Snow.

The snow falls in drifts, settling in the crooks of Sana’s jacket and in her hair. She shivers. Her friend is supposed to meet her here, but it has already been half an hour since the agreed meetup time. Sana sniffles and pulls her jacket in tighter. Where the hell is that girl; Chou Tzuyu?

~

Tzuyu dashes down the sidewalk, running for all she is worth, regardless of the slippery roads. A patch of ice materializes out of the snowy night and Tzuyu makes an unanticipated and rather painful meeting with the ground.

She lays there for a few moments before pulling herself up onto her knees and wiping the snow off of her face. She bends forward, panting.

Seconds later she is up and running again, faster than before.

She flies past a weathered equestrian statue of some forgotten hero of the past, crumbling and broken in a pose of supposed glory. Tzuyu breezes by without giving it a second glance, focused on her goal.

~

Sana sighs and stretches her legs out. Again, her mind throws out the idea of abandoning the wait, and again, she pushes it away. She’ll come. She’s never let me down before, and she won’t let me down now. ...Well, she won’t let me down any more than she already has…

Right on cue a figure bursts out of the darkness, charging recklessly down the icy path. Sana puts out a hand and shouts a warning, but too late. The figure slips and comes crashing down to the floor, sliding to a stop just in front of Sana.

Sana shrieks and jumps down. She grabs the person’s arm and lifts her up, revealing a battered and slightly shaken Tzuyu. “Tzuyu! What are you doing, running like that? You know it’s slippery around here.”

Tzuyu scratches the back of her head. “Didn’t want to keep you waiting any longer…”

“Riiight…” Sana drops Tzuyu back to the floor, which she responds to with a meek ‘ow’. “Where were you? I’ve been waiting here, in the cold, for the past thirty minutes!”

Tzuyu slowly climbs up to her feet, brushing snow off of her face. Her head is hung down, in shame. “Sorry Sana, I, I… well, I… I was…”

“You were? You were what?”

Tzuyu suddenly looks up, her face creased in a wild grin. She whips a snowball that she had been hiding in her hand, catching Sana right in the face. Cackling, she (more carefully this time) runs off into the dark.

“Gah!” Sana shakes the snow out of her face and hair, furious. “I’ll get you for this!” She sits down and begins packing snow into snowballs, stuffing them into her pockets. “Oh just you wait, Tzuyu…”

Tzuyu watches Sana’s progress from behind a small hill. In each of her two hands she holds her next gift to Sana. With deadly aim she throws them in succession, catching Sana in the shoulder with the first and in the with the second. She chortles at the sight of Sana tumbling over, swearing audibly.

Sana mutters crossly to herself. “That girl…” Checking that her pockets are fully loaded, she stands up. “She’s in for it.”

Tossing the snowball in her right hand up and down, she taunts Tzuyu. “Tzuyu, you scaredy-cat. Get the hell out of wherever you are so I can turn you into god damn icicle!” Behind her, a poorly covered splutter gives away Tzuyu’s position. Sana readies herself.

Just as she predicted, two more snowballs fly out from behind the hill. This time Sana is prepared and she dodges to the left, letting loose her own projectiles at Tzuyu’s protruding head.

With a smack, Tzuyu’s face disappears in a blinding explosion of snow.

Sana only pauses to laugh for a second before barraging her with the rest of her cache. Once she runs out she falls to the ground, giggling uncontrollably.

Tzuyu stumbles out from her hiding spot, her face a completely unrecognizable mess of snow. On seeing that, Sana falls into another fit of giggles, completely helpless.

Tzuyu sighs and wipes the snow off of her face. “Well, that was fun. But we should really get going now, they’re waiting.”

Sana gasps for air, finally having managed to stop laughing. Wiping the tears from her eyes she shakily gets up to her feet. “Sorry Tzuyu, but your face was just…” She splutters again, but regains control. “Anyway, let’s go.”

The two slowly walk down the path. Sana looks down at her shoes, lost in thought. Tzuyu looks up at the night sky. The lack of light pollution and the crispness of the winter night allows the stars to