There was a time that winter was your favorite season of the year. You love the warm sweets, the hot drinks and Christmas is probably your favorite holiday, which is impressive, because it has to compete with Halloween, which by all rights, should be a witch's favorite holiday.
Right now, you're thinking about throwing out all of your rankings and starting over because walking down the street with the snowy wind blowing in your face for the fifth day in a row, you're pretty sure you hate Winter now.
Today's Friday. It's been doing this - "this" being the snow and the cold and the wind blowing right in your face, regardless of which direction you're going - every day since Monday. On your way to school, then on your way to the library for studying, then on your way to your part-time job at the cafe, then on the way home, every day, all week! This is patently unfair! What's worse is after being on your feet for basically your entire shift (turns out people really need coffee when it's cold and dark the entire week), you have to go right back to studying for exams when you get home. Part of you just really wants to curl up with a book or play some Pokemon, but you know you're gonna go right back to your textbooks the second you're done scaling the hill up to your house...which feels about twice as long today. God, your feet hurt so much.
"--WAAAH!"
About halfway up, you catch a patch of ice that was buried under the snow, slip and fall face first into the snow, bumping your arm on the way down. You let out a whine and swipe and kick at the air a bit before you drag yourself back up. You stop to check your backpack and make sure none of your books fell out, before you continue upwards. You let out a breath of relief when you make it to the top of the hill and the one-story cottage that means you've finally, finally made it home and you don't have to go back outside at all until Monday morning. You reach a mittened hand out for the door --
-- only for it to swing open before you can touch it and for a pair of arms to reach out and usher you in.
"Come on, come on," you hear a familiar voice saying as you're pulled inside, the door shutting behind you as you enter into the kitchen/dining room of your house. "I saw you trip on the way up. Are you okay?"
"I -- I'm fine," you say, wincing a little as you move your arm. You take off your hat and scarf, your jacket is being pulled off for you. "There was just some ice under the snow." She lets out a sigh.
"I've tried to clear a path every day this week and it just keeps piling up. Maybe I should throw some salt down..." You take a second to look at her -- your older sister, Agnis. You see her boots are on, her coat is half-on and half hanging off of her body and you realize she was probably all of a couple seconds from running out the door and carrying you the rest of the way once she saw you fall. "How was work?"
"Busy," you breathe out as you finish taking everything off. "First I was working the register, then I was making drinks, then I was giving people their orders...my feet really hurt," you groan as Agnis puts away both of your jackets and then walks over to the stove. First she opens it up and pulls something out. Then, she takes a teapot and pours something into a cup. A couple of scents hit your nose and your eyes widen as she arranges all of it onto a plate.
"Well, I think after helping so many people get their refreshments, you've earned some of your own," Agnis says with a smile as she brings the plate to you. You practically cry at the sight of it - hot apple cinnamon tea and your favorite, marshmallow chocolate chip cookies. You poke at one of them - it's still warm and soft. Did Agnis time her baking so they'd be at the optimal temperature and softness right as you walked in the door? You're pretty sure she did.
"This is...." You stare at the plate for a few seconds. Your voice cracks as you say, "Very, very special to me." You let out a breath. "I'll have them in my room. The sugar will prove to be invaluable fuel for my studying." You start to take the plate, but Agnis keeps a grip on it.
"Come into the living room," she says with a gesture of her head. You quirk an eyebrow up and grab your backpack before you follow her. Your jaw almost falls at what's waiting for you - a roaring fire going in the fireplace and all of the ottomans and spare cushions and pillows from throughout the house all stacked up at the foot of the couch to make...
"Supercouch......" you say with a degree of wistfulness in your voice. "You made supercouch....!"
"Mmmn. I saw all of the snow and thought about how hard you've worked this week and it just felt like the right thing to do," Agnis said. She gestures. "Come on. Radio or TV, you can pick." And you...really want to. You want to go jump on it right now and grab one of those quilts, but you stop yourself.
"I...can't," you say with a little bit of a groan. Agnis looks at you, confused. "I...I have to study. I have exams." Agnis blinks once, then a smile comes over her face. She sets the plate down on a coffee table and places a hand on your head.
"Nessa," she says. "You've been studying and working all week."
"But -- you said I can only keep my job if I make sure my grades don't slip! Plus -- I have to pass my exams if I want to get into a good university, like Manchester or...!"
"That's true, I did say that," she interrupts. "I think maybe I wasn't being very fair to you when I did. You're doing great in your classes and you're doing great at your job and I think I should've been more supportive the first time you asked me if you could get a job. And I'm going to be more supprotive to you going forward." She paused and then quickly added, "Unless it's too hard and you want to quit and spend all of your free time at home with me, because I'll support that too--"
"No, Agnis, I wanna keep doing it," you say, flatly. Agnis looks disappointed, but she chuckles.
"Can't blame me for trying," she says. "Either way....you're working and studying more than hard enough right now, Nessa. What I want you to do tonight is go put on your pajamas, grab a book and your Game Boy, enjoy your tea and your cookies and spend the rest of the night on this couch." You let out a breath and your shoulders slump. You really can't argue with that and frankly, you don't want to anymore. You take your backpack off your shoulder and demonstratively fling it back into the kitchen where it can wait until tomorrow.
"I'm gonna go put on my pajamas," you say tiredly. Agnis nods and smiles.
"And please don't talk about getting into a university yet," she adds, ruffling your hair a bit before she lets you go. "I want to spend as much of the next two years pretending you'll be here forever as I can."
"I can't do anything about that!" you say behind you as you head down the hallway towards your room.
---
Some time later, after all of the tea and cookies have been consumed, you're fully ensconsed in the loving grip of the supercouch, one blanket from your room and one of the big quilts wrapped around you. You're on one side of the couch watching TV, Agnis is on the other, next to the lamp, reading a book. The fire is roaring, you haven't been on your feet in at least an hour.
It's all perfect.
Your eyes open and you only realize you were drifting off when you hear a door close and footsteps. You look up and see your older brother, fully bundled up, with a shovel in his hands. He gives the two of you a wave as he passes by towards the door.
"Ladies. Supercouch."
"Caesar?" Agnis quirks an eyebrow. "It's the dead of night. Where're you going with that shovel?" Caesar glanced at the shovel. Then he glanced at his sister.
"I am. Going outside. With this shovel. To....shovel snow," he said. He patted the shovel on his hands a couple times. "So I can. Clear a path. For my two sisters. To safely enter and exit the house. Because I.....love them?" He said, a lack of confidence entering his tone at the end that gets a stare from both of you. Agnis in particularly really looks like she knows she should put a stop to whatever is about to transpire.....but that would require her to get up.
"Just don't do anything that'll make me get off of this couch to come bail you out," she says with a weary sigh.
"That strikes me as reasonable." Knowing he wasn't getting any better than that, Caesar quickly made himself scarce. Agnis went back to her book. You grab the remote and turn off the TV, since you were just nodding off watching it anyway. After a moment or two, Agnis turns on the radio to fill the silence. You think about just laying back right there and falling asleep. Instead, you inchworm your way across the couch (making sure not to unravel any of the blankets carefully wrapped around your person in the process) and settle down next to Agnis. She doesn't look as she pulls an arm up and curls it around you. With her other hand, she adjusts the position of her book so both of you can read it and for a while, you do just that. You're pretty sure she's still a faster reader than you, since she's turning the pages much more slowly than when she was reading by herself. If you were more awake, you'd find the energy to be a little annoyed about that.
But after a while, you feel yourself nodding off again. This time, you make no effort to delay it. You slump against Agnis, something she welcomes by giving you a kiss on the forehead.
"Good night, Nessa," she says softly, stroking your head as it falls to rest on her lap.
And less than a moment later, you've fallen asleep.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
02
Right now, you're thinking about throwing out all of your rankings and starting over because walking down the street with the snowy wind blowing in your face for the fifth day in a row, you're pretty sure you hate Winter now.
Today's Friday. It's been doing this - "this" being the snow and the cold and the wind blowing right in your face, regardless of which direction you're going - every day since Monday. On your way to school, then on your way to the library for studying, then on your way to your part-time job at the cafe, then on the way home, every day, all week! This is patently unfair! What's worse is after being on your feet for basically your entire shift (turns out people really need coffee when it's cold and dark the entire week), you have to go right back to studying for exams when you get home. Part of you just really wants to curl up with a book or play some Pokemon, but you know you're gonna go right back to your textbooks the second you're done scaling the hill up to your house...which feels about twice as long today. God, your feet hurt so much.
"--WAAAH!"
About halfway up, you catch a patch of ice that was buried under the snow, slip and fall face first into the snow, bumping your arm on the way down. You let out a whine and swipe and kick at the air a bit before you drag yourself back up. You stop to check your backpack and make sure none of your books fell out, before you continue upwards. You let out a breath of relief when you make it to the top of the hill and the one-story cottage that means you've finally, finally made it home and you don't have to go back outside at all until Monday morning. You reach a mittened hand out for the door --
-- only for it to swing open before you can touch it and for a pair of arms to reach out and usher you in.
"Come on, come on," you hear a familiar voice saying as you're pulled inside, the door shutting behind you as you enter into the kitchen/dining room of your house. "I saw you trip on the way up. Are you okay?"
"I -- I'm fine," you say, wincing a little as you move your arm. You take off your hat and scarf, your jacket is being pulled off for you. "There was just some ice under the snow." She lets out a sigh.
"I've tried to clear a path every day this week and it just keeps piling up. Maybe I should throw some salt down..." You take a second to look at her -- your older sister, Agnis. You see her boots are on, her coat is half-on and half hanging off of her body and you realize she was probably all of a couple seconds from running out the door and carrying you the rest of the way once she saw you fall. "How was work?"
"Busy," you breathe out as you finish taking everything off. "First I was working the register, then I was making drinks, then I was giving people their orders...my feet really hurt," you groan as Agnis puts away both of your jackets and then walks over to the stove. First she opens it up and pulls something out. Then, she takes a teapot and pours something into a cup. A couple of scents hit your nose and your eyes widen as she arranges all of it onto a plate.
"Well, I think after helping so many people get their refreshments, you've earned some of your own," Agnis says with a smile as she brings the plate to you. You practically cry at the sight of it - hot apple cinnamon tea and your favorite, marshmallow chocolate chip cookies. You poke at one of them - it's still warm and soft. Did Agnis time her baking so they'd be at the optimal temperature and softness right as you walked in the door? You're pretty sure she did.
"This is...." You stare at the plate for a few seconds. Your voice cracks as you say, "Very, very special to me." You let out a breath. "I'll have them in my room. The sugar will prove to be invaluable fuel for my studying." You start to take the plate, but Agnis keeps a grip on it.
"Come into the living room," she says with a gesture of her head. You quirk an eyebrow up and grab your backpack before you follow her. Your jaw almost falls at what's waiting for you - a roaring fire going in the fireplace and all of the ottomans and spare cushions and pillows from throughout the house all stacked up at the foot of the couch to make...
"Supercouch......" you say with a degree of wistfulness in your voice. "You made supercouch....!"
"Mmmn. I saw all of the snow and thought about how hard you've worked this week and it just felt like the right thing to do," Agnis said. She gestures. "Come on. Radio or TV, you can pick." And you...really want to. You want to go jump on it right now and grab one of those quilts, but you stop yourself.
"I...can't," you say with a little bit of a groan. Agnis looks at you, confused. "I...I have to study. I have exams." Agnis blinks once, then a smile comes over her face. She sets the plate down on a coffee table and places a hand on your head.
"Nessa," she says. "You've been studying and working all week."
"But -- you said I can only keep my job if I make sure my grades don't slip! Plus -- I have to pass my exams if I want to get into a good university, like Manchester or...!"
"That's true, I did say that," she interrupts. "I think maybe I wasn't being very fair to you when I did. You're doing great in your classes and you're doing great at your job and I think I should've been more supportive the first time you asked me if you could get a job. And I'm going to be more supprotive to you going forward." She paused and then quickly added, "Unless it's too hard and you want to quit and spend all of your free time at home with me, because I'll support that too--"
"No, Agnis, I wanna keep doing it," you say, flatly. Agnis looks disappointed, but she chuckles.
"Can't blame me for trying," she says. "Either way....you're working and studying more than hard enough right now, Nessa. What I want you to do tonight is go put on your pajamas, grab a book and your Game Boy, enjoy your tea and your cookies and spend the rest of the night on this couch." You let out a breath and your shoulders slump. You really can't argue with that and frankly, you don't want to anymore. You take your backpack off your shoulder and demonstratively fling it back into the kitchen where it can wait until tomorrow.
"I'm gonna go put on my pajamas," you say tiredly. Agnis nods and smiles.
"And please don't talk about getting into a university yet," she adds, ruffling your hair a bit before she lets you go. "I want to spend as much of the next two years pretending you'll be here forever as I can."
"I can't do anything about that!" you say behind you as you head down the hallway towards your room.
---
Some time later, after all of the tea and cookies have been consumed, you're fully ensconsed in the loving grip of the supercouch, one blanket from your room and one of the big quilts wrapped around you. You're on one side of the couch watching TV, Agnis is on the other, next to the lamp, reading a book. The fire is roaring, you haven't been on your feet in at least an hour.
It's all perfect.
Your eyes open and you only realize you were drifting off when you hear a door close and footsteps. You look up and see your older brother, fully bundled up, with a shovel in his hands. He gives the two of you a wave as he passes by towards the door.
"Ladies. Supercouch."
"Caesar?" Agnis quirks an eyebrow. "It's the dead of night. Where're you going with that shovel?" Caesar glanced at the shovel. Then he glanced at his sister.
"I am. Going outside. With this shovel. To....shovel snow," he said. He patted the shovel on his hands a couple times. "So I can. Clear a path. For my two sisters. To safely enter and exit the house. Because I.....love them?" He said, a lack of confidence entering his tone at the end that gets a stare from both of you. Agnis in particularly really looks like she knows she should put a stop to whatever is about to transpire.....but that would require her to get up.
"Just don't do anything that'll make me get off of this couch to come bail you out," she says with a weary sigh.
"That strikes me as reasonable." Knowing he wasn't getting any better than that, Caesar quickly made himself scarce. Agnis went back to her book. You grab the remote and turn off the TV, since you were just nodding off watching it anyway. After a moment or two, Agnis turns on the radio to fill the silence. You think about just laying back right there and falling asleep. Instead, you inchworm your way across the couch (making sure not to unravel any of the blankets carefully wrapped around your person in the process) and settle down next to Agnis. She doesn't look as she pulls an arm up and curls it around you. With her other hand, she adjusts the position of her book so both of you can read it and for a while, you do just that. You're pretty sure she's still a faster reader than you, since she's turning the pages much more slowly than when she was reading by herself. If you were more awake, you'd find the energy to be a little annoyed about that.
But after a while, you feel yourself nodding off again. This time, you make no effort to delay it. You slump against Agnis, something she welcomes by giving you a kiss on the forehead.
"Good night, Nessa," she says softly, stroking your head as it falls to rest on her lap.
And less than a moment later, you've fallen asleep.