Winter has come

"HEY!!"

Alex runs into the medic corner attracting the eyes of everyone there as it becomes silent, with a fire in their eyes wanting to hear about the new Lunarian they rush up to Rain and Ame 33 who are still on the tables.

"Alexandrite"

"I hear a new kind of Lunarian appeared!?"

"Yep, That's right, Alex-san"

"You're so passionate, mister Lunarian maniac"

"Don't raise your voice in the Infirmary, Alex-san"

"How many times do I have to correct you?! Call me Alex-chan!"

Alex gets close to Ame 33, as they start a bombardment of questions about the new Lunarian that showed up even small details were wanted.

"I heard the blades were made of sapphire! Give me details!"

"Umm..."

"You might want to ask Phos, me and Ame were too close to get a good look"

"Ya it all happened pretty fast, and like Rain said we were too close but, Phos should have seen everything"

"Huh?"

The Ame twins, Rain, and Alex all look at where Phos was only to see an empty space. Meanwhile, Phos is out running in the field.

"I need"

"To be able to run at any time"

Phos stops running when they see a glint in the distance off to their right, she sees its Cinnabar as she crouches down and watches them do their patrol around the beach.

'Right now'

'There's nothing I could talk to him about...'

After a few seconds of Phos being crouched in the tall grass, Cinnabar stops and raises their hand palm side up as a snowflake drops on it.

-----Time skip-----

Overnight the snow fell hard covering the once green ground in a blanket of white, as all the gems prepare the school for their winter hibernation, starting with the room they will be sleeping in they start by hanging a large thick blanket over the windows as it stretches across the entire wall, Euclase brings in a bunch of pillows for everyone, as Red dresses Dia in their new winter pajamas.

"Heave, Ho!"

"Right end! Pull!"

Euclase bumps into and knocks over Jade since their vision was blocked by a stack of pillows as jade starts flailing at the unexpected contact.

"Ah! I'm sorry!"

"Hmm..."

Red is crouched in front of Dia while they stand there with their new pajamas on, as they let Red mess with the lower part to get it just right.

"Every year all we do is sleep... It's going to get all wrinkly"

"I don't care!"

"Fashion is guts and nerve! All for this day, I pulled out every last scrap of hemp we have and..."

"Is there enough fabric over there?"

*Yell*

*Fuss*

"Phos?"

Rutile looks at a raised part of the blanket as they call out Phos's name and it spins to face them.

"Yes?"

'I thought so'

"I told Cinnabar to come hibernate here, but he wouldn't listen. Could you take his bedclothes to him, at least?"

Phos still under the blanket lunges at Rutile as they quickly dodge, and jade takes the blanket from over them.

"AWWWWWK!! Please spare me!"

"Agh, Creepy! I'll go, never mind!"

"...."

"Hey"

"Do we, have to hibernate?"

Euclase and Rutile look at Phos in confusion.

"Huh?"

"Y'see, this year I'm just not feeling sleepy for some reason..."

"You, the one who is always first to bed and last to rise each year and every year?! Do I need to give you a check-up?"

"Maybe a quack put my legs on wrong"

After Phos said that rutile pinned Phos down on her stomach and started pulling her legs backward attempting to see what the fault was, Phos not being able to take the pain taps on the ground in surrender.

"Joking"

"The light isn't very good in winter, so just staying awake would be a chore"

"With a few exceptions of course"

Rain walks up next to Rutile and Phos as they say this, Phos looks at Rain as Rutile continues their explanation.

"The average amount of sunny days each winter is around ten"

"There's almost always a Lunarian attack on those days, but that makes it easy to predict, so we leave everything up to Sensei and Antarcticite"

"Antarc... Why can he do so much even though his hardness is about the same as mine?"

"No fair"

"He has a constitution even more unique than yours"

"Normally, he's completely liquid"

"When the temperature drops, he crystalizes, and the colder it gets..."

"The stronger he becomes"

As Rutile finishes saying this the last of the preparations and gems are done and ready for hibernation, Rain's hibernation pajamas are a white skirt kimono with sleeves that extend past her hands and thigh-high stockings. and instead of her hair in its usual 4 tails, it is in a low ponytail. All the gems line up in front of Sensei to say their goodnight before going to their spots to sleep.

"Alright"

"""""""""Sensei, Good night"""""""""

"Night"

"Sweet dreams"

Sensei waves at the gems before leaving the room, Sensei arrives at his desk as he rubs it once when Antarc walks up behind him.

*Clack*

Sensei closes his eyes then turns around to face Antarc

"Good morning"

Sensei smiles at Antarc "Morning"

"Antarcticite"

"How are you feeling?"

"Sir. As with every year, perfect"

"It must be lonely for you to do this all alone each year. I'm sorry"

"O- oh, no, not at all"

"...Not at all, but..."

"Our yearly tradition?"

"Mm"

Sensei opens his arms for a hug, as Antarc jumps into his embrace for their yearly tradition while Antarc and Sensei are hugging, Antarc opens his eyes and spots Phos looking at them from behind a pillar and lets out a scream,

"WHAAAAAAAA!?"

Antarc points at Phos.

"WHY ARE YOU AWAKE?! PHOSPHOPHYLLITE!"

"Well..."

Phos rubs the back of her head sheepishly as she comes up with an explanation.

"I just couldn't get to sleep for some reason... Is it not okay for me to be up...?"

"Hm"

"Well then, this year it will be the two of you, and Rain in the infirmary"

"YAY!"

"With all due respect, I don't wanna be with this useless guy!"

"What's the 'Yearly tradition' thing?"

Antarc grabs Phos and shakes them a little as Antarc finally notices Rain standing a little ways away from them.

"Oh Rain, I didn't see you there, hello"

"Heyo!"

"Eh, Rain your up too?"

"Yup"

"I'll be in the medic corner so if you guys break or something come see me"

"Cya Sensei"

Rain walks off to the medic corner as Antarc and Phos do their own thing now that they are partners for the winter.

"Jeez"

"You're the one who always sleeps in until the very last moment"

"You just keep on doing whatever you like, even though you're half a rank harder than I am... aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

"I bet you made no progress this year, either"

"Were you so upset that you couldn't get to sleep?"

"Well, y'see...."

Phos shows Antarc their amazing new speed as Antarc looks at their legs then back at their face.

"...Those"

"Weird legs"

"They're made of agate?"

"Did you go out to fight?"

Phos comes to a screeching halt and turned around and ran back as they replied back to Antarc.

"I did, but... at the big moment, I got scared and I couldn't run"

"Did you get scolded?"

"No!"

Phos slips and falls in front of Antarc as they extend their sheathed sword for them to grab onto.

"Too soft! that's why working in a group is...!"

"The fact they didn't get onto me made me so frustrated I couldn't sleep"

"They say it's a chore just being awake during winter, so I thought I'd try a little hard work..."

"In that case"

"I'll share one of my jobs with you"

"Really?!"

"It's tough"

"I don't wanna do it, but I'll do it!"

Antarc and Phos continue walking as Antarc takes Phos to their first job of winter, they leave the school as they trudge through the deep snow for Antarc this is a walk in the park but for Phos it's a very hard task since they aren't as adept to low light situations as their elder is.

"the light"

"Is so faint"

"I can't"

"This is bad"

Antarc turns around to see Phos struggling to keep up, as they turn back around and start walking again giving Phos some advice.

"We're still only halfway"

"If the sun comes out, the Lunarians come with it"

"Even if you can't walk anymore, walk some more"

Phos continues to struggle forward after Antarc encourages them as they finally after another ten minutes reach their first destination.

"We're here"

Phos looks up from their position in the snow to see a giant field with ice in strange shapes that resemble the Lunarians.

"lun"

"Lunarians...!"

"No"

"It's just an Ice Floe"

"When the ocean freezes if the tiny organisms at its bottom get mixed in, the ice takes on that shape"

"... Just once, Sensei called them 'Sinners' "

"I could never get that out of my head for some reason"

"Here we go"

"Huh?"

one of the many Ice Floes begins to capsize as it releases a loud rumbling sound that scares Phos a little.

*RUMBLE!*

"Whoa... what a sound"

"This is only the beginning"

As Antarc finished saying this the now capsized Ice Floe releases a very eerie screech that shakes Phos to the core like never before as they start cracking under the intense sound.

*AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!*

*Crack*

Phos falls to their knees as Antarc starts drawing their sword and walks forward.

"When these big ice Floes scrape against each other, it makes a horrible sound"

"It makes it difficult for the others to sleep so we're going to break these up"

Antarc charges towards the first Floe to show Phos how it's done, Antarc runs up to the very tip of one as he balances on it with the heel of his shoe then runs down the other side stomping hard to create holes as he goes, then when he reaches the bottom turns around and slams his sword down hard sending a large crack all the way up the Floe shattering it.

"Try it"

"NO WAY!"

Antarc continues to do this as Phos watches from the side.

----- Time skip -----

"So how was it?"

"It was hard"

"Anyway... I'm flattered that you're sharing such an amazing job with me"

"But I think it might be a little early for me, I only have legs to work with"

"My body isn't at its best at this temp either. If I fell into the ocean, I'd be turned to dust by the ice. You just need to get used to it"

"Really? You're not just throwing dangerous work at me so you can have Sensei all to yourself, are you?"

"Do you want me to break you?"

"We have low hardness, so if we don't have courage, we won't have anything left"

"I can only do what I can"

"That's because you only do what you can"

"I'll do my best at the things I can do"

"Then you'll never be able to do anything but that"

----- Time skip next day -----

"Ready, set..."

"Go!"

Phos from a crouching position runs up the Floe and balances on her heel, nearly falling backward then runs while stomping down the other side like Antarc did, "Alright" when Phos reaches the bottom she turns around and shakily raises her sword above her head and slams it down trying to shatter the Floe but she messes up the angle and nearly shatters her self instead.

"Almost"

-----Time skip next day -----

Phos saws at one of the Floes while Antarc crazily smashes Floe after Floe as they release their eerie screams, as Phos cracks once again while she still saws at the floe.

'I feel like, this is going to drive me nuts'

~Are you okay?~

Phos stops sawing as the Floe starts talking to her she waves at Antarc frantically and yells his name.

"Antarc!"

Antarc starts heading towards Phos "What's wrong?"

"This is the end for me"

"More complaints?"

"The Ice Floe talked"

"Yeah, they do that"

-------------End-------------

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