A/N: Welcome to the penultimate chapter of the ski resort arc! Will this class trip go out with a bang or a whimper? Read on to see. Thanks to ZainR for the review!

ZainR: Right? I don't think we've ever seen so many Battlefront members together in the same area, pre-memories! At least not since Ch 6's baseball game. And Yuri has been through so much, in this life and the one before, I shudder to think about what other nightmares she's had... Probably stress dreams, too, going by the situation with her friends. It's a complicated situation, maybe not like Naoi's, but perhaps it's about to get a lot more complicated...

Enjoy!

[Chapter 47]: Just The Two of Us (Part II)

It was a shame Masuda couldn't join them, actually, because the movie they saw ended up being a Detective Conan installment. Ayato had heard him mention it a few times before, and though he had a hard time following along at first, Yuri seemed to enjoy it immensely, helpfully whispering answers to his questions and entertaining him with cute commentary. She assured him that if he liked the crime dramas she'd introduced to him over the summer, he would probably like this.

Lo and behold, she was right, and by the time they walked out of the theater, they were both still discussing the lovable shrunken detective and deciding if Yuri should text Masuda about it to see if he could get Ami to go see it at some point. (Did the theater do re-runs? He and Yuri were kind of hoping to see Inception with them for the dinner movie.)

In fact, when they went to the bookshop next so Ayato could grab the new copy of Kamisama Suzuko, he ended up joining Yuri farther down the manga section and inspecting the numerous volumes of Case Closed. His eyes almost bugged out at how many there were. Still, he liked to indulge Yuri's hidden love of mysteries.

It made sense, really. She liked to tackle projects and sniff out the truth. There wasn't a lot anyone could hide from her, as long as she cared enough to find out. And when she did care, it would drive her crazy until she finally put the pieces together.

That tenacious spirit of hers… No wonder this thing with Hejjiguchi and Kurimu was bugging her. She'd already solved the mystery, and now – now she was waiting anxiously for Ami to finish reading the page.

They returned to the lodge to drop off their bookshop purchases in their respective hotel rooms, then went back outside to enjoy the snow. Ayato genuinely wanted to get in a few more runs on the slope before they left the mountains, and Yuri certainly wasn't protesting the idea. She made sure to tease him on the chairlift on each ride up, though, pretending that every little noise was either a wolf howling or a wire breaking or something coming loose. He made sure to let her know just how funny he thought she was.

(It was nice, though. Just the two of them sitting together. And she nicely did not rock the seat too much.)

With no ridiculous arguments between Shiruba and Masuda to slow them down, their races down the trails went swift and easy. He savored the scenic view of the mountains and forests, the wind rushing through his hair, the competitive grins Yuri threw his way…

It felt too perfect, like this was just one of his dreams. If it started snowing and a road appeared where it shouldn't, then he'd definitely start second-guessing things.

They didn't see Hejjiguchi or Kurimu, but they did almost get mowed down once by the yellow-haired girl and her lavender-haired friend. Lavender gasped out a shaky apology over her shoulder, but Yellow just laughed hysterically and kept going, her mischievous giggles ringing through the trees.

"Imbeciles," Ayato muttered under his breath after they'd skidded to a stop. But Yuri just laughed and watched them go, shielding her eyes from the sun as she tried to get a better look at them.

"They're not from our school, right?" she asked. When he shook his head, she hummed thoughtfully. "Weird…"

Once they'd skied their fill, they finally went back to the lodge for that coffee and cocoa. Ayato liked the contented little noises Yuri would make when she felt toasty and warmed up. Hums and sighs over a nice steamy cup. Her eyes sparkled like the heat was melting away the glaze and frost of the winter within her.

But those were perfectly normal things to notice about a person. Shut up, inner Nezumi.

Fueled from their hot drink break, Yuri coaxed him back outside to make a snowman with her. They rolled a giant snowball for the bottom segment first, then while he started forming the middle, she searched for sticks and rocks for the arms and buttons. Meanwhile, she suggested they could even make a snow fort if they had time and were feeling ambitious.

He snorted, pausing his snowball-rolling. "Another snow fort? This would be the third one!"

"Yeah, but this one would stay up!" Yuri insisted from far away.

"Don't jinx it!"

"I'm not!" she called back. "Do you see Shiruba and Nezumi around here? Do you see Hejjiguchi? No. It'll be fine."

"No, but that's exactly what Ami needs for Hejjiguchi's Bat-signal!" Ayato said. "We build a fort, and he'll come running to knock it down. Problem solved for Ami, at least."

"Look at you! Seeing the bright side of things," Yuri teased. "You're such an optimist."

Ayato laughed as he hoisted the middle snow-segment onto the bottom one. "I don't think I've ever been called that before."

"Maybe our friends are starting to rub off on you," she said, returning with the stick arms.

"Never say that again," Ayato said, taking one of the sticks and pointing its "finger" at her warningly.

She snickered, handing him the other arm. "Put those on. I'll be right back with the rest of him."

"See if you can get him a hat!" he called after her as she walked up the steps to the lodge. "Every self-respecting snow-gentleman needs a hat."

"But then he'll come to life and start singing!" she yelled back.

Ayato cringed and gave the snowman a once-over. "Right – nix the hat, then!"

Fixing the arms into place, he snatched up the "buttons" Yuri had dropped off and made the snowman look presentable. That is, as presentable as he could be when he was lacking a head.

Actually, being headless might add some character to the thing. Ayato circled him thoughtfully, wondering if he could come up with a good backstory for something like that, then ultimately decided to start forming a head for him anyway. He had to have a head in the first place if he was going to lose it.

He was just putting it on the snowman's shoulders when the door to the lodge opened and Yuri emerged, waving a carrot triumphantly in the air. She trekked to the edge of the stairs before tossing it over to him. It was a pretty wide toss, too. He fumbled with it awkwardly but managed to catch it and shove it into the snowman's face. Kind of violent, when he thought about it. Good thing there was no magic hat to awaken him so he could wreak some kind of revenge. But maybe he was thinking too darkly about snowmen…

"What do you think about making him headless?" he called to her, moving to meet her at the front steps.

"Decapitating him?" Yuri said in disbelief. "When I went out of my way to find him a nose?"

"He can still have his head, we'll just keep it next to him!" Ayato argued. He looked over his shoulder, rubbing his chin consideringly. "Or maybe we could just – stick the carrot where his head should be and call it his spine?"

"His spine?" Yuri said, cackling her bewilderment as she started descending the stairs. "An orange spine? What do you—"

There was an unmistakable squeak of boots slipping on wood and slushy snow, and Yuri let out a startled cry as she lost her footing. Instinctively Ayato lifted his arms to brace her fall but she pitched forward and crashed into him, knocking him backwards into the snow. It was not as much of a comfy winter pillow as he would've hoped.

"And that was my spine," he groaned, eyes squeezed shut upon impact.

Her hair fell against him, tickling his face and neck. "Ugh, I'm sorry…"

"Don't worry about it, it's fine…"

It wasn't like she was crushing him with her body or anything. She felt more like a weighted blanket, and very warm. He opened his eyes and immediately found himself peering into green ones, filled with lingering sheepishness and concern. That was enough to make him feel feverish, but there was also the embarrassed little lip bite she did as she grinned down at him.

He turned his sights on the snow that had gotten tangled in her hair, running his gloved fingers through a few strands to knock the clumps free. And then, before he could help himself, brushing them behind her ear.

She parted her lips in surprise, shifting on top of him as she searched his face at the gesture. With that slight shift, he became – very aware of how she had landed, and the position they were in. She was not aware, and shifted again, and he thought if she did it once more just like that, then he might be in very big trouble—

"Doing that in a public space? How bold."

Yuri looked up sharply, and Ayato turned his head as best he could, but he could only see wheels and hooves. Though there was no need – he recognized Masuda's voice, and Yuri pushed off of him and scrambled to her feet, allowing him to do the same. A horse-drawn sleigh had pulled up beside them, revealing their smug detective friend and a giggling Ami, who gave him a playful shove for the comment.

"Shut up!" Yuri snapped, her cheeks a searing red. "I slipped on the stairs."

"You sure took your time getting up, from what I saw," Masuda countered. "Of course, perhaps it could be that we just came at the right time to find you in a compromising position. I'd hate to have interrupted something."

"Oh, aren't you cute? Now I'm glad you missed out on Detective Conan."

Masuda perked up hopefully. "Detective Conan…?"

Ignoring him, Yuri gestured to their mode of transportation. "What's with the horse-drawn sleigh?" she asked. "Pretty romantic, if you ask me."

"Oh, it's strictly business," Masuda replied.

"Strictly business," Ami confirmed, nodding very seriously. "It's for our mission."

"What mission?" said Ayato, having finished brushing all the snow off.

Ami shared a conspiratorial glance with Masuda. They thought it over, then nodded and turned back to them. "I've enlisted Masuda's sleuthing skills for today," Ami said. "He's helping me track down Souma and Kurimu and find out whatever it is they're up to." Completely missing the flash of guilt that crossed Masuda's face when both Yuri and Ayato gave him a look, Ami motioned grandly to their elegant ride. "The sleigh was his idea. He thought if we were going to search this entire resort and then some, we could at least travel in style," she said happily.

Again, Ayato and Yuri gave him a look. Masuda coughed discreetly, clearing his throat.

"So, have you two seen them?" he asked. "Kurimu and Hejjiguchi, I mean? Since we last saw you?"

Shaking their heads, they were about to answer when another voice piped up. "Wait, did you say Kurimu and Hejjiguchi?"

The group turned quickly to see Horigoshi standing nearby with Watanabe, another guy from drama club.

"Are you guys looking for them?" he asked, scratching at his curly brown hair.

Ami almost careened off the sleigh, clinging to its sides as she poked her head out at him. "Yes! Have you seen them?" she demanded, making him reel back.

Ayato scoffed. He figured Horigoshi would be used to her fervor by now.

With a free hand, Horigoshi pointed toward the chairlift in the distance. "I feel like I saw them go up the mountain to ski not that long ago—"

"WHEN?"

Horigoshi jumped back, nearly bumping into Watanabe. "I dunno, fifteen minutes? Half an hour?" he tried, distressed. "We were in the arcade for a while, so I lost track of time!"

"Thanks!" Ami stole the reins to turn the horse around. "Come on, Masuda, let's go!"

"Shouldn't we return the sleigh first? Or park it somewhere?" Masuda said nervously as they took off. "We can't take it up the mountain…!"

Their voices faded off. Horigoshi looked like he was experiencing quite a bit of whiplash.

"Oh, um, by the way, you guys," Watanabe said, pointing behind them. "You might want to take a look at your little snowman there."

Yuri and Ayato pivoted to face Not-Yet-Headless Frosty, and immediately saw the problem.

"What the hell happened to his nose?" Yuri shouted.

"The horse," Watanabe said matter-of-factly. Horigoshi snickered into his hand.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" She punched the snowman's head straight off his shoulders. Ayato was practically in tears from laughing so hard.

"Should I get another?" he asked, gasping for air once he was finished. "Or should we just move on to the snow fort?"

"No, forget the stupid snow. It tried to kill me," said Yuri, snagging his sleeve. "Let's just go to the arcade or something…"

They didn't spend too long in the arcade. It was kind of packed, and Yuri and Ayato quickly realized they were both famished. Nonetheless, they got in a round or two of Space Paradise, and Yuri absolutely terrified him with her aggression on the Mario Kart racing game (he felt bad for anyone who got in front of her when she really went out on the road one day). There was a claw machine game he himself raged at, but they found the other accuracy games with the foam dart and water gun shooting, and he revisited his hidden skills and won Yuri a plush Cyndaquil toy. Then she baffled him with her own shooting prowess and won him a neat pair of ski goggles.

He didn't know if he'd ever use them again (unless they went back up the slope a few more times this evening), but they looked cool. Yuri pulled him into a photo booth before they left and they got pictures together with him wearing them on his head and her hugging the Cyndaquil.

Despite his stomach growling, he couldn't help but admire the pictures as they walked out. "I had no idea we were both so photogenic," he said smugly.

Yuri giggled, and was about to reply, when suddenly the resort shook with a deep, booming shout from the mountains.

"—EY'RE – ATING!"

They both frowned, pivoting toward the mountain and shielding their eyes from the bright but falling sun as they tried to see what was going on. Whatever the person had yelled was hard to make out.

But what followed was much louder.

"EEEEEHHHHHH?!"

The piercing feminine screech rippled throughout the resort like the shockwaves of an implosion. Ayato was pretty sure he heard a rumble of snow, maybe spotted a portion of it moving in the distance. Yuri was so blown back by it that she dropped her Cyndaquil in the snow.

"What was that?" she said, turning to look at Ayato. He shrugged, just as confused as she was.

Not a moment later, they were distracted from the mountain drama as they got bombarded by paparazzi. That is to say, Saki flitted by out of nowhere, squealed a greeting, and snapped a picture as soon as they noticed her. She then blithely proclaimed that she was getting souvenir pictures of everyone before scurrying off towards the gift shop, where Fujimoto was waving at her.

Ayato was surprised the girl hadn't taken a nap in the snow yet (as far as he knew). After that little drive-by photoshoot, he felt like he needed one.

"Well, that was a lot at once," Yuri said, rescuing Cyndaquil from the ground. "Do you wanna go eat or something?"

"Yes," he answered immediately.

Yuri smirked at his emphatic confirmation. "I mean, it's getting late, so Ami might meet up with us soon for the dinner and movie thing—"

"—or she'll forget about that and spend the rest of the day looking for those two." Ayato didn't want to wait around for that. He could smell pizza somewhere, chili, fries, baked goods, more fried things…

"I don't know, Horigoshi gave her a good lead," Yuri said, and her expression changed to a slight frown. "I hope she doesn't catch them at a bad time. They better know how to talk their way out of it."

"Or through it," said Ayato, crossing his arms. "This all needs to come to a head at some point. They've had all week to figure out a smooth, painless way to tell her. At this point, if they don't tell her soon…" He trailed off with a sigh. "Someone else is going to have to rip off that band-aid."

He turned to her, not liking the way she was worrying her lip in guilt, and he tugged gently on her coat sleeve.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go get food."

Yuri managed a smile. "Okay, but next time don't say 'band-aid' and 'food' so close together."

Scoffing in disgust, Ayato shook his head and escorted her away.

They were nearing the entrance to a quaint little café, longingly fixated on the smells that reached out to them, when they heard their names being called by a pair of familiar voices that made them spin around in shock.

"Yuri!" Hejjiguchi said, waving at them. "Naoi! Hey!"

Kurimu was the first to stop and catch her breath. "Have you seen Ami recently?" she gasped out.

Yuri frowned and crossed her arms, possibly because of the sneaking out thing, but probably also because she was starving. "Why?" she asked. "Are you guys avoiding her?"

Kurimu's eyes went wide. "No, just the opposite!" she said. "We—"

"You've been eluding her all day," Ayato cut in, copying Yuri's stance. "And all day she's been searching for you. She's asked us about you twice already."

"We know, we're sorry, and—" Kurimu paused, throwing her hands to her face. "Oh my gosh, is that a Cyndaquil? It's so cute!"

"Isn't it?" Yuri grinned, hugging it to her chest. "Ayato won it at the arcade. I won him the ski goggles."

"Pretty sweet," Hejjiguchi said, whistling in admiration.

"We were at the arcade too!" said Kurimu in happiness. "Souma-kun got me an Eevee!"

That earned her a gasp from Yuri. "Aw, I want to see!"

"It's in our room on my bed," she said proudly.

Hejjiguchi grinned at his girlfriend's gift gushing. "I almost got her a Chao, but I thought it would be a little too on-the-nose," he explained.

"What do you mean by—" Yuri stopped herself and shook her head, quickly sobering as she tightened her grip on Cyndaquil. "Wait, never mind! Stop changing the subject."

"Yeah, I think you two have done enough avoiding for today," Ayato said, backing her up.

"Not avoiding. We're looking for her," Hejjiguchi insisted. "Kurimu and I, we had this whole talk about it, and—"

"We're not going to cover for you guys anymore," Yuri told them firmly. "This secret relationship crap has gone on long enough. The two of you can't keep sneaking around in fear."

Kurimu and Hejjiguchi nodded vehemently. "We know, that's why we—"

"So, it's true," said a quiet, disbelieving voice from behind.

All four of them whirled sharply to face the source. Kurimu's and Hejjiguchi's eyes widened in tandem. "Ami!" Kurimu cried, paling significantly.

Per their luck, the voice could belong to no one else. Ami was standing there, arms at her sides, looking smaller and sadder in her pink winter coat than Ayato had ever seen her. He heard a light thump; Yuri had dropped her Cyndaquil again.

"I made a fool out of myself all day," Ami murmured, frowning down at her red boots. "We looked – I looked for you all over this place! All over these mountains! The entire resort! And Masuda just let me – he just played along! He even rented the sleigh!"

"Ami," Hejjiguchi started, "we tried to find you—"

"No! I tried to find you!" Ami burst out. "I almost spent my whole last day here trying to find you! I wasted my time, I wasted Masuda's time, I… he wasted… no…" She trailed off, hugging her arms around herself and looking like she wanted to cry. "The monkey park, the cocoa, the sleigh ride… he just wanted to make it special for me… and all I could think about was our stupid wild goose chase!"

When she lifted her head, anger flared in her round, glassy eyes.

"But the extent you two went to hide this from me! Sneaking around like this!" she snapped, stamping her foot. "Why would you lie to me? Why would you force Masuda to lie for you? Why would you dump that burden on him? You know how he feels about dishonesty! We were sitting there, stuck on the ski lift, and I was ranting to him about friendship and secrecy for like ten whole minutes because all I could talk about today was you guys! And I know I must've been torturing him because he finally just yells out the truth! He yells the truth for the whole mountain to hear!"

She grew more upset, a faraway look in her eyes like she was reliving it. The booming shout that Ayato and Yuri had heard a while back echoed in his mind, translating much more clearly now. ("THEY'RE DATING!")

"I've never heard him yell before." Ami pressed a hand over her heart, chewing pensively at her lip. Then she frowned up at the others. "Why did I have to hear it from him? Screamed in my ear like that? Why couldn't you just tell me?!"

"We didn't want to hurt you," Kurimu said earnestly, her voice trembling with the threat of tears.

"We knew you had that big crush on me, and that's why you were pushing her towards Naoi last summer!" Hejjiguchi got out in a rush. "We didn't know how to—"

Ami breathed out harshly. "I don't even like you like that anymore!" she shot back, and promptly looked just as surprised at herself as Hejjiguchi did. Her arm fell back to her side and she started wrapping herself up protectively again. "I thought I still did, or maybe I wanted to because it was familiar. I didn't want to give up something I used to be so sure about. But I don't. And even if I did, you're my friends and I love you. Didn't you think maybe I would be happy for you?" Her voice wobbled unsteadily, like a vase about to fall and break. "That part doesn't hurt as much as the deceit."

"Ami…" Kurimu said sorrowfully, her hands clasped against her mouth.

But Ami turned away from her, shock and betrayal thrashing like waves behind her green eyes as they found Yuri's.

"And Yuri, you've been covering for them?" she uttered in disbelief, raising her voice in a way that made Yuri tense up and activated Ayato's defensive mode. "How long did you know about this?"

"How long?" Hejjiguchi blurted out like an idiot. "She freakin' set us up!"

Ayato (and Kurimu, astonishingly) instantly glared at him.

Looking from Hejjiguchi to Yuri, Ami's eyes widened even more, if that were humanly possible. "Is that true?" she asked, her voice small again.

Yuri swallowed hard, unconsciously moving closer to Ayato. "It's true," she admitted. "Ayato was… he was frustrated with how you and Hejjiguchi kept hounding him about Kurimu, and I wanted to help, and I could tell they liked each other, and…"

She trailed off, probably noticing the way Ami's face fell more and more with each second of her confession. Ayato's chest and stomach tightened with worry as he watched Yuri emotionally shrink in on herself, just like she did when Hisakawa confronted her in the hallway.

"She did feel bad about it, you know," he dove in, placing a protective hand on her arm. "She acted like she'd thrown a ticking timebomb into your friendship and it was her job to diffuse it—"

"How did she diffuse it?" Ami retorted, her tone thin and combative. "She didn't do anything! She didn't say anything! Masuda says this has been going on since late September. Yuri's been my friend since October and she hasn't said a w…"

Suddenly her expression changed, as if she'd been struck by a cold, hard snowball in the back of the head.

"Oh my God." She sounded watery, her face slowly filling with horror as she looked directly at Yuri. "Oh my God. It was a distraction."

"Ami—"

"I was so flattered, 'cause I knew about you, what you were like, how you only opened back up to Naoi. It was like a pretty little bird or a deer had come to eat out of my hand," Ami said, laughing bitterly. "And then I felt so bad, not spending as much time with them, but then that was the whole point, wasn't it?" She started to shake more visibly now. "You only became my friend as a diversion!"

"Ami, it's not like that—" Yuri tried to say.

"Yes, it is!" she yelled. "It was!"

Ayato frowned more deeply, wanting to yell back like he did with Hisakawa. But it just seemed harder to do with Ami. He knew her more personally, had class with her, didn't even know how to go about scolding her in this case.

"She wanted to say something to you but she couldn't," he said after a moment. "It wasn't her secret to tell."

"Oh, really?" Ami said snidely, not even bothering to look at him. "It kind of sounds like it's been her secret from the start."

Yuri flinched, and Ayato instinctively ran his hand down her arm, pulling her closer.

Ami's eyes searched all of them as she gave a shaky but determined swallow. "I'm starting to feel a little more sympathy towards Hisakawa right about now," she said coldly. "You know, back in October when the two of you," she pointed at Hejjiguchi and Kurimu, "were driving me crazy with your fighting – what was it, a lovers' quarrel? – I ran into Hisakawa in the girls' bathroom and I talked to her about it. Because my best friend and my crush were arguing and I didn't know who to side with. If I sided with my friend, I might lose my chance with the guy I liked. You know what Hisakawa told me?"

She stared down all of them, hard. Kurimu and Hejjiguchi shifted uncomfortably.

"She told me to sort out my priorities," Ami said, swallowing again. She sucked in her cheeks, biting on them hard. "And that's what I did, because I decided I didn't want to betray my best friend over a boy. Because that's what matters most to me. True friendship."

Yuri dropped her gaze to the ground, to the pitiful Cyndaquil plush lying still in the snow. It was so quiet that Ayato could hear her breath shudder.

"Ami," Kurimu whispered tearfully. Hejjiguchi looked like he was going to be sick. "I'm so sorry…"

But Ami just shook her head, giving a hard sniffle. From the cold in the air, or from tears, or both, Ayato wasn't sure.

"Four months," she said, sucking in another watery breath. "Four months, you kept this from me. All of you. Like… like some big inside joke. You worked so hard to cover it up." She looked at Yuri in disbelief, then Kurimu and Hejjiguchi, before her expression faltered as it fell on Ayato. "I didn't really expect better of Naoi, but…"

He furrowed his eyebrows at the comment, surprised at the sensation that burned in his chest and reverberated in his throat. He hadn't expected to feel so offended by it.

"I thought you were my friends, and… and I can't…" Her face crumpled and she broke into angry tears. "Oh, I can't even look at any of you right now!"

With a heart-wrenching sob, she spun on the heel of her boot and stormed off in the direction of the lodge, quickly breaking into a sloppy run through the snow and slush.

A silence blanketed the remaining group, save for Kurimu's soft sniffles and the whimpers that escaped her muted crying. Hejjiguchi was rubbing her back and shoulder comfortingly, still looking stricken as he stared after Ami. But Yuri just stood there, frozen in place, a distant look in her glazed green eyes. A look Ayato recognized with ease, triggered at least once before by the post-play hallway confrontation last fall.

Leaning down, Ayato carefully retrieved the Cyndaquil from the snow, brushed it off, and handed it to Yuri. As she took it, he caught her gaze. Are you okay? he asked her silently.

She didn't even need to shake her head. Her eyes spelled it out for him. No. I'm not okay.

None of them were okay. Just like up in that mountain, with that scream, something in their friend group had gotten dislodged.

And he wasn't sure if any of them were going to be okay after the fallout.

Preview:

"You missed out on all the action."

"I tried to hold out until the end."

"This is bad, isn't it..."

"He's still going on about that?"

"What are you doing all the way back here?"

"I shouldn't have yelled at her."

"You're my best friend."

"We're sorry for getting you in so much trouble."

"I'm sure this will all blow over soon."

"She has every right to be mad at me."

[Chapter 48]: The Fallout.