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The streets of Primp Town, lit in the magical glow of ethereal fire burning in street lamps, were empty. The birds had long since flown for warmer climates, the bugs settled in for hibernation, and even the Puyo were far away, wherever Puyo went when it wasn’t time for a battle.
It was a perfect stillness, the night so cold that it even froze time.
Amitie had bundled herself in her warmest, fluffiest, fuzziest pajamas and a healthy few layers of blankets as she sat at her desk. For most of the night she had managed to get herself to sit down and focus. While this was almost impossible for her to do day-to-day in school, tonight she had a task of utmost importance: Planning her date the next day.
Sig.
Sig, Sig, Sig, Sig, Sig.
Just thinking about the blue-haired boy made her face warm enough to brave the winter night. And now, after so long, she had worked up the courage to finally ask him on a date-- and he said yes!
Well, it was really more like she had been pacing on a forest path, trapped in her thoughts and talking to herself about how she could ask him out and if she even should and the seeming impossibility he ever would and oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh there’s no way this would ever end well-- And then Sig appeared out of nowhere, apparently only hearing her blabbering to herself about wanting to go on a date, and asking if after class tomorrow was fine.
Amitie had nearly fainted, but she managed to squeak out an, “Okay,” and Sig went on his way, probably looking for any stray bugs trapped in the danger of falling temperatures.
But now she was home and she had recovered (mostly) and she was planning the perfect after school date. It may have taken her about five hours to plan a three hour date, but she had just set aside her quill and declared it was finished for the seventh time.
First they’d go to the local barkery for a date cake, then the two would walk through the woods and end up at Eclipse Hill, where they could watch the stars for a bit before heading home.
It was perfect and only took Amitie three and a half more revisions to get there. The half was due to her falling asleep midway through writing it, her face using the paper and its undried ink as a pillow.
And if she had stayed up just a bit longer, she would have witnessed the first snow of the season begin to fall… and fall… and fall…
Amitie rushed through the snow-piled streets of Primp Town, her footprints claiming two-inch-deep territory as she ran.
This was awful. Well, actually, it was super pretty and she always did love the snow, but it was a complete disaster for her date plans! The bakery had already put up a sign they were closed because they were behind on their winter prep. And while a walk through the snowy woods sounded beautiful, that meant the paths were hidden and she and Sig were bound to get lost.
At least she would have time to figure things out during school, even if it meant another supplementary lesson or two.
With that thought in mind, she hurried to the school gates where everyone else was waiting. But wait. Since when did the magic school have gates?
The colorful group of her friends, standing out so clearly against the white of the snow (though lacking a distinctive blue), gathered around something stuck to the gates. But before she could make out what it was or even reach the group, they all parted their separate ways.
Amitie’s heart tightened and she picked up her step. She knew what everyone had been looking at now, it could only be one thing, yet she still hoped it was something else. But no; she reached the announcement stuck on the gate.
Classes canceled due to unusable practice fields. Please enjoy your snow day.
And then came a sound so loud that birds abandoned the trees, waves retreated from the coast, and worlds away Ringo half-thought she heard someone saying, “Fiddlesticks!”
This was bad. This was really, really bad. Not only did she have no plan, but now there was no time to plan and off in the distance she could see blue hair trudging through the snow. Oh gosh, and this was happening now , wasn’t it? Meaning this wasn’t just a few hours the date would be going on for; it was going to be an all day affair. And while normally she’d love to be with Sig for a full, wonderful, romantic snowy day off school, this was quickly turning into an utter nightmare where he might not even want anything to do with her by the end of it.
Amitie clutched her puyo beanie, dragging it over her head and hoping it could consume her and hide her away. She waited and waited and waited for her inevitable demise as Sig approached. And waited some more. And continued waiting.
There was no crunching of snow. There were none of Sig’s usual grunts or sounds. When she grew more curious than anxious and came out from hiding in her hat, Amitie found Sig where she left him a good distance away. It looked like it would be up to her to approach.
Sig was stood still, as if frozen by the cold. And yet there was something different about his whole demeanor. His hair was softer than usual-- was he using a new shampoo? But his clothes were nicer too. Usually his jacket was torn on the left sleeve thanks to the claws on his red hand, but now it was all sewn nicely together. The bottom half of his face was hidden behind a scarf when he normally didn’t wear a scarf at all. Something about him not getting cold so easily since his hand transformed.
But the weirdest thing of all was his eyes. They hadn’t changed in any significant way. They were still the usual blue-red heterochromatic ones she was used to, so bounding with energy behind them no matter how dull his expressions may be. The only problem was that they were unfocused now and not in Sig’s usual zoned-out way, either! It was more like he was vacant, waiting for a thought to take up residency in his brain.
Amitie waved a hand in front of his face. “Sig? Are you there?”
Sig blinked and burrowed further into his scarf. From its depths came a muffled, “Mhmm.”
“Ah, well, um. School canceled for the day.” Amitie paused, hoping Sig would take the reigns from there and not leave them stuck in the silence Amitie now had to dig them out of. “Uh, so why were you just standing here? Everything okay?”
Sig nodded, but any conversation ceased after that.
Fiddlesticks, fiddlesticks, fiddlesticks , Amitie thought. This was ten-chain levels of bad. The way she asked him out-- him suddenly appearing while she was out making a fool of herself by talking to herself like a weirdo-- did he only accept out of pity? Was he regretting going along with this?
Somehow, Amitie kept the panic raging in her heart from showing on her face.
Sig, however, couldn’t. That was why he hid it beneath the scarf.
The crush was not a one-sided affair in the way that Amitie had thought it was.
Sure, Sig was the type who was hard to read, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel emotions. Joy, love, excitement, even anger were all completely human feelings he had inside of him. The only problem was that he had a hard time sorting through them all and tended to put his time and effort into taking care of the local insects rather than himself.
A crush was too complicated a thing for him to make heads-or-tails of. He knew in his heart that he had a special connection with Amitie. He felt stronger when she was around, more excited to do things and leave his comfort zone. He paid attention to her in a way he did nobody else. The softness of her face, how her voice squeaked when she panicked, that omnipresent smile. If there were a million clones of Amitie, he knew he could find the real one.
He was happy just being by her side, which was why he originally approached her. There she was, all up in her head like she always was, which must have been why she hadn’t noticed him and kept rambling.
“How do I ask Sig out!” She said it with such frustration, such self-aimed anger, that Sig approached instinctively.
“Where do you wanna go?”
Amitie threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know. Anywhere, everywhere! I just want it to be a nice and romantic date!” Then Amitie realized that last question wasn’t something she had asked herself. Creaking like an ancient door, she turned around to find Sig standing there. His face was blank as ever. Unreadable.
“Okay. How about after school tomorrow?” He paused. Amitie’s brain was too broken to make a sound. Sig scratched the back of his head. “Wanna go look for woolly worms? Lidelle said she saw one off in that clearing. They can tell you if it’s gonna snow.”
Amitie’s face was all red for some reason. She kinda looked like a ladybug or a tomato. And then she ran off, back to Primp Town. Sig shrugged, guessing she had some supplementary lessons to go to or some other friend she made plans with that she forgot about, and went along with his search.
He did find a wooly worm. It was all white. Snow was coming.
It took awhile for Sig to fully realize what a date was. Yes, he knew about dates and romance and kissing and all of that, but he never thought to picture himself in those situations. For a few hours, his mental image of the next day would be them doing what they normally did. Bug hunting, puyo battles, maybe getting some food. The most he saw different was that Amitie would probably be happier and more liable to wrap her arms around him.
That was what began to get his thoughts rolling about the whole ‘date’ thing. Sig was fine with Amitie latching onto him. In fact, she was the only one who he was comfortable with touching him in any significant way.
But now there was a different intent, right? Before, it was all just friendly companionship. Amitie hugged him because Amitie liked hugging people. Amitie held his hand to keep him from falling behind. And while it wasn’t touch, they did put their desks together because they were seat neighbors.
Amitie wanted to go on a date with him, though. And that means these things wouldn’t just be friendly anymore, at least from what Sig had understood. Couples hugged because they wanted to be close to the other, the same with holding hands and putting their desks together.
As he lay in bed that night, Sig realized Amitie hasn’t been doing these things with Sig just because he was the one there. She was doing these things because he was Sig and somehow, in some way, she appreciated him enough to like him. Not just as a person among people, but as someone who stood out to her. Someone who couldn’t be anyone else.
And slowly in his sleepless mind, he began to realize that had been how he felt about Amitie.
Like a dam breaking, everything rushed from the dulled, unattended recesses of his mind and right into his heart. The warmth of her hand when she held his, that smile on her face that he could not look away from, her patience, her kindness.
Amitie was someone who could not be replaced, wasn’t she?
More questions rushed through his brain, but the dam had been rebuilt. This alone was enough to deal with for him. If anything else struck his heart like that, he’d have a full-on breakdown and miss their--
Even just thinking of that word made him nervous. Instead, he went to gentle thoughts to goad himself to sleep, to the warmest and most loving part of his mind.
He fell asleep to thoughts of Amitie.
Things were Awkward with a capital ‘A’.
Amitie was panicking, wandering aimlessly through the snow-filled town and desperately trying to think of some romantic activity to do together. Sig, meanwhile, couldn’t bring himself to speak. Looking at Amitie alone made his heart race and thinking about what to do together made him blush far too hard, so he was content with following her anywhere she wanted to go in a lovely haze.
It almost looked like their usual expeditions, Sig silently leading the way as Amitie followed, just enjoying her time with him. Only now the roles were reversed and Sig was hiding a face redder than his arm.
Neither said a word. Amitie could only make the starting sounds of a suggestion, cut off when she decided it would be too lame to even say. Sig couldn’t be more oblivious to this. Instead he was silently enjoying the date as it ambled along in the way Amitie-- and he was realizing he himself-- usually enjoyed their time together.
The world was just a sea of white snow, deserted like they were the only ones in it.
That is, until they saw horses.
It was tied up to a pole that neither recognized, but looked like it had always been there. The wooden sign reading ‘Carriage Rides’ was worn down in the way that only time could. Its painted-black steel letters wearing to grey and the wood it was attached to chipped away by age and weather.
Behind the two black horses was a fancy olde-timey carriage. Light brown wood contrasted by black and gold; it stood out almost more than the horses in the white-covered world. And the one manning the ride was Ms. Accord. She wore the outfit any self-respecting carriage driver would: a black suit, a top hat, and a gray mustache and beard.
“Ms. Accord?” Amitie yipped, taken aback by her teacher’s strange appearance. “What are you doing here?”
“Good morning, Ms. Amitie.” Behind the gray bush on her face, the teacher smiled. “Teachers don’t get paid for snow days, so I’m making up for it.”
“And what’s with the, um, uh--”
“Cabbies have to keep warm in the snow. Now what are you two doing up and about on a cold day like this? Bugs and puyo don’t tend to be around in this kind of weather.”
Amitie went whiter than the snow and her voice squeakier than a mouse. “Well we’re-- You see, we-- We decided to-- Please, Sig, you tell her.”
The blue-haired boy was very interested in looking at his shoes as he said, “It’s a date.”
“Oh, how wonderful!” Ms. Accord said. “Why don’t you hop in and I’ll give you a free ride around town? It looks lovely in the snow.”
Well, at least it was something to do. But as Amitie soon learned, it was something to do that forced them close together. Shoulder-to-shoulder as they traveled through the snow, each bump pressing them together. Sig’s shoulder rested on his knee and Amitie, half remembering this was supposed to be a date and not her own personal panicky puyo hell, thought about laying her own on top of it. But then Sig laid his head on her shoulder.
Amitie screamed, the horses stopped, the carriage lurched, and the two nearly wound up on the ground.
“Is everything alright back there?” Ms. Accord asked.
“Um. Yeah!” Amitie said. “I just thought there was a bug on her face.”
Sig’s eyes went wide and focused on Amitie. “Where? I don’t see one.”
Amitie backed away as far as she could. With so much direct attention from Sig, she nearly became more blush than Amitie. “I-- It was probably just a snowflake. How about we get off here?”
“Are you sure?” Ms. Accord asked. “I’m fairly certain this is--”
“Can we please get off here?” Wherever they were, it wouldn’t change the fact her heart would give out if she kept this close to Sig.
Maybe this was all happening too soon, Amitie thought. She had no plan for a date. She couldn’t even keep herself from ascending to heaven, knowing Sig liked her back and this was an actual, real date and all of her fantasies were real now. No matter how long she wanted to be close to him romantically, she never thought what it would be like for that to happen.
Was it too late to call the rest of the date off, go home, and crawl under some blankets? Could they put this whole dating thing on hold until her heart could handle it?
No.
She couldn’t do that. This was what she had wanted for a long time. And if her plans were ruined, well there was a whole new snowy world of possibility all around them. So she wouldn’t back down! Instead, she took a decisive step forward, gathered all the courage in her soul, and averted her eyes from Sig as she meekly asked, “Do you… wanna make snowmen?”
‘Snowmen’ ended up being a misnomer, though that was almost expected with these two. While they both started packing snow together into one decently-sized ball, Sig quickly found inspiration and got distracted making a snow beetle. Amitie responded by putting their shared snowball to the side and rolling together another, slightly misshapen ball. Then she added eyes to it and it was the splitting image of a puyo.
It was as she was adding the fourth puyo to the stack that she realized they weren’t exactly doing this together . She looked over at Sig, lost in his own little world as he added details to the rhino beetle’s horn, so far away from her own. In a brief moment of annoyance at herself, she knocked over the snowpuyo stack.
But then that annoyance subsided as she heard a shouting. It was high and whiny and nasally and could only belong to Klug. “What are you two doing up there?”
Amitie peeked over the hill they were atop to find Klug halfway up it, staring at them in unwarranted disbelief.
“Uh, making snowthings?” This would normally be the part where she invites him to join, buuuuuut… “Go away.”
He stumbled in his step, the words hitting him hard. “You’re banishing me? Do you fools even know where you are? That pond is a hotspot for astral magic and it’s so rarely frozen over! Leave so that I can--”
The rest of his rant was cut off as Sig rolled the shared snowball down the hill, hitting harder than Amitie’s words and sending him tumbling back from where he came. He looked over to Amitie for approval, but found her stomping back to her toppled snowpuyo to slump against it.
She was upset, obviously. But Sig could not understand the reason why. This was a date, one that she wanted. Right? They were all close on that ride and they were having fun with the snow sculptures. But then again, they were each making their own. And he wasn’t usually the one for physical contact.
Maybe it was just that he wasn’t doing his job as a boyfriend-- he swooned in his step when he thought that word-- well enough. He’d just have to try harder and think of the things that couples do to make her happy. Though the first thought of what couples did outside of holding hands nearly made him fall on his face. Still, he did trip.
Sig managed to turn himself around and land softly in the snow next to Amitie, leaning against the snowpuyo in the same way as she did. Beneath his scarfs he opened his mouth, but realized he didn’t know what to say. And as for what he could do … he’d try when his heart stopped jumping around his chest.
There was silence until Amitie managed to fill it.
“I’m sorry,” she said. Sig wanted to ask what for, but she continued before he could. “I had this whole plan for a date all set up, and then the snow ruined it. And I’ve spent all day trying to make it a good one, but I just feel like we’re running around doing nothing.”
“I like doing nothing,” Sig said.
“Yeah, but this is a da-- I mean, right now we’re supposed to be together and having fun and being romantic and I can’t even look you in the face.”
Sig thought about this for a moment. Then, he came to a conclusion. “Then maybe we shouldn’t go on dates.”
“Wh--”
“It’s stressing you out. Let’s just do our usual things. It’s more fun that way.”
Amitie pulled her legs to her chest. “So you don’t want to be my boyfriend?”
Sig huffed, a bit mad at himself he would ever make her think that. Was he not being clear enough? He could never tell. Maybe his scarf was muffling his words, confusing her. So he decided to be as direct as possible. He pulled down his scarf, his blush exposed to Amitie. His eyes wanted to dodge away, but he kept his gaze on Amitie as he (meekly) said, “I want to be your boyfriend.” And before Amitie could process this, he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.
Amitie shrieked with happiness. She beat her legs against the snow to get the energy out. All the pent up nerves and shyness of the day exploded out of her as she grabbed Sig into a hug and cried, “Siiiiiig.”
And then there was a crack. A sharp, loud one that the couple looked at each other when they heard, wondering of the other made the noise. But they were both still and the cracking was continuing.
For the first time that day, the blush went away from Sig’s face and was replaced with pure white. “Where did Klug say we were?”
“A pond.” Amitie answered without emotion. All bodily processes were being spent on the realization. “A frozen-over pond.”
And then the ground broke and they were in the freezing water.
The two sat in front of Sig’s fireplace, hot cocoa in hands and cuddling next to each other under a warm blanket.
This was Klug’s present to them this year, he had muttered as he pulled them out of the lake. Making sure they didn’t freeze to death and getting them somewhere safe.
Sig rested his head on Amitie’s shoulder and, this time, Amitie didn’t mind. Instead she returned the favor and rested her head on his.
It was a bit hard to blush after being plunged into sub-zero water, after all.