a/n: happy non-denominational holidays from our favorite band gays! no matter what you celebrate (or don't celebrate!) i hope you're all having a good time and taking care of yourselves.

"Let's go hiking!" Kumiko mocked, flapping her left hand up and down in an impression of Taki. "It'll be fun! It'll be great! We'll learn more about each other!"

"Don't blame Taki-sensei for this." Reina's voice was cautious, cold, but Kumiko could hear the fear behind it. She always could. "We both got lost. It isn't his fault."

"What if nobody finds us?" Kumiko started to gnaw at her fingernails, quivering like a leaf. "W-what if we have to hide and hunker down somewhere? It's gonna rain soon." As if to emphasize, she pointed to the cloudy sky above. Reina breathed in deep, feet planted firmly in the ground.

"Letting me carry your euph would be a start," she finally said. "You'll blow out your back if you keep carrying it that long."

"You don't have to, Reina."

"I think it'd be a bit harder to find the rest of the group if one of us couldn't walk because her back snapped, Kumiko." Reina wasn't really all that suited to the wilderness, either, if Kumiko was thinking honestly. She was small, and dressed in white as she was today meant that she was an easy target for predators, but she was resilient. "Let me carry it."

"I'm okay! Really, I'm okay." She had to admit that it was hurting her back, but it wasn't like she could ever say that to Reina. "We just need to find our way back to the trail, right? There's just one trail. We'll find the others there."

"You don't sound very sure of yourself," Reina noted. Kumiko plopped down on a log, shivering when it came in contact with her leg. Stupid skirt, she berated herself silently.

"That's b-because I'm not." It took a considerable amount of effort to keep her teeth from chattering - it was way too cold for a hiking trip, in any case, but Taki had never been a conventional teacher - and Kumiko rubbed her arms to keep herself warm, wishing more than anything for Reina to share her own warmth. She couldn't ask her for that, though. Obviously. "I'm really crappy with directions. I mean, we're already lost!" She threw her hands up in the air, and Reina just sat down beside her, staring straight ahead. "W-we're lost, and it's all my fault."

"If you insist on something like that, it's only going to mess more with your head."

"It's true, though." Kumiko slumped further over, pressing her elbows into her knees to bury her face in her hands.

"Of course it is."

"That's blunt."

"It is." Reina tilted her gaze to the trees above - the sky was a sort of sickly gray where it was visible at all - and she swung her legs back and forth. Kumiko tried (and failed, mostly) to keep thoughts about how "Still, not much we can do about it now, is there? We just have to find our way back."

"They're probably getting back on the bus by now."

"We'll call a cab."

"There's no service out here."

"You're being insufferable, Kumiko." Reina folded her arms, standing up. "What do you expect to get done with an attitude like that?"

"W-well, what do you expect to get done with . . . uh . . . with a, with a . . ." Slumping forward again, Kumiko let out a low groan. "With that sort of uppity act, anyway?"

"What?"

"Reina, we're . . . we're literally alone in a forest. There's nobody here."

"Your point?"

"No need for the good-girl skin here." Trying to keep her footing in the slippery, wet leaves, Kumiko rose to her feet. "F-for either of us."

"You know that I'm scared, too, then?"

"I know a lot about you, Reina," Kumiko murmured softly. Reina let out a sound somewhere between a sniff and a laugh.

"You know, coming from anyone else that'd seem weird."

"Ah, what can I say?" Kumiko gave an overexaggerated shrug, stretching her arms out as far as they'd go. "I mean, it's okay. We're, uh, what's the term? Alone together?"

"I suppose we are." Reina offered Kumiko her gloved hand. "Come on. If we keep walking forward, we're bound to reach the end of the forest sometime. If we make it to some kind of visitor's center, we can call Taki-sensei from there."

"He's probably worried sick about us." Kumiko hated to think of Natsuki's discomforted grimace, Hazuki and Midori's confused glances around the bus. She wondered who Reina was thinking of. She wondered if the band had left yet. "You're right. We should keep going."

Whether or not hours passed, Kumiko had no way of knowing. There were just the trees, and the clouds, and the increasingly cold weather, and Reina, and that was enough for her. She made idle small talk with Reina on the way, helping her up when she tripped and teetering over creaking logs with her just a few steps ahead. It was almost nice. Peaceful, even.

"D'you think we'd be able to survive out here?"

"The trees are thinning out, Kumiko. I think we'll reach some kind of visitor's center before nightfall."

"No, no, I mean if we wanted to. If we, I dunno, decided to just live off the land. Sleeping in trees, relying on little fires for warmth, just us two."

"And you call me the hopeless romantic." Reina kicked her foot back and forth, and Kumiko noticed scratch marks on her shoes. "It's a nice thought, but . . ."

"But?"

"You wouldn't be very happy like that either, would you?" A gust of wind blew through, scattering any remaining leaves that still stuck to the ground. Kumiko could imagine them clearing a path for Reina, letting winter in. "We can't become special alone."

"S-still, I've kinda missed this." Kumiko gestured to Reina, then to herself. "You." Reina turned around, eyes widened in surprise. "We don't get much time with just the two of us anymore, do we?"

"How about this, then?" Reina let Kumiko catch up to her, then interlocked their fingers. It was such a warm sensation, so gentle and lovely and unexpected, that Kumiko felt chills rack her spine. They weren't unpleasant, though, not by a long shot. "We get back home, hope that we haven't caught hypothermia from this weather, and we go to my house and spend a night there."

"Y'know, I think that'd be . . ." Kumiko looked at her again, heart caught up in her throat. "I think that'd be pretty great, Reina."

"I'm glad to hear it." Reina straightened her back, eyebrows raising as she caught sight of something in the distance. "Come on. We're almost there." With a sudden jerk, Kumiko found herself being all but carried through the forest, Reina leading her past trees and fallen leaves and rotting logs until they reached a clearing and a little building made itself known.

"We made it," Kumiko breathed, the cold air filling up her lungs. "W-we're here."

"And it's snowing, I guess." Reina looked up, nonchalant, and sure enough, they were surrounded by little flakes drifting down, coating the spindly grass in speckles of white. "We must've missed it with all the trees covering us."

"Ah, it's really pretty." Kumiko stuck her tongue out as Reina burrowed deeper into her scarf, and the snow just kept going. It wasn't all that strong, though. Not strong enough to bite at her cheeks, at least.

"You look like someone dusted you in powdered sugar," Reina laughed, reaching out a gloved hand to brush the snow off of Kumiko's head.

"Pfft, speak for yourself!" Kumiko laughed back, snorting as a snowflake landed on Reina's nose and prompted her to sneeze. "I d-don't use the snow sprit saying much anymore, but you might as well be an icicle right now." Reina's face flushed red - maybe from the cold, maybe from the easygoing flirts between the two of them, and without thinking about much at all, Kumiko leaned in and kissed her.

It was a little chilly, and both of them had chapped lips, and it was awkward and nowhere near perfect, but it was theirs.

"Hey, Natsuki, I'm okay! D-don't worry- ugh, Taki-sensei's gonna kill us next week, isn't he?" Across the room, wrapped up in a thick blanket adorned with cartoon characters, Reina winced. "He was upset?"

"Terrified," Natsuki confirmed. "The guy was in a frenzy. Ya gave him a bad scare. Me too, honestly."

"I'm sorry."

'Don't be. It was just a mistake."

"Thanks."

"Now, get the hell off my phone and spend some time with your girlfriend, alright?" Kumiko could practically see Natsuki's knowing grin as the other line went silent.

"I've got Carol queued up on here," Reina said, pointing to the television. "You've already seen it before, right? Is it any good?"

"It's great." Kumiko all but sprang onto the couch, nestling next to Reina and pulling up the fuzzy sock that had slipped a little in the maneuver. "The hot choclate's g-gonna be ready in a moment, okay? You should, uh, probably load up the movie in the meantime, this snow's making everything go slower."

"Thank you, darling." Reina planted a kiss on her cheek, but Kumiko had already turned red before Reina's lips even made contact with her skin.

"Darling?" Kumiko echoed. Reina smirked.

"You love that sort of cliche romance thing, don't you?" she said, shifting around on the cushy couch. The microwave beeped.

"Hah, you love it too, Reina." Wrapping her hands in oven mitts, Kumiko took out the two steaming mugs. "Don't pretend it's just me."

"I suppose you're right." Carefully, Kumiko made her way over to the couch with the mugs in her hands, and as she gave one to Reina, she thought that maybe this was perfect. "Cheers."

"Cheers." Reina clinked her mug to Kumiko's and turned on the movie. Kumiko snuggled next to her, leaning on her shoulder, and nothing had ever felt so right.

a/n: if you haven't seen Carol (2015) dir. Todd Haynes please remedy that now, it's on netflix and also dvd and other places probably