[completed]
Harmony is empty.
She doesn't speak out, nor does she do anything that could possibly spark her father and step mother's rage. Besides, isn't it better to stay quiet than to deal with the fall-out caused by expressing h...
with the exception of Orsai bundle up in our coats and scarves to play in the garden until dinner is served.
My eyes keep flickering over to Miria, to her arm and the way she tries hard not to use it too much.
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Suki, Zeria and Joeas all work on individual snowballs,
- one for the head, two for the body of their snowman -
rolling them down the tiny slope and laughing as they grow bigger
and
bigger.
"Miria?"
She squats down under the small tree in the far corner, away from everybody else, picking up twigs and pebbles for the snowman.
"Hmm Harmony?"
"What's that on your arm?"
She jerks to clamp her hand protectively over her arm,
the pebbles and twigs sink soundlessly into the snow.
"I-I fell off of the bunk-bed, it hurt but it's better now."
PART TWO:
Miria avoids me.
She doesn't meet my eyes when we go out to the front to have a snow-ball fight.
She doesn't come near me when we lie in the snow to make angles and other shapes.
She ignores me completely as we come back inside for a bowlful of hot soup.
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I'm just about to tell Suki what happened in the garden, when Orsai grabs hold of my hand.
"Look outside Haru, can you see all that snow? Your mum won't be picking you up today...
you and Suki are staying the night.
And you're sleeping with me."
She leans in close, her breath tickling the shell of my ear,
"You t r a i t o r."
A.N. *cries* I just realized I don't have enough chapters so I'm going to have to merge in two chapters into one, secondhand-memories-style TT^TT I'm so sorry if it feels so weird reading like this, I know that I prefer having individual chapters too. But I hit the 200 mark today when I was writing ahead so I had to choose between cutting the story short in an awkward place, or doing this.