For Daia, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Thanks for an amazing 2023
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Ranzo wanted to let him down easy.
Snow fell softly upon the two of them, the first of the season. Ranzo's gloved hand was warmly grasped in Bell's mittened one, their two sets of feet crunching on the snow that covered the sidewalk. The sky, although hidden by the falling snowflakes, was getting darker, orange rays of sunlight streaking through the cold clouds.
It was too beautiful a moment to ruin with bad news.
They eventually reached a park, where Bell thought it was a perfect spot to throw snowballs at Ranzo. Not even Basara was brave enough to start a snowball fight with Ranzo.
Ranzo was merciless. "Take that!" He shouted at Bell, snowball hitting him flat in the chest.
"Hey!" Bell yelled back, throwing his own snowball at Ranzo.
Ranzo laughed as he ran out of the way, Bell pelting him with more snowballs as he did. "You're not allowed to dual wield snowballs!"
"Says who!"
"Me!" Ranzo narrowly dodged another snowball.
"I say it's perfectly okay!"
"Gah! Fine! Have it your way!"
Ranzo gathered snow into his hands, quickly making a good dozen snowballs. He popped back up, but Bell was nowhere to be found.
"Bell!"
"Haha!" Bell's triumphant laugh came from behind Ranzo as Bell threw more snowballs at him.
Ranzo swivelled, immediately burying Bell in the snow with all the snowballs he threw.
Bell spit out snow. "I thought you said no dual wielding."
Ranzo shrugged. "Rules are meant to be broken."
"Oh yeah?" Bell pushed Ranzo into the snow.
"Hey!" Ranzo pulled himself up using Bell's arm, before dragging Bell into the snow next to him.
"Ranzo!" Bell complained.
Ranzo just laughed. A moment later, Bell relented and laughed with him.
They soon realized the mere minutes they intended to spend walking through the park had soon become well over an hour, the sky now pitch black. The snow had stopped, clearing the sky enough to see the blanket of stars.
Bell's hand found Ranzo's again. "They're beautiful, aren't they?"
"Yeah, they are." Ranzo turned to look at Bell, seeing his awestruck face. He squeezed his hand. "Bell?"
Bell turned to look at him. "Yeah?"
Ranzo didn't know how to say it. "My dad called last night. He wants me back in Brazil for Christmas."
