Rising Shards

Iris couldn’t remember ever seeing Maia in snow pants. As she watched her friend poke around with a fork spike thing on the school grounds, she forgot why she came over, instead trying to deduce this snow pants deal. Did Maia get them herself? Did the school give her them? Did her family? It could go either way, because she had a pair with a little hole for her tail, and Maia in snowpants with her tail darting about was a really precious visual. After about five minutes of wondering/observing, Iris remembered why she came over.

“What are you doing?” Iris finally asked.

Maia reacted like she wasn’t at all surprised Iris was there. She probably noticed her best friend approaching but knew how Iris looked when she was deep in thought.

“Part of my suspension is to pick up garbage.” Maia said, holding up her pokey stick, showing off some wrappers impaled on it.

“They didn’t make me do that when I got suspended,” Iris said.

“Maybe they figured I did better in the fight than you, so I should be punished more.” Maia said.

“Did you though?” Iris teased. “You lasted maybe five more seconds than me.”

“Maybe it was a void thing,” Maia said. “Like a fight in class is one thing, but a fight in the void is like. More dangerous.”

“I guess, but I was more disruptive I think.” Iris said. She was glad they could joke about their fights with Scrungy, at least. Seeing Maia get beat up by Iris’ ex was one of the worst experiences of the latter’s life, so goofing on it took some of the edge off the pain of it all.

“And they want you poking around in the snow for garbage?” Iris said.

“Uh huh,” Maia said. “You should probably get ready to run away if the teacher comes back, she told me to be right around here. If she sees you, she’ll probably make me do this longer.”

“Do this longer in the snow.” Iris said.

“Yep.” Maia said.

“That’s stupid,” Iris said. “It’s all snow out here. How are you supposed to find anything?”

“I dunno,” Maia shrugged.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten in that fight, MaiMai.” Iris said. “Then you wouldn’t have to be picking up garbage buried in snow.”

“Yeah, well. It was B.F.S. adjacent. So I’m good with it.”

“Alright, I’m pretty sure ‘adjacent’ is a math word. And you know I’m bad at math.”

“And?”

“And don’t tease me with big words! How am I supposed to know what you just said there! You could be speaking in another language!” Iris said.

“You’re really mad.” Maia said.

“I guess!” Iris crossed her arms, huffing and watching her breath in the cold wintry air.

“It means I don’t regret it,” Maia said. “That it was kind of a B.F.S. thing.”

“Huh…” Iris said. “Well, in my opinion, B.F.S. things should be fun. And fighting Scrungy is not fun.”

“It wasn’t fun,” Maia said. “But now that my face is starting to heal up, I’m kinda, I dunno. Digging the vibes.”

“Vibes of what?” Iris asked. “You’re in a weird mood, Maia.”

“I’m not, dude,” Maia rolled her eyes. “I’m just like. Glad I could defend you. Or try to, at least.”

Iris was glad that her cheeks were already rosy from the cold, because that made her blush a bit more.

"You did," Iris said. “Can we do some regular B.F.S. again?”

“It still kinda hurts when I open my jaw,” Maia said. “Assuming you mean the…”

“The bitey kind, yeah.” Iris said. “We could have more nap B.F.S. time. I really like that.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna be beat after this,” Maia said.

“It’s settled, then!” Iris said. “B.F.S. nap in…how much longer do you have to do this?”

Maia checked the time. “About twenty more minutes.”

“Ugh,” Iris said. “That’s like forever.”

“It’s like twenty minutes.” Maia said.

“Like forever!” Iris said.

“You don’t have to stay.” Maia said.

“I kinda do,” Iris said. “It’s B.F.S. adj….adjective.”

“Adjacent.”

“Right, that’s what I said!” Iris pouted. “If I did go, it’d be to get you something. Do you want anything? I can get you a cocoa?”

“Eh,” Maia said. “The hot cocoa they make here is kinda watery.”

“It is,” Iris said. “I bet they just plunk a chocolate bar into a cup of water then microwave that jam. Which is gross.”

The two ended up talking about hot cocoa for the entirety of Maia’s remaining suspension pickup time, in which she found two candy wrappers buried in the snow. After she tossed out the trash and returned her handy garbage picker-upper, Iris looked like she wanted something.

“Can I see something?” Iris asked.

“What…?” Maia asked.

“It’ll just take a second.” Iris said. “I’m curious, is all.”

Iris grabbed one of Maia’s hands with the palm facing upward. She pressed down on each finger, trying to get Maia’s claws to poke up.

“So them paw beans work even with gloves on.” Iris said.

“Why wouldn’t they?” Maia asked.

“Because.” Iris said. “The gloves would block them.”

“Well, they don’t,” Maia said, noticing that her claws were making tiny holes in the fingertips of her gloves. “Dude, you’re gonna wreck them.”

“Why do you even need gloves?” Iris asked. “You got fur…”

“I still get cold, dumbass.” Maia said.

“Huh…” Iris said.

Iris kept playing with Maia’s hand, and Maia didn’t stop her. Playing with her claws gradually became Iris tracing Maia’s fingertips. They both froze when Iris interlaced her fingers with Maia’s.

“We’re…holding hands.” Maia observed.

“Uh huh,” Iris said.

“You wanna let go?”

“Not really.”

The two lowered their hands to their hips, and started moving forward. It felt almost natural to Iris, like they’d done it hundreds of times before.

“Want to walk around a bit like this?” Maia said.

“I do! B.F.S. handholding on the way to B.F.S. napping.” Iris said.

“Kind of a nice reward for all my hard work here.” Maia said, squeezing Iris’ hand.

“Kind of an amazing reward,” Iris said, squeezing back.

“Fine, yeah,” Maia said. “This is a new B.F.S. thing, yeah?”

“Yeah…” Iris said a bit dreamily. “Just besties holding hands.”

“Just some…B.F.S. handholding.” Maia said.

“Don’t claw me, though.” Iris said.