I still remember the first fall of snow (Lycoris Recoil Fanfic)

I still remember the first fall of snow

A/N: Hi all, taking advantage of my current unemployment to give you a new fanfic! I've absolutely grown to love Lycoris Recoil over the summer anime season, and this last episode just had me in HYSTERICS. So I'm doing what I do best and am coping by writing an angsty fanfic. Enjoy :)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seated on a bench under the clouded winter sky, Takina breathes in the scent of Chisato's warm scarf around her neck. The aroma is sweet and pleasant, like the parfaits served at LycoReco café. It smells like her, she thinks. As Takina's gaze shifts to Chisato sitting beside her, her stomach sinks to think that the comforting aroma of Chisato will vanish altogether in only two months' time.

Takina's gaze darts anxiously upward to the sky. She can't help but worry. She's strategically planned every moment of the day to maximize fun, but her last stop relies on the one thing she can't control – fate.

Chisato is quick to notice her impatience.

"Are we waiting for something?" Chisato asks.

"Snow," Takina answers meekly. "At nine o'clock." She's spent the entire day carefully observing her weather app, and yet, even though the clock has struck nine and the air has certainly grown cold, they are both met with a snowless night.

Chisato immediately bursts into a laugh. "That's why!"

Takina tries to hide her displeasure. "I thought it was the perfect schedule, but..."

Chisato's angelic laugh breaks Takina's train of thought.

"God is whimsical, after all," Chisato says.

Takina's stomach churns. How whimsical, indeed, she thinks. She's been made aware already how fickle fate can be. She only wishes she realized it sooner. Since the news of Chisato's condition was made known to her, she's been beating herself up, wondering how she could let days, weeks, months go by thinking only about her desire to return to the DA rather than savoring what she knows now to be the limited time she has left with Chisato.

"Of all days," Takina says, unable to hide the disappointment in her voice, "I wish He wasn't today."

"Why?"

"Because..." Takina can't bring herself to say it.

"Perhaps you're returning to the DA?" Chisato correctly guesses.

Takina still wonders how, after all this time, Chisato can always seem to sense what's going on in Takina's head. It's a quality Takina has grown to admire about her, and heartbreakingly, it's a quality that Takina will miss once she's gone.

"I knew it," Chisato exclaims. "You did it! When will it be?" she asks with her usual cheeky grin and vibrant eyes. Takina is still shocked how unchanged her personality is after hearing of her grim fate.

Takina hesitates, then says, "Tomorrow."

"Aren't you happy?" Chisato asks.

Months ago, Takina would have returned Chisato's question with an ecstatic "yes!". She's worked hard to regain the trust of the DA. She spent months agonizing over her removal. But then one day altogether, Takina simply stopped caring. She can try to owe it to the fact that she's been enjoying her waitressing job at LycoReco or that she's away from the other judgmental Lycoris agents at the DA, but she knows the true reason. She's known for a while now.

It's all because of Chisato.

However, Takina can't simply confess her displeasure at returning, not when she sees the eagerness in Chisato's eyes. Everything Chisato has done for her was to aid her in her mission to be reinstated at the DA. Admitting her disappointment now would be a slap in the face to all of Chisato's hard work.