a/n: i can't believe that we're just one night away from the s2 premiere. i can't believe how much this show has impacted my life. really, i just can't believe any of it, because i'm a big sap and if someone had told me two years ago that an anime called hibike! euphonium would change my life, i wouldn't have known what to say in response.

but yeah, this fic is my small thank you to the hibike fandom, and here's to a lot more kumirei in s2

Kumiko could've blamed it on the cold.

She could've blamed it on the bitter, howling late-autumn winds outside, the crackling fire downstairs, the coziness of the blankets. She didn't, though - it would be unfair, to blame it on such a trivial thing. No, she had stayed at Reina's house for no reason but to stay at her house, to bask in her warm presence.

"You could call a taxi," Reina murmured. Kumiko leaned against her shoulder, watching the leaves blow by outside like tiny shadows. "I understand that it's a rather long walk from here to the trains, but a taxi could come right up to the front of the lawn."

"It could come straight to the porch, if the taxi driver was bad enough at their job." Kumiko chuckled at her own joke, and she saw Reina's lips quirk upwards into a smile.

"I wouldn't trust someone like that to drive you home in this weather."

"I, uh, I wouldn't either." Kumiko looked up at the ceiling, the plastic stars that dotted it haphazardly. "Your room's nice."

"You've been here before," Reina pointed out.

"Y-yeah, but there's just something about being all cozy in here that makes it . . . nicer, I guess. More homely."

"I suppose. I've always thought that it was too big, if you want the truth. I'm one person, I don't need this much room for my belongings." She had a point. Reina's things were few and far between, crisp songbooks scattered in corners while her leather trumpet case sat on her ornate wooden desk, the instrument held safely inside. It was a cold room for a cold girl, Kumiko would've thought scarcely a year ago. Now, now she knew better, or at least she tried to. Reina was not a cold person, not at all - not when she was pressed against Kumiko with such warmth in her body, such an incredible presence. Kumiko knew that Reina was not a dream, she was not some mystery to be unraveled after a long adventure. She was tired, that was all. They both were, Kumiko figured. Reina delicately brushed her fingers against Kumiko's, and the touch sent a pleasant tingling feeling through her hand.

"Your hand's warm," she murmured, shifting on the soft lavender mattress.

"I suppose it is," Reina replied. "That's what happens when you sit with someone for a while, you begin to sap their heat. Forgive me for sounding pretentious here, but it's an equivalent exchange, of sorts. Both of you are warm in the end." An orange leaf smacked against the window, blown by the wind as its edges flapped wildly. Reina stood up, still just barely holding Kumiko's hand, and opened the window to snatch the leaf from midair.

"Why did you do that?" Kumiko asked, before she could stop herself. Reina slammed down the window, keeping the leaf held by its stem.

"It seemed helpless."

"You're, uh, not really helping yourself get out of the 'manic pixie dream girl' thing here, Reina." Reina tilted her head.

"The what?"

"Y'know, like the book characters? The weird, perfect girl the p-protagonist follows around?" Kumiko squeezed the fabric of the mattress as Reina sat down back next to her. "I still remember that night on the mountain," she murmured. "It was something right out of a movie."

"I won't tell you if that was my intention or not," Reina retorted, holding her head high. Kumiko chuckled.

"I believed you, when you s-said that you wanted to be different from the others. I r-really did. I still do - you're amazing, Reina, but you're human." Despite the warmth of Reina's hand, Kumiko could still feel the grooves in the skin on her reddening fingers where a trumpet had been, could still feel the slight bend in her figure. "You're so wonderful, but you're human."

"Answer me honestly, Kumiko." The way the name rolled off of her tongue still gave Kumiko a feeling akin to a tiny explosion in her chest, so full of feelings that she still had yet to entirely understand. "Did you hold me on a pedestal?" Kumiko gulped.

"Maybe."

"You're terrible."

"I just didn't really understand you, Reina, for a while. We never talked in middle school, I spent months thinking back on that competition, and I still didn't know! I couldn't understand, why you were so obsessed with gold when we had already gotten it!"

"Dud gold."

"S-still." Kumiko realized that she had been talking a bit louder than intended, and she curled her arms around her knees. "Wasn't dud gold enough?"

"No." The word sharpened the air, and Kumiko flinched instinctively. "Second place wasn't something for me to be proud of."

"We w-were in middle school, Reina, we were just kids!"

"I've had this goal for a long time," Reina replied, tilting her head upwards so that Kumiko could see the slight glimmer in her eyes against the too-bright lights overhead. "I doubt that anything will stop it."

"We have time, though." Kumiko let herself lean on Reina's side, resting her head on the trumpet player's shoulder.

"Hmm?"

"We're not done with this, with any of this yet, Reina, we have our whole lives ahead of us." Kumiko's voice quieted to a mutter, but Reina still seemed to hear her loud and clear. "I dunno if this is weird or out of line or whatever, b-but I'd like to spend as much of it as I can with you."

"I suppose we could figure something out, regarding that." Reina smiled slightly, a playful smirk on her lips, and Kumiko could feel herself falling deep in love all over again. "Still, we'd do it side-by-side. No mountains, this time, no standing above each other. I'm not perfect, Kumiko, and neither are you. Nobody is, really. I'm sure you know that by now." Kumiko knew - oh, how she knew - but this moment was as close to perfection as she could get.

"You're the universe, Reina," she murmured, her chest beginning to feel like a tight claw had finally, finally released its grip on her heart and had let it come near to bursting out of her body, warmth spreading through her chest.

"We'll make it through this, Kumiko." Reina rubbed her thumb around Kumiko's palm in a rhythmic motion as the sky outside turned from the evening to a deep night, stars beginning to twinkle ever so slightly.

"Does this count as a confession of love?" Kumiko chuckled.

"I suppose it could," Reina replied, pressing her forehead against Kumiko's.

I wouldn't mind losing my life. That was the thought she had harbored that night, feeling so long ago now, but Kumiko knew better at this point. Sitting on the mattress with Reina, hands intertwined as they stayed together against the bitter fall winds, she would have wanted anything other than to die.

Right now, with her heart unsteadily thudding with excitement in her chest, Kumiko wanted to live.

a/n: i'd also like to thank all of the friends i've made because of this fandom and my wonderful lovely gf. you're all incredible