STEAM CURLED AROUND THE LIP OF THE CUP. The smooth ceramic was hot to the touch, warming her aching fingers. It burned, but she didn't mind. Better the scalding heat that the biting cold that swept through her.

Akane never did like the wintertime. The cold nipped at any and all exposed skin, leaving her with a red nose and watery eyes. Not to mention the blinding whiteness that was snow. It always left her blinking and unable to see, eyes screwed in a tight squint that pulled her face into a rather unattractive glare.

Her chapped lips stung as she sipped her tea. The bittersweet flavor swayed between "enjoyable" and "unlikable", and she had to swallow the scalding liquid a few times more before she settled on the former.

The tea house was, as her grandmother said, "a cozy little thing that deserves more attention." Plush chairs with little pillows were scattered throughout the room, paired with ornately carved wooden tables that housed fragile succulents. A soft melody drifted through the air. The entire place smelled heavenly, like hot tea and flower petals and the little pastries at the counter.

Akane liked the tea house. It was safe, quiet. Especially at night. Nothing exciting ever happened here, nothing that would start up a vision and force a split-second decision out of her. The room held an air of calm, the kind of peace that usually didn't appear in everyday life.

Not that her life was all that exciting to begin with.

A tired voice tugged her out of her reverie. "Mind if I sit here?" She blinked and looked up from her tea. A boy, tall and lanky, stood at the other side of her table, one hand ruffling his styled purple hair while the other clutched a mug of coffee. At least, it looked like coffee. Judging from the heavy bags under his eyes, it probably was.

"I don't care," she said. The words sounded cold as they left her mouth, too similar to the snow collecting in the window beside her, and she flinched. "I mean, I don't mind. Like, I don't care if you do sit here, but I also don't care if you don't sit here." Akane could feel the confusion radiating from the boy. Her shoulders curled inward.

I'm literally the biggest idiot on this earth.

The boy shrugged. "Alright, then." The chair squeaked against the hardwood as he sat. Silence, thick and awkward and very uncomfortable, settled around their little table. She squirmed in her cushioned seat, eyes flicking from her tea to the boy to the window. It was still dark outside. Snow still fell in its regular unorderly fashion, making the street look like a big, white, lumpy sheet, the light from the streetlamps reflecting in a glare back at her through the glass.

"Can't sleep?" The boy watched her over his mug. It was purple, she noticed, like his hair. With the way it stuck up and spread out like a flower in bloom, she had to wonder if it was actually styled, or if was natural. "Me neither. It was too quiet. And cold."

She snorted. "Tell me about it." Akane picked at the chip in her cup with her fingernails. "Our heater broke, and I gave Gran all of the extra blankets. It's gonna be awhile before we have proper heat again."

He nodded, sipping his drink. "The power went out at my place. I don't really know what happened. But, like, it's way better here than in a cold, dark apartment, you know?" The awkwardness seemed to fade away as they shared their complaints.

Smiling, she held out a hand. "My name's Hamasaki."

The boy blinked and a lazy grin appeared on his face. "Shinso," he replied, clasping her hand in a firm handshake.

They returned to their drinks, tea and coffee, a more friendly quiet having fallen upon them, until she blurted out, "I like your hair."

Shinso clapped a hand over his mouth, coughs shaking his shoulders as he tried to swallow. "I, um ... thank you?" She held in her laughter. "You too." Akane reached up to pat her own mint green locks.

"Thanks."

The night passed in a blur of warm cups and meaningless chatter. Akane liked Shinso. He seemed to be interesting enough. And he had cool hair. If her assumptions were correct, she had just made a new friend.

Her life was never really exciting, before. Maybe that would change.

Maybe.