A Thoughtful Tomorrow || Feathers Across the Seasons (RinXLen)

第1章 | Winter

It's silent this winter.

The birds have migrated and Rin was so used to hearing their daily chirps that she often forgets that, with their warm bodies, they too take their morning songs to the south.

She slides open the sliding door to see the beautiful outside muted in thick snow. She takes a single step onto the porch and looks up at the gray skies sending down a chilling cold in the form of gentle, white flakes. A small smile tugs on her lips until a quiet "hm" escapes from them.

Rin backs into the house and closes the sliding door. At that very moment, she perks up as a voice is heard to her right.

"It's been quite chilly this evening, hasn't it?"

Her expression softens. She turns around to Len standing by the doorframe of their bedroom. He dons a green kimono that reaches his ankles and has his hair kept in the spiked blond ponytail he never seemed to get bored of. Of course, it was a daily hassle for Rin to brush (as it always seemed to get itself tangled one way or another), but she dared not to make a fuss about it.

"It's been snowing more frequently than usual," she says with a smile. "It is winter after all."

Len nods.

He goes over to the irori in the middle of the living room, the sunken hearth of the room in the shape of a square, filled with sand and ash and bordered with wood. He takes some fallen branches he and Rin collected earlier that week and bends down to the irori to fuel it.

He waits for Rin to finish filling the pot with rice (that she had previously washed and soaked) and water to help it cook. She closes it off with the lid and brings it over to the irori to suspend it on a hook. To this, Len starts the fire as Rin backs away and takes a seat before it. When he finishes, he dusts his hands together, then takes a seat beside her.

They warm themselves by the fire as the rice cooks.

Their desolate village is left barren in the snow. Just like the lack of villagers, the winter had left them little nature to tend to. It was just the two of them in this small world to care for themselves and one another.

Len puts an arm over Rin and brings her in close to his chest. She doesn't deny it. They huddle together for warmth and she rests her head on his shoulders.

Under his breath, she hears him murmur, "It'd also been snowing the day we'd met."

He was right.

She remembers the day she knocked on his door dressed in a white coat and kimono. She'd covered her face in protection from the cold and snow.

(It was this once. Just this once and she had no clue what she was doing. She'd never done something like this before.)

The door slides open and it's a man in green with blond hair.

She slips off the hood over her face and reveals her long hair as bright as sunshine, loosely tied near the bottom with a red ribbon. Her eyes shine like amber, looking to be a yellow-ish tint perhaps due to the light from within his home.

"Excuse me, I've nowhere to stay and I'm in great need of shelter. Would you mind letting me stay for the night?"

Her smile is as warm as a fire. He returns back a smile even bigger than hers.

"Of course, please come in." He makes way for her to come in and she does. He closes the sliding door and the woman looks around the living room. "Make yourself comfy."

He once more looks over at her curious self as she bends down by the fire. He notices her eyes were rather a calming blue like the sky—nothing like the snowy, cloudy gray it was at the moment. The woman lifts her head to look him in the eyes.

"Thank you." She stands up and approaches him.

"My pleasure." He holds out his hand and smiles. "My name's Len."

She hesitates for a couple seconds, staring down at his extended hand as if she had no idea what he was doing. Slowly, she outstretches her hand until it's within his, all this while keeping her gaze fixated on his face, just in case she might be doing something wrong. They shake hands and he furrows his brow.

"Your name?"

She perks up. "Rin. It's Rin."

The day passes and by morning, Len finds Rin already up: sliding door left open as she sits crisscrossed on the porch, watching snow flutter to the ground. Len joins her; however, she doesn't acknowledge his presence.

"Are you okay?" he asks in a soft voice.

She averts her gaze to the ground. Len assumes she doesn't want to talk about it and her being a guest into his home, he chooses not to push her any further. But just as he's about to get up, he hears her take a deep breath, close her eyes, and look at him with a small chuckle he can't seem to decipher is sarcastic or sincere.

"I'm okay." A pause and then a frown. "Len, I..."

Rin avoids eye contact with him and he attempts to reassure her. "Whatever it is, I promise you can tell me."

"I..." She closes her eyes and breathes. "I have nowhere to go... no family... no home..."

"... Oh, is that all?"

Confused by his response, she cocks her head and looks at him in bewilderment.

"You can stay with me."

"You'd... do that for me?"

He places a hand on top of hers.

"Of course, stay as long as you need."

"Thank you..." Rin looks down at his hand atop hers. "Thank you..."

. . .

The hearth warms the couple in the cold of the night. Warm from the fire, Rin hides her face in Len's sleeve and instead warms herself against him with his body heat.

With Rin snuggled against him, he closes his eyes and kisses the top of her head.