Ice And Snow

Final Chapter

"W-what is this?!" He nearly shouted.

Right out the door, he saw everyone with a smile on their faces. Each of the townspeople apologized to him one by one. Touya was last and he was really hesitant.

"S-s... So... Sorry. I'm... Sorry... About everything I said about you." He said.

"It's fine. I never minded it in the first place." Shiren nodded as he muttered the last part. Toya went off to play with the other kids and by dawn, nearly everyone had gone home.

The ones left were him, Haley, Haley's brother, Hiro and her parents. Hiro had went to their parent's rental to get some sleep.

Haley smiled and let out a yawn. "That was fun."

"I still don't get what just happened." Shiren admitted with confusion in his voice.

"I asked the whole town about their prespective of you." Haley said. "Though, after that everyone went silent for a bit and it became awkward so I just told them taht if they felt bad about treating you that way for the whoke year, they should just go up to GCG base and apologize to you first hand. After that the whole town immediately left."

"I noticed." Shiren asked. "Look, I appriciate this whole thing, alright? But don't you think it was too much? I mean..." He paused to try to find the correct words. "I mean the whole time, they had the right to do those things. They weren't wrong to do so. It was my fault."

Haley frowned. "Shiren..."

"None of it was your fault."

"F-father...?!" Haley tensed up in shock and confusion.

Both her parents walked up to them. Since they were saved from the icy cavern all the way until now, they never said a word to them.

"I apologize for the way I have treated you. Is there any way that you would forgive us?" He mumbled loud enough for just them to hear.

Shiren nodded. "Of course."

Haley's mother let out a small laugh. "Harold, aren't you forgetting that little thing we discussed?"

Haley's father sighed. "Very well then. Haley."

"Yes?"

"Needless to say, you're no longer banned from seeing each other."

Haley's exlression shiwed confusion at first but then it broke out to a wide grin. "Alright! That means we can have as much fun as we used to!" She exclaimed, jumping up and down like a child.

"We will be going now. See you two later." Her mother said as she waved goodbye.

"Bye!" Haley said waving.

Shiren cast a glance at her. "You're not going home with them?"

"Not yet." She said, yawning again. "I don't want to sleep yet."

"You just yawned." Shiren stated.

"So what? I'm not..." She was cut off by another yawn. ". . . tired..."

Shiren smiled. "Yeah, right. We've both been up all night. I need some sleep too."

He began to drag her inside as she weakly protested. He took her to his room and pushed her onto the bed.

"You stay there and I'll be on the couch." He stated.

"I don't wanna...!" Haley kept protesting. Her eyes were half closed.

He sighed and took out his piccolo. "If I play this, do you promise to go to sleep?"

Her ears perked up and she gave a small nod. Shiren began playing his original melody on the wind instrument. After 2 minutes of playing, Haley was already asleep.

He stopped playing and placed it on his desk. He stood up and turned around. Then he stopped and glanced back.

She looks so peaceful like this...

He inched closer. Seconds later, he found himself on top of her. Slowly, his face came closer to hers, until they were nose to nose.

Wha... What am I...

Before he could stop himself  from going any further, he felt their lips press together. It wasn't him, she did it. It only lasted for a second before they parted.

"See you when I wake up..." She muttered. Her eyes were still closed, so he guess she was only half asleep.

He tried to move, but he realized his right hand was being held by her. He couldn't move away, but he didn't want to wake her up either so he ended up sleeping on the bed as well.

"Shiren..." She called out, still half asleep.

But he replied anyway. "Yeah?"

"I'm happy now..." She muttered, her lips curling to a smile. "I love... Yo..." Then there was the soft sound of snoring.

Shiren blinked and gazed at her. For a second, he thought he heard her wrong. Then he smiled.

"I guess I can forgive myself now. Thank you." He muttered.

I love you too.