A Very Riviera Christmas
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Riviera. I have no money--if I actually DID create that game, I would have a lot. I don't even own the Black Feathers... I didn't know you could pick them up... (teary-eyed) Noooo... went through game without a memento of Ledah-kun... (cry, cry, cry)
Warning: Impending shonen-ai! Ein is a pervert! Lots of one-sided Ein/Fia! If you don't like, then run-away-no-jutsu!
"Fia! Fia! Look, Fia, it's snowing!" Lina shouted, bouncing happily as she stood with her hands on the windowpane.
"I can see," the green-haired girl replied. Fat, fluffy white flakes were falling from the sky; there were already a few inches on the ground. It was early morning, and Ein, Rose, and Ledah had been back for two days already. Time had seemed to pass so quickly as Fia and her friends had gotten the angels and the familiar-turned-historian settled back into Elendia, and winter was at last kicking into high gear.
Cierra, monitoring the mugs of hot chocolate over the simple boiler stove, gently fanned the flame on the range. "They should be ready any minute now," she reported with a smile.
"Now remember to wear a jacket if you go outside to play with Gill and Molan, okay?" Fia cautioned, not entirely sure if the fidgeting Lina was paying attention or not.
"Yeah, yeah, Mommy," the carrot-top retorted, sticking out her tongue.
"Why warn her?" Serene, lounging at the breakfast table with a half-eaten loaf of bread in one hand, asked flippantly. "You know Lina, she'll just be a brat and go out in her normal clothes. Then she'll get sick and start fishing for sympathy." Red-faced, Lina waved her fists at the Arc, who stuck out her tongue in response.
"Don't be so hard on her, Serene," Fia pleaded. "She's just a child, after all."
"Stop treating me like a little kid," Lina raged, jumping up and down in irritation.
"Don't get too loud, now," Cierra chided gently, giggling. "You'll wake up Sleeping Beauty." She tilted her head towards the large, plush chair in which Ledah was curled--he'd fallen asleep there last night, the book he'd been reading still open on his lap, and no one had had the heart to waken him just to make him go back to sleep upstairs. His chest rose and fell steadily with the rhythm of his breathing, and his ebony wings spilled out over both armrests, with a few stray black feathers deposited on the floor like seven-inch slicks of oil.
Lina hushed, guilty-faced.
Footsteps made the girls turn; Ein, still wearing the plain white kimono Elendia's residents used as nightwear, and Rose, fully dressed, were coming down the stairs.
"Gmrg," Ein mumbled on his way to the table, still looking more than half asleep.
Rose, yawning and stretching in agreement, caught sight of Ledah and giggled. "He's still not up yet? Wow. And he's always been such an early riser, too..."
Almost as if in response, Ledah shifted in the chair; everyone (even Ein) turned to look, but the black-winged angel resettled and slipped still further into dreams.
The six of them exchanged looks.
"Nuh-uh," Serene said emphatically. "Absolutely no way not happening no. I am not risking his right hook. The man tosses that big-ass spear around like it weighs nothing. NO."
"I don't really know him well enough," Cierra told the others with a shrug. "Waking up someone gently in the morning is too intimate for me to try. It'd just be so awkward."
"I dunno if I could really do it well," Lina said, pulling a face and fidgeting. "And I wanna go play! Can I, can I?"
Fia shook her head. "Well, we can't just let him sleep all day. That isn't healthy."
"Looks like either you or I get stuck with it," Rose commented to Ein, stretching and twisting in ways that would make a professional contortionist purple-faced with indignant jealousy.
"MmmMMMPH," Ein scowled into the table.
"You've known him way longer than me," Rose pointed out, arching one eyebrow and folding back her ears.
"Nrrrk."
"You could wake him without getting him upset."
"Mmmmmmehhhh."
"Either wake him up now or let him wake up on his own in the middle of the day. I have a book to finish writing, Einstein. Sometimes you STILL make me ashamed to have been your familiar."
"Lemmewaykupfrrrst," Ein groaned.
"Hot chocolate?" Cierra suggested. "There's enough in the pot for seven!"
"Bravo, something Cierra can make without massacreing the kitchen," Serene said under her breath, her eyebrows arching perfectly.
"I may not be the world's best cook, but I can turn you into toast," the Scarlet Witch (now looking as though she quite fit the title) warned, pulling her staff from where it rested against the wall and shaking it menacingly. "Want to see me try?"
"Not particularly," was Serene's only response. If the threat frightened her in any way, she wasn't showing it.
Ein extended a hand, making grabbing motions. "Gimme."
"What's the magic word?" Rose asked as Cierra turned back to the pot.
"Gimme please."
"Good enough."
After Ein had been at his hot chocolate for five minutes and Fia had finished helping the still-fidgety Lina into her yellow, fur-lined winter coat, the wingless angel grudgingly stood and headed over to Ledah's chair, managing not to shuffle.
"Oei." Laying a hand on Ledah's shoulder, he prepared to give his friend a shake. "Wake up, sleepy..." Ready to begin, he paused suddenly, frowning.
Perhaps it was a trick of the light. Ein could probably amount it to that. But strangely, he found himself realizing that he could definitely agree with his friends' jokingly terming Ledah "Sleeping Beauty". His golden hair, tousled just from the gentle movements as he shifted his weight from one side to his other, traced soft but wild tufts across his nearly white cheeks, and his lips, parted very slightly, seemed unusually soft. Definitely the light. It had to be. It accentuated how rumpled the crimson cloth of his priest's clothes and cloak were, and the gentle shadows where the left side of his collar was bent between his face and the side of the chair. It glossed over the feathers of his wings, letting Ein see the exact few that were bent out of place and would probably fall out soon. Even for an angel, Ledah shed feathers like crazy.
One hand still kept Ledah's place in the book he'd been reading (he probably had just dozed off in the middle of a sentence, Ein realized with a faint smile), pale fingers slightly curled against the page, which was somewhat bent, as if the angel had meant to turn it before he'd drifted into sleep's embrace. Scanning the text, Ein noticed that once again, Ledah was reading something that the dark-haired young man had never even heard of. He'd always been a bookish sort of man (except for the time he'd lived without emotions, but that of course went without saying), even since the two of them had been children--it was kind of good to see that Ledah was getting that back.
Whether it was the light, or the soft strand of golden-blonde that drifted back and forth lazily as Ledah drew breath, the oddest thought had just run through Ein's mind like a bolt of dry lightning.
He really is beautiful.
But since when, Ein wondered to himself, did he think of weird things like that? And since when did he start getting the bizarre little urge to tease those loose strands of Ledah's hair until they were neat (operative word) again?
I need to adjust my sleep schedule, Ein thought dryly. It's starting to get to my head.
He gripped the shoulder he'd let his hand rest on gently but firmly, and gave Ledah a much softer shake than he'd previously planned. "Hey. Time to wake up."
"Mmn..." Something in Ledah's hoarse, sleepy moan and the way he blearily looked up at his friend out of hooded carmine eyes made the itch to mess with that golden hair a million times stronger. Removing his hands, Ein clasped them behind his back.
"You fell asleep reading, silly. You've gotta start reading in bed if you're going to do this, you know. It's breakfast time already, and it's snowing. Lina wants everyone to go out together, so if you're coming, you'd better get ready quickly." For a moment, Ein wasn't sure if his words had sunken in--Ledah still looked more than half asleep--but after a short pause, the blonde angel sighed, shoved his bangs out of his face, dogeared the page of his book, and closed it.
"Alright." Ein stepped back; Ledah stood up, flaring and resettling his wings. A few of the loose feathers Ein had spotted fell out, drifting lazily to the floor. Ledah's rosary jangled as he shook his head to clear it; Ein was standing close enough that he saw the faint, sharp shiver that ran down the length of the man's body, dislodging two more feathers.
"Yay!" went Lina from the door; Ein saw Fia make a hushing movement out of the corner of his eye, out of respect for the red-clad angel's still-vulnerable state.
Pausing at the stairs, Ledah looked over his shoulder at Ein and the girls. The wingless angel thought for a moment that there was a slight pink flush over the older man's cheeks, but dismissed it as soon as the idea surfaced. Ledah did. Not. Blush. "The next time that happens... someone wake me, please..." Leaving only those words and the feathers on the floor, he headed up.
Serene had headed over to the now-abandoned chair, and had picked up one of Ledah's stray feathers, turning it back and forth between two fingers. "We have really got to do something about this," she said dryly. "He makes a mess almost everywhere he goes. What's the deal with all these freaking feathers anyway, Ein?"
"Is Ledah in molting or something?" Fia asked, pausing in buttoning up Lina's coat.
Ein shook his head. "Nah... angels don't really molt, we just shed all over the place when the seasons change. Our wings' coats have to be warm enough to shield us if we're out somewhere in winter, after all. He'll be getting down feathers in, and then a heavier pinion layer... until then, we'll just have to pick up after him a little more."
"Why can't he pick 'em up himself?" Serene complained, swiping more black feathers off the floor and looking irritable.
"Because it would ruin his image," Rose said nonchalantly, dumping some ground herb into her hot chocolate and stirring it with her swillstick. "It's beneath his dignity and everything. Can you imagine Ledah getting all embarrassed over a couple of little shed feathers?"
"When we were younger, we used to help each other preen," Ein explained, "but he stopped asking after he became a Grim Angel, and wouldn't really take care of himself unless I brought it up. And I didn't want to mention wings after I lost mine, anyway. Malice used to give him a hard time about it, but she could only talk because she spent about an hour shaking or pulling out loose or bent feathers every day. Us guys do not spend that much time messing with our image."
"You used to know Malice?" Cierra asked, intrigued.
Ein made a face. "We kinda did all grow up in Asgard. She was nice when we were little, but she got more violent as she got older. I spent most of my time with Ledah anyway, and usually that meant we were in the library. Malice only went in there to get the books on Ragnarok. Ever since we were kids, the thing you'd hear most out of her was 'I wanna be a Grim Angel!', even though we thought no one could ever become one again." His grimace deepened. "It's kind of sad, when you consider the way things turned out."
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you're feeling sympathy for that little murderer," Serene said flatly, her eyes slitting. "Good riddance, is all I have to say on the subject."
"I can never like her, but I feel sorry for her," Ein replied, sounding defensive. "Hector used her, the same way he used us. And he killed her the same way he indirectly killed your family and friends. It's even worse because of the way he kept on lying to her."
"Even though Ledah almost died because of her." It wasn't a question. Serene's voice grated dangerously on every word.
"That's why I can never like her," Ein retorted staunchly. "If we're done, I need to go get changed. Rose, stop putting catnip in your hot chocolate. It's bad for you." Pulling a Ledah and remaining stone silent, he followed his friend upstairs.
Rose, suddenly crimson, stuck out her tongue at Ein's retreating back and put in another pinch of the dried herbs defiantly.
---
"It's sooooo pretty," Lina moaned happily, skipping around.
In the time it had taken for Ledah and Ein to get changes of clothes and food, about three more inches of snow had fallen, and the fluffy, sparkly whiteness now reached about halfway up everyone's calves.
"Do you want to make snow sculptures?" Cierra suggested, clasping her hands and giggling.
"Or snow angels?" Fia asked, scooping up a small handful of the ice crystals and blowing on them, scattering silver dust in the air.
Serene knelt down and scooped a large handful, packing it tightly between her gloved palms. "Nahh... all that's little kid stuff." She stood, grinning evilly, and lobbed the snow in her hands at Ein, who just barely got out of the way. "Snowball fight!"
"But we've got seven people...," Ein began, looking at everyone uncertainly.
As if in response, Ledah walked over to the side of the house, staring pointedly at his friend with upraised eyebrows.
"Okay... if some people are too dignified to get snow on their hands, then I guess we're good to go," Ein said, giving Ledah a just-as-pointed glare.
"I get Lina on my team," Serene crowed, clapping the younger girl on the shoulder.
"Rose is on mine," Ein replied, linking arms with his giggling former familiar.
After some short deliberation, Cierra joined up with Ein and Rose while Fia stayed with Lina and Serene. The two parties separated, gathered snow into their hands, and launched forward as Ein yelled "go".
To Ledah, there didn't seem to be much point to the mock skirmish other than to get cold, wet, and breathless. Lina pelted those who opposed her with icy missiles, while Fia tried to avoid throwing or being thrown at in the back and Serene's snowballs tended to hit friend as easily as foe. Cierra usually missed, but seemed to be having the time of her life, cheering her teammates on with gusto. Rose, on the other hand, was almost as good a hit as Lina, and Ein's reflexes kept him from getting quite as snowy as everybody else.
Is something so foolish really that much fun...?
Ledah watched with folded arms, leaning partly against the wall so that his wings wouldn't be painfully pressed against the cold of the treetrunk, with more than a little wondering curiosity... at least until one of Serene's wayward snowballs came sailing towards him.
He leaned slightly to one side, stretching out his wing, just in time--the freezing sphere exploded on the wall behind him instead of on his face.
Serene, straightening up, waved. "Sorry 'bout that! I'll be careful!" And in five minutes, she was throwing snowballs in random directions again.
Until a fiercely packed snowball smacked her firmly in the back of the head, sending her facefirst onto the snow.
"Serene, are you okay?" Fia squealed, rushing over to her friend's side.
Sitting up, the last Arc made a face. "Yeah... ow..." She took off her kitty hat and brushed away the snow, looking confused. "But who...?"
"Lina didn't see it," the thirteen-year-old said with a shrug.
Ein, Rose, and Cierra also shook their heads.
Serene looked around suspiciously. No one was around but them, unless you counted Ledah, who had scooted over a few feet as if to attempt avoidance of any more impending snowballs.
"Well, if none of you are gonna 'fess up, then I guess I'll have to POUND the truth out of you!" Arms windmilling, Serene shot still more projectiles towards any and all in her path.
The second snowball clipped her in the side of the head.
"Owww!" she whined, taking off her hat to clean it off again. "Seriously! Who keeps--?"
The answer to her question was a little more clear this time, considering that Ledah was no longer leaning on the wall but standing straight, observing the scene with his usual poker face as he passed another tightly packed snowball from one hand to the other.
"YOU'RE DEAD MEAT, YOU STUPID MEANIE-BUTT!" Serene yelled, winging snowballs at the solitary angel as fast as she could. To her indignation, Ledah adeptly ducked and weaved through the storm of flying snow and ice, making his way from the house to the "battlefield" at the same time.
"BOYS AGAINST GIRLS," Rose announced, joining in with a few snowballs of her own.
"Hey, no fair!" Ein protested. "Two against five? No way!"
"You're both really good, and none of us see why not," Cierra explained happily.
"That was really sneaky anyway," Lina pitched in.
"Ledah is uncommonly skilled for a beginner," Fia admitted.
"You're evil," Ein groaned. Turning to Ledah, who had made his way there without even getting winded, he added, "Show no mercy."
In the end, the snowball fight lasted over an hour in its entirety. Despite all the girls' attempts, Ledah escaped with only a mild scrape where a snowball had grazed his cheek. Even Serene had to eventually admit defeat.
The seven of them piled into the house again, stripping off coats and boots in the entrance hallway. "I'll make some more hot chocolate," Cierra volunteered, placing her battered black hat on the table.
"Great," Serene said exhaustedly. "Bath time."
Ein, who had slumped into a chair at his first opportunity, perked up visibly, but Rose cuffed him on the head. "Don't even think about it. Cierra and I will be here watching you. You're gonna have your chance in there later, as in when the water heats up again, with Ledah after all of us have gone. And you'll be under surveillance every time one of us is in there. Don't think we'll have forgotten all those times at Meute's spring, you peeping tom!"
The wingless angel sighed and laid his head on the table in front of him. "You're mean, Rose."
Ledah, curled up on the floor beside him, turned to his friend with an arched eyebrow. "You really never learn, do you? One would have thought that all those failed attempts at peeking at Malice would have taught you better, but no..."
"Stop picking on me," Ein groaned, what the others could see of his face burning.
---
"Wake up... Ein, you've got to wake up!"
Groaning, he threw up an arm to shield his face, curling up in his makeshift futon.
"I mean it, Ein, it's an emergency!" Fia's voice sounded frantic.
Emergency shmergency. The others had been with him when he'd gone through everything in his quest--they could handle it.
"EIN! Don't be stupid, we need you!" Rose yowled, sounding more catlike than she would've appreciated normally.
His butt they needed him.
"Ein." Ledah's voice was sharp, terse, and anxious. "Wake up. NOW."
Urk. With a slight moan, Ein opened his eyes, shielding his face from the light. "Whassit?"
"The snows just keep getting stronger, Ein... it's a blizzard out there, and when Lina and I tried to get out to check on Grandfather... we couldn't even open the door!"
---
NEXT TIME: Ein learns the perils and the pleasures of being snowed in. Rations are made. Lengthy lectures are told. Beware the bisexual pervert. And did we mention, it's bath time...?