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It was a cold, beautiful day in Smiling valley, and every inch of the valley was covered in sparkling snow.
All the critters were hanging out around the frozen lake in stardew park, and Catnap was sitting on the bench by the lake, looking around and watching all his friends do different things.
Bubba was sitting and reading, Bobby was making snow angels, Hoppy and Kickin were having a snowball fight, Picky was sticking out her tongue and trying to catch snowflakes, and Craftycorn was ice skating.
Catnap mostly watched Crafty, who was figure skating.
Just like a flower petal or a split falling leaf, she’d be gliding on the ice, then suddenly, she’d jump and twirl a few times in mid air, and land right back on the ice, graceful and elegant as a snow flower.
Catnap quietly sighs, sadly.
She was a lot better than him…
“Hey Catnap!”
A voice says, from beside him.
Catnap looks beside him to see it was Dogday.
‘Oh hi.’ He signs with a small smile. ‘What’s up sunshine?’
Dogday sits beside him. “I noticed you sitting all alone and, looking kinda sad.” he says softly. “Are you doing okay?”
Catnap nods. ‘Oh yeah, I'm doing fine!’ he signs. ‘Just wanted to sit and watch the others.’
“Oh okay!” Dogday says with a smile. “In that case…”
He scoots closer.
“Wanna go ice skating with me?”
Catnap nervously looks away, shaking his head.
Dogday frowns. “Why not?”
Catnap sighs, scooting away on the bench.
‘I… I Can’t skate…’
He shamefully signs. ‘Whenever I try to, I land right on my face.’
He looks away. ‘You should go skate with her instead…’
He points to Crafty, who was still figure skating like a professional.
‘She’s a lot better than I am.’
Dogday laughs.
“You think I’M as good as her?” he says. “I can barely jump without flubbing the landing.”
He scoots closer. “Besides…” He says, taking Catnaps paw gently.
“I wanna spend the day with you!”
Catnap blushes. “R-really…?”
Dogday nods. “Yeah!”
He gets up, going to get his skates. “Come on!” He says. “I’ll help you!”
Catnap was nervous but got up, nodding. “O-okay..”
After bringing their skates and putting them on, Dogday takes Catnaps hands, gently guiding him onto the ice.
Catnap already gets nervous, his feet shaking a little.
“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Dogday reassures him. “Just don’t let go of my hands.”
Catnap nods, squeezing them and looking down at his skates..
Dogday starts to slowly maneuver them around, spinning them in a circle.
“That’s it, you’re doing great!” Dogday says, Catnap trying his best not to lose his balance.
Catnap smiles and looks up at him. “R-really?”
Dogday nods. “Yeah!
He smiles a bit. “Okay, wanna try just one hand?” He says.
Catnap gulps, nodding. “O-okay….”
Dogday lets go of Catnap’s left hand, still holding his right one.
He leads him slowly across the ice, smiling softly. “You’re doing great!” He says. “Just make sure to keep your balance.
Catnap nods, skating along with him as they slowly glide across the pond, gradually speeding up.
Eventually, Catnap felt a lot better.
“O-okay, I think I can balance on my own now.”
He whispers.
“Alright, if you say so.”
Dogday says. “I’m gonna let go now.”
Catnap nods as Dogday lets go, maintaining his balance on his own.
He skates around the pond at a medium speed for a little bit, practicing balancing and maintaining an even rhythm. Left, right, left, right.
It actually felt really nice, skating faster than slow but not super fast, and doing simple twirls every so often.
He felt like a little snowflake.
Then, he decided to try spinning three times in a row .
He starts the first spin, gliding around happily and getting a bit dizzy as he finishes the final spin, and continues to glide along the ice.
He felt good that he hadn’t messed it up, but then he heard someone say “Wow!”
He looked over to see that the others were all looking at him in awe, clearly not knowing he could skate.
When Catnap notices the others staring at him, he loses his balance, shaking and wobbling, trying to skate away from them until he regains his posture. But as he did that, he suddenly realized he was going too fast and was heading right for the snowbank.
.
So he tried to put one foot down to stop…
But didn’t notice he’d accidentally gone to the thinner iced part of the lake.
*Crack*
His spine goes cold, looking down to see that, yep, his skate was embedded in the ice, which had a large crack in it.
“Catnap!”
He heard Dogday call, looking up.
Dogday looked worried. “D-Don’t move, I'll come get you!” He says as he slowly starts to skate over.
Catnap panics, and tries to shake his head and hands, but in doing so, accidentally moves his foot enough to lengthen the crack so much…
That the ice broke.
*SPLASH*
“CATNAP!”
Catnap felt numb as he fell into the frigid water, trying to hold his breath.
At this point, he didn’t know whether he was shaking more from cold or fear.
Thankfully, he was quickly fished out by Dogday, who dragged him over to the nearby snowbank.
Catnap breathes deeply, lying down in the snow.
“That’s it… deep breaths… deep breaths…”
Dogday says, gently holding him.
When Catnap opened his eyes, he could see Dogday had him, and they were surrounded by the worried faces of the rest of the critter crew.
Catnap felt so sad and embarrassed that he started to cry, hugging Dogday softly.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay…” Dogday said, holding him close. “You’re okay and you’re breathing. Calm down.”
Catnap continued to cry, burying his face in Dogday’s shoulder.
Dogday gently nuzzles Catnap’s head.
“Hey, how about we go to my house and have some cider to warm up?”
Catnap manages to nod before being gently scooped up bridal style by Dogday, who quickly carries him off to his house.
Catnap kept his eyes shut, so he didn’t see the ashamed faces of the others.
~Snowy transition~
After being dried off with some towels, Catnap was sitting on Dogday’s sofa, wrapped up in a fluffy orange blanket and sitting in front of the tv, watching some christmas movie while he waited for Dogday.
‘I’m such an idiot…’ he thinks to himself.
Then, Dogday walks over, carrying two mugs.
“Cider’s ready!” He says with a smile, handing one to Catnap.
Catnap gives him a small smile, accepting it. “Thanks.” He whispers.
Dogday smiles, sitting down next to him.
“No problem!” He says softly. “Are you feeling better?”
Catnap gives a small nod. “I think I've thawed out now.”
Dogday giggles. “Good.”
They both sat in a comfy silence for a while, drinking their cider.
“Um…Dogday…?”
Catnap breaks the silence, getting Dogday’s attention.
“Yea?”
Catnap sighs, looking over to him.
“Thank you for saving me…” He says. “If you hadn’t been there… I might have froze to death…”
He sighs. “All because I'm a terrible ice-skater…”
Dogday gently puts an arm around him. “No you’re not…” He says.
Catnap sniffles, his eyes starting to tear up.
“Yes I am…” He says. “I didn’t even notice the ice was thin because I tried to do that stupid trick…”
He cries a little.
“I-i’ll never be as good as Crafty…” He says, wiping his tears. “I don’t understand why you wanted to skate with me and not her…”
Dogday gently nuzzles his cheek. “Catnap…” he says. “It’s like I told you, I want to spend time with you.”
Catnap looks at him.
Dogday smiles. “If I wanted to spend time with Crafty, then i'dve asked her to skate, but I didn’t.”
Catnap smiles a bit.
Dogday scoots closer. “It doesn’t matter if we went ice skating, or played in the snow, or whatever.” He said. “Whatever it was, i’dve wanted to do it with you, because I love spending time with you.”
Catnap hugs him gently.
“Oh Dogday…” he whispers. “I love spending time with you too…”
Dogday hugs back. “Aww, Catnap.”
Catnap then gets a risky idea, blushing a bit.
“H-hey Dogday…?”
Dogday pulls back. “Hmm?”
Catnap takes a deep breath.
“I-I'm sorry.”
“For wha- MPH?!”
Catnap pulls Dogday in again, giving him a warm kiss on the lips.
‘whatamIdoingwhatamIdoingWHATAMIDOING-’
He thinks while enjoying the feeling of his lips on his sunshine's.
After a few moments, Dogday kisses back, holding Catnap close.
Catnap was confused, but continued to enjoy the beautiful moment.
Eventually, he pulls back, looking Dogday in the eye.
Dogday’s eyes were sparkling.
Catnap looks down.
“Sorry…” he whispers. “I-it was just a heat of the moment thing… my impulses were just screaming at me…”
Dogday giggles. “It’s okay, kitty.”
He says, kissing Catnap on the head. “I enjoyed it.”
Catnap’s eyes widened. “Y-you did…?”
Dogday nods. “Yeah!”
He says.
“I really like you, Naps.”
Catnap hugs him, burying his face in his chest.
“I really like you too…”
Dogday kisses his head again. “I know you do, Moonlight.”
Catnap purrs happily.
“Oh Dogday…” He says.
“You melt my heart.”