Chapter 11

February 16th, 2001

"C'mon, get up." I said to the pile of scarf and grumbling that was layed out on the ice.

"I can't." it responded. "I've died."

"Oh, don't be so dramatic."

"Kiss my ass." it said as it struggled to roll over on the slippery surface.

"I figured you'd be good at this now," I said, squatting and maintaining perfect balance on my skates. "Seeing as we have this season in Canada called winter. You know, it happens for about six months of the year?"

"Yeah, and you know what we we don't have in Iran?" Emmy posed, forcing herself onto her knees.

I shrugged. "Sales tax?"

"Snow and Ice!" she yelled, falling over again. I laughed

"Here, let me help you."

"Don't fuckin' touch me!" she said as she latched on to my arm. "You're gonna make me fall!"

As carefully as I could, I lifted her back up until she could put one skate blade-side-down on the ice. Her ankle wobbled as she put weight on it, but I pulled her in closer to me so she had a more stable footing as her other skate touched the ice again. I don't know if the fact that she was wearing my figure skates had anything to do with her falling on her face so many times, but it was beyond funny, so I didn't mind helping her up each time. I didn't actually figure skate for any competitions or whatever, I just thought they were pretty so I asked for a pair for Christmas, and lo and behold, there was a box of leather-booted, fur-lined figure skates under the tree addressed to me, love my sister.

"I want to go back to Iran."

"Mmm, why's that?"

"Because then I wouldn't have to skate!" she exclaimed, teetering all over and wrapping her arms tighter around my torso as she tried not to fall down.

"Christ, Em, how long did it take you to learn how to walk?"

"The fuck does that have to do with this?!"

"Just balance!" I said, now trying to keep myself from falling over. "And stop squeezing me so hard!"

"No!" she squeezed tighter. "If I let go, I'll fall!"

"Ugh, damnit, Russel!" I yelled, grabbing him and Jaune's attention on the other side of the little seating area.

"What?!" he yelled back, spreading his arms dramatically. "Whachou want?"

"Take this!" I said, holding out my controller. "I can't skate and drive and hold Loser up at the same time!"

"Fuck off, Weiss." Em squeezed into me.

Russel skated over to me, skidding to a stop and showering our legs with snow. Russ was a competent skater, and an even better hockey player. He'd recently joined a league at the Sportsplex, playing centre ice and wearing the number fourteen.

"Take it." I placed the pistol-grip controller into his hands. "Be nice to him, he's brand new."

"I'm always nice."

He skated backwards and away, grabbing the trigger of the controller as he did. The little red radio control car followed him across the ice back over to Jaune, who had my other radio control car with him. I'd gotten the little car, a tenth-scale Lancia 037, for my birthday a couple of days ago and spent literally twelve straight hours building it from the box of parts. It was significantly more complicated but similarly as Japanese as that the little blue truck I'd gotten for my birthday a few years ago, having all independent suspension, fluid-filled dampers and complicated shaft-driven four-wheel-drive. I didn't take any breaks building this one, since I really wanted to play with it. I even bothered to get a portable space heater out so I could paint the clear polycarbonate body shell in the cold.

Now, I'm aware that the 037 is not four-wheel-drive in real life, but the scale version would be pretty much undrivable if it was only rear-wheel-drive like the monster truck. Because with the extra-speedy electric motor and brand-new metal-hydride batteries, the little car could rocket along the road at close to forty kilometres per hour. It became a rosso corsa red blur as it whipped around.

But on ice? Nah, it was just fast enough to keep up with us skating.

"Kay, are you balanced?"

"No!"

"Alright, hold on, you're gonna let me go, okay?"

"NO!"

"It's not feasible to skate like this."

"DON'T CARE!"

I lamented.

"How 'bout you just hold my hand, okay?"

"Ew, no, that's gay." she said, her mitten-covered hand finding mine and vicing down on it. I chuckled, trying to wiggle myself out of her still whole-body grasp.

"Okay, you upright?" she shook her head at my question. I rolled my eyes. "Yes you are, dumbass, now straighten your back."

"I'm gonna fall on my ass then."

"Don't see how that would hurt, with all the extra padding." I jabbed, playfully smacking her butt with a poof of her thick pink snowpants.

"I will kill you in your sleep."

I laughed as she wobbled on her skates, her hand getting uncomfortably tight on mine. I started to glide forward, half guiding and half pulling her along as she struggled to keep her balance.

"Jesus, how uncoordinated are you?"

"This is not natural. God gave us feet so we could walk, not strap knives to."

"Thought you didn't believe."

"I'll believe what I have to when I'm about to die in your a-aarrgh!"

Emerald went down. Her skates just sort of left the ice and left her at the mercy of my favourite force in the universe. Gravity.

"Fuck!"

She hit the ice with a muffled whud, her snowpants mercifully absorbing enough of the impact so she didn't start to cry, again, and she slid to a very ungraceful stop at my feet. Although, not before trying to pull me down with her. I had to spread my skates apart for extra stability as I suddenly had to hold all ninety-nine pounds of Loser up off the ice with only one hand. I barely managed to react in time. A second slower, and I would have become the top of a very painful and unappetizing ice-and-Loser sandwich. But I never let go of her hand. And I think that's why she escaped without a concussion, as me holding her arm taut stopped her shoulders and skull from kissing the frozen surface.

"Holy hell, you're heavy!" I said, trying to not be pulled down.

"Fuck you, I'm exactly how heavy I'm supposed to be." she said, groaning and rolling over. "Excuse me for growing all at once instead of gradually like you. We can't all be perfect."

"I'm glad you think I'm perfect." I smiled.

"I was being sarcastic, asshat."

"I know."

She got on to her knees and sat upright. With my help, we got her back onto her feet and off the ice. I even bothered to brush her knees off for her so she wouldn't have cold wet spots. Such I nice friend I am, having to put up with her foul language.

"Give me real instruction this time, don't just yell 'balance, you're a loser!' at me, okay?"

"Alright, for you I will."

"Thank you." She said with a sarcastic intonation. I resisted the urge to smack the back of her head, since that would probably have made her fall, and since she was still glued to my hand, I'd have gone down with her.

"Okay, all skates have a balance point. Almost in the middle of the blade. On figure skates it's a little more pronounced, since that's where you have to spin from. Just try rocking your ankles a little, and you'll see what I mean."

She followed my advice, moving her feet. "L-Like this?"

"Yeah, you feel where the skates rock? Just behind the palm of your foot? Right around the arch?"

"I guess so?" she wavered, trying to crush my hand.

"Kay, stay on that point, but don't try to focus on it. You'll fall."

"The hell am I supposed to focus on, then?!"

I pushed forward and spun around so I was facing her on the ice, still with her hand in mine. I reached out with my left and captured her right hand and brought both her arms up in between us.

"Me, focus on me. Look at my beautiful face."

"Pfft, that's debatable."

"I will trip you, Emerald. I'm trying to help you and you sling such insults."

"It's haram for girls to compliment each other."

I did my best 'big sister' face, the same one Winter was so famous for.

"No, it isn't, loser, people can compliment each other as much as they want!" I looked over at the boys. "Jaune!"

He looked up from watching the little blue monster truck do donuts on the ice. "Yeah?!"

"Is Emmy cute?!" I yelled. I could feel her clamp down on my hands.

"Yeah, I guess." he said, shrugging.

I looked back to Em. "See? It's fine?"

"As gross as that was, that wasn't my point." she stuck her tongue out at Jaune.

I caught her drift. "Hey Russ!"

He too, looked up from the radio control nonsense they were making.

"What?!"

"Is Jaune cute?!"

"Hella cute!"

"See?" I said, looking back at Em, who had turned beet red. "It's all fine!"

"Thought you were teaching me to skate, not embarrassing me in public."

"I can do both." I lifted one foot as the little red Lancia slid by. "I'm multi-faceted. Now look at me."

She did. But not without visible protest.

"Fine, now what?"

I smiled. "Hold on, and don't lean."

I pushed off with my right foot, gliding backwards and pulling my dear idiot along with me. She was not pleased by the sudden movements, her arms flexing as she tried to do exactly what I told her not to. Another push on the ice made her back straighten, though. I kept my eyes locked with hers so she wouldn't be tempted to look down at her feet. That's how you fall, see, distracting yourself from where you're going. It's the same trick with walking on a tightrope or balance beam. You don't look at what you're standing on, you look where you're going. So I was making sure that Emmy would stay going towards me. Instead of towards the ice. Again.

"Come on, you're getting it." I said, despite her legs not having unlocked yet. "Just look at me."

"We're gonna fall!"

"No, we're not! Look at me!"

"But you can't see where you're going!"

I was getting entranced by her very intense gaze. Man, her eyes were pretty. Such long, luscious eyelashes for someone who didn't wear mascara yet.

"Doesn't matter, if we fall, you'll land in my arms. I'll catch you."

"That's still gay!"

We'd moved away from the boys at this point, leaving them in the centre of the big open ice rink that was Dow's Lake. I'd moved us towards the main canal, intent on dragging her all the way to Chateau Laurier skating backwards, if I had to. They'd seen us go, and quickly caught up with the two RC cars in tow. The old monster truck had surprising traction on the slippery surface, despite only being rear-wheel-drive. The little Lancia, however, shot past us like it was on dry pavement.

"Where do you two think you're going?" Russel questioned, sliding stop next to me before matching my slow pace.

"Right to the end?" I responded, without breaking Emerald's gaze. "Then we'll have some Beavertails."

"Oh, I think we're gonna need the 'Tails before that, Weiss." Jaune said, pulling up on my other side. "If this is your top speed."

"Get fucked, Jaune." Emmy looked at him with fire in her eyes. This was her mistake. "Get fu-aack!"

She tripped, stumbling forward. I tried to skid to a backwards stop to catch her, but her skates grabbed traction as she flailed and bowled forward, slamming into me and pulling us both to the ground. I landed on my back, making my best effort to pull Em into my arms so she wouldn't break anything. I was successful in keeping her safe as she landed on top of me, her arms around my back and mine around hers. We slid to a very compromising stop. She was, well there's no other way to put it, between my legs. It took her a few fumbling moments to realize what she'd done.

"Hey, there." I smirked at her as she shook out her surprise. "Come here often?"

She sputtered a response, her face glowing red. She reached up and grabbed my toque and yanked it down over my eyes, scrambling like a greased weasel to get off of me. I squeezed my legs to keep her in place just for a few extra moments, knowing exactly how angry it was making her. It was hilarious. Well, to me and the boys. Not to Emerald.

"Fuck! Let me go!" she slid back on the ice on her butt. "I didn't mean to do that and you know it!"

She was making a scene. Jaune and Russel were beside themselves laughing, to the point where it looked like they were both in considerable, actual pain. Russel had stopped breathing, clutching his chest with tears streaming down his face, contorted into what was going to surely become a permanent smile. Jaune had fallen to his knees and had to support himself off the ice.

"You sure?" I taunted, wiggling my eyebrows at her. "I mean, you could at least buy me dinner first."

A load of snow hit me square in the face.

"Shut up!"

"Ahh!" I was shocked. "How dare you!"

The audacity of this one. I made the effort to catch her and protect her and she throws snow at my face? This wouldn't do. I twisted my hips and planted my skates back on the ice, pushing myself easily to the snowbank that lined the edge of the canal. I reached down, and loaded up a cunning retort.

"Take this!" I tossed the snowball at her, still on the ice. I missed. "Oh, shit!"

I hit Jaune instead, who couldn't exactly see it coming as he was now on his hands and knees trying to regain his breath. So a snowball to the side of the dome only made it worse, as he fell over and burst out again. I don't know how Russ was still standing through his tears. That boy had knees of steel.

"Sorry!" I managed out through my own whooping laughter.

"Fuck you guys." Emmy pouted, crossing her arms. "I wanna go home!"

I glided back over, and knelt down in front of her. She pouted harder and looked away. I had to wipe the snow and tears from my eyes, having fair difficulty not continuing to laugh at any one of them.

"C'mon, Em. Get up." I put my hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off. I did it again, only harder. "Sorry for laughing so hard and embarrassing you. I'll buy you hot chocolate."

She sniffled, more for effect than for purpose. "You will?"

"I will."

Her pout started to disappear as I picked her back up.

"You'd better."

"I will!"

It took me a moment to get her skateside-down for what must have been the fifth of sixth time in the last ten minutes. She was the least coordinated individual I had ever met when it came to balance. I mean, for darn's sake, I'd watched her scramble up trees without even breaking a sweat, she could do crazy acrobatics and flips off the dock at Jaune's cottage, and was so far the only one of us to ride her bicycle without holding the handlebars. Not that I wasn't trying to learn that. But on skates she was like a newborn fawn, who's leg muscles hadn't developed yet.

"Alright," I said, once she was finally standing up straight. "I won't make you skate, we'll just pull you along the ice. All you have to do is stand still."

"Uh huh."

Jaune skated around to her left side, and I took up her right. I grabbed her by the mitten, keeping her hand in a firm but assuring grip.

"Can you do that?"

"I think so. How far do we have to go?"

I shrugged. "I dunno, it's like, fifteen kilometres."

"Oh, fuck." she sighed. "Okay, I guess."

"Good. Jaune, grab her hand."

Before he could even reach out, she yelped and yanked her left hand away from him. "Ew, no!"

"Emerald Sustrai," I said, rolling my eyes at her. "Number one, he's wearing gloves, and number two, the cooties epidemic ended in nine-eight. Grow up. Hold his fuckin' hand."

I didn't swear often, so when I did, people listened. Emmy shrunk, and with a lot of reluctance, reached out and let Jaune grab her by the left mitten. She made a face. A very pouty face.

"Fine."

"Shall we, then?" I went to move forward.

"Woah, wait." Jaune said, holding us back. "What do I do with this?"

He held up the radio for the monster truck. I looked down at the truck, then up at his radio.

"I dunno, tow it behind the Lancia, or carry it. We have more important cargo to worry about here."

"I'm not cargo!"

"Well, today you are."

"Ughhh!"

She wasn't having it, but I didn't care and neither did Jaune, who reached down and picked up the little monster truck by its push bar, slipping the radio into his pocket and gently retracting the fishing-pole sized antenna.

"Right. Let's go. Jaune, where's your dad?"

"Pfft, I dunno. I left him in the chalet. Probably still getting his skates on."

Then, like magic as most things in my life were, he appeared behind us, scaring Emmy damn near right out of her skin.

"You kids ready to go?"

"We're not kids anymore, Mr. Arc!" Russel said, making an amused face at Emerald's expense.

Jaune's dad laughed. "You kids may be older, sure, but you ain't adults yet. Come back when you've got a mortgage and eight children."

"Ha!" Russ exclaimed, clapping Jaune on the back. "That isn't gonna happen for me any time soon."

"And please, call me Francois. You don't have to keep calling me Mr. Arc, Russel my boy."

"My mother raised me to say please and thank you, sir and ma'am, sir." he said, with the most polite tone he could muster.

Jaune's dad was a very large man, in both height and midsection. I think he was in his early sixties at this point, but I swear he never aged a day over forty-five. Greying hair, bushy, and I'm talking full wildman greying beard, but soft, young-enough face that he was never intimidating, even if he stood six-five and weighed in at twenty stone. Built like a strongman, though. Everything Jaune didn't turn out to be, actually. Stayed thin his whole life. And his chuckle at Russel's little comment was as hearty as you'd expect it to be with a barrel-sized chest like his.

"Oh, my son, you're alright, eh? Let's get to skating, shall we?"

His accent was still strong, mind you, very clearly French, but he used quite a lot of Canadian slang and intonations, with a heavy French accent. He still said 'eh' and 'aboot', as if he was trying to assimilate himself by force instead of naturally. Jaune's accent had long ago gone away and been replaced with the more chunky one we all used here in The Great White North. Although, whenever I heard Jaune or either of his parents speak their native tongue, ugh, my god it was beautiful. Like the red wine of languages. Just enough bite to be interesting, perfectly smooth and absolutely perfect. Unlike Quebec french, which is the meat-grinder equivalent and what we were taught in school. Which Jaune was actually not doing so well in.

So we set off, with Jaune and I pulling Em by the hands as carefully as we could, Russel driving the Lancia along beside us and Jaune's dad bringing up the rear with the boot bag slung over his back. The ice was crisp today, perfect and sheer, like a pond rink. It was late in the day, even, when most normal people would be out skating the national skateway, but it was surprisingly sparse. Which was good, since last time Jaune and I came here with RC cars, we were yelled at by some lady walking the ice that we were being unsafe and were going to hurt someone. Yeah, and she was walking when everyone else was trying to skate around her. So who was really at fault there?

"I really hate skating." Emmy said, quietly and nervously. "This isn't fun."

"You aren't skating. You're panicking and we're pulling." I said, nudging her into Jaune. She squeaked like a rusty hinge in retaliation. "Besides, you wanted to come!"

"I though we were going to the Nature Museum!"

"And we did, didn't we eh?" Francois bellowed from behind us. "This is just a bit of exercise, kids!"

"Thirty kilometres round-trip is not a bit of exercise!" She nervously called back, not daring to look over her shoulder and lose her balance. Though I'm certain we'd have had no problem keeping her upright.

"Hey, you're not even doing anything!" Jaune pointed out, making Emerald pout at him. "You're not exercising! We are!"

We'd picked up a little bit of speed, settling in to a normal comfortable pace along the ice, and with the two of us pulling, Emmy seemed quite light, actually. I mean I was letting Jaune do most of the work with pulling, not because I was lazy, of course. I just figured he was stronger, so he could do more work. Be the man of this family.

"Oh, c'mon Em, admit it." I chided, cheerfully brushing into her. "You're having a little bit of fun!"

"I refuse to comment at the risk of incriminating myself."

"Lighten up, silly. This is the Rideau Canal! How can you not marvel at this engineering masterpiece!"

"Because it's cold and I'm in danger."

"What? No, you're not. There's like… ten inches of ice between us and the water." I looked over at Jaune, who mouthed 'more like seven' at me. I sheepishly grinned back. "We're perfectly safe."

"I'm not worried about falling through, I'm worried about falling down."

"Honey, we're your anchor points. We won't let you hit the ground."

"Don't honey me, Weiss!"

"Oh, I'm gonna honey you for the rest of your life, now. You've trapped yourself."

"And you're gonna wake up with bees in your pillowcase tomorrow morning!"

I dramatically placed a hand to my chest. "You make it so hard to love you, Em."

"I don't want you to!"

Coming from the girl who would take every opportunity to cuddle when we watched movies at her house, and who's sleeping bag would mysteriously slide up next to mine whenever we had sleepovers.

"Somewhere, deep down, I think you do. I think you treasure our friendship, Emmy."

"I'm about to treasure a pair of scissors in your sternum."

And this is when Jaune, ever the mature adult among us, leaned his head around. "What's this about scissoring?"

Emmy let go of my hand and swung around to hit him.

And then fell over.

/…/

As we pulled back in to the subdivision, Francois made an effort to get the van as sideways as possible on the heavily snowed-over road, kicking the clutch in and revving the motor up to break the narrow snow tires free. We all, well except for Em, yelled and cheered our appreciation as he pitched the old van sideways, holding a rather dramatic drift as we re-entered the side street that Jaune lived on. I liked the old Previa, as it was one of many things to us all. It would be the car that all four of us learned to drive stick in, and being the only rear-wheel-drive manual minivan ever made, would also be responsible for my early appreciation for driving.

But the van was more than just another Japanese oddity, it was still a van, and one of the few cars in our circle that could fit all of us. Emmy's parents' old Mercedes was only really a two-seater, Russel's dad's Mazda was positively miniature, and yeah Winter's Catalina was certainly big enough, it drank gas like it was going out of style, so long trips were a no. But the Previa? We could make it almost to New Brunswick without having to get gas.

"Everyone holding on?" Francois asked, checking on all four of us bundled into the vans's rear two rows of seats through the rearview mirror.

Instead of an answer with words, we all just cheered non-descriptly. Except for Em. Who yelled angrily. Francois took everyone's opinion except hers, and started to rock the car back and forth in the snow, fishtailing into the oncoming lane of traffic, much to our amusement. I'm not sure if this was the moment Emmy swore off driving forever, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Just before we reached his driveway, he cranked the wheel to the left, matted the clutch and yanked up on the parking brake. The van pitched fully sideways in the snow, sliding to a halt almost perfectly in line with Jaune's driveway. Three and a half whoops later, we were back in the driveway, the car sputtering out. I sprung for the door, sliding it back and out of the way, jumping out of the van and into the thick unshovelled snow of the driveway, my boots sinking in and snow finding its way into my socks. I wanted to yell but I kept quiet, out of respect for the neighbors. Jaune and Russel followed me out of the van, leaving just Em still in her seat in the very back of the van. I glanced back at her as the boys and Francois made it into the house through the garage.

"Hey, you coming?"

"Y-yeah. In a moment."

She looked a little green. More in the face than in the hair for once. "Carsick?"

"Uh huh."

"Oh. Sorry we encouraged him, Em."

She frowned, waving me off. "Nah, it's fine." she gingerly reached down to her buckle and clicked herself out of the seat, the belt slipping up and back against the wall of the van with a click of steel. Her legs were shaking as she moved down the bench and squeezed out from behind the middle seat, taking my hand and letting me help her down and out. "I'll be fine as soon as I get inside and have another hot cocoa in my hand."

"That's all it takes for you, huh?"

"What can I say? I'm a simple girl."

I steadied Loser and guided her inside, slamming the van door shut again and pulling her towards the warm of the house. There was already a fire going in the family room, Jaune's mother and sister sitting in front of it. Before we'd had a chance, or rather I'd had a chance to de-snowsuit us, Ines had sprung up from her spot on the couch and came fussing over, angrily cussing out her husband. In french, of course. And with my mediocre understanding, I got the gist of what she was saying.

"You are so reckless, Francois, you need to be careful when there are children in the car, especially when they are not your own!"

"It's fine, my little cauliflower, we were having fun!"

I twisted my face up at that, as did both Emmy and Jaune. Russ was blissfully unaware, as he was very poor with his languages other than english. Since Emmy and I used to attend international schools, we had some unfortunate understanding of French slang and pet names.

"Don't you call me that, you villainous boy, you." she said with a playful slap on his arm. The three of us winced. See, she hadn't actually said 'villainous', but at the risk of speaking about Jaune's parents in a less-than-family friendly light, I'll use the literal translation.

"I can show you later just how villainous I can get, love."

All of Ines' ire with her husband vanished, and the short woman seemed to just melt in his arms.

"You know, Weiss and Emmy both understand you, right?" Jaune said, recoiling so far into his coat he became one with it. "And that you two are the grossest individuals in history."

"Oh, honey, hush." his mother said, pulling my scarf and toque off me in one movement. "Did you forget that you're the youngest of eight, dear?"

Ouch, full points to Ines. I watched Jaune shiver all the way down his body, nearly shaking himself out of his cardigan in disgust. Emmy had scrunched up her face and was doing her best 'I'm not here' expression as Russel was still unaware of the situation.

"We're gonna head downstairs, now." Jaune said, grabbing Russel by the sleeve and kicking his boots into the tray. "We'll be up in a bit for supper."

"Okay, you kids have fun!" she said, as if the previous conversation hadn't occurred.

I pulled my coat off and hung it up over Em's on the coat rack, kicking off my snowpants and collecting Em's as well to stash neatly out of the way. We followed the boys into the basement, down the tight staircase into the comfortably semi-finished basement. I liked Jaune's basement. It was a nice place to be in my opinion. The exposed support bars and floor joists were a nice homey feeling, and the drywall only made it halfway around the mostly-open room. The nice thing about his basement was the completely carpeted floor, though. Since it never got as cold as the concrete floors in Russ's fully unfinished basement.

We all flopped down as one on the huge and very seventies yellow couch, which was wide enough for seven people, so the four of us had plenty of real estate. Our bags, left here in the morning, greeted us like loyal pets at the foot of the couch.

"Ahh." I said, letting the warm cotton take me. "Much better. Jaune, your parents are weird."

"Tell me about it."

"At least Russel's parents somewhat get us."

Emmy chuckled, lolling her head back over the back of the couch. "That's because they're so young. They're hip enough to be square."

"Wow that's a dated reference, Em." Russ said, lounging his legs out in front of him. "And they're not that young, what are you talking about?"

"Russel, your parents are the same age as my second oldest sister. And she just recently made me an uncle."

Russ crossed his arms and glared. "Hey. They're just fine the way they are."

"Russ's mad 'cause he was an accident." Emmy chided, bunting him in the shoulder with her foot.

"I was not!" he pouted. "I think I was planned. Sure, they may have been in high school-"

"Junior high."

Russel glared forcefully at Emmy. "High school. And besides, they knew what they were getting into. What do you think they were expecting? A unicorn?"

Jaune laughed. "I dunno, Russ, you're pretty special to me."

Russel's face went pretty red. Em laughed and kicked Russ in the shoulder again.

"Ugh, gaaaay."

"Sh-shut up!" he grabbed at her ankle and tried to shove her off the couch. She yelped as she landed on the foam mattress that was put between us and the television. "I'm not a unicorn!"

I reached over and patted him on the cheek. "Yeah, you are."

I dodged a pillow to the face that hit Jaune instead. This began a very heated and violent pillow fight, with all four of us swinging cushions off the loveseat at each others heads in an attempt to flatten. I would like to say I came out victorious, but that would be a gross understatement. I quickly found myself with Em's head locked under my arm, and I was wailing on her with one of the light blue pillows from Jaune's bed upstairs.

"Let me go!" she pleaded, trying to hit me with one of the seat cushions. "No fair!"

"Fair!" I yelled, smacking her and Jaune in quick succession as he tried to dive out of the way of a barrage of fluff from Russ. "Bow before me!"

"Aaargh!"

"Vive La Revolution!" Jaune yelled, flying at Russel's head with two thick pillows in his arms.

The impact was impressive, sending both boys tumbling to the mattress, Jaune coming out on top with Russ's head firmly smothered in the two cushions. Taking inspiration from this, I let go of Emmy's neck and wrapped both of my arms around her tummy and let my knees drop out and rolled forward, bringing Em with me. I made sure I hit the mattress first and kept her hugged to me as I rotated over, Loser screaming the whole way. We landed on top of the boys, flattening Jaune into Russel and all of us into the edge of the mattress.

This was the end of the fight, seeing as I had quite literally come out on top.

"I yield..." Russel breathed out, the air in his lungs squeezed out like a deflating balloon. "I ye-heeeeild."

"And the rest of you?!" I demanded, propping myself up on Em's back.

"We yield." they said in sync.

"Please get off, you're pushing into my sore spots."

I leaned down over her shoulder. "Oh, am I?"

"Yeah, right into Jaune's shoulder blades, please get off."

"Sounds a lot like your problem. Maybe if you weren't growing so fast..."

"I can't control it!"

I laughed, releasing pressure and stepping off the pile. Em groaned as she pushed off of Jaune, pushing him harder into Russ as she stood up. Russel wheezed again. I helped poor Loser up and we sat back down on the cushionless couch, watching the loose tangle of arms and legs that was the boys slowly uncouple themselves and scooch apart. Jaune coughed and brushed himself off, a chuckle on his face as he got up, cracking out his back. Russ was very red in the face. But I noticed he wasn't angry.

"You guys ready to admit that I'm top dog?"

"Yes, you're the boss." Jaune said, reaching for his backpack for his jammies. I liked his obedience.

Emmy just rolled her eyes, but still smiled. "You're too rough, dummy."

"Hey, I'm just trying to show you that I love you."

"Pfft."

I was shocked. "You don't believe me?!"

"No." She poked me in the face.

"But…. I wrote a song for you!"

"You did what?"

"Yeah!" I got up from the couch, shuffling around to the far wall where, of all things, a piano sat. the old and dirty standup grand had been in the house when they moved in, and they never bothered to move it out of the basement since it weighed like, five hundred pounds. So in the basement it stayed, for now. I slid myself onto the seat sideways, flinging my feet onto the pedals and launching the key cover out of the way. Before anyone had any chance to make any objections, I riffed off a little pentatonic scale rhythm.

"Alright..." I started a little jumpy riff, in G major, banging out a chord progression similar but not identical to Toto's Hold The Line.

"~Emmy, you're my best friend...~" I began, pounding out a flourish in the upper. "~And I'll love you 'till the end...~"

I walked the progression down into a minor.

"~And Emmy, with this decision I send...~" Another spirited riff, back up in the major. "~I'll just say I love you...~"

I paused, winking over at her. She rolled her eyes and tried to roll herself off the couch. Jaune laughed and held her in place so she'd listen. I brought back the minor.

"~And one day, you'll say 'I do'...sinceI'mgonnamarryyouandItreasureourfriendship...~" I sped out, making the boys laugh. "~And I promise, that's true...~"

I came back around to the G major. "~Because Emmy… I...Love youuuuuuu." I slammed out a finale, finishing off with a smokin' hot scale set.

I paused, my fingers on the keys still, holding the last notes as they rung to silence in the basement. I turned, looking to my patient audience. Jaune and Russ seemed to be about four or five seconds away from bursting into laughter and rolling on the floor. Emmy, on the other hand, was quite the opposite, with her arms crossed angrily over her chest, her hood up and a legendary glare fixed on me. I blinked at her, mouthing 'I love you'. Her face twitched. A crack in her armour.

I played the ending arpeggio again, only quieter, and winked at her. The very edges of her mouth twitched slightly upwards. I wiggled my eyebrows at her, desperate to break her mood. She sighed, rolling her eyes at me, and lolling her head back and letting a big smile cross her face.

"Ugh, alright fine, I love you too."

I cheered to myself, spinning around on the piano bench. "Yes!"

I got up and got back over to the couch, jumping over the back and landing right between Em and Jaune, who had somehow got his pyjamas on in the time it took me to play a three-line song on the piano. While remaining in the same room. Boy was good, let me tell ya.

"You two are so gay." Russ teased, poking us both.

"Shut up."

"Takes one to know one." I said, childishly. Russ stuck his tongue out at me.

"You shut up."

We sat for a moment in happy silence, enjoying the heat of the room and the fluffiness of the big blanket Jaune had thrown over us. Russ sniffled, coughing, making me look back over at him. His extravagant and usually dyed hair wasn't today, all matted and faded from his toque. He seemed to be distracted by his own thoughts.

"What's up, buddy?"

He shook his head. "Nah, it's nothing."

"You can tell us."

"You're right, functionally I can, but I'm not gonna."

"Em, taze him."

He jumped backwards as Emmy turned, her fingers out and pointy. "Woah, no need to resort to violence, now."

"Get him!"

"Alright, fine!" he yielded, before Em could reach him. "Back off, and I'll tell you!"

Em retracted, settling down in her seat.

"Okay." I started, putting my arm around Em's shoulders to show I had her on retainer. "What did you wanna say?"

He sighed, looking away.

"I'm moving."

My heart, and judging by their reactions Emmy and Jaune's too, sank like a stone.

"What?"

"At the end of August. Mom found a new job, and since my dad works from home now, they said it's better if we move closer so she doesn't have to drive an hour and a half into Vanier."

"But… what about school?"

"Canterbury."

A weight lifted from my shoulders. "Oh, shit, I thought you were leaving Ottawa."

It took a second to sink into his brain that I wasn't upset. "Oh, f-, no I'm not leaving Ottawa, we're just moving slightly away. It just means I won't be attending SRB with you guys."

"Well, where are you going?"

"Like, Alta Vista. It's kinda far."

"Ah, that's not so bad. Winter won't mind driving us out there. Besides, that's like right near the Science museum, isn't it?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

I reached over and slapped him on the leg. "Well there you go, then. Something we can do as a crew out there. You'll always be one of us, Russ. No matter where you live."

He smiled. "Thanks, Weiss."

"And I'm sure your mom has no problem accommodating you and bringing you to see us as well."

"She did say she would."

"Well there you go, then. See, you're not really moving way. Just somewhere else. You'll still see us on weekends and holidays. Right, guys?"

"Right." Em said, with enough enthusiasm to qualify.

"That's right." Jaune reached over both of us and slapped Russ on the shoulder. His cheeks darkened.

"Thanks, guys."

"We're the best, right?"

"You're the best."

I grinned at him. "Yeah, I know. Now!" I clapped. "On a lighter note, who wants to watch movies and eat popcorn until we're sick!"

Three arms went up.

All was good again.