Kiyo: Hello hello I got a special treat for y'all! In case that anyone doesn't know, one of Ara's 3rd job class's name turns out to be Aspara instead of Vishnu. I hope you had a good Christmas!
Icicle Miracle
The day was cold. Well more than cold. It was actually quite freezing. Winter was happening in the small town of Ruben. Everything covered in thick snow as far as the eye can see. It shone in some areas where the sun would shine on, making it a pretty site. The waterfalls were frozen solid. It gets very cold at this time of year during December. All sources of water were completely frozen but the townspeople have their ways to thaw out that water. And speaking of ways to thaw out some drinking water, the purple-headed girl was dressing up to get ready to head out. Putting on a purple sweater over her t-shirt, and some warm white pants that covered her legs nice and tight and to finish it all off with some wool socks to keep her feet nice and warm. After all those clothes were on, she grabs her angelic-looking staff and heads out towards the door.
"Ah? A-are you going out Miss Aisha?" A girl with long black hair with a white flower pin in her hair as well. Aisha sees that the girl is in her usual white robes after the clumsy girl bumped into the sage.
"You really need to stop wearing that thing Ara, you've been tripping over it again…" The sage rubbed her own forehead in pain.
"S-Sorry! I just really like these clothes…" Ara does a little twirl in her robes. Her hair shone in sparkles. Aisha sighs to herself and shook her head. 'Just what kind of conditioner does she use to get her hair shiny like that?'
"It's winter, you're gonna get a cold like that. And you came from Sander as well, did you even have winter seasons there?" Aisha asks as she leans against a nearby wall. Ara fidgets with her fingers as she presses the fingertips nervously against each other.
"Well...no not too often but when we did, it did get very cold! I also dressed up properly too! Look Aisha, I know I'm not used to the cold like you are but..I feel most comfortable in this lately since I got it...and it's so cute too!" She twirls again just to show off. Aisha just simply shakes her head and walks past her.
"And to answer your question." She begins as she walks past Ara. "Yes I am going out. It's that time of the day again as I'm needed to help replenish the town's drinking water. A bit cold for my liking but I don't mind. I'll see you later Ara and put on some proper clothes!" She waves without looking back. Aisha could hear Ara giggling herself which only made her sigh. 'If she gets a cold, I'm not the one who nurses her. I also think it has something to do with Eun being inside her but I'm not gonna complain and watch over her. She's a big girl…..'Aisha thought about that word for a moment and punched the air at no one in particular.
About to make her way out of the house, Aisha stops by the coat rack to grab a white, thick winter coat and knelt down to put on some thick snow boots to keep the snow out when suddenly.
"Going out are we?" Said a voice followed by footsteps that approached Aisha. A red-clad gentleman appears before her in a sweater and wool pants.
"Oh, Elsword. Yeah..just gonna defrost some ice as usual for everyone. And can you be sure that Ara dresses up properly? I swear that girl needs to stop being so stubborn." Looking down at herself and making sure every bit of cloth is nice and tight to stop the cold from coming in, she looks back up only to see him eye to eye. She blushes a bit out of embarrassment and nearly smacked him upside the head but she restrained herself to give in to the urge.
"You sure have grown...I never noticed really. I used to tease you a lot for being a shorty haha~. It's just so weird seeing you have a growth spurt after becoming Aether Sage." He jokes as he pats her head. Aisha pouts and shoves the hand away.
"Thanks Elbrat, I'll see you later." She hears him chuckle softly as she fully dresses up and heads out the door. As soon as Aisha went out the door, she is hit by the instant cold that was awaiting her. Her breath could been seen in the chilly air as she makes her way out of the cottage.
Entering the town center, Aisha sees the town people have their carts out and ready to defrost the ice that they've gathered in carts and boxes. She steps inside the cottage in front of her and looks at a huge complicated machine that was designed by the combined brain power that consists of Add, Rose, and Chung. She recalls the moments when the Elgang all said their goodbyes in Ruben during the summer. Chung and Rose wanted to help out Ruben for being the ones that have to watch over the huge el shard before they head back to their respectful regions of Add left too but in a complicated matter.
Add on the other hand, just gave up trying to go back to his own timeline to save his family and gave up on Eve's code. That's all he needed her for anyways. There was no point in making the ultimate weapon anymore, not after all evil had been eradicated from Elrios that he ended up not having any potential test to use it for. So he ended up just living a quiet life in Feita, slaving away to more knowledge in his secret lab.
Meanwhile for the rest of the Elgang. The redhead siblings stayed in Ruben with Aisha, and Ara. Eve stayed in Altera to working on reviving her Nasod race with the el shards that she's collected throughout their journey together. Raven went back to Velder to regain what he can throughout the mess that he caused back then. But he didn't go alone. Rena went with him for support. Ciel and Lu were always together so of course they went away as well. Lu kinda preferred the human world over the demon realm so the duo stayed in Lanox. Ain's mission was finally over after Henir's order had been dealt with so he went back to Ishmael in another realm but he swears to return if evil should ever threaten Elrios once more.
"Aisha! Hello!" She's approached by a man clothed in red winter gear. " Glad you could make it here once again. We don't know what we could do without you honestly." Lowe led Aisha to her usual destination, the furnace. It was bothersome being a human candle sometimes but someone had to do it. So lowe of course opens the furnace door to reveal a big pile of dead wood inside. Aisha just mutters a few words of magic and watches it work as the fire is set ablaze to the pile and waits till the fire is sustained. Lowe closes it up and works on some levers and knobs to get it really going. There were tables inside the cottage lined up with funnel cones that hooked up to the machine to put the ice in and to warm up. And a bottle or glassware to put the water in to catch the water that was boiled and safe to drink from the machine's doing. There's a filter inside each funnel cone that separates the ice from all the bacteria. It's Elesis's turn tomorrow to do this. Elsword also does this too as he can use fire runes like his sister. They of course all take turns during the week during winter. So that's pretty much all that Aisha has to do. It was hard to light a fire in Ruben in the first place. But everybody had their ways to keep warm luckily.
So Aisha waves her goodbyes to everybody and heads back to home. She lets herself in to take off her winter gear.
"Aisha are you home?!" Says a frantic voice.
"Elsword what happened?!" Aisha panicked at this and rushed towards the source of the voice after removing her shoes and coat, only to find that Ara and Elesis were there as well. The minute she steps into the kitchen, a pair of arms grabs her and drags her to in front of the stove. "Well what is it?" Aisha asked, clearly not in a good mood.
"We never put up decorations! It's almost Christmas!" The seemingly grown up Elsword Siegehart, still gets excited like a kid over a Christmas. It was both adorable and silly at the same time. But that makes Elsword for who he is.
"Thanks for reminding us Els. We've been busy with the town lately that we haven't put anything up.
"Look at this bro of mine, getting excited over decorations like a kid still~." Elesis teases as she gives him a headlock and knuckle rubs his hair.
"Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis…" He whines.
"Hehe...I'll go get the box with decorations then." Ara took off towards the storage room. She took no time at all to come back at all but was carrying a rather large box and it looked like she was struggling a little.
"Hold on, let me help you Ara." As soon as Elsword took a few steps towards her, Ara stepped on her robes thus causing her to fall while letting go of the box and spill the contents on the floor.
"A-Ara!" Aisha rushed to her aid. "Are you ok?!" Aisha quickly helps her up to her feet.
"Y-yeah...but did anything break?!" She closed her eyes, fearing for the worst.
"Most of the stuff isn't breakable but Elsword and I managed to save most of the breakable stuff but…"
"Is it bad..?" Ara asks still with her eyes closed.
"Um...well…" Elesis waited to let Ara take a look. Ara slowly opens eyes and immediately regrets it. Right in the middle of the group, there was a pile of broken glass. Ara's eyes immediately started to tear up. "Just the star for the tree.."
"Ah! Not the star! I screwed up again…! Why do I always do this, always tripping over my clumsy feet..?" Before anything else happened, Ara ran away from the scene. Everybody grew silent and pondered at what to do.
"I did tell her to change out of those robes…" Aisha said finally, breaking the silence.
"And now this happens.." Elsword adds.
"Me and bro will clean this up. Can you go talk with her Aisha?"
"M-me? Elsword would be better at that…" The magician admits.
"Aw come on. Don't beat yourself like that. I know you and Ara are pretty close friends. Won't you for me? I'll treat you all to a delicious dinner later~." Elesis pleads.
"Oh...all right. I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks! Good luck!" The siblings said in unison.
"Let's start decorating kid afterwards."
"Sis..I told you to stop calling me that!" Elsword pouts. Aisha lets out a small giggle and left for Ara's room.
"I wonder why they keep me around..all I do is end up breaking a whole lot of things. I'm cursed at being a clumsy mess.." Ara sobbed into her pillow. A faint knocking on her door was heard but Ara ignores it, hoping that they would go away. This time the knocking was louder. "Go away…" She says softly.
"Ara? It's me Aisha. May I come in?" She perks up and quickly sat up. She was either expecting one of the Sieghart siblings to come talk to her but Aisha instead?
"You're not gonna lecture me about my choice of clothing are you?" She said as she stared at her door.
"No. I just would like to talk with you. Is that ok?"
"Y-yeah." Ara lazily rubbed her eyelids. The door opened and in came Aisha. "H-hey.." The spear wielder blushed as the magician saw her terrible state.
"Why did you run off like that?" Aisha closed the door and sat next to Ara on the bed. She could sort of guess why but she wanted to hear it from Ara herself.
"I..I'm always tripping over my own feet. No matter how careful I am, I always trip over them somehow. I try and try and try so hard to get better at that but I still end up doing so. Oh why didn't you guys stop me from getting the decorations?"
"Eheh..Well, you just looked really happy. I trusted you to do that. I'm not gonna be nice and say that you didn't let us down because let's face it, it was pretty bad." Aisha enters her lecture mode.
"I know..a-and I really apologize for that!"
"Also, why didn't you change your clothes like I asked you to? Also why is it so long for? Anyone's gonna trip on that no matter how careful they are like you just did."
"Yes I understand Aisha-San…" She laid down on her stomach and shoved her head into the pillow in embarrassment. Aisha couldn't help but let out a small giggle. How can you blame her with Ara being adorable with how she is right now and especially when she's using honorifics?
"Now now~. Don't fret Ara~. You can't go through life without at least breaking something here and there right? It's natural." Ara shifted uncomfortably at hearing that. Aisha let out a soft sigh and patted the troubled girl on the head. Her hair felt soft with her fingers. Without knowing it, Aisha started running her fingers through the girl's long black hair. It was unbelievably soft, so much that Aisha started using. both of her hands to get a good feel.
"Aisha…? What are you doing?" She broke the magician's train of thought. Aisha blushed bright red in shock of what she was doing. Ara quickly flipped around after Aisha removed her hands from the spearwielder's hair. Both of them looked into each other's eyes for a short moment before Aisha looked in another direction in pure embarrassment.
"S-sorry. Your hair just, it was really soft so I couldn't help myself. Eheheheh…" Aisha's cheeks turned bright red as she admits this.
"Oh really? Want to know the secret?" Ara sat up feeling perky.
"Yes please do, my hair's kind of rough and I think I keep using the wrong kind of shampoo."
"I use a specialty shampoo that only Rena made for me. I'm not quite sure how she did it but I accidentally tripped over my own feet when she was still around and, well, I fell right on top of her with my face squished against her hair. She of course got mad about it and told me to be more careful. But I did ask her how she had unbelievably soft hair. Something about using some kind of herb with certain lotions. But she did give me a year long supply of soap before she went away. She didn't want to make it for the others cause it was a complicated process so she had me keep it a secret until now."
"Rena huh? I'll have to ask her about it next time I see her. Thank you Ara! Are you feeling any better?" Concern is written on her face as she stared directly at Ara.
"Y-yes. Thank you for coming here Aisha. I'm still bummed that I broke the star but Christmas is much more than a star right? I believe that's when families and friends come together and share good times with each other and give gifts to each other. Is this correct?"
"Well, maybe not quite the meaning of Christmas but you do understand most of it. I'll have to have the rest of the gang teach you when they come up to Ruben in time for Christmas here in a few days. As for the star.." She had an idea but wasn't sure if it could work. "Be right back!" Aisha teleports out of the room in a flash with no warning.
"Eh?" Ara just blinks. So she just waits for the magician to return. Ara as to why she stayed in Ruben. She lost her entire family and friends in a village near Sander when she was young. As for her brother Aren, she couldn't save him when the elgang went to the demon realm and somehow came out alive but at a couple losses. Chung's father, Helputt also lost his life in there but the duo helped the elgang escape the demon realm before it would be sealed off from Elrios forever. She cried alongside Chung when that happened but after a long time of healing and support from the other members of the elgang, the two were finally back to normal once again. They even had funeral services held for Helputt and Aren in the middle of Hamel and Sander.
"I'm back!" Aisha blinked in front of Ara, causing the girl to nearly scream.
"A-Aisha! Warn somebody if you're gonna do th- what do you have there?" Ara notices two objects in the Aether Sage's hands. A box in one hand and an ice block nearly the same size of the box
"I'm about to attempt at memory make magic. I've never really done used this before since I've been working at the mechanics of how it should work but I figure now is as any time to try it out. As you can see in my other hand, yes I have an ice block. I shall attempt to use this ice block to replicate the star that appears in the photo on this box. It'll get cold but I ask that you hold this."
"O-ok. Like this?" She takes the ice block from Aisha and had it laying sideways with her hands opened together. Making sure her hands touched each other while being flat, she nods to Aisha as she shivers a bit from the ice feeling.
"Yes perfect. Now please endure how cold it may be. It's not gonna melt so don't worry. I made sure that it won't with my magic." She takes a good long look at the picture before closing her eyes. She mutters some magic words to summon her staff. She clings onto the staff with both hands and starts to say magic words. The air in front of them shimmered as Aisha does her magic while chanting. Then the ice block starts to change form which scared Ara a little as she nearly drops it but manages to calm down once more to stay still. "Memory….Make!" Aisha shouts as she completes her chanting. The ice block rapidly making small little changes and movements until finally, it stops.
"Aisha...I...I don't know what to say. It's, it's absolutely perfect! A perfect replica of the Christmas tree star! You take it before I break it again." Ara gives it to Aisha. "I could cry right now. I really could. But I think my tear ducts have dried up ehehehe." Ara hugs Aisha really tightly out of pure joy.
"C-can't breathe!" Ara apologizes mentally and eases up on the hug. Aisha giggles and hugs her back with her free arm."I created this sort of magic because of you you know?" Ara releases Aisha and looks at her.
"What? For me? I-I'm so sorry to cause you this trouble.." Ara bows her head before her only to get a bump on the head where Aisha smacked her. "O-owie."
"You dork. It was no trouble at all! I knew this magic would come in handy somehow. It's just too bad that I can't replicate the color of the things that you break. Now that the star's fixed, want to go help the Siegharts?" Aisha asks.
"Yes!" Ara was the first to stand and took Aisha's hand to drag her out the door but Aisha had stopped her.
"Change your clothes first."
"Fine…" Ara submits to the magician and does what she demands.
A few hours later.
"I'm stuffed. Thanks once again big sis for another wonderful meal." Elsword patted his belly and was about to head out to the kitchen after putting away his plate until Elesis stopped him by grabbing his hand.
"Little bro~. It's your turn to do the dishes tonight remember~?" Elesis reminded him.
"What?! Even though I helped do decorations?!" Elsword was about to complain more when.
"Actually..I can do those Elesis. I feel bad about the star incident and having you both do the decorations and with you making dinner Elesis. So please allow me to do this." Ara bows before the siblings which made them laugh.
"Hey now, it's not a problem. Those kinds of things happen but luckily we have Aisha around with her awesome magic right?" Aisha blushed at Elsword's compliment.
"B-baka.."
"I see. Thank you for dinner Elesis. It was very delicious." Ara headed on over to the sink to get started right away. The siblings headed on out of the kitchen to talk about seeing the others again, save for the exception of Rose and Ain. Aisha was left alone at the dining table watching Ara work. Wanting to help Ara, she rose to her feet and approached the girl. Ara this time decided to go in a white sweater with a snow fox in the front and black sweatpants.
"Aisha? What's the matter?"
"You don't mind if I help you do you?"
"N-no not at all. I'm quite grateful for your help a whole lot. Thank you." The two of them smile at each other and went to work.
About half an hour later, the two of them finish and head out of the kitchen when the notice a twinkle in the entryway between the living room and the kitchen.
"What is this up here?" Ara reaches up to touch the little green leaf thing with white beads attached. Aisha blushed extremely red as she recognized it. 'ELSWORD! WAS THIS YOUR DOING TO TRY KISSING EVE THIS YEAR?!' "Aisha, Aisha, Aisha?" She finally poked the girl on the forehead and that snapped Aisha out of her trance.
"H-huh?! What!?" Aisha screeched. "A-ah sorry. What were you saying?"
"What is this thing? I've never seen this kind of decoration before." Ara tilted her head to look up at it rather curiously.
"It's..it's…it's a mistletoe." Aisha finally said, still in an embarrassed state.
"And what is the meaning of the mistletoe?" It took Aisha a long time to answer this.
"It's...it's when you have two people walking underneath it and they…." She couldn't finish.
"They what?" Ara stared into Aisha's eyes. Aisha was so flustered right now that she lost the ability to speak. But she did notice Ara has a nice face. She was so beautiful and she stared at her lips shiny. She probably put on lipgloss earlier. Now she was worried over how Ara looked at her.
"Kiss…"
"I'm sorry?" Ara said confused.
"They kiss." Aisha finally coughed out.
"Eh..? I didn't catch that…."
"They kiss! They kiss Ara! When two people walk underneath a mistletoe together, they kiss!" This time, it was Ara who starts to blush out of pure embarrassment.
"Ahh...I…" She starts to lose the ability to speak as well. After a long period of silence, Ara decides to break the ice. "Do you...do you not want to?"
"We're girls Ara! How does that even work?!" Aisha screamed at the girl with her cheeks as equally as red as Ara's.
"I-I don't know ok?! I was just asking you. That's all." Their heartbeats were beating so loud that they were afraid that the other one could hear it. They continued to stare at each other for a long time directly into each other's eyes. Lips both quivering and before they even knew it, their lips were merely inches from each other.
"Well...I guess if it's you, I guess...I wouldn't mind Ara. You are quite beautiful…" Aisha admits. Both of them can feel the breath on each other that it sent shivers down their necks.
"You are..so cute when flustered Aisha. Did you know that? I want to thank you over and over for the star. So..do you mind if we kiss?"
"I g-guess it's fine..but don't tell anybody ok!?" Ara simply nods to Aisha's request.
The close their eyes and slowly but surely, their lips finally touch for a brief moment. Both of them squeak for a second from the feeling but they slowly find their way to each other again. Both of their lips felt soft against each other. Ara's hands slowly found their way towards Aisha's hands to entangle their fingers in between. Both magician and spearwieder turned their heads sideways to deepen the kiss. They were afraid to be caught from the siblings but in the heat of the moment, they just didn't care and continued on with the kiss. They could smell each other's hair as it fell upon the both of them as they took their time with it.
Aisha was the first to pull away as she took a breath. Both girls were panting as they were actually kissing longer than they should have.
"Wow…." They said in unison.
"T-thanks for the treat Aisha! It was more enjoyable than I thought~!" Ara was rather excited from this.
"Y-yeah. T-thanks as well. I found it also enjoyable~." Both girls giggled to themselves.
"Merry Christmas Aisha~."
"Merry Christmas to you as well Ara~. Now if you excuse me...I must go find Elsword and kill him, because I think he did this."
"E-eh?! Ah, she's already gone." Yes indeed, Aisha teleported out of site on the spot. Ara took her fingers and pressed it against her lips.
'Perhaps...we can do that again sometime. I do like you a lot Aisha after all…' She blushes red as she confirms her feelings for the magician.
"A-aisha I can explain for the mistletoe!" He feared for the beating of his life from an angry magician.
" Elbrat!" Aisha starts to get ready to beat him up like in the old days.
"Well this Christmas should be fun this year~." Elesis chuckles to herself as she watches the two of them get into a tassel.
Kiyoshiin: Merry Christmas to you all again and I hope you had a good one! Also, on another word. I am hosting a lovely Discord server for Elsword fanfiction. Maybe you can join in on the good fun? You can promote your fics and get more reviews and views ;D You can find the invite link on my profile. Come join us as we try to revive this archive! Here's a link to join~.