[Leah][Xiana] Eternal Snow [Kota] {{ complete }}

Kota heard a bunch of noises coming from the kitchen. Mostly Caius and his stupid whatevers but he also heard Xiana's soft voice and laugh. How wonderful that they were getting along so well, her and Caius. They probably made what people called stupid siblings with a completely sis-con brother doting on a ridiculously adorable sister. No, he wasn't jealous at all what are you talking about even. Just a bit irked that the boss he respected so much was such a gushy, gay older brother. Okay, he was always gay, but gushy towards Xiana. It was more disturbing than anything and he still wasn't passed the stage where watching them gave him chills, and not the good kind either.

"We weren't talking about anything," he said when everyone returned to the living room at the same time. Leah holding sticks and Caius holding a tray of holiday cups steaming and filled with hot cocoa and a mess of whipped cream and toppings. Oh my fucking god. The blonde's eye twitched at the sight, then noticed a neatly arranged drink in the center. That must have been Xi's. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why you don't let flamboyant bosses who were only good at cutting hair into the kitchen to make store-quality cocoa. Yup.

"That nice one for me, cutie?" Danae asked, playfulness dripping from his tone as he walked up to the dark haired petite. And, Christ, he was like turning up his manliness or something because the way he said it was very unladylike. Xiana didn't exactly know that Danae was a guy, though it wasn't like the man kept the fact a secret. For as long as Kota knew him, he had liked dressing in girl clothing and using makeup and the like, and no lie he looks stunning. But it was more of a hobby for Danae Candice than wanting to take hormones or have a sex change. Modeling and cross-dressing to him was like haircutting to Kota. He knew he was good looking and wasnt afraid to flaunt it. That aspect was very similar to Kota, and in a way, that's how they became such good friends no matter how much one infuriated the other.

"I bet you put toppings in my hot water you didn't you, moron?" He disregarded Danae's sudden masculine attitude towards Xi. Danae wouldn't make any advances towards her. He's just a flirt. He took a cup of cocoa, planning to leave the fucked up hot water for Caius.

"So," he began, turning to Leah, "the game?"

After the king game full of lulz and trolling,  and a filling dinner of Leah's super "special" dishes that hardly looked edible yet wasn't half bad, the madness continued. Kota, of course, objected to more of the king game, in which he had done many stupid things that nobody shall ever speak of. Ever. Ever. But this was a democracy and the majority wanted to play and the blonde was not allowed to be a "bad sport" and opt out, much to his dismay. 

This next round started off with Danae being the king and 2 (Leah) and 5 (Xiana) gently stroking each other's cheeks. What the fuck...

The subsequent commands were slowly getting out of hand, and eventually nobody seemed to care anymore for Danae and Caius and Leah's stupid requests. Wow, were Xi and him the only sane ones in the room? Then cue the suspicious whispering that Caius and Danae were doing and the suspicious whispering that Caius did to Xiana and that Xiana whispered back. Leah blinked in curiosity and Kota, he just had a bad feeling about that. Not much good came out of Danae's whispering and extremely amused smirk. He had to be the king, again. The sticks must be rigged or something because Candice was king at least 65 percent of the time...

"S~o," his blue haired friend sang with was more mischief than a person would be comfortable with. "Number..." He made a show of thinking about the decision. "Four. And..." Well shit. Kota was four. He looked at Danae warily and received a sly smile in return. "Three. Kiss." 

Bam. 

There it was.

Kota stood slowly, waiting for the other person to stand. He half expected the other person to be Caius just to troll him because it was Danae. Or Xiana, because...well you know. But the one who got up next was Leah. Of all people. You could just imagine the thoughts running through both their heads. And Danae--Danae had this wide eyed look like he had no idea what the fuck he just did. Kota had a creeping feeling that whatever his friend just planned just went terribly wrong.

The two kind of just faced each other in silence while the audience watched. Nobody said a word and the blonde wasn't sure what to say, and if it'd be rude to turn down the king's request since this one was just wrong and cruel on so many levels. he shot a glare at Danae who wasn't wearing that goofy smirk anymore. It was more like an 'oh-shit-my-bad-I-didn't-mean-for-that-to-happen-but-forgive-me?' look. And Kota just shot him one that said to do something. 

"A-ah! I mean. Four kiss the king!" Everyone nearly tripped out at the order. Well, except Xiana since she still did not know Danae was actually a guy. "S-shit I mean--"

Caius cut in, "Hey now, the king can't keep changing his order." He turned to his employee, and grinned like the mother fucking Grinch. "Well?" God, he hated this guy so much right now. Fuck him and his stupid sister complex and sadism that kicked in when it came to torturing his sort-of worker. 

"Well then," Danae stood and took Kota's face between his palms. "Bon appetit ~ ❤ " And he fucking. Kissed. Him. Not quite on the lips but at the corner. To everyone else, however, it looked like what it was supposed to be. Shock overcame the reflex to shove the other away and the blonde just stood there and...took it. Until logic kicked back into his brain and his hands raised to shove away the lips that were curiously inching closer to his lips................

"What the hell, dude?" He swiped an arm repeatedly over his mouth as if he was attempting to kill all the bacteria through friction and the other hand fisted the front of Danae's shirt. "That was nasty as fuck. Don't ever. Do that again." His friend put his palms out in a surrender position, laughing with Caius and Leah. He suspected that Leah was laughing out of relief rather than the sheer glee from Caius. Bright greens caught sight of Xiana's expression, a mix of both surprise and hurt. "Dammit." His grip released. "Asshole," he hissed then turned to face the dark-haired girl. 

Before he had a chance to open his mouth, a hand grabbed him by the back of his shirt and dragged him to a random room upstairs. He could hear Leah's sudden gasp and could guess who was pulling them. With the door shut tightly and the light switch flipped on, he saw that it was Danae, standing with a hand on his hip. The fabric of his shirt was pulled tighter by the motion, exposed his tapered waist that was unlike that of a girl's. He could be a girl, except her had no breasts. Getting off that topic...

"Alright ya'll. My bad."

Kota snapped. "Is that all you have to say? 'My bad'? That was--"

"I know, I know. Didn't foresee Caius being such a dick."

"Yeah cuz of his fucking sister complex..." he mumbled.

The other snorted. "Obviously I underestimated the power of that factor."

Leah shifted next to him, as if she was uncomfortable deciding to speak up. Which wasn't like her at all. "I wouldn't...have minded..." Oh my--

"Did you really just say that? You think I want to kiss you more than Danae??" Shit. "No I mean--" Too late. She was out the room, down the stairs, and out the door judging by the slam that came from the floor below.

Sometimes he just really hated himself.

Padding downstairs, he grabbed his scarf, jacket, and a parcel and stormed out after her. "Leah!" He ran after her shrinking form, all the while throwing his coat on and haphazardly looping the scarf around his bruise. He called out to her again, closing the distance between them fast. He wasn't a slow runner. It made up for his lack of strength.

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She blinked at the slim white box, focusing on the bright red ribbon tied to it. Kota spoke as he transferred the parcel to her hands. "Look Leah, I didn't mean it in a bad way, what I said back there. If you don't believe me then whatever but hear me out. What I meant was that I wouldn't want to kiss you more than Danae because both of you are my precious friends. And Danae's a guy. That kiss better have been a no-homo one..."

"Bromance!" Leah blurted, still staring at the parcel. She had calmed down, at least. The tears were still there but they had stopped flowing. That was good. So they just stood kind of awkwardly in the snow, on some sidewalk in front of some random house.

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The blonde released the other, mumbling an apology  and watched her open the box. Inside was a hairpin consisting of crossed chopstick-like stakes and accented with beads and feathers in Leah's signature colors. I mean, the colors Kota thought were Leah's colors since the girl's usual garments looked as if a rainbow spilled over them. Now that he thought about it, any color would be fine as long as it was colorful.

"Oh my god, this is so pretty. The feathers are so sooooft and the colors, oh my god, the colors are perfect," she gushed, eyes instantly returning to their usual luster. Kota smiled.

"You better like it for all the work I put into making it."

Her eyes widened, if that was possible, and she threw her arms around his neck. Then she pulled back, hands fiddling with the hairpin, and looked at him with the hugest smile on her face. The two were eye level, which was disappointing as Kota wasn't even taller than her but the same height. "Thank you so much. I love it."

He returned her smile with one of his own before taking the pin from her. "Turn around. I'll put it on for you." Doing as she was told, Kota went to work under the bright moonlight. His fingers combed through her blonde locks, gently pulling apart the tangles. Leah was buzzing right now, he could tell by the sparkling atmosphere around her right now. It made it all the more difficult for him to ask for the favor he had been meaning to ask. And one he really had no right to ask for. 

"Hey. Could you...do something for me? As a favor?"

"Sure!" she said without hesitation, "What is it?" 

You know what people call a conscious? That feeling you get when you know you're going to ask for something you know will hurt the person you're asking and that you know the other person won't refuse even if it pains them. The feeling that you're taking too much advantage of your best friend's kindness and love for you. That person loves you so much that she'd agree even to the request he was about to make. And the worse part is that he knows all of this: how she feels and how she will feel. Those were more or less the emotions going through him right now. But... He bit his bottom lip and opened his mouth to speak, keeping his tone as nonchalant as possible. "I need you to help me with my confession to Xiana."

She visibly tensed at the line and even without looking at her face he knew the tears were back. Separating the portion of hair he was going to clip up, he continued. "You're the only one I can ask to do this." That wasn't fair. He wasn't being fair. And he knew it. But the sad truth was that he was willing to ask anyway because he knows she will forgive him. He was being selfish, as always. That's the kind of person he was. Just a selfish, selfish brat. 

He had just clipped in the pin when she replied,  "Okay," and turned to face him, face with a genuinely teasing smile and not a trace of the tears he thought had formed. "What do you want me to do?"

---

It was a game, just a simple game that she had gladly voted along to play. Xiana bit her bottom lip harder than she intended to and winced at the slight pain. It didn't make things any better when Danae, Kota, and Leah rushed out of the room or when Leah ran out of the house with Kota right behind her.

But it was game.

That was all she kept telling herself. There was no meaning, no hidden secrets, it was just a game. She wasn't going to continue to dwell on something that had already happened. There was no point in that, but there she was. . .dwelling.

"Aw, cutie, are you alright?" Caius said when he noted her slightly shocked and upset expression. He put his arms around her shoulder and kissed her head, pushing her dark hair away from her face.

"I'm fine." She whispered, leaning on his shoulder. "Why wouldn't I be?" She blinked back the slight tears. Xiana would be lying if she said that Leah wasn't adorable and Danae wasn't gorgeous. Not like she would lie about it in the first place. It wasn't in her character to. Xiana gave Caius a reassuring peck on the cheek just as Danae returned to the room.

"You just missed them," Xi said standing up and trying to give him a smile that obviously came out wrong. "I hope they don't stay out too long though. It's getting dark and colder than usual. It would be horrible if they caught a cold."

"We should really wait for them outside, shouldn't we?" Although, it didn't really sound much like a question because Danae had already grabbed their coats and was hurrying them out the door. The three of them stood awkwardly on the porch, Xi slightly shivering from the night air, Caius drapping one side of his coat over his shoulder, and Danae with her hands in her pocket.

It didn't take more than 10 minutes before Kota reappeared. . . . without Leah. The starry eyed girl gave him a smile before running, almost tripping, to him.

I'm a horrible, horrible person, she thought to herself.

---

Leah sat on the tree branch with one hand against the trunk to keep her balance and the other hand clutching the bird cage. Her starry blue eyes were wide open. And she was trembling, definitely trembling.

Leah was just all over the place today. Joyful to jealous, sad to happy and now… She didn’t even know what she was feeling now. Maybe this was the feeling of being totally crushed by your crush. Leah still couldn’t understand herself at all. How long had she known that Kota and Xiana were… That? The blonde had known for a long time.

The girl had no idea what to make of the situation. “Could you...do something for me? As a favor?" The scene played in her head over and over again. She could have said no. She should have said no, but she couldn’t. Kota was the one Leah was in love with. She just couldn’t refuse, even if they didn’t have mutual feelings.

Even with everything that had happened, there was a part of Leah that denied it all. That tiny part of her that clung onto some imaginary hope. She tried to discard of that hope too many times than she could remember, but every time she did so, something or another would happen and all of that hopefulness would come right back. That was exactly what took place a moment ago. Kota said those things and Leah’s hope vanished. Then he gave her the present. All of that hope returned

Leah almost wished that Kota didn’t apologize or give her that hair pin. Maybe then, she wouldn’t be hurting so much right now. Kota should have just let her cry away and show her how much he didn’t give a damn. Except that he actually did, which is what made Leah keep hoping.

The blonde heard the the grass rustle. She peered over the tree to see Kota and Xiana walk out. Oh, no. It’s happening real soon now, she thought. Leah shut her eyes tight, bracing herself for the whistle. When the whistle sounded, it was all over for her.

---

The preparations were finished for the most part. The only thing missing was the guest of honor and she came stumbling into his arms. He caught her as she almost tripped over nothing again, noticing her flushed cheeks and the others standing on the porch. "Jesus, Xi, be careful. Were you guys waiting for us?" he asked, steadying the petite in his arms.

"What do you think, shrimp? We're just shivering in the snow for the bloody hell of it?" Kota ignored his boss' sarcasm, making eye contact with Danae, who smiled and shrugged. He assumed his friend didn't spill anything. That's good, wouldn't want Xiana to worry unnecessarily. Then Danae cleared his throat and shooed his hands, silently mouthing, "Don't keep her waiting." Whether he meant Xiana or Leah wasn't specified but Kota understood he meant the blonde waiting for their arrival in the park. Of course Danae's primary concern would be with Leah's well-being. They'd been friends much longer than he had been with Xi.

"We'll be back!" Kota shouted, taking the girl's hand and breaking into a run. He left Caius to Danae.

Kota was careful that Xiana didn't actually fall the thousand times she slipped or tripped. He was nervous. His heart was pounding (not from the physical exercise). He wasn't sure if he really could go through with this. Ah, but he couldn't leave Leah out like that, after she whole-heartedly agreed to help him. 

"Kota, where are we going?" he heard Xi ask from behind him, slightly winded. 

"I have something to show you! We're almost there!"

Indeed they were. It didn't take long to reach the park that was only about 2 blocks down from the Vega household. The two slowed to a stop, giving the girl a chance to catch her breath. When she recovered, he led her into the forest area, being mindful of the thick roots that could possible trip her up. When they reached a clearing, he turned to her, huge smile on his face. "Close your eyes." From his pocket, Kota extracted a thin whistle that produced dull trill when he blew on it. In response was a metal clang and a flurry of fluttering black figures that could easily be mistaken for bats. 

One chance.

Putting all this concentration into what he wanted to do. Good thing the moon was peeking out enough from the clouds for him to do this. "Open," he whispered. As the girl's eyes fluttered open, her vision was filled with light, beautiful white lights that looked like...butterflies? Wings circled around them, one briefly landing on her shoulder before flying off with the flock. It was like fireflies, but with a different insect and much more breathtaking. As their wings moved, small bits of light sprinkled down as small star flakes...or moon flakes. Her starry eyes widened in wonder and she grinned, laughing and twirling with them. She was a little fairy, practically, with the way she danced in the light. His light. The materialistic light he could offer her. But it wasn't enough. He wanted to give her more.

"Xiana." She turned to him, still smiling brightly. He glanced down. "Always, important things are said by mistake and I have a huge tendency to say stupid things. But," he raised his gaze to meet hers, "This time I will say it properly."He took a few steps so that he was right in front of her. "I love you, Xi." He paused wondering if he should continue; wondering if he should hear her answer before he said the next bit. Kota, he wasn't one of those completely oblivious people but one could never be too sure. He had a feeling that Xiana liked him also and at the same time, it could just be that she's nice to everyone. He might just be one of the helpless children that she felt the need to protect. Even so, Kota would put all his bets on the next lines. "It's been wonderful this past year, getting to know you and spend time with you. Honestly, I've never felt this strongly about someone before and I probably never will for another person. You might see me as kid. So... I will try to grow up quickly and when I do,"he knelt, holding out a four leaf clover he spent days to find, "Will you marry me?"

The butterflies were still floating around but they were slowly departing, but in those moments the scne truly looked like one straight from a fairytale.

---

"Open," he whispered softly into her ear. Her star filled eyes blinked open slowly, absorbing the scene in front of her. Xiana gasped lightly, her hands instantly flew to her mouth. Butterflies surrounded them in a pure and glowing white light. They flew all around them, one landed on her shoulder, flapping it's snow like wings before disappearing into the air with the rest of them. 

She smiled, giggled a melodious sound, and twirled under their brilliance. Her heart was beating so fast. There was nothing that could've made that moment any more perfect, she had thought.

"Xiana," The dark haired girl had always loved the way Kota said her name. The way his voice resonated in the air made her feel calm and happy. Xiana turned, her eyes gleaming. "Always, important things are said by mistake and I have a huge tendency to say stupid things. But,"

But? She thought, not sure what was coming next. He walked up to her, his green eyes always on her.

"This time I will say it properly. I love you, Xi." Her heart skipped a beat. She drew in a breathe, unable to let it out, afraid it was all just some make believe fantasy and that any moment she would wake up inside Leah's house. "It's been wonderful this past year, getting to know you and spend time with you. Honestly, I've never felt this strongly about someone before and I probably never will for another person. You might see me as kid. So... I will try to grow up quickly and when I do," He got down on one knee and held out a light green four leaf clover.

"Will you marry me?"

That was it. That was the magical question every girl has dreamed about. Xiana was one of them. As much tolerance as she wished she had, she had none and with that warm tears began flowing out of her eyes. Tears of joy, happiness, love, tears for him. Her heart was beating so fast, she was afraid he could hear it.

"Yes!" She cried, nodding her head. "Yes, yes, yes!" She took the four leaf clover and entwined it around her fingers. Xiana jumped into his arms the moment Kota stood up. He pulled her in a tight embrace. "I'm so glad I met you." She laughed behind her tears. He gave her a tight squeeze as she buried her head into his shoulder. His heart was beating just as fast as hers. They held each other for as long as possible, until her tears had practically dried up. He held her by the waist as she turned the four leaf clover into a small ring that slipped perfectly on her ring finger.

"Did you know that each one of these leaflets stood for something?" She held up her small hand high into the sky where the butterflies still lingered. "Faith, happiness, luck, and love." She let out a breathe, "and you've given me all four." With her other hand she drew out a box from her pocket. "Merry Christmas. Though it isn't going to be as amazing as your gift."

Kota took the gift and slowly unwrapped it. Inside he found a pair of earrings that was obviously Xi's handiwork. He smiled, of course Xi would hand-make her gift. He took off the pair he had on and exchanged them with her gift."How do I look?"

"Stunning," She laughed, holding him closer not wanting to let him go.

"Um. Actually, I have something else to confess before we go. I, uh, kissed you on the boat....back at the carnival while you were asleep...s-sorry...." Xiana looked up at him.

"It's okay," Her eyes twinkled, "Because this is your second gift." Xiana tiptoed slightly and kissed him slowly on the lips.

"I love you. Always and forever."