Snap

Disclaimer: No.

The Long Game
Yuri gets his hand stuck in a candy machine. Estelle is way too amused by this to be even remotely helpful.

All Yuri wanted was a snickers. Was that so much to ask?

Apparently it was, and now Yuri had his hand stuck in the door of the machine, so tantalizingly close to his rightfully won candy bar that was hanging onto the hook by a thread.

Goddamnit.

Not only had it eaten his dollar and refused to hand over the goods but now he had his hand stuck and he was late to class. Flynn was never going to shut up now.

And Estelle was laughing at him.

She was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe, doubled over with her arms wrapped around her middle. If she started crying over this, Yuri was going to kill her when he got his hand back. Well, not really, but he'd at least entertain the idea for a moment.

"Shut up, Estelle, it's not funny!" Yuri growled at her. Far from taking him seriously at all, his friend just let out a half-hysterical howl of laughter that bordered on cackle.

"I-I-I s-said I'd give you a-another dollar!" She managed between giggles and Yuri's expression darkened like a thunderhead.

It was true, she had, even got into her wallet and tried to stuff it down Yuri's collar. He'd been too stubborn at the time, though. No stupid candy machine was gonna cheat him out of his money, even if it was just a buck. So he'd shook the machine, whacked it a few times, kicked it, and then eventually stuck his hand all the way up inside until he was so close...and then by the time he'd realized he couldn't reach, he was thoroughly stuck. And Estelle had seen the entirety of it.

This was the worst.

"Come on, help me out here," Yuri absolutely did not whine at her, but she calmed just long enough to kneel down next to him and grip his arm in both of her hands, this way and that. It didn't budge. She frowned.

"Looks like there's only one thing to do," she declared and stood, rummaging around in her bag. Please don't let it be for her phone to call Flynn, anything but that. Yuri would literally stay here for the whole afternoon if it meant he never found out about this.

It wasn't to call Flynn.

It was worse.

Instead of pulling out her phone, Estelle yanked the rejected dollar out of her bag and shoved it into the machine lickety split, immediately pressing the appropriate button about six times more than actually needed. Not only did Yuri's original prize come loose but a second bar fell out, each one rapping Yuri's knuckles on the way down.

Only then did she kneel down again and with a simple, gentle twist of her hands she had Yuri's arm loose. He yanked it out immediately and then grabbed both candies, handing one to Estelle with a thank you that was only slightly surly.

She took it with a grin and watched Yuri take a vicious bite of chocolate and caramel and peanuts.

"I'm not even talking to you."

"I did get your hand out," she offered, keeping stride with him easily. Yuri just grumbled at her. "I could have taken a photo."

Estelle was pretty and cute and really, really nice most of the time but sometimes she was almost more of an asshole than Flynn and Yuri couldn't even be mad, not when he found her smile to be so stupidly contagious that he wanted to hit himself over it. She leaned over and bumped him with her shoulder.

"We still have about an hour of economics," she reminded him, "Professor Kaufman might not be too mad if we show up now."

"Oh, no," Yuri said and wrapped an arm around Estelle's shoulders to pull her down the hallway, "You're the one who took forever watching me squirm. We're playing hooky, come on."

"Nooooooo, Yuri, we can't skip class!"

Estelle protested but when Yuri released her she continued to walk with him, resigned to her fate except for the worried glances she'd shoot down the hallway as if expecting one of their teachers to show up and start yelling. She protested but when Yuri opened the doors and there was the sunshine, warm and bright on their skin, she was the one who grabbed his hand and started pulling him down the street.

Yuri let her.

Just wait until she got her hand stuck in something stupid, he thought, in order to avoid thinking about how well her fingers laced in his.