"Shah?"

Aru sat up with a start. She hadn't properly been sleeping, - every time she tried to, the nightmares stopped her - but still didn't notice Aiden coming in.

"What are you doing here?" She groaned, massaging her temple.

"Your door was open. And you missed breakfast. I was worried about you!" He did look surprisingly concerned.

"Wuh?" Aru tried to sit up and swing her legs around, but failed miserably. Had she sat curled up all night?

"Are you ok?"

Aru was decidedly not ok. Her mom had vanished during an urgent-sounding phone call. She'd received a very threatening text, and now she had to win a competition to save her mom - the only person to have ever taken care of her. Everything that was happening was in the basic, not-ok handbook!

She deliberated all of this before saying, "Yup, great."

"You sure? You look kinda tired."

"Thanks." Aru said dryly.

"I didn't mean it like that..."

Aru sighed. "Sorry. I didn't get that much sleep last night. Could you grab a mug?"

After making herself a coffee with all 8 sachets of coffee (Aru didn't drink coffee much, but she figured the more the merrier) and downing the drink full, she felt she had the sufficient energy to hold a conversation.

"Any other reasons for showing up?" She asked, holding onto the now empty mug.

"Well, Rudy was trying to harass me into filming a music video for me, and this," Aiden gestured vaguely to the conversation, "seemed like a good out." Aru smiled weakly, causing Aiden to look even more worried. "You sure you're ok?"

Aru nodded, internally smacking herself. Normally lying was easy, but obviously being tired didn't help with it much. "Just didn't get much sleep."

There was a pause. Aru waited for Aiden to leave, but he didn't. Instead, he continued to sit stiffly, not wanting to break the silence. Eventually, Aru did it for him.

"Um, do you want to play a round of uno?"

"Huh?"

"You look kinda awkward just sitting. We could watch a movie instead? And no nature documentaries." She added when she saw Aiden open his mouth. He frowned slightly.

"You don't know I was going to say that." He pointed out.

"Oh, but I do!" Aru replied. She earned a pillow thrown at her head. "So uno or tv?"

"Uno."

"Good choice!"

After a few rounds, (which Aru won, obviously) they started to talk. Not about anything major, just a normal conversation. Sort of like when they used to be friends. Joking, laughing, chatting about any random stuff. It was nice in a way. Aru - though she would never admit it - kind missed talking with him. Or just him, in general.

Aru shook herself. Focus on the conversation, Shah. Not on missing Aiden. Not on his face. Definitely not his eyes -

"UNO!" She yelled loudly in an attempt to shut up her inner dialogue. Aru looked at Aiden, who had a decidedly expressionless face.

"Ok," he said calmly, "Before I do this, remember that this is just a card game."

"Aiden..."

"Please don't kill me..."

"No promises."

He cringed, before laying down... a plus 4. Aru shot him a death glare, before picking up her cards. She glanced at them, smiling suddenly.

Aiden's expression turned from fear to confusion, and back to fear again. "Why do you look so happy?" He asked nervously.

"Oh, just," Aru pulled out her cards one-by-one, "skipped you in green, skipped you in red, skipped in red again, yellow skip - uno by the way - and yellow 5! Take THAT!" Aru spotted Aiden's confounded face.

"I- um- woah, I'm impressed,"

Aru snorted. "Of course you are, wifey."

Aru froze mentally. She had not meant to use that nickname. She couldn't remember why "wifey" was made a nickname in the first place. But she could remember almost all the times she'd called him that. Walking back from school, visiting the local gold museum, a karaoke night that took a lot of convincing from Aru... the list was practically endless. Although it obviously ended. After that had happened.

Aru opened her mouth to apologise profusely, before noticing Aiden didn't seem to realise. Maybe she just overthinking it. He probably didn't notice. Or he just didn't hear her in the first place. She shut her mouth.

They sat in a comfortable quiet for a while, before hearing someone shout something down the corridor.

"AIDEEEN! HELP ME! BRYNNE SAYS SHE'S GOING TO HIT ME WITH A COMPUTER - hang on does that count as cyber bullying? WAIT, AIDEN, PLEASE, I THINK SHE'S ACTUALLY GONNA SMACK ME!"

Rudy's shout was followed by what Aru assumed was Brynne's battle cry and Mini squealing at Brynne to "At least sanitise the laptop first!"

Aru laughed, raising her eyebrows. "That girl sure has a weird way of showing her crush."

"Mini has a crush on Rudy?" Aiden asked, "Rudy has a crush on Mini!"

"I knew it! We have to get them together now. Or we're failing as friends."

"Exactly. And Brynne sent a heart to Hira on text. She never sends hearts to anyone else. I get noodles or eye-roll faces."

"Perfect! Now we just ship them so heavily neither can refuse. It's a no-brainer."

"AIDEN! SHES GOING TO KILL ME, DON'T LEAVE ME NOW! AAAAID-"

"I'm coming!" Aiden yelled back. "Sorry, gotta save my cousin from being murdered."

Aru snorted, "Good luck."

Aiden grinned at her quickly before slipping through the door. Aru looked after him for a second, checking he couldn't see her anymore, before pulling a picture out from her drawers.

Aru still remembered that day it was taken. It was the beginning of winter break, and the two of them had decided to go to a national park, for a) the photo ops and b) to try and climb trees. But, unfortunately for them, the bus broke down halfway there. And the next bus was coming in an hour.

So, after waiting on the side of a field for a while, Aru decided to chuck a snowball at Aiden. This became a full-scale snow battle, ending with them both of them drenched to the core. After they had made snow angels, a snow man, and attempted to do ballet, Aru convinced Aiden to take a selfie with her. And after they'd gotten back, they'd sat in Aiden's backyard, sipping cocoa and watching the sun set. It was one of her happiest memories.

They were both smiling in the photo, Aru's massive grin scrunching up her entire face, while Aiden's looked like he was struggling to hold in laughter. Aru had balanced on her toes to be in the shot, and she had propped her chin on Aiden's shoulder from behind.

Aru had kept a copy of the photograph with her ever since they'd taken the picture. She wasn't sure why she did it, but she did. From when they were friends, to enemies, to... Whatever they were now. In some, very weird way, it sort of comforted her.

She stared at the picture hard, smoothed out the wrinkled corner, continued staring.

Aru liked how simple it was. Before the thing... And the other thing... And then that.

But she didn't need to think about all that stuff. Things were complicated already without thinking about that crap. She could just focus on the photo. She was happy then. Messing around and just having fun. Aru took a deep breath, letting the warmth of the memory wrap around her, the remebered joy like a security blanket.

Aru lay back on her bed, the photo close to her chest, her head full of snow angels and frost. And when she drifted off, she wasn't hit by nightmares. Instead, her dreams were filled of hot cocoa and dancing in the snow.

A/N heyyy, how have you guys been? Sorry for all the random updates, it should get better after my exams finish. Thank you so much for 1k views. Honestly, it means so much it's crazy.

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Have a nice day! <333