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The snow was falling outside, a steady pitter-patter as it blanketed the ground, and the pine trees clustered together were a dark, sharp green, their tops covered with a cap of white snow - mounds of whipped cream dotting the horizon. The shivery breeze blowing outside, the red and white lights that were twinkling on the balconies of houses; it was the perfect example of a winter wonderland.
As Saki sat on her kitchen counter, hands messy with dots of sugar and eyes shimmering with sparks of joy-filled light, she wished that she could be stuck in this moment forever.
The smell of gingerbread wafted out from the oven, blanketing the entire room with the fragrant smells of their labor - butter, sugar, and the sweet, heady scent of ginger. Ichika was watching the oven with her eagle’s eye, not wanting their hard work to burn up in flames, and Saki had been assigned to clean-up duty while she waited; the messily piled dishes in the sink and the tipped over spice jars showed that she had been too excited to do her job properly.
“How much longer, Icchan~?” she asked, extending her friend’s name out long, like icing on a cake. The room was warm and she was quite hot, and she wanted to get started quickly. She sat there, checking to make sure everything was ready. A station where they could set their treat down, icing and sprinkles to go crazy with decorating. Everything was there, and she looked back to Ichika, her friend’s shiny black hair exciting to look at as she waited for an answer.
“Hmm, I think it’s done,” Ichika replied, and grabbed the white oven mitts, now worn out from continued use, to slip onto her hands. Her slender fingers immediately vanished under the mass of white fabric, and they looked like bulky mittens, which made Saki laugh. She got down from her seat at the kitchen counter and walked towards her friend as Ichika opened the oven door, a cloud of ginger-scented steam bursting out to cover them both.
Saki looked around for her own pink mitts, and found them hiding next to a canister of crystallized ginger. She slid them on, ignoring the butter and sugar stains gained from years of misplacement, and crouched down next to Ichika, who was struggling to take out the burning metal tray.
“Here, let me help,” she said quickly and reached in too. It was hot, but she was protected because of her mitts, and she safely managed to get her hands around one-half of the tray. With slow, careful movements - Saki made sure to keep her arms stable, not trembling - they managed to take the tray out and hoist it onto the counter, where it sat, ready to be cooled and decorated.
Ichika’s eyes had sparkled in the warm orange light from the oven, glints of gold and sparks of orange peeking out from the depths hidden in her gray eyes. They had shined, so prettily, and Saki turned away, opting to instead focus on the gingerbread house in front of them; she knew her cheeks were the same color as her pink hair.
One look at the house steaming in front of them and they knew it would be too hot to decorate - the icing would melt off and lay there in a puddle beneath the gingerbread, an icy pond of white under the house. They would have to wait for a while, at least thirty minutes, until their treat had sufficiently cooled and they could decorate without burning themselves.
The snow was still beating down hard outside, but they were warm and cozy here, in this ginger-scented kitchen, with each other at their side.
Ichika went over to check on the icing, make sure it hadn’t hardened, and Saki stayed there, breathing in the spicy smells, like a warm blanket tucking her into bed.
“Hey, Icchan?” she asked, a sudden idea overtaking her like a shooting star falling to Earth. She looked over at Ichika, who was covering the glass bowl of icing with cling wrap.
“Hmm?” Ichika said, still focused on covering up the icing, but she looked up and made eye contact with Saki; they had lost the glimmering gold from the heat in the oven, but they were still as beautiful as ever.
“Can we go play in the snow?”
—--------------
With their heavy parkas, furry hoods, and scarves that covered half of their faces, Saki knew that they looked like two determined penguins, ready to brave the storm outside of their house.
Ichika had shown some wariness to the idea - she must have not wanted Saki to grow tired and frozen - but after bundling up carefully, Saki could see her friend was excited.
They opened the door, and the warm air, fragrant with ginger, rushed out, bringing the sharp winter wind into the house.
“Hurry, Saki!” Ichika called, and ran out into the snow, her boots pushing down to form tracks of footprints in the messy piles of white. She looked funny, the sheer number of layers made her look like a penguin, but she also looked beautiful, as if she could win a beauty pageant if she tried.
Saki giggled at the thought. A penguin winning a beauty pageant was not something she would ever think was possible.
The cold wind was beginning to bite into her skin, seeping through what protection her coat had to offer, and she followed her friend, closing the door behind her so the house stayed relatively warm. They ran around for a while, playing games of tag and hide-and-seek, skating across the thin ice - Ichika had held Saki as she nervously took her first step, making angels on boot-tracked snow, the sun beating an orange glow into the endless sea of white. The trees far away were swaying to the sounds of nature, and the wind blew harsh icicles into their hair, their hands - but nothing would be able to spoil their fun as they stayed there, playing for hours in the setting sun.
Ichika was making little animals in the snow, the sunlight glinting off the black hair not stuffed in her woolen cap, when the first snowball hit her.
Saki saw her whip her head around, betrayal clearly written in her alluring gray eyes. She laughed, a touch evil, and threw another at her friend, hitting its mark on the chest.
“Saki!!” she said, animals forgotten for an intense battle of snow, aiming and throwing carefully packed snowballs, zipping away from rogue ones. Soon enough, they graduated from measly packed balls of snow, opting for better weapons: a long cylinder of packed snow, a big rectangle designed for surface area; Saki even attempted to make a spear out of ice before it crumbled in her hands, snowballs pelting into her as she laughed out loud.
It was a long, and hard battle, both of them collapsing onto the snow as the sky shone with orange, cheeks red and breathless from laughter.
“I.. totally won that fight,” Ichika gasped out, gloves soaked from the endless making and throwing of snowballs. Saki wasn’t much better off - her parka was almost entirely covered in white.
“No.. I did, ggh..”
Ichika sat up suddenly, her hands trembling from the sudden load of weight, snowflakes shaking down from her mess of black hair.
“We should probably go back in, the gingerbread is sure to be cool by now...” she said, mouth shaped in a tiny “o”. Saki watched as she got to her feet, shaking the excess snow off her, and grabbed the hand that her friend extended out towards her.
“This is going to be so funnn...” she sang as she got up, the snow that was coating her making her look like an iced cinnamon bun.
Ichika smiled, such a warm, beautiful smile that Saki’s cheeks felt like they were on fire, an even brighter red than they were a few minutes ago, before turning around and dragging Saki through the snow.
The snow had stopped, and the trees had stilled, but their bells of laughter broke through the glass of silence as they went back inside.
—--------------
Saki was stirring the hot cocoa she had placed on the stove, breathing in the delicious smells of chocolate as Ichika was unwrapping the bowls of icing.
“Is it done yet?” she heard Ichika ask, and she smiled before turning off the stove. She poured the drink into two waiting cups, and topped them generously with marshmallows. They looked like little mountains, mounds of white amidst the brown soil.
“Mhmm,” she hummed, bringing the steaming cups over to where Ichika was waiting, piping bags of icing and mounds of sprinkles on the table, ready to be used. The air was filled with the ever present smell of ginger, but a warm, chocolatey scent worked its way through the air, causing a lovely, almost mocha-like smell. Saki closed her eyes and breathed it in as she set the cups down on the table - she could feel every cell in her body smiling.
Ichika took one of the cups and gently blew on it - Saki could see the ripples skimming the top of the cocoa - before taking a sip. She hummed in pleasure before setting it down, opting to take up the large piping bag filled with white icing. “It’s really good, Saki.”
“Hehe, thank you,” Saki replied, taking a sip herself. It was hot and sweet, warming her up from the inside out, and the marshmallows were always a nice touch. She could almost feel a warm breeze ruffling her hair as she breathed in the hot cocoa’s scent; she stayed there for a while just to drink everything in.
A small nudge from a piping bag tip broke her out of her chocolate induced stupor, and she grinned sheepishly as she set the cup down, grabbing her own bag of icing.
They got to work, swirling and mixing streams of icing together to form different shades and colors, paint splattering on what was once a blank canvas of ginger. The smell of ginger and sugar hung in the air, and stains of icing splattered the counter, but they continued on like soldiers going into battle, not to be swayed until their mission had been completed.
“Look, Saki. It’s you.”
Ichika slid one of the gingerbread men towards her - they had finished decorating the house itself and had moved on to the people - and tapped her finger against the wood to get Saki’s attention. Saki looked up from her own gingerbread man, curious.
It really was her, after all.
Ichika had used white icing to make a face, and yellow to make the hair. She’d even added pink sprinkles for the tips, their colors shining bright in the kitchen. With the carefully drawn sweater, the pretty skirt, the delicate shoes, it was absolutely perfect.
She felt her lips quirking up into a smile, and made eye contact with her friend, a faint blush dusting her cheeks.
“I really love it, Icchan!” she said happily, before looking back down at her own gingerbread man.
Black hair, wary face, and a fondness for flannel.
It really was Ichika Hoshino rendered in gingerbread.
She saw Ichika look down at what she had made, pale cheeks growing pink; a delicate shade the same color as her lips.
“Saki..” she said, a warm smile coming to rest on her lips. She shook her head in embarrassment? Love? Saki didn't know, but she felt everything inside her beginning to grow warm, an effect of the sudden rush of heat from her heart.
There was a silence between them, filled with all the words they didn't need to say.
After a few minutes, they carefully tested the icing on their cookies to see whether they had dried or not, before moving the gingerbread men to rest on the walls of their gingerbread house.
Ichika and Saki, together in a winter wonderland.