-Earlier, right after Emma, Ria and Claire left for the store.-

“Brrr, it’s so coooold.” I lean into Emma who’s taken my arm into hers. I had dressed really warmly because Rora and Em had insinuated, but it was still really really cold in the snowy outside world.

Em chuckled. “Hey, it’s not too late for you to go back. You can stay home with Anya and Auro if you want to.”

“No, I will persevere.” I stated firmly, after which a gust of wind made me rethink that statement pretty much immediately.

Claire, who was walking just a bit behind us with her hands in her pockets, laughed. “It’s definitely not the warmest of days. But I’m glad that I’m outside for a bit. The air tastes very fresh and I was getting a bit cooped up being indoors constantly.”

“Mhmm, same for me.” Em nodded.

While the inside of Rora’s house was so cozy and warm, I couldn’t really say that I didn’t get what they were talking about. Even if it was just going to the store for a moment, breathing in the cold air somewhat made my mind ‘reset’ a little. A change of decor would also make me appreciate the indoor moments a bit more… Especially with some hot drink in my hands when we got back.

“It’s a shame that there’s this much snow.” Em continued. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t mind jogging around town for a bit. But now it’s a bit too dangerous…”

“Yeah, I’d be right there with you.” Claire agreed.

“Maybe when it clears up a little.” Em said as the crunching of snow beneath our boots stopped. We had arrived in front of the neighbor’s front door.

A ring of the bell and a couple of seconds later resulted in Julie standing in front of us. Looking slightly confused as to what we were doing here.

“Hey Julie, we were wondering if you and Miss Blanchet need any groceries done, the three of us are heading to the store and it would be stupid not to ask.” Em acted as our spokeswoman.

The confusion in Julie’s eyes cleared in an instance and was replaced by an extremely wholesome smile. “Would you girls really do that for us?”

“Of course!” I replied enthusiastically. The neighbors were always super nice to us, why wouldn’t we?

Claire tapped her chest proudly. “It’s no biggy, we are always happy to help.”

Julie looked at Claire. “Ah, you are one of the friends Aurora went to get from the train station?”

“Yes.” Claire smiled back. “Nice to meet you, my name is Claire.” She put her gloved hand forward to give a handshake to Julie, who reciprocated it with another smile.

“Nice to meet you too, I’m Julie.” Julie pulled her hand back and then looked back into the hallway. “If you give me a couple of moments, I’ll go and get the grocery list I penned down. If you want to, you can come inside for a moment.”

“It’s fine, we’ll wait outside.” Em replied. “We’ve only just left the house, after all.”

Julie nodded and quickly closed the door as she went to get her list.

“She’s the live-in assistant, right?” Claire asked.

“Yep, she’s really nice as well.” Em answered.

More than that really couldn’t be conversed though as Julie had arrived back at the door and opened it up again. “As for the money, would you prefer if we gave you money now or later.”

“You don’t really need to pa-”

Before Em could finish her sentence, Julie interrupted her. “We are going to pay our part of the bill, that’s not negotiable.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

We all chuckled at that but it was Em who kept spokespersoning for us. “Then maybe let’s arrange it afterwards. It’s easier like that with a cash app on my phone.”

“Okay, make sure to take the receipt with you as well.”

“We will.” I smiled.

Julie waved us off as we continued our stroll to the store nearby, it wasn’t going to be much of a walk, but thanks to the snow it would take us quite a bit longer than it normally would.

Apart from us, there was only a single other person down the street who was wandering around. Not a single car to be heard or seen anywhere close. That meant the only noise we were hearing was the crunchy noise of ice and snow beneath our feet.

“Maybe I would want to come and run along with you even in this snow.” My thought had immediately translated into me saying it out loud.

“Are you sure about that?” Claire chuckled and put her hand on top of my bonbon hat, wiggling it about a little.

“Running in snow isn’t as easy as it looks, Ria.” Em gently bumped into me, taking hold of my mittened hand. “But if you really want to, feel free to come along. Claire and I will lower our pace. It’s no problem at all. But right now, we will have to wait and see what the weather will give.”

“Isn’t it good enough to run now?”

Claire paced up just a little so she could walk slightly in front of both Em and I. She shook her head. “No, the snow is way too deep at the moment. Snow in and by itself isn’t the worst thing to run on, but the deep snow may be hiding holes in the ground or something like that. Especially the fluffier snow is dangerous for that. I almost broke my ankle once in Austria on a family trip because of that.”

“Oh… Yeah… let’s not take that risk then!” I shook my head enthusiastically.

“Well, if you really want to, we can have Auro be our snowplow. She can’t break her ankles anyway, and she is more than strong enough to push the snow out of the way for us.” Claire joked.

Em started laughing. “If only that wouldn’t put literally all of the attention on the four of us. It is funny to imagine, though.”

In my imagination, I saw Rora run ahead of us with one of those snowplows trains used in snowy regions, spewing the snow to the sides. The image did make me giggle.

That conversation aside, we set forth, enjoying the quiet walk through the abandoned city streets. When we got near to the store, however, our peaceful walk was interrupted by the sound of a motorbike coming from around the corner. But what appeared in front of us at the crossing completely blew my mind. It was a fireman sitting on top of a snow scooter that was pulling along a string of carts that looked very similar to those bagage trains you would see at airports. With the difference being that these carts didn’t have any wheels and were just being dragged along on the snowy road surface.

He was heading in the direction of the store we were going to.

“What the heck. That looks fun.” Claire commented. “Is that how they are getting food and stuff into the store?”

“I assume so. That last car definitely had some potato chips in them. I recognized the brand.” Em commented.

We all stood still on the corner of the intersection, watching the fireman take the next corner to the left, with his carts following him.

“I think I’ve said this before.” Em started. “But our city is strangely well-prepared for heavy snowfall like this…”

In the corner of my eye, I saw Claire’s mouth pull into a smirk. “So where is the government hiding that weather changing machine, huh!?” She dramatically turned towards us, putting a big accent on the ‘huh’. Because she turned so dramatically, though, she slipped and almost fell. She did manage to just recover her balance in the nick of time.

I always loved Claire’s dramatics. She’s so funny. It didn’t take much for her to make me giggle with her quips.

“Watch out before you slip and break your nose. How the hell are we going to explain that to Anya if it happens?” Em let go of my hand for a moment to steady Claire.

Claire was staring wide-eyed at the floor. “I mean… If you told the truth, she would believe you.”

“That you broke your nose because of some performance shenanigans?” Em paused and looked ahead of her into the distance. “....Fair… She probably would, yes.”

When Em let go of Claire, Claire nodded. “I know that it’s going to happen one day. I wouldn’t be surprised at all.

“Then you should probably stop?”

With great flair, Claire whipped her hair and stared directly at Emma. Putting her hand on her chest for the second time in a short while. “Impossible. Drama is my partner in life. If I must suffer to have it be my life’s companion, so shall it transpire. For this is my fate. Furthermore, I have faith that, in the end, it will guide me true.”

Em blankly stared at Claire for a couple of seconds before she grabbed my hand again. “Come, Ria, let’s get to the store before you get too cold.” I then got subtly dragged along to cross the street.

“Hmm, tough audience, I see. I will win your hearts over yet.” Claire chuckled and jogged a bit to catch up with us.

“You already have my heart, Claire!” I smiled brightly at our friend.

“Thank you, Corelia.” She gave me a polity, yet still dramatic, bow.

“Please ignore her before she gets worse.” Em said, just looking straight ahead, yet she could not hide the little smile on the corner of her lips.

“For that, I fear, it’s already way too late, my dear.”

Em snorted at that rhyme, and so did I.