Work Text:
“But as long as you'd love me so
Let it snow! Let it snow and snow!”
-Let It Snow, Let It Snow!, Frank Sinatra
Outside, Rin could hear a faint roar of an engine, accompanied by some footsteps.
“Rin,” Yugo—at least she recognized it to be him—called carefully from outside the door, for some reason. “Can I come iinnn?”
Rin ran to said door and opened it. “Hey, ‘sup?”
Before he came, she was in the Hiiragis’ living room, trying to port the RSV tech’s code on her laptop to make it more D-wheel compatible, and back there she returned to work.
It took a long while, but, a few months ago, they finished fixing the D-Wheel. And with the existence of Real Solid Vision, the two knew they just had to be the first to implement the system to D-Wheels.
Anyway, Yugo had, for some inexplicable and unknown reason, kept quiet for a few minutes—which of course is new to someone like him—before speaking. “Sooo… I had this great idea—”
Rin gave her banana-haired friend a warning side-eye, feeling that whatever he was about to tell her would, in a way, somehow make her rather mad.
And although he noticed, he went on anyway, because he still thought it was a great idea. “—about our D-wheel, and I implemented it! Do you wanna know?”
She remained silent, waiting for Yugo to go on and tell her so that she can decide whether she should yell at him or not. “...sure.”
“I took its wheels and…”—another glare to him—“AND I-I-I… replaced them with some other stuff, modifying it into a…” A pause. “Snow…mobile.”
Silence, oh, sweet—nevermind, not-so sweet—silence.
Then a, “You what!? ” which was accompanied by Rin standing upright.
“Dang, just come with me!” And Yugo took her right hand, taking her with him before she could say another word. Though, of course, she muttered question after question while this happened.
He dragged her until they got out of the door—it was COLD—and presented to her the Runner-turned-snowmobile.
Rin gaped at the abomination in front of her.
“Isn't it beautiful? Plus, it's winter—it's a perfect time to take it on for a spin! And I know it works because, well, I drove it all the way here!”
Beautiful… Beautiful!? Well it does look cool, BUT STILL!
“What-what-wh—WHAT'D YOU DO??”
“Okay look, I did remember all you said about not tinkering with it, but I couldn't resist! Plus, now we can duel on snowmobiles—isn't that cool?” Yugo went on, a little too enthusiastically for Rin's current mood.
All that work put into porting…
“Plus,” Yugo continued, with sadness in his voice, “I can turn it back into a Runner, if you really want me to.”
Oh. Right. That is still possible, and she knew herself it was.
Still, maybe she should give it a chance. Modifying it like this probably took a good number of weeks, maybe even a month or two—and a lot of hiding from her.
She took some breaths and calmed herself down.
“You know… Fine. Let's take it out. I can continue the port next time.”
“No way, really!?”
“Take the chance or leave it,” Rin retorted, “I'm still not too amused, you know.”
“Okay, okay,” Yugo said. “Let's get your coat, gloves, and scarf out first!”
“I like how you thought of that,” Rin complimented, getting up.
“Well, I remembered safety first! And it’s cold.”
After a bit, they returned out with Rin wearing her proper winter attire.
Yugo could hop to the other side of the Runner—he thought to still just call it that—but stopped himself. Then he realized he couldn't actually stop himself and giddily hop-hopped there and got on.
Rin meanwhile calmly sat behind him and held the handle thing at the back.
“Onward, my steed!” Yugo yelled, feeling the purr of the engine and revving the thing up as if it was a Runner (although at heart, it really still is ).
Then, they flew out to the road, the thing going faster as it clutched the snow.
“Woohoooo!” Yugo yelled, feeling adrenaline through his veins and capillaries and all else, brushing the thought of capillaries actually being the smaller part of the blood vessels out of his brain.
Rin was amazed at how the thing worked perfectly, but what could she expect from Yugo himself? Of course he would make it his best. Plus, mechanical work was really more his thing even if she was good enough herself. Software was just more her forté.
The feeling on the snowmobile was still a bit similar to that of being on a Runner, except the environment was, of course, much colder, and that there was less risk of losing balance. There was also the addition of noise coming from the gears of the tracks, but that didn’t bother her much.
She herself loved the feeling of the cold on her face. A difference she loves, as normally it's just windy. But now? Now it was nice and much colder, almost the perfect temperature for her as long as she had a coat on.
“Hey, should we go to Synchro?” Yugo asked. He quite missed his dimension, even though he and his counterparts-turned-brothers visited it just about a week ago.
Rin remembered that, actually. “Didn't you —” Screw it. “Oh what, sure. Let's go right ahead!”
And with a “Really!?” exclamation from Yugo and one more affirmation from Rin, off to Synchro they dashed.
From the high overpasses above, they sped off to the roads of the Commons—the familiar roads of what used to be their own little home, the roofs of the many houses and structures covered with snow.
Their Dimension, they've noticed, was colder than others during winter. Why? Well, they don't exactly know.
“Rinrin, look!” Yugo pointed to a particular place in the commons: a lake that everyone miraculously thought was not a place to litter in thus keeping it clean.
Due to winter, the lake was frozen, and the people—being people—went there with skates and skated on its still, frozen water.
As if guessing her to-be-mentioned thoughts, Yugo asked, “Wanna take a break and skate?”
“I—hm.” Rin was unsure. She had never skated on ice before, although she’s always imagined what that was like. She and Yugo had skated with roller skates before, but still, she was unsure.
That last thought felt reassuring as she remembers hearing about how the two ways of skating were closely similar in movement. “...Sure. We’ve never ice skated, but we have roller skated. So… Maybe?”
“Oh yeah! I’ve heard from someone that they are a bit the same—’twas probably Yuya who told me. Shouldn’t be too hard.”
Yugo parked the snowmobile-runner somewhere nearby before both he and Rin dismounted it.
“We’ll be back, bud!” Yugo said to the runner. He’s always treated it like that. And to a degree, Rin does so too.
The two then went to a small tent which wasn’t there before the war and rented two pairs of skates.
Poor Yugo though got one a size bigger than his own as the place had run out of pairs his size. “Damn, you think these’ll be a bit wobbly?”
“Probably, but don’t worry—I’ll help you out if I need to.”
When they finally got to the ice, the first thing Yugo did was— OOMPH .
Slip.
The first thing he did was slip, falling flat on his face.
“Are you okay?” Rin asked, skittering.
“Yep! Perfectly fine!” Yugo put his knees to the ice and tried pushing himself up. This didn’t help much so he ended up crawling and slipping until he reached the snow on the lakeside.
He sat there for a few moments, trying hard to dig through his brain and find the knowledge he knew he had about skating.
Hearing the sounds of blades on ice, he looked about him to observe people, but instead he caught himself looking at Rin.
Ah, she looked so graceful skating around. It wasn’t perfect nor as elegant as an experienced skater, but he believes she was.
To be fair, she skated much better than the way a number of people were doing it.
And significantly better than him. He smiled and sighed a happy, affectionate sigh. It was a nice little sight to see her enjoying herself…
This pushed him to get himself up. He had to be with her. He had to learn; he had to remember!
But Rin ended up helping him in the end.
“Hold on. Don’t let go or you might slip and fa—AH!”
Yugo was a bit too heavy for her to lift, and one wrong slip of his was enough to bring both of them down.
“Sorry…” He didn’t like how he brought Rin down with him—figuratively and literally. “I wish I didn't mess up like this so much…” He’s not one to get too emotional, but still…
“Yugo,” Rin called, getting herself and helping Yugo up, “it’s alright: this happens to all of us. Whether you’re a novice or an expert, you’re still gonna slip—the latter much less of course, but you get what I mean.”
Yugo nodded. “Yeah, I do. I wanna get better, like you!”
“Then let’s go on,” Rin smiled with a “You can do it!” look in her eyes.
Snow started to fall the more minutes passed, which caused… everyone to leave, at times one-by-one, at other times in groups. But in the end, all left.
Except them. They were alone now.
And that means they can do whatever they want.
Until now, Rin continued to help Yugo go on and skate, and with people leaving, the latter finally got to change to a pair of skates his size.
When she thought he was a bit more ready than last time, she pushed him away but skated a bit near, just in case he’d still need her.
“Woo! Haha!” Yugo shouted, spreading his arms for balance. He then made a simple turn back to her. “Rin, I think I'm getting better!”
Rin gave him a hearty laugh. “I can see! That’s awesome!”
She smiled seeing him circle the lake.
And, of course, she joined him at some point.
Together they went round and round the iced lake, as free as if they were a bird and the lake was their sky.
They raced, let go, and circled the lake separately once and met each other again, catching each other's hands in their own.
As they thought, thought of how much they've dreamed of this moment—to escape poverty and change their beloved city—they looked at each other, affection clear on both.
Rin stared straight at him, at his cute, a-bit-red-from-tiredness face, his light blue eyes and his blue-and-blond mix of hair—all the same as when they were younger, and the light snow that made his shoulders and hair a place to land.
He looked rather adorable, she admits.
And Yugo, although he too looked at her, his mind raced at the thought of it being weird that he was doing so, especially for a long time (though of course he didn't think that way—that looking too long is weird about Rin; it's perfectly fine that she's doing it).
But he couldn't help it! he thought, because just like Rin, his mind and heart went on to observe her features: the beautiful, marmalade-colored eyes and the lush, mint green hair moving with the wind as they circled and circled, and the thin layer of snow that complemented her light blue-green coat perfectly.
Just like that the world around them was gone.
Closer and closer to each other they leaned, well—
Until the snow surrounding the lake had something to say about it.
“WHAAUGH—” they both yelled/screamed as they tripped and with a blink Yugo was on Rin, both their faces close as when they still skated.
But a bit too close, as their noses were mere millimeters away from each other.
Realizing this, their faces both turned as red as Yuya's hair—or at least that's how everyone who knows Yuya just describes blushing now, but enough of that! Both. Both of them blushed and were so near each other and Yugo’s redness was definitely not because they’ve been skating now and—
“Okay,” Rin said, pushing herself away a bit too quickly that she and Yugo hit each other's foreheads a lil’ too hard, making them both back off—Rin deciding to drag anyway—from each other, groaning in pain.
“Uh,” she started, still rubbing her forehead, “that was… A bit weird…”
Yugo nodded, putting snow on his forehead as a makeshift ice bag. “Oh! Hm, y—yeah…”
“Should we… head back?” Rin suggested, following Yugo's thing with the snow on the forehead.
“I guess,” Yugo shrugged, looking away.
“Yeah. You know, let—let's just go.”
Yugo agreed and the two returned the skates before walking to the runner.
But… Rin noticed that Yugo looked rather cold, and the recent fall justifies it.
She decided to take her dark-green scarf off. “Need it?”
“Well—yeah—but it's okay,” he assured, still embarrassed, and went straight to the runner.
But Rin put it around him anyway.
“Rin…”
“ I decided to put it on you, and don't you dare take it off.”
“Oh, okay,” he said, scratching the back of his head.
With Rin at the front, they rode all the way back to Pendulum.
The ride back was quiet, as both were still rather embarrassed at The Thing that happened some time ago.
But when they got home, Yugo over-thought so much he apologized to Rin just as much as he over-thought, which was a lot.
“Please, I wasn't looking and you weren't either I know but still I should've focused more please forgive me I didn't mean for it—the fall—to happen and then you had to give me your scarf—” he said, so quickly, that if he were to put it to writing, the commas would be nonexistent, such as the case here.
But Rin neither wanted nor needed the apologies knowing they both well had a fault—or, well, had no fault, actually.
“It’s alright, Yugo. Why don't we do something else in the meantime?”
She had driven them both back to her home with the Hiiragi's. The house was empty right now as Ruri and Yuzu were out on a double-date and Serena went to visit Fusion along with Yuri. And Shuzo meanwhile was out buying gifts and such, meaning all of them would take a while before actually coming back.
And so Yugo thought. He sat down beside the couch—or on the floor—and thought hard about how to make it up to Rin.
And well, thankfully, a thought came up!
“Rin, I know what I can do!” Yugo now knew, and though he wasn't that good, “I'm gonna try and cook!”
Rin, who was still placing her coat on a hook, whipped her head around to look at him. “Okay, Yugo, I know you mean good but… I'll try to make something.”
But even if she was the one who heated some hot water to put in their instant ramen, Yugo tried to contribute anyway, making some hot chocolate. He did not want to be useless.
Rin let him do what he did knowing there's no way he could mess something like that up.
After all this, they settled on the thick carpet in the living room, eating and drinking.
“Hey, Rin,” Yugo began, poking at his ramen. “You don't… Have to lie to me about the D-Wheel. If you don't like that I changed it, it's alright.”
Rin shook her head in slight amusement, which Yugo took as a bit of a bad sign. “Oh Yugo… I'll admit at first I was seriously not onboard with the idea.”
She put her chopsticks down and looked him straight in the eyes. “Especially after I made it very clear that you shouldn't modify it after we finish the port. And ‘cause we just finished rebuilding it.”
“Yeah,” Yugo murmured awkwardly, “sorry ’bout that.”
“It’s fine,” Rin assured. “To continue my statement—honestly, now, I like what you did to it.”
The banana-blueberry head beamed at this. “You sure…?”
“Of course. At least now we can use it in the snow, you know? Not just during non-snowy days. And hey, I admire your dedication to it and the fact that you even managed to modify it…” she sighed, “and also your bravery of even showing it to me.”
“I had to!” Yugo said after taking a gulp of his hot chocolate, leaving a little choco-mustache on him.
She laughed a little at this, and continued to eat. After she swallowed, she said, “Though, you're right: now we have a chance to duel on the road while it snows. And heck, that'd be really fun.”
“Yeah! I think the others would find the idea really cool, too,” Yugo added.
“Wait, don't your counterparts know about this?”
“Only Mrs. Saka— mom does as I had to use the garage, plus she’s supportive and helps now and then,” he admitted, “so… No. Yuya doesn’t know a thing but Yuto and Yuri have been suspecting me for weeks . You’re the first other than mom to know.”
“I’m the first, huh…” Rin muttered.
“Of course! You're the best person in all dimensions, after all!” Yugo exclaimed happily, which made Rin's heart palpitate a bit more quickly.
“And…” Yugo turned to her, putting his cup of ramen down, “you deserve to see it. You originally made it with me, after all. You were with me all the way: when something exploded or sparked, leaked or malfunctioned—you’d always help me.”
He then gave her a determined look. “But of course, I do my best to pay you back for all those times!”
‘And I let you, no matter how bad things can sometimes be,’ Rin thought warmly.
“You helped us reach our dreams…” Yugo murmured, taking a nibble on a part of the noodle.
“You did your part too,” Rin assured. “But not all yet. We still have the next Friendship cup to win!”
“I’m positive we’ll still win it when the day comes!” Yugo exclaimed. “That’s never left my brain.”
“Me too, of course. We’ll see who’ll end up dueling Yuya,” Rin challenged with a smile.
“Yeah,” Yugo laughed. “But, hey, since we don’t exactly have much to do right now, wanna watch a movie?”
“Oh, yeah, sure. Let’s do it!”
A big blanket, a discussion of what to watch and two more mugs of hot chocolate later, the two then settled on a movie and on the couch.
The day then ended for the two, and when Shuzo came home to find them asleep leaning on the other, he smiled, thinking they… kinda reminded him of Yuzu and Yuya. He then turned the TV off, and let them be (and told the others to let them be as well).