Avalanche of Love Ep. 05

Welcome back, my lovely reader!

Hello again! Have you been at all curious about the inner workings of the whole competition, the league, the sponsors, etc? No? Well, too bad because you're about to learn about it and you got no choice! Oh, don't look at me that way, you'll still get some sib-love time, so relax, I wouldn't do that to you, my lovely!

Anyhoo, Kai and Kayla are certainly expanding their social circles these days, gotta be careful about that when you've got such a taboo love though, eh? It could be problematic if it ever got revealed, eh?

Let's jump right in!

—♥—

Episode 5:

I'm glad to have you as a friend

With Madeline's gold last competition and only two left, her win of the season was all but assured. All she'd have to do was place in the top five of the following meets. If you're curious, here is the way the points are broken down per placement.

1st - 10 points

2nd - 5 points

3rd - 3 points

4th - 2 points

5th - 1 point

There are fifteen events in the season with two left in the present one, but why don't we jump ahead a bit? Madeline placed second in the following even with Kayla snagging the gold, but Gina had an off day and ended up only placing 4th. This removed all doubt that the bunny was the champion for the season.

On the boy's side of things, the next meet left Jarome with a gold, Hiroshi with a silver, and Kai with a bronze. Kai did a wonderful job but given that particular meet was held separately from the girls, it was difficult for him to fully channel his love for his sister.

The final event of the season was more of a formality for the ladies.Madeline participated but already had her points, likewise despite not placing last event, Gina was assured of her second place position.

This didn't stop the 'Snow Bunny' from putting it all out there for her fans though and when all the fur and snow settled, she had another gold medal for her collection. Gina had taken a silver with Kayla getting bronze to finish the season out.

On the boy's side of things, it was a much closer race and Kai hadn't helped by shaking up the points race between the big three. He came in on barely the last third of the season, but he'd really made a mess of the top three.

Hiroshi had been the favorite to take the season when it started, but once things had settled, it was a tight three-way sprint to the finish. In the end Kai did what he had done since coming on the scene. He shook the points up by finishing in first place on the final event.

Hiroshi finished second with Raul in third. This wasn't enough points to catch the other two boys though. Not only did the favorite not win the season, he ended up finishing third in points. Raul and Jarome actually tied in points, so they had to have a special post-competition board-off as it were.

Both Raul and Jarome dropped in for one more pass right there at the end of the competition. When it all settled, the collie had managed to just eke out the lynx, getting a single point to his total to win the season.

Kai finished eighth, which was very respectable to break into the top ten with only having participated in four of the fifteen events. Kayla finished in fifth place, again not too shabby given she was sitting in eleventh before the last four meets.

—♥—

"You can't be serious!" Hiroshi snarled as he slammed his fist to the desk, his other paw holding the cellphone to his ear.

"We told you before, Mr. Yukazama, Gemini expects champions representing our brand."

"It was a two-point difference, and I've used your gear exclusively through my whole career. I understand what the contract stated, but as close as this season was, surely you all see this wasn't just me flopping over and embarrassing your product line."

"That's exactly the point. Miss Lashinger clearly defined herself from the pack, finishing with a commanding fifteen-point lead. You struggled against our biggest competitor and someone with a homemade board. Even that rookie was keeping up with you while using Altima products."

"So that's it then? You're just going to cut me off?" Hiroshi snarled into the phone.

"You are of course welcome to keep using all the gear we provided, if you have a commanding lead at the halfway point of next season while using it, we'll renegotiate with you at that time."

"Ha... you want me to promote your line for free and if I'm lucky you'll-"

"Mr. Yukazama, you can spare me your bruised ego. Those are the terms before you, now if you'll excuse me, I need to reach out to Raul Stallford and Jarome Samson. I wish you luck next season." The call went dead before Hiroshi could say anything to that.

Hiroshi sighed as he rubbed a paw down his face, then looked around his apartment. "Guess it's time to look for a smaller place."

—♥—

"Feels a little odd being here. Like I'm an enemy agent that is infiltrating the stronghold," Madeline offered Kayla a grin as she walked next to her down the hall of the Altima training facility.

"You make it sound like you're a spy or something from one of those movies!" Kayla purred out with a smile.

"I am guilty of enjoying those types of shows and games. Sneaky stealthy stuff, cloak, and dagger plot lines." She hummed out and cocked a brow as Kayla stopped and faced her full-on.

"Look, I know you surrendered your cell phone at the front, but I'm being cool and trusting you here, Maddy." Kayla frowned as she folded her arms.

Madeline cocked a brow and lifted an ear at the same time. "I get you, and I appreciate it. I'm not planning anything underhanded, just eager to try out some new gear before it hits the public."

"Okay, don't think I'm trying to butter you up, you better try to kick my tail every chance you get or I'll leave you in the dust next season." Kayla perked her ears, showing a predatory grin before resuming her walk.

"Of course, competition is its own thing and a separate world to me. Even if I were a soulmate with someone, I'd still do my best to kick their ass on the course." Madeline snorted out as she paced back up with the larger female, having to keep her stride a little faster.

Kayla had to actually sign the board out when she collected it before they made their way to the facilities testing area, a large outdoor halfpipe that got routine maintenance to ensure it was competition level.

Madeline of course recognized the one on it right now as the two of them waited at the bottom for him to finish his current run. Kai ground to a halt, careful to not kick snow all over the two girls before pushing his goggles up with a grin.

"Madeline, I don't think we've ever spoken face to face, it's a pleasure to meet you!" The leopard thrust his gloved paw out as the rabbit took it, giving him a firm couple of shakes, her own paw looking very small in his.

"Nice to meet you, Kai. Though as much as your sister blathers on about her 'big brother', I feel like I already know your ass." The rabbit offered him a playful if not lazy looking grin before pulling from his grip.

"Good things, I hope?" Kai laughed out.

"Oh not at all, she does nothing but bitch about how awful you are." Madeline waved it off, speaking rather casually.

"Hey!" Kayla snarled out and put her hands on her hips.

"No take-backs!" Madeline gave her a cocky grin, holding the X3 possessively in her paws.

"Ha ha, I didn't know you guys were such good friends! That's great to see, I'm glad you've got a buddy, Kayla." Kai moved in and gave his sister's muzzle a quick bump with his own before moving to unbuckle his boots from the board.

Both the rabbit and leopardess shared a look at the 'friend' statement, but neither confirmed nor denied it. After an awkward moment Madeline spoke out, "So am I clear to go do this?"

"Yeah, just take the lift up like you would any other pipe. It's just me and Kai today, so no worries of getting in the way of other riders. We'll keep a lazy eye on you and hit the panic button down here if you take a gnarly tumble."

"Oh, this place has its own medical teams? I suppose that makes sense." Madeline gave her a nod.

"Yeah the guy in charge of safety design is also a trained medic, several of the staff also have basic first-aid training, so unless you end up spilling your guts all over the pipe, you'll be okay." Kayla waved a paw.

Kai and Madeline both grimaced at that. "Thank you for that mental imagery right before I drop in, Kayla." The bunny grumbled the words out as she moved towards the lift.

"Any time, Maddy!" Kayla purred out with a wave before smiling at Kai.

Kai waited until the bunny was on the lift to call out, "It's nice to see you with a little girlfriend, Kayla. You never hung out with other girls when we were in school."

"Gee I wonder why... maybe because I was too busy making out with my big brother, the same boy that also snarled and growled to keep other boys from hanging out with me!" Kayla purred and bumped his hip with a grin.

"Hey, I was only trying to keep you safe, Kayla." He bumped her back then they both shared a little snarl before a quick wrestling match ensued. They were tangled up in the snow a moment later, purring and hissing before Kayala managed to roll him over with a grin.

Kai mewed out as he hit the snow, then snarled before getting ready to roll her back over, but then paused as she moved in to lap her tongue gently against the side of his muzzle before giving it a rub of her own.

Kai returned the nuzzle before pulling back and huffing in her face. "Okay, we shouldn't be tangled up in the snow here at work, sister, especially like this."

"Yeah yeah... it's just my seasonal cycle started, and I'm going crazy..." She purred into his flicking ears but after some hesitation as well as a little grinding of her hips, she slowly stood and helped her brother up out of the snow.

The twins composed themselves and a few minutes later, Madeline dropped in from the top of the pipe. The rabbit was clearly a little unsteady on the board and keeping things rather modest on the tricks. Still, her holding back would have easily thrown a sixty or seventy in the points during the competitions.

Madeline came to a grinding halt before them and lifted her goggles up, her red eyes looking entertained. "Gods, this thing is like riding on a knife. It's just cutting through the snow on the approach and hit that wall like it's made of glass!"

"Right? It takes some getting used to for sure." Kai chimed in while giving her a polite smile.

Madeline looked between the two of them before unbuckling her boots and grabbing the X3 up. "I want to get a few more runs on this thing, do we have a time limit? I don't want to overstay my welcome."

"Nah, me and Kai can do this any time we want, go crazy, Maddy, we'll be here keeping a lazy eye on things," Kayla put her paw on her hips and grinned at the rabbit as she explained.

"Alright, I'll try not to take up the entirety of the day then." Madeline gave them a finger gun as she trotted back over to the lift to ride it back up.

"I wonder how Gemini handles training, do they have a facility like this, you think?" Kayla mused as she watched the rabbit ride back up.

"You could always ask, I don't see why she'd hide the information since you've invited her here." Kai shrugged in response before patting his sister on the hip. "I'm going to duck out and grab some water from the locker room, I'll be right back."

Kayla gave him a nod as she watched her brother slip off to the small locker room building a few yards away. It wasn't anything fancy, just a small facility with showers and storage for the riders.

The next run was much cleaner and Kayla frowned as Madeline came to a halt before her, putting her paws on her hips. "Damn... it took me like six runs to get used to the board, yet here you are doing that kind of shit on your second."

The rabbit flipped her goggles up and gave the leopard a smug grin. "Hey, I've got a few years on you, Kayla, you'll be there soon enough."

"Hey, does Gemini have training facilities like this?" She called out curiously.

Madeline rolled her eyes at that. "Sort of. Since they make products for all kinds of sports, their facility is more micromanaging than this. Not a full halfpipe, just a partial one to go up, do a trick on and come down before resetting. Partial skii jumps, grinding area's for trick-style stuff... not a full length course in the lot of the place."

Kayla frowned and folded her arms. "Sounds very uh..."

"Dull? It is. On top of that, you have to schedule a visit and you're limited. It's quite a hassle really and again since they make a lot more than just snowboards, you don't get the intimate course time like you do here."

"Huh... guess once you get so big it just kind of becomes soulless, huh?" Kayla mulled on the words as she flicked her tail.

"It's all a business at the end of the day. We are just pretty show pieces to push their merchandise out. Never commit loyalty to a sponsor, Kayla. That's my best advice to you. Use them for all they're worth, because they'll use you in a heartbeat and ditch you as soon as you're not useful." Madeline snarled the words as she stomped back over to the lift.

Kayla bit her lower lip at that, seeing the jaded look in her eyes. Madeline was popular and good at what she did because she'd been on the tour for a while now. Even Gina had only been in the league for two years now, but Madeline just finished her sixth. She got an early start at fifteen, so she was only two years older than Kayla, but she still had been in the life for over half a decade now.

She heard snow crunching as Kai came back with a bottle of water for her as well. "Think fast, sis!" He called out as he tossed it to her. Kayla snorted and caught the bottle, taking a pull from it before seeing Madeline setting up at the top of the pipe again.

"You look rather introspective, something going on?" He clued right in on her shift in demeanor, of course he would, no one knew her like he did.

"Oh, I was just talking shop with Maddy about sponsors. Apparently, Gemini doesn't have a dedicated snowboard facility like this. They just have a sort of, one size fits all sort of thing going on. Then we babbled about how backstabby they can be," She mumbled.

Both of them shifted their focus to Madeline as she came down the pipe on her third run. "Gods... sometimes I wish I'd been born a smaller cat so I could get air like that, it's just crazy!" Kai huffed out, sounding impressed.

"That's not her size, she's been doing this as a pro since we were holding paws in middle school. When we were putzing around in the snow at fourteen and fifteen, she was busy competing with the adults." Kayla spoke out with respect clearly in her voice.

"Yeah, well we had our paws full in other ways." Kai snarled and gave a quick pat of her rear.

Kayla giggled and huffed up at him with a smug grin. "Your paws were certainly full, you let me know every step of the way when they were getting bigger during my puberty too."

Kai looked like he wanted to say something, but reined it in and withdrew his paw from his sister's backside as Madeline came down to the end of the pipe. She pulled her goggles up and offered them both a childish grin. "You guys just going to dutifully stand here for every run? If I've got clearance I'm going to be doing at least ten or more."

"I expected nothing less, we're just hanging around until you break the X3 in, Maddy. We'll get out of your fur after that," Kayla hummed as her tail flicked lazily.

"How are you liking things with Gemini, Madeline?" Kai spoke out curiously.

She frowned at that and put a paw to her hip, as if trying to find the proper words, then answered him with her own question, "Did you know they canned Yukazama?"

"Wait- Why would they drop Hiroshi? He's an amazing athlete!" Kai clenched his gloved paws into fists at that.

Madeline shrugged and gave him a level gaze. "Gemini want's champions, bronze isn't good enough. He called me to fume about it and I consoled him, but they know they've got him by the sacs too."

"What do you mean, Maddy?" Kayla joined in on the conversation, tilting her head curiously.

"What I mean is, Hiroshi has used Gemini his entire career. You two never stuck with a single brand and like you, I didn't either. I compete on a Glacier, but I own eight different boards and regularly rotate them out. That's why I was able to get this X3 to do what I wanted after two runs."

"Eight? Hot damn..." Kai whistled at that.

Madeline waved her paw. "Anyway... for all his skill. Hiroshi has only used Gemini his whole career and Glaciers are a pain in the tail, they don't ride like other boards, you ever been on one?"

Both the snow leopards shook their heads before she continued, "They have a steep learning curve and it would take him a season or longer to adjust to a new board. For Gemini, it's a win-win. He'll have to keep using their stuff to keep a competitive edge, so they get the publicity, if he sucks it up and does well, they'll offer to resign him, if he doesn't, what have they lost? They still got their gear showed off by one of the more prominent riders."

Kai frowned at that as he rubbed his muzzle. "Still, the points were so close..."

"Gemini is huge, they don't care about the little details like that, Kai. They'll cut me loose once I've outlived my usefulness as an athlete too, that's just how these companies are. Altima will do it to you guys too, it's just an eighties pop song with these guys. What have you done for me lately?" Madeline offered a grin as she shrugged.

"So how do you feel about Gemini, Maddy?" Kayla asked.

"I prefer other boards but they sign my paycheck, Kayla. I don't have to like my boss or my gear to appreciate who butters my bread. They'll love me while I win but once my time is up they'll cut me loose, that's why I make sure to let my fans know I appreciate them and never plug Gemini gear in my personal social media stuff. I always encourage my followers to play around with equipment to find what works for them, not just suck off Gemini constantly." She gave a shrug and wheeled around on her boots, as if she was done talking about it, heading back to the lift for another ride.

"What do you think of all that, Kayla?" Kai asked as he glanced over to his sister.

She gave a shrug. "I'd only had small-time sponsors before Altima. Still, as Andy said, Altima took a chance on us, and invested in us. I'll not give them buckets of loyalty, but I'll trust them to at least play it straight with us, at least for now."

"That's fair. Do you trust Madeline?" He asked.

"Maddy is an honorable competitor, she does it for the love of the sport, for her fans. She's a bitch, but she wouldn't do anything underhanded. I expect we'll be fine, but I also expect her to trash-talk and ride my tail during the competition too." Kayla showed a grin as she pushed a paw through her blonde hair. "As I'm winning of course."

"You're so sexy when you're confident, sister..." Kai pushed close and gave her jaw a little nuzzle.

"Huff... big brother, my heat is kicking my ass... I think we need to leave Maddy to her own devices for a few minutes..." Kayla purred as she gripped her brother's arm and started pulling him along.

"R-really? But Kayla, we're at work!" He hissed out but didn't resist as he let her pull him along towards the small locker room facility, but then perked his ears as she quickly ducked around to the back of the building.

"I've been in the camera room, there's no view back here!" She snarled as she gripped Kai's coat and jerked him down to her, their muzzles pushing together in a heated kiss. Kayla tilted her head to part her maw, pushing her tongue forward, her brother's meeting it.