Work Text:
An hour after Hilda got to work on a nice, warm day, the sky was clouded over and flurries of snow were starting to fall from the sky. The cold snap only intensified, and by the time she was done doing what could only vaguely be described as working, the temperature had plummeted to far below freezing levels and several inches of snow now coated the ground.
“This is ridiculous,” she sighed as she stepped out of her workplace, not at all dressed for the elements. “I don’t suppose a strong man who has a scraper could help me dig my car out of this snow, hm?”
Luckily her feminine wiles worked like a charm and she was able to sit in her car and wait for it to heat up while a coworker brushed snow off of it. Strangely, once he was done, the car’s heat still hadn’t gotten...hot, but Hilda shrugged it off, knowing she only lived a few minutes away and would be able to suck it up for the short drive. She noticed one or two things off about her car on the drive home, but it was far too late to worry about any of that, and it wasn’t like she wasn’t going to make it home.
No, she was able to make it to the apartment complex she lived in, but not much farther. Not long after she got into the parking lot, the lights on her dashboard flickered. Then, her car came to a stop, and not even pressing the gas pedal to the floor was enough to make it react. “What’s going on?” She asked her car. “Please don’t tell me you just froze to death! Oh gods, I’m right in the middle of the parking lot and I can’t move!”
She sat in the driver’s seat of her car, looking around frantically for some sort of miracle that could get her un-stuck, but nothing came to mind. She had just started fishing in her purse for her phone to make a call to her brother when she was startled by a knock on her driver’s side window. She squealed and turned to see an unfamiliar face—or rather, some of one; everything except his eyes were covered by warm clothing—checking in on her. She tried to roll her window down, but remembered the car had just died, so she cracked the door open. “Heya,” the man said in a voice far too chipper for being as late at night as it was. “I couldn’t help but notice you’re stuck. Need a hand?”
Hilda nodded. “Yeah. My car just died and I don’t know what to do.”
The man took a step back, letting her step out of the car. “There’s not much we can do. We’re going to have to push it.”
“We?” Now she knew this guy was a stranger. “Oh no, I don’t do heavy lifting.”
“Well your car’s too big for one guy to push it, even one who hits the gym regularly, and I don’t see anyone else around here jumping in to help.” The man put his gloved hands on his hips.
“But I’m not dressed for this weather,” Hilda said. “If I stay out here much longer, I’ll freeze!”
“I can see that,” the man said, eyes scanning her up and down. “Tell you what. You go get bundled up so you don’t get frostbite out here, and I’ll hop in and honk the horn. Maybe I’ll get the attention of someone else before you get back.”
“Um, okay.” Hilda grabbed the keys from the ignition and went inside as fast as her feet could take her without slipping and sending her ass on a collision course with the pavement. If this were any other situation, she would have absolutely just gotten bundled up in bed and gone to sleep, but this was her own car in jeopardy, so she had to stick to the guy’s on-the-fly plan. After cranking up the heat in her apartment for later, she put on every coat she had and the thickest gloves and boots she could find and trekked back out into the parking lot.
There, the man was standing outside her car, stretching his arms in preparation. “Couldn’t get anyone else to come out, so it’s up to us,” he said. “Open up the passenger side door and brace yourself.”
Hilda gulped and did as she was told, watching him get in and switch the car into neutral. He got back out and braced himself against the open driver’s side door. “Okay, ready?”
“Ready.”
“Push!”
Together, the two pushed Hilda’s car through the parking lot, scanning for any open parking spots. It was a harrowing journey. Hilda’s entire body screamed in various combinations of pain, cold and exhaustion as she strained against her car. Her body was definitely not used to the kind of heavy lifting she was asking of it, and it made sure she knew it. As they pushed, the man called out instructions and warnings as he periodically reached inside and used the wheel to correct the car’s trajectory. Shortly after Hilda felt her shoulder pop out of place, a parking spot appeared as if by a miracle. The man pointed it out and called it like it was the final move in a game of billiards, and together they trudged toward the empty spot.
“Aaaaand...stop!”
Hilda moved away from the car while the man hopped in the driver’s seat and shifted it back into park before it could roll to much farther. While he was in there, he grabbed the keys and turned them in the ignition. As expected, the car didn’t even try to turn on.
Hilda gasped for breath, leaning forward with her hands on her knees to support herself. “Do you… know what’s wrong with it?”
The man closed her door behind him and offered her keys back. “Doesn’t matter now,” he said as he shook his head. “Let’s get inside before we get frostbite.”
Hilda nodded quickly. “Let’s go to my place. I’ll make you hot chocolate for helping me out like this.”
“I’m fine with that,” the man said. “Where’s your apartment?”
If they could see each other’s faces, that was when he’d see Hilda’s sheepish grin. “On the, um, other side of the building?”
“What the hell?” He said, looking around. “Did we really push it that far?” He shook his head before Hilda could respond. “Doesn’t matter. Let’s go.”
The two scurried inside, braving the harsh conditions of the parking lot just long enough for Hilda to lead the way into her apartment. She opened the door and sighed in relief as the warmth of the inside washed over her. “Oh, that feels so good,” she sighed happily.
The man shuffled in after her and they nearly collapsed into the chairs by Hilda’s dining room table. He shook off his hood and took off the beanie he was wearing under it, revealing a head of messy blue hair. “Whew!” He pulled down the scarf covering the bottom half of his face, his cheeks red as they could be. “That was fun,” he said, running a hand through his hair to keep it out of his eyes.
Hilda shook her head and took a stand, slowly starting to take her own coat off as well. “Strange idea of fun you have there, mister…?”
“Hm? Oh, sorry. All that and we never introduced ourselves, huh? The name’s Caspar.”
“Well, thanks for all your help, Caspar.” Hilda started digging through her cabinets for the hot chocolate she kept stashed away for a snowy day. “Do you like your hot chocolate with milk or water?”
Aside from his simple answer of milk, the two were quiet while Hilda made their drinks. When they were ready, she slid one steaming mug in front of Caspar and took a seat across from him. “Drink up. And don’t ever say I’m not a woman of my word.”
Caspar laughed as he grabbed the mug. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Thanks!” Hilda noticed he completely skipped the handle of the mug and just...grabbed it with his now bare hand, but she decided not to say anything to see how long it would take him to notice. After his first sip, Caspar shifted gears. “So while you were doing that, I checked the weather on my phone. It’s supposed to be nicer tomorrow, and I don’t have to work, so I can go take a look at your car to see what went wrong.”
“You would do that for me, after everything else?” Hilda asked, almost in disbelief at how quickly he was willing to help her.
“Sure,” he said with a shrug. “You asked me what was wrong, after all. Can’t keep ya in the dark, now can I?” Then he put the mug down and scratched at his cheek awkwardly. “Unless you have a boyfriend who can look at it for you.”
Hilda shook her head. “I mean, my brother probably could, but he’s back home. Probably wouldn’t be willing to make a last minute trip all the way out here just to to car work.”
“Oh yeah? Where’re you from?”
And thus began around an hour of small talk. The pair talked about nothing in particular until their cups were empty and their bodies warm. Once they realized how late it had gotten, they parted ways, making plans to meet at Hilda’s car the next day.
Around noon the next day, the temperature had risen, and the snow was starting to melt. It was still rather cold, but knowing that the sun was shining and the snow was on its way out was enough for Hilda.
“Didja sleep well?” Caspar asked.
Hilda shrugged. “As well as I can knowing I can’t go anywhere until this is fixed.”
“Fair enough,” Caspar said with a laugh. “Now pop the hood so I can take a look.”
Hilda climbed in and pulled the lever that raised her car’s hood. She watched Caspar prop it open and take a look inside. Finally, his head poked around the sheet of metal. “Hey, by chance, when was the last time you filled up on antifreeze?”
Hilda tilted her head. “On what? Sorry, I don’t do my own car...stuff.”
Caspar shook his head, letting out a laugh. “Well, I found your problem. You ran out of antifreeze! You know, the stuff that keeps your car from becoming an oversized chunk of ice?”
Hilda paled as what he said was dawning on her. “Oh no, did I let my car freeze to death?”
“Seems like it,” Caspar said.
“Is there anything I can do to fix it?”
Caspar stroked his chin and the wispy blue hairs starting to collect there. “Fill up on antifreeze, for starters, but judging by how much the car didn’t want to start last night, I’d say the battery ran dry. I’ll have to jumpstart your car for you, but after that it should be fine.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Hilda said. “How do you jumpstart a car?”
A smile creeped across Caspar’s face. “Well, I hook up a cable to your battery, then to mine, and then I charge up your battery with my car.”
Hilda was still a little lost, but she nodded along. “Right. Would you really be willing to do that?”
“Of course,” Caspar said. “It’s not hard. I don’t...own any jumper cables, but we need to go buy antifreeze anyway, so we can pick those up while we’re there.”
“Whoa whoa, we?” Hilda asked.
Caspar raised an eyebrow at her. “Who’s car needs the antifreeze? Yours or mine? I’m willing to help you out, but I’m not buying this stuff for you.”
Hilda rolled her eyes. Playing dumb could only get her so far with him, it seemed. “Alright, fair enough. Shall we go, then?”
“Now?” Caspar asked as he closed the hood of the car.
“I kinda want to get this taken care of as soon as possible, so yeah.” Hilda stood from her driver’s seat and closed the door, making sure to put just a little bit of extra sway in her hips as she approached him. “I’ll even buy lunch for the strong man who’s fixing my car. How’s that sound?”
Caspar seemed completely unaffected by her putting the moves on him, but he agreed to her proposition anyway. After a pleasant lunch and a trip to an auto parts store—both of which put a hole in Hilda’s wallet—they were back at her car, his parked right next to hers and revving as it shared its battery power.
Hilda’s car had started, and the end of her car problems had come. Despite it being just over twelve hours, the potential stress of not being able to driver herself around has been weighing on her, so knowing she’d been saved was the biggest relief she’d felt in a while. “Thank you so much for all your help, Caspar,” she said, taking him into a hug. “I don’t know where I’d be without you!”
“Stranded in the parking lot with a dead car?” He suggested.
Hilda laughed. “Okay, smart guy. Here…” She pulled out her phone and opened it to her contacts page. “Give me your phone number.”
“Why…?”
Hilda’s suggestive look had once again fallen on naive eyes. “So I can contact you in case I’m in need of your...services again.” She winked at Caspar and leaned in closer.
“I’m not a mechanic or anything,” Caspar said, again completely missing the point. “But sure. I’d love to hang out with you again, or something.”
“That’s what I meant, Caspar!”
“Then why didn’t you say so?”
Hilda opened the door to her apartment, stepping inside and kicking off her shoes as her cat came to greet her. “Babe, I’m home,” she called. When she didn’t get a response, she looked into their bedroom, seeing their bed left in a messy state. “Caspar? Where are you?” She looked down to their cat. “Have you seen Caspar, little guy?” She asked, kneeling down to give him pets. “I could have sworn I saw his car outside…”
A few minutes passed, during which she got out of her work clothes and into her more comfortable pajamas. The light outside was starting to wane early, and the clouds on the horizon told her it was about to get a bit colder than she was hoping for. Before she could think on it too much, the door flew open, a clearly winded Caspar storming in. “Hilda!” He called. “Whew, I thought I’d be able to make it home before you did, but I guess not.”
Hilda raised an eyebrow, taking in the sight of her frantic boyfriend. “What happened to you?” She asked. “You look like something the cat dragged in.”
Caspar collapsed into a chair and took a deep breath. “Don’t worry about that. Do you know what today is?”
Hilda looked at her phone. “Um...Tuesday?”
Caspar laughed, making no moves to take off his shoes or even put his keys down. “Well, yes, but there’s more to it. Three years ago today was when I found your car broken down in the parking lot.”
Hilda felt a blush creeping onto her face as she remembered that night. “Ugh, don’t even remind me.”
“But I do wanna remind you,” Caspar said. “Think about it. Remember how it was like, shorts weather earlier that day? And then all of a sudden it became a winter wonderland?”
“Yes yes, I remember,” Hilda groaned. “And the reason it all happened was because I forgot to buy antifreeze. Don’t tease me about it so long after the fact!”
“I’m not teasing you,” Caspar insisted. “I want you to really think about it. That cold snap and what it did to your car completely changed your life, didn’t it?”
Hilda looked around. “I guess you’re right.” In the three years since that night, she had gone from a single woman living alone to someone in a committed relationship, living together, sleeping together, and owning a cat together! Hilda had really never anticipated owning a cat, so the latter was the biggest surprise to her.
And yet, if her car hadn’t died in the parking lot that night, she would never have met the man she called her own.
She couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”
Caspar returned her smile with a toothy grin of his own. “That’s the spirit! I wanted to give you a little something to mark the occasion. That’s where I was.”
“Oh?” Hilda’s interest was piqued. She always loved getting gifts.
“C’mon,” Caspar said, nodding toward the door. “Put some shoes on. I wanna take you to it.”
Once they were in the parking lot, Caspar covered her eyes and walked her to her present. “Are ya ready?” He asked.
“Yes, I’m ready, let me see!”
When her eyes were uncovered, she blinked a few times to adjust to the sunlight, but it didn’t take long to make out her present: a brand new car, just the kind she’d always wanted. “No way!” She screamed, covering her mouth. “No. Way!! What?!”
“I wouldn’t celebrate three years of your car dying without getting you a new one, would I?” Caspar said, hands on his hips proudly.
“Where did you even get the money for this?” Hilda asked. “How long have you been saving up?”
“Not as long as you’d think,” Caspar said. “I actually got your brother to help pitch in on this one.”
Hilda gasped. “What? How?”
Caspar blushed. “Had a nice long sit down with him. Made some promises. Beat him in an arm wrestling match...we settled on him covering most of this if I covered most of the r—other thing.”
“The other thing?” Hilda asked. “You mean there’s more?”
“Here, get in.” Caspar opened the driver’s side door and closed it behind her once she sat down. Then he scurried around to the other side to sit in the passenger seat. “See, I was thinking about it...your life changed so much from just one night, so I was wondering if…you would do the honors of...” He opened the glove box, but paused when he didn’t see what he was looking for.
“...Where’d it go.”
Hilda just looked at him and his quickly paling face. “Caspar?”
Caspar shook his head, saying the word no to himself rapidly. “Don’t tell me I lost it. Oh don’t tell me. Where the hell’s the ring?!” The passenger door opened and he leapt out of the car, running to his own a few spots down.
Hilda sat in the driver’s seat, dumbstruck by his parting words.
“Did he just say ring?”