12 Roses

12 | Knee Deep in Snow

She handed each of you a jacket, yours smelling much like pine trees and soil, and gloves. Toge took his scarf and wrapped it around his neck, covering his face.

She didn't wish you safe travels, but disappeared back into the cabin, probably to do the daily chores she occupied herself with.

You and Toge glanced at each other with more unsureness in your faces than when you had to take that math test that was 14 pages long. "Let's go?" he finally asked, and you nodded, opening the front door.

The sting of the cold wind hitting your face overwhelmed you and you buried your face in the fur of your coat.

The sky had disappeared behind clouds that precipitated nothing more than ice and you quickly sank beneath a foot of snow, that foot growing my the second as soaking the knees of your pants.

Toge took your hand and began walking towards the forest, knowing which way they had gone. Neither of you could talk to each other, one of your hands being held and the other stuffed in your pocket.

The words that the old lady said echoed in Toge's head. "You ought to be one of the ones that come back."

He couldn't get the image of finding a frozen body in the snow, a fruitless search from their friends, a mission much like yours and his. He wanted to hold you close and make you promise that you would keep your warmth, but he didn't — he couldn't.

Toge moved towards the forest and lifted a branch so you could go under it. He remembered Maki saying that they would follow the same path the group did before, except when they came to a fork in the road, they would go right and not left, as that led deeper into the forest.

You were glad to have a clear path where no trees covered it, since the snow made a point to not allow you to see past footprints nor the dirt path.

"How far do you think they went?" you asked Toge when he let go of your hand to rub his own together.

"They left two hours ago... they have to be ages away." He took your hand again and pulled you closer to him, scared of losing you in the sudden storm.

This was irrational, you knew. If you had told the people back in Chisai what you were doing, your status as one of the smartest kids in town would be taken away.

Your foot kicked a rock beneath the snow and you toppled over. Toge turned and let you fall into his chest, and he felt just how cold you were. "Your jacket is thinner than mine," he told you and you felt the thickness of his jacket.

"Wow, she played favourites," you joked, but he didn't seem at all amused. "What is with you? You've been acting like we're going to die out here since we left the cabin."

He was quiet — well, he was always quiet, but he didn't say anything to you as he unzipped his jacket and started unzipping yours.

You grabbed him by his wrists, your eyes wide in panic. "What are you doing?"

"Swapping our jackets."

"No! I'm fine."

"I don't think you're fine. I can handle cold much better than you can."

"We're not switching jackets." You took your zipper and zipped it back up before zipping up his and taking his hand, tilting your head forward to tell him that you should keep going.

He sighed, took off his scarf and wrapped it around you, making sure that it covered your face and your ears.

You, in turn, pulled his hood over his head.

You had no idea what had him so on edge, but you weren't about to ask — one of you needed to be calm.

When you came to the end of the path, where the trees gathered together in a small clearing, Toge panicked, tightening his grip on your hand and stepping back with round eyes.

You took his arm as he nearly toppled back, his chest heaving. His cheeks were a deep red and his nose turning the same and you buried his face in your chest, hoping his breathing would becoming calmer.

Neither of you could take a seat in the snow, knowing full well that your small bodies would be buried in seconds.

Your eyes darted around before you spotted what looked like a hill of snow. When you squinted, you realized it wasn't a hill but a cave.

You grunted, trying to get Toge's attention, but he gripped onto you like his life depended on it.

His kind raced with images of his friends, frozen, knowing full well that the old lady had seen her fair share of people leaving the cabin only to never come back.

You felt his heart racing against your skin and you sighed, wishing Tsumiki was there to take over and comfort because you had no ability to. Not in the way you wanted to.

You brushed off snow from the top of your head and tapped Toge's back. "C-A-V-E," you spelled out on his back and he lifted his head, thankfully understanding what you said.

"We should take shelter and keeping looking later." You motioned to the snow that went up to your upper thighs now, and he nodded, hoisting himself up to the surface of the snow and letting you guide him to the cave.

It wasn't much of a cave, more a divot in a rock, but it had to do. You sat down in the small area where there was no snow covering the ground and lowered the scarf from your face, only for Toge to pull it back up again.

"I'm sure they're fine," you assured, but he simply buried his face in his knees without a word. You sighed and placed your hand on his back in the reassuring way that Tsumiki did when she needed to comfort someone.

It wasn't that you weren't worried for Maki, Panda and Yuta, you just had a solid belief that Maki was the type of person to survive un-survivable situations out of spite. That, and one of you needed to not look like they would crumple at a minor inconvenience.

You stared at the scene before you, which was mainly snow and pine trees covered in snow. From what Maki described the place, you didn't expect it to storm. She didn't seem all that panicked about it.

With a quiet shiver, you brought your hand back to you and hugged your knees to your chest. That was when Toge moved closer to you and leaned against you. He wasn't all that warm, but he was definitely warmer than the wind that was blowing in your face.

"When the snow stops, we'll look again."

And he nodded.