A/N: Happy Halloween Eve! And happy unofficial birthday to Iwasawa, even though she isn't in this story (or at least chapter). I finally found a good place to wrap this chapter up and I must say, despite the time it took and the fact I'm still not quite where I want to be, I had a lot of fun with it. And it's finally ready! As of a few minutes ago, actually... It's so fresh, I literally only just came up with the title. ^^ Thanks to ZainR for the review!

ZainR: Hah, you're right! Best of both worlds… but now maybe as winter creeps closer, my ski resort arc will thrive! Also, can you believe this time you only had to wait two months? A lot better than twenty, at least. Also, to think you have been on a ski trip before! I should've asked you for writing tips because I barely know what I'm talking about. XD Stay tuned for more laughs and love in this chapter.

Enjoy!

[Chapter 38]: Dinner and a Snow

The lodge was warm and welcoming when they finally returned at a quarter to six. It was starting to get dark, and while Hejjiguchi, Nezumi, and Shiruba were all exuberantly making a point of letting the others know they could go a few more rounds, nearly everyone was pretty much starved. They changed out of all things snow-crusted and reconvened in the café for dinner, squishing themselves into booths. In the window seat across from Hejjiguchi, Ayato stared skeptically at the array of food on his plate. From the other end of Ayato's row, Masuda did the same.

"What…?" Hejjiguchi asked, after swallowing a bite. "What is the 'pizza-and-french-fries' technique, if not very powerful subliminal messaging?" He scarfed down another handful of fries. Masuda just snorted and warmed himself with a mug of hot apple cider.

"Well, I think we've all earned it," Ami said brightly, looking happy as she breathed in the aroma of the pepperoni and cheese slice in front of her. "What a day, huh? And we're all here, having dinner together, in these beautiful mountains, after school hours! At night!" She bounced a little in her seat. "This never happens!"

"Someone hasn't lost any of her energy," Yuri teased out of the corner of her mouth.

Ami beamed from ear to ear. "I can't help it! I'm just so excited!" she said, doing a little dance and flourishing her hands. "I mean, we even have Naoi with us! Granted, he's not paying attention, but…"

"What?" Ayato flicked his gaze over to her. He'd taken a moment to glance out the window, watching three more skiers come down the mountain in the fading light. "No, I'm listening."

"Oh yeah?" Ami listed her head at him. "What'd I just say?"

"That you're excited we're all together somewhere outside of school," he replied matter-of-factly, and rested his head in his hand as he stared out the window again. "It's interesting."

A small sound of understanding from Kurimu. "It must feel pretty strange to not be working right now," she ventured, in that demure but sunny and insightful lilt of hers.

The truth of her statement settled in his chest, made him that much more conscious of the evening's desaturated skies and the majestic mountains that barricaded him from his usual duties. He gradually drew his attention back to the table, taking in the warmth of the café's comforting orange glow.

"Yeah," he conceded, eyes falling to his plate, "strange."

Hejjiguchi raised his drink in agreement. "No one yelling and arguing—"

"No one barking orders—" Masuda added.

Ayato looked up at them, probably more surprised than he should have been. They were a perceptive bunch…

Turning to him, Yuri gave him a playful prod in the shoulder. "I mean, if you miss that, I'm afraid we can't help you there," she said with a grin.

"I'm good, thanks," Ayato said, smirking at her in return. The way that her green eyes sparkled with freedom and triumph, he couldn't help but be reminded even more of the summer afternoons they spent together at her house. This was more or less the same, except farther away.

"Good!" Ami piped up. "Because this week we're having none of that. No fights, just fun with friends. I trust we're at least better company than your dad." She said it with an air of teasing, but there was a hopeful edge to her voice that made Ayato falter.

"Let's just say I'm not exactly wishing myself back home," he said at last.

Ami looked at least somewhat appeased at his answer. "I'll drink to that," she said approvingly, and passed a covetous gaze to Masuda's steaming mug. "Speaking of which, oh my God, Masuda, where did you get that cider?"

Masuda cast a mellow glance over the rim at her. He'd been sipping lazily for the past few minutes and seemed to have reached a state of utmost tranquility. "They were serving it over there at the drink bar. They have hot chocolate too."

"They have—!" Ami exhaled sharply. She shifted a little and peeked longingly past Kurimu towards the bar. There were self-serve stations but a bartender could be seen handing out decadent treats topped with impeccable swirls of whipped cream. "Kurimu, I hate to make you move but I've just gotta get some cocoa—"

"Why don't I go get it for you?" Masuda held up one hand to stop Kurimu from scooting, set down his drink with the other, and began to stand. "I'm the one on the end—"

"And I'm the one already standing," said Shiruba, who was just passing by. He paused at their table and reprised what Ayato assumed was supposed to be his Prince Charming grin. "I'll get you your cocoa, Ami. No need to get up!"

Masuda stood anyway, ignoring the glare that tried to pin him to his booth. "It's no trouble, I already offered—"

Shiruba took a step toward him, keeping his voice light but hardening his gaze as it locked on Masuda's. "Listen, man, I said I'd get it—"

Masuda was the first to break eye contact. Expression deadpan, he set his eyes on something over Shiruba's shoulder.

"Is Nezumi allowed to be smoking in here?" he asked.

With a sudden jolt of indignation, Shiruba whipped his head around and shouted, "MIROU NEZUMI!"

Nezumi jumped out of his seat with a start, raising both hands in the air as a show of innocence. He'd been talking to Saki, Hisakawa, and Hirohashi in the chairs by the central open fire, which at the moment was the only thing giving off any smoke.

"What! What?" Nezumi blurted, his eyes darting furtively left and right in a search for the trouble he'd caused.

Realizing his mistake, Shiruba quickly whirled back around with a clipped indignant cry, but Masuda had already escaped and was now approaching the bar in swift strides. He growled irritably, but then realized Masuda had left his post and took this as a golden opportunity to swoop in. "So, Ami—"

Ayato tuned him out, peering idly over at the fireplace section. Save for a strange look in Shiruba's direction, Nezumi had recovered from the confusion of the scream and had turned back to Saki. "So," he pressed with an encouraging grin, "you were saying about the, um… sentient gems?"

"Right, so there are four different diamonds ruling over all the planets," Saki explained, while Nezumi propped his elbows up on the end table between them and rested his chin in his hands, "and the pink one is in charge of Earth, which they've been hollowing out in order to exploit its resources, but they also have this gem cluster fail-safe, which – hang on, have you ever seen the movie The Core?"

Hirohashi looked bowled over by her words. "I'm sorry, are you saying this is happening in our world right now?"

"Maybe not, but it could!" Saki waggled a finger at him. "You need to open your mind, Hirohashi! Just because you close your brain off to other worlds doesn't mean they won't still find a way into this one!"

Nezumi stared at her in marked awe. "I would die for you," he said solemnly. (Hisakawa gave a soft smile, looking somewhat charmed.)

Thunderstruck, Hirohashi was clutching at his scalp. "But where's the evidence?!"

"You have to look for it! Like there was this one American guy I talked to last year, when he was a kid he and his dad were camping in the woods in Maine and all of a sudden there was a big purple cloud and a storm and this town appeared out of nowhere!" Saki said emphatically. "His dad got captured by the mayor but the boy escaped, but when he came back with cops, the town was GONE. This all happened twenty-seven years ago, and he—"

"Saki!" Hisakawa's voice rang out in alarm. "You mean to tell me you were in those chatrooms again? Talking to some guy who's pushing forty?! Stranger danger to the max!"

"He never saw his dad or the town again!" Saki continued more adamantly, ignoring Hisakawa as she leaned forward on her palms and looked straight into Hirohashi's eyes. "The cops said it had never even existed! His father's disappearance, a town hidden from view? How do you explain all that?"

Hirohashi's confusion had given way to concern. "A story – it's a story that an old creep made up to impress a pretty teenager! Or just an elaborate dream he had, maybe to cope with the death of his father."

"But how can we distinguish between dreams and reality?" Saki wondered, kicking up a pair of what seemed more like oversized cowboy boots than ski boots to drape her legs over the side of her chair. "What if some of our dreams aren't just dreams but true memories of our pasts? Sometimes—"

She paused, blinked, brightened considerably, and turned her head so her river of yellow hair receded from the end table.

"Wait, do you really think I'm pretty?"

As Hirohashi began to sputter, Ayato rolled his eyes and fixed his focus to the table, a bit guilty for zoning out in favor of Yuri's former friend. Only to realize that Yuri herself had been witnessing the exact same thing.

Shiruba was still talking to Ami and Kurimu, so Yuri covertly glanced at Ayato as he was nonchalantly sipping his tea. "I've never seen her this awake before," she murmured aside to him. "Not outside of gymnastics competitions."

Ayato raised an eyebrow, then looked past her again at the pair still locked in an unusual debate. "Perhaps something about him keeps her mind alert."

"I didn't think she liked dealing with skeptics," Yuri mused. "But she does seem very focused—"

"HOLD ON, shut up, what is that?!" Saki blurted for all the lodge to hear, shooting up out of her chair. There was a hasty clacking of bootsteps as she raced from the fireplace area closer to the drink bar and café, where a television hanging from the ceiling was playing a cartoon's opening theme. "Oh my God TURN IT UP!"

"I spoke too soon," Yuri intoned, causing Ayato to crack a grin. For some reason, Saki's ramped up silliness struck a chord of déjà vu in him as someone obeyed her order and she began to sing along.

"We all live – in a Pokémon world (Po-ké-mon)! I wanna be the greatest—" Saki's voice hit an impressively high note. "—Master of them all!"

"Greatest Master," Masuda echoed as if on instinct as he slipped carefully by with two mugs of cocoa. Momentarily thrown, Saki caught his eye and beamed, and he grinned back at her before carrying the duet under his breath the rest of the way to the booth.

"—in a Pokémon world (Po-ké-mon)! Put myself to the test, to be better than all the rest…"

As everyone waiting at the booth stared at him, Shiruba and Ami perhaps the most pointedly, Masuda set the mugs of frothy chocolate goodness in front of Ami and Kurimu (the latter of whom exclaimed in delighted surprise) and had the sense to look bashful.

"Sorry," he said, still grinning sheepishly through a blush as he edged past Shiruba and sat down. "My brother and I used to watch that show all the time."

Ayato barely registered his words. "I'm starting to think we really have stepped into an alternate reality," he said to Yuri out of the corner of his mouth.

"Never mind that – you never told me you could sing!" said Ami before Yuri could respond. She looked briefly over at Saki, who was cheerfully wrapping up the rest of the theme song, then pointed a finger at Masuda. "Whenever we do Karaoke Night this week, I expect you to go up onstage and share more of that gorgeous voice you've been hiding from us."

Masuda buried a small hesitant sound into his cider mug. "I don't know how you got that from a verse of a Pokémon theme…"

Though Shiruba scoffed in agreement, Ami pouted hugely. "Aw, c'mon! We could do a duet! You already did one with Saki. And I'll have even less luck getting Souma-kun to sing with me."

"Ami, you don't wanna sing with those party-poopers," Shiruba chimed in, crossing his arms. "Y'know, I'm a pretty good singer myself. You should do a duet with me! In fact, maybe the two of us could do karaoke tonight. Or if you're not feelin' it, we could just see a movie or something."

Ayato shared a look with Yuri and tried not to snort. Though for some reason he sympathized with the guy, privately he felt lucky not to have a crush currently melting his brain. He had enough trouble with Yuri as it was, but to fumble and dance for scraps of attention? To be smitten beyond all recognition? The act of wooing was a painfully embarrassing sight.

Ami smiled at Shiruba in a friendly yet apologetic fashion. "That sounds like a lot of fun, Shiruba-kun!" she said, eyes shining. "But I'm afraid we can't do it tonight. Yuri, Kurimu, and I are going to the hot springs later for Girls Night."

As Shiruba's face journeyed through a series of emotions (namely disappointment, contemplation, fascination, nonchalance), Ami's words finally hit Ayato and he turned again to Yuri, hardly bothering to mask his indignation. She matched his raised eyebrows and shrugged her defense.

"Alright, maybe some other time then?" Shiruba said, still trying to look and sound casual and not at all like his imagination had wandered to said hot springs. "I heard there's supposed to be a dine-in movie theater or something over by the—"

"SHIRUBA!" Nezumi pounced on him from the side, nearly knocking him off-balance but seizing his shoulder to steady the both of them.

"Hey! What the—"

"Fujimoto texted me," Nezumi said breathlessly. "He and Takada – they're in the recreation building – the game room has VIOLIN GOD!"

Ayato could almost hear the record scratch as Shiruba's eyes positively lit up.

"NO WAY!" he uttered, and soon he and Nezumi were hightailing it out of the café together, catching up to Hirohashi at the front. He added as an afterthought, "Bye, Ami—!" (The door to the lodge cut it off prematurely.)

"Bye…?" Ami said for only the table to hear, with a half-hearted wave and a bemused smile. She declared, in a rather theatrical manner, before taking a deep drink of her cocoa, "People come and go so quickly here!"

Kurimu giggled at her melodramatic best friend. Masuda and Yuri smiled appreciatively too, but Yuri's faded as some voices picked up in the background and made her glance sideways.

Following her line of sight, Ayato was surprised Saki and Hisakawa hadn't gone with the guys to the game room. He thought he seen Saki linger for a moment because of the episode on the TV but ultimately decide to go after Hirohashi. It seemed that Rumi had stopped her and Hisakawa before they could leave, and now they and a few other gymnast girls were having a conversation that was gradually increasing in volume. Most of the girls looked ambivalent or uncaring except Rumi, whose displeasure was as loud on her face as it was in her voice, which carried across the café.

"—not that bad?! I don't even know how you could fit in the same room as Fujimoto with his big head—"

"So when do you girls want to go to the hot springs?" Yuri asked abruptly, in an obvious attempt to drown out the outside voices.

Ayato twisted his lips and focused on finishing the food on his plate, silently reminding himself not to sulk. He knew she was just hoping to escape, but…

"I was thinking, maybe right after we're finished eating?" Ami offered. "How does that sound?"

"Sounds like you'd be getting into the water less than an hour after a meal, which you've always told us not to do," Hejjiguchi tsked, leaning back against the booth cushion with crossed arms. "Heh! And you call me flighty!"

"I think that's for swimming, not bathing," Kurimu interjected, albeit hesitantly.

Hejjiguchi hummed with uncertainty. "I really wouldn't take the chance."

"Of course you wouldn't," said Ami. "But for me, at the end of a very cold day, there's nothing like a good hot soak in an onsen that has a gorgeous view of the mountains. C'mon, back me up here, Kurimu."

Kurimu smiled apologetically towards Hejjiguchi. "It would feel pretty nice right now," she said wistfully, letting go of her cocoa mug to rub up and down her arms. "Like being submerged in a nice steamy bowl of my mom's chicken soup…"

An enamored grin crept across Hejjiguchi's lips despite himself. "And I'm sure you'd taste delicious, but—OW!" He jolted, glancing over at Ayato in surprise.

Ayato blinked at Hejjiguchi innocently, as if the table hadn't jingled upon impact. "Sorry," he said with a shrug. "Leg spasm."

After all, he was just doing what Masuda had done on the bus. Stopping Hejjiguchi by any means necessary from being too openly flirty with his secret girlfriend, like a good friend should.

But it also occurred to Ayato that Hejjiguchi was going through the same predicament as him, more or less. A reluctance to be separated from the girls, or at least a particular one he'd hoped to spend time with. It was a bit vexing to watch from an outsider's point of view, so he felt compelled to stop it in its tracks.

"Hah, yeah," Hejjiguchi said, his face clearing as he ran with it. "Those do happen after a few hours of exercise. Especially to rookies such as yourself."

Ayato harrumphed. "Now that you mention it, I do think I feel another one coming on…"

"No, you don't," Yuri said casually, and – without thinking about it – placed her hand firmly on his knee. Ayato startled so much at the contact that his leg swung out again and nailed Hejjiguchi in the other shin.

"Hey—!"

"Sorry! Sorry," Ayato blurted out, feeling his face grow hot. And despite the muzzy feeling in his head, he found that he genuinely meant it. Though the true cause of his fierce flush was now sheepishly massaging the offending hand with a blush of her own, having smacked it on the edge of the table in her haste to recoil. He would say something to her if his blood weren't still racing from that knee squeeze.

Hejjiguchi put two and two together. His eyebrows jumped upward and the offense melted from his face as he started cracking up. Within seconds he was laughing so hard that tears sprang to his eyes. It actually dragged out for a while and earned them some looks from the gymnast girls.

Ayato, relieved at the distraction, decided not to kick him again.

After dinner, the group of six was apparently ready to split in half again. Except Ami wanted to invite Jinko along, so she got snagged into a conversation with the rest of the golden quartet ("Masuda, I'm surprised you didn't see where she went! I thought you were keeping an eye on her today…"). Ayato took this as an opportunity and pulled Yuri aside to a corner of the room.

"Alright, I know what you're going to say and I'm sorry," Yuri said before he even let go of her wrist. "It's just—"

"Don't be," Ayato conceded, already feeling guilty about it. "We've been through this before. You deserve to, I don't know, have girl time or hang out with your other friends, or…" He looked away, his nerve slipping away from him with every word. "But we're only here a week, and being away from everything at home, I thought… maybe we could…"

"We'll take advantage of it, I promise. Every day after this." The quiet resolve in her tone made him meet her eyes again. "I miss being with you too."

They both blinked at her words. Ayato felt the heat creeping back into his cheeks.

"I mean, I miss being alone with – when it was just the two of us and we—" She wrinkled her nose. "Shut up!"

Ayato laughed despite himself. "I didn't say anything."

"You had a look on your face," Yuri countered, folding her arms and frowning at him accusingly.

"You were being cute," he said, grinning wider even though he was trying not to. Apparently his filter wasn't working either.

"I was not being cute! I am never cute!"

"You're always cute!" Good God, why couldn't he stop himself? Somebody please stop him!

At that moment, Ami popped up next to Yuri with a big smile. "Hey! Are we ready to go?" she said, looping her arm with hers. She seasoned her smile with a hint of apology as she sent it Ayato's way, but he was secretly just as relieved at the interruption as he was annoyed by it.

Composing herself, Yuri closed her eyes and then gave a wave of acknowledgment. "Ready when you are."

"Great!" Ami cheered, and moved forward to hook Kurimu in her other arm. Before they went off on their merry way, Ami threw a final glance over her shoulder at him and winked. "Try not to miss her too much!"

Ayato's mouth fell open in protest but no sound came out, save for a few barely audible croaks. He reddened in embarrassment, his short-lived gratitude for the girl swinging back towards annoyance. He turned toward Masuda and Hejjiguchi and found them grinning. "What?!"

"Nothing," they said in unison, with twin nonchalant shrugs.

He stared at them skeptically.

"Sooo…" Hejjiguchi said after a beat, rocking on his heels. "Whatcha wanna do…?"

Twenty minutes later...

"Unbelievable," Ayato scoffed aloud. "The girls go take a hot bath but we have to go out and freeze our tails off."

Hejjiguchi had gotten the idea to make a snow fort just outside the lodge. He'd invited Masuda and Ayato to help, and Masuda had agreed without hesitation. Ayato succumbed to not wanting to stay inside by himself despite the warmth of the fire and followed them out into winter's dark chill.

Now he was smoothing the snow as Hejjiguchi had packed it, and in truth the structure was starting to take a respectable form. His first thought when Hejjiguchi had even suggested it was that snow forts were childish, but when Masuda was quick to go along with it, he'd held his tongue.

"What'd you expect up here in the mountains? A tropical getaway? Didn't you know this is white sand from a beach that we're packing?" Hejjiguchi asked, chuckling to himself as he gathered more snow. "C'mon – admit it, Naoi, you're having fun."

Ayato harrumphed, but continued to smooth the surface as he would a clay bowl. "It's not looking too terrible," he said at last.

"Part of that's 'cause Masuda obviously knows what he's doing," Hejjiguchi said, pausing to watch him meticulously scrape at the exterior walls before packing on another armful of snow.

"Loads of experience," Masuda replied without looking up. "Hachihama insists Miyake and I help him make one every year. He doesn't like building things as much as I do, doesn't have the attention span. He prefers knocking them down."

A mental image flashed into Ayato's head of Hachihama cannonballing into a fort as he did the pool last summer, and he couldn't help but laugh.

"Aha!" Hejjiguchi said proudly. "I do believe someone chuckled just now."

"I've seen the kid in action," he responded, keeping his tone as even as the snow.

Masuda smirked appreciatively, no doubt remembering as well. "Yes, Hachihama is… impactful."

"Meanwhile, I can never even remember your real brother's name," Hejjiguchi said with a laugh, shaking his head.

"That's probably because you moved to Akuma pretty much right after he left."

"No, it's 'cause I hear more stories about your roommates than I do about him," Hejjiguchi countered, still keeping a chuckle in his voice. "You and Naoi both. So close-mouthed about the brothers you grew up with." Some sort of unreadable look briefly flashed across his face, then he shrugged and went back to work on the fort. "But what do I care? I've already met the only Masuda who matters."

Masuda faltered, looking surprised and then rather touched, albeit a bit conflicted.

"Oh, don't get me wrong. Chaa and I don't have a strained relationship or anything, it's just…" His expression turned doubtful, then more pensive than usual. "He's just out… living his life. And they're my roommates so of course I talk about them more. But I suppose even before he was gone, I was always closer with them."

Ayato had already been thrown by Hejjguchi's allusion to Hayato, but just as he was tuning back in, Masuda's words once again gave him pause.

Was he crazy or hadn't Masuda mentioned the name Chaa before? It sounded vaguely familiar…

"Doesn't matter," said Hejjiguchi, interrupting his thoughts as he heaved another armful onto the fort. "As far as I'm concerned, you're still the cool one."

Masuda considered this for a moment, before deadpan understanding took over. "Just for having known you?"

"That's how it works," he singsonged.

"Of course…"

Ayato and Masuda shared a glance, shook their heads, and returned to building the fort.

They got through the construction with little to no conflict. Once it was finished and hollowed out, however, there was still the matter of who would crawl inside to test it out. Thinking he was being generous, Ayato had declined the opportunity and offered it to Hejjiguchi, who had dug the entrance himself. The latter swiftly balked at his kind gesture, though, and it somehow turned into an argument.

"No way, I'm not doing it first," Hejjiguchi said, stepping back and putting up his hands. "Once I've got my head under there, you're probably gonna go all Hachihama on it or something—"

Ayato scoffed, though he wondered why he hadn't thought of that. "And why should I trust you? It's not like you're above a little deception—"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Hejjiguchi scowled.

"Don't play innocent—"

"Oh, for crying out loud, I'll go in first," Masuda interrupted, rolling his eyes at the two of them. He crouched down and army-crawled into the opening, muttering to himself.

Once he had disappeared, Hejjiguchi turned back to Ayato. "I just think you should be a little more grateful, man. It was that deception you're talkin' about that helped you come along for this trip in the first place."

"I never asked for your help," Ayato said firmly.

Hejjiguchi raised his eyebrows at him. "But you wanted to be with Yuri, right?"

Ayato stepped back, the statement hitting him like solid ground. What was he accusing him of? A strangled noise got caught in his throat as he fumbled for a response.

"I – that's none of your concern!" he snapped, his frozen cheeks suddenly blazing again.

"Hey, I get it, we've been cramping your style for a while now," Hejjiguchi said in a mollifying tone. "I get it more than anyone. You know that."

A part of Ayato knew this, but for some reason the way he said it still made him feel defensive. "It's different with me and Yuri."

The corners of Hejjiguchi's mouth turned slyly upward. "Is it?" he asked, hunching forward with his arms crossed. "Because it seemed to me there was a little something going on under the table earlier—"

WHUMP.

The snowball dashed against Hejjiguchi's face in an explosion of crumbling frosty white. Ayato glanced back and forth between his target and his empty snow-crusted hand, hardly believing he'd done it. As Hejjiguchi spluttered and scraped the snow out of his face, though, Ayato couldn't help but revel in the rush of adrenaline it had given him. A grin tugged at his lips as Hejjiguchi gawked at him with wide eyes under still-snowy eyebrows.

Soon, Hejjiguchi's shock melted away, and pure mischief took its place.

"Oh, I see," he said, scooping up his own gloveful of snow. "So it's like that, huh?"

Ayato tried to look bored. "If you're going to throw that at me, you'd better make it count. Your girlfriend's watching."

"Huh?" Hejjiguchi checked over his shoulder – and to his credit, realized the ruse pretty fast, but only had time to turn around before the second snowball made contact.

"I guess I am pretty deceitful," Ayato said.

"You're dead is what you are!" warned Hejjiguchi, reeling back his arm.

The snowball came at Ayato quick but he dodged it enough so that it cracked against his shoulder. He ducked behind the snow fort and whipped up a couple more snowballs before hopping up and hurling them in Hejjiguchi's direction. But his foe had already gotten the hang of battle and leaped out of the way, retaliating with three more. Ayato confidently evaded the first one but the second grazed his ear and the third one smacked him in the forehead.

Shaking his hair of the snow, Ayato rounded the fort and grabbed more ammo, and the two of them raced to attack, meanwhile throwing jeers and insults into their arsenal.

"I hope you throw vases better than you throw snowballs!"

"I hope you make a better snowball than you do a joke!"

Faintly, Ayato thought he heard Masuda speak up in the background. "You two better watch where you're going—"

"Excuse me, I'm kind of channeling all my energy elsewhere right now."

"Really? I think the snow is slowing you down."

"You take that back!"

The battle had been a flurry of snowballs and evasive maneuvers until their dance became less choreographed, the two of them flying at and then tripping over each other, and suddenly with a trio of startled yelps they were blundering backwards and sideways into the perfectly constructed fort. The structure collapsed beneath them, burying Masuda in a mountain of snow.

"You idiots!" Masuda roared, sitting up from the wreckage and looking much like an abominable snowman.

Rolling in the snow, Hejjiguchi and Ayato could barely hear him over their howls of laughter.

A/N: (Edit 11-25-21: Preview section updated!)

Until next time! And have a safe and happy Halloween (or end of October)!

~Caroline

Preview:

"We need to make up for last night's separation!"

"Did I ask you?"

"You could stand to be a bit less lovable."

"I want to do it too!"

"Masuda, don't let him get me!"

"Who dares threaten the king?"

"She's a regular people-stealer."

"There it goes again..."

[Chapter 39]: Another Day, Another Snow Fort.