She stared at him, eyes widening at the way his face shone with happiness when he saw his brother. She had never seen him smile like that before. Everything felt different with him smiling so fully.

"Big brother! I missed you so much!" Takeru yelled happily as he fell into Yamato's arms, hugging him tightly.

"I know," Yamato said. He still couldn't tell his brother that he missed him, too. "It's good to see you."

Sora noticed how his blue eyes shone even brighter. The smile he gave was not one out of politeness but a real one—the one that made his eyes crinkle at the edges. She noticed how the guarded, sullen look of his eyes was entirely gone—all because Takeru had come to visit him over the weekend.

Yamato looked up over Takeru's shoulder, noticing Sora staring at him, her eyes surprised. He raised his eyebrows questioningly.

Sora came out of her trance and smiled sheepishly, shaking her head a little.

"Nothing." She told him.

At the same moment, Takeru broke away from Yamato and hugged Sora around the waist.

"You too, Sora," he said. "I missed you."

Sora smiled fully now and hugged him back.

"I missed you, too, Takeru."

She looked up from Takeru to see Yamato still smiling. That was probably the longest he had smiled and Sora found herself hoping he would smile more—the same real smile that softened his face until there was no hint of the closed-off person he was, the smile that showed the person who would come after her in the dark cave, that showed how much he cared.

She wished she could see him like that more often.

x-x-x

He stared at her, lips pursed, surprised at the way tiny balls of frozen water—snow—could fall from the sky and change her expression from that of seriousness and maturity to one of child-like glee.

She spun around, her face split in a wide grin, cheeks flushed with cold.

"So beautiful!" she exclaimed. More and more snowflakes tangled themselves in her lashes, sparkling on her auburn hair.

"Are you sure you don't need your umbrella?" Yamato asked once again, smiling in her delight. Her typical guarded expression was all but gone, replaced with a mixture of excitement and joy.

"No, I love snow," she said, laughing. Yamato found himself chuckling with her. He couldn't help it. She was intoxicating in that moment.

"But you will be all wet when the snow melts," He warned half-heartedly. He was enjoying this unrestrained, childish side of her.

"Doesn't matter." She shrugged. Her eyes were wide, more alive than usual. Yamato caught himself staring at her, entranced, and looked away sheepishly.

Maybe that was the reason—him looking away—that he didn't see the snowball Sora threw at him a moment later. The ball hit him in the shoulder, splattering in a white, wet mess, and slid down his coat. He stared at it in horror, then looked up to find Sora laughing.

"That was just snow, Yamato," she said placatingly. "I didn't hit you with a missile."

"Missile would be better," Yamato said, brushing off the snow, "At least it wouldn't have been so . . . wet." He tried to sound annoyed but failed as a small smile crept to his lips.

Sora laughed again.

Perhaps, Yamato thought, snow isn't so bad after all.

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A/N: Thanks to my beta reader, you guys are getting this so soon. Your reviews are always welcome - more than welcome. My special thanks to Rayy, AyakiStory, misaki92 and CassandraOTP for taking time to review. And no, Cassandra, they may seem like in sequence accidently but they are just random. In fact the plot for chapter one definitely takes place after chapter 2.

Hope you guys enjoy the drabble. Have a nice day.

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