Work Text:
Layers of thick white snow covered the forest path and rested on tree branches, making them sag low to the ground. The delicate flakes had stopped falling earlier as the evening turned to dusk, leaving a clear sky with a moonlight guide reflecting off the bright white snow piles. For all its effort, though, the forest looked much the same in every direction, all its distinguishing marks covered up by the very same snow.
A problem when their guide, the only one who knew where they were going, was bad with directions.
“Vane,” Lancelot said, as gentle and patient as always. “Are you sure we’re headed in the right direction? I think we’ve already been this way…”
Vane twisted around in the ankle-high snow, his lips coming together to form something of a pout.
“I’m sure we were going the right way… But it is kinda hard to tell when everything looks the same.” he said.
Percival, already at his wit’s end, felt a nerve snap somewhere.
“We’re miles from any civilization, you fool!”
It was all he could do not to shout. Well, he was shouting. Just not as loudly as he could have.
“The party is at a cabin!” Vane insisted. “And it’s definitely somewhere in these woods!”
Desperate for support from Lancelot or Siegfried, Percival eyed one and then the other, but Lancelot only shrugged and gave an apologetic smile, and Siegfried breathed a sigh so soft there would have been no indication of it had it not been for the cloud that formed in front of his mouth. Of course they refused to scold Vane for his incompetence, so they were useless.
Though no one was forcing Percival to be here. In fact, he’d initially had no reason at all to accept the invitation Vane and Lancelot extended to him. It was a Valentine’s Day party intended for the White Dragon Knights and their partners, and certainly they had asked him because he was a close friend and the other knights might be pleased to see him, whether the feeling was mutual for him or not.
And he would have said no. But Siegfried was coming.
Percival thus acquiesced and as a result found himself in this unsavoury situation. If he were to fall face-first into the snow at this moment, the amount of heat his anger and frustration was producing would melt everything around him.
“Let’s rest for a moment.” Siegfried suggested.
“Yes!” Lancelot agreed, no doubt hoping to defuse this situation before it got any worse. “We’re all tired and a little ornery so we should take a moment to cool down and collect ourselves.”
That was not the solution Percival had been looking for from them.
“And where would you suggest we do that when anywhere here would leave us covered in snow and freezing?” he said.
“We’ll keep walking and find a safe place to sit down and start a fire.” Siegfried said.
He spoke so calmly, and yet everything from him sounded like an order; Percival couldn’t bring himself to object.
They wandered a little further into the woods and came across a blessed sight: a log cut in two to make benches jutted out of the snow, and a circle of stones and charred ground indicated a place for a campfire. Embers smoldered in the burnt sticks still smoking in the center, but if this camp had been recently used, there was no sign of the person who had been there. None of them thought to question it, perhaps too tired or simply grateful for the relief that sitting around a warm fire would bring. Percival stabbed his sword (yes, he’d brought it along just in case) into the center of the fire pit to set the sticks aflame again.
The four of them took up seats on either side of the fire, Vane and Lancelot on one end and Percival next to Siegfried on the other. They said nothing, to avoid sparking another argument, and Percival closed his eyes as he rested his chin in his hand, allowing the crackling and popping of the fire to settle him.
Giggles and snickers interrupted his soothing melody, and one eye opened halfway to the sight of Vane and Lancelot across from him, shoulder to shoulder and hands on top of each other, laughing like they were sharing some secret joke. Any other day he might have rolled his eyes at them, but he supposed they deserved this during a celebration of love, assuming they ever found the celebration they were supposed to be attending.
“Percival,” Siegfried said, breaking into his thoughts with that soft and sweet voice of his. “Are you cold over there by yourself?”
“No,” Percival said all too quickly. “I’m hot-natured. It’s fine.”
Once more his attention focused on Lancelot and Vane, now with their cheeks pressed together and hands held tight.
“Actually, I… it is a bit chilly.” he admitted.
Siegfried held out his arm, and Percival scooted closer to him, embarrassed to acknowledge that he started when Siegfried’s arm fell around his waist. His coat around their shoulders kept the cold from their backs, and before long, Percival, hesitant but brave, laid his head on Siegfried’s shoulder. He didn’t know why he expected to be nudged or shrugged off, but he wasn’t, and he could attribute it to Siegfried’s kindness all he wanted, that arm tightening around his waist said otherwise.
His eyes closed again. Did he fall asleep? He was sure he drifted off for a few seconds, but he awoke to Vane shouting, “Hey, over there! It was right beside us all along!” and pointing fervently to a log cabin emitting a warm glowing light from its windows, the sounds of a party ringing out through the empty woodland.
Vane rushed ahead, dragging Lancelot behind him, their clasped hands swinging between them, and Percival remained behind to stamp out the fire. Thinking Siegfried had gone along with the other two, he lifted his head from the snow-covered ashes to find Siegfried very much here waiting for him.
“Ready?” he asked.
He was smiling, in that special Siegfried way where the corners of his mouth curled up all catlike.
And Percival smiled too.
“Yeah,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Siegfried held out a gloved hand to him, in the same manner one would when offering a dance to a partner, and Percival accepted it, a strange, giddy feeling welling up in his chest.
Later that night, Siegfried did offer to dance with him among the other spinning couples. And how, Percival thought. Could I possibly turn him down?