homely snowfall

homely snowfall

Mika awoke that morning not to a bright day, but rather to an overcast. He quietly made his way out of his room, gentle not to awaken his still sound asleep husband in bed. Out in the living room, he opened the curtains to find snow had piled outside overnight. On top of that, the snowflakes hadn’t stopped falling and neither did they show signs of stopping any time soon.

A look of surprisement decorated his face, but it soon changed when a light bulb lit up above his head. With snow this heavy, he figured he could play in the snow!

He rushed back into his room, grabbing a coat and two pairs of mittens, one for himself and one he reserved inside the coat’s pocket. His husband was still buried under layers of blanket, keeping himself warm and oblivious to his surroundings. He didn’t want to wake the man up, but he figured to be prepared in case the sleeping man would join out in the snow later.

He left and went out into the snow. Like a child seeing a winter wonderland for the first time, Mika was exhilarated to see the white landscape.

He decided he wanted to make snowmen: one for him, one for his lovely husband, and one for adorable son. The thought of having three snowmen lined up outside his house, waving at each passerby, made him giggle. It would be like having guardians to hold his fort.

So he went to work, starting with making a little snowball in his palm and gradually making it big enough that he would need to roll the ball around. First, he made the bases, the biggest being for his man, and the little one for his boy. Then, he moved on to stack the upper part, essentially finishing the snowmen bodies. 

Stepping back to admire his work, he puffed out his chest. He was definitely going to brag this to his family later on. Now, he just needed to find pebbles for the snowmen’ faces and twigs to attach to the snowmen’ bodies--and it was then he heard a voice calling out for him.

“Dad?”

He turned around to see Min--his little star--standing there dressed in his winter coat and a scarf wrapped messily around his neck. The little boy who couldn’t have been any older than 10 years old was rubbing his eyes tiredly, clearly having gone out of bed too early.

“My little star! You were awake?”

“I heard noises outside… I thought someone was trying to break in...”

Mika laughed at his son’s remark. The boy was worried a burglar would break in, but he looked far from ready from warding off an intruder with that sleepy look of his. Supposedly the broom he had in his hand helped, but in the end it was his bravery that truly impressed Mika.

“Next time you hear noises, wake one of your parents up instead of going off on your own, okay?”

Mika signaled for him to leave the broom by the door. Min meekly nodded, yawning. Afterwards, he took little steps to approach his dad before asking a question that should’ve been asked earlier,

“What are you doing?”

Mika had meant to show off later when he was done with his piece of art, but now that Min was there with him, he supposed he could let the little rascal into his plan.

“I’m making snowmen for us! See the three figures? One for me, one for your father and the little one is for you, my little star.”

Min blinked several times, squinting as he appeared to be judging the figures. After he was done with the inspection, he asked again.

“Can I help you finish them?”

Mika’s grin was uncontained, quickly nodding in approval before taking out the mittens he had saved earlier and putting in on Min’s tiny pair of hands. The mittens were his father’s, so of course it didn’t fit all that well, but he figured it was better than bare hands. He smiled at the boy, urging him to search for anything that they could use for the snowmen. Min gave an affirmative nod, taking the request seriously. Thus, they spent their early morning out together, preparing a surprise for the remaining sleepy member of their household.

Later on, as Ezekiel woke up to find his two beloved had gone out in the snow, he quickly joined them and tidied up their attire, hoping he wasn’t too late to save them from catching a cold.

(The following sneeze Min made said otherwise.)