Chapter Text
Zedaph knew he was in trouble the moment he answered his front door to find a shivering Impulse.
“Oh, goodness me, Impulse! Get inside! You’re going to get frostbite out there!”
Impulse let verself be ushered into the house, teeth clattering and arms wrapped tightly around verself. Void, the strider hybrid hadn’t even bothered to put on a coat. “It’s snowing,” ve stated.
“Why yes, I can see that.” Zed closed the door and reached up to brush a few flakes from his friend’s hair. “Let’s get you somewhere warm.”
“What? No!” Impulse froze where ve stood. “We have to go play in it!”
Zedaph levelled ver with an unimpressed stare. “Are we really doing this again? Every year? You’d think it would lose its charm at some point. Besides, there’s already snow on the ground!”
“Yes, but that was all placed there as holiday decorations! This is the first time it’s snowed. You have to come out with me.”
Zedaph was about to say no, absolutely not, he liked having feeling in all his fingers and toes thank you very much , when another figure smashed in through the door.
“It’s snowing!” Tango practically screamed, throwing xemself onto Impulse.
Zed groaned. The blaze hybrid had not only not bothered with knocking, but was absolutely covered in snow, as if xe’d rolled in it on xyr way over. Xe had also not bothered to put on any weather-appropriate clothing, because apparently Zed was the sanest member of their friendship. It was admittedly a low bar. At least xyr dungeon-master robe provided some level of protection.
“You too, Tango? Really? You’ve already been doing an ice theme all season!”
Tango flung an arm around Zedaph’s shoulder, seemingly oblivious to the fact that xe was leaving a large puddle in the entryway. “It’s the first snow, Zed! It’s tradition! What, do you have something better to do than hang out with your two best buds in the whole wide world?”
He did his best to hide the smile tugging at his lips. “Maybe I do! I was going to sit down with some hot cocoa, watch a cozy movie, and brainstorm some Zedvancements.”
“Bor-ring~” Tango interjected.
“C’mon, pretty please, Zed?” Impulse implored.
Gosh, they were both giving him puppy-dog eyes. They knew he couldn’t resist their damned puppy-dog eyes.
“Fine.”
Both netherborns whooped and cheered. Tango immediately turned to run back out the door, before Zed caught xyr arm.
“Nuh uh uh, mister. Not until we get a proper coat on you.” Hopefully hats, mittens, and snow pants too, but Zed knew better than to get his hopes up.
“But Zed~” xe whined.
“Don’t ‘but Zed’ me. You two always go on about natural body heat or whatever, and then you complain about the cold the whole time. Well, not this year.” He grabbed Impulse’s arm as well and started to drag them both farther into his base. “This year, you’re both wearing proper snow-gear.”
Roughly fifteen minutes later, they were all bundled up (or, as much as the netherborns would tolerate). Zed had expected this to happen at some point, so he had gear for both of them. Impulse was in a giant yellow coat and matching boots, thick jeans, with mittens snuggled over ver hands and a beanie tucked over ver hair. Tango was in a similar coat and boots, but red. Xe’d resisted the idea of mittens and a hat but had conceded to thin gloves and earmuffs. Xe’d shot down the idea of putting a mitten on the tip of xyr tail. Zed was in more layers than either of them, because he actually valued not freezing to death.
The netherborns barreled into the backyard, with Zed following behind them at a slightly slower pace. Calling it a backyard might be generous; it was actually more of a testing ground for Zedvancements. It was where he had thrown every potion onto Cleo and himself, and where he and Pix had tested the leading pigs idea just weeks prior. The snow was falling heavily, with at least half a block already on the ground. It was thick and wet– perfect for playing in.
Zedaph sat down in a flurry and let out a content sigh as he watched his friends start to construct a snowman.
Having grown up in the Nether, Impulse and Tango’s first few months of Hermitcraft had been filled with constant fascination and befuddlement about the Overworld. Over time, they’d become accustomed to most of its features (day/night cycles, oceans, strange biomes, unfamiliar mobs, etc), but snow had never stopped feeling novel. Thus, every year during the first snow, they would drag Zedaph out to play with them in it. Why they were so insistent on incorporating him into this tradition, Zed truly had no idea, but it did warm his heart to be included in their somewhat bizarre ritual. The day usually ended with the group snuggling up together on the couch with mugs of steaming hot cocoa whilst they watched a movie or just chatted. It also sometimes ended with a slightly different outcome, one which Zed guessed they were heading towards if the fact that Tango had needed help zipping xyr coat was any indication.
As much as Zed might grumble about the tradition, he really did love seeing his friends have so much fun.
The weather eased a bit as time went on– shifting from a storm into small gusts. As the air cleared, Zed could get a better look at how the snowman was progressing.
He wandered over as Impulse did ver best to position stick arms and Tango stuck on two eyes made out of coal. “Looks phenomenal, you guys."
“Thank you!” Impulse chirped.
Tango didn’t respond, instead stopping what xe was doing and staring at Zed while xyr tail whipped out behind xem.
“...You good, mate?” Zed swore those icey blue eyes could bore into his soul even more than they could when they were red.
“Yeah.” A long pause. “I’m small now.”
Zed couldn’t help but laugh. He’d kind of expected that to happen, though he hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly nor for Tango to be so upfront about it. “That’s fine, Tangs. How old ya feelin’?”
“Eight-ish,” xe responded as xe resumed work on the snowman’s face.
“Thank you for letting me know.” Zed shifted his gaze to Impulse, who had gone oddly silent, fiddling with ver mittens. “You too?”
Impulse shook ver head, entirely unconvincingly.
“Impy.” Zed put a gloved hand on ver cheek. “You don’t have to fight it.”
“But you ‘ready gotsta take cares o' Tango,” ve slurred.
“I can take both of you, darling. You deserve to relax a little.” Ha, a little.
Impulse pouted for a moment, before nodding. Ve turned back to the snowman, motions slightly more clumsy than before.
Well, that was that, then. Simple enough.
It wasn’t long before Tango stepped back from their creation. “Done!” xe asserted.
It certainly wasn’t the best snowman ever made, but it wasn’t a bad one. Impulse had positioned the stick arms so that it looked like its hands were on its hips, and Tango had given it a wide smile. Tango had also sacrificed xyr earmuffs for the sake of accessorizing it, which Zed figured wasn’t worth fighting.
“Looks great, buddy.” He ruffled xyr hair. “You ready to head inside now?”
“What? No!” Tango looked at him as though he had suggested killing xyr firstborn child. “I wanna make a tunnel!”
“...A tunnel?”
“Yeah!” Tango grinned, before diving head-first into a nearby snowdrift.
“Tango! Oh, gosh.” The kid was already half-buried. “Just be careful, yeh?”
“‘Kay!”
Zedaph turned his attention to the other little. “And what about you, hun? You wanna help Tango with xyr tunnel?”
“Nuh-uh.” Ve fell back on ver butt. “Angels.”
“You wanna make snow angels?”
“Mhm.”
Zed was honestly surprised that Impulse was responding verbally at all at this point; regressed Impulse and words didn’t tend to sit well together. “Sounds like a great idea! You need any help?”
Impulse shook ver head and flopped onto ver back, spreading ver limbs like a starfish. Zedaph giggled.
The sheep hybrid relaxed for a little while, watching Impulse fill the lawn with snow angels and Tango push snow around in seemingly random ways. He snapped a few photos with his Comm when they weren’t paying attention to look at if he was feeling down. He tried not to let either kid out of his sight, apprehensive that they’d manage to wander off or get themselves in trouble. The snow had stopped, now, though, by the look of the clouds above them, it could start again at any time.
Tango sprung up, grinning widely. “Tunnel’s done!” Xe gestured for Zed to come over.
He approached, honestly curious to see what the blaze had constructed. Tango grabbed Zed’s hand and used the other to point at a hole in the snow. Xe then let go and dove into the hole, disappearing into it.
Xe was gone for a few seconds– long enough that Zed was about to assume xe got stuck– when xe popped out of a different hole a few blocks away.
“Tunnel!” xe proclaimed.
“Woah, that’s so cool, mate!” Zed knelt down to get a better look. Sure enough, xe had made a path that led through the snow. It looked as though it was barely big enough for Tango. Zed might be able to fit through, and Impulse definitely wouldn’t be able to. He rose back up to compliment the kid summore, only to find that already xe’d run off in the direction of xyr brother.
They weren’t actually brothers, but they had long since adopted that language when regressed. It made Zed’s heart swell every time.
“Impy!” Tango yelled as xe stumbled over. “You wanna have a snowball fight?”
“Okay!” Impulse clapped ver hands and started to rise from where ve’d been drawing pictures (read: random squiggles and shapes) in the snow with a stick. Ve looked at Zed, unease clear in ver features. “Okay?”
“Yeah, bub, you can throw snowballs. But Tango!” he called, making sure he had the little’s attention. “You need to be gentle. Impulse is quite a bit smaller than you at the moment.” Zedaph hadn’t actually gotten an age check from the strider, but it was pretty clear from ver behaviour that ve was beginning grammar school aged at the absolute most.
“Okay, Zed!” Tango yelled back, having already started to make a small pile of snowballs.
It went pleasantly for a while. The clouds had cleared, leaving a bright blue sky beaming down on them, though the air was still frigid enough for them to see their breaths. Tango kept xyr word and restrained xyr throws. Impulse’s aim was horrendous; Zed was pretty sure ve hadn’t hit Tango once. That didn’t matter, as long as ve was having fun. The problem was that they’d agreed to take turns throwing (to prevent Tango from overwhelming the younger) and Impulse was taking considerably longer to make balls– fingers clumsy and unaided by ver mittens. Zed could see Tango getting frustrated as xe waited. Zed wanted to jump in and help the smaller roll up snowballs, but he knew Impulse would think that was a sign that ve was doing poorly, and that’s not what Zed wanted.
There was one other way Zed could keep both parties happy.
Screw it, he was covered in snow anyway.
“Can I play too?” he asked, already rolling up a snowball.