Chapter 60: Don't Be A Drama Queen

A promise was a promise. Even though Lulu had always made it a thing for herself, even before her reincarnation, to not make any promises, she still ended up making one to Karma.

After Lulu had calmed down after breaking down the other day she fell asleep in Karma's arms, waking up much later only to still be in her arms. Karma who was awake at the time had promised to bring Lulu out for some fun, so she also made Lulu promise to come along, which she did.

Having to live up to her promise, Lulu had left the small village she had always kept herself locked up in.

She had hardly ever left the area between her home, the open field she would train in, and the clearing near the Spectral Forest.

The only time she had gone somewhere beyond those areas was when she was pulled into the forest and when she built up the courage to journey into the village — it was both a horrible and reassuring experience for her.

Even though she knew Karma would always be there to support her, she never found the courage to venture there again; isolating herself from the rest of the villagers, not giving them the chance to even attempt to approach her.

She didn't want to have to live under the gazes of contempt and disgust, as she had in the capital.

She kept close only with her family and Karma, although she had begrudgingly accepted Norten as her master and unwillingly became acquaintances with Nino — though that was only because he and Karma were friends.

Other than talking and associating with these people, and other than her obsession with art, she did no other forms of entertainment; besides the surprising amount of sleep she got.

Something her grandmother reacted strangely to when hearing it was one of her only joys in the world.

This was the main incentive in Karma making Lulu promise to come out with her.

Lulu was always a person of her word, even if she didn't frequently make promises when she said she would do something, she would do it.

If Karma hadn't pleaded with her to make that promise, Lulu would have never come with her.

***

Huu — Letting out a breath, a haze of air became visible in front of her as she rubbed her hands together.

Slouching in her oversized coat, and puffy beanie, while pulling up her face mask. Lulu sat back in her chair, sighing as she looked at the clear skies.

The crushing and flattening of snow came as a melodic toon when entering her ears.

Karma was right behind her, pushing her wheelchair as they moved along a white path, a path which Karma could have sworn had been only lightly glazed after she cleared it up the other day.

She could only grumble in her head at how much it snowed here. She could melt the snow off the path with her flames, but she always made sure to be mindful of Lulu when they were together.

Karma knew Lulu had bad memories of fire; so she would only use them around Lulu when they were necessary.

"Why were you so upset over Nino asking to join us?"

"Isn't it obvious?'

Suddenly speaking out of curiosity, Karma watched as Lulu crossed her arms and let out her irritation.

"He asked to come with us, but this is our day. This is a day for the two of us to hang out and relax. His coming around would ruin that... he makes me uncomfortable."

Lulu grumbled while venting her frustrations, even though she could tolerate the boy's existence, his behavior still irked her to this day.

Haha — "Come on Lulu, what was that you said? You said that you would—"

"—That I would be nicer to Nino, yeah, yeah, I know... it's just... I don't like him."

"Well you can always grow to like him, can't you?"

"I don't know. It's been quite a while since we all met, many cycles, and I still find it hard to do so. You might just have to give up on making us friends, Karma; it doesn't seem meant to be."

"..."

Not responding to her, Karma could only sigh at Lulu's behavior. She honestly couldn't understand how vastly the girl's attitude could change at the beat of a heart.

One moment she's irritated, the next she's upset, then she starts cracking jokes.

It was quite cute honestly, that's why she didn't bother mentioning Nino anymore — it would be better for them to naturally come to like each other after all.

Chuckling to herself, Karma rubbed Lulu's head drawing a hum out of the blue head.

"We're here!"

At Karma's enthusiastic shout, Lulu looked up and ahead of them, spotting a grouping of white rolling hills that seemed to go on for miles.

Karma quickly rolled the wheelchair up the biggest hill.

"S-so, what are we doing out here, Karma? Don't tell me—"

Plop — "Yes! We're going to be sliding down the hills."

Hearing her, Lulu had just taken notice of the two boards that Karma had previously strapped to her back, as they were now sticking out of the snow.

"I don't think that's the best of ideas, y-y-you know, mom hasn't come yet so my leg supports aren't fixed yet. How about another—"

"Come on now, it's perfectly fine Lulu, don't worry about it. Nothing will happen as long as I'm here, you got that."

"Er... Sure."

Letting out a sigh, Lulu slightly flinched after she pressed her cold metallic arm against her neck.

"Just protect me please, I'll literally die if I fall in all this snow."

"Don't be such a drama queen, Lulu. You'll be perfectly fine."

"Drama queen, where did you learn that from?"

"Mother."

"Oh, rea—"

"Stop trying to escape this! Let's get right into it then."

Cutting off her sentence, Karma raised her out of the wheelchair from her armpits like one would hold a cat.

Lulu looked her dead in the eyes with a look that said she was readying herself to lunge forward and scratch her.

"Don't look at me like that, come on now."

Kicking one of the boards flat onto the ground, Karma placed Lulu on the forefront of the board as she sat behind her.

Wrapping one of her arms around her waist, causing Lulu to tremble. Chuckling at the reaction, she kicked her feet into the snow, bringing them to the edge of the hill.

"Ready?"

"No."

"Good!"

Ah! — Not hesitating for a single moment, Karma kicked her feet and pushed them down the hill causing a yelp to escape Lulu's lips as she further increased her grip on the board.

"Hahaha!"

While Lulu's life was flashing before her eyes, Karma was laughing like a madman as they quickly began sliding down the mound. Snow shot up on both sides as they left deep marks in the snow, signifying their trail.

As they were moving Karma continued laughing while making sure to keep a tight hold around Lulu's waist.

"Don't move too much my dear, I'll be revving things up!"

"What did you just say- Ah!"

Her sentence was swiftly cut off as Karma put more strength in their legs and arms as she launched them forward, shocking her words out of her throat.

The board they were riding on did not lose momentum with their sliding down, instead, due to Karma's actions it sped up and burst up another of the rolling snow hills, going fast enough that they caught air.

Tightly gripping the front of the board Lulu grit her teeth down, swearing she almost bit off her tongue. She closed her eyes and promised to curse the hell out of Karma once they got off.

Wincing at the blast of biting wind splashing against her face, she held her eyelids shut, as if she were bracing for impact.

This continued for a while, with Karma's evident enthusiasm as she and Lulu rode the collection of hills.

Though, to her surprise, Lulu began to smile, a smile blessing her face.

...

After playing about in the snow for nearly a quarter of the day, the redhead had finally started to settle down in her enthusiasm and was laying in a pile of snow.

Lulu was laying, sprawled out on top of the board; panting as she tried to catch her breath. She pulled down her face mask to assist her in the currently difficult endeavor as her breath became clear in the air in front of her.

"I, I should... sock you in the jaw right now, Karma. Are you... crazy?"

Struggling to get her words out between her gasps for air, she called out to her friend who didn't seem bothered by their previous activity at all.

"What do you mean? I am perfectly sane, Lulu, what do you mean?"

"Do you know how high... in the air we went, If I fell-"

"If you fell."

"That's beside the point, it was dangerous."

"Mmm, but you had fun though right?"

"Well- yes, It was quite... exhilarating."

"Then that's all that matters isn't it."

After the both of them sat up, they stared each other in the eyes noticing how they were both covered in snow, the two girls burst out into laughter, their voices echoing in through the rolling hills; the markings from their fun still visible in the snow.