Work Text:
Eda woke up to the fire alarm going off.
She groaned loudly and rolled off her bed. She fell to the floor with her blankets tangled around her.
“Edalyn, come on!” Lilith, her sister and roommate, ushered her to get up.
Eda groaned again, the alarm almost becoming background noise to her. If she just pretended it wasn’t blaring in her ear, she might even be able to go back to sleep.
“Eda!” Lilith lightly kicked at the pile of blankets on the floor. “The fire alarm is going off.”
“…mmm… don’ worry… I hear it…”
Lilith kicked her sister harder. “Just because you hear it doesn’t mean you’re getting up. Let’s go. ”
She grumbled, but begrudgingly sat up.
Her sister sighed and went to go get something while Eda tried not to pass out on the floor.
Eda was this close to falling asleep again when two things hit her in the chest. That woke her up. “Here. Shoes. Put them on and let’s go.”
Eda got up and slid her boots on. She blinked a few times to clear her vision and shook her head, getting rid of any more thoughts of sleep. She looked at Lily, who was already prepared to stand out in the snow for who knows how long.
“Ugh…” Eda ran a hand over her face. “What time is it…?” Lilith looked at her watch while walking towards the door, grabbing Eda’s coat for her.
“Almost 3am.”
She groaned dramatically, grabbing her coat from Lilith and wrapping a blanket around her shoulders.
“This is such bullshit.” The two sisters walked outside, both shivering as the cold air hit them.
…
It was freezing. In a panic, Raine had forgotten to grab a jacket. Darius had lent them his gloves, (trust the fashion major to be prepared) but Raine’s pajamas did little to keep them warm.
At least they had worn their reindeer ones - a matching long sleeve shirt with pants. Darius had bought them those pajamas as a joke, but Raine wore them purely out of spite.
The pajamas being extremely comfortable and cute was a plus.
Luckily, they had some sense and grabbed earmuffs on the way out of their dorm. The earmuffs both helped keep their ears warm and muffled the sound of the overly-loud fire alarm.
“I could be doing better things right now.” Darius sighed, his breath showed up in the cold.
Raine snorted, shivering. “Like what? Getting your “beauty sleep”?”
“I have plenty of other things I could be doing. I think I’d rather be working on one of my designs. Or even studying.”
“Don’t lie, Darius. You’ll get wrinkles.” They laughed at their own joke while Darius looked unamused.
“At least I’m warm.” He shivered. “Well, warmer than you.”
“Ha. Ha.” Raine blew warm air into their hands and rubbed them together before rubbing their arms.
They were about to say something - probably a complaint about the cold - when Darius got hit in the back by a snowball. He turned to look at the culprit.
“Real mature, Eda!” He yelled. Darius stormed over to two girls, Raine following after him.
Raine recognized them both. Lilith wore a jacket, hat, and gloves. She had a slight smile on her face. Eda had on a jacket with a blanket almost falling off her shoulders. She held back a laugh at Darius’ face while warming up her hands.
“What do you want, Darius?” Eda asked, both sisters feigning innocence.
“Don’t act like you didn’t throw that snowball at me!”
Lilith pretended to be confused, “What do you mean? Eda’s been with me, Darius. She hasn’t thrown any snowballs.”
“Yeah! Why so quick to blame me , huh?”
“Ugh! I know it was you!”
“Hmmm…” Eda acted like she was thinking, “I don’t remember throwing any snowballs, and I think I would remember tormenting you. What about you, Lily? Did you see me throw a snowball?”
Lilith held back a laugh and shook her head. “Nope.”
Eda snickered, nearly breaking at Lilith’s close call. “Then it’s settled. I didn’t throw anything at you.”
“You-“ Darius looked at Lilith, “You- Ugh!” He threw his hands up in annoyance.
Raine started laughing at Darius, causing him to look back at them in betrayal. This just made them start laughing harder. Lilith and Eda looked at each other and laughed, the two of them doubled over.
Darius whirled around, making the three of them laugh even more. “What’s so funny?!”
Eda gasped and tried to compose herself. “Lily- she-“ She wasn’t able to control her laughter, talking in between breaths and giggles. “She- I- she threw it-“
Eda wiped away tears. Lilith lightheartedly glared at her sister. “Eda! You said you wouldn’t tell!”
“I’m sorry! It was just too funny!”
“Lilith?! It- it was you?! ” Darius asked as if she had just committed the ultimate betrayal.
She tried to look Darius in the eyes, but laughed again. Lilith nodded. Darius looked like he was about to tackle Lilith.
Until another snowball hit him, this time in the back of the head.
He turned to look at Raine, who held their hands up defensively. “It wasn’t me! I swear!”
Darius scanned the crowd of students behind Raine. After a second of looking, Darius found who he was going to blame next.
“EBER!” He stomped off towards the veterinary student. Eber was grinning madly, making another snowball to throw while walking backwards to keep some distance between himself and Darius.
“Guys,” Lilith piped up, “I have an amazing idea.”
Eda and Raine turned to look at her, seeing her pick up more snow and pack it into a tight ball. She waved to get Eber’s attention. Once he acknowledged her, she pointed to her snowball and mimed a throwing motion. She then did a mock countdown to complete the silent explanation of her plan.
Eber’s eyes lit up and he nodded. Darius, luckily, didn’t notice. He was too occupied with being “upset”, but Raine could tell he was actually having some fun. He, at least , found it a bit amusing.
Lilith and Eber prepared to throw their snow at the same time. She held up three fingers on her other hand, starting to count down.
She put her last finger down and they let the snowballs fly. The snow hit Darius at the same time, Eber’s hitting him square in the face while Lilith’s hit him in the back of the head.
The group all waited for his reaction silently, trying hard not to laugh.
However, Darius surprisingly didn’t react. He wiped the snow off his face and calmly bent down, pickling up some snow with his bare hands. He packed the snow together without saying a word before suddenly turning towards Lilith.
She realized what was happening too late. Lilith didn’t get the time to use Raine or Eda as a human shield before a snowball hit her in the chest. She gasped in mock surprise, bringing a hand to her chest where the snowball hit her. Lilith acted like Darius had just shot her.
Darius pointedly ignored her, he went to pick up more snow (likely for Eber) when he jumped on Darius’ back, sending them both to the ground.
They all laughed, even Darius. Lilith went to join Eber in tormenting Darius, picking up a large amount of snow as she went. The two boys wrestled in the snow with Darius trying - and failing - to get Eber off his back. “Eber! This is a nice coat!”
Eber suddenly jumped off his back when Lilith crept up behind them.
“Wha-” She grabbed his jacket and dumped snow down his back. “AH! Lilith! That’s cold!!”
She laughed loudly.
Raine watched the three of them have a snowball fight with a smile on their face. They were distracted enough that they didn’t notice Eda coming to stand beside them.
She nudged them and looked upwards. “Look. It’s snowing.”
Raine and Eda both watched the snow fall in wonder. However, as much as Raine loved the snow, they realized that the flurries would only make their pajamas wet, which would make them colder.
They shivered and blew warm air onto their hands. Eda seemed to just now notice that they were only in pajamas.
“Where’s your coat?”
Raine stared at the snow-covered ground sheepishly. “I was in such a rush, I forgot it.”
Eda sighed and shook her head. She opened her arms and offered to share her blanket. “Come’ere.”
They blushed, but did as they were told. They stood close to their crush as she put an arm around their shoulders, effectively helping warm them up.
She looked back towards Lilith, Darius, and Eber. The three of them still having a very intense snowball fight.
It looked as if they were all simultaneously winning and losing. Raine didn’t know how that was possible.
They dared to glance at Eda. She looked beautiful in the snow, snowflakes in her eyelashes and an amused smile on her face. They stared at her until she looked at them out of the corner of her eye. Raine suddenly turned away, face heating up rapidly.
She gazed at them fondly, “You have snowflakes in your hair, it’s cute.”
Raine blushed even more. Their glasses started to fog up from the heat of their face conflicting with the cold air.
Eda snorted. “I thought glasses were supposed to make you see better.”
“They are ,” Raine was forced to take off their glasses and clean them off.
Not so they could still see Eda’s pretty face or anything. They just liked being able to see… anything really.
“Yeah. Sure.” Eda chuckled as Raine put their glasses back on.
They both watched their friends play in the snow. Both Eda and Raine were quiet for a few minutes, laughing softly as Darius dumped a large handful of snow onto Lilith’s head.
“Go out with me.” Eda suddenly blurted out. Her question came out more like a statement.
Raine was taken aback. “W- What?!”
Eda, embarrassed from her sudden outburst, fiddled with the zipper on her jacket. She looked away.
“You should... go out with me… if you want to, that is.”
They couldn’t help but think about how lovely Eda looked. Even with her wild bed-head and snowflakes resting in her hair and eyelashes.
Raine smiled, their bright blush matching Eda’s. “I’d love to.”
“Oh,” her shoulders sagged in relief, “thank god. "
Raine laughed. “Hey! It’s a lot harder asking someone out than people tell you it is!”
“I don’t doubt that.” They both smiled at each other before looking away, blushing.
Best Christmas present ever, Raine thought.
“So…” Eda started, looking at their pajamas, “ Rein deers, huh?”
They buried their face in their hands. “Shut up…”
“Get it? Like Raine? Raine-deers?”
“Yes. I get it.”
She laughed. “I think they’re cute.”
Raine lowered their hands and blushed. Eda pulled them closer to her, absentmindedly rubbing her thumb along the fabric of their “Raine-deer” pajamas. Raine snuggled closer and oh, they could get used to this.
Looking at the snow floating slowly to the ground with the sound of their friends' laughter in the background, no one realized that the fire drill ended 20 minutes ago.