A New Person

Snow day! Chapter 23

[Edited]

Disclaimer: I don't own the picture above and have done basic editing. The song above is "Senorita" by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello.

I entered the living room with Reiji once he told me everyone was already gathered there. All the eyes turned towards us and Subaru looked at the both of us in horror and caution. I look at him and gave a small nod, letting him know everything was under control. He physically relaxed and leaned back on the wall behind him.

"Everyone, the princess has honored us with her presence once again. She would like to spend time with us outside, in the snow." Reiji introduced today's agenda as if he was my butler and I giggled in response to his behavior.

"You know you don't need to be so formal. I am simply here to play with you all in the snow and just have snowball fights. It's that simple." I shrugged and looked at everyone as their expressions changed.

"Speaking of snow, how in the hell are you wearing that in such a cold weather?" Ayato asked as he pointed at my leather boots, knee-length shorts, a blue t-shirt and a blue satin ribbon I was wearing around my neck to hide the claw marks from the previous attack.

"I'm a forest maiden, Ayato. I don't feel cold, I make it cold." I put my hands on my hips and looked at him with a smug look as he rolled his eyes with a small smile. "Anyways, can we go now? I really want to play with everyone!" I jumped up as I whined and I saw Kanato smiling at my behavior as he shook his head. "Don't you, Kanato?" I asked him, catching him off guard, and he looked at me with wide eyes.

"I... uh, yeah! Let's go!" Kanato got off the couch and held my hand in his as he started dragging me out of the living room.

"Come on, guys!" I motioned them to follow us as I hid my giddy smile that appeared as soon as Kanato held my hand. With that, everyone followed us outside and once we were out of the Sakamaki territory, I saw the Mukami brothers taking a walk not too far away. "Perfect!" I clapped my hands and yelled at the top of my lungs. "Hey, weirdos!" I placed my hands at the side of my lips so my voice would reach them louder, and just as expected, the brothers turned around at the nickname. I giggled and flew towards them to see their expressions- unimpressed- but with a hint of amusement in their eyes was obvious.

"Really?" Ruki asked me as he kept his hands in the pockets of his jacket, which was barely enough to keep him warm.

"I should be the one asking you, you turned around at the name. Aren't you cold?" I pointed at his jacket and he huffed in response.

"Look who's asking." He tilted his head and the other brothers agreed with him easily.

"How are you not shivering and looking for warmth by now?" Kou asked as he stepped closer and rubbed my arms to give me warmth.

"She's a forest maiden. She doesn't feel cold, she makes it cold." As soon as I heard Subaru's voice repeat the words I spoke not too long ago, I turned around to see the Sakamaki brothers standing confidently and glaring at the Mukami brothers. I open my mouth to say something when the six brothers fixated their gaze on me, staring daggers right through me.

"It's not my fault that I like to play with more people. You certainly heard of the saying, the more the merrier!" I raised my shoulders to prove my point and looked back at the Mukami brothers looking at me doubtfully.

"I don't think it's such a good idea for us to be playing with each other." Yuma pursued his lips together and crossed his arms while I sighed in frustration.

"Look, whatever is going on between you guys, put it away for just today- not even a whole day, for an hour or two... or three... or more. Just- please!" I clasped my hands together and looked at the two groups pleadingly while Yui kept quiet throughout the whole conversation. Eventually, the brothers gave in and I jumped up in excitement. "Alright, now we can play together!" I cheered and snapped my fingers, using cryokinesis, which made balls of snow emerge from within the layer of snow on the ground. With another snap, the elevating snowballs launched at everyone, mostly aiming at their head. The reactions included of gasps and yelps of surprise.

"What the hell?!" Subaru yelled and dusted the snow from his hair, then turned his gaze towards me as I just shrugged in return. He narrowed his eyes and picked up a snowball and threw it at me with insane speed, giving me little to no time to react. I yelped as the snowball hit me on my chest.

"Attack!" Ayato yelled as he dragged the word out as if declaring a war. At his command, everyone picked up piles of snow and rolled them up into balls. As if using telepathy, they all aimed at me and threw the snowballs simultaneously. I tried flying away but most balls had already hit me because of the speed advantage the vampires had.

"You're all on!" I picked up a snowball myself, giving everyone a fair fight for the moment. I threw the one in my hand at Kanato, who dodged it and instead, threw one at me- which I was able to dodge. "You're not going to win against me, Kanato!" I yelled at him through the snowballs that were being thrown between us and all he did was smirk at me. I let his cockiness go for the moment when a snowball hit me in the face and I looked around to see Shu trying his best to hold his laughter as he backed up quickly. I snapped my fingers and charged all the snowballs at him while his eyes widened.

"H-hey, that's not fair!" He yelled and started running but most snowballs ended up hitting him in the back. I stood there and chuckled at him as he stumbled from the force of the number of snowballs until a snowball hit the back of my head. I turned around to see Kanato giving the same smirk he held before as I shook my head lightly and ran towards him after taking a snowball in my hand. He started running at a pace that was fair for me to catch up to and just as he ran around a tree, I cut his path but tripped over an overgrown root of the tree. I tried to gain my balance by placing my hand on the tree trunk but I didn't have enough time to get a proper grip, hence, I fell right in front of Kanato, knocking him down in the process. I looked beneath me to see him closing his eyes from the impact as a small, playful smirk was plastered on his face and frantically got up and sat on my knees.

"Wow, did not expect you to trip like that." He breathed and got up from the thick layer of snow as I bit my bottom lip. There were flakes of snow falling from the branches of the tree because of the strength I put on the tree to prevent my fall but failed.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled but he only chuckled and gazed at me gently with a smile.

"Don't worry about it." He gave me a toothy smile and I was about to get up when he threw a handful of snow in my face. I yelped again and fell back down on my butt but laughed along with him nonetheless. I took revenge by throwing snow at him too and he threw some more snow back at me. To save myself from getting coated with snow on my face, I leaned back and laid on the ground. But Kanato took advantage of it and crawled on top of me and threw as much snow as he could gather in his hands.

"Alright, alright! I accept defeat!" I lifted my hands in defeat as he chuckled and finally stopped covering me with snow. By the time the snow around us settled down, we both were panting from flailing our arms so much. I looked up at him with my cheeks starting to feel warm in the chilly air. Kanato was holding himself up with his arms at both sides of my head and a quiet chuckle escaped his lips. His chuckle died down slowly and suddenly, he gulped and his lips came together in a thin line.

"Serena." He mumbled my name quietly and sighed as his gaze on me softened. Our position and the situation slowly sank in as I finally started to feel nervous. He brought his hand down to my cheeks and removed any snow that was present with his thumb. With a final breath, he leaned down slowly as our eyes closed naturally. I lifted my head a little and felt his lips come in contact with mine right after. I felt him shift his weight to his knees so he could use his hands to run through my hair. His fingers picked at random strands as my hands traveled to his waist. The way his cold lips worked against my warm ones sent shivers down my spine and I tightened my hold on his waist. With a hum of satisfaction, he softly nibbled on my lower lip and pulled away slowly as he was still holding my head in his hands.

We didn't need any words to tell how we were feeling in the moment but his soft gaze and gentle smile were enough to make me feel even more flustered.