Chapter Text
It has been almost a month since Trevor had left Arcadia. Despite the time he has been out, he'd still find himself exploring and discovering the wonders and flaws of the real world. Sometimes he laments the lost comfortable and cozy life he had in Arcadia before “The Day The Running Started”.
Angela sadly was right: The real world was ugly. It also took him some time to have the courage to step outside of Angela's apartment complex by himself. And when he left, he'd find himself overwhelmed by the bright lights and glowing billboards plaguing everywhere, and the noise pollution caused by the traffic. For the first few days, every one of the few moments he took a stroll with Angela outside almost induced him to a sensory overload, and Angela had to quietly guide and help him get used to it.
Also, not just there was visual and sound pollution everywhere. Trevor’s sensitive nose couldn't bear to smell the polluted air caused by the smoke of gas-powered cars. He would miss breathing the fresh and clean air from Arcadia… How could they put so much effort into making an idealistic and clean “reality-show-esque-city”, but not care about the real world? Whenever he asked Angela that, her answer was always “politics”.
He felt like the real world was much more complex and difficult than he expected.
But as he found himself staring at the window, watching the ongoing snowstorm, his senses sparked with curiosity. Trevor had first seen snow only on TV, back in Arcadia. He remembered stepping out of the dome and feeling the cold wind and the snowflakes fall and melt on his shirt. It was a much different weather from Arcadia, one that he wasn't used to. He would see on TV through different Christmas shows and ads children happily playing in the snow. He isn't particularly fond of the cold, he prefers to stay at home because of it. But… for some reason, he felt like he was missing out on the fun of a winter he never had before.
Trevor suddenly hears the sound of the automatic door opening behind him and footsteps coming in. He looks around to see Angela carrying some boxes with full plastic bags inside. She was fully dressed head to toe, wearing big furred boots, thick padded pants, leather jacket, a pair of gloves and even a beanie.
“I'm back with the stuff.” Angela sighs as she puts down the box hastily on the floor. She takes her gloves off and then the beanie then throws them over the sofa, revealing waves of dark hair that dropped from her ears next to that unmistakable red streak.
“Oh why, hello there.” He gently nods “Was everything okay? Was the snowstorm really bad?”
“It was… annoying.” Angela answers as she lifts her leg up to remove her snowy boots and kicks them away “But not that bad. The news said the storm will cease soon actually.”
“Oh, that is good.”
He went back to look at the window again, watching the snow fall down and pile up on the streets many meters under him. It would be nice to go down there and catch a few snowflakes.
Angela noticed how focused he was watching the window and came closer to investigate “...What do you find so interesting outside? You're not… looking at the Arcadia Dome, are you?”
“Nononono no, hell no!” He rushed to answer, although it was kind of hard to not look at the huge dome that covered about 30% of the view outside.
Angela sighed “...Now that I don't work for Walton Media anymore I should actually think about moving out as far as possible from this ugly ball of light… It's a sore for the eye.”
Trevor didn't want to think about Arcadia, so he didn't reply anything back about what Angela said. Instead, he shyly asked:
“...Angela, do you like the snow?”
She tilted her head to the side, thoughtful and taken by surprise by the sudden question.
“...Not really…” She answered “I mean, when I had moved here and experienced my first snowfall, I had a blast and spent an hour building snowmen and making snow angels out of excitement before I caught a bad cold. But now… it is kind of a hindrance.”
“Oh, I see.”
Angela watched his expression as she realized that he had never seen snow before back at Arcadia. His eyes were lost watching the snowflakes softly drifting through the wind, delighted by its sight. She left a gentle chuckle.
“Hey, what about we go down there later so you can watch the snow from up close? There's actually a good place I know where we can go to play in the snow.” She suggested.
Trevor turned around again to look at her, now embarrassed “Ah, n-no Angela. You don't have to– It's fine.”
“Come on… I don't have many friends here in the city to have snowball fights with… And I know you want to go there and play too. Everyone that meets snow for the first time wants to.”
She is right. Although he felt too shy to admit he wanted to do that, a part of him wanted to go there and lay in a pile of snow, like he used to do as a kid when he found a pile of dead leaves during autumn. Simpler times.
“I guess…” He shrugged, still shy.
Angela tapped his shoulders, and walked away towards the boxes she left on the floor.
“We don't have to go right now. We can go in a few hours when it's not snowing as hard. For now, I’mma get this stuff to the kitchen and figure out what to do for lunch…”
Trevor lifts himself up from Angela’s desktop chair, now more enthusiastic “Oh, yeah! Do you need any help?”
“Sure! Grab these things, these plastic bags, and… Hey! No no, not that box! Leave it there! I'll put this one away myself.”
It took around 30 minutes of driving until Trevor and Angela reached the place she had suggested. Somewhat far from the dome, away from busy streets buzzing with people and hectic billboards, it was a place that wouldn't overwhelm Trevor and less likely to have people that would recognize him immediately.
Angela stopped the car by a parking lot next to a public park. It wasn't empty since it seemed like a few families gathered there to bring their children to play with the snow, but it was still very peaceful.
“We're here.” Angela announced, opening the door “Check it out! It's barely snowing now, but there are piles of snow over there.”
Trevor stepped out. He took slow steps, as the asphalt felt a bit slippery from the thin layer of ice. Stumbling a little, he walked over to Angela, who lent him an arm so he wouldn't fall.
“Oh geez!” She chuckled “You're walking like a cartoon character!”
Trevor stuttered “I-I'm not… used… with walking on such a slippery floor…”
“I don't see much difference? Eh, maybe it's because of your boots… But come on, let's get in!”
They got to the park and took a stroll around before settling in a quiet spot. The few trees around the park were clear from leaves, its naked branches embedded with frost and ice. Trevor couldn't help but feel delighted by such a sight, since he’d never see something like this in Arcadia. A white wasteland, not as colorful, but bright and shiny, as if he was an angel in heaven, walking over the clouds.
He still felt cold despite wearing four layers of clothes, and Angela lent him her beanie since he kept complaining his ears were cold (somewhat cute as the tips of his ears turned pink). He wasn't used to this cold weather, but it wasn't unbearable, and the more he looked at the piles of snow waiting to be laid upon, the more excited he grew.
“So! What now?” Angela looked at Trevor “What do you wanna do first?”
Without answering, he looked around for a moment. He walked over a spot where the snow was thicker, and then, he let himself fall on his back.
Trevor felt the frost on his arms and legs, but it felt fun to be surrounded by snow for the first time. He waved his limbs around back and forth, pushing the snow out of the way. He closed his eyes and then stayed still for a while, in relief, as if he had finally fulfilled his mission.
Then he carefully got up. Taking a few steps back, he grinned proudly at his masterpiece.
“I made a snow angel!!” He waved his arms towards it.
Angela smirked warmly “That's what you wanted to do? Good job dude!”
He couldn't help but feel like a delighted child going for the first time to Cometland.
Trevor kneeled over the snow angel “I'm gonna name him Clarence…”
“...Like the angel from ‘It's A Wonderful Life’?” Angela completed.
“You know me too well, Ange!”
Angela also laid down next to Clarence the Angel, and waved her legs and arms. When done, she stood up, shook off the snow from her body and cleaned the rest of the snow from her arms.
“This one is gonna be called Angela Guardiana… like the angel from that weird Visiorama dream you had.”
Trevor turned around to look at her snow angel, grinning “Oh wow, nice! Two of my favorite guardian angels.”
Angela chuckled, and kneeled next to Trevor, who was still full of snow on his head, back and shoulders.
She started patting away the rest of the snow from him “Oh geez, clean yourself up! You're all dirty with snow–” An idea came to her head “Oh shit, wait, there's a big bug on your back.”
“A bug!?” Trevor shrieked, now alarmed.
“Stay still! I'm gonna take it off.”
Trevor waited as Angela “attempted to remove a bug from his back”. But he suddenly felt a pull from behind the collar of his jacket…
…And a freezing stream of snow ran through his back, feeling the frost directly on his skin.
“AaAAaAhGHHGHHHH!!!”
Trevor got up immediately, jumping around with his back arched, pulling away his 4 layers of clothes from his back as the snow fell out. As he panicked around, the culprit behind the scene, Angela, could be heard wheezing and laughing her ass off as she watched him attempt to take out the snow she put in his shirt.
“Holy shit–! HAHAH !!” She cackled loudly “--¡Ah Dios mio…! That was so fucking funny!”
Trevor managed to remove what remained of the snow from his back, still feeling cold, as some of the melted snow now had stuck to his shirt. He turned around to see Angela laughing her lungs off, and stumbling around out of balance.
“You little…!!” Trevor spat, embarrassed “That wasn't funny! Now my back is all wet!”
“Ohmygod… aHAHah…!” Angela let herself fall in the snow, out of breath “I'mgonnapeemyself…”
Even so, Angela's contagious giggles caught Trevor, who also started giggling as he walked over to her, picking up a bunch of snow with his hands.
“Oh yeah, hah! That's funny then? You'll see who will be laughing now!” Trevor raised his hands full of snow up in the air and ran over to Angela.
“Oh shit–!”
She rolled over just in time to avoid getting hit by a chunk of snow thrown by Trevor. She stumbled around to get up, as he picked up another snowball, ready to throw. Angela shrieked as she avoided the next snowball, then laughed at his face.
“Hah, you missed!”
“Oh yeah?”
Trevor kept throwing snowballs at Angela, and Angela started making snowballs and throwing them back too. The battle had officially started.
“Holy shit, what's that?” Angela shouted
“Huh?” Trevor stopped, looking around.
Amateur mistake. Angela hit him with a snowball straight to his face.
“ AhahAHH… !” She cackled as she continued running, taking shelter behind a dead tree.
“...Cheater!” He cleaned the snow from his face “Oh no, now come here! I'm gonna get you real good this time!”
Their snowball war went on for at least 20 minutes. Trevor had managed to hit Angela with a few snowballs, even using a trick to hide a second snowball on the other hand to hit her by surprise. However, it was not enough to beat the speedy Angela, who seemed to be a master of snowball fights. By the end of it, Trevor was covered with snow everywhere, while Angela had just a few patches of snow over her hair and jacket.
“Okay, okay…! White flags! I give up!” Trevor announces, belly on the ground, panting from exhaustion.
“Is that really the Trevor Hills I know? Already tired?” She looked up at him with a snowball in her hand, feeling victorious.
“Yes… The cold is freezing my limbs... It's hard to move when it's that cold.”
“Pffft… you're making excuses…”
She sat down next to Trevor, brushing her hand on his clothes and head, wiping away the snow from him again.
“But it's alright. If we keep up you're gonna get a cold. You have snow all over you.”
Trevor sat down “Really? I didn't even notice it.” He says, with snow covering even his eyebrows, mustache, and even eyelashes. His cheeks and nose were also rosy from the cold.
She rubbed her hand over his face to remove the rest of the snow. “Hah, very funny.”
Angela redirected her eyes back to the snow under her. She picked it up with both her hands, making a ball, and leaving it on the ground. She picked up more snow and layered it around that snowball, making it thicker and bigger. She kept doing that, carefully so the snowball wouldn't fall apart.
Trevor watched her “What are you doing now?”
“Making a snowman, before we leave. Wanna help?”
He nodded and sat around the snowman, helping Angela with layering the snowball with more snow. Once it became a big round pile of snow, they prepared to make the head. Time passed, and the sun was starting to set when they finished modeling the head. Picking up some branches and pebbles, they gave him a pair of arms and two dots for eyes.
“Here you go buddy. Eyes so you can witness the wonders the real world has to offer.” Trevor said, as he finished putting the two pebbles at the snowman’s face.
They stepped back to look at the snowman. Despite being very simple, they felt proud of their effort.
“So, any name ideas?” Angela looks at Trevor.
“Uhh, I don't know… I kinda ran out of creativity juice.” He scratched the back of his head.
“Ok, then I'll name him Nevado.”
“Nevado? That's cool. Is that a reference for something too…?”
Angela smirked, “Nope, it's just how we say when something is covered in snow or is snowy in spanish.”
She cleaned the snow from her hands and got up, lending Trevor an arm to help him get up.
“It has gotten dark.” She looked up at the sky “We should head back.”
“Yeah, we should…” He sniffs and rubs his nose.
“We should also make some hot cocoa for you when we get there.” She gives him a friendly pat on the back.
Angela and Trevor walked through the snow, praising the wonders that winter could show
They chat along through warmth and joy, and on those moments Trevor felt like a happy little boy
But little did he know about the surprise, that he’d later discover by accident or likewise
Though you may ask Cetrouz, what's with all the rhyme?
It’s a silly sneak peek for the next chapters, so until next time!