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Have you ever seen fresh snow on a sunny day? Bright white, brilliant, blinding. There’s a beauty to it, and a fierceness. It hurts your eyes to look at it for too long, and suddenly you can almost understand how a vampire burns up in the sun. It doesn’t stop you from sneaking glances.
And the softness. Not just the snow itself, though you’ll certainly feel that when you throw yourself into a pile, but the whole world. It’s the silence, the muffled footsteps, the feeling of being alone in the vastness but being okay with it.
When they say snow blanketed the town, they mean it. The snow wraps everyone up, calms them down, keeps them safe and warm. Whether you’re admiring it from the comfort of the other side of your window or you’re tossing it into the air and rolling around in it, the clean, fresh snow is like a long-lost friend.
Of course, you don’t know about any of that, because you live in Sunnydale, California, and you’ve only ever seen it snow once before.
Buffy noticed two things when she woke up that morning. One was Willow, still asleep in the bed on the other side of the room. Not horribly surprising: she’d still been out studying when Buffy had gotten back from patrolling. The second thing she noticed though, wasn’t something she’d been prepared for. She wasn’t even sure what it was, at first. The second thing she noticed was that, somehow, the lighting was wrong. When nothing else seemed obviously wrong inside the room she checked out the window. The sun was still in its usual place, shining down on the bright, white- huh? Admittedly, it had been dark at the time, but Buffy was fairly certain the grass had been green when she came in last night. So had the trees. Today though, the scene outside was a fairly uniform white colour. Grass, pavement, roofs. No surface had been spared. It didn’t snow in Sunnydale, so what was going on? Who was responsible this time, and why?
As much as she hated it, Buffy had to wake up Willow. The snow may not have been evil or dangerous, but she thought it definitely warranted investigation. Willow seemed to have other plans though, smiling groggily when she saw out the window.
“Buffy, it’s a day off,” she said, voice tinged with awe. “A snow day, just like in the movies! Happy birthday Buffy!”
(And sure enough, classes and other campus services were shut down, until they figured out what to do about the snow.)
“Don’t you find it a little weird? Concerning at all? I don’t know if you’ve forgotten but we’re not exactly the snow capital of the world here!” Buffy was having trouble tearing herself away from the window now, watching the snow continue falling with a mix of childlike wonder and more practical horror.
“Of course I’m not concerned! Buffy, I worked hard on this!” Willow’s eyes widened as what she had just said played itself back in her brain. “Oops.”
“Will? What did you do?”
“Um, is it too late to say ‘nothing’?”
“Definitely.”
They stood briefly in silence together at the window before Willow took Buffy by the hands, breaking the snow’s spell. “Well,” she started, suddenly nervous after the confidence she’d had in her choices up for the last few weeks, “it’s your birthday, and you’re always so busy all the time, you deserve a break, and it’s so pretty, and-“
“Willow.” Buffy gave a little shake of the hands Willow was still holding, trying to refocus her. “You’re rambling. What did you do?”
“I made it snow! For your birthday! After that Christmas, I always thought- well, I’ve been studying this year, and it was actually easier than I thought it would be. And now the school’s closed! And the sun’s still out, so no vampires! It’s a Buffy break! So, do you like it?”
That was a lot to process, first thing in the morning. And wait, was it her birthday today? She really had been busy, if she forgot that! Maybe she did need a break. “Of course I like it!” she exclaimed, hugging Willow. “It’s beautiful!”
Buffy took a step back and could see a mix of pride and exhaustion radiating from Willow’s face. Easy or not, she had to wonder what this had taken from her, but as long as Willow was happy… and it was a beautiful gift. Really, the free vacation part was just a little bonus. And she knew who she had to share it with. “So, Will, what do you say? You ready to get dressed and see your handiwork up close?”
Armored with their warmest sweaters squashed under their warmest jackets, the pair walked hesitantly out of the dorm building and into the white wonderland. A few other students had clearly had the same idea. From ground level it was easy to see the blemishes on the canvas. Foot prints on the ground, marks on the walls where snow had been wiped off by curious passers-by, and a large spot on the grass where somebody had presumably thrown themself bodily into it. Buffy took inspiration from this, flopping backwards toward the ground and pulling Willow with her. “Snow angels!” she shouted, feeling more like a little kid than a college student as she threw out her arms and legs, knocking the snow around her. Satisfied with her hard work, she relaxed into the snow pile with her eyes closed against the falling snow.
“Thank you,” she whispered breathlessly.
“Hmm?”
“I said thank you. Now this is a gift I’ll remember for a long time.”
“Then that makes it all worth it.” Willow reached for Buffy’s hand, messing up her angel wing in the process. They lay together long enough for a student-led snowball fight to break out around them, hitting Willow in the leg. She pulled Buffy up with her and they took off running from the chaos.
By the time they had eaten breakfast, the snow still hadn’t stopped falling. Buffy was starting to wonder if she should go back to concerned after all, but Willow brushed it all off easily. “Might have gotten a bit carried away,” she said, looking suitably embarrassed. “Guess we’ll just have to spend the day locked up in our room together. We might even need to cuddle to keep warm! What else will this snow day bring us?” Buffy couldn’t help but laugh. Willow seemed to know what she was doing, at least, so why question such a brilliant gift. Besides, spending a day locked up inside with Willow? Certainly tempting.
They pulled the mattresses off the beds and dragged them towards the window. Then they went back and collected every blanket they could find. And under the covers they sat together, watching the snow fall, and the world as they knew it disappeared.