, and something that would make for a good video.
The feeling of beginning a run was always exhilarating. The wind whipped through her hair as she scouted ahead, watching where fellow snowboarders and skiers went to make their way down the correct trails. Holding a camera while going downhill was odd, as she had to ensure it stayed in view of her, but otherwise, it was easy to maneuver down. Blue runs were a routine, the only obstacle being to avoid those who fell on the more steep slopes.
The wind hitting her face didn’t help with the blush forming. She was constantly aware of recording herself, even as she skid down the terrain. Mumei didn’t know what facial expressions she made, if the camera was even recording, or anything of the like. All she knew was to keep going, give the camera to Kronii for her to watch as she sipped hot cocoa, and hit the black runs afterward.
The run ended before Mumei could fully comprehend. She blinked, glancing around at the area, only then sinking in that this was, in fact, where she started. She turned off the camera on autopilot, strapping out of her board and making the short walk to the lodge’s deck, spotting Kronii nearly instantly.
Her girlfriend sat in a far corner, wearing a beanie she had stored away to hide her helmet hair. Seeing Kronii in the beanie made her smile, it was an unfamiliar but very welcome look. She tapped rapidly on her phone, sipping hot cocoa periodically. Mumei reveled in the small moment of being able to see her girlfriend here, in one of her favorite places, before making her way over to the table. She slid onto the table, only then catching the Warden’s attention.
“Oh, hey babe,” Kronii greeted with a warm smile, puffs of warm air clouding as she spoke. “Done already?”
Mumei paused before answering. She considered going back out, doing the black runs solo, and feeling the rush of adrenaline.
Or, she could go back to her hotel with Kronii, cuddle up and watch a shitty rom-com they both hated.
The choice was obvious.
“Nah, I don’t think I will,” Mumei decided, placing her GoPro on the table with a declaring thud . “I’ll show you the run I did later. For now, let's just… go back to the hotel. Is that ok?”
“Of course it is!” Kronii smiled. Mumei didn’t miss the way she perked up just a bit more about being chosen over the slopes. It was a small movement, but one that warmed her heart just a bit.
The two quickly gathered their things, accounting for their boards and gear before trudging back into the town awkwardly.
“Wait, this definitely means you love me more than snowboarding, right?” Kronii teased, winking.
Sighing, Mumei grabbed Kronii’s cheek, pulling her in for a short kiss, accenting it with a peck on the nose.
“I thought I made that abundantly obvious. Yes, I love you more than snowboarding.”
The resulting cheer almost made her want to deny it.