Page 30 of Star Bright
Yadira ignored him as she donned a jacket of her own. The bright, silky lines of the fabric only made the dark tangle of her hair look more unkempt and menacing. Draklings weren’t exactly vain, but they did like to preen, and it bothered him that her indifference had sunk so deep.
When they’d planned the ceremony to usher Shanya to the eternal skies, he’d offered to do Yadira’s hair as he used to when she was smaller, or bring in one of her aunts to help, but she’d just snarled at him, as adolescent draklings sometimes did. And she’d taken care of it herself, but here they were again.
Not exactly in the same place, of course.
He would not pick a fight with her now, not when she was voluntarily going out with them. But he almost canceled of his own accord when Darcy pushed open the door and swirling snow and cold surrounded them.
Atsu bolted past him with an excited yell. “Snow!” he hollered, as if he’d been waiting for this moment his whole short life and not discovered it a few hours previous.
Yadira followed more slowly, looking down at her feet where the snow came up over the top of her borrowed footwear.
“We won’t stay out too long,” Darcy said. “We can dry everything when we come back, and have some hot cocoa.”
“Hot cocoa!” The ecstatic cry echoed across the whitening expanse.
When Yadira tipped her head back to gaze up at the gray sky, the light turned her green eyes silver. “It’s just water,” she murmured. “In a different shape.”
Vash couldn’t quite parse her tone: dismissal, wonderment, indifferent accuracy.
Something white and round hit him square in the chest, exploding in cold little speckles up into his face.
“That was a snowball,” Darcy announced. “You can’t do that with plain old water.”
He looked down at the remnants smooshed across his own heavy coat. When he glanced askance at Darcy, she was packing another sphere between her hands, her teeth bared at him.
He growled back.
She laughed again. “Atsu, you are on my team. Vash, Yadira, we challenge you to a snowball fight.”
It turned out, chaos wasn’t all bad.
By the time they called the draw—Atsu’s hands were too small to make suitably large projectiles, but Darcy had the home planet advantage, balancing the teams well enough—they were all wet and cold and thoroughly exhausted. Although maybe Vash was just speaking for himself. But everyone seemed happy, and he thought he even caught a glimpse of at least one smile on Yadira, although admittedly that had come as she was pasting her little brother with a flurry of particularly impressive snowballs. But his son had been laughing uproariously the whole time and promptly jumped into the nearest drift as Darcy called a break.
“Cocoa and cider with cookies are available in the main lobby now,” Kong’s voice called through the patio comms.
Even Yadira looked excited at that announcement.
Borne on Atsu’s chatter and proclaiming of half a victory, they piled back into the lobby, shedding their soaked outer layers,which Darcy promptly whisked off the floor, and hung on the backs of chairs.
“Vash, will you take a look at the fireplace and see if you can get it going?” She smiled at him.
As he went to do her bidding, she grabbed a towel and gave Atsu a brisk rubbing.
“Ow, why do my fingers hurt so much?” He shook his hands vigorously.
“Sometimes when you get very cold, when you are a very good snowball thrower, the skin gets nipped by the cold and then your nerves tingle as they’re coming back to life.”
What was that hesitation in her voice? Vash slanted a quick glance at her from his place in front of the fireplace, but her gaze was already sliding away from him.
“Not actually come back to life,” Atsu said, suddenly serious. “Like Ammi won’t come back. She would like snowballs though, I think, so this moment will also live in the happy skies of my heart.”
Even as Vash’s throat tightened, the fire whooshed to life, warmth and light blazing in the big open space of the lobby. That half of his face prickled—coming back to life, Darcy had said—while the other side was still cold. All together, they arranged the chairs of wet clothing and damp towels in front of the fire.
Kong wheeled up. “Ug has programmed the bar dispensers for bottomless cocoa and cider.”
Since Darcy was off to one side talking to Yadira, Vash oversaw the filling of four mugs with the hot cocoa. Following the droid’s suggestion, he topped each liberally with something called whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles, which Kong insisted were necessary for an ‘authentic Earther experience’. When Vash turned back to the rest of the group, Darcy was gone.
Despite the delectable sweetness teasing his senses, disappointment pierced him. She’d said she had other tasks to see to besides his little family. And yet…
