“I know, I know. Once a Shenanigan has been declared, no one may back down. I would never break our most sacred oath.”

Noelle didn’t understand the byzantine rules that governed the calling of a Shenanigan, because it had been Hannah and Levi’s thing, but she did understand that she was now honor-bound to keep Miriam and Hannah from killing themselves by doing something reckless. So, as they piled onto a sled, she wound up on the bottom, ostensibly steering. Mostly, she tried to concentrate on surviving while distracted by Miriam’s ass pressing up against her, Miriam’s mane of curls blowing in her face.

It was like a Calvin and Hobbes strip, if Calvin and Hobbes were sexually frustrated sapphics.

All three of them hurtled down the tallest hill on the property at wildly unsafe speeds, ending up at the bottom in an inglorious heap. Miriam landed on top of Noelle, her nose inches from Noelle’s own, her hair curtaining them from the outside world.

“Hi,” Miriam breathed, making no move to get up. She smirked a little.

“Hi yourself,” Noelle managed to grunt. She reached up to push a curl out of Miriam’s face. Miriam turned her head so that her lips nuzzled Noelle’s palm, for just an instant, before she felt Miriam being pulled off her.

“Miriiiiiiii!!!!!!! Our first Shenanigan in a decade! We must celebrate!” Hannah crowed, dragging Miriam back to the house. Noelle was left behind, happily, to bring the sled back to the barn. She looked ahead at her best friend, waddling around with snow under her clothes, her head thrown back in a laugh, and at Miriam, the wind blowing her icy hair into liberty spikes. It felt like they were in a snow globe, precious and fragile, and at any moment, someone might turn the whole thing over and shake it.

“Wait!” Hannah yelled, suddenly stopping. She turned back, running clumsily toward Noelle in her snowsuit. “NoNo! You have to be with us! We’re the Three Musketeers now!”

She linked her arms through Noelle and Miriam’s, sandwiching herself between them, and looked up at Noelle with peace radiating from her face. “When was the last time we had fun, Noelle? When was the last time we were just…happy?” Noelle saw her eyes get wet as she asked this, and she teared up in response. She always cried when Hannah did.

“I don’t remember, babe.” Before Cass got sick, maybe. Before Levi left. It had been a long damned time.