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Embedded deep into his soft covers, Toya Aoyagi’s body felt delightfully cold on a freezing day.
He woke up groggily, feeling around the fabric until he realized something haunting— this wasn’t his bed— and he began to internally panic, jolting himself up from haziness. Toya looked around wildly—
And that’s when his shoulders eased. He saw Akito Shinonome sleeping by him, softly snoring with his hands beneath him. Right. He reassured himself, I had a sleepover at Akito’s place.
The memories from last night were foggy, and all he could remember was the frenzy of competitive card games and the overly sweet taste of artificial candy in his mouth before he most likely passed out in exhaustion— the couple bags of gummies on the floor and games sprawled out was true proof. Toya smiled weakly, slumping back into bed until he realized another thing—
It was snowing. A lot.
He slowly peeked out Akito’s window, and outside the whole entire world was blanketed in a generous amount of snow, freshly falling down amongst bare tree branches and making tiny icicles against Akito’s roof outside. His eyes sparkled. “Hey, Aki.” He turned over and began shaking him gently.
“Wh— what?…” Akito sleepily mumbled, ginger hair falling into his eyes. He snuggled his cheek more into his pillows.
“It’s snowing.”
“Snowing…?”
Akito sat up rather tiredly and clung onto Toya’s shoulder, and Toya jolted at the temperature differences between them— Akito’s palm was hot and as his boyfriend leaned his head into the crook of his neck, he basically radiated the sun. Akito peered outside and his eyes widened, “Damn. It’s coming down hard.”
“I wanna go outside,” Toya’s hand reached out for the window, and the glass was refreshingly cold, “Do you wanna come?”
“Ah… well,” Akito snuggled closer into his blanket, eyes squinting just a bit, “It’s just a bit too cold…”
“Oh. That’s fine, then.” Toya nodded, “I was just wondering if we could make snow angels and snowmen…”
“You didn’t mention that.” Akito sighed, wrapping an arm around him and shoving the sheets off, “Let’s go.”
“Thanks, Aki.”
They stumbled over their mess from last night and into the living room, where Ena seemed to be passed out— she was also exhausted from their night yesterday, except she didn’t make it in time to her bedroom before she just got knocked out. Akito snickered as he inched closer to the couch she was sleeping on and flicked her on the head, “You’ll get a cold if you sleep here,” He cooed.
Ena groaned, “Do— do you mind? You guys were already a pain last night… do not continue it. Actually— Toya— you’re fine.”
“Oh… thank you.” Toya blinked.
“We didn’t do anything!” Akito scoffed as he took his boyfriend’s hand and trudged to the bathroom, “You were the one who cheated during our card games.”
“As if you guys were even looking at your cards anyway!” Ena snapped, “You two were too busy flirting with each other because of the damn sugar.”
“Whatever…”
Akito exchanged a sorry glance to Toya as he approached the sink, “My bad, she can be a brute when she wakes up too early.”
Toya slid into the rest of the space in the bathroom, their shoulders almost brushing against each other as he laughed, “She was right, though.”
Akito rolled his eyes and as they got freshened up, they both hunted for some layers to put on before going outside. The ginger rummaged through his piles of clothes and lended Toya a quick coat. “Toya,” He called out as he watched his boyfriend slip the piece of clothing off and glance back curiously, “Why d’you wanna be outside so much?”
”Um—“ Toya’s face reddened, and he rubbed his hands gingerly, “It’s for no reason. I just found the snow calming.”
“Really?” Akito whistled as his gaze came back to his window, where he saw snowflakes fall into the mountains of snow piling up around his house, “It gets too cold for me. But it’s nice that you like it. It suits you somehow.”
”Oh… is that so?”
Akito grinned and ruffled his hair, “Yeah. It does. Let’s head out and make a snowman!”
Toya nodded furiously in excitement and they ran out like kids bolting outside for the ice cream truck, with Ena yelling after them to “make sure they weren’t out for long”— and immediately Toya was blasted by that aggressive but also therapeutic wave of cold in the air, and he began to notice his breathing puff up in the air. He exhaled earnestly at the sight. Akito shut the door behind them and shivered noticeably.
“Ah, so cold…” Akito rubbed his arms as they traveled over to the open part of the ginger’s house, where the snow seemed to stretch out nicely. “Help me make the first part of the snowman.”
The two of them kneeled down, their layers of clothing protecting them from the icy snow as they continued forward to roll the base of the snowman into a large ball— Toya laughed lightly every single time Akito’s side of the snowball would begin to crumble, but not because it was breaking— because everytime he go frustrated, his eyebrows would furrow in a cute manner. Toya tried to rub his bashful smile off of his face as he said, “You need to pack it better, like this.”
Akito stopped in his tracks as Toya’s cold hands brushed over his extremely hot ones, taking his side and packing the snow together so it reformed back into one large lump. The ginger exhaled, “It might just be because you have cold hands. How are you so cold?”
“Not sure.” Toya shrugged as he retracted back to his side and continued to roll the snow.
”Well, you’re definitely not cold personality wise.”
“To you!”
They laughed together, and Toya dimly noticed the icy puffs coming out of their mouths.
Akito’s laugh was sweet.
Oh, how he loved this time of year.
After at least thirty minutes of getting the base done, Toya wheezed as they came to another stop. Akito took off his beanie and wildly shook his head, “Man. That was a lot of snow.”
“And we still have the last two pieces,” Toya said helplessly, “I won’t be able to haul it up onto the base.”
“It’s okay, cuz you have me.”
Toya stared up at his standing partner, who coincidentally, had the sun shining on the back of his head as he grinned a bright smile. All he could do was smile and fight back joyous tears as he mumbled, “Yes. It’s okay.”
As they rolled up the second and third snowballs for the snowman, Toya asked breathily, “Hey, do you have anything for his nose?”
“Hmm,” Akito pondered, not seeming tired at all from pushing pounds of snow around for almost an hour and a half, “Well I know people use carrots for the nose, but my mom used them for some food the other week. Um…”
He perked up, “How about daikon?”
”Any long vegetable would work.” Toya responded.
Akito huffed, “It would look better with a carrot, though…”
With a struggling grunt, both Toya and Akito hauled up the snowballs together to make the classic shape of a snowman. Toya panted and he too took off his beanie, exposing his blue hair. Akito glanced at him and gave him a tired grin, snickering and pointing at him, “Your hairs’ all messed up!”
”Yours is too, Aki…” Toya laughed, and he extended a hand out to fix his messy orange hair that contrasted hard against all of the white around them. For a moment, just a fleeting moment, all Toya could hear was Akito’s worn out breathing and the whistle of the freezing air as he came close. Slowly, his hand roamed to the back of Akito’s head— he tilted his gaze slightly and pressed his cold lips onto him.
The snow crumpled with the sound of rubber beneath them. Akito stepped back and held onto his waist gently, deepening the kiss, which was full of clashing temperatures. Akito pulled away with a slight gasp, face flushed. “I’m…” He breathed out, “I’m gonna go get the daikon.”
“O—oh. Yeah, of course…”
Akito’s boots were heavy as he quickly ran back into the house. Toya was left to have a conversation with their barely alive snowman.
Despite his boyfriend being gone physically, he could still feel the heat wrapped around his waist. He blushed and glanced at their snowman and stuck out a finger, going to its head and drawing out a smile. Toya buzzed happily and looked around for some sticks to make its arms.
He looked up at the bare tree above. Am I tall enough to reach for that one over there? Hmm…
“I got it!”
Toya turned and his eyes widened when he saw Akito running to him, leaving prints in the snow with three large daikon in his hands. The taller spluttered out, “Three? I thought we were just going to use it for the nose…!”
Akito shrugged, “Why not the arms?”
“I was gonna get those branches up there,” Toya pointed upwards to the bare tree. Akito pursed his lips.
“Can you reach that?”
”I’ll see…”
Akito stood next to him as Toya jumped to just barely touch the branch, and his face turned slightly crimson once again when he asked, “Could you try and launch me up?”
”Oh. Sure?” The ginger laughed, “You really want those branches. I’ll just put the two extra daikon away, then…”
His boyfriend went behind him and gently grabbed him by his waist, and Akito blurted, “You’re light.”
“Am I?” Toya smiled weakly, his system overridden by Akito’s overly warm hands on his sides.
“Okay, three, two, one…!”
Toya latched onto the branch and broke it off, almost tumbling back into Akito with a small laugh— he broke the branch into two and he beamed, eyes sparkling, “The arms will do just nicely.”
He took the branches and stabbed them into the snowman’s sides, creating the personification of arms. Akito placed the daikon into its head, creating the nose. Toya, after a bit of wandering, found a few stones hidden under a pile of snow in front of Akito’s house and used them as eyes. The two of them stared at their creation in amazement. It definitely wasn’t perfect, but that was what made it special. Akito hummed, “It’s missing something though.”
”Oh?” Toya glanced at him, “Like what?”
”Like, uh…” Akito looked around until his eyes finally settled beadily on Toya’s beanie on the ground. He took it off, dusted it and placed it on the snowman’s head. “Now it looks just like you. And it’s cold!”
Toya found himself unable to let down a grin that stretched from ear to ear, and too overcome by love he looped his arm around Akito’s and leaned into him. “Thanks.” He whispered over the cold.
Akito thoughtfully brushed some fallen snow off of his head, “For what?”
”Doing this with me.” Toya replied, further nuzzling himself into Akito’s head— the warmth was welcoming. He couldn’t seem to get enough of it. “It… was really nice of you.”
“So sappy,” Akito whispered as he turned his head and kissed him on the cheek. “You’re welcome, and honestly you make the cold way more bearable than usual.”
“Thank you…”
”Now, let’s go make snow angels!”
Toya laughed as he watched Akito land into the snow, spreading his body out in a motion to make wings. He laid in comfortably next to him, and the snow stung, but again, it was bearable, because they had each other.
It really was okay.
Toya loved this time of year.
After he made a snow angel, he laced his hand into Akito’s, and breathed in fresh air. “You’re so… warm, compared to me.” Toya whispered. “It gets even stronger when it gets cold.”
“It’s like I’m a portable heater.” Akito grinned up into the sky, “Why pay for bills when you have me?”
Toya squeezed his hand, turning over, careful not to destroy the wings he made for himself, and gazed into Akito’s rough but also generously pretty complexion, a few imperfections scattered across his face that Toya noticed every day, every hour, every time that they were together, that made Akito, Akito. In the snow, his hair and eyes seemed to poke out like needles in a haystack, like the sun after a cold run outside, like a ray of hope after war.
Toya reached over and cupped his cheek. It was warm. “You know,” He softly said, “One of the reasons I wanted to go outside despite the cold was because… I like your body temperature.”
Akito’s chest heaved into a laugh as he faced Toya and said cheekily, “What a strange compliment. Thanks.”
“I mean it!” Toya insisted. His hair fell onto the snow, “It’s so cold and you’re just here… like the sun.”
Akito’s teasing grin softened into a gentle smile, and he inched closer, taking the back of Toya’s head and knocking their foreheads together, “Well, just like the sun, I’ll always be here when it gets hard.”
They pressed their lips together, and the snow encased them like a giant snow globe. Toya’s freezing temperature began to melt and mix in with the warmth coming from Akito, and slowly but surely, he felt lightheaded. He pulled away with slight tears in his eyes and wiped them away with a chuckle, “You—you’re so sappy, Aki…”
”You did it first.” Akito pointed.
“Well, thats—!”
”You guys!”
Both of their heads shot up from the snow and saw Ena’s head peeking outside of the front door, “You guys have been outside for hours! Get inside! You’re gonna get a cold!”
”Give me five more minutes!” Akito yelled.
”This isn’t your bedroom! I won’t show mercy if you have a cough tomorrow!”
Ena went back inside. Toya blinked. ”It’s probably because I stole the daikon.” Akito muttered.
”I don’t think that’s it…”
Akito glanced at him eagerly, “Do you really wanna go back inside, though?”
Toya locked eyes with him and easily shook his head. “Not yet. I want to spend some more of the cold with you.”
And as they quietly held hands in the outlines of angels, Toya’s chest heaved peacefully, and he sunk himself into Akito’s warmth.