Chapter Text
December’s here, just like every other year.
Some generic Christmas song plays on the radio as Bdubs drives home across vast countryside, fields of farmland, with a couple mountains clustered in the distance.
He’s returning from a short leisurely trip he took with a couple of friends for the holiday season, and his plans are simply to spend Christmas at home, by himself, like usual, and visit family a few days after to avoid the surge of traffic the holiday causes.
Honestly, a proper Christmas would be nice, one of these days.
All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey plays it’s first few notes, and Bdubs instinctively hits the radio’s off button.
Things were going smoothly, and he passes through a cozy looking small town. Why not get something to eat for the road? He locates a café, and parks nearby to maybe grab a muffin, or something.
“Hey there! What would you like to order?” The huge, friendly bartender asks to Bdubs. He looks at his name tag, and it says “Skizzleman”.
“Yes, I would like a, chocolate muffin please.”
“Alright, I’m on it buddy. You from around here? I’ve never seen you before.”
“No, I’m just passing through.”
Skizz hands him the muffin, and Bdubs pays. Then, Skizz looks out the window concerningly.
“Ohhhh..”
“What is it?”
“Looks like somebody’s car just blew a fuse, the hood is up and everything. That’s not your car, is it?”
He looks out the window. “Wait.. That is my car! What in the world!”
He runs out to inspect the damage, and Skizz decides to follow him out.
“What happened? There’s no way I’m going to be able to drive home like this!”
“Wow, good thing you weren’t driving when it happened. That wouldn’t have been pretty at all.”
He gets in to try and start the car, but nothing happens. “Is there a mechanic in this town?”
“Yes, there is! I’ll fetch you his number.”
Skizz goes back inside. Well, seems like Bdubs is going to have to get used to the idea of being stuck here for a bit. He’s about 2 or 3 hours away from home. Honestly, if the worst comes to worse and his car is completely busted beyond repair he could probably ask someone to pick him up.
Skizz comes back, and Bdubs plugs the number to the mechanic’s into his phone. “There is reception here, right?” Bdubs jokes.
“Of course there’s reception!” Skizz gasps.
“Hello, you’ve reached Tango Tek from Tek’s auto services, how may I help you today?”
“Well, something happened to my car, and it kinda blew up, I mean, didn’t literally blow up but the hood is open and I can’t start it. I’m from out of town, and I would like to get home.”
“Alright. Where are you located?”
“Outside of, uhhh, Buddeh Coffee.”
“Buddeh Coffee, got it. I’ll be there in five minutes.”
“How much is this going to cost me?”
“Depends on how long it takes to fix, and which parts need replacing. Are you short on cash?”
“Not necessarily, just wondering.”
“Hopefully the damage isn’t that severe, I’m on my way.”
They hang up. “Tango’s a great, reliable guy, take my word for it.” Skizz says. “Gotta get back to work!”
Bdubs sulks and leans on the door of his car, taking a bite out of the muffin. What a setback.
Soon enough, Tango arrives, and does a quick assessment of the damage.
“This isn’t looking too good, buddy. It’ll probably take me multiple days to fix. The battery got damaged too, and that needs replacing, and..” Tango trails off into car part explaining that Bdubs barely understands.
“How long should I book a hotel for?”
“I’m sure you don’t need to give a specific number, not many people stay here, after all.”
“Alright.” Bdubs sighs.
“Christmas is coming up, are you hoping to be home by then?”
“It’s not actually that important for me to be home for Christmas, though that would be nice. It’s more of the days after the 27th that’s important.”
“I see. I’m sure this will be fixed by the 27th, mark my words. I have
Christmas Eve and day off, by the way. Just have to tow this to my garage now… The only hotel in town is two blocks down that way, it’s pretty obvious.”
“Thanks.” He grabs his suitcase and sets off.
Tango was right, the lady at the reception was perfectly fine with him not giving a specific departure date. He pays for 2 nights in advance and flops down onto the hotel bed. It’s getting dark already, typical winter things, so Bdubs will just relax for the entire rest of the day, was tiring anyway.
At least this will get him out of a few days of work? Being stranded in the middle of nowhere.
.
The next day, Bdubs wakes up to snow, lots of snow. There’s about 30-40 centimetres of snow on the ground already, and it’s still snowing outside!
There was nothing yesterday, and it was only about 5 degrees celcius out. Even if his car was fixed today, good luck driving through this.
The portion of town that he can see through the hotel window has turned into a winter wonderland. He has nothing to do, may as well take a look around?
He has good boots for snow, but he doesn’t really have a great jacket for weather this cold. Hopefully his sweater will be just fine. He puts on a warm hat and sets out.
He steps out into the cold air, snow immediately falling to cover his head and shoulders. Townspeople are out, happily walking through the snow covered sidewalks holding hands and warm drinks.
Many shops are open, surprisingly. Everything here is within walking distance, so that’s probably why. He idly looks in the windows of the local shops as he walks by.
He eventually happens upon a garden shop, outdoors, not contained in any building. Guess that makes sense too, most of the town’s surrounding land is farmland. He decides to enter, because why not, and to see what they might possibly be selling this time of year.
An employee carefully scoops snow off some of the overwintering potted plants which were left out. There’s actually a decent amount of things here, plus a few Christmas trees! Of course they’re selling Christmas trees.
A not for sale tree that’s in the ground, covered in moss catches his eye. He likes moss a lot, it’s the best type of plant. He walks over to check out the moss.
And then he slips, and falls directly into a pile of snow! The walkway was shoveled, but not de-iced, it seems.
“Oh, I’m so sorry! I forgot to salt that path! Are you ok?” The employee quickly grabs a bag of salt and runs up to him.
“I’m fine.” Bdubs says, as he slowly lifts himself out of the snow.
“Here,” the employee extends his hand out to him, to help him up.
Their hands clasp, eyes lock, and wow. He’s really pretty, actually.
His hair is pure white, like the snow falling from the sky, and his eyes are soft, one black and one red with a scar over the red one and…
He pulls him up out of the snow pile. Bdubs almost falls over again.
“There you go.” He makes sure Bdubs is steady, then he turns around to quickly salt the pathway. Bdubs tries to brush off all the snow that’s now caked on his sweater, before it melts.
“Are you visiting here for the holidays? I don’t recognize you at all.” He asks.
“Well, I’m kind of stuck here. My car broke down, apparently it’ll take a while to fix, and all this snow will make driving impossible.”
“Hopefully things will be resolved and you can get home by Christmas.”
Bdubs shrugs. “Honestly, it doesn’t really matter.”
“What’s your name?”
“Bdubs.”
“My name’s Etho, nice to meet you. You look cold, I have free hot chocolate inside the checkout area.”
“Oh! Absolutely! Just in that building over there?”
“Yup.”
He indulges, and pours himself some hot chocolate into a small paper cup. Hopefully it isn’t too watery, free hot chocolate tends to be like that.
Etho slips behind the counter to check out someone’s little conifer bush. He then turns to Bdubs once more.
“Sorry again. Were you looking for anything in particular here?”
“No, I was just browsing.”
“Hmm. What’s your favourite type of plant?”
“Mosses, really fuzzy moss.”
“You’ve got good taste.”
“Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering.”
“You weren’t trying to sell me anything?” Bdubs tries to take a first sip out of the hot chocolate but it’s still a bit too hot.
Etho smiles. “Well, that would be nice. But not necessarily.”
“What about you? What’s your favourite type of plant?”
“Well, I have so many! I like moss too, and huge coniferous trees, and flowering shrubs.”
“Nice.”
“I should probably get back to clearing snow now, I don’t want the plants to suffocate.”
“May I help? I have genuinely nothing to do today.”
“Oh? Sure. You just have to be very careful to not break any branches.” He looks up and down at Bdubs. “Are you sure that sweater’s warm enough?”
“It’s all I have at the moment, I know I should’ve packed better. I was coming home from a short trip, that’s why I was passing through here.”
“Well, I uhh, have a spare coat that you can borrow.. My house is just a two minute walk away, I’ll go grab it. Tell anyone that comes in that I’ll be back real quickly.”
Oh, that’s real nice! The hot chocolate has cooled down enough to drink, so Bdubs finishes it off while waiting for Etho to come back.
Everyone in this town seems so friendly, it seems. He’s honestly gotten such a great first impression. This mustn’t be how every single small town is, but he’s really never lived in one himself so who knows.
Etho returns and hands him the coat. It’s green, which suits him.
“Thank you, I’ll be sure to return it.”
“It’s no problem.”
So then they get to work, freeing the plants from the heaps of snow that has piled on top of them.
“Are you the owner of this place?” Bdubs asks him.
“Yes, actually. Bought it a few years ago from an older couple who wanted to retire.”
“Is it just you, or do you have any employees?”
“Just me today, but yes, I have a couple high schoolers who work here after school and on weekends. They didn’t want to come to work today, which makes sense, they probably wanted to spend time with friends.”
“Are they reliable?”
“Of course, both of them are very passionate about plants and gardening.”
The conversation continues, and soon enough with the work of both of them, the plants are all cleared off.
“Customers won’t buy a plant that they can’t see, after all.” Etho says.
“Yeah, I couldn’t tell at all what most of these were!”
“Thanks for your help, Bdubs.”
“You’re welcome. I’m getting pretty hungry, so I think I’ll take my leave, and find someplace to have lunch. Here’s your jacket back.”
“Oh, actually, I’m well overdue for my own lunch break. Would you like to go together maybe? My treat, as a thank you for the help and as an apology for the slippery path.”
“Really?”
“Yup.”
“Who will look after the store while we’re gone?”
“It’s commonplace to close your shops for a half hour or so for lunch here.”
“Alright, well, I’ll trust you to pick the place.”
“So, it’s a bit of a walk from here, bit of a walk meaning a little over 5 minutes, but we can go to a place owned by a good friend of mine.”
.
Well, he was quite surprised when they rounded a corner and approached Buddeh Coffee.
“Oh! I’ve been here before!” Bdubs says.
“You have? You said you were from out of town right?”
“This is where I stopped to get a bite to eat when I was on the road, and it’s also where my car blew up.”
“Well umm, in that case, is this place fine?”
“Course it is, Skizz was very nice.”
Little jingle bells ring as they open the door, and Skizz immediately lights up when he noticed Etho’s presence.
“Buddy!! Welcome back Etho! And with you is… ah! You again! Welcome back man, do you know Etho?” Skizz says.
“We just met. Quite a story actually.” Bdubs says.
“Well then, here’s to new friends! How’s the stay going?”
“It’s bearable.”
“Just bearable! I’m insulted!” Skizz gasps dramatically and laughs. “What can I get you today?”
“I‘ll have,” Etho thinks for a second, “my usual sandwich. I’m paying for everything, by the way, Bdubs gave me some help with the shop today so I need to repay him somehow.”
“So your name is Bdubs. I’m Skizzleman, though you probably already read my name tag. You can just call me Skizz. What would you like to order?”
“I’ll have, hmmmm, what do you recommend Etho?”
“Well, I like my usual sandwich, of course. What would you say, Skizz?”
“If you are looking for something filling for lunch, the smoked beef sandwich with the bacon and tomatoes is my specialty.”
“Surprise me.” Bdubs requests.
Honestly, the rest of the day was a blur to him. He had a great time meeting Etho and hanging out with him that day, and when he settled back down in his hotel room for the night, he realized he forgot to give the jacket back.
Looks like he has an excuse to come visit him again! To return to that garden shop and see his face, well half of his face since he was wearing a mask that whole time, and to talk to him again and…
Bdubs has a realization.
Is this some sort of love at first sight scenario? Did he just casually develop a crush on this guy?
That’s quite a thought, Bdubs will think about it in the morning.