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Lightbulb walked along the sidewalk, her pawsteps aiming for every crunchy leaf that had the misfortune of being in her path. They crunched and crinkled under each hop, with only a spare few disappointing ones making no sound at all. She hummed as she set about her important task, tail whipping around wildly in playfulness.
“Hey yo feather duster, you want in on this epic leaf crunchin’ action?” She chirped, turning fully around in a swift spin, paws raised up in the air.
“Feather duster” aka Fan was fiddling with his phone, not all too happy with being outside, but, alas, Lightbulb insisted he’d get some sun since that's apparently important or something. But Fan was at least content to spend this time with Lightbulb, even if outside was so bright. He looked up at Lightbulb, then back down to his phone, and repeated this a few times enraptured by his device. “Uh, yeah, just a minute Lightbulb, I just need to send this Disc-cord message quick. Someone said that ii season 2 episode 3 had bad sound mixing and I have to explain to them that Mephone used an app to put it together, so of course some simple free trial Meeple app isn’t going to have good sound mixing. Besides it’s better than some of Season 1’s sound mixing but of course nothing can compare to Season 1's plot.”
Ligtbulb listened, though only half getting all the information. She encouraged Fan’s interests in the show, even if it was pretty mundane to her at this point.
“Oh, by the way, according to the weather app it’s gonna be snowing soon. Hard to believe, huh?” Fan motioned to the sunny sky, only a few clouds here and there. “We’re expecting six inches of snow, and Test Tube’s weather calculations haven’t failed me yet.” He swiftly tucked his phone into his scarf. Though it was a flimsy set up, he didn’t really have pockets to put it, considering that due to his feathered arms he could only wear ponchos and capes. Which was fine, because he looked good in a cape. He hurried ahead to Lightbulb’s side, “So what’s the deal with the leaves?”
Lightbulb smiled, “We’re gotta crunch at least every leaf on this path, from here to Hotel OJ!” She emphasized her point with a swift jump, tail lashing, before landing on yet another autumn leaf, its defeat ringing with a satisfying crunch. Fan laughed, finding a few leaves nearby to step on.
They continued their quest to crush every leaf that dared get in their way, before soon drifting into conversation as they walked. They had hardly noticed that the sky had started to cloud up and the temperature starting to drop. That was until a big fluffy snowflake landed right on Lightbulb’s snout, quickly melting from her light amount of radiating heat.
“Woah hey, I think it started snowing!” Lightbulb chirped, causing Fan to look up and pay attention to the sky. He hummed, “Yeah I- guess we didn’t notice how cold it got.” He fluffed out his feathers, starting to feel the chill settling in.
“Don’t worry Fanster, I can keep you all warmed up!” Lightbulb cuddled up next to him and gave him a big hug, some of her static causing his longer feathers to puff up, but generally letting a warm feeling cover his body. Whether it was due to the light-kitty’s inherent warmth, or the motion of the hug itself was anyone’s best guess.
Fan giggled, pawing at her face playfully, “You’re gonna mess up all my feathers, I spent nearly an hour preening this morning!”
Lightbulb hummed, “Soooo you want me to let go?”
Fan huffed back, perhaps just a bit too quickly, “Well I mean, you don't have to, or anything.”
Lightbulb laughed, picking up Fan in her arms, “Come on goofball, let's get back to the Hotel so you don’t catch a cold.”
Fan pouted, “Hey hey hey, I happen to have a thick feathery coat to keep me warm and I’m not made of half metal unlike some objects.” He smirked, nuzzling closer to Lightbulb, “But I guess when you’re your own heat generator it’s a bit easier to stay warm.” Lightbulb nuzzled back affectionately.
At this point the snow was coming down in full thick flakes. Though not enough to cause a whiteout, there were still more coming down than what had to be comfortable for a paper object like Fan. In her ever swift thinking moments, Lightbulb easily carried him in her arms, making sure to cover him best she could with her coat to lessen the snow’s effects, and quickly made her way down the path.
Thankfully Hotel OJ wasn’t too far off (it wasn’t like they took walks too far away from the Hotel, lest they make their way into the neighboring town which always seemed to cause trouble for them), they had made their way swiftly over before the snow got especially bad. By the time they’d made it to the front door, the flakes had gotten large, leaving a thin blanket of snow that would only get thicker.
Lightbulb let Fan hop down out of her arms onto the tacky orange carpet. Fan shook himself out, fluffing up his feathers in order to dry them out a bit better. Lightbulb laughed a little, taking off her coat and additional warm clothing to then help Fan out of his own. She was careful as she removed the poncho off of Fan, aware that he was a tad bit more delicate in this soggy state. Her paws gently unzipped his tail warmer, and helped him out of the leg warmers.
“Do you want to head back to your room or mine?”
Fan hummed, “I’m fine with either, Paintbrush might be there but I’m sure you don’t mind.”
Lightbulb nudged Fan lightly with her tail towards the hallway after she had gathered up all their winter clothes, “I mean yeah I don’t mind, I love having Painty around, but I wanna focus on you today.”
Fan blushed lightly, covering his face with a paw in bashful denial, “Oh well, i-it’s alright, I don’t mind sharing you. Besides, you’ve only just moved in recently, I wouldn’t want to intrude into your space so soon.”
Lightbulb warped her tail around Fan and pulled him a bit closer, careful not to fold him up in her motion. “You know I don’t mind Fan-ster. Buuuut we can go to your room if you really wanna, you have the dvd sets of Inanimate Insanity Season 1 in there anyways.”
Fan smiled and nuzzled closer to her. “Sounds good to me.” He smiled softly into the crook of her neck.