Me: Man, why hasn't this fic update in a month? Did the author cancel it or something?
Also me: Heheheh... Hi?
If anyone has been following this, I sincerely apologize. I got hit with a HUGE case of writer's block for this chapter, along with a couple of school troubles. But I'm back now, and hopefully the next update won't take around a year and a half. On the bright side, I also updated chapter 1, so you can go and see that too!
I hope you all liked this chapter. I really worked hard on it.
Without further ado, here we go!
Maroshi woke up feeling confused.
His surroundings just felt kinda off. For instance, it was awfully dark. Usually when he woke up, light streamed in through the window of his bedroom, filling the whole room with soft sunshine. Today, the only light seemed to come from the red glow of the campfire.
Wait, campfire?
Oh right.
Maroshi sat up as memories of the previous night came back to him. The meteor shower. The blizzard. And Yukizuki.
Where'd that girl go anyways?
He glanced around the cave. It was a decent size: not super-huge, but certainly not tiny either. In the middle was that fire that was pretty much the only light source. To his left was a large black bin stuffed to the brim with unknown contents. Behind him was the mouth of the cave, showing the raging storm. And in the far back was Yukizuki, surrounded by her Lynkos.
He smiled at the sight of her. This place was unfamiliar, but hey, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. And new things were always best experienced alongside a friend. And while he and Yukizuki weren't technically friends yet, he was looking forward to relaxing with her and doing… whatever one did when trapped in a cave for an unknown period of time.
After a few stretches, he stood up and walked towards her. As he drew nearer, Yukizuki came closer into view. Although Maroshi couldn't see her face since her back was turned to him, he could now clearly hear her giggling as she petted her Lynkos. It was almost contagious. Yup, today is gonna be good.
He placed his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Yuki—"
"—Ack!" The moment Maroshi's hand touched her shoulder, every single one of Yukizuki's muscles tensed up. She attempted to spin around and face him, but she merely ended up tripping on her own feet and falling backwards, sending her surrounding Lynkos in all directions.
"Um… you okay?"
Her face flushed red and she turned away from him. "I'm just fine, thanks."
He extended his hand towards her. "Need some help?"
She didn't answer his question, instead preferring to stand up by herself. "I am so sorry," she said, "I've been in here myself for a while, so I guess I sort of… forgot you were here."
He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "That's fine, girl. No hard feelings."
"Really?" She placed her hands on her chest. "Thank goodness."
Okay, so maybe things weren't perfect. Yukizuki seemed tense, which wasn't good. But she was less tense than yesterday, and given her stated cause, it was probably a temporary affair. Nothing to stress about.
He placed his hand back on her shoulder. "Don't worry, girl. It's like I said yesterday. There's no need to stress."
Yukizuki let out a shaky giggle. "I mean, I don't think yesterday's really the best example of that, considering there was definitely a cause for stress, since you were really sick, and I didn't really know what I was doing. But you know what? Forget about all of that." She made a sweeping gesture with her hands. "That's all in the past! Today is just about you and me spending the day together! No stress!" She grasped his shoulders tightly. "It's going to be super fun and amazing and we're going to have a wonderful time together!"
"That's great—" Maroshi started.
"Wonderful!" she repeated, pulling Maroshi closer and digging his fingers a little bit tighter.
He winced. "Um, Yukizuki?"
His words seemed to snap her back to reality, and she let go of him, jumping what seemed like two feet back in the process. "Sorry sorry sorry! That was a bit strong…"
Maroshi rubbed his sore shoulder. "Again, no need to apologize. I'm fine."
"That's a relief." She said, fidgeting a bit with her hair.
"So, what's next then?"
She snapped out of her nervous trance and snapped her head towards Maroshi. "What's next? What do you mean, 'what's next?'"
"Just that. What's next? I mean, this is super new to me. Thought you'd know what to do."
"Right. I totally know what to do..." She plastered on something that looked like a smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "So then, what's next is…"
The technically-a-smile began to turn into a frown, which made Maroshi frown back. He hadn't meant to upset her like that. "Hey, there's no pressure. If you like we can just—"
"—No!" She thrust her hand forward. "I mean, I do know what to do, I promise! So what's next is…" she paused, eyes darted around from place to place before finally settling on the black bin. "—breakfast! Yeah! Does that sound good?"
As if on cue, Maroshi's stomach grumbled. Oh right. I don't think I've eaten anything since I got here. "I could go for a bite to eat."
"That's what I thought!" She said, slamming her hands on the ground with what was probably a bit more force than the situation warranted. "I'll make something! Then we can have breakfast! Together!"
Together. That sounded good. Maroshi could do together. "Sounds cool."
"Great! I'll get started right away!" She said in a cheerful tone that sounded a little forced. She moved with jerky steps towards the black bin. "Just let me get my trusty pan…" she pulled out a stone slab. "… And I can make the best breakfast ever!"
Her mind seemed like it was elsewhere, so Maroshi felt the least he could do was correct her mistake.
"That's a stone slab."
"Huh?" Her eyes moved rapidly from the slab to Maroshi and back again. "Silly me! Forget that." She said, tossing it behind her like it was nothing. "I meant to grab this…"
"That's a plate."
She gritted her teeth together. "This!"
"I think that's a telescope."
There was a second of silence. A low growl began to escape from her throat. Slowly, it began to build into a scream. "Stupid bin! Why don't you have anything useful!" To punctuate her sentence, she mindlessly pulled out the next thing from the bin and hurled it to the ground with a resounding clatter.
Another pause.
"That was… actually the pan, wasn't it?"
"Eyup."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!" She pulled on her two pigtails "I can't do this here!" She shook her head and looked at Maroshi with a serious look in her eye. "I… I really have to go!"
"Go?" Maroshi looked behind at the mouth of the cave and the swirling grey vortex outside. "Go where? I thought you said we couldn't leave."
"I didn't mean go outside. I just can't do this here."
"Why not?"
"I… just… can't, okay!" her shoulders relaxed and she looked away from his eyes once again. "Look, just stay here, okay? I'll… be right back."
"But—"
Too late. In the blink of an eye, she was gone.
…Okay? Whatever you say, YZ. Maroshi decided to listen to her and stay put. He was sure she had her reasons, even if she apparently didn't feel like explaining them to him.
He watched her drag the bin to a different corner, muttering something under her breath with an annoyed expression on her face.
It was kind of weird the way she just left, though. Maroshi knew that she was upset about the whole not-being-able-to-find-the-pan thing, but running away seemed like a bit of an extreme reaction. Still, he wasn't one to pry. (Besides, if he did, she'd probably just get more upset.)
Still, the situation was a little frustrating, not knowing what was wrong with didn't want her to be so upset; she wanted them to be able to relax and have fun together. But it seemed no. And she kept pulling away, like the way she ran away from him earlier.
Seriously girl. If you want to act all nervous, I'm totally cool with that. But I'm just saying, it would be nice if you told me what's on your mind. Because if I were someone else, I might worry that you, I dunno, were trying to avoid me or something.
Wait…
Are you… trying to avoid me?
As much as he hated to admit it, it made sense. She had mentioned that she was used to being here alone. Maybe she didn't like being around other people.
That explains why she's been acting so frustrated. I guess the problem is…
… me.
That's…
He slouched to the ground, looking downward.
Fine.
Just fine
It's not ideal, but it's fine. We don't have to be friends. We can just… be in here together. And you can do your thing, and I can do my thing, and then we'll part ways and everything will be fine. I'm not hurt at all.
He continued staring at Yukizuki as she finally pulled out a box that she was apparently looking for. Her delight quickly turned to fury upon the realization of something else. (What exactly that realization was, he had no clue).
He tried to ignore the pang in his chest. I shouldn't keep watching this. He stood up and headed towards a different corner. It's not the best situation, sure, but if Yukizuki doesn't want to deal with him, he wouldn't make her.
The unfamiliar wasn't bad. Maroshi knew that well. He was an adaptable person. He'd spent his whole life dealing with pretty much every challenge life has thrown at him, and he'd do the same here. Alone. Which was fine. He isn't even worried about Yukizuki, because if he just played pretend it was like she wasn't even there.
After all, out of sight, out of mind, right? That saying had been one of his guiding principles all of his life. It had never failed him before in shielding him from any kind of hurt. The only problem was that putting in the effort not to think about her required Maroshi to think about something else, but since he was in a cave, there wasn't much to focus on.
I guess there are rocks and stuff, but I'm no expert in those things. But there's gotta be something to grab my attention, right?
He stared into the sparkling cave walls, only to get zero inspiration.
I miss my friends.
The sudden thought caused a sharp pang of sadness to run through him.
In a couple of days, I'll see them again, so there's really no need to get upset. Things were fine.
But Maroshi liked to live his life rooted firmly in the present, and currently the present kind of sucked.
He lay down on the ground and shut his eyes. I just want it to be tomorrow already…
Maroshi didn't remember what he was dreaming about, but he woke up to the feeling of something soft. His first thought was that it was just the fluffy inside of Yukizuki's jacket, but when he opened his eyes, they met with the eyes of Lime Green Lynko.
He smiled at the sight. "Hey fella, what's up?"
Lime Green made no attempt to answer Maroshi's question, and instead jumped back at least four feet.
Ouch. He probably shouldn't have gotten his hopes up, but the second rejection still hurt.
Still, he sat up and looked at Lime with an apologetic expression. "Sorry. Didn't mean to bother you."
Lime Green didn't react. Instead he just stared at Maroshi with an angry expression.
It was unnerving. That kind of glare wasn't the kind of glare you would give just anybody. It was the kind of glare he'd seen Kiazuki give when she was facing off mazzadrills and other monsters.
Even though, most of those times, she was actually pretty terrified and was just trying to cover up her own fear.
Wait a minute…
He took another look at Lime Green's furry body which slightly trembled, and suddenly it just clicked.
"That whole 'tough guy' thing is just a front, isn't it?"
Lime Green froze in his spot, his once intimidating stare now gone.
Maroshi smiled. "Knew it. You're just acting. Because you're scared."
At the word, "scared," Lime's eyes softened, and he looked down bashfully.
Being careful to keep a safe distance, Maroshi scooted closer to Lime Green. "Hey hey, there's no shame in being scared. It happens to the best of us." He reached his arm towards him. "But I swear to you I am one hundred percent safe. Come see."
Lime Green didn't approach Maroshi's hand immediately. Instead, he eyed it suspiciously, his eyes darting between it and Maroshi's eyes.
"It's okay. Take as much time as you need. I don't mind"
Spurred on by Maroshi's words, Lime took a few hesitant steps forward. He circled around him cautiously at first before moving closer to lick the outstretched hand. It tickled, but Maroshi didn't react. After all, he prided himself on staying cool and collected in practically any situation.
"See, LG? There's nothing scary. And all you had to do was come over and say hi."
Lime Green let out a couple of joyful yips and rubbed his head against Maroshi's chest.
"You really are a big softie on the inside, aren't you? Just like Kiazuki." He ruffled the Lynko's soft fur. "You're OK, LG. I like you." He resisted the urge to look in Yukizuki's direction. "I'm glad you like me too."
Lime Green spent a few more seconds snuggling before he turned around and walked away. Normally, Maroshi would've taken that to mean that Lime Green had moved on to something else, had he not turned back briefly and tilted his head in the "Check this out!" manner Wanderer used all the time. It was his cue to follow.
"So whatcha got for me? I bet it's something cool. Which is good, 'Cause I don't have a clue about what I'm gonna do while I'm here. It'll be nice to have someone who's gone through—" he stopped in his tracks when he realized exactly where they were going. It was the corner where Yukizuki was sitting.
Lime Green continued trotting towards her when he realized that Maroshi wasn't following. He turned around and gave him a questioning look, repeating the same "follow me" gesture as before.
Maroshi smiled sadly. "Sorry little dude. I get Yukizuki's your friend and all, but I don't think she likes me very much. It's sweet that you think that we'd get along though." He leaned down and ruffled his fur.
Lime Green, left with messy fur and an unamused expression, quickly shook his head to put his fur back in place. He walked behind Maroshi, pushing his head against his leg in a fruitless attempt to get him to move.
"Sorry dude, but that's not gonna work." He picked up the Lynko and set him gently on the ground. "Listen. I bet she's super nice and all and you want us to be friends, but she's been acting weird and avoiding me and I just don't think she's interested. Besides," he gestured to Yukizuki, who was currently gripping some sort of paper so tightly that the edges were beginning to crinkle. "It doesn't look like she's in the best mood. I'm just gonna stay out of it."
Lime Green looked indignant for a few moments before letting out an understanding mew.
Maroshi smiled. "Knew you'd understand. So what now?"
Lime Green raised his paw in a firm manner.
Maroshi tilted his head. "You want me to… wait?"
Lime Green nodded, a huge grin on his face.
"Can I ask why?"
Lime nodded again, and let out a series of mews that Maroshi couldn't understand.
He nodded back anyway. It probably wasn't anything too important. "You gonna be back soon?"
Lime gave an affirmative yip.
"Go right ahead, then."
Lime Green ran off to do whatever it is he planned to do, while Maroshi was left with his thoughts.
Hopefully Lime's not gone for too long, because I wanna—
Maroshi's train of thought was interrupted by the force of something soft ramming him from behind. He stumbled forward before tripping on the ground and face planting onto the ground.
Ow.
"Maroshi?!" He heard Yukizuki shout.
Maroshi uttered a groan, while Lime Green let out a pleased purr.
"Lime Green?" Her eyes narrowed in irritation. "This is your doing, isn't it?"
Lime Green twitched his ears happily. "Yip!"
"Don't you, 'You're welcome' me!" she stomped her foot on the ground. "I wouldn't exactly call this a favor. What are you even doing?"
Lime let out yet another series of mews as if trying to explain what he was doing.
She facepalmed. "You know what? Nevermind. Could you just get off of him?"
Lime Green an enthusiastic yip and leapt off Maroshi.
Yukizuki let out an audible sigh. "Are you okay, Maroshi?"
Maroshi stood up and rubbed his forehead. "I'm fine, don't worry."
"Good. Sorry about him." She shot a glare at Lime Green. "Although breakfast is just about ready, so at least the timing's good." She held out two plates each with pancakes on them, one green and one blue. "Take your pick, I guess"
At the word, "breakfast", Maroshi's stomach growled again. "Green, I guess."
Yukizuki complied and sat down opposite him. She made sure to keep her distance (Which was just fine, Maroshi reminded himself) and took tiny bites of her pancake.
A thick air of awkwardness settled between them. Yukizuki wasn't saying anything, and Maroshi couldn't start a conversation even if he wanted to.
He shot a glance of Lime Green. See? This is what I was trying to avoid. Can you honestly say that she would be acting differently if I weren't here?
Lime shot a glance back that said… Well, Maroshi wasn't sure what it said, so he just decided to ignore it and focus on enjoying the rest of his breakfast. Lime Green kept pushing against him, trying to get him to say something, but all it really amounted to was a soft thump every couple of minutes, so it was easy enough to ignore.
What was not easy to ignore was Yukizuki's stare, which, while not nearly as angry as Lime Green's previous glare, was still incredibly unnerving. This one wasn't angry, just… Maroshi didn't really know, and didn't really like it either.
He looked back at Lime Green. Hey, what's with the stare? Is she mad or something?
Lime Green looked at Yukizuki and then back at Maroshi. A sly grin spread across his face, and he snuck about behind her.
Uh, dude? I dunno what you thought I was trying to say, but that wasn't it. Whatever it is that you're trying to do, please stop.
Too late. Before Maroshi could say anything, Lime Green charged at Yukizuki. He rammed into her full speed, jolting her to the side and knocking something out of her pocket.
She growled. "Lime…"
"You alright?"
She hoisted herself back upright. "I'm fine." she mumbled. "I don't understand why Lime's acting so…" her voice trailed off.
Maroshi picked up the fallen object. Getting a better look at it, it seemed like the piece of paper that Yukizuki had been gripping so tightly earlier. He tried to read it, but the handwriting seemed illegible. "What's this?"
"Nothing, that's nothing!" Yukizuki said quickly, snatching the paper out of his hands. She clutched it tightly for a few seconds, before seemingly realizing that Maroshi was staring at her and cleared her throat. "I mean, it's really nothing special. Just some plans I apparently made! Arts and crafts! Really nothing for you to worry about!" She tugged on one of her pigtails. "Unless you want to join in, I guess. That would be fine. But if you don't, that's fine too, you don't have to."
Maroshi looked at Lime Green, who smiled at him. Maroshi didn't smile back. Thanks to Lime, Yukizuki talked to him. She invited him to do something together. That was supposed to be good.
But it honestly kind of stung. It was obvious that she was only asking because Lime wanted her to. After all, if she wanted to invite him, then she obviously would've earlier, right?
I'm not gonna force her to hang out with me if she doesn't want to. It's not fair to either of us.
He stared at Lime Green. But if you're gonna to keep trying to push the two of us together, then so be it. I'll settle this right now.
He turned his attention back to Yukizuki. "Listen, you don't have to be polite to me. I'm fine with not being invited."
"Polite?" She leaned forward, moving her hands in wild gesticulations "Where'd you get the idea that I was just being polite? I'm inviting you to make decorations with me because I want to, not because I feel like I have to! In fact, I'm being so not-polite that I insist you join me!"
Huh? This wasn't exactly the direction he was expecting this conversation to go. "No really, it's coo—"
"Insist!"
"Okay, okay!" It was clear at this that she wasn't going to take no for an answer. "I'll join you."
"Yes!" She said in a very loud and cheerful tone. "This'll be great! We'll finish breakfast and then get started!"
"You'll finish breakfast." He corrected.
She raised her eyebrow "What?"
"You'll finish breakfast. I'm already done." He gestured to his empty plate.
"Oh." She looked down at her own plate, which was still practically full.
"Right…"
"Woah."
Yukizuki had just dumped out the contents of the black bin. Which was clearly bigger than it looked, because it held a lot more stuff than Maroshi expected to. A whole extra set of winter clothes. A pile of mostly squeezed-dry treasures. And lots and lots of arts and crafts materials. Even Yukizuki herself looked surprised, like even she didn't know that half that stuff was in there.
"What is all this stuff?" Maroshi asks, picking up a white cardboard tube decorated with tiny blue snowflake patterns.
Yukizuki shrugged. "Nothing special… just some random junk I made to pass the time, heheheh…" She nervously pointed to the thing that he was holding. "Could I… borrow that for a second? I'll swear I'll give it back, I promise."
Still so stiff. He thought. "Sure." He handed her the tube. "If it's just random stuff you made, what are we doing with it now? I thought you said we were doing arts and crafts."
"We are, I promise!" She removed a little colorful circle that's attached to a straw for some reason. "It's just that, I've been inside for a couple of days, and there's only so many craft supplies to go around, so we're stuck having to take apart this old stuff to make new stuff." With that said, she removed what looked like a silvery triangle from the inside of the tube. She examined her work, looking quite proud of herself.
Oh. He guessed that made sense. "Yeah, I gotcha'." he said, making finger guns at her. Whether or not Yukizuki wanted him around, he still sort of promised to help her, so he should probably start taking stuff apart too. But there was just so much stuff around that he didn't know where to begin. "So what do I…"
"Right." Yukizuki handed him back the decorated roll, now free of any other items. "Here, have this back." She grabbed what looked like a cardboard telescope and began taking it apart.
He's quite not sure what he's supposed to do with the tube. Or even what he's supposed to be doing in general. Yukizuki hadn't really done a great job explaining.
He watched as Yukizuki finished taking apart her telescope, her hands shaking. "Okay, that's finished. Now we can finally get started."
"Uh, we're getting started on what exactly?"
"Right right right." She blushed. "We're making confetti poppers. Any experience with those?"
He shook his head. "Nope."
"Shoot. I mean, fine! It's not like experience matters for stuff like this. They're ridiculously simple to make. I can teach you, no problem!"
Her eyes scanned the pile of random junk that surrounded her before picking up a pair of scissors. "Let's see… the first thing you have to do is to cut a slit in this thing. Uh—" she grabbed another pair of scissors and handed them to him. "—You can take these."
"Thanks." He watched and tried to mimic her movements as best he could, and cut straight through the cylinder.
"—Now the important thing to remember is to only cut halfway through. If you cut all the way through you'll have to start all over."
Maroshi looked at his own all-the-way-cut-through roll, before glancing back at Yukizuki's, which was indeed only cut halfway through. Back to his roll, back to Yukizuki's. "So… I wasn't supposed to do it like this then?
Yukizuki gave him a blank stare that confirmed that yes, he did indeed do that wrong.
"No." She said flatly. "No. You're not— you're definitely not—" a snort of laughter escaped from her lips. "That's not how you're supposed to do that—" her voice rapidly devolved into a giggling fit.
For the first time since he talked to her this morning, she smiles. And not a weird, stilted smile. A genuine smile. He wasn't sure why she was giggling, but it felt pretty nice. "What's with you?"
"What? Laughing? I'm not laughing!" She said, laughing. "I wouldn't laugh at another person's mistakes! That would be rude. It's just—" she lets out a few more chortles. "—I remember my first time making these, and I'm pretty sure this exact scene happened to me, practically word-for-word. I was just reminiscing, that's all."
He breathed a sigh of relief. "So, you're not upset with me messing this up?"
She shook her head. "No no no, not at all. Mistakes are just part of the process, right? I have, like so many of those tube-thingies. So I think we should be fine."
She began digging through the pile of stuff, her posture much more relaxed than before.
"…Of course, they're a lot harder to find when you actually start looking for them, but I'm sure that's just due to, like, some optical illusion or something that makes them seem harder to find…"
She was rambling at this point, but Maroshi was too relieved to care.
"…although I guess that's not an optical illusion, more like an… I don't know. What's that thing that makes common things seem uncommon? Or is that the opposite… oh, hey! Here's one!~ Just like I said!" She picked up a lavender object that seemed to function as some sort of rattle. She tilted her head back and forth. "But wait, do I really want to use this? I might end up needing it later." She turns to him, meeting his eyes for the first time. "What do you think, Maroshi?"
He shrugged. "I dunno. What are you gonna need it for?"
"New Year's, of course! What else?" she paused, scratching her chin a bit. "Well I guess it wouldn't be, 'of course' to you, but hey! New Years! Isn't that exciting?"
He shook his head. "Nope." Back on his old moon, time sorta just passed without any divisions into years or anything of the sort. And what would've been New Year's on Hanazuki's moon just sorta passed with very little fanfare. "What's so special about it?"
She gave a melodramatic gasp. "Wha— What's so special about New Year's? What isn't special about New Year's?" She leaned forward with sparkles in her eyes. "It's the time of new beginnings! Change! Seeing the sunshine after a long period of being trapped inside!" she paused again. "I guess that last part doesn't really apply to you, but isn't it obvious?"
"Not at all."
"Really?" She raised an eyebrow. "Well, I guess there's no changing that. But here, it's like, the biggest deal. So big that we have a large all day, all night outdoor festival!"
"You guys stay up until midnight?"
She shook her head "Nope! We stay up all night. We sleep when the sun rises the next day!"
"Wait," He must have heard that last bit wrong. "All night?"
"Yep! All day and all night!~"
"And there's no sleeping at all during that entire time frame?"
She shrugged. "I mean, you're allowed to take naps if you want to, but we all pretty much stay up the whole time."
He stared at her in disbelief "…How? I'd probably get tired after like, the first three hours."
She began counting on her fingers. "Sugar, mostly. There's also a lot of exercise involved, so that keeps us up. Plus, as previously mentioned, we've all been cooped up inside, so it's not like we're super psyched to go indoors." She turned her attention back to Maroshi "We like to dance and play games and stuff ourselves until we're full but not so full that we get tired so at night we can dance and play games and watch the stars!"
"Weird." Maroshi still couldn't imagine staying up for that long. But Yukizuki made it sound fun enough. "Still sounds cool, though. I understand why you're looking forward to it so much."
She nodded her head rapidly. "Yes indeedy! It's the moon's all-time biggest holiday, along with our all-time biggest party! And…" she gave a little excited giggle to herself "…guess who's in charge of planning it this year?~" she said, putting her hand on her chest.
"No clue."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the expression behind her eyes changed into one of shock. "Wha-What do you mean? I thought I made it pretty obvious."
Maroshi shrugged. "I mean, I don't really know who else lives here. Can't guess very well without that info, right?"
"But you do know at least one person who lives here, right?" She repeatedly pointed to herself. "Care to take a guess?"
He shook his head. "Nah. Sorry, but I'm gonna need more info for that."
"How about a hint then? Here's one: The answer is staring you in the face! Literally!" She leaned forward and stared him in the face with wide, expectant eyes.
Maroshi closed his eyes for a few seconds in contemplation. Staring you in the face… That means it's supposed to be obvious, but nothing's really jumping out at me. But wait, she said literally, so that means…
He looked into Yukizuki's staring eyes and the answer just popped into his head.
"OH…"
Yukizuki nodded. "You get it now, huh?"
"Someone named Staring You in the Face?"
Silence. Yukizuki's left eye twitched. "Are you joking?"
"No, why? Was it supposed to be someone named Staring You in the Face?"
She let out a strained chuckle. "Oh my goodness, you're not joking." she laughed another, more genuine laugh. "Well, I suppose I can't fault you on that answer. The reasoning does check out."
"So then, who is in charge?"
She gave him a poke on the forehead. "Me, silly. I'm in charge of the festivities this year."
"Oh." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, that makes loads more sense. Congrats, man! Sounds like a real tough job."
She raised her hands to her face, but her red cheeks still showed. "I mean, it's not like I'm in charge of everything. Other people still have to be in charge of making the food, the music and the really special decorations like lanterns that I can't make. But," she continued, her highlights turning teal, "I do get to coordinate everyone else to make sure everything goes to plan! And I get to make that plan! It's the first big responsibility I've ever had on this moon, and I really want to prove myself!"
Wow. Maroshi tried to imagine himself in that kind of position, with everybody counting on him. He doubted that would go well. He admittedly wasn't all that reliable when it came down to it. Maroshi was really at his best when someone else was telling him what to do.
Still, Yukizuki seemed like a passionate person, and in his experience, passionate people tended to be able to get things done, so he doubted she had anything to worry about.
"I bet you'll do great."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence. I've been pretty nervous lately." her teal highlights began to fade "With everyone counting on me and whatnot… it's the biggest party of the year, and if anything goes wrong, they'll all know exactly who to blame… And I'm here alone this year so I can't exactly ask anyone for help…" Her breathing steadily became more rapid and frantic.
Maroshi recognized this. It was something he dealt with a lot before, with Kiyoshi. In a gesture he'd done probably a million times before, he placed his hands around hers. "Hey hey hey, calm down Yukizuki. Like I said, you're gonna do great. I'm sure the moon residents will love whatever you come up with. 'Sides, you're not alone. I'm here, aren't I?"
Steadily, her breathing slowed. "You're here… right. You are here…"
She started squeezing his hands a little too tightly, but Maroshi held back his wince. "Right. I'll level with ya. Don't know much about planning parties or anything like that, but if you need anything, I'm right here."
"Right…" her smile reappeared on her face. "Thanks for that. Sorry for dropping all that on you."
Maroshi shook his head. "No prob. My best bud Kiyoshi has a lot of anxiety too, so it's nothing I'm not used to."
She grinned. "It's nice to know that you've got my back."
He placed his head on her shoulder. "You know I do. So, what do you need?"
"Well, there's still the matter of the maracas." She picked up the makeshift instrument back off the floor and shook it playfully. "What do you think? Should we repurpose it or keep it?"
"You could probably make a better one. I say we take it apart."
She nodded, and removed the cardboard roll from the rest of the instrument, spilling beads all across the cave floor. "Drat. That'll take a while to clean. But, hey, got the job done! Catch!" She threw him the lavender tube, which he caught easily. "Be sure not to cut all the way through this time."
"Sure thing." He began cutting. "So, your New Year's party. Anything in particular you're looking forward to?"
"Oooh, Good question. Hold on a sec." She grabbed a small rubber band ball, pulling two rubber bands off. "Take one. Now as for my favorite part…" She wrapped the rubber band around the slit. "There's a lot of stuff I love, but I think my favorite parts are when the sun goes down. The lanterns all light up, and sometimes we put color filters on them, so the moon's lit up all rainbow-y…" she heaved a happy sigh. "It's one of the most fantastical things ever. Especially this one mountain, which has got to my favorite place on the whole moon!" She grabbed some glue and tissue paper, and began covering up the top end of her roll, which Maroshi copied. "I really wish you could've come here at a better time, Maroshi. The moon's beautiful when it's not like this."
"I don't doubt it."
"But hey, enough about my moon! What about your moon, Maroshi? I bet it's also pretty cool. And clearly a lot different than mine."
"Different than yours?" He paused for a second. "Depends on which moon you're talking about."
She paused and tilted her head. "Which moon? You mean you have more than one?"
Huh? "What? No, I only had… Oh." He let out a little chuckle and bounced his hand off his head in a self-deprecating manner. "Sorry, I totally spaced. Ya see, I used to have a moon, but then it kinda sorta blew up. So I live on a friend's moon now. I was wondering which one of those you wanted me to talk about. My bad for not explaining better."
"Oh!" Yukizuki chirped. "Yeah, that clears things right up!" She turned her attention back to the confetti poppers. "So what you want to do is move the rubber band to the side so that we can put confetti in, and you should probably trim off some of that tissue paper because it looks a little bulk— wait, what?!"
Maroshi looked up. "What?"
Yukizuki dropped her roll. "What? What do you mean, 'what?' That's a pretty heavy thing to just drop on someone!"
"What, the moon thing?"
"Yes, the moon thing! That's really personal! And sad!"
"Oh." He rubbed the back of his neck again. "Sorry?"
Her shoulders relaxed . "No… don't apologize. I was the one who asked." She grabbed a colorful piece of paper and began tearing it into tiny pieces. "Let's just get started on the confetti."
After those words, the pair fell into an uneasy silence. Did I say something wrong? Maroshi wondered. Is our conversation just over now?
He picked up two pieces of paper, one white, one blue. I don't want the conversation to be over though. We were finally just talking.
He took a deep breath. "Hey Yukizuki, which one?"
She looked up from her task. "I'd go with blue if I were you. White blends in the snow too well.
"That's not what I meant." He responded, discarding the white paper regardless. "I meant earlier, with my moon. Do you wanna hear about the one I used to live on, or the one I live on now?"
"Oh." her eyes lightened up a bit. "You mean I didn't kill the mood?"
Maroshi waved his hand. "Course you didn't. It's like you knew about my whole moon sitch. And it's not even all that much of a sore spot for me anyways." He paused for a second. "Well, it is, but it's not nearly as painful for me to talk as I think you might be imagining it is. No harm done."
"Well in that case…" she twirled her hair in deliberation, "just talk about whatever moon you'd like. I'm not leaning one way or the other.
"Let's just talk about my old moon in that case." It's not like the new one is really mine anyway. He leaned back a bit. "Let's see. My favorite place back home…"
Maroshi didn't really think back about his old home. It wasn't that he didn't care about it; far from it, in fact. His old moon held a lot of happy memories for him. It was just that given the opportunity, it wouldn't be something he would talk about.
Wait no, that wasn't true either. Given the opportunity, Maroshi could probably go on and on about his moon. Maroshi just wasn't one to talk about himself. He preferred to let his friends lead the conversation.
But now that he actually had to, he was having trouble figuring out what to say. Despite the mostly uniform nature of his moon, he still had a hard time figuring out which place was his favorite. There was the flower bed (There were lots of colorful plants there) The miniature beach (Although the waves there were admittedly nothing special.) and loads of other special places like that. He shut his eyes and ran his hand against the cave floor.
Huh? Wait a minute…
Maroshi sat straight up again. "Actually, I think one of my favorite places was a cave kinda like this one.
Yukizuki's eyes lit up. "A cave? Like this one? Really?"
"Yeah."
"That's so cool!" She thrusted her hands to the ground, sending papers flying everywhere. "Whoops! Sorry sorry!" She quickly started gathering up the scattered papers. "It's just, caves are really common here, and I'm really fascinated by how different they can all be. I have to say, though. I was expecting something more… ocean-y."
"I mean, it was underwater. That's sort of ocean-y, right?"
Her eyes widened. "Coooool. I've never been to a cave underwater before, but they've always been on my list of things to see if I ever leave the moon. What's it like there? Is it different from this place? Similar? Both? Neither?"
"Uh… both I guess? It's pretty similar to here, except with a lot more water. And plants. I remember the place being very plant-y. They gave the whole place a nice, relaxed vibe. I remember spending hours there." He shut his eyes, remembering the cool blue walls and the sound of the splashing water. "Good times, good times."
Yukizuki began covering up the other end with tissue paper. "You spent hours underwater? How?" She let out another gasp. "Did you use some sort of magical underwater breathing spell? I'd love to learn it!"
Maroshi laughed. "Sorry but, no. I'm not sure that's even possible. The cave wasn't entirely underwater. I just hung out in the air pockets, took naps, meditated, all that jazz."
"You meditate? I've tried meditating a bunch of times, but it never seems to work for me."
"Really? Maybe you—"
She put her hand up to interrupt him. "Stop. Before you say anything else, when I say I've tried a bunch of times, I mean I've tried a bunch of times. I've moved on to other ways to relax."
"Such as?…"
"Let's see. Journaling's always fun. Helps to get my thoughts out of my head. Or just going out for a short walk. And there's nothing more soothing than just sitting in a cave with a cup of hot chocolate." She suddenly stood up excitedly. "Ooh! Speaking of which, a cup would be delicious right now. I'll go put some on. Want some?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Coming right up, then! Hey Teal!" She called.
Teal Lynko, who had been napping with the Lynkos away from the pile of arts and crafts junk, lifted her head towards Yukizuki. "Rawr?"
"Do you know where the hot cocoa mix is?"
With a roll of her eyes, Teal stood up and began sniffing around the area. She quickly located what was probably a packet of hot cocoa mix and tossed it to Yukizuki.
"Thanks, Teal!~" Yukizuki called back as she caught the packet. "That reminds me! The Lynkos are always a good source of comfort when I'm stressed. Even if they can be a bit of a handful sometimes, I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world!" She poured herself a cup of cocoa. "I wish every moonflower could have this…" with that said, she took a long sip of her drink.
"Oh don't worry, they do"
"PFFFFFFFFFT!" Hot cocoa sprayed everywhere, and Yukizuki entered a coughing fit.
"You okay?"
"Yup!" Yukizuki said between coughs, "Just fine! Totally fine!" She wiped away the tears that were welling up around her eyes. "It burns…" She coughed some more. "I'm sorry, but what? The Lynkos as a species appear on every moon? How? Why?"
Maroshi shook his head. "No no no, you misunderstood me. The Lynkos themselves don't appear on every moon. It's just, on every moon, you'll find little creatures and they'll all be color coded in the exact same ways. Like my flochis."
Yukizuki cocked her head. "Okay? That makes slightly more sense." She began to pour herself another cup of hot cocoa. "But that's still pretty weird, isn't it? I mean, what are the odds that every moon would evolve to have something like that?"
Maroshi shrugged. "I always thought it was just one of those universal constants. Like, I dunno, rainbow goop or something."
"But it makes sense for grass to be a constant. It adapts easily to any environment, and it's pretty necessary for life. Not to mention," She removed her earmuffs from her neck and showed them off to Maroshi. "We glow the exact same colors as moonflowers, right? It's too big to be a coincidence."
"Yeah, but we're necessary for life too, right? So it makes sense, right?"
"Kinda, but not really…" Her forehead scrunched up. "Tell me your flochis." She said quickly.
"Why?"
"This whole thing is going to drive me mad if I don't figure it out. Also, I just like talking with you."
"Okay then. Sure, why not?"
"You meditate?"
"Sure. It helps clear my head."
"Huh." Yukizuki picked up and started shredding yet another piece of paper. "I've tried meditation a bunch of times, but it never seemed to work for me."
"Really? Maybe you—"
"Stop." She put her hand up to interrupt him. "Before you say anything else, when I say I've tried a bunch of times, I mean I've tried a bunch of times. It's just not for me. I've moved on to other ways to relax."
Oh. That was too bad. It would've been fun to have someone else to meditate with. None of his friends ever seemed interested. "What do you do when you want to relax, then?"
"Easy!" She said with a prideful look on her face. "Journalism! After all, nothing says relaxation like ejecting all your thoughts out with a steaming cup of hot cocoa!" Her eyes lit up. "Actually, a cup would be great right now!" She stood up. "I'll put some on now. Want some?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Coming right up, then! Hey Teal!" She called.
Teal Lynko, who had been napping with the Lynkos away from the pile of arts and crafts junk, lifted her head towards Yukizuki. "Rawr?"
"You know where the hot cocoa mix is?"
Teal rolled her eyes, but stood up and began sniffing around the area. She quickly located what was probably a packet of hot cocoa mix and tossed it to Yukizuki.
"Thanks, Teal!~" Yukizuki called back as she caught the packet. She made quick work of pouring the powder into a pot of boiling hot water and stirring the mixture.
"You know, even though they're a bit of a handful, I think the Lynkos are a great comfort as well." She smiled lovingly as poured herself a cup of cocoa. "They're so cute and loving. I wish every moonflower could have them." with that said, she took a long sip of her drink.
"Oh don't worry, they do."
"PFFFFFFFFFT!" Hot cocoa sprayed everywhere, and Yukizuki entered a coughing fit.
"You okay?"
"Yup!" Yukizuki said between coughs, "Just fine! Totally fine!" She wiped away the tears that were welling up around her eyes. "It burns…" She coughed some more. "I'm sorry, but what? The Lynkos just appear on every moon? How? Why?"
Maroshi shook his head. "Nah, you misunderstood me. The Lynkos themselves don't appear on every moon. It's just, on every moon, you'll find little creatures and they'll all have the exact same coloring. Like my flochis."
Yukizuki cocked her head. "Okay? That makes slightly more sense." She began to pour herself another cup. "Still, that's pretty weird. I mean, what are the odds that every moon would evolve to have something like that?"
Maroshi shrugged. "I always thought it was just one of those universal constants. Like, I dunno, rainbow goop or something."
"But plants like rainbow goop. It's pretty much necessary for moon life. Not to mention," She removed her earmuffs from her neck and showed them off to Maroshi. "We glow the exact same colors as moonflowers, right? It's too big to be a coincidence."
"Yeah, but aren't we also necessary for moon life? So it does make sense"
"You have a point, but also…" Her forehead scrunched up. "Tell me your flochis." She said quickly.
"Why?"
"This whole thing is going to drive me mad if I don't figure it out. Also, I just like talking with you."
"Okay then. Sure, why not?"
All things considered, Yukizuki found herself having a surprisingly good time.
Normally, she found it pretty hard to relax around new people and today was no exception. Yet somehow, she had actually gotten her nerves under control enough to relax and enjoy herself.
It really helped that Maroshi was such a relaxed person. Even when she was freaking out, he still remained cool as a cucumber. And his calmness had a way of radiating out of him and making her calm too.
In some ways, it was a little unnerving. How was she supposed to know if she was doing something wrong if Maroshi didn't seem to react to anything? But in a way it was also incredibly relieving. Like she didn't have to spend every second evaluating and re-evaluating every single thing she said. She could just… talk.
And it was fun talking with Maroshi. Or rather, talking at Maroshi. She'd admittedly been leading their conversations. Still, it had been nice to have someone listen to her ramble. And besides, she enjoyed what he had to say in response, even if it wasn't much.
"Yes, but they're not flying, they're swimming. Trust me."
…And even when it made a little to no sense at all.
She shook her head. "But what they're doing is traveling through the air without touching the ground. That's flying!" She punctuated her statement by slamming her palm to the floor. She's most certainly giving this whole matter more attention than it deserves, but she was raised with somewhat pedantic tendencies and a burning need to know exactly how things work.
Maroshi, to his credit, still maintains his relaxed demeanor. "I'm pretty sure flying looks different. And they do sorta touch the ground."
"How?"
He shrugged. "Dunno. They're always up against walls and stuff. Maybe that's how they move."
"Woah, woah, woah, what?" It always confused and fascinated Yukizuki the way people just didn't notice how weird the things around them were until it was pointed out to them. Even the oddest unanswered questions could just slip by people's notice if not subject to scrutiny. "You're saying that you don't even know how they move?"
Maroshi raised an eyebrow. "No, I told you how they move. They swim. You're calling it flying, I guess, but it's not all that complicated."
"Well maybe not complicated, but now it doesn't sound like swimming or flying."
"It's swimming."
"It's not!"
"If you say so." Maroshi shrugged. "Although I don't understand why you care so much."
"I dunno." She looked down into her cocoa. "Natural curiosity, I guess? If I see something I don't understand, I gotta understand it. That's how my brain works."
"Oh. I guess gotta admire your spirit, though." He grinned. "It kinda reminds me of my girl Wanderer."
She cocked her head. "Your 'girl'? Who?"
"Wanderer. She's one of my flochis, but she's kinda different from the rest."
"Different how?"
Maroshi looked around their cluttered floor, quickly grabbing five small decorative pom poms. "The flochis are always together, y'know? Swimmin' around in their little school. But Wanderer's not like that." he demonstrated by separating a pink pom pom from the rest of the group "She likes to go off on her own, do her own thing. Spirited, like you."
"Ahh, hence the name." She glanced at her own Lynkos. They were sleeping right now, but when they were awake, they had a bit of a tendency to make mischief. "Don't you worry that she'll get into trouble?"
"Nah. I mean, I do like to go after her to make sure she stays out of trouble, but I don't really worry-worry."
Maroshi's words brought recollections of chasing after her Lynkos through the snow, trying to prevent them from causing trouble. She had to suppress a groan. "Sounds exhausting."
Maroshi nodded. "Oh, it's incredibly exhausting. I swear, sometimes it takes me all day to find her." He took a long sip of his drink. "But hey, it's all good. My old moon was super chill, which was great and all, but sometimes you need a little zest to add some zing to your life, and Wanderer was great for that. That super-rad underwater cave I was talking to you about earlier? Never would've found it if it weren't for her."
"What about your new moon, though? You still need that same zest?"
The words came out of Yukizuki's mouth almost as soon as she thought them, and she inwardly beat herself up for asking such a personal question. Before she could open her mouth to retract the question however, Maroshi chuckled.
"New moon's super zesty actually. It can be a lot, actually. A lot more people live there, for one, and that means less personal space." his smile slowly began to shift into a frown. "Everyone always seems to be on all the time, and they're always inviting me to hang out to dance or play catch or whatever and I really like hanging out with them, but sometimes I wish that they would just chill out for once and let me be. And that's not even counting the hemkas." He blushed and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Wait, scratch that. It sounds like I'm complaining now. I really do enjoy living there."
She shook her head. "Don't apologize. I get what you're saying. But if peace and quiet time is such an issue, why don't you just tell your friends? I'm sure you guys could work something out."
Maroshi chuckled. "You know, It's kinda funny actually. You see, I didn't tell anyone this was bothering me because until this moment, I didn't realize this was bothering me."
"Wait, really?" He could've fooled me. "The way all that came out I thought that you've been dying to tell someone all that for days."
"Yeah, I've had a ton of conversations like this. It's a bit of a problem. Everyone's always saying that I should express my feelings more, but that's hard when I never really know what I'm feeling most of the time."
"Isn't that the kind of thing meditation is meant for?" Her eyes lit up again. "Ooh, ooh! Or you could try journaling like I do! Nothing prompts a good revelation into the psyche like a good old-fashioned stream-of-conscious word vomit!"
He scratched his chin. "I guess that could work. I'll have to try it." His expression shifted from one of thoughtfulness to one of ease as he looked at Yukizuki. "At any rate, it's nice to talk about this stuff with you. I'm glad that you wanted to be friends after all."
"I'm glad we're friends too!" Yukizuki really was happy that they were friends. She had been doing fine the past couple of days with just her and her Lynkos, but she had forgotten how nice it was to have a companion who she could talk back to.
Wait a minute…
"Hey, what do you mean, 'after all'?"
He shifted in his seat nervously. "Nothing against you, of course. It's just, this morning, it kinda felt like you were going out of your way to avoid me."
What?
Why would he think I was going out my way to…
Yukizuki froze in place and reviewed the events of the day.
"I'm sorry, Maroshi, but I REALLY have to go!"
"I wouldn't exactly call THIS a favor."
"Listen, you don't have to be polite with me. I'm fine with not being invited."
Oh.
That was why.
"Yukizuki you JEEEEEEEEERRRK!"
Maroshi jumped back. "Woah. You okay?"
Drat. She was hoping that scream had stayed in her head. She sighed. "No. I'm sorry… It's just, well, I'm sure you've noticed that I kinda get anxious around new people." she started to wring her hands together. Dang it, Yukizuki, why you'd you have to go and mess up so badly? "I'm just… really really really scared of rejection, and I know I can be a bit intense sometimes, so I try to tone it down so people don't get scared off and it ends up coming off like… that." She pulled her pigtails in front of her face so she could hide behind them. "Ugh. What I mean to say is, I'm sorry I've been so standoffish. I genuinely do want to be your friend."
"We are friends."
Yukizuki peeked through her hair. "Wait, really?"
Maroshi put his hand on her shoulder. "Of course we are."
She let go of her pigtails, but still refused to make eye contact. "Even if I did freak out and made you think that I didn't like you?"
Maroshi gave another dismissive wave. "I'm over it. Besides, none of my other friends are really all that chill, so freak out as much as you want. I'm totally cool with it."
Yukizuki beamed, all her highlights glowing yellow. Without warning, she practically tackled Maroshi in a hug. "Ahhh, Thank you…"
Maroshi beamed back and returned the embrace. "Me too, Yuki. Me too."
After a few seconds, Yukizuki broke the hug, and the yellow glow faded. "That really made me feel better. About a lot of things." She jovially picked up a sheet of yellow paper. "So with that extra energy, let's finish these confetti poppers! They're not gonna make themselves!"
"I'm all for that." Maroshi picked up his own scissors. "So Yukizuki, What's the next step?"
The rest of the day seemed to speed by. The two moonflowers mostly exchanged stories about their homes and their little guys.
They finished the confetti poppers, and eventually moved on to other decorations. Maroshi's first couple of attempts at craftsmaking brought her back to her first blizzard season with her sisters.
And even with his inexperience, they finished a good amount of decorations. More than she would be able to do on her own, that was for sure.
Staring at the pile of complete decorations filled the female moonflower with a sense of pride. Also, tiredness. They had been working all day.
She stifled a yawn. "We got a lot done today, didn't we?"
"Definitely." Maroshi, unable to hold his tiredness back, lets out a yawn of his own. "It really wiped me out though. Wanna hit the sack?"
"I can get behind that idea." She began the task of gathering up the piles of stuff that had accumulated and haphazardly dumping them into her bin. (Normally she would've saved the task for the next day, but she had a guest, and decided that maybe tidying up wasn't the worst thing.)
With Yukizuki's cleanup completed, both moonflowers crawled into their sleeping bags.
"Hey Maroshi?"
"Yeah?"
"I just wanted to say thanks. For being my friend."
"It's no problem."
With those last words said, Yukizuki shut her eyes and was out like a light.
33.5 degrees Celsius is 92.3 degrees Fahrenheit for us American
I think I might've started to tap out towards the end there. But other then that, I'm pretty proud of this chapter!
Please remember to comment if you liked it.
Thanks for reading!
