3
A noise snaps Obi out of his daze, the crunch – crunch – crunch of someone stomping through the snow, not caring about the ruckus they made. It got close before he noticed. Much too close.
He was distracted. Again.
Damn.
But then a small voice drifted up to the treetops. A familiar, if slightly out of breath voice.
"Obi?"
Of course Miss came to find him. Just like she had in Tanbarun.
"Obi, are you up here?" She waits several moments for a reply that doesn't come before calling out again, "Obi!"
She certainly was persistent. But –
"Obi, I know you can hear me!" Frustration sharpened her tone to a fine point. "Obi!"
He snorted. He couldn't help it. How many trees had she shouted that at already?
She's silent for moment—sneezes twice, softens her voice— "Please come down, I'll explain everything. Obi!"
An explanation, huh? What was there to explain? Still, if he didn't do something, she'd be outdoors yelling at trees until daybreak…
"Ob – "
"Miss," he interrupts her with a resigned sigh, but keeps his perch in the evergreen, concealed by soundless snowfall and shadowy branches. He doesn't want to face her right now. He's not even sure that he can.
"Ah—I knew you'd come here, Obi," Shirayuki crunches through the snow over to his tree and pauses—looking up, searching for him, obviously expecting him to come down and face her like he did in the mountains of Tanbarun. He doesn't. He keeps quiet too, the silence slowly stretching, an uncomfortable chasm.
"Um, well..." she stares down at her snow-caked boots. Gingerly traces the scar's track across her cheek. Inhales.
"I'm sorry, Obi."
Why?
"Huh?" she glances up, surprised, trying once more to locate his hiding place.
Damn, had he spoken aloud? He presses a hand to his mouth, just in case.
"...I," Shirayuki starts, and after a brief pause continues, "...after we got back to Clairnes, to the castle, I...started to cover it. I figured the scar would—that it would fade. Eventually. So until then..."
Another pause.
"But, it didn't. So I kept covering it up."
Why in the world was she apologizing to him...?
"I'm s–sorry, that you found out like that."
...When the whole fiasco was his fault in the first place!
"...It's been two years, Miss." Damn, why did he say that, of all things? It sounded like he was trying to pick a fight.
"Longer, even." Well, he certainly didn't want her pity.
"Y–yeah," she stammers.
Damn it, don't agree with me!
"I s–should have told you a l–long time ago."
And stop apologizing!
"I'm really s~s~orry."
There it was.
Obi jumps down, landing silently in the snow. He spins around to face her, opens his mouth to speak—
and freezes.
"Miss, what are you wearing?"
"Huh?"
Shirayuki clutches her now snow-dampened shawl tightly around her shivering shoulders, still dressed in her bedclothes, ice and snow clinging heavily to the hem of her nightgown. By some miracle she wore her boots, but the snow already overtopped them. Red hair—hair that was still wet—escaped from the braid and hung in half-frozen tendrils around her rosy face. Her cheeks and ears and nose and fingers—all pink from the cold. And her teeth clatter together so violently, he's shocked he didn't notice it before.
Obi practically jumps out of his coat, quickly wrapping it around her.
"Miss, it is the middle of the night. It. Is. Snowing."
"I—I can s–see that!" she protests, breath forming a cloud between them, blurring the details of his face.
Obi just stares at her, slack–jawed and incredulous, as his hands guide her shivering arms into coat sleeves.
"I was worried about you, Obi!"
And her eyes widen, when his face suddenly draws near.
"Miss... Seriously..."
Obi rests his forehead on her shoulder, defeated.