Expedition Freign

“And you’ve brought me out here… why?”
“We’re gonna make friends together, Velvet!”
“… dear Murmur.”

As Velveteen let out a sigh, a white cloud of vapor left from their lips — they shuddered a bit, putting their hands on their shoulders momentarily as they watched Yukiou from their crouched position behind a snowy bush. Why exactly had they agreed to be out here—in a forested patch of wilderness a good walk and a half away from Burrowgatory’s outskirts—on their day off, freezing their tail off as they watch another idiotic idol casually frolic around in the snow? Well… Yukiou had texted them (Don’t ask how Yuki got their number, t’was another stupid reason to add onto the pile.) that he really wanted to go somewhere but didn’t want to go alone… and Velveteen managed to get him to agree to a collaborative commercial shoot if they went with him. That was wonderful and all… but going out to the middle of nowhere to… make friends? What friends… where? Velveteen scratched their head as they watched Yukiou set something down—an… imp?—before waddling back to the bush and crouching beside Velveteen.

“That should be good… now we wait.” Yuki put a finger to his mouth as he talked quietly, and Velveteen raised an eyebrow.
“… you know, you’re going to have to explain what you’re doing in a bit more detail. I don’t quite follow what it is that you’re trying to achieve…” Their tone was wary, but they spoke quietly… mainly to humor Yuki, but they couldn’t help but be a little curious as to what this crazy idol’s doing this time.
“Okay, okay so… I have a freign of my own, you know.”
“… you do?” Why did that not surprise Velveteen, even though this is the first they’ve heard of Yukiou taking care of any other being in existence.
“I do, I do! That’s him… I set him out there, his name’s Niflheimr. He has a buddy at home, but… isn’t it best for these fellas to work in groups?! At least I think that’s what the pamphlet I got from Mx. Hutch’s shop said. Imps like company, and Niffy is a noble guy… AND I’ve seen lots of this new… white-ish looking imp around — it’s a freign but white and fluffy?! And I wanted Niffy to go make friends with one.” Yuki’s excited whispers were barely contained as the two watched Niflheimr trot around—the silver sleigh bell attached to its collar jingling every now and then—to sniff the snow before turning curtly away and trotting elsewhere.
“… I see… and—again—I’m needed out here because…” Velveteen waved a hand… they were quite doubtful that this plan would come to any amount of fruition—look at that imp, they couldn’t possibly make friends with wild imps like that—and they stared in Yuki’s direction with doubt in their eyes.
“Uhh… coz I thought it’d make a nice shoot opportunity?” Yuki tilted his head to the side in all his innocence, and well… Velveteen had to agree, an impromptu photo session with two freign would sell quite well. They let out a sigh—another vapor cloud puffing outward—and crossed their arms in indignance.

“Well… I guess, if this does work we can—”
“Wait, shshsh — look…”

Velveteen closed their mouth and looked to where Yukiou was pointed… and well, Murmur be damned. Quietly shuffling out of a bush onto the soft snow… a white freign with blue icicles dripping off the tips of its horns and tail stalked forward, awkwardly approaching Niflheimr as he proudly strutted around… jingling all the way. The two buns watched with bated breath as the “frostbitten” freign wandered up—tail between its legs—almost as if it were a fan nervously approaching their idol… Niflheimr turned to acknowledge the white freign, and for a moment the surrounding area was silent as the two freign stared at each other. Then… Niflheimr strutted forward and nuzzled his cheek into the wild freign’s fluff… and the other freign did the same… they circled each other—like a greeting—and made odd squeaking noises all the way.

“OMG… look, they like each other!” Yukiou whispered excitedly.
“Sssssh… that wild one is still nervous — it could hear us and run…” Velveteen motioned for Yuki to keep his voice low, and Yuki placed a hand gently against his mouth as he leaned forward to keep watching.

After a moment of hesitation from both parties, Niflheimr and the wild freign took off; they skipped and jumped in circles for a solid minute or so before Niflheimr shook—jingling his sleigh bells—and slowly led the wild freign over… closer and closer to Yukiou and Velveteen’s hiding spot. At that point it was quite obvious that both imps could see the two “hidden” buns… and it looked as if—although nervous—the wild freign was being quite brave and taking this approach into their own hands… or hooves. Both Velveteen and Yuki held their breaths; Velveteen looked to Yuki, gave the idol a nod… and gently stretched their hand out, letting the wild freign bump into it ever so gently. Niflheimr approached as well, and Velveteen nodded to the imp.

“Thank you both.” They said to the imps quietly, then turned back to Yuki… Unsurprisingly, the bun was taking a photo of this event with his phone. Good. If Yuki didn’t get this shot, this would have been for naught. Cue a couple moments of this tall bun quietly shuffling around to get good shots of Velveteen whilst trying to make the least amount of noise… by the end of it, Velveteen was sure that these two imps had grown used to Yuki’s antics at this point and were merely tolerating the charade until the two buns were done with pictures… and they did indeed stick around for pictures until the very end. How professional!

As hours ticked on by, eventually it seemed as if the wild freign had somewhere else it’d rather be; it gave Niflheimr a nuzzle on the cheek before bounding away, looking back every so often before disappearing behind a snow dune. Almost immediately Velveteen got up, wandering over to Yuki as he browsed the photos taken.

“… not bad. Send this one… and these over to me, alright?” They’d reached over and selected a handful, and Yukiou nodded.
“Can do! Hey… you think that little fella’s gonna come back?” Yuki looked out to the horizon.
“Can’t say.” Velveteen shrugged, “It seemed to warm up to your freign well enough… heh, maybe make a wish and leave out a bowl of food and it’ll come back…” They’d said that half as a joke, but once the words came out of their mouth they knew that Yuki had taken it to heart. Oh no…
“Ooooh, maybe…”
“D-Don’t expect a miracle, Yukiou. Anyways, come on… we have to get back to the studio with these shots. And… I guess you can bring Niflheimr for employee morale.”
“Yay! Of course — thanks Velvet!”

And so the two of them packed up the things they’d brought with them and began to head back to the city… and eventually they’ll realize that they’ll have been followed back by a certain wild freign somewhere along the way to the studio.