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You worked very hard for your relationship with Idia. Slowly but surely getting closer to him by sneakily probing Ortho and Azul out of any information they would give you (of course, in Azul’s case, not without a price). And it had all culminated in a budding friendship where he could barely stand to look you in the eye during a conversation, but he at least was happy to play Blockcraft with you occasionally.
Baby steps, you supposed.
You knew Idia loved Sled Over Heels before he mentioned it to the group so while you knew his interest was piqued by Epel’s pitch to Sebek, you were pleasantly surprised to see him so excited to see him voluntell (or maybe volundemand was more appropriate) to join Epel on his homecoming trip. It was a win-win for you, seeing a brand-new city and hanging out with your crush at arguably the most romantic time of the year.
It was too bad fate was determined to make your trip to Harveston the most un-romantic, miserable weekend ever. You were here with Epel and his sledding team, freezing your butt off in Harveston. Back in your world, the cold hadn’t bothered you too badly, but the chill in Harveston was unlike anything you had experienced before. Even with the thick coat on, the bite of the winter wind still gave you full-bodied shivers. You had never been so grateful for Grim’s higher-than-average body temperature, gripping him tightly to your chest whenever he misbehaved, or you were just too cold to deal with the outside air. Which, to his dismay, was frequent.
On top of the cold, the competition took up much more of Idia’s free time than you anticipated. You weren’t a stranger to the boys’ competitive streak, having seen them all display it throughout your time at Night Raven College but, the introduction of the Royal Sword Academy’s participation in the competition kicked the team into high gear.
Now, you sat on the sidelines, watching the team endlessly run the routine over again, clutching your cat/space heater to your chest to fight off frostbite. You severely regretted not talking to Idia more while you shopped for souvenirs and snacked on various apple products.
At least you could admire Idia from afar. Youreally liked his new braid.
When Epel frantically gathered the team after practice, Grim struggled in your hold. Keeping him still for this long was challenging, and he was getting tired of being cooped up in your arms.
“Let me go, henchman!” Grim grumbled, still squirming. “I’m starving!”
“Just wait- I’ll put you down when we start walking towards town, okay? Besides, you’re warm,”
Grim wiggles again, before finally breaking free. He gives you a smug look before prancing ahead of everyone, and then taking off into a full sprint towards town, yelling about smelling something tasty! Sebek and Jade begin to chase after him. You watch as the scene quickly descends into chaos.
“Ugh! What a mess. Maybe you should keep that thing on a leash,” In his frustration, you hear Epel’s twang, words strongly laced with Southern animosity. You grimace in embarrassment, quickly apologizing for Grim’s behavior. You glance at Idia, who’s staring off in the direction they ran in, completely indifferent to you standing next to him.
Great, you’ve annoyed him into silence.
You’re sulking the entire way back to town, watching Idia from behind while Epel yaps about the competition and the “Welcome Feast,” You’re too busy trying to figure out ways to salvage your “romantic” getaway to listen.
You needed to find time to corner him into a conversation. Of course, you needed to be careful that you weren’t too enthusiastic, or else you would scare him. But you can’t be nonchalant in case you bore him. And you had to be topical, but not too on the nose about the conversation, so mentioning Sled Over Heels seems safe enough-
You run into Idia’s back. You squeak out an apology, moving around him.
“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,”
“Duh,” He grins, and you feel your body relax (you didn’t even realize you tensed in anticipation… this crush of yours was just terrible) after seeing he wasn’t annoyed. “Off in sla-la land, huh?”
“…Sla-la land?”
“Um, yeah, like, sledding,”
It was neither clever nor funny. It was entirely endearing to you, though.
You go to respond, but you see Grim sneak past your peripheral, and you know scolding him is more important than trying to salvage the conversation with Idia.
-
Once you’ve finally settled on a team name (you can’t help but sulk a bit that no one thought “Granny Felmier” was clever; a product of being from different universes), you join the rest of the town at the Welcome Feast.
It’s lively and warm, and you enjoy stuffing your face with different foods after freezing in the cold. Grim, for once, is behaving himself, giving you time to finally relax without keeping a watchful eye. Luckily, this allows you to think about your approach to Idia. You've noticed he settled into an opposite corner, shrunk down as small as possible. Social settings were antithetical to Idia’s entire demeanor, and it was obvious to anyone who looked in his direction that he was incredibly uncomfortable with the size of the party. You thought about approaching him, the conversation topics from before floating through your mind. Hopefully, he wouldn’t shut down before you even opened your mouth. He emanated an “don’t approach, don’t converse,” aura, brooding in the corner of the room. Maybe you could ask about practice or pretend to devise a strategy for them to use in the real race.
“Hey, Prefect,” Epel taps you on the shoulder. “Do you mind taking a bowl of fruktsoppa to Idia? I don’t think he’s moved from that spot since we got here, and besides, I think he likes you best,”
You’ve never been so grateful for Epel in your life.
You grab the bowl and practically prance to Idia, head full from the compliment. He looks up at you, relief flooding his features once he realizes it’s you. Or when he realizes you brought him food. Either way, he looks happy. And pretty. So, so pretty.
“Hey, uh, I brought you some soup,” you say, suddenly feeling awkward. All the confidence you had while approaching him is out the window. “It’s fruit soup. I don’t know how to pronounce it like Epel did.”
“Is it… cold?”
“Soup typically isn’t cold to begin with,” You sit next to him, careful not to spill the bowl on you or him. You set it on the table and begin to shake your hands. “It was burning my fingers actually,”
Despite your warning, he takes a spoonful of fruktsoppa and gulps it down quickly.
“LOL,” you always loved how he pronounced the text-speech. “This is barely lukewarm. But it‘s good, thanks,”
You quickly say something before he gets too comfortable eating in silence.
“So, um,” You try to remember any of the topics you were supposed to talk to him about.
“How are… sports?”
Your question shocks a laugh out of him. He sputters out his soup as he devolves into a series of giggles.
“How are sports? What are you, a stereotypical sitcom nerd? Cri-i-i-inge!”
“Pot meet kettle! You’re only competing because of your favorite anime,”
“Sled Over Heels is a valid reason to compete. It’s the best sports anime to exist! Totally not cringe,”
You shake your head and giggle. It’s very cringey, but you’re charmed by it. You watch him take another bite of the soup, propping your head up in your hand as you stare at him. His coat is perfectly oversized, a welcome change from his usual hoodie. Plus, his hat and new hairdo do wonders for his face; something you barely see. While you poked fun at him for joining the group for an anime, you were happy he was here. You benefited from it more than he ever knew.
“…I feel like the protagonist of a bizarro shoujo anime right now.”
“What?” You can’t control your voice. If you weren’t so focused on the surge of embarrassment coursing through your body, you’d notice the boys laughing at your outburst. Instead, you were focused on trying not to look guilty. You were probably failing.
“Look at you! You’re drooling all over the table, like some incel shut-in after he maxed out his love-bar in his otome.” His grin is splitting his face right now.
You cannot believe you're getting bullied by him right now. You cannot believe he’s right.
You can’t think of a clever retort, and you can’t even imagine denying the fact. You just try to avoid his eyes while hoping you’ll get cold enough to get rid of your flush. You’ve been intolerant of the cold the entire trip, but you start to think that if you ran outside without a coat, your body would be so hot that the snow would melt under your feet as you walked. You wonder if you’ve been this obvious the entire time and he was just being polite.
“Lawl, nothing to say because you were caught right? You’ve always been a weirdo,”
Idia starts giggling again, trying to keep his hair out of sight. If you catch the pink in his hair, you’ll find some ammo against him. Right now, he’s relishing someone being more pathetic than him.
It’s okay, he’s charmed by it.
“I guess it takes one to know one,” You mumble, utterly defeated. You chose to ignore his retort; and stand, claiming Grim has been quiet for too long.
At first, Idia thinks nothing of it. It was weird for you to stare at him. Him. But then, his mind began to race. Was there something on his face? Was he just that weird-looking? Were you only hanging out with him out of sympathy? He knew you were out of his league, but he always thought you were into it- at least a little bit. Idia glanced at you, watching you sit with Grim, petting his head absentmindedly while he devoured slice after slice of smörgåstårta. He’d rather not confront what it meant for you to leave so abruptly. Maybe he was wrong about your feelings to begin with. Idia sighs and puts his head in his hands. He would be the person to mess everything up.
-
After embarrassing yourself with Idia the night before, you tried to find solace in the rest of the team. The boys, however, were happy to humble you further. To be (playfully) bullied by your crush was one thing, but to be the butt of Sebek’s “you’re obsessed” jokes felt extra humiliating (although, you had to extend your thanks to Epel once more, for calling the kettle black). After everything, you wanted the race to come to an uninteresting finish. You weren’t necessarily advocating for them to lose, but you were hoping there would be no more opportunities to be humiliated. However, it seemed they had other plans and showed determination in a way you had never seen before.
Team sports were usually a disaster for Night Raven College students, but now you were convinced they had a genuine chance of winning first place.
Once the team reached the pitstop, you couldn’t help but be excited by their performance. Despite a tear in Sebek’s plushie, they were making exceptional time. You joined Granny Marja in congratulating them; passing out their snacks while she reinforced the stitching on the plushie.
A twinge of embarrassment pangs through your stomach as you hand Idia his sandwich, your hands accidentally brushing. You couldn’t even feel his hands through the thick gloves you both were wearing, but it still felt strangely intimate.
“You guys are doing great. I expect you to win, okay?”
“Yeah… thanks,”
You both stand awkwardly for a second.
Your mind is racing, and your heart is beating wildly. The rest of the team is preparing their sleds for the second leg of the competition, but Idia is still standing in front of you, tightly gripping his sandwich like he’s waiting for you to say something. Or like he’s psyching himself to say something to you.
A rogue thought flies through your brain. You should kiss him. No, you probably shouldn’t. You couldn’t. He would be so flustered he’d lose the competition. It was tempting, but you couldn’t.
“Idia!? Are you ready to go?” Epel calls. “We can’t let those RSA punks beat us!”
Idia glances at them and begins to shuffle his feet. He keeps hoping you’ll make the final push. He knows he won’t.
He makes it to his sled and takes one last look at you. You’re still staring at him, air puffing from your lips. Snow speckles your hair, and he swears your eyes are sparkling. You look like a typical shoujo love interest, right before they do something drastic; like confessing their love for the MC before kissing them dramatically.
So, he really should’ve seen this coming.
You bound towards him, and before he can scream at you, you grab his collar and pull him down to your height, pressing your lips to his cheek. It feels like you're kissing him forever, but as soon as he gets used to the feeling, you’re releasing him. He can faintly hear cheering (and polite claps from Jade) but it's like everyone else around him is muffled. You’re telling him something, but he can’t hear you, his ears are ringing too loud. He feels his face burning hotter than his hair, and if he thought the pink tips from yesterday were embarrassing, the hot pink color must be mortifying. He just turns and faces forward, readying his plushie for Epel’s command.
“Go Idia! You have to win this thing!”
Your cheers of encouragement ring out into the air as the team takes off from the pit stop, snow flying wildly in the air as they speed off. You’re waving them off until they disappear from your sight. Your grin is massive as you help Granny Marja pack up the rest of the equipment, ready to meet your team at the finish line. Based on how they took off; you’re hoping your good luck kiss propels them to finish first.
--
“Your kiss was a total party-wide stat debuff; there was no way for us to recover in enough turns to win!”
“Oh, for the love of- shut up!”