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Big snowflakes fall around Kuramochi. The ones you could stick your tongue out for, and actually get. They land gracefully on the ground, the sidewalks, the stairs, anywhere it can stick to, it does.
Everything is covered in white snow. It's a pretty sight. It's also light and fluffy, making it easy to walk through. Kuramochi stomps around it, enjoying the way the snow crunches beneath his feet as he turns in circles.
It's freezing, and his hands are without gloves, but he smiles. It's been too long since Kuramochi's enjoyed the snow and all it's childish activities that come with it.
"What are you, stupid? It's freezing out here."
Kuramochi feels himself smile automatically, looking up from his feet to beam at his senpai. "It's snow, Ryou-san, it's pretty."
He continues walking a little ways as the snow falls around him. Soon enough, the tracks he made will be covered up again, and he'll have to make his way back down here to reprint them.
"It's cold," he corrects. Ryousuke stands bundled up: gloves on both hands, earmuffs, scarf wrapped around his neck, concealing the bottom half of his face, and arms crossed over his chest to try and conceal warmth.
"Clearly, you haven't learned that snow is fun to be in," Kuramochi says, stopping his trail of footprints to look up at Ryousuke.
"It gets me sick," Ryousuke says blandly, "and it'll get you sick, too, if you don't come back inside."
Kuramochi hums. "Just a few more minutes."
Ryousuke frowns. "No, you'll get hypothermia."
"I won't." Kuramochi turns around to start a new trail. His fingers stay warm inside his jacket pocket, and he happily walks away from Ryousuke. One foot in front of the other, trending carefully so he won't slip on ice.
Maybe they'll have no practice to attend later, and can spend the night messing around with the snow. Kuramochi thinks of all the possibilities he can indulge in.
Snow angels that'll freeze your whole body because you willingly submerge yourself into the cold snow.
Badly made snow cones, unless Sawamura still has left over food dye from his mess of a colorful cake for Miyuki's birthday; completely forgetting that he hates sweets of any kind. They could use it to add some flavor to the snow, if it isn't nasty by then.
Snowmen who probably won't stay upright because the snow is too light for building anything, even a mini snowman. Although they could make a tiny army with some water stolen from the kitchen, but Kuramochi would need help stealing it, since he'll probably get scolded if he just takes it. Rightfully so, since it's winter and he should be inside, resting and practicing like everyone else.
But the snow is something that comes only when the seasons change, unlike baseball that's year-round. Sue him for taking a day to be a little kid and have fun again.
Then the best part of the snow. Not snow days, but snowball fights. Kuramochi's been in many snowball fights with his friends when he was younger, though it's more dangerous with them, which gave more of a greater thrill when hitting each other, throwing as hard as they possibly could.
Didn't get much better than that.
He's got a circle of footprints in the snow going on when he's hit from behind. Kuramochi freezes, blinking as he realizes who and what just hit him. He turns around with a smirk. "That was weak!"
He can see Ryousuke frown from the bottom of the stairwell, still haven't moved from his spot in fear of losing his warmth and coming into the cold.
Kind of ironic, if you think about it.
"Was not!" Ryousuke shouts back.
Kuramochi shakes his head. "Definitely was!"
He leans down to shovel snow together, though it's useless because it falls apart as soon as it comes together. Kuramochi stuffs it shut between his cupped hands. He stands back up, Ryousuke watching from afar.
He leans backwards, arm pulled back almost like a slingshot, and takes two steps away. Then Kuramochi launches, using his torso to throw farther.
The snowball falls apart mid-air, but some parts make it closer to Ryousuke, who only budges to the right a little to avoid the snow.
"You missed," he comments, a smirk on his own face.
"Think you could do better?"
"Yeah, actually."
"Prove it!" Kuramochi laughs. So Ryousuke does, kneeling down to throw some snow together before standing back up. He throws the snowball high before it plummets straight into the ground. It was a terrible throw.
"Aren't you supposed to play baseball or something?" Kuramochi teases.
"Shut up!" Ryousuke yells back, though he's laughing. "It's a completely different weight from a baseball."
Kuramochi nods in consideration. "It was better than your first throw, I'll give you that."
"You didn't even see me throw that!"
"Didn't have to, I know it was ugly!"
Ryousuke scoffs, kneeling back down to scoop up snow. He reels back to canon throw the snowball, and this time it goes reasonably far.
It nearly hits Kuramochi, if he had moved up five feet to catch it. "Hey! That was better."
Ryousuke shakes his head with a small smile, taking a jog to meet up with Kuramochi.
Kuramochi walks to meet him halfway, until Ryousuke slips and meets the snow instead. Kuramochi breaks into laughter, speeding up to meet Ryousuke.
"This is your fault," Ryousuke says, looking completely winded.
Kuramochi looms over him, smiling. "You could've went back inside. That was an option too."
"Tetsu sent me out here to get you back inside. You're going to get sick, and I'm going to get sick, and coach won't be very happy."
Ryousuke's probably right, but Kuramochi doesn't say that.
"Then we would be down two players instead of none if you just went back inside," Ryousuke says, pushing himself into a sitting position. Kuramochi hums, suddenly plopping down beside Ryousuke.
"What are you doing?" Ryousuke asks, watching as Kuramochi lays back and sprawls out.
"What does it look like?" Kuramochi spreads his arms and legs left and right. He's making a snow angel.
"You're crazy."
"I'm crazy fun," Kuramochi corrects, stopping to spare Ryousuke a glance. "You've made a snow angel before, right?"
"Of course," Ryousuke says. "But it's cold, and I'm not getting sick over a snow angel."
"It'll be a cold, if anything," Kuramochi argues. He stops, sitting up to stare at Ryousuke. "Help me up, I don't want to ruin my snow angel."
Ryousuke sighs, getting up and brushing the snow off his pants. He turns to Kuramochi's outstretched hands. "Why aren't you wearing gloves?"
"I didn't think to grab them, I just wanted to see the snow," Kuramochi says sheepishly. He's heaved up by Ryousuke, who doesn't topple with the added weight of Kuramochi.
He carefully steps out of the snow angel outline, and stands beside Ryousuke. They stare at the outline— correction— messy outline of the snow angel.
"That's terrible," Ryousuke deadpans as Kuramochi bursts into laughter.
"I thought it would look really cool, like in the movies," Kuramochi says in between fits of laughter.
"The movies fake everything, idiot," Ryousuke chides, though he's smiling too.
"Hey, you never know."
"Sometimes, you do."
Kuramochi lets out a fond sigh. It's really just a blob of a head, and badly cleared out space for wings and legs. The snow crumbles in the middle, but the defiant outline of where his butt sat appears cleanly.
Kuramochi kicks the snow back in. "Alright, no one wants to see that," he says. Ryousuke agrees, and kicks in the other side of the snow angel. A pile of fresh snow is made between them, and covers the sad figure of a snow angel underneath.
Kuramochi stands with his hands back inside his pockets. Ryousuke sneaks a glance behind him. "Ready to go back inside?"
"Yeah, about," Kuramochi answers. The sky is a bright gray, gently sending big snowflakes down to land on the ground. Kuramochi smiles as Ryousuke turns towards the dorms.
He'll definitely call his mom later to tell her about it. He remembers all the snow angels they would make, except they were actual snow angels and not whatever he made today. The snowman they'd made together was named Roy because it was Kuramochi's favorite stuffed animal growing up.
Then the hot cocoa his mom would warm up while he changed into warmer clothes and left the others on the radiator to dry. Kuramochi always stuffed more marshmallows into his cup, dumping coco all over the counter half the time and then cleaning it up because he should know better.
(He did. But the more marshmallows, the better, you know?)
All the fun memories that come along with the snow, most he had forgotten until now because he hadn't played in the snow since middle school. Then with baseball being his only focus, it wasn't his top priority to go run out in the snow.
But today was different, and maybe he can convince Sawamura to dive into the snow with him practically naked before bath time just for the fun of it.
Or shove Miyuki into the snow because he deserves it. Whatever comes first, he supposes.
"Kuramochi," Ryousuke calls out, looking over his shoulder. "It's cold!"
"Coming, coming!" Kuramochi kneels down, compacting the snow into a nice ball, then standing back up, he calls out, "Oi, Ryou-san!"
Ryousuke turns back around to see Kuramochi wave a snowball, then he launches it. Ryousuke wants to roll his eyes, but he doesn't.
Instead, he juts out his hip and rests his arm beside it. Kuramochi can't be any better at throwing a snowball than he is, so Ryousuke doesn't move.
Kuramochi's laughter crackles out from his spot beside the fallen snow angel, and Ryousuke's about ready to flip him the bird and disappear inside to a warm room and comfy blankets.
He squints against the sky as the realization that the snowball still hasn't fallen comes into view. Ryousuke turns late, and the snowball hits him square in the face. Cold ice and snow mixed up in the snowball, and Ryousuke blinks as he spots fresh blood in the snow.
Kuramochi's not laughing anymore. He's running through the snow, nearly slipping on the ice patch from earlier, and then standing in front of Ryousuke repeating the same question.
"Are you ok?" he cups both sides of Ryousuke's face, gently turning left, and then right. "Shit. I'm sorry. So sorry, Ryou-san."
Ryousuke hums. "Kind of stings."
Kuramochi continues to apologize and curse at himself, leading his senpai to the bathrooms. Ryousuke's got one gloved hand shoved against his nose, the other on Kuramochi's arm as he's blindly guided.
The wind suddenly stops blowing as the bathroom lights flicker on. Kuramochi leads him to the sink, instantly turning on the water. "Stay here," he says.
"Can't really go anywhere else, can I?" Ryousuke retorts, just because he can't let anyone off easy. It's not his style.
Kuramochi returns with paper towels, and lowers Ryousuke's arm. He replaces the blood stained glove with paper towels, holding them in place. "It's not broken, right?"
"If it was, I would be screaming in pain. A broken nose hurts," Ryousuke informs.
"You broke your nose before?"
"Fractured it after Haruichi swung the bat before I had moved out of the way. He cried about it the whole night until I let him sleep beside me to show him I wasn't crying. Then we ended up playing would you rather the whole night instead of sleeping," Ryousuke says with a small smile.
"Oh," Kuramochi responds, taking one paper towel and wetting it under the running water. "Doesn't sound like fun."
"Not at the time." Ryousuke lets Kuramochi turn his face, gently swiping away any blood he sees. "But it's something we can laugh at now."
Kuramochi hums, raising an eyebrow. "More like you can laugh at. I bet Haruichi still apologizes."
Ryousuke chuckles. "He does."
"I would be too, if I were in his shoes." Kuramochi switches paper towels with Ryousuke. Throwing the bloody ones in the sink behind Ryousuke, and giving him new, clean white ones.
"You sort of are," Ryousuke bluntly states.
Kuramochi snorts. "Yeah. I guess I am," he says after a moment.
He continues to help Ryousuke. The latter let's him. He hates nosebleeds, and Kuramochi's surprisingly gentle with him. His touches are light, and when they're not, they're quick. He cleans dried up blood and the bleeding slows down.
"Ok, you should be ok in a few minutes. Otherwise we'll have to find someone else to help," Kuramochi says, eyes moving quickly from his nose to Ryousuke's eyes, then back down to his nose.
"Thank you," Ryousuke says.
"For what?" Kuramochi stares at him like he's crazy. "I gave you a nosebleed."
"Then cleaned me up. Most people just gave me a nosebleed and left it at that." Ryousuke smirks at the double take Kuramochi does.
"You fought people?" he asks incredulously. "Like punch to punch?"
"Don't look so surprised," Ryousuke frowns. "I have."
"Ryou-san, you scare me."
"Haven't I always scared you?"
"No, before I just thought you were crazy. But you're definitely scary. I see why people fear you," Kuramochi says.
Ryousuke doesn't waste effort on finding out if the other truly means it or not. Kuramochi's stuck beside him then, he stay by him now.
"Maybe that's why we get along so well," Ryousuke says, watching as Kuramochi picks up the bloody paper towels with a clean one, and throws them away.
"Violence?"
"You beat up Sawamura, and I've heard rumors from Jun and Miyuki about your middle school days," Ryousuke says with a smirk.
Kuramochi blinks. "I wrestle with Sawamura, I couldn't punch him for 10,000 yen. Plus middle school was different, and I'd prefer to forget about it."
"I heard you had your hair dyed blonde."
"Ryou-san," Kuramochi pleads. He chucks the last of the paper towels away, and turns the sink on to drain the blood. "It was a phase."
"A coming of age?"
"Sure," Kuramochi shivers with a frown. "If you want to call it that."
The sink shuts off, and Kuramochi turns to give his full attention to Ryousuke. "Is it still bleeding?"
Ryousuke removes the paper towel. The towel is full of nasty blood, but Ryousuke presses against his nose, and only some blood appears.
"Yeah, it's stopping," he says, exchanging paper towels with Kuramochi.
"Good," Kuramochi says. "The worst I've ever gotten from a snowball fight was a scratch under my eye."
Ryousuke raises an eyebrow.
Kuramochi waves his hand. "My friends and I would put rocks in our snowballs and throw them at each other so it hurt more. And oh boy, it could hurt."
"Sounds stupid."
Kuramochi cracks a smile. "It was. But so fun at the same time. I was really good with my aim, so my friends usually ganged up on me. One of them hit my face and my eye started bleeding. So when I got back home, my mom chewed out my friends and we went to the emergency room."
Ryousuke chuckles and Kuramochi nods. "Yeah, it was a long night. I had to go to an eye doctor to get checked out and they said I was fine, so."
"I doubt that," Ryousuke teases. Kuramochi smiles. He removes the paper towel, seeing the blood lighter, and switches to another side.
"Wanna make hot cocoa?"
"Can I trust you? You won't slip a rock inside and choke me?" Ryousuke asks, smirking.
Kuramochi scoffs. "C'mon, my mom showed me a cool recipe to make it, and it tastes good."
"It's milk and cocoa, it couldn't be more complicated than that," Ryousuke argues. He gets up, switches paper towels, and follows Kuramochi to the door.
"No, I'll show you." Kuramochi opens the door, and they both shuffle back out into the cold. "And they better have marshmallows. You can't have hot cocoa without marshmallows."
"Says who?"
Kuramochi stops. "Ryou-san, are you serious right now?"
Ryousuke shakes his head, shoving Kuramochi forward. "Let's go get hot cocoa. I deserve it after all."
"Well of course, of course." Kuramochi plays along. They poke fun at each other until they walk into the dining hall.
Turns out they aren't the only ones who want in the dining hall. Tanba sits inside, reading whatever and eating what looks like soup. He pauses when the two of them storm in.
"Hi Tanba-san!" Kuramochi greets while Ryousuke flashes him a peace sign.
"Hi?" Tanba says, raising an eyebrow at Ryousuke.
"He hit me," Ryousuke says.
Kuramochi spins around. "Not like that!" he yells, "completely on accident."
Tanba raises his hands in a surrender. "I'm going to pretend I didn't see anything." He watches as the two of them make their way to the kitchen, opening draws and searching for spoons, mugs, and such.
Tanba hurries to eat his soup so he can just get out of their way. He's heard them two talk alone before, and it's weird to hear Ryousuke laugh so often with someone, let alone smile. He doesn't want to stick around longer than needed.
"Tanba-san, you want a cup of hot cocoa?" Kuramochi asks, appearing over the counter.
Tanba shakes his head. "I'm good, just going to leave here."
"It's his mom's special recipe," Ryousuke adds, chuckling when Kuramochi tells him to knock that off.
"Oh well, your loss then." he turns around and rubs his hands together. Both their jackets are shed and sit on the table, along with a green glove and a once green glove now covered in blood.
Tanba sighs and picks up his stuff. "Yeah. Have fun, don't make a mess."
"We won't!"
"Definitely will, then blame it on you."
The two respond at the same time. Tanba shakes his head. "Goodbye."
He receives two actual goodbyes and one goodnight from Kuramochi, like the good kouhai he is, then hurries out of the dining hall and to his room.
He can press Ryousuke for details at lunch tomorrow, but he can be nice and offer them privacy now. Maybe Ryousuke will finally get his head out of his ass.
Most likely not, but worth a shot anyway.
"Nothing happened," Ryousuke repeats, though he refuses to look anyone in the face directly.
"You didn't come back until after curfew," Jun says, pointing a finger at him. "What did you do that you didn't return in fifteen minutes."
Ryousuke sighs, though it quickly turns into a sneeze. "Stupid cold weather," he mutters.
"I thought you hated the cold," Testu says. "You got sick last year, too."
"That's because I have a terrible immune system," Ryousuke says. "And I do hate the cold."
"But you played out in the snow," Tanba speaks up, though he wished he hadn't when Ryousuke turns towards him with his signature smile.
"Ehhh? Did you really?" Jun asks. "You never, ever, ever, had a snowball fight with us, Ryousuke. Ever."
"I watched him make a snow angel and then threw a snowball, that's all." Ryousuke chirps quickly. "Now shush, all of you, and let me be."
"Ryousuke." The four of them turn to see Chris approaching, a bag in his hand. He lifts it slightly. "I was told to give this to you." He sets it down on his desk.
Everyone stares at him, and Ryousuke feels himself turning red. "It's not a confession or anything!" he whisper-yells.
"Then what is it?" Jun asks, looking into the bag. Ryousuke whisks him away.
"It's mine, whatever it is," Ryousuke mumbles, reaching into the bag to pull out a container of soup. The corners of his mouth lift slightly.
"Oh my gosh," Tanba groans.
"Disgusting. Absolutely smitten," Jun accuses with a roll of his eyes.
"Definitely weird," Tetsu comments.
"What's this about?" Chris asks, mildly confused. He takes a seat beside Tanba, who fills him in briefly.
"Shut up," Ryousuke says, popping open the lid and taking in the warmth the soup provides. It smells really good, and maybe Ryousuke underestimated Kuramochi's ability to cook.
Or to cook soup at least, which is reasonable to make. It's soup for crying out loud.
He takes his spoon and dips it in, hoping it'll make his throat feel better. No more snow angels or snowball fights in the winter anymore. "It's only because you guys said he shouldn't be out there that I went outside."
"No, one minute you were there, the next, the door clicks shut and you're gone," Jun says. "We just said he probably would stay out there all night like he tried to last year."
"Yeah, thankfully Masuko keeps tabs on his behavior with the snow," Tetsu says, nodding slightly.
Ryousuke goes to respond, but is interrupted when said roommate walks in and smells the air.
"Oh! I see Kuramochi-chan left you a bowl of soup. It was so good, though I only got one bowl since he said he needed it. He promised to buy me more pudding for eating the last container, so I'll hold him to it," Masuko says, sitting down next to Ryousuke.
Ryousuke groans as the guys start laughing and teasing.
"I'm going to kill you, Masuko," he says as Masuko looks around in confusion.
Ryousuke tries not to dwell on it long, instead picking his spoon back up to begin eating. He's delighted to find it smells as good as it tastes, and he'll definitely tell Kuramochi that later.
But for now, he pretends not to hear Jun's teasing and Tetsu agreeing with him. He's enjoying his soup, and they can't spoil his mood.
Not even the snow that continues to fall outside will spoil it. This cold, on the other hand, could possibly ruin it, if it doesn't disappear soon.
But that'll just give Ryousuke a reason to give Kuramochi a hard time for it— if he isn't bed ridden with his own fever by then. But he'll visit later to check in.
For now, he'll enjoy his soup and warm hands gratefully.