Permafrost: Thunderbird

Chapter 2: Doesn't It Feel Great?

⭐️Chapter 2: Doesn't It Feel Great?

Ryn sat on her bed, alone and staring up at the ceiling like there was something stuck to it. She didn't want to move or anything. She was probably daydreaming at this point. Anything to forget that awful failure that was yesterday. If only she knew a way to contact Corrin, since it wasn't like he'd given her his phone number or anything. That would probably calm her down right now, but since he wasn't here, she figured she might as well talk to herself and pretend.

"Hey, Corrin..." she muttered, not bothering with how weird she sounded.

"Hey Ryn, did something happen? You seem upset," she answered to herself, doing her best to mimic Corrin's voice.

"Yeah...the Wave Crashers beat us a second time and now I wanna punch their faces."

"Haha, yeah me too. After the stunt they pulled on me and my kingdom, I'd be willing to freeze 'em again with the Nitro Blade."

"You would?" she asked in a fake awed voice that nearly made her smile.

"Yeah, if I could I'd be all "wshoom, nyooom, take that, and that! Swing, swing, pshyooo-" and they'd be frozen in like 5 seconds."

"Wow! You totally should come over here and do that!"

"Anything for a friend."

She remained silent for a bit before chuckling to herself. As silly as that scenario was, it HAD helped a little bit. The room made her feel a bit lonely, though. It was around noon, and she'd already had something to eat. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Ryn slowly got out of her bed and went over to open it, revealing her friends.

"O-oh! Hey g-guys, what are you uh...what are you um...doing? Did I miss a text from you or something?" she asked, standing a little straighter out of nervousness.

"No, we just wanted to make sure you're okay after what happened," Jack said.

"Yeah, I'm...I'm doing okay," Ryn half-lied.

"Oh come on, let us in," Silvia smiled.

Ryn smiled back as she let her friends in, closing and locking the door behind them. They all had a seat on the chairs and couches in the living room area. They were in casual wear, though Jack had a hoodie tied around his waist just in case. None of the days had been stormy or cold recently, but it seemed like he was taking no chances after the Rinkling incident.

"Have you eaten anything yet?" Silvia asked to break the silence before it became awkward.

Ryn nodded. "Yeah I have, why? Did you guys wanna go someplace for food, or?"

"Frankly I'm not even sure if we should go out right now. If we run into the Crashers, that'll do worse for our day and we don't need that," Jack groaned.

"You have a point," Ryn said.

"Well, I don't think we should let them deter us from doing what we want, but I understand what you're talking about," Silvia said.

"Yeah, we don't need them rubbing it in..." Cosmo added.

"As much as I want to deck them in the face, you guys are right. We probably shouldn't be making a scene anyway," Jack sighed.

"Okay, but can we talk about what happened with Fang?" Ryn asked. "He's capable of being caring, he's just in the wrong hands."

"Frankly I think he only helped us because of survival and a common goal. If his team was with him, he'd probably side with them instead," Jack replied.

"Well, we wouldn't know for sure until it happened..." Silvia said. "Not that I want anything like that happening any time soon, heh."

"I think he would make a great friend!" Cosmo exclaimed. "Sure, he might need some help, but out of those four members, I think he's the nicest."

"Probably because we've been around him the longest and gotten to know him," Jack groaned as he leaned back onto his seat.

"Well, whatever the case is. I think we need to get stronger so we can beat them up!" Ryn said with a smile.

"But what do we do if we lose a thiiird time?" Cosmo whined.

"We beat them up again!" Ryn replied confidently.

"Hold on now. Wouldn't that be making the same mistake as them? We'd constantly be trying to beat them even though they're just some turf team. What if we let them be so they wouldn't bother us anymore?" Silvia suggested.

"That's not right! They'd probably start picking on other turf teams, then! You know we gotta stand up for the other guys who can't do it themselves!" Ryn exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'm kinda with Ryn on this one," Jack shrugged.

"Well-"

Silvia paused and weighed the options. If nobody was going to do anything about a reckless turf team, then the group might as well. But would it really be so bad if they left the Wave Crashers alone? What if they spread the word to others and told them to avoid the group? Would that do anything?

"Okay. For now, I suppose we can do something," Silvia said calmly.

"Yay!" Cosmo cheered. "Can we all hug now, too?"

"Sure."

"I don't see why not."

And so the Infernos got out of their seats for a group hug. It was great to be accepted by friends, especially during those times when things weren't going so well. It made one feel less alone, and it especially helped Ryn since she...never really had the parents to get hugs from. She was lucky to have quickly made friends and loved the life she had. Quite frankly, she didn't know where she'd be if none of the important events in her past had happened.

Ryn smiled as her friends surrounded her with a hug. Maybe that's what she needed. More friend comfort. Well, tomorrow was an easy day for her friends' parents, so she was sure she could schedule something. As the hug lessened, she pulled out her phone and began texting away while her other friends watched. She sent the text and looked back up at them.

"Hope you're ready for some hanging out tomorrow," Ryn said with a smile.

"Oh, you know we are!" Jack replied with a grin.

The other two nodded as Ryn let out a small chuckle.