Heads or Tails
kingfishers' game
Chapter 2: WINTER
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Notes: Today's prompt is "WINTER". I wrote this quite a while ago while I was visiting family in the Northern USA. It was snowing, and I live in a place where it never snows, so I basically fell in love. Anyway, I hope you like it!
Winter suits Kagura. If Sougo had to wager a guess he'd bet it's her favorite season—the clouds, the snow, the limited hours of sunlight…it's a dream setting for the Yato. It's not even 6 PM and the sun has already sunk over the horizon. The shops are still open, but they've put their lights on. The sky is velvet black and sewn with stars.
Sougo's sitting next to the window in a cafe booth watching for Joui activity from the suspected hideout across the street, but really he's watching the snow fall in greeting-card-perfect white flakes. There's something mesmerizing about the way it piles up on every flat surface, a thick layer of blue-white icing painted golden and red and green where the lights from the shops spill out through the windows. The street is almost empty. No one in their right mind would be out in this freezing weather.
It makes sense, then, that Kagura's out there walking her dog. 'No one in their right mind', huh? The corner of Sougo's mouth perks up when he spots her skipping her way through the banks of snow. She's always good for entertainment, that girl, always ready to spar. He is, too.
But today is different, because something stops Sougo from knocking on the glass to get her attention or trying to pick a fight. There's a kind of private, secret joy on Kagura's face as she flits through the banks of snow. Her cheeks and her ears are as red as the cheongsam she's wearing and her eyes are sparkling—actually sparkling—like she's the main character of a cheesy holiday movie about 'the meaning of Christmas' and not the dorky little heroine of Gintama that he knows and…hates. The fairy lights strung up on every building throw circles of pale gold over her skin.
Today, tonight, she seems like…Kagura, but not Kagura. A Kagura he's never seen before, one who is perfectly aligned with the still, glittering world outside. She looks alien—not in the way Sougo has ever thought of aliens or Amanto, but…ethereal, ephemeral. It's as if she's completely alone in the universe, and completely at ease within it. Sougo's never seen her look so happy.
Somehow it makes him feel lonely.
He knocks on the window after all and makes a face at her. When she sees him she perks up and bounds into the cafe, the melting snow from her boots leaving wet footprints on the tile floor. "Buy me a hot cocoa," she orders him playfully.
"Why should I?"
"It's so cold outside!" She's flushed and breathless. "Feel how cold my hands are."
Sougo's taken aback when Kagura grabs his hand and rubs it with hers, and it's not just the fact that her skin is like ice that sends a shiver up his spine. She waves a waiter over and asks for a hot cocoa—"add it to his tab," she says, cocking her head at Sougo—and for a second he feels off-balance.
"Don't play outside if you're going to get cold," he snipes, pulling his hand away from his…but he pays for her drink anyway.
Notes: I wanted to write a Sougo who is caught off guard and a little more gentle than usual, haha.
Remember to leave a review/comment with your prompt suggestion!
Next time, Chapter 3: LESSON (Class 3-Z AU)