I woke up with an arm resting above my stomach and a head snuggled at the crook of my neck.

Just kidding.

I woke up to the two bickering in the kitchen.

“I told you to peel half of the potatoes!” Aziel said, exasperated, looking like he’s done with Jayce.

“I just did! I see nothing wrong with that!” He said while gesturing at the pot, offended by the way Aziel’s treating him.

“I meant half of the number of potatoes that we have. Not literally half of each potato!” Aziel exclaimed while he pulled out a half-skinned potato. I let out a small chuckle at the scene I woke up to. They both turned their heads to me. I lowered my head immediately to hide my face. Sometimes I look good after waking up, and most of the time not. I’m not sure how I look today, but I ain’t risking it. This face is not really something you’d want to see first thing in the morning.

“Now you woke Maisie up!” Jayce said as he hit Aziel on his arm. Aziel’s eyes widened at this. At first, I thought that he’d reprimand Jayce for seeing how Aziel’s always responsible for taking care of everything. Turns out, I was wrong. Aziel hit him back, and it continued like that until they tried to wrestle with each other. It surprised me with how strong Jayce was, even with the height difference that they have. I only laughed at their childishness. Standing up from the bed, I acted like a responsible person. I flattened the bedsheets and fixed the makeshift pillow. If I were at home, I'd leave my bed as is. Why bother making the bed when it will be disheveled later. I have to put up a front with strangers, ya know. You don’t want them to see right through you.

“Where can I wash up?” I asked while covering my mouth, insecure of morning breaths. How come they always miss these kinds of things in stories? I read fanfics that make out as soon as they wake up. Ew.

However, as I turned around, Jayce went behind me, and Aziel almost hit me with a large wooden spoon. My eyes widened at the almost impact while Jayce held my shoulders and ducked his head behind my back. Suddenly, I feel conscious of my smell. Do I smell sweaty?

“Jayce! You better peel all the potatoes before it softens!” Aziel said as he placed his hands on his waist. Jayce peeked from my shoulder and pushed me to Aziel before dashing off to the kitchen. Aziel caught me before I fell. Jayce’s escape attempt is futile though. It’s not like space here is big enough for him to escape. Aziel just has to take 3 or 4 steps before reaching him. I stood up immediately as soon as I found my balance.

“You can wash up there. I already prepared a bowl of water. The smaller bowl is saltwater,” Aziel said and patted my head. He turned around and hit Jayce on the head with the wooden spoon while Jayce was not looking. I heard Jayce whine and Aziel only scoffed. I already love this morning.

After eating breakfast, we checked on the animals. However, when Jayce opened the door carelessly, all the snow fell onto him. I snickered when it was his turn to fall because of opening the door. Jayce glared at the snow before standing up. I felt thrilled with the sight of the snow. The depth of the snow reached my clavicle. Jayce laughed at me when he noticed it, too. The snow barely reached Aziel’s and Jayce’s chest. The world is really unfair. Since I don’t know how to react, I slapped his arm and pretended to be offended.

Aziel went to their treasure chest and pulled out two shovels, then handed one to Jayce.

“Wait here for a while, Maisie. We’ll just clear up the path,” Aziel softly pushed me out of the way while Jayce shoveled the snow away from the door.

“I want to help too!” I blurted out. I also want to experience digging snow. All I could dig back at home was dirt.

Jayce snorted before laughing out loud. I crossed my arms and gave him a bemused face. When he decided to finally stop, I only raised a brow at him.

“Darling, the moment you step out into the snow, we won’t be digging to clear the path. We will dig to find you!” And with that, he laughed some more. I glared at him while trying to stop my smile. I snatched Aziel’s shovel. Surprisingly, he didn’t fight me on it and actually was willing to give it to me. Walking towards the snow, I dug as many as I could and barely threw some at him. At least, even if it’s just a quarter of what I actually dug, it still hit him in the face. Now it was my turn to laugh. When Aziel realized what just happened, he laughed louder than I was while Jayce stood there frozen.

“Oh, love. You better run!” Jayce warned, and suddenly, adrenaline coursed through my veins that it didn’t register in my mind that I threw a snowball at his face. I squealed at the realization and tried to run away. Jayce was right, because of how thick the snow was, I ended up swimming through the snow that almost ate me, making it harder to escape.

Because of my slow progress in escaping, he caught me. He wrapped his arms around my waist, lifted me up, and swayed me sideways. I was out of breath because of the non-stop laughing. Aziel tried to throw a snowball at Jayce, but it hit me instead. Jayce stopped moving while I slowly turned my head to Aziel. I saw him gulp as Jayce lowered me.

“THIS IS WAR!!!” I shouted before grabbing more snowballs. We put the task of shoveling away the snow on hold as we began our snowball fight. Sometimes Jayce and I teamed up to attack Aziel. Of course, what’s a game without betrayal?

We all ended up lying on the snow, our heads touching together. With all that fight, we still managed to clear some path. We were all sweating but freezing at the same time.

“We better finish this task. We still need to tend to the animals.” Aziel said, still laying on the ground.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get up.” Jayce replied, but not making any effort to move or to get up.

“The animals must be hungry,” I added, but none of us were even moving.

“Let’s get up.”

“Yep.”

“Yes.”

“We should work.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Right.”

We stayed like that for a long time; lying on the ground with no plans of moving while saying that we should get up.

“You get up first,” I said, still looking at the sky, at Jayce, and tried to place some snow on him. I heard him whine and some slap.

“Aziel, you do it. You’re the oldest one in the group,” Jayce continued to whine while there’s a continuous exchange of slaps. I was surprised when the hit was then transferred to me. I slapped back, only to receive it again. I also slapped the other side, so now we’re just passing slaps. We won’t really have any progress if we continue like this. I stood up and threw some snow at both of them. They whined, and I only rose a brow at them. They begrudgingly stood up, only to drag me back down. I let out a yelp as I fell between them. They locked me with their arms while they giggled.

“I swear, I really thought you were the mature one,” I said, while I contained my laughter, pertaining to Aziel.

“Sssshhhhh… Swearing is bad, love,” they snickered, and I could only roll my eyes. I tried standing up, but they kept pulling me down.

“Let me gooooo,” I complained to the two giants beside me. They ignored me and looked for comfort on my shoulders. If I were naïve, I would’ve probably easily caught feelings for one of them. This is the most attention that I have received in my entire life. Tired of their childishness, I bit the nearest arm on my face.

“OW!” Jayce quickly stood up and moved away from me. Aziel got scared and stood up, also. This made me chuckle as I shook my head.

“Come on now, we would starve if we won’t work before sunset,” I said while standing up and patting away all the snow that clung to my cloak. When I looked up, Jayce was glaring at me with a pout while rubbing his arm.

“You bit me…” I can only coo at the cuteness that made him pout some more. Aziel patted his head, and finally, we worked. I helped with clearing up the snow. Jayce took care of the animals, while Aziel handled the vegetables.

I finished ahead of them. I built a snowman and placed a straw hat on it, and a worn-out rag for its scarf. With nothing left to do, I sat at the table outside and drowned myself with my thoughts. Does my mother know that I’m missing? Are they even looking for me? I miss my home. I’m actually scared that if I went missing, my mom would try to look for me illegally (paying large amounts of money to some sketchy people). My mom is smart, but she’s also human. You’ll never know what desperation does to a person. I wanted her to find me, but at the same time, not? I want to be saved, but I also don’t want to be a burden anymore. At least, with me gone, there will be fewer expenses and fewer problems for her.

Today started with a happy and light mood. Now I’m scared that something bad will happen after this day. It’s always like that. You can never be too happy without something bad that’s bound to happen.

Ok. Maisie. I’m here for a reason. I just need to find my purpose. Is it big? Do I have a heavy responsibility? Should I change this world? Am I some sort of prophecy or so