WHO:Yuffie & Tsuzuki WHEN: Early December WHERE: Baxter's Bakery WHAT: Tsuzuki and Yuffie bond over cakes and make snow plans. RATING/WARNINGS: Low/none STATUS: Complete
Tsuzuki wasn’t a stranger to the snow. It had snowed every winter since he’d been discharged from the hospital last time, and he had grown quite fond of it. This year, he had the added bonus of getting a long, black, fairly warm trench coat from his dreams, and it was what he wore over top of his dress shirt and slacks when he’d gone to meet Yuffie at Baxter’s Bakery.
He’d grown rather fond of the girl. She was, for lack of a better term, bubbly, and that suited Tsuzuki just fine. Not to mention, it was great having a friend that he could go out with and just eat sugary treats with. Hisoka wasn’t a big fan of sweets, and eating cake after cake in front of someone who didn’t even want to share any wasn’t much fun.
He had a number of goodies laid out on the table - a couple different slices of pie, some cakes, and a couple of tarts for good measure for the two of them to pick at, and Tsuzuki was nursing a hot chocolate. “School’s letting out soon, isn’t it?” he asked. “Anything planned for the break?”
If there was one thing that Yuffie did, it was sugar. She loved sweets and sweet things. Cakes were always good, there wasn’t a time when cakes were a bad thing, that was Yuffie’s professional opinion for sure!
She was still getting used to the whole ‘snow in California’ thing, but she’d accepted by now that weird things were going to happen where she lived and it was best she just get on with things. Which was why she was just off to venture out with Tsuzuki, because cake. And she rather liked her equally sweet toothed friend.
“Yeah, I’m super ready for the break.” The little stint at Thanksgiving had not been enough. “Not really planning anything though, I’m gonna decorate and hang out, but I think that’s about it.” She wasn’t going to bother seeing what her dad was doing, he’d be too busy with his girlfriend anyway. “What about you? Are you taking some time to enjoy the… snow.”
“Taking it easy during the holidays is my favourite way to spend them,” Tsuzuki said. He’d never really enjoyed how stressful the holidays could be, and had learned when he was young that doing things like shopping during December was more of a headache than it was worth. His family was small though, just his sister and himself, and now her boyfriend, so it wasn’t hard to make sure that the holiday time remained easy-going.
“The snow is wonderful! I had to move a few of my plants indoors, but I can’t complain about that. After all, now my house is filled with flowers and I get to look at the snow all day. I was thinking I might build a snowman!”
There was usually something manic about the holiday season, and Yuffie didn’t mind it too much, she avoided malls a lot of the time anyway, because she tended to get lost a lot. But there was usually an air of fun with the chaos around this time of year.
“It’s super weird, but I like it!” Yuffie didn’t mind just bundling herself up a whole lot more, just getting a bunch of scarves online and mittens. She might try to knit sometime, if she was going to stay there a long time and snow was common. “Snowmen are the best! Make a winter wonderland.” In California, but hey, stranger things happened, just blame climate change right?
“Me too! As a child, I had always wanted to make a snow fort or an igloo in the winter, but back then California didn’t get much snow.” He’d seen them on TV though, and they’d always looked like a blast.
“I’ve been a few places in winter,” the joys of travelling almost all the time, especially as a child, “I spent this one year in Seattle where the snow was like three feet deep! It was the best thing ever. All the fair rides were closed down because of the weather, so me and the other kids just spent the time making like a snow village and having snowball fights.” At least until Yuffie got lost in the snow and almost froze off her toes.
“I miss being all carefree and kid like, y’know?” Especially around this time of the year.
Tsuzuki tried to imagine a place where the snow was three feet deep, and it really did sound pretty great. So long as he was firmly bundled up, he’d probably want to have played in it for a long time, making snowmen or whathaveyou. “I’ve never been in a snowball fight,” Tsuzuki admitted. “But that does sound like a lot of fun.”
His smile grew a little sad when Yuffie mentioned being carefree and childlike. He’d never really had any friends growing up; kids would much rather make fun of him than have fun with him, but he’d had his sister, and she’d been all the friends he needed. “I do too,” he said after a moment, but then his smile brightened again. “But there’s no reason why, as an adult, you can’t enjoy the things you did as a kid!”
Yuffie had been used to lots of friends, literally. She made friends with people every time they moved to a new town, and then she moved to the next one, and then the next one. Yuffie made friends easily (although she knew she’d been a little annoying as a kid, she probably was still annoying) which was good considering. “You think so?” They could still be childlike, right? They could still enjoy it all.
“We should have a snowball fight. I’ll introduce you to it. I’m an awesome snowball fighter! I’ll teach you!” They should definitely do something in the snow next time, have some wintery fun! That perked her up enough that she had a massive bite out of a cake all while grinning through the sugared powder on her face.
“Would you really?” Tsuzuki asked. “Because I would absolutely love that. And after we can warm up with some hot cocoa as well.” He was pretty sure that was what winter was all about. Getting so cold that you froze your face, and then warming up with a nice cup of hot cocoa.
He had to smile when she took a bite of her cake and came away looking as though she had gotten into a fight with a bag of sugar. “You have a little something…” he gestured to his entire mouth area.
It was Yuffie’s usual to wear her food, so she wasn’t entirely surprised to have to use a napkin to wipe over her face. “I’d totally teach you, and we’d definitely need hot drinks afterwards.” Because if you started playing in the snow, you had to go the full way, snowballs, snowmen, snow angels, snow forts. Everything snow!
“I really super love winter, you have to have the full experience. The park should be big enough, and maybe when you know how to make a snowball we can get into a snowball fight!” It was always fun, the more the merrier really applied there.
Yuffie’s excitement was contagious, and Tsuzuki was getting rather excited for the idea. He couldn’t imagine that Hisoka would enjoy playing in the snow and getting into snowball fights, though maybe he’d be able to convince the younger boy to play as well. He shoveled some more pie in his mouth. “It sounds like I’ll have to! I’m glad I’ll be getting lessons from a seasoned pro. When are you free? I’ve got lots of free time until the snow clears up.” While he was still working at the greenhouse - most of the plants were grown indoors - no one really wanted to buy flowers when there was so much snow on the ground and Tsuzuki was working much less. It was a little hard on his wallet, but he hated working in general so he was rather pleased by the turn of events.
“My classes are all finished, so I’m super ready whenever!” The great thing about the snow was that it gave an excuse not to go to those last few classes, and then everything shut down until after winter break and boom, Yuffie had plenty of free time. Which she rather enjoyed when it was like this.
“If you don’t mind getting up early, we can go to the park before most people get up so that the snow is new and not trampled!” That was the best kind of snow in Yuffie’s opinion.
Tsuzuki was rather fond of sleeping, and on his days off he really liked to sleep in as late as he could. But, the idea of getting into his first snowball fight with fresh snow was even more tempting than the idea of sleeping in. He could sleep in any old time. “I can absolutely wake up early,” Tsuzuki said cheerfully. “Is 7:30 too early?”
Yuffie had to giggle, she liked sleeping too, especially when it was chilly outside. California didn’t usually have that, but lately it was great. But really, that could happen any day, “Not too early at all. It’ll be perfect! We can build a fort, once you’ve got it down, and pelt everyone!” A full on snowball war when he was ready. It sounded like an awesome way to spend the morning.
It would be an awesome way to spend the morning, and Tsuzuki was downright excited to be able to do it, and a look of boyish glee crossed his features as he thought about it. “And of course snow angels. And you’ll have to show me how to make a snowman!” Because if he was going to learn how to make a snow fort, building a snowman seemed obvious. “I can hardly wait!”