Among the Wolves [Hakuouki]

Chapter 18

Saito let out another sigh and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he unwrapped the scarf around his neck, crouched down and put it around Rin's pale neck. "Since you're so fond of the cold and refuse to go back in, you might as well keep yourself warm," he said as he adjusted the scarf.

At that moment, Souji had to use every bit of his energy to exercise some self restraint; he nearly drew his katana.

"Eh??! But this is Hajime-kun's scarf!"

'Hajime-kun'. Souji's eyebrow twitched with annoyance. He was on first name basis with Saito too, but why was Rin on first name basis with him?

"It's not like you haven't stolen it before from me," Saito stated. "After you returned from the festival, you haven't let me sit in peace at all." A soft smile adorned his lips. "I don't dislike it. It's good to have a little sister figure."

Souji let out a breath he didn't know he was holding at the statement. His emerald eyes remained trained on Rin, who seemed unnaturally comfortable around Saito. After the festival, Rin had suddenly started to ignore him and shifted her attention on Saito instead.

At first, Souji assumed it was her inborn curiosity. But when she stopped interacting with him and gave all her attention to the new comer, he couldn't help but feel some foreign emotion that screamed 'possessive'.

Souji watched the two talk casually to each other [It was mostly Rin who was doing all the talking] A tug of irritation caused the next few movements to be controled by some phantom force .

His hands buried into the powdery snow and clumped it up into a snowball. A borderline insane grin etched onto his face as he propelled the snowball at Rin as hard as he could, hitting her square in the head.

Rin froze mid-sentence as Souji's laughter filled the air. Irritation filled the girl as she acted on impulse; her hands were quick at crafting a snowball and she chucked it at Souji's face, hitting him spot on.

When the snow slid off his face, a forced smile that promised pain was etched onto his face.

It was Rin's turn to laugh, before another snowball hit her face.

Coughing up whatever snow went into her mouth, Rin repeated the process. Souji dodged this time and they both started to circle each other, snowballs ready in their hands.

Rin threw the snowball first, channeling all her irritation into it.

Souji dodged.

"Oi...what are you guys-"

Hijikata was silenced by the snowball hitting him in the face.

His glare was terrifying, but the effect was nullified by Rin and Souji's laughter ringing in the air.

"You bastards-"

"Oh! Are we having a snowball fight?" Heisuke's voice said as he walked out into the cold. The boy immediately bent down, made a snowball and threw it at Souji. The ball of white powder hit his back.

"You'll pay for that Heisuke!" Souji yelled out as he threw the snowball in his hand at Heisuke.

"Saito, why didn't you stop them!!? I thought you were more sensible-" Hijikata stopped mid sentence as he watched Saito make a snow rabbit, busy in his own world.

The commotion increased and drew Sonosuke and Shinpachi to them. Without knowing how, the two ended up with Heisuke while Rin and Souji paired up against the trio.

Snowballs were flying like bullets across the yard, while Hijikata was caught in the middle of it, trying to stop the chaos.

"I made a huge snowball," Rin muttered to Souji through soft pants of breaths. "Let's throw it at Hijikata-San." A wild look in her teal eyes had Souji grinning with agreement as he took the massive snowball from the obsidian haired girl's hands. He turned to Hijikata, who was busy trying to get the baka trio under control when Souji launched it, hitting his head.