in the lane, snow is glistening
campe-silky (SilkyinaBottle)
Nerris sighs as she trudges through the thick snow, dragging her boots through the slush until she’s afraid they’ll freeze over. She wraps her arms around her jacketed body and heaves out a sigh that instantly turns to fog in the icy winter air. She could have been home ten minutes ago if she hadn’t gone and screwed herself over.
She’d made it nearly halfway home from the nearby park before realizing she wasn’t cradling her sled in her arms like she should have been. So maybe she was thinking a little too much about the Christmastime one-shot campaign she was planning to DM for her friends. Whatever. As long as no one jacked her sled, she can escape a scolding from her mother.
The park may be only two and a half blocks away from her house, but making that journey in a foot of snow has proven to be a feat of its own. By the time she gets there, her sled is nowhere in sight, and her shoulders tense. Goddammit. All that backtracking for nothing.
...At least that’s what she thinks, until the sound of wood against snow and a familiar shout reaches her ears. She turns, and lo and behold, there’s her sled, resting underneath a green-haired girl as she makes her way down the same hill Nerris had been sledding on just twenty minutes before.
Not just any green-haired girl. It’s Nikki.
Nerris relaxes a little, despite her surprise. Having to tell a stranger that she needs her sled back is one thing. Nikki is cool, though. She doesn’t have to feel awkward around Nikki, even if it has been a year and a half.
...Well, she always feels awkward. But the point is that she won’t feel as awkward. The awkwardness levels will be lower overall.
Nerris makes her way over, her boots easily crunching in the snow. She finds that she’s moving a little faster before, driven by a newfound energy. She hasn’t seen Nikki in forever. “Hey, Nikki!” she cries out, trying to make her voice heard over Nikki’s cries of joy as she slides down the hill again.
Nikki’s head turns just as her sled ( Nerris’ sled, actually) slows to a stop, and her face breaks out into a huge grin. “Nerris!” She nearly trips over herself getting off of the sled, and before Nerris can say anything Nikki nearly tackles her to the ground in a bear hug. Nerris feels something in her stomach twist, but she doesn’t have much time to consider it before Nikki lets go, keeping tight hold on her shoulders. “Did you come all this way just to see me?”
“Uh… no.” Why would she think that? Wait, that’s obvious: because she’s Nikki. “I live like two blocks that way.” She points in the direction of her house with her gloved hand.
Nikki’s face lights up even more, if that’s even possible. “Really?” Nerris doesn’t even have time to nod before Nikki goes on. “That’s great! We can hang out all the time! I don’t have a lot of friends in neighborhood. Mom says it’s because I play too rough. But you don’t mind, right?”
Nerris shakes her head. LARPing has prepared her for this, she thinks.
“Good!” Nikki chirps. “We can even play with this cool sled I found!”
Nerris almost starts. Oh, right. She had forgotten. “Uh, yeah. About that…,” at least she won’t be ruining Nikki’s dreams of playing with it, “that’s mine. I kinda left it here on accident? But I need it back now, so…” She reaches out for it.
She half expects Nikki to stubbornly pull away, so she’s surprised when she just hands it over. “Oh, okay!” Right. This is Nikki. She probably doesn’t need a sled to have fun on the snow. Nerris bets she had plans to just throw herself down the hill before she found it.
“Do you live nearby?” Nerris asks after a moment, curious. Nikki asked her the same thing, more or less, so she figures it isn’t too nosy of her.
Nikki nods, so enthusiastically her pigtails bounce; seems she hasn’t grown out of them yet. Nerris is glad. They suit her. “We just moved!” Oh. Well, that explains why she hadn’t seen her around before. “Well, me and mom did, at least. We live with Neil and his dad now!”
“Wait.” She has to make sure she heard that right. “Neil?!” If he lived right nearby all this time, how come she never saw… oh, duh. Probably because he never left the house.
“Yeah! Our parents have been dating since Parent’s Day,” she explains. “They’re probably gonna get married, I think.”
“Oh,” Nerris says. “Good for them.”
“You should come over sometime!” Nikki tells her. “Neil would probably wanna see you! It’ll be like the time with the pudding, except without the pudding, and without Harrison.”
Thank god, Nerris thinks. But it really doesn't sound like a bad idea. “Okay. I mean, I’d have to ask my mom first, but—”
“I’ll go with you!”
Nerris blinks. “...What?”
“To go ask your mom!”
“Oh! I… I wasn’t gonna do it right now, but I guess I’m going home anyways...” Maybe she should feel a little uncomfortable with the way Nikki’s inserting herself into her life, but… she doesn’t, really. Somehow it feels natural. “...So, yeah. You can come with. I mean, as long as… Would your mom be okay with it?” From what she remembers of Candy from Parent’s Day, she figures the answer is yes.
And sure enough, Nikki nods again. “She doesn’t care if I run off!” Well isn’t that concerning. Still, Nerris smiles and motions for Nikki to follow her, away from the park and down the street. “Is your house that way?” Nikki asks, pointing down the sidewalk.
“Uh… yeah,” Nerris says. She’s walking that way, so shouldn’t it be obvious? But she gets it when Nikki takes her hand and starts careening down the street. God, Nerris really hopes neither one of them slips on the ice.
“Do you think your mom can make us hot chocolate?” Nikki asks, and the hope in her voice awakens something in Nerris. Her face feels hot against the blistering winter cold, and when Nikki looks back at her and smiles … it doesn’t help.
“...Sure,” she manages to choke out, after a pause that feels awkward to her. Nikki doesn’t comment on it though, and Nerris is relieved, even as her hands start to tingle through her gloves.
