So close to winter break now! I've got a lot of fun things planned- ice skating, and loving family, and a whole lotta heat... I mean, uh... *ahem*

Thank you for reading!

"The last Friday before winter break." Brain fondly remarked, more to himself than Anora. "Which means one last Dandelion meeting before break. Ah man, I'm already so done with it."

"Did you have one last week?" Anora curiously wondered. But Brain shook his head.

"Nah. We all kinda voted to have the day off some time ago. Might have been at the first meeting? Maybe the second? We also talked about not having one this week too awhile back, but Skuld and Lauriam can put up a pretty good case when they want to."

Anora gave a little nod of understanding. A small gust of wind brushed against her face, kissing her with the promise of incoming winter weather. Winter was Anora's favorite season. It meant ice skating, and cozy fires, and very warm cups of hot chocolate after a good 30 minute snowball fight. Brain had shivered at the breeze but didn't directly oppose it. If anything, it made him talk even more as the duo headed toward the main building.

"Have you figured out what you're doing for break?" he asked her. "I didn't want to say it in front of Eraqus, but I really don't want to go home. You know how you get all skittish when there's more than five strangers in a room? Multiply that by at least 2 and a half, and you have my family."

Just the thought made Anora shiver.

"My thoughts exactly." Brain agreed with a nod.

When they got to the front door, Brain signaled for Anora to wait a moment she he could hold it for her. She gave him a rather sheepish nod in passing as thanks. Brain tipped his fedora at her slightly in acknowledgment before closing the door behind them.

"If you don't mind me doing it," he went on as they continued their trek to the Dandelion clubroom, "I'd really like to use you as an excuse not to go. Not sure what your family situation is, but I'm not asking you to go off to them if it's too uncomfortable. Heck, you could go to your family and just leave me here. What my mother doesn't know wouldn't kill her."

Anora let out a little snort of bemusement. "You're a big boy now." she teased. Brain jolted for a moment before giving her a bewildered glance. She looked back at him with a wide, teasing grin.

"I guess you could say that," he agreed as he looked away from her. He even placed a finger on the front brim of his fedora to slightly hide his face from her. It earned him a genuine laughter from Anora- her bubbly laughter almost echoing as they took the stairs.

The closer they got to the clubroom, however, the more something in Anora's chest started to clench in anxiety. She fought hard to not latch onto Brain's arm and hug it for dear life. When they stopped just short of the clubroom door, Anora thought she was going to be sick.

"I'm going to the school store after the meeting to pick up some instant coffee." Brain casually told her. Either choosing not to notice her distress, or maybe trying to distract from it. "You want me to get you anything? Toothpaste? Quick meals? Lady things?"

Anora shook her head, showing that she didn't need anything, before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek and hurrying away from the Dandelion clubroom. A part of Brain was amused by the display- but the other part of him was slightly bitter. She didn't need to be so worried about running into Ephemer. Sure, he was the club leader, but it's not like the silver-haired headmasters' pet was going to talk to her either. Brain knew that for a fact. It took them how long to go on that first date, with several interventions that included Brain himself? It was going to happen again unless one of them grew a spine.

Which, if Brain could almost guess, was going to be Anora.

The Unicornis student entered the Dandelion's clubroom to find that he was the fourth to arrive today. Ephemer was already sitting at the round table, looking over the itinerary book. Skuld and Ventus were over at one of the loveseats.

"Good afternoon." Brain greeted them all with a trip of his fedora. "Everyone else have a good day?"

Skuld and Ven looked up and smiled at him, giving their greetings back warmly. But Ephemer had jumped a considerable amount in the air. He whipped around to look at Brain- his face growing pale while also contorting into what could have been a grimace. Brain let out a light chuckle at seeing it.

"What's that look for?" he snorted. For awhile, Ephemer refused to answer him.

"How's Anora?" the younger of the two finally asked through gritted teeth.

"She seems to be doing pretty well. But you could ask her yourself, you know."

Ephemer looked away before grumbling, "She wouldn't listen to me."

"If you really believe that, then it's no small wonder you broke up."

The pen that Ephemer had been using cracked at his grip. Skuld and Ventus didn't seem to notice, since they had gone back to their conversation, but Brain certainly did. He moved a bit closer to Ephemer's seat- even placing a hand at the back of the chair.

"Why don't you just talk to her?" he asked the Dandelion leader.

"Little hard to do when she's too busy kissing you."

Hearing this, something in Brain ignited with a slow burning fury. He cocked an eyebrow at Ephemer before politely questioning, "Pardon?"

Likewise, Ephemer looked up at Brain with a hard expression. It was more contempt than Brain was used to seeing from the Leopardus student.

"You've wanted her since the summer. Haven't you?" Ephemer then accused. "That was why you decided to dance with her. You were just jealous."

Brain snorted at the idea. But when he saw how serious Ephemer still was, he looked back in near surprise. "Oh Ub Iwerks, you're serious." he remarked. Then Brain started to laugh. "Ephemer, good grief, how dense are you?"

Ephemer didn't respond. His eyes narrowed as he looked Brain up and down.

"You just don't get it, do you?" Brain went on to muse. "If it wasn't for me, Strelitzia wouldn't have kissed Anora. That could have been you if you had just taken the hint."

Every atom in Ephemer's body suddenly froze. "What did you just say?"

Brain looked down at Ephemer with a particularly malicious smirk. "Oh, you heard me." he challenged. "I talked to both of you about Anora. Only one of you did something about it. Guess who took her first kiss, Ephemer? Wasn't you. Was it?"

There was no warning for what happened next. Ephemer had launched himself out of his chair to tackle Brain around the middle. Surprised, Brain couldn't do anything to protect himself but fall over from the impact. The two of them hit the ground hard. Brain was the first to react after- he kneed Ephemer in the crotch and easily got back to his feet.

"Strelitzia asked Anora on a walk in the afternoon." Brain seethed as Ephemer was coiled in pain. "You had ALL day and the night before! You did nothing but sit and watch, as if you expected her to just wake up and realize she loved you! Anora had never fallen in love before- so how was she supposed to know, Ephemer?"

The only answer that came out of Ephemer's lips was a low hiss. He worked himself up a bit before making another lunge for Brain's legs. Again, caught off guard, Brain was back down on the ground. Ephemer made quick work of climbing on top of Brain, then making blind punches at his face. Brain was able to block most of them before they ever landed. Didn't mean that Ephemer didn't manage to scratch him at least once, though.

Both boys were too concentrated on trying to hit -and avoid being hit by- the other that they couldn't hear Ven's desperate pleas for them to stop. It wasn't until Skuld walked up to them and quite harshly kicked Ephemer off of Brain with the heel of her modestly high heeled boot. Ephemer let out a noise of pain as he fell over. Brain was almost about to get on top of Ephemer in retaliated before Skuld used that same heel to pin Brain's hand to the ground. He also let out a yelp in pain.

"That's enough!" Skuld demanded at a tone so high that it made both boys flinch. Since she had their attention now, she moved her heel from Brain's hand. "If you Toms are going to keep fighting, then move it out of the clubroom or I'll get security. This is ridiculous!"

For a moment, all they did was stare up at her. Eventually, Ephemer was the first to peel his body off the floor.

"Invi wouldn't touch me." he bitterly growled. But he sat down in his chair with an aggressive plop.

Brain remained where he was a bit longer- mostly making sure that he could still use his hand. He started to sit up, looking around the room for where his fedora had gone, and found that Ven had nervously picked it up in the middle of the scuffle.

"Thanks Ven." Brain mumbled before gently taking the fedora back. "Sorry you had to see that."

The youngest student only nodded his head.

Everyone's attention was diverted when the door to the clubroom opened up. Lauriam came through the door, not quite looking at them yet.

"I'm sorry I'm late." the oldest of them all apologized. "Elrena had an emergency and needed me to..." He trailed off in sensing the tense atmosphere. Warily, he turned to Skuld to ask, "What did I miss?"

She gave him a heavy sigh before gesturing to Brain and Ephemer. Lauriam looked over at them and was shocked to see how roughed up the two boys looked. Ephemer had the becomings of a bruise near his eye, and Brain had started to nurse a bleeding nose.

After putting two and two together, all Lauriam could give was a small, "Oh."

. . .

Brain was late, and Anora was worried. They were supposed to meet outside the main building today, right? Sure, Brain said that he was going to the school store after, but shouldn't he had been done by now? Maybe she should go in and check...

"Anora."

The young woman just barely had time to turn around before Brain took her by the shoulders and pulled them into an aggressive kiss. When he let them go, Anora was quick to cast him a worried side glance. Seeing it immediately diffused a lot of his anger toward Ephemer. It wasn't her fault that the silver haired coward was, well, a coward. And an idiot. And possibly the single most irresponsible piece of-

"It was a rough meeting." he admitted, softly pressing his forehead against hers now. "How about we have an early dinner off campus? You pick the place, I'll pay for it."

"I'm sorry." she whispered with a small shake of her head. Brain frowned as he moved them so he could look her in the eye.

"What do you need to be sorry for?" he questioned. "You're not the one that needs to grow a pair."

But Anora still shrunk a little and failed to meet his gaze. Brain looked her over, letting out a hard sigh in the process.

"Let's just get off campus for awhile." he tried to tell her, taking her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze."There's a general store in town, I'll pick up what I need, then we'll have dinner somewhere. Maybe go for a nice long walk just for good measure. What do you say?"

Anora still refused to look at him. But slowly, surely, there was a small nod of agreement. The idea of being off campus nowadays seemed more appealing by the minute. A small sigh escaped Anora's lips as she and Brain headed toward the front gates. She knew what she was going to do for winter break now.