Work Text:
“And that’s how you find the length of this side.”
Maybe it was a little bit mean to let an elementary schooler teach a highschooler highschool mathematics, but Amane had taken the initiative and who was she to prevent someone from taking advantage of a good opportunity? She checked the answer key and Amane had gotten it right. It was fine for her to teach Muu, even if the ages were a little bit swapped. A lot swapped, probably, but Amane was a bright kid. It was fine.
Muu didn’t notice anyway. Or maybe she’d realized and accepted her place in the hierarchy among them because she only sniffled and said, “O—oh, Muu sees now…”
“Any questions?”
“Um… no…”
“Then why don’t you try this?” Yuno jumped in with a smile, sliding over her old homework. They worked fine as worksheets for Muu and Amane once she erased her answers, especially since she still had the correct answers on her original copy. It was effective practice.
Muu wilted at the sight of the worksheet, taking it with the shiny eyes and barely-concealed gloom of someone resigned to a tragic fate. Or something like that.
“Do you want to go over your essay?” Yuno asked Amane. “You said you weren’t happy with the score you got.”
Muu glanced up. “Muu can help with that…!”
“When you’re done with math.”
Muu set her head back down. She looked distinctly like a puppy denied their favorite snack, or a depressed bunny.
Amane nodded and pulled out the papers from her bookbag. “We were looking at Run, Melos!”
“Oh, Run, Melos! I remember that pretty well. Here, let’s take a look…”
It wasn’t like Amane’s essay was bad. Actually, the 82 she scored was perfectly serviceable, and in comparison to Muu’s math grades, over twice the score she got on her last exam, so clearly Amane was doing something right. It wasn’t the best though. And Amane, even though her guardian, Kazui Mukuhara, was more laidback than even her parents about her grades, liked to be the best.
Or maybe not the best. She just liked studying, unlike the other girl she was tutoring.
“...so overall, you should try to be more concise in your writing, and avoid using phrases you’re not too sure about. It’s not bad to be ambitious, but too much ambition could lead to mistakes that could cost you points.”
Amane nodded, tapping her chin. “Do you have any tips for expanding vocabulary?”
“You’re right on track with that, so don’t worry about not having enough big words to use.” She contemplated whether Amane would appreciate having her head pat, but figured it didn’t matter much anyway, and reveled in the squawk she got for her efforts. And the hilariously messy hair. “If you really want to try, I could recommend some good books. That’ll help you learn more words. They might be above your reading level though…”
Amane smoothed down her hair, looking petulant. Still, she said, “I’d like that, actually.”
“It’ll make it easier for you if you end up reading them in class, too. Here, lemme write some down.”
She clicked her pen, filtering through her favorite novels for those that would be suitable for an elementary schooler more mature than most of the adults in their therapy-turned-friend group. (Reality TV therapy, to be more specific. Milgram was a bizarre time of their lives, considering how much the fifteen-year-old “therapist” whose actions depended on audience votes actually helped them with their issues.)
“Maybe you shouldn’t be learning about these things too early…” she said out loud, but still wrote them all down. It wasn't like any of them were super dark. And besides, a little homicidal ideation probably made Amane mature enough to handle some morally dubious protagonists’ morally dubious actions, or the bittersweet lessons of life and loss and so on and so forth.
“Thank you very much. I’ll look into these immediately.”
“Just make sure Dr. Kirisaki looks through them first. No reading books he wouldn’t like.”
Amane made a face. Her guardian’s friend-slash-something (they never really cleared up what was happening with them, except for the fact that Amane now had an honorary uncle whose guts she hated) was just as laid back as Mukuhara, but while Mukuhara wouldn’t mind her reading just about anything, Kirisaki would at least try to steer Amane towards the more child-friendly novels. That way, she didn’t have to worry too much about Amane reading too-strange things. Oh, the wonders of peer review.
Before Amane could complain, no doubt about something-or-another Kirisaki had said or done—perhaps another pancake incident—Muu spoke instead, rubbing her hands.
“Could we move somewhere else…? It’s getting a—a little cold.”
Yuno hummed. It kind of was. Maybe it wasn’t a great idea to study in the basement in the middle of winter, but she didn’t want to bump into her cousin-now-brother, Haruka, while Muu was studying, because she would absolutely use him as an excuse to get out of work. “I guess we can go to the living room.”
She gathered up some of the textbooks while Amane organized her papers and workbooks back into her bag and Muu haphazardly balanced pencils and test papers on top of the rest of the textbooks. They made their way up the stairs, Muu dropping pencils all the while.
She stepped out of the basement door, catching sight of a window. “Oh, it’s snowing.”
“Really?”
Muu stumbled out from the basement, lost pencils in hand. “It’s snowing…?”
The forecast had predicted rain, but the temperature must have unexpectedly dropped enough for snow to now be drifting from the clouds, fat puffs lazily fluttering downwards like falling stars. Yuno found a nearby table, placing the textbooks down, before drawing back the gauzy, sheer curtain to get a better view. A layer of snow, enough to cover the grass and then some, had settled already.
Amane squished by her side, peering into the outside. “Wow…! There’s so much snow everywhere!”
“You’ve never seen this much before?”
She shook her head. “There was snow, but not this much. I used to live in the Kyushu region, so we don’t normally see temperatures low enough.”
Muu asked, “Amane’s never played out in the snow?”
Amane fidgeted. “It’s not good to spend too much time on recreational activities. We should get back to studying.”
Over Amane’s head, Yuno locked eyes with Muu. Despite their numerous disagreements, especially over Muu’s work ethic, at that moment, their hearts were one. There was no way Amane’s first snowfall would be experienced inside, poring over some books she could very well look at later.
I’ll let it slide just this once, she mouthed.
Muu sniffed and only looked down. She disagreed, but she wouldn’t say that she did. That was how Muu worked.
“Muu thinks… we should go outside and play.”
“Yes, but we can—”
“Always study later, because snow melts quickly! C’mon, let’s go out!”
“You too?”
She laughed, grabbing Amane’s hand and pulling her to the jacket closet. “It’s not good to stay inside all day! We’re girls, so shouldn’t we live a little?” She opened the closet door, humming over their windbreakers. “You guys dressed a little lightly, didn’t you? I’ll go get some scarves and gloves!”
Muu stopped her before she could leave. “Um… could we invite Haruka…?”
She tried not to roll her eyes. How Muu and Haruka became friends was honestly a little bit baffling. They knew each other even before the Milgram thing happened, and their story about a rock and a puppy and Muu’s ex-girlfriend and a fateful crash in the streets never made any sense to anybody with a brain, except maybe Mahiru, who was more believing because of the fateful thing and not the rock-puppy-ex thing. It didn’t really matter how Muu and Haruka became friends though, because they were aggressively best friends in the worst way possible. Like, Muu bringing Haruka to her dates, worst way possible. Or literally trying to adopt him, worst way possible.
Yeah, they took him in from his mom, but he wasn’t an orphan! He still had a family!
Whatever. Who was she to ruin their fun. “He’s probably sleeping in the living room or something, I don’t know. If you find him, you can bring him along.”
Muu lit up.
Rather than stay and watch the Haruka-hunt, Yuno bounded upstairs, making a beeline to where she kept her winter accessories. Her old clients used to give her a ton when the weather cooled, and there was no reason to throw them away after she quit her job, so she had a bunch stored up.
She contemplated giving the uglier ones to Haruka and Muu, but decided against it. Besides, Haruka had his own gloves and scarf.
Instead, she settled on a pleasant, sunshine-yellow square scarf for Muu, decorated with spring-green flourishes, and a pair of dark green gloves. For Amane, she chose a cute, sky-blue knit scarf, which had little puffs of white clouds and snowflakes incorporated into the design. The mittens were similarly knit, but were an unmatching shade of red. She’d accidentally shrunk them in the dryer, and no other pair came close to Amane’s size.
Settled on the girls’ accessories, she threw on her favorite (and warmest) winter outfit, complete with a heart-embroidered pink scarf that complemented her eyes and the matching muffler and gloves.
She marched back downstairs, a little surprised to find only Muu and Amane. “Where’s Haruka?”
“He was asleep… when Haruka woke up he seemed uncomfortable… s—so…”
Ah, right. Even after therapy, Haruka still felt wary around little kids, especially little girls like Amane. Even if Mirai hadn’t done anything to him, the pressure that her presence had on Haruka was enough to make him panic when she got too close. And Haruka’s sleep-addled brain might have found Amane to resemble her a little too much…
“He’ll join us if he feels up to it. Here, for you!”
She nodded with satisfaction, seeing how the light blues of Amane’s scarf cutsied up the navy of her jacket, or how the green matched Muu’s eyes, or how Amane’s mittens fit just right, if not a little bit big.
“Alright, let’s head out!”
She swung the door open. A cold wind of air blasted them. She shut it just as quickly, then slowly crept the door back open.
“Alright! Let’s head out!”
Amane shook her head. “I’m grateful for these gloves and for the sentiment,” she said, carefully, “but I don’t think this is a good way to spend our time.”
Yuno pouted, grabbing Amane’s hand. With another silent glance, Muu got the cue to grab the other one, and they pulled Amane out of the door and into the outdoors.
In the few minutes they were gone, the snowflakes seemed to have gotten fatter, fluttering to the ground with a glittering, silent cling, softer than a bell. Their feet crunched prints into the snow.
“Isn’t this fun? If it’s fun, then why does it matter?” she asked. “It’s good to balance work with play. What point is there if you’re not happy?”
“But what if it’s not fun?”
“Then we’ll go back inside and study. But I don’t think it’s not fun, Amane.”
“Because you think it’s fun?”
Muu chimed in. “Because Amane is smiling.”
“Huh?” Amane touched her own face. “I… But…”
“Amane… has lived a lot of her life being told what to do, right? But Amane hasn’t lived for herself yet… so Amane doesn’t like to make herself happy. Or… Amane has tricked herself into thinking things like studying make her happy. But Amane also likes to have fun, even though she doesn’t think that makes her a good person.” Muu crouched down, building a ball. “But Muu thinks that good people can have fun. Because Muu has fun with Amane and Yuno and Haruka and she’s not a bad person.”
Yuno smiled. “Am I a bad person, Amane? Even though I like to have fun?”
Amane set her mouth. “No.”
“Then what’s wrong with a little indulgence? Let’s help out Muu!”
She crouched down, packing handfuls of snow into Muu’s ball of snow. Amane tentatively followed her lead.
“Just like that,” she praised. “Are you sure this is your first time? You’re getting the hang of it real quickly!”
Amane ducked her head. “Yes, I’ve never built one before.”
“Because there wasn’t snow?”
“Yes.” She stared at the ground. “But also because they didn’t like it when I played. If it wasn’t in the name of God then…”
“Muu thinks… that God is happy that Amane is happy.” Muu didn’t look at her, but her voice was firm. “That’s what Muu thinks. But Muu… isn’t a godly person so…”
“No, Muu is right. Wherever God is, he must be smiling down on Amane, because Amane is such a good kid!”
Amane’s face flushed at the praise. “...Thank you.” she mumbled.
“Of course!”
“Y—you’re welcome…!”
They worked in quiet concentration, trying to make as big of a snowball as the moderately light snowfall could allow them. After a while, they got up and began to roll it around, though because of how lopsided it was, that was more of a feat than they expected it to be.
“We need snow to make the other parts of the snowman anyway,” Yuno figured. “Let’s stop with this one.”
“Muu doesn’t think we have enough snow to make a belly and a head…”
“Two-balled snowmen exist. We’ll just make one of those.”
They packed together another snowball, this time keeping in mind an even sphere. Without having to worry about another part of the snowman, they rolled it around without care (though it was still hard because of the softness of the snow), eventually creating a ball bigger than the original torso.
“Woah!” Amane yelped, tripping over herself as she tried to push the snowball more.
Muu peered down at her. “I—is Amane alright? Is she hurt?”
Yuno wasn’t as kind. “Pfft—!”
“W—was it that funny?” Amane sputtered, stumbling to her knees. Her pants, jacket, and face were all covered with snow. She scrubbed some off her face.
“Nooo, of c—course no—ah—haha—!”
“Hey! You don’t need to laugh at me!”
“But you’re almost in middle school, Amane! Only little kids trip over themselves when trying to roll a snowball!”
“I’m not a child!”
“It’s okay.” She wiped a fake tear. “I won’t laugh at you any more… for now.”
“Um… Muu thinks…” Amane shot her a glare. She hesitated. “It, um… Amane looked like she was going to make a snow angel…?”
“Snow angel?”
“L—like when you lay down and wave your arms and legs and it makes an angel…”
“Like this!” Yuno laid down and wiggled around before getting up. “Doesn’t that look like an angel?”
Amane squinted. “A little bit.”
“Amane should try it…!”
With some nervousness, Amane sat and laid down. “Am I doing it right?” she asked, moving her limbs. She sat up and looked down. “It looks a little bit more like an angel…”
“Muu should do it too!”
Muu shook her head. “But—! It’s cold…!”
Yuno shoved her frozen hand up Muu’s jacket. She screamed, and in her moment of weakness, Yuno yanked her back-first into the soft ground. Muu landed without much incident but the wind knocked out of her.
Haruka cracked open the door. “I—is Muu…?”
“She’s fine!” Yuno yelled back.
He cast a dubious gaze towards the Muu frantically waving her arms and legs in the snow and his adopted sister’s smiling face before choosing to accept the latter, gently closing the door behind him.
“Y—Yuno is so mean to Muu all the time!” Muu cried, making her snow angel. “Yu—Yuno makes Muu study and—and makes her fall and makes her do everything she d—doesn’t want to do…! Y—Yuno is just a—a bully!”
“There, there,” Yuno soothed. “Your snow angel is prettiest of all of ours, so don’t cry too much or we won’t vote you the winner, okay?”
Muu sniffed, sitting up. “I—is it?”
Amane took the time to compare the three silhouettes. Yuno, since she didn’t try, looked more like a person’s silhouette than an angel’s. Amane had bent her arms too much, making the wings look crooked. On the other hand, Muu’s arms were perfectly straight, not to mention the bumped texture under her arms that made hers look almost like wings. “It actually is.”
“Don’t… don’t make it sound like Yuno was lying…!”
“Maybe I was.”
“U—uu…”
“Just kidding!”
Muu sniffled again, but stopped crying.
“Okay!” She clapped her hands. “Enough snow angels! Let’s finish the snowman!”
Despite still being teary eyed, Muu followed along, helping haul the initial snowball on top of the newer, larger one while Amane searched for stones.
“It’s kind of short, isn’t it?” Yuno mused. Because only two balls were used, one for the legs and one for the head, it looked stumpy. “Really reminds you of Dr. Es.”
“They… were really tiny…”
“Oh, I should see if I still have my baker boy hat!”
She bounced inside, peeking into the closet and unhooking the said hat before bouncing back outside, but not before noting how warm the house was. “Did you turn up the heater, Haruka?”
“Oh, um… something like that…”
“It’s nice!”
When she came out, Muu was sticking the arms onto the Snow-Es, while Amane was fixing their face to resemble Dr. Es’ signature apathetic frown. She grinned, plopping the hat onto their head.
“Oh… i—it does look like Dr. Es…!”
“I know right? Wait, let’s take a picture!”
She grinned, making a peace sign. To get the Snow-Es even in frame, she and Muu had to crouch. “Say cheese!”
“Cheese!”
She snapped the photo. All three of them were smiling brightly, even Amane, a contrast to the grouchy snowman. They were all also covered head-to-toe in snow, and Muu still had the tear tracks from her earlier cry fest on her cheeks. Amane, in a moment of perhaps impulsive enthusiasm, had slung an arm around the Snow-Es.
“It’s a little dark though.” She frowned, staring at the picture. Her eyes moved towards the clock: 4:17 PM. “Oh wow, the sun’s about to set. Let’s head back inside!”
Perhaps tired or perhaps cold, Muu and Amane obliged.
“That’s really nice,” Amane commented, stepping indoors. Muu breathed a sigh of relief, taking off her gloves, scarf, and jacket and hanging them on the coat hanger. Amane followed suit.
“Um… do you have…?” Muu gestured to her leggings, which were wet with snow.
“Oh, I can—”
Haruka peeked out from behind the wall separating the entrance and the living room. “I—I prepared some changes of, um… clothes?”
“Oh…! Haruka, thank you…!”
Haruka brightened up at the praise. “I also… turned on the fireplace and—and made some, um…” His eyes flickered towards Amane, and he trailed off into mumbles.
“Thank you very much, Haruka,” Amane said. “Would you like to join us?”
His eyes flickered. “M—maybe... Maybe later.”
He fled upstairs.
“We’ll save you a cup!”
Amane sighed. “Are you sure I help him get over his phobia?”
“He helped you out, didn’t he? C’mon, let’s get you changed. You’ve gotta be freezing.”
The day ended with hot chocolate by the electric fireplace, complete with warm clothes and fluffy blankets. A Christmas movie droned on in the background, the plot dull enough to have Yuno dozing off, cheesy enough to have Muu tearing up, and flawed enough to have Amane furrowing her brow at every other line.
Upstairs, Haruka doodled a picture of his sister and friends, building a grumpy snowman. Outside, the Snow-Es didn’t quite smile, but if it were the real Es, it most definitely would have.
“How was Yuno’s house?” Kazui asked as Amane clambered into the car. Because of the flash snow, he’d picked her up later than the scheduled time, but none of the girls seemed to mind.
Amane beamed, big and true. “It was really fun!”