No spoilers other than the existence of Brave Vesperia, I think. No pairings, just an all-character friendship thing.
All the snow outside made me want to write a winter-themed fic.
The seasons don't change in Vesperia so I don't know what would Halure be like in winter, I just picked the town since it's a nice place (did you notice the petals stop flying around when it's raining?). Afterwards I learned that it occasionally snows in Aurnion, but I didn't want to change it anymore.
All characters and locations mentioned belong to Namco Bandai.
Yuri once again mashed his shovel into the snow blocking the road, heaved it up and threw aside. He had been repeating the process the whole morning and telling by the amount of snow still blocking access to the item shop, his work was far from over. He decided he could afford to take a break.
Looking around, he forgot the rough task at hand as he saw the marvel everywhere. Halure had turned into a winter wonderland overnight. Pure powder snow was everywhere; a thick blanket covering the ground and a slightly lighter sprinkling over all the trees and other plants. When Yuri first stepped out, all the roofs had been looking dangerously overloaded with snow. The townspeople had taken care of that first, and now large piles of snow laid everywhere next to the houses.
Many townspeople were now clearing the roads, and Brave Vesperia had offered to help. Karol had first suggested Rita just melt the snow away, but the mage pointed out the melted water would freeze and make the roads dangerously slippery, so they had opted for regular shoveling. It was a great chance to test their new winter gear, too: the journey had taught them to respect nature and its forces.
Rita and Estelle were helping people clear the ways to their homes, and Karol tried to keep up with Repede in their task to open a way to the mayor's house. Judith was helping the last people get the heaviest amounts of snow off their homes, and the old man… Yuri gazed around. Raven was supposed to be starting on clearing a road to the tree of Halure, but instead he was… Yuri frowned. Was the old man building a snowman?
There was a large sphere of snow on the ground and Raven seems to be preparing the next part. The man lifted the snowball and gently placed it on top of the bigger one. He gazed around and when he noticed Yuri 's less-than-approving staring at him, the man quickly ignored the swordsman and got Karol in his sight.
"Heey! Karol! Come an' help me finish this!" he cheered to get the boy's attention. Karol shoveled up a pile of snow before he reacted and turned to look at the archer with the snow still in his shovel.
"Huh? But I'm not done yet… Hey! Neither are you, Raven!" he shouted.
The old man sighed. "C'mon, my old bones needed a break… Ya could afford a pause too, kid, ya've been workin' non-stop an' the snow ain't gonna rush back even if ya have a little fun in the snow…"
Judith jumped down from a roof nearby and landed close to Karol. "You go help that slacker, I'll finish up here with Repede. The boss deserves a break every now and then", she said and reached for Karol's shovel, which he swiftly let go of and handed to the Krityan, smiling.
"A-alright. Thanks Judith!" he nodded and started scrambling through the snow to where Raven's half-finished snowman stood. Yuri walked over to the beautiful lancer. "You're spoiling him."
Judith's features stayed a worriless as usual. "Well, it's true he's the boss, but sometimes it feels more like you two sort of share the duty." Yuri said nothing, just watched the older and youngest party members add snow padding to their cold new friend. "…he is so young, after all. And he did his share of the work very dutifully", Judith continued.
Yuri still kept quiet, but turned to the Krityan. Her hair and antennae looked amazingly, almost blindingly blue against the pale snow. Her winter clothes covered much more than what the Krityan usually wore, but the tight design of the outdoor-pullover and lightly padded pants still made her quite pleasant to look at.
Yuri knelt down and picked up some snow. His gloves weren't exactly designed for snowball-making, but they worked well enough. He looked the ball over while Judith observed him. Then Yuri raised the ball and aimed.
"Karol did good work. The old man didn't", the swordsman finally said, and threw the lump of snow at said man. The 'slacker' noticed the incoming projectile in the nick of time, but by then it was too late to evade. The snowball made a mean-sounding noise and turned half of Raven's face either white with snow or red from the impact.
"He-hey! What gives?" the old man growled as soon as he recovered from the cold surprise. He somewhat regretted being so loud with his outburst as it has attracted the attention of many of the townspeople outdoors. He sighed. "It's not nice to assault yer elders like that…" he grumbled to Yuri.
"It's high time you learned one thing, then, old man: work comes before play." Another snowball hit the shabby man, smashing on his shoulder. Most of the snow fell down and Raven whisked off the rest.
"How many of those are ya gonna throw?" Yuri grinned. "As many as need be." Yet another cold projectile was in the air.
Raven wasn't going to be the swordsman's practise target for long, and he easily dodged the third flying object. A surprised cry from him behind him reminded Raven he'd forgot to take something into account.
"Aaaahh! C-C-COLD!" Karol yelped, trying to fish out the snow that had fallen inside his jacket after the snowball hit his lower head. He seemed to fail to get the intruder out, but calmed down soon enough after the snow melted and didn't feel all that cold anymore. The guild boss instead focused on finding the one guilty of his suffering.
"H-hey, it wasn't ol' Raven's fault! Yuri was the one ta miss me!" the archer was quick to dodge.
Yuri wasn't delighted. "Eh? But that was an accident! Uh, Karol…?" he tried defending himself, but the boy was already preparing payback, and the snowy attack was now aimed at Yuri. Karol threw his revenge with all his might. At the last moment the swordsman raised his shovel and blocked the incoming projectile.
"Oh, very nice", Judith commented care-freely. Yuri grunted back before he noticed Karol was preparing a new assault together with Raven; the two seemed to be preparing a mountain of snowballs to throw consecutively. He turned to the lady beside him. "Judy, team up?"
The Krityan smiled. "Well, I have little experience in snow fights, but I'll see what I can do." Yuri grinned. "Let's show them who's who."
Yuri crouched down in the passage he'd ploughed open and started rolling up his own arsenal of snowy doom. Judith observed their surroundings. "It seems they're making a barrier of sorts", she reported to her teammate.
Yuri raised his head to get a better view. "Humph. Cowards."
Judith lowered herself too. The open-shoveled passageway offered a little protection, but their heads and upper bodies were well in sight.
"So, what's the plan, captain?" Judith inquired. The swordsman glared at her, not too pleased of his newly-acquired title.
"We kick their butts, of course." Judith nodded before again taking a look what the opposing team was doing. "Ah, offense is the best defen-" Her sentence was cut short as a snowball flew just over her head.
"I think we're good to go", she stated and grabbed several of the snow orbs on the ground. Getting up with them, she dodged another enemy projectile, swiftly jumped to get a little higher and rained her own attack upon the two guys now visible, peeking over their barricade.
"Aahh!" Karol winced as some of the freshly made snowballs hit him. Raven also took some hits before pulling Karol lower, back into the protection of their shield. Judith landed and tried to see the results of her attack.
"Hmm, I'm pretty sure Raven should have been able to dodge those…" she commented after ducked to dodge a lone, desperate snowball that had supposedly been thrown by Karol. Yuri smiled at her observation and handed the Krityan a new pile of snowballs.
"We'll storm their headquarters and take them out in one fell swoop", he explained the plan. Judith pondered for a moment how to best carry the supply Yuri offered, and decided it best to support them over her chest with one arm. She noticed Yuri's gaze was wandering. "Naughty boy."
The swordsman smirked and took his share of their ammo. "We're going in from the left." Judith nodded. The two sprang up and jumped to the nearby passage way that took them closed to the Karol-Raven fortress.
Yuri was completely taken aback by the sudden force that hit his cheek. "Wha-?" To his right, more snowballs were incoming.
"They moved location? Damn!" he pointed out the more or less obvious to Judith and glanced around; the passage didn't offer even the little shelter their previous location had provided. Their only option was to answer the fire. Snowballs flew all over the place, sometimes hitting their targets, occasionally missing, either due to hasted aiming or the fighters' evasive skills. A passerby barely dodged a stray snowball and all four apologized to him.
But then, in an attempt to land a good hit, Raven threw a snowball with far too much force. He and Karol followed its path with horror. Yuri alone continued the battle as Judith followed the opposing team's gazed and turned around just in time to see it hit the back of Rita's head.
"Oh dear…" the Krityan commented while Estelle tried to inquire if the rage-sizzling mage was alright. "No, I'm not", Rita muttered before raising her tone of voice to let everyone know her fury.
"I'm fed up with these guys' mischief! That prank they pulled on me last night, slacking from work and now this!" A red circle appeared beneath her feet on the snow. Brave Vesperia couldn't see the circle from their locations, but they saw the sparkles it caused and Rita speeding through the incantation. Karol and Raven tried to hurry back to the protection of their shelter and Yuri looked around for any kind of cover. Judith merely stepped aside to give the mage a better aim at the boys.
Rita finished her casting but instead of her usual finish, she shouted: "I'll burn through your meager snow shield! Fireball!"
"Rita! Wait!" Estelle cried and grabbed the mage by her arm, but it was too late for Rita to stop anymore and instead the healer's interference merely resulted in Rita's aim going way off. Three fireballs flew through the air, over the Karol-Raven barricade and smashed to the snowman. The almost-finished humanoid figure instantly melted and splashed around, afterwards freezing into a lovely circle shape consisting of smaller separate drops.
Karol ran to the remains of their creation. "Noo! Rita, that was just mean!" he cried. Rita's slightly remorseful expression was gone the second she got blamed.
"Sh-shut up! It's your fault for hiding!" Estelle, though, was quite taken aback. She tried to find the right words. "Oh… I-I'm sorry… If I hadn't interfered…" Raven hurried to save the situation.
"Aw shush, ya saved me an' the kid from burnin' and freezin' to death both at once. Ya wanna make it up to Karol, help 'im make a new one."
The princess smiled cautiously. "Um, yes. But… I've never built a snowman", she confessed. No-one was surprised, knowing full well Estelle' background and inexperience in most fields. Yuri flashed her an encouraging smile. "Well then, it'll be another new experience on your journey."
"Ah, yes!" Estelle nodded and almost rushed to Karol and the remains of the snowman until she remembered they still weren't finished with the snow shoveling. Rita had seen it coming.
"Oh, you just go do it. All of them had a break, too. You deserved it better than those guys." She took a break. "…And I don't want you to overexert yourself." Estelle looked at her friend, grateful but apologetic.
"I'm sorry for always making you worry, Rita." The mage blushed and turned away, unfortunately, to the direction Judith and the guys were in, so she immediately spun to the other direction. Yuri had seen the look on the mage's face, but thought it better not to bring it up there and then.
"No, I, it's… it's okay… Go already." Rita patted Estelle on the shoulder to prove her it was all right, and Estelle happily scurried off to Karol.
"Rita doesn't need to help rebuild?" Judith asked Yuri while the man was whisking snow off himself. The swordsman glanced at the Krityan's seemingly-innocently curious face.
"Judy, you know what would happen if the old man and Rita worked on the same thing." The spear-user watched said old man play in the snow with Karol and Estelle.
"Or course. I would have loved to watch them go at it again" the mischievous Krityan told her guildmate. Yuri sighed. "Should have guessed… Well, we should get back to work if we're gonna finish while it's still light out." Judith agreed, and they finished their part while a snowman of teamwork was built and decorated to the point Rita claimed it looked ridiculous. But eveyone agreed it was a great snowman.
In the end, another snowball fight broke out, this time with all party members and some local kids participating. Repede was unanimously voted the winner. The new snowman, gently smiling to the citizens of Halure, overlooked the battle safely without getting melted into oblivion. When night fell, it continued to watch over the city and its peace.