Lost My Gloves, You Give Me One

Tsubaki looked over her shoulder stoically, round little face disdainful as she eyed the other elementary schooler facedown in the snow. She wore a puffy coat a few shades lighter than her hair, and a backpack that was a few shades darker.

Jeez. She really likes that color, doesn't she? Tsubaki raised an eyebrow, and her nose. Why was she facedown in the snow?

"What are you doing?" Tsubaki finally asked. A school bell rang in the distance.

"Oh, I'm looking for my gloves!" A round, excitable face popped up from the mountains of white in the schoolyard all around them.

"How did you lose them?" Tsubaki couldn't help but scoff. It was the middle of winter, and it had been snowing all week. Plus, if the rest of the other girl's ensemble was anything to go by, her gloves were probably some shade of fiery orange.

"Don't know!" The orange girl shrugged cheerfully.

Tsubaki couldn't help but scoff again, disbelieving. "How does that not bother you more?"

"Don't know!" The orange girl shrugged cheerfully again.

Tsubaki shook her head. This girl! She either had more than just a few screws loose, or she was really good at trolling Tsubaki, and that thought made Tsubaki self-conscious. Th-the nerve of her! Hmph!

She crossed her little arms, made chubbier by the heavy, black coat she wore to protect her from the snow. Unlike the idiot girl before her, on her hands and knees and up to her elbows and face in the snow, Tsubaki had all of her winter wear. She felt her mittens tucked securely under her armpits as she crossed her arms, hands bunched into fists inside of the puffy, black material. The other girl seemed completely unbothered by Tsubaki's judgmental glare, and she didn't even seem jealous that Tsubaki was nice and warm and dry while she was anything but. Instead, she cheerfully searched through the snow until they heard a school bus honk its horn in the distance.

"Come on!" Tsubaki demanded impatiently, as if inconvenienced by the other girl taking so long, even though they'd only met a few minutes ago. Without thinking, she held out a black-mitted hand to the orange girl.

"Huh?" Her orange eyes went comically wide with surprise, reflecting the bright sunlight above, even though it wasn't very warm. "Really?"

"Uhhhh, yeah, duh." Stupid. "Why do you think I'm holding my hand out to you?" Tsubaki had just enough intelligence to refrain from being so blunt as to call the other girl an idiot outright, but not enough for it to fully sink in that she was holding her hand out to her. At least not until it was too late. The orange girl squealed happily, then grabbed Tsubaki's mitted hand so hard that she was sure something would break.

"Wow! Gee! Thanks, bestie! I'm Rika Seto! Who are you?"

Ignoring the irony of calling her a best friend in the same breath as asking her who she was, Tsubaki looked Rika up and down slowly with skeptical, gray eyes. Rika Seto, huh? Wasn't a name familiar to Tsubaki. She must've been in another class, even though they went to the same school.

"I'm Tsubaki Aoyagi," Tsubaki finally said, voice quiet and reserved, even though she was still holding Rika's hands. Wasn't she cold?

"That's a nice name!" Rika grinned and nodded approvingly.

Wait. Since when do I need HER approval? Tsubaki thought, another wave of self-consciousness washing over her. "Come on, we better go, the bus is leaving!" she muttered gruffly, grabbing Rika's other hand and dragging her towards the bus.

"Huh?" Rika tilted her head in surprise. Only later would she learn, on the ride home, that Tsubaki had done it again without thinking. She knew that running through the snow, even if there was no wind outside, felt colder than walking, just because the act of running generated more wind. Since Rika lost her gloves, Tsubaki covered for her, metaphorically and literally, wrapping her black mittens around Rika's pale little hands even after they made their way onto the bus, sliding into the same double-seat together, breathless, noses frozen.

"Whew! That was fun!" Rika laughed, the air directly in front of her fogging up. I'm a dragon! It's my fire breath! "I think I really like you, Tsubaki Aoyagi!" With the sort of brash boldness only a little girl had, she stuck her bare hand out to Tsubaki again, but not just to hide in the protective warmth of her mittens. She wanted to shake hands on it, and become new best friends, like any little girl should in such a situation.

"What?" Tsubaki couldn't help but lean away from Rika. So, she hadn't fully thought through the ramifications of helping Rika, she'd just done it because it was no huge inconvenience for her, despite what her sarcasm and impatience implied. If anything, it was a bigger inconvenience and annoyance just watching her being such a big dummy crawling around in the snow like that. Seriously! Who loses orange gloves?

"Since you saved my life back there!" Rika grinned, chubby hand still stuck out at the girl dressed all in black, from her hair to her boots. "Lost my gloves, you give me one!" she chuckled as her eyes darted to Tsubaki's hands again.

Dramatic much? The girl in black thought, still leaning away from the girl in orange. She didn't shake Rika's hand immediately, but she allowed Rika to lull her into a one-sided conversation, if only because she felt that Rika owed her some entertainment after her noble and generous sacrifice from before. Tsubaki may have found Rika annoying to the point of being bothersome and boring, but Rika's chatter made an excellent drone.

The two girls even realized that they lived closer together than they initially thought, getting off at the same bus stop.

"Well, I guess this is where we part ways," Rika said sadly as she hopped up from her seat.

"Huh?" Tsubaki stood up at the same time.

Rika's eyes lit up like the sun. "No way!" She grabbed Tsubaki's hand again without thinking. "Wanna hang out?"

Not for the first time did Tsubaki recoil from the other girl's sudden and intense ideas, but this time, she responded. "... Yeah... Sounds like fun." People didn't usually like her very much. She was "too scary" for them. But this idiot Rika girl here... didn't seem afraid at all...

And in the hours that passed, as she and Rika played video games at Rika's house and made pillow forts to sleep in at Tsubaki's, each girl couldn't help but smile at the other, Tsubaki shyly and Rika excitedly.

It's nice to have a friend.

AN: Based on my similar OCs, whom I wrote a fic for using a Taylor Swift song (of course) "It's Nice to Have a Friend". This is a modern AU, hence why it's not in the D&D anthology, but it still takes from my canon, hence why it's a slight AU on the story of how these gals met.

Also tagged as platonic and romantic because it can be read as both. In my canon, my OCs are in an aro-ace, queer-platonic polycule. And in this fic, Tsubaki and Rika are elementary schoolers, so it's a "first schoolgirl crush" more than a real romance, but it could precede one, as it does in the canon "It's Nice to Have a Friend" song.