An Unwilling Participant

No one in their right mind was out in the snow today, so of course it made sense that Hayden was slowly carving a path through the piles of powdery white that had accumulated on the streets overnight. Edmond, had he known, likely would have told her to take the day off, but a day off in the book store and a day off at home largely looked the same to her. It made no sense not to go in, and besides, the man was away on business. It wasn't like he could stop her.

She’d seen a few others on her way to the shop, mostly shoveling their driveways and walkways, looking like they could really use some hot cocoa, but there had been a few children as well. Shrieks of surprise and delight had peppered the air during Hayden’s walk, and she’d spotted a snowman or two, but she luckily hadn't been witness to any snowba–

Partway through the thought, something cold and wet exploded against the side of her head, followed by a gasp of pure horror. “Oh my goodness, I am so sorry!” a familiar voice called out, and the young woman fought the urge to sigh. Of course it was one of the girls from the gothic interests shop down the street. It was almost always one of the girls from the gothic interests shop down the street. Admittedly, the pair were nice, but neither Tirza nor Shizuku could seemingly read a room–the pair were painful levels of oblivious, which meant they often tried to interact with her outside of work. Hayden would have found this admirable–appreciated it, even–had the idea of interacting with anyone outside of work not made her panic.

Even if your parents wanted to drag you back, legally they couldn't, Edmond had pointed out on her eighteenth birthday. And reminded her repeatedly ever since. And were they to try, we both know that they would no longer find that easy. Really, Hayden, I’m worried about you. It's important to get out. It's important to make friends. You left Qui behind so you could live a life without them…but now it almost feels like you're scared of living. He was always right, of course, but she’d be hard pressed to admit that to his face. Hayden hated to make the man worry when he was more of a father to her than her own had ever been, but it was difficult when it felt like she'd lived this way for so long that change was impossible.

“Ugh, seriously? I warned you two to be careful!” another familiar voice groaned, and this one at least drew a snort of amusement from her. Where Tirza and Shizuku were, Parfait usually wasn't far behind, and today was clearly no exception. “You okay, Hayden?”

“I'm fine,” she called back as she wiped the leftover snow from her face and hair, fighting to keep the bite out of her voice as she did. Hayden didn't like people, but Parfait was at least tolerable. He attempted to reign his coworkers in when they were getting to be too much, and from the sound of his voice, he hadn't moved closer to her. He was giving her space, and she appreciated the gesture. “Just caught me off guard is all.”

“We really are sorry. No one’s really been up this way all morning. We weren't expecting many others,” Shizuku's voice offered, sheepishly, and the auburn-haired girl finally lifted her eyes towards the trio as she brushed the last of the errant snowball off her shoulder.

“And yet someone still managed to beam me perfectly in the head,” she grumbled.

“It would've hit Shizuku if she hadn't dodged,” Tirza accused, the Gleamstic’s feline tail twitching behind her. Her dark teal overcoat was covered in a fine powder of snow, suggesting she’d taken several hits, but Shizuku’s navy colored velvet coat was only flecked with white in a few places. She brushed some of the snow off her coat before she finally apologized as well. “I’m super sorry, though. Didn't see you coming up the street. Anything I can do to make up for it?”

“Just try not to hit me again? Please?” Hayden requested, and both girls' expressions fell.

“You wouldn't want to join us, huh?” Tirza asked after an awkward few moments. Hayden heard Parfait sigh, but the shortest of the trio didn't speak up–it seemed he was letting the girls fumble this one all on their own.

“I’ll pass on taking more snowballs to the face, thanks.”

“So does that mean you're out here to open up the bookstore, then? Seems like most of the shops are staying closed, I can't imagine there being too many customers out today,” Parfait offered, closing some of the distance between them. Then, the brown-haired Gleam gestured towards his taller, darker-haired coworkers. “Apparently neither of them got the memo that we weren't opening shop today, and called me about being locked out this morning. I’ve been trying to convince them to go home, actually, but they’d rather free–” This time, Hayden saw Shizuku packing a snowball and taking aim at Parfait. She loosed the ball mid-sentence, and more on instinct than anything intentional, Hayden darted forward to pull him out of the way.

The rabbit-eared Gleam let out the yelp at the sudden rough handling, but what had prompted the movement became obvious as a second snowball exploded against her chest. “Oh come on!” Parfait shouted back to the pair, who looked more than a little surprised by her display of speed. Seemingly tired of their antics, he snatched a firstful of snow from the ground, packed it faster than Hayden expected, and whipped it back at Shizuku.

It hit her squarely on the shoulder, and they were rewarded with a squeal of delight. “Finally!” Tirza exclaimed, and leaned down to grab more snow herself.

“Oh crap,” Hayden muttered, realizing this was the start of an all out war. Almost as quickly as she’d gotten to Parfait, the auburn-haired girl took off running towards the bookstore, preferring the safety of walls as more shrieks and laughter broke out behind her.