Chapter Twenty-One

If It's Cold, You Should . . .

"Achoo!"

The moment that sneeze sounded from Yuki, the girl's eyes widened in shock, and she covered her mouth to hide her gasp. Looking up at Rin, she quickly stuttered, "S-sorry!"

Rin rolled her eyes with a grin. Only Yuki would apologize for sneezing when it was already cold out. It was early December at the moment, and today had marked the first snowfall. It was a Sunday, and Rin had taken the day off, but Iroha was still at work. When Yuki had looked outside and seen the snow falling, she'd jumped on Rin in the woman's bed and begged her to take her outside. It was still the early morning hours, so much so that it was still dark outside, so no one else was out, but Yuki still looked overjoyed.

"Don't worry about it, Yuki," Rin stated, her gloved hands stuffed in her pockets. She herself wasn't a fan of winter. She'd love to have the hot days of summer all year long, but Yuki had been so excited that she couldn't refuse. "It's okay to sneeze, you know. I'm not going to ground you for it."

Yuki smiled and cheered, "Alright!" Then, she dashed ahead and laughed as she shot her bare hands out and spun in a circle to catch the falling flakes. She looked back to Rin with bright eyes and called, "C'mon, Mom, reach out and try to catch one! No two are the same!"

Rin raised a brow at her daughter with a questioning expression. "I've been complaining ever since it got cold, Yuki. What in Iroha's name would make you think I'd be crazy enough to try to catch snowflakes?"

Yuki giggled and dashed back to Rin, reaching out a hand to hold Rin's and staring at her mother expectantly. Rin scowled at her for a moment, but Yuki continued staring at her with those eyes, so she sighed and freed her hand from its pocket. However, instead of taking it in her own, Yuki offered the hand, palm up, to the sky. Rin sighed, seeing that she'd been tricked, and gazed listlessly at the snowflakes falling onto her palm that Yuki seemed so fascinated by.

"Hey, Mom, do you remember the first day I came to meet you?" Yuki wondered, gazing up curiously at her. Rin flinched. No, actually, she couldn't remember. Those days had all blurred together in a haze of alcohol with only a few spared intelligible moments. Yuki smiled in understanding and continued. "When Iroha said what my name was, you just commented on how it couldn't be snowing because it was summer. I assumed you were joking about my name, of course, but you really didn't get it, did you?"

"Probably not," Rin hesitantly agreed. "I can't be sure." Then, she remembered something that Iroha had told her before going to sleep last night. Yuki had already gone to bed, so Iroha had asked Rin to tell her in the morning. "Miku's coming by today, by the way. To check up on you and all."

Yuki seemed a little confused. "It's been a while since I last saw her. Why does she have to come today?"

"Just a routine check-up." Rin waved her hand dismissively, knocking down the gathered snowflakes. Yuki pouted as she watched. "We're under some special circumstances with Len out of the picture, after all."

"Hm, I guess so," Yuki mumbled, her mind elsewhere as her eyes caught on a snow-covered tree branch. She abandoned Rin to dash over to it and looked back to Rin with a huge grin. "Hey, Mom, will you and Mama sing with me in the school's talent show? Just backup, don't worry. But you have a really nice voice. Mama, too."

Rin scoffed and wondered, "When have you ever heard me sing?" as she approached the tree.

With a mischievous expression, Yuki swung behind the tree and peered out at Rin. "In the shower at night when you think I'm asleep."

Rin's face went bright red, so she lunged for the child in hopes of catching her and forcing her to take it back. However, the girl laughed and ducked away, dashing out into the snow-covered grass of the park. Determined, Rin chased after the girl. While Yuki had much more energy by far, she still had shorter legs than Rin, and Rin was easily able to bowl her over and land them both in the snow in a fit of laughter. As the chill of the snow forced her to jump up and relinquish her grip on Yuki, the girl darted away and Rin was forced to dash after her, quickly forgetting why she'd been chasing her in the first place.

. . .

Rin cringed as Yuki loudly shouted, "Mama!" and leapt off the couch the two had been sharing, dashing toward the front door that had just opened. Rin pulled the blanket tighter over herself, unable to believe that Yuki had the strength of will to brave to chill outside the warmth of the couch. Iroha was dressed no warmer than usual despite the snow, amazingly enough, with only a light jacket over her suit.

"You're both crazy," Rin grumbled, turning her gaze back to the television. Iroha and Yuki didn't seem to have heard her, though, because they continued on with their welcomes.

"I'm back," Iroha said, shedding snow as she slid the jacket off herself and hung it on the back of the door.

"Welcome home, Mama," Yuki said cheerily, still overexcited about the snow.

"Have you been outside yet today?" Iroha wondered.

"Mom and I went out in the snow." The little girl sounded incredibly proud of herself for whatever reason. "Piko and Miki dropped by earlier, too, to see if I wanted to come out and play, so we went to the park for a while. Mom stayed home, though. She doesn't like the snow, she says."

Iroha laughed and said, "Yeah, Len used to exploit that all the time."

Rin looked to Iroha to glare at the smirking woman. During the winter, Len would threaten to throw snowballs at Rin if she was vehemently refusing to do something fun that he'd planned since they were meant to be studying for exams.

"Are we gonna go to the café today?" Yuki wondered, her eyes glittering with unused energy as she looked up at Iroha.

"How are you not fat yet?" Rin sighed. Yuki had decadent desserts nearly every day at that café, but she'd yet to gain a pound. Rin hated to admit that she was insanely envious. She was still struggling to burn off the weight from all the alcohol she'd consumed, herself.

Yuki looked back at her curiously and, with an obliviousness that only a child could manage, stated, "I eat healthy the rest of the time, don't I?"

Iroha sighed too and joined Rin on the couch. Rin slid a little closer to the edge as Iroha nudged her in request and slipped under the blanket with her, leaning on the other woman so that they could both fit underneath. "I'd be careful saying that, Yuki. We might disown you."

Yuki pouted and merely said from the front door, "So are we going?"

Iroha yawned and blinked drearily at Rin to tell the woman to answer. So, Rin looked over her shoulder to Yuki and told her, "It's too cold. Miku's coming, anyway."

Iroha scowled and slouched then, remarking, "I'd forgotten about that."

Yuki was still filled with energy, though, and she leapt upon the couch and leaned over her adoptive parents, gazing at them with wide, pleading eyes. "Let's make a hotpot then! We can share with Miku!"

"Too tired," yawned Iroha, her eyes closing already.

Yuki scowled and focused only on Rin. Rin stared steadily back for a while, brown eyes meeting blue ones, but she knew that Yuki was just as stubborn as Len had been. Rin herself was stubborn, but she was no competition to either of them. So, she sighed and closed her eyes in defeat. She opened them to Yuki's triumphant smile. "Fine," she grumbled.

"Yes!" Yuki exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air and consequentially loosing her balance and falling atop both Iroha and Rin.

"Rin!" Iroha exclaimed, whipping her eyes open to glare at Rin. Rin smiled guiltily back. She knew Iroha was tired, but what was wrong with spending a little quality time together? It was usually Iroha forcing Rin to do things, in any case.

"Hotpot time!" Yuki cried, ignoring her own fumbling as she pulled herself up and jumped back onto the ground with a little bounce. She stared expectantly at Rin and Iroha until, with grumbles and complaints, the two stood up and followed the child into the kitchen.

. . .

As Iroha taught Yuki how to cut the carrot slices into flowers, Rin made her way over to the door upon hearing a knock. She opened it to a woman with teal twintails and a fluffy cyan scarf wrapped around her neck, nicely complimenting her turquoise winter jacket.

"Hello, Rin!" the woman chirped excitedly. Rin didn't remember Miku very well, to be honest, but she could already tell that she wasn't her kind of person. Her high energy was already draining the blonde. "Mind if I come in?"

"Go ahead." Rin had to avoid mumbling it, trying to seem much better than the Rin Miku had previously seen. She pulled aside to let the woman step inside and then closed the door behind her, accepting her jacket and piling it on the hook overtop of Yuki's, Iroha's, and Rin's own.

"Something smells good in here," Miku nearly sang with a huge smile, looking toward the kitchen entrance with bright eyes.

"We're making a hotpot, as per Yuki's request," Rin replied, hoping her voice didn't sound too forced. This was going to be a long night if Miku planned on hanging around for long.

Luckily, at that moment, Yuki's head poked out the entrance to the kitchen and she peered around curiously in search of Rin. "Mom, where'd you go? You can't just go take a nap and leave Mama and I to do all the work."

Miku looked like she was about to swoon as her smile broadened. "Aw, she calls both you and Iroha her mother! That's so cute!"

Yuki's eyes then landed on the doorway, and she smiled in return to Miku and exclaimed, "Miku!" before dashing over to wrap her arms around the woman.

"Long time no see, Yuki," Miku laughed down at the girl. "What are you making?"

Rin scowled, wondering if Miku had simply ignored when she'd answered the question earlier.

"Hotpot," Yuki stated. "It was my idea."

"Well, why don't you go back to that with Iroha and Rin? I just wanted to visit and check out how things are." Then, before Yuki could say anything, Miku wondered, "Which room is yours, by the way? Would you mind me checking it out?"

"Not at all," Yuki agreed kindly. "It's the one to the left." Then, she stepped away from Miku and took Rin's hand in her own. "C'mon, Mom, you gotta come help."

"Yeah yeah," Rin sighed, allowing the child to lead her away as Miku gave a small wave and made her way to Yuki's room.

. . .

Miku spent the night loitering and watching them cook, which admittedly ticked Rin off since it was meant to be a family event, but she didn't complain since Yuki seemed to be having fun anyway and even pulled Miku in several times to help her cook. When the hotpot was completed, Yuki asked if Miku wanted to stay for supper, but Miku had politely declined, saying she actually had to head out then. As Rin guided her out into the parking lot, and Iroha had whispered in her ear for her to do, Miku stopped before entering her car and smiled at Rin.

"Thank you for taking such good care of her, Rin," the woman stated. "I was really worried about her. There's someone else that wanted to adopt her, you know, after discovering that Len was no longer around, but I knew you were the best parent for her. If that other family had taken her, I don't know how things would have turned out. I definitely like you better than that other woman."

Miku smiled then, shaking away the contemplative look that had surfaced, and continued. "Yuki's always been my favourite child there, and I'm so glad to see her so happy. Thank you for caring for her, Rin, and you can be sure that she's definitely yours now."

Rin felt the tension that had been rising all night fall at those words. So Yuki was really hers now? No one could take her away?

She froze as Miku hugged her, irritation instantly returning, but she stomached the annoying woman's affection for that one moment before the woman pulled away with one last smile and a farewell and ducked into her car to drive away.

Author's Note: Did anybody actually remember who Miku was? Well, in any case, fluffiness. Hope you enjoyed!