Chapter Text
Kris was cold. They’d always been more of a summer person than a winter person, primarily because they didn’t seem to retain body heat all that well. Maybe that’s just a human thing, or maybe just them comparing their uninsulated skin with their heavily furred family members.
Either way, Kris always found themselves bundling up in warm clothes as much as they could unless it was summer, and even then they’d still often feel at least a little cold. Now, in the dead of winter, they were constantly wearing their warmest outfits whenever possible.
Unfortunately, wearing heavy clothing bothered them a lot when they tried to sleep. At home, they managed just fine by layering their bed with multiple heavy blankets, but today, they were sleeping over at Noelle’s house, using her large couch while she took the bed. Noelle had pulled out a couple of fluffy throw blankets for Kris, but those plus their light pajamas weren’t nearly enough to keep them at a comfortable temperature. The Holidays kept their home quite a bit cooler than the Dreemur residence. Noelle had explained a while ago that her family’s reindeer physiology was well adapted for the cold, and that they had to use their ice magic to cool down in warmer temperatures to stay comfortable.
So now Kris was cold. They did their best to tuck all of their limbs in and keep a warm pocket of air under the covers, but the cold still seeped through the blankets. They rubbed their hands together to try and generate some friction, but it seemed to have a negligible effect. They tried shifting to different positions, staying still, anything they could think of, and yet the unrelenting march of entropy continued to harass them.
“Kris? Are you ok?” Noelle asked in a sleepy voice. Damn, they thought she was already asleep. Did they wake her? They didn’t want to disturb her. Kris stuck their hand out of the relative warms of the covers into the frigid room, giving Noelle a shivering thumbs up.
Noelle made a concerned noise, voice now a little more alert. “Kris, you’re shaking. Please don’t lie to me. Is there something wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”
Kris was quick to shake their head no. They had an image to uphold, they couldn’t have Noelle thinking they were having something as lame as a nightmare. But she would just think they were lying again if they didn’t give some alternate explanation.
After a moment of silence, Kris decided to bite the bullet. “...cold.” Their teeth chattered a bit as they spoke.
“Oh! You should’ve said something sooner, I’ll pull out some more blankets for you.” She hopped out of bed and went to her closet, pulling it open and rummaging through it. The rummaging went on longer than Kris expected, and Noelle started muttering to herself after a bit.
Eventually, Kris saw Noelle slump and close the closet door. “Drat, I gave you the only two spare blankets I have in here. I guess I could go grab some from Dess’ room? But it’s really late, I don’t want to wake her up…” Kris glanced between Noelle and the big, fluffy, inviting bed she had vacated. Quietly, they got up off the couch, bringing their blankets with them, and crawled into the Noelle-shaped depression in the mattress, grabbing the bed’s blanket and bundling themselves up even further with it.
“Alright Kris, I’ll be riiiiight- Kris?” Noelle looked at the now empty couch in confusion, then glanced around the room, tensed and ready for one of Kris’ pranks. Her eyes eventually caught sight of their unruly hair sticking out of the top of her bed, and she grunted a bit in annoyance. “Kris! You can’t just evict me from my bed! And you even took the covers with you. Where am I supposed to sleep?”
Kris, turned over and blinked at Noelle sleepily. They thought for a moment, before sticking out their tongue and blowing a raspberry at Noelle, turning back over and facing away from her. Noelle growled. “Ok, that’s it!”
Noelle walked back to the bed and, with a small hop, jumped directly into the middle of her bed. Kris gave a quiet “oof” as the reindeer landed directly on them, but made no move to acknowledge her. Noelle lay there for a moment, hoping for a bit more of a reaction.
When it became clear that no such reaction was going to happen, she sighed and rolled off of them, laying near the edge of her bed. “Ok, fine, I’m tired and I don’t want to wake Dess, so you can sleep here. Budge over so I can have some room.” She started prodding at Kris, pushing them to give her more room. Surprisingly, they complied, rolling so that their back was against the wall and giving Noelle about half the bed. Even more surprisingly, when she tugged at her bed’s original blanket that was still wrapped around Kris, they let her peel some of it away to wrap herself up in. She was sure they were going to continue being a little gremlin. I guess they’re just as tired as I am.
Well, perhaps she gave them a little too much credit. As soon as she was settled, Kris rolled right back to where they were, flopping half on top of her. She let out a surprised grunt and tried to push them back. “Hey, quit it! You’ve got your half of the bed, you don’t get mine too!”
Kris replied with a mumbled “payback” and remained in place, pinning Noelle in place with their body weight. She struggled halfheartedly for a couple moments before pausing. Kris was still shivering. Are they just trying to warm up?
“If you needed help warming back up, you didn’t have to be a jerk about it,” Noelle said. She wormed her hands into Kris’ two-blanket cocoon and grabbed their hands, rubbing them gently between her fingers. They were frigid. Not cold enough that it was dangerous, but definitely uncomfortable for them. Kris pulled a little closer and nestled their face in the crook of Noelle’s neck. Their extremities felt icy through her fluffy fur.
Suddenly, Kris pulled their hands free from Noelle’s gentle grasp and wrapped them around her waist, slipping under her night shirt and burying in the thick fur on her back. She yelped at their cold touch, before giggling. She wrapped arm around their back and pulled them tight to her. The other went up to their hair, carding through it gently. “You can’t just ask for help the normal way? You gotta be weird about it, huh.”
They nodded, blowing air into her fur with a silent chuckle. “...asking’s uncool,” they muttered. Noelle rolled her eyes with a smile. “I thought the whole point of warming up was to be uncool, fahaha.” The two fell silent, Noelle feeling Kris’ rhythmic breathing in her fur, Kris luxuriating in the warmth rapidly seeping into them.
The two jolted awake when the bedroom door slammed open. “Rise and shine, kiddos! We don’t wanna be late to…” Dess trailed off, eyes widening as she spotted Kris and Noelle tangled together in Noelle’s bed. Noelle frowned at Dess sleepily until she noticed Kris still cuddled up to her. She let out a tiny “eep!” and her nose began to glow crimson. Kris, on the other hand, simply flipped Dess off and burrowed their face back into Noelle’s shoulder.
Dess’s face morphed into a wicked grin, and she stepped back through the doorway, grabbing the doorknob on the way. “Oh, sorry for barging in lovebirds! I’ll let you two make yourselves presentable!” Noelle cried out “Dess, it’s not like that! They--” before the rest of her plea was muffled by the closed door. Dess cackled as she returned to her room.
“--were cold…” Noelle’s explanation went unheard. She let out a groan and slumped back into her bed. Kris grinned into her fur and prodded Noelle in the stomach, making her twitch. “...they’re not gonna believe you.”
Noelle poked right back at them. “Yeah, well who’s gonna warm you up next time if they make us sleep in different rooms from now on, huh?” That wiped the grin off Kris’ face. They levered themself up so that they were eye level with Noelle, pinning her with their most serious gaze through the curtain of their bangs.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize how dire the situation was. We must convince them of the truth no matter the cost,” they delivered with all the gravitas a half-asleep teenager could muster. Noelle burst out into giggles.