It's weird that shadows burn, right? Like, shadows are the absence of light, the places light doesn't touch, so shouldn't they be cold instead of hot? Or maybe they _are_ cold but it's the kind of cold that's like holding onto an icecube so long that it burns you? It's weird that hot and cold both do the burning thing, actually, and that you can even feel that from shadows at all. 

This is not what Yuki expected to think about as she chased the jingle jingle of a tambourine through clawing shadows singing her skin and her hair raw. But then, there was only so much her mind could chant [i]Juni, Juni[/i] and in the face of this cloying darkness, she could not bear to open her mouth to speak. So a little part of her mind just detached and thought about how highkey weird it was that shadows worked this way while she kept putting feet in front of each other until eventually...eventually those feet made the thunk thunk thunk of boots upon stone and not the lost whisper of sound sucked into darkness. Until she tumbled out and she could hear Juniper's prayer and hear the name Olesya.

And still she couldn't speak because her body was wrapped too tightly into the hug. Her face pressed into Juni's shoulder, her tail curled around Juni's legs, her arms holding Juni's back so tightly that she might just crush the fox before she remembered to let her breathe. 

And, when she can speak at last, she manages. "Ah, Juni, you fell in love, didn't you? Fine, fine fine. Where's your girlfriend then~? We've got a golden faun to collect on the way out, and then we'll go get her." Her tail still curls protectively around Juniper's legs, but she begins to stand up properly, to brush herself off and try to get the char off her knight's cloak. Maybe shadows were hot then, if they made her clothes sizzle? Made no goddamn sense though.