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"Are you sure you know how to drive this thing?"
While Aki knew that Yusei had many talents, she had no idea how he would've ever learned how to drive a sleigh. The horse glanced at Aki, and she realized how much she deeply disliked the animal. It was far too large, and too intelligent for its own good. Instead of focusing on the horse, she turned back to Yusei, who was grinning just a little too wide. "Can't be too hard," he said with that teasing tone she wanted to claim she hated. "Come on, Aki. It'll be fun!"
"Seriously, where did you learn how to drive a sleigh," she asked as she climbed into the sleigh, noting the lack of seat belts. "Don't tell me you used to drive little orphan kids through the snow in a sleigh every Christmas."
"Martha would've never let me," Yusei said as he picked up the reins, directing the horse to start moving. The sleigh lurched forward, and Aki held onto the bench to keep from moving forward herself. "She didn't like the lack of seat belts in the sleigh when Crow tried."
"Crow tried?" Aki's stomach tumbled as the sleigh picked up speed as the horse began to trot through the snow. Really, it was more nerves over the horse - an unknowable factor in the equation. She trusted Yusei well enough, but she certainly did not trust how the horse could decide to do whatever it wanted. "He knows how to drive a sleigh?"
"Well, sort of," Yusei said, more focused on controlling the brutish animal - and she couldn't blame him for that. In fact, she was grateful that he clearly understood the animal better than she did. His control was impressive, and she felt herself relaxing knowing that Yusei at least knew what he was doing. "Crow had gotten the sleigh to take his kids for a sleigh ride, but I don't know if he actually knows how to drive it. Martha pointed out the lack of seat belts, and Crow ditched the idea before it even happened."
And so they spent the rest of the ride chatting, and slowly, Aki got used to the idea of this being a more regular thing. She could put up with the horse for the sake of time alone with Yusei.