Due to time zone differences, this chapter came out later than I'd expected. That means I probably won't be able to post any more chapters until I come back from my holiday in September. If I find a hotel wifi, I should be able to, but I'm just giving you all a heads up in case I don't.
Once again, thank you to my wonderful beta CorinnetheAnime for proof-reading this and also for her skiing knowledge - I had no idea what a double black diamond was.
"WAHOOO!"
"Wait! Slow down! Wait for me!"
Crow had never seen a digital camera before arriving in Standard, but he felt he was coping well as he filmed Reira's first attempt at pushing himself along with the poles as he stood on his skis. Gongenzaka was wearing snow boots, his skis a few feet away, poking out of the snow, walking alongside the ten-year-old in case anything went wrong, as well as being the designated teddy bear holder. But everything was going along smoothly.
That was, until he heard the whooping somewhere behind him that he swore was familiar from when a certain pair of Duel Runner riders would race each other in the alley behind his house and keep his kids awake most of the night.
"Yugo, knock it off!" Crow complained, whipping around to tell the eighteen-year-old off.
Only…Yugo didn't wear a pink snow suit.
"Rin, wait! Don't leave me behind!"
Yugo's wail of anguish was in vain, for his girlfriend paid very little attention to him as she careered down the slope on her recently acquired snowboard, kicking up plumes of snow as she swerved around imaginary objects on her way down, spraying snow unapologetically in the faces of innocent skiers, some of whom fell over. Yugo was trying to follow her frantically on a pair of skis, his arms flailing as he tried to catch up, yelling after her:
"Rin! Don't leave me! Wait!"
"That…actually makes sense" Crow remarked, nodding thoughtfully.
"What makes sense?" Gongenzaka, who'd been watching Reira intently, looked up with a frown, apparently having missed Yugo and Rin's appearance and disappearance.
Crow shook his head and went back to film. "No, doesn't matter. Look this way, Reira. You can show this to your brother when you get home."
If looks could kill, then Dennis Macfield would've been shot, stabbed, strangled and pulverised multiple times by this point as he clung to the right arm of another red-haired entertainment duelist. Yuzu had to physically retrain herself as Dennis promptly fell on his rear for the tenth time in the past few minutes, forcing Yuya to have to help him up again and allowing Dennis to tuck himself up against her boyfriend more securely. The only reason she hadn't gone over there and physically separated them was because Yuya was laughing and smiling and she didn't have the heart to make him upset.
She'd intended to clean the air between them and apologise for being so short with him yesterday, but she hadn't had a chance whilst they were still at the lodge with so many people swarming them in the tight space. So she'd waited until they were at the slopes and had approached Yuya to ask if he wanted her to teach him how to ski. When he agreed (because she knew he would) they would head up to the top of the slope and she'd apologise and they'd have a fun day skiing together. It would be good to get some quality time together – they really didn't get that much anymore.
But before she'd had a chance to pull Yuya aside, Dennis had grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the ski lift, insisting:
"Hey, Yuya! Come on! You can't ski and I can't ski so let's look stupid together!"
At the moment though, the only one looking stupid was Dennis. Yuya's entertainment duelling training meant he had brilliant balance and he was coping quite well on skis. But Dennis, who'd had the same training as Yuya as well as Academia solider training was somehow falling over or falling on top of Yuya every minute or so. It was clearly a ploy, but Yuzu couldn't understand what for. It didn't make sense for Dennis to be doing it just to hit on Yuya – not when the guy was aware Yuya and Yuzu were dating. No, the guy was too calculating to do something so juvenile. She was pretty sure Yuya hadn't prompted him either. So Dennis was either doing for his own amusement, to amuse someone else or to make someone else jealous. Yuzu just wasn't sure which one it was.
Not to mention Yuya seemed completely oblivious to it.
"Hey, Yuzu!"
Yuzu's scowl accompanied by gritted teeth relaxed into a smile as she saw Serena dismount from the lift. The darker-haired girl had bags under her eyes, leaving Yuzu to wonder what she'd been doing all night, but was grinning as she crab-walked over to where Yuzu was standing so as to not slip whilst wearing her skis.
"What are you still doing at the top?" Serena asked "You were, like, the first one up? What have you been doing?"
"Debating the legalities of killing a man not from Standard on Standard soil" Yuzu told her curtly "I mean, if he doesn't exist in this dimension, it's not like the police can do anything about it, right?"
"Er…I don't know, I'd say Reiji would still be pretty pissed" Serena told her, looking past her to see what Dennis was doing "Hey, wanna go down together?"
To distract herself from one Fusion resident, Yuzu looked Serena in her black snow suit up and down. She was holding the poles upside down and her skis were crossed.
"You have no idea what you're doing, do you?" Yuzu asked rhetorically, wondering how Serena had already made it down the slope once without an injury.
Serena ducked her head and all but blushed. "Er…"
Now having a reason to be positive, Yuzu smiled warmly at her. "Don't worry, I'll help you out. My dad used to take me skiing all the time."
Serena sighed with what was probably relief. "Oh thank god! Thank you! Kurosaki's doing better than me and I need to beat Birdbrain or Sora's going to make me regret being alive!"
Yuzu laughed. "Alright Serena, let's get you graduated from the bunny slope!"
"Now you got to keep loose- just like that. That'll give you more flexibility going down and keeps you more stable on the curves. Don't tense up, that's the worst thing you can do."
Yuto watched from a distance as Sawatari walked Ruri and Sora through the basics of snowboarding. He had finished strapping on his skis a while ago; now he was just allowing Sawatari to think he was hopeless at getting the straps on right as an excuse to observe Sawatari helping one of his best friends without seeming suspicious.
He wasn't Shun but any means, but he could be just as cautious when it same to who Ruri talked to. It was stupid and paranoid and showed a complete lack of trust in her judgement, but it was instinct and not easily overridden, even after four years of peace. He had a tendency to monitor anyone Ruri interacted with who wasn't from Heartland or Xyz in general.
Sora was a former Academia soldier, but Reiji trusted him and Yuto trusted Reiji's judgement. Not to mention, he was one of Yuzu's best friends. It was more so Sawatari he was watching.
It seemed silly, since Sawatari was a member of the original Lancers group. But he was the one to invite them all out to the lodge in the first place. Yuto wasn't used to people from other dimensions – especially not the eternally bragging Sawatari – performing selfless actions without some sort of ulterior motive behind it. So when he'd first gotten the invitation, he'd had a long discussion with Shun on whether this was some sort of trap and whether they should be ready for a fight when they got there. But it appeared Sawatari really did what nothing in return, and Yuto honestly respected that.
"Ow!"
Yuto turned around to see Shun plodding towards him in his snow boots, carrying his skis under his arm and trying to zip up his slightly undersized snow suit with his free hand. He'd just twisted his ankle, although not severely, which had caused him to yelp and adjust his new accessories.
"Why are you wearing sunglasses?" Yuto just had to ask.
Shun looked at Yuto like he was honestly surprised he'd asked. "Reiji told me that the sunlight reflects off the snow and can damage your eyes."
Ordinarily, Yuto may've believed that. "Don't lie to me. You're hungover."
Shun scoffed dismissively. "I'm not hungover. I'm perfectly fine."
Yuto didn't like being lied to, so he quickly reached up and snatched the sunglasses off of Shun's face. The reaction was instantaneous as Shun covered his eyes and bent over slightly, yelling with pain that it was too bright, too bright!
"Yeah, sure, you're fine" Yuto responded flatly "Your alcohol tolerance is pathetic. I had just as much as you last night but I'm at least able to walk straight."
"I'm fine!" Shun insisted, snatching his sunglasses back and putting them over his eyes again "We came here to ski, so let's ski already!"
"Well you're going to find it pretty hard to ski if you're not wearing any skis" Yuto pointed out.
Shun seemed to concede that point as he crouched down to put his skis on, promptly falling over from a lack of balance.
Well, that did it. Yuto wasn't sticking around to help, best friend or otherwise.
"Hey, Yuto! Shun!" Ruri waved him over "Let's go down together!"
Yuto smiled and crab-walked his way over to her. He'd learnt not to try and push forward or he'd go skidding down the slope involuntarily.
"I think Shun's still going to be here when we get back up" Yuto told her "He's still got a hangover."
Ruri clicked her tongue disappointedly. "I told him he shouldn't have so much to drink."
Yuto frowned, recalling who was the principle instigator last night. "That's not how I remember it."
"Hey, come on, enough talking!" Sora pulled up beside them "All of us can go down together. I mean, look at Sawatari! He makes it look easy!"
Sawatari had just pushed off down the slope, poles either side of him to speed up, then alternating which side they were on to change direction. He did make it look easy.
"Everyone ready?" Ruri checked.
Yuto was finding it hard to believe that he was about to try his first attempt at skiing alongside his best friend's sister and a former Academia solider. If he'd told himself that four years ago, he would've laughed in his own face…and then some.
But for now, he could put any cultural differences aside. What dimension anyone was from didn't matter at that moment.
For now, he was going to learn to ski.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
Yuto pushed himself forward with the little poles and gravity grasped him instantly. The battle-hardened war veteran was not afraid to say he screamed like a little girl with sheer terror as he went whizzing down the slope, his arms flailing wildly as he tried not to fall flat on his face.
Despite the common opinion of most of the guests at the ski lodge, Yuya wasn't, in fact, an idiot. He could be naïve at times, but not an idiot by any stretch of the imagination.
So he was perfectly aware of the fact that Dennis was trying to drive a wedge between him and Yuzu and was playing him like a fiddle.
At first, Yuya had no complaints about spending the morning with Dennis. Dennis didn't exactly have many friends besides Yuri, so perhaps he just wanted some company now that he and Yuri were no longer on speaking terms. Yuya and Yuzu saw each other every day – him spending some time with a lonely Dennis wasn't going to kill her. But he was rapidly starting to regret his decision and now he just didn't want to cause a scene.
Dennis was probably one of the most intelligent human beings Yuya had ever met; certainly when it came to human interaction. He was usually happy and ditsy and generally fun-loving because that's what he wanted the world to think of him as. But how he was acting now was something Yuya had never seen nor ever expected from him. The empty, simpering tone he'd been using on him for the last hour wasn't like Dennis at all and he was getting sick of it. He wasn't interested in Dennis and he was at least 60% certain that Dennis wasn't really interested in him either, despite the way he was acting. There was some underlying motive behind his actions and Yuya didn't appreciate being used like a tool in whatever game he was playing, and he certainly didn't appreciate Dennis dragging Yuzu into it.
"Hey, Dennis" he finally said after helping Dennis up out of the snow for what was somewhere around the fortieth time.
"Yep?" Dennis looked down at him innocently, like this wasn't all somehow involved in some sort of master plan.
"You fly around on your Performages monsters, right?" Yuya checked, making sure Dennis had no way to back out of admitting what he was doing.
"Of course!" Dennis all but grinned at the mention of his entertainment duelling skills "It's all part of the entertainment, dear Yuya."
'Dear' Yuya. Wasn't 'dear' a term Dennis tended to reserve for when he was addressing girls? What was going on?
Yuya decided to be blunt with him. "So a guy who can fly around on a duel monster without any concerns shouldn't be falling over as much as you are."
Dennis obviously realised he'd been caught out. But he didn't give Yuya the satisfaction of an answer. Instead he raised both hands in a surrender motion and cried out in a jovial tone:
"Whoopsie!"
"No, not whoopsie" Yuya wasn't impressed with Dennis' act "I know you and Yuri are having a hard time or whatever, but can you please just leave me out of your…rebound, I guess?"
Dennis looked down at his feet and clasped his hands together, bowing his head and adopting an apologetic pose. "I'm sorry, Yuya, if I made you uncomfortable."
Yes, he had. But more importantly, he'd upset Yuzu. Yuya could've blown up on him, but Dennis looked depressed enough as it was and Yuya didn't want to upset anyone else more than they already were. There were enough hurt feelings without his input.
"Hey, don't worry about it" Yuya told him, placing a hand on his shoulder "We're alright. Just, apologise to Yuzu when you see her, okay?"
Dennis perked right back up again, visibly relieved. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! Hey, do you want to go down the slope one more time? Because we're friends, right?"
It seemed a bit cruel to say no. He couldn't imagine something going drastically wrong just racing down the slope once in Dennis' company. Maybe it was another ploy, but it couldn't be that harmful.
"Alright, one more time" Yuya agreed.
"Race you to the bottom?" Dennis offered.
Neither were partially good skiers, so a race between them would be interesting to say the least. If they could avoid running into each other.
Yuya had just enough time to recognise there was no way this was going to end well before Dennis pushed off, not even giving Yuya a chance to agree to race. Yuya tried to push off as well, but he just moved a few inches in the thick snow as Dennis seemed to glide along the top of it like he was wearing roller skates. He tried to push off again after him, now realising he was about to have his butt kicked by someone who'd been falling on his butt all morning.
At the bottom of the slopes was a public lodge for those ski enthusiasts who were not fortunate enough to have a cabin, rented or otherwise, in the nearby area. The lobby featured a snack bar serving a variety of soups, snacks and hot beverages. It was at one of the small round tables by the window that Yuri sat at, staring moodily out the window, his unused skis propped against the back of his chair.
His eyes tracked the progress of a skier with vividly red hair and an orange snow suit. When he reached the bottom safely and performed an exhilarated victory dance that involved flinging himself into the arms of the other red-haired young man who had reached the bottom shortly after him, Yuri let out a pained groan and dropped his face forward onto the table top in misery. Dennis knew how to throw a punch, even if it wasn't physically, that was for sure.
"What ya doing?"
Yuri seriously considered bashing his head against the table until his skull caved in at the sound of the familiar higher-pitched voice hovering over him. His self-preservation kicked in though and instead he looked up blearily at the green-eyed devil standing at his table, twisting a lollipop in his mouth.
"Go away" Yuri told him in such a tone that would normally have people running for the hills. But Yuri wasn't as scary as either Reiji Abaka or his father, and Sora had once been the enemy of both, so Yuri's little tantrum didn't deter him at all.
Sora slumped down in the chair opposite to Yuri at his table, staring at him with wide eyes, hungry for knowledge. "I said, what ya doing?"
"Wishing I'd killed you much sooner" Yuri snapped.
"Aww" Sora cooed "You've got a broken heart. Poor little Yuri."
"I will destroy you!" Yuri yelled as he almost pushed himself across the table to strangle Sora, attracting the attention of everyone in the public lodge briefly before they went back to their own business.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't take it out on me" Sora pouted, secretly getting a kick out of tormenting a normally well-put-together Yuri, who was ordinarily immune to such teasing "It's not my fault Dennis dumped you."
Yuri sat fully upright again, completely outraged as his mouth flopped open. "What?! Dennis did not dump me, you ignorant child! We weren't even-"
"But you wish you were, don't you?" Sora shot back, silencing Yuri with the truthfulness of the statement "Whatever you say, it's gotta suck that he hates you now, right?"
Yuri regarded at him with a blank stare for several seconds before his shoulders slumped dejectedly. "Yes. It does…suck."
Sora flashed him a grin that almost everyone who knew him meant they should be very afraid, because he had a dangerous idea in his head that would no doubt end in someone getting hurt.
"Well, there's no point in sitting in here and just letting your day suck" Sora told him "You need to get out there in the powder already!"
Yuri looked out the window at the slope and then back at Sora, frowning uncertainly.
"If you don't want to go with Dennis, you can come with me" Sora suggested "Sawatari taught me how to snowboard and I'm really good! Better than that Xyz girl, huh?"
"I…er-"
"Great!" Sora produced a wrapped to wrap his lollipop in so his awful multi-coloured snow suit wouldn't get sticky "I'll just drink my hot chocolate and then we can go ski!"
Sora looked so taken with the idea of showing Yuri how to ski that Yuri's didn't have heart (courage) to tell him no (it had nothing to do with the fact that denying Sora Shuin'in something usually ended in mauling for the denier). So Yuri could only sit there and sweat as Sora guzzled his entire hot chocolate in less than 60 seconds before slamming the mug down on the table so hard he nearly cracked it.
"Come on!" Sora jumped to his feet, grabbing Yuri by the wrist and, barely allowing him a moment to grab his skis and poles, hauled him forcibly out of the public lodge into the snow. Sora gave him the bare minimum of time to snap his skis into place on his boots and then he was being dragged towards the waiting area for the lift.
"The line's not very long right now" Sora informed him solemnly "So we'll get to the top super fast."
"Yes, that is usually how it works" Yuri responded sardonically, really not happy with the situation he'd found himself in.
The next thing he knew, he was being shoved into a lift and the ground was vanishing from beneath his feet.
"Maybe we can find Crow – he was up here with Akaba's kid brother earlier" Sora leaned forward to peer down, making the open chair rock dangerously "I bet he'd like to ski with us."
Yuri went a bit green and grabbed tightly to the side of the chair.
After the most nerve-wracking chairlift ride of Yuri's life and a few minutes of wandering around the open area at the top of the slopes, they did indeed find Crow hanging around the bunny slope. Crow had just pushed Reira gently down the slope after Gongenzaka, and was now keeping an eye on the Kurosakis, one of which kept falling over on her snowboard and the other was attempting to go down with his arms folded and sunglasses on.
Oy vey.
"I'm trying to help them out but…" Crow looked back and forth between the Kurosakis and the new arrivals "They're just…impossible."
Sora fluffed out his wind-tossed hair with one hand as he watched the siblings fail to ski. The inspired gleam in his eye did not inspire confidence in Yuri in the slightest. He tightened his coat nervously, hoping to prevent any snowy assaults on his bare skin, at least. Hoping to avoid having to be alone with him and potentially suffering the consequences he felt he had been mercifully spared thus far, Yuri asked:
"Why don't you come ski with us?"
Crow shrugged. "I would, but Yuto asked me to watch these two."
Yuri felt his chance at salvation slipping slowly away.
"No!" he protested, a little desperately "I insist- er…command that you to come with us!"
Crow, clearly confused at the normally proud Yuri's sudden burst of desperation, glanced at the Sora, who now laughing at Kurosaki tripping over his sister, then back at Yuri, and raised an amused eyebrow. Pushing aside his pride, Yuri pleaded silently with Crow, who he knew to be a reasonable person, hoping he would give in and spare Yuri from being tackled into the snow or pushed off a cliff or whatever other mad thing the utterly fearless and sadistic Sora Shuin'in might take it into his head to do to him.
With a smirk on his face, Crow shrugged and agreed.
"If I can find somebody else to deal with Kurosaki and Ruri, since Gongenzaka seems to be taking care of Reira" he nodded "Where's Yuto anyway?" He addressed Sora with that question. "He ditched me with these two without telling me where he was going when I caught him going down the red slope. He said you pushed him down it."
Yuri swallow nervously at the mention of Sora already messing with people up here. Ordinarily Yuri could've easily subdued the much smaller boy, but up here on the side of a steep mountain with sticks attached to his feet and no control over the situation? He wasn't exactly in his element up here.
Sora shrugged. "I dunno. I didn't even see him get to the bottom. I just wanted hot chocolate."
Crow appeared to mull this over before raising his head at the sound of a voice yelling:
"Rin! Wait for me!"
"Hey, Rin!" Crow called across the slope. It appeared Rin and Yugo had return to the bunny slope after a few hours cruising the steeper slopes.
Rin brought the snowboard to a stop brilliantly about a hundred yards away from Crow.
"What is it?" Rin asked, almost shouting to be heard over the noise of the other skiers.
"Can you watch Kurosaki and Ruri while I'm gone?" Crow asked, watching Yugo go whizzing past them. He suddenly realised his mistake, stopped himself and turned around, climbing up the slope sideways to try and reach Rin again.
"Sure" Rin agreed "Go have fun!"
"I'll meet you at the bottom of the lift in a little while" Crow promised "I'll find Yuto and tell him to pick up his family."
He strapped on his skis again and fled the bunny hill with even more enthusiasm than Sora.
"Soooooo" Sora said, drawing out the 'o' for an unreasonably long time. Sora never did do well in public speaking, Yuri recalled from in class. "Ready to go?"
"What?" Yuri asked, not following his line of thought.
Sora flashed him that maniacal and sadistic grin of his once more and launched himself onto the nearest slope. Yuri glanced at the rating sign, then did a double take because he couldn't possibly be seeing that.
"Wait, no!" he shouted "Shuin'in, that's a double black diamond!"
He lurched forward to try and stop Sora, but the blue-haired boy was already long gone, cackling loudly as he cut sharp zig-zags in the thick snow across the slope. The offset of balance caused Yuri to go right after him involuntarily, the former Academia elite solider doing his best not to scream as he silently chanted prayers to the Professor or Starve Vemon or any deity that would listen that he would make it to the bottom in one piece.
Now a little tired as lunch had come and passed, Rin sat down in the snow to keep an eye on her new charges, removing her snowboard from her snow boots to make herself more comfortable. Yugo, not exactly to her surprise, volunteered to stay with her and keep her company while she Kurosaki-sat, and he chatted her to about the exciting game of pool he, Gongenzaka, Crow and Serena had had the previous evening, that Yugo won since Rin hadn't taken part. Rin didn't mind his chatter – it was always good to see Yugo so happy after everything he'd gone through.
Rin started to grow uncomfortable sitting in the cold snow. She's had no problems watching Kurosaki trying to help his sister stand on her board as he pushed her along on flat ground, occasionally tripping over in the ankle-deep snow. But it was getting chilly, and though the exercise of snowboarding had kept her warm before, now she was sitting still, she was starting to feel feel cold as her sweat cooled beneath her suit and the dampness of the snow began to seep through her slick snow pants.
"You're shivering" Yugo noted.
"Only a little" Rin reassured him, trying not to panic him.
He immediately panicked anyway and she had been expecting him to make the offer of going back down to the lodge to purchase her a cup of hot chocolate; but she did not expect him to strip of his coat and wrap it around her shoulders.
"You don't have to!" she protested, trying to hand his jacket back to him "You'll get cold yourself!"
"Don't be silly! I'm going to get us some hot chocolate" Yugo informed her, standing up and rubbing his gloved hands together for warmth "But I'm not about to leave you out here in the cold. I'll be back soon."
He sprinted off towards the public lodge, rubbing his arms to keep warm. Rin watched him until he disappeared around a bend out of sight. With a soft little smile on her lips, she wrapped his coat around her after all. Whilst she waited, she turned her attention back to the Kurosaki siblings. Now Ruri had given up on her snowboard and was trying out Kurosaki's skis…with just as much success. Making sure they didn't get too close to the base of any of the steeper slopes where impatient skiers may knock them over occupied her attention until her boyfriend returned.
A good fifteen minutes later, Yugo finally appeared from behind the line of people waiting for their turn on the ski lift, just barely avoiding dumping the entire cup of hot chocolate over her in his eagerness to please her. He grinned at Rin and held it out to her. Gratefully she reached for the hot beverage, but before she could grasp it, he pulled it back and took her hand in hers instead. To her surprise, he bowed over her hand and dropped a kiss on her knuckles through her knit gloves. Then, he straightening up and he handed her the hot chocolate.
"For you, my love" he declared proudly.
She laughed, feeling a blush spread across her face as he flopped down in the snow next to her and tucked himself under her arm. He was obviously cold.
"Yugo, are you alright?" she asked.
"Well, duh" he said, sounding confused at the question "Why wouldn't I be?"
And she would have believed him, except for the fact that he sounded so apprehensive when he said it. Yugo was many things, but good at pretending about his emotions was not one of them.
"Are you sure?" she asked, coaxing him "You're acting a little strange."
Yugo let lose a peal of raucous, way-too-loud laughter.
"I think you've been out in the cold too long, Rin!" He laughed "I'm not acting strange at all!"
She sighed, letting him lean against her to take advantage of her body heat.
"If you say so" she murmured, sipping at the hot chocolate.
Yuzu waved Serena off as the girl began to plod her way towards one of the steeper slopes. After a bit of tutoring from Yuzu, it was Serena's dare-devil nature that allowed the girl to take to skiing like a fish to water. Within two hours, Yuzu found she was being beaten to the bottom of the slope by her new prodigy. Now tired, she was sat a little way back from the slopes so she wasn't in the way of the skiers, content to watch Serena and Sora's endless loops of the slopes and ski lift (Yuri had apparently either given up or died in an avalanche. Yuzu didn't care which).
"You taking a break, too?"
Yuzu looked up to see Yuto approaching her, carrying his skis over his shoulder. He, like Serena, had bags under his eyes and Yuzu couldn't help but wonder what party happened last night that she hadn't been invited to.
"I'm just tired" she told him "What happened to you? I haven't seen you for ages."
Yuto came and sat next to her in the snow. "I needed to get away. I left them with Crow and hid in the back of the public lodge for a hour."
Yuzu didn't need him to tell her who 'them' were.
"Too overbearing?" she guessed.
"Not at all" Yuto told her "In love them – they're the best friends I could ever have. Just…not today."
"Are they drunk?" Yuzu asked "Because Serena looks like she partied her butt off last night."
"They were drunk, now they're just hungover" Yuto explained "I don't know if it's a genetic thing, but they're both terrible with hangovers. They should film Hangover 4 using inspiration from them. Ruri can't work out which way is up and is even more enthusiastic than usual. Shun tried to put on his skis backwards and keeps calling me Kaito and challenging me to duels."
"Oh" Yuzu could see the problem.
"So, please just let me hide here" he pleaded "I love them but…I'm not immune to hangovers either. And I need to get a break. So, please?"
"Yeah, sure" Yuzu agreed, though she got the feeling Yuto just wanted an ear to listen more than anything else.
Yuto sighed with relief and flopped back in the thick snow. Yuzu worried he was going to get a cold with his head encompassed in the white powder, but maybe his hangover was causing a headache and he needed to cool down.
"So, there was a party last night?" Yuzu decided to carry out some small talk, since Yuto was here "And I wasn't invited?"
"It was a spur of the moment thing" Yuto informed her "And, what, with the mood you were in last night? I don't think giving you alcohol would be the best idea."
Yuzu had to concede that point. She had been terrible last night. At least Yuya had the sense to come to bed after she went to sleep.
"I take it that's to do with why you're hiding" Yuto commented.
"I'm not hiding" Yuzu responded with immediately.
"So you're sitting in an isolated spot in the snow at the top of a mountain rather than sipping hot chocolate in the lovely, warm public lodge where the person you're hiding from could easily spot you" Yuto shot back, leaving Yuzu with nowhere to back out to.
Yuzu shoulders slumped. She pulled her knees up and rested her chin on them.
"It's stupid" she admitted "It's not even Yuya's fault. I should just go up to him and talk to him but…"
"You need time to cool off?" Yuto guessed "That's normal. Better than going up to him right away and saying something you regret."
"Yuto can you do me a favour?" Yuzu asked.
"Of course" Yuto sat up, quick to do anything that would make someone else's life easier "What is it?"
"If you see Dennis, can you punch the snot out of him?" she requested.
Yuto's eyes went wide as his moral compass had an aneurysm. He would do anything to help Yuzu, of course, but committing an assault? He'd had quiet enough of hurting people in his life.
"Ok, fine" Yuzu relented "Maybe you could just suggest to Kurosaki that Dennis complimented Ruri's…womanly figure."
Yuto didn't seem so bothered by that one. "I sure Shun would have no reservations about that. But surely you could do it yourself? You seem to have…a good aim for the topic in question."
"I prefer fans over fists – and a fan's too gentle for the point I'm trying to make" Yuzu told him "Besides, I don't need it upset Yuya any more than I already have by physically hurting his new best friend."
"Yuto, there you are!"
As though summoned by some divine stage cue, Yuya appeared in front of them. Yuzu panicked for a second, believing he'd heard her, but it became quickly apparently that he was out of breath and had clearly come running right up to them when he saw Yuto, rather than been eavesdropping.
"Yuto, Crow's been looking everywhere for you!" Yuya told the boy in question, looking like he'd run up and down the slope several times looking for Yuto "You just left him with Kurosaki and Ruri with no warning!"
"Oh" Yuto rubbing his eyes, his joints creaking as he got into a position where he could stand up from "I'm sorry, I guess I lost track of time. Is he still with them?"
"Er…I don't think so" Yuya had to think about it "I saw them with Yugo when I came up here."
Yuto stared at him, alarmed. "They're with Yugo?"
"Yeah, at the bottom of the slope" Yuya told him.
Yuto immediately jumped to his feet, pushing past Yuya as he made to run down the steep mountainside, having forgotten his skis. Yuzu wasn't sure if it was the knowledge that the group's most notorious prankster (besides Sora) was minding his two hungover friends that worried him, or it was the knowledge that the boy who had had essentially murdered him once already (for getting his name wrong no less) was minding his two hungover friends.
"Did Crow really leave the Kurosakis with Yugo?" Yuzu asked her boyfriend once Yuto was out of sight.
"With Yugo…and Rin" Yuya confessed "I just wanted to see him sweat. He kept me awake with his party last night. Good going for you, heading to bed early."
Yuzu looked down at the ground, unable to meet his eyes. "That wasn't good going. That was me being an idiot."
"No, I was the idiot" Yuya confessed "Dennis has been playing an angle since he got here, and he's been using me for it. Yuri tried to wake me up to it, but I had to see it with my own two eyes before I realised. I'm just glad he didn't push us apart even further." He knelt down in front of Yuzu and lifted her chin with his finger so he could look into her eyes. "I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?"
Yuzu wiped her eyes, though she wasn't crying yet. "Only if you can forgive me for taking my insecurities out on you."
"Insecurities?" Yuya stared at her, obviously not expecting that answer "Wait, you thought I was flirting back?"
Yuzu now felt pretty embarrassed. Yeah, the thought had crossed her mind for a while. It sounds so stupid now Yuya was right here, talking to her.
"God, I'm so stupid" she almost laughed at her own idiocy.
"For thinking I would leave you for Dennis? Yeah, there's no excuse for that. That was just plain stupid" Yuya told her.
They both found themselves laughing, feeling lighter than air now they had cleared the air between them. Feeling slightly lightheaded, Yuya sat next to Yuzu, them both putting their arms around each other and curling up like kittens until they were just a heap of tangled limbs and bright smiles.
"We're both stupid" Yuzu admitted "I thought when you became an adult all that immature insecurities stuff went away."
"Hey, you're still seventeen until next month" Yuya pointed out, tapping her on the nose "Legally you're still a child."
"Hey!" Yuzu protested, lightly hitting him on the shoulder, then groaning "Geez, only four years and we've already let a man get between us. How are we going to survive the rest of our lives dealing with each other?"
Yuya mimed think it over. "Hmmm…maybe I need to invest in a fan as well."
"Hey, the fans are my thing" Yuzu told him "Maybe you should start throwing you cards around like ninja stars or something? I'm sure no one's thought of that before."
Yuya scoffed. "Oh no, I could give people paper cuts! Card wouldn't work as ninja stars – Tsukikage would have me hung, drawn and quartered for suggesting such a thing. And besides, that's a complete waste of cards!"
They laughed again, just glad that they could joke together again.
"Hey, I'm still not very good at skiing" Yuya commented "Think you could help me out?"
Yuzu pulled a face like she was annoyed by the question. "I've already had to coach Serena, and she nearly broke every bone in my body from running into me more times than I can count. Now you want me to coach you too?"
Yuya pouted. "Pleeeeeeease?"
Wow, he sounded like Sora.
"Alright" she sighed, detaching herself from the heap so she could stand up "But if you run into me just one time, Yuto's going to have even more braindead people to babysit. That clear?"
Yuya stood up and took a mock bow. "Yes, of course, thy highness. Please, lead the way."
