Work Text:
The streets were blurs of white snow, purple-grey slush, and black asphalt. With each blink, the setting sun glinting on the snow slashed across Kris’s vision. The glimmers slanted right, then left, prodded by the clumps of tears in their eyelashes.
They sniffled and wiped a numb, red hand under their nose. The dry skin of their knuckles scratched at their upper lip, so they pulled their sleeves down over their thumbs to wipe their eyes.
For a moment, they could see the street clearly. The fresh snow should really be beautiful. White blankets on laws, delicate rows of snow on the power lines. Barren trees dusted along thin branches, and the pines wearing clumps of it. Roofs and cars and street signs all stacked with snow, glittering in the low sunlight, casting long, purple shadows.
And Kris walked in the street, sneakers soaked from salt-melted slush.
They blinked, and the wet film blurred the street again. Their eyes burned, but their chest bore the brunt of the pain. It felt like a twisting knife. It felt like death. They wished they would die, if only to stop feeling this pain.
Doors slammed and muffled shouting, snide comments and snapped insults, horrible distance and icy stares. All of it, their fault.
And what were they doing? Out walking circles in the cold hoping to catch hypothermia? Crying like a pathetic little baby? Selfishly trying to make themselves the victim, when clearly they were the source of the problem?
Fresh tears streaked down their frozen cheeks. The world became blurred lines of color again, jumping and tilting with each blink. White and purple and black.
And blue?
“Kris? This is the third time you’ve come down this very street,” Berdly said as he approached. Kris immediately turned around, trying to keep him from seeing their face. “I can only assume you’re casing my house for a robbery, so I must inform you, any such attempt will be swiftly intercepted—by none other than moi, of course."
Kris opened their mouth, but their teeth chattered together, and they couldn’t form a word.
“Kris?” Berdly stepped closer. His talons pressed softly into the fresh snow.
“Ahem. Earth to Kris?” He stepped around them, trying to see their face, and they whirled around again.
“I’m not trying to rob you!” they spat.
“Heh. Of course not. That was merely bait with which to incense you to rage, as they say,” Berdly snickered, and for a moment Kris’s thoughts melted to make room for the absurdity of his words.
“What? No one says that,” Kris said.
“Exactly,” Berdly said.
“What? You—ugh!” Kris rolled their eyes and pretended to punch Berdly in the shoulder. He chuckled, then tilted his head down slightly to get a better look at their eyes.
Kris tensed up, immediately turning around again.
“Kris? Um. May I ask how long you’ve been out here?” Berdly said. “I believe the first time I saw you pass my humble abode was more than an hour ago, and given the current temperature—which, as I’m sure you know—is dropping, I think it may be unadvisable for you to stay out much longer. Especially since you lack certain weather protection apparel.”
Kris consciously brought their hands together, trying to cover their red knuckles with their equally freezing fingers.
“I’m fine,” they said. “I don’t… wanna go home.”
“Hm, I see.” Berdly’s feet shifted side to side in the snow. He wasn’t wearing any shoes. Kris wasn’t actually sure he owned any.
“In that case, you could spend the night at mine?”
“Huh?” Kris glanced up at him in surprise, and saw a nervous glint in his eyes. The expression was almost bashful.
“Well, it’s going to get dark soon, and it will only get colder.. and it’s not like it will be a problem! My mom’s out on a business trip, so…” Berdly waved his wings around, trying to explain his justification.
Kris sniffled, staring down the setting sun at the end of the street. Their tears abated enough that they could see the snow tinting golden and the purple shadows lengthening. They became aware of the burn in their cheeks and hands again, the numb bite of real cold suddenly more concerning than the frozen hatred in their home.
“Mn. Alright,” they said.
“Huh? Really?” Berdly squawked.
Kris shrugged and nodded, and Berdly stumbled over his words as he adjusted his glasses.
“Um, well, very well then! Follow my lead, I suppose.” He trampled back across the snow up to his door. The driveway wasn’t shoveled, nor was there a car in it. He’d mostly kicked the snow off the front steps, but the only path was the thin depressions of his footprints.
He opened the door and ushered Kris inside. They kicked the slush off their shoes on the doormat, then slid them off and found their socks wet and squelching on the hardwood floor.
“Uh. That’s not good for your feet, right?” Berdly said.
“Hm?”
“For no particular reason, I recently studied some literature on human biology in relation to freezing temperatures, and it’s quite important to protect the extremeties—as in, the fingers and toes—because they’re they first to fall victim to the ravages of hypothermia!”
Kris hid a chuckle in their tightly closed mouth. He’d definitely just looked up this information right before confronting them.
“Unfortunetely, there are no socks in this house, as, well, I nor my mother have any use for them, but you are welcome to any of the blankets—”
“Do you have a bathtub?” Kris asked.
“Huh?”
“A bathtub. For a bath.”
“Oh! A warm bath! Yes, this is a common remedy for human hypothermia! I shall bring you to our water closet post-haste!”
Berdly’s feet slapped against the floor with excitement as he led them through the living room, up the stairs, and into the big bathroom between the two upstairs bedrooms. Kris had never been upstairs in his house before. They usually stayed in the living room when they came over, and so only used the downstairs half-bath. They’d seen the kitchen, for snacking reasons, but not Berdly’s bedroom, and not the bathroom where his toothbrush and other toiletries sat sprawled on the vanity.
Kris squinted at something labeled beak cream, but decided against investigating it in front of him.
“Please, allow me to warm the water for you.” Berdly kneeled beside the basin and turned the knob on the faucet. Water rushed from its open mouth, pouring directly down into the unstopped drain. Rather than putting a wing under it, Berdly periodically stuck his beak into the flow and seemed to gauge the temperature by drinking a bit of the water.
“There, that should be good…” he mumbled to himself, and pushed the plug into the drain. He stood triumphantly and gestured to the slowly filling tub.
“All yours!”
“Mn. Thanks.”
Berdly hurried from the room, carefully shutting the door behind himself.
Kris hesitated a moment, standing in front of the tub as it filled with steaming water. They felt numb all over, especially in their fingers and toes, but their cheeks felt warm. They slapped their hands over their face, trying to equalize the temperatures. A shiver ran down their spine.
Suddenly, their hands were wet. They gasped and pressed their hands into their eyes, trying to staunch the flow of tears. It was different this time. The tears were different. Their teeth chattered together and their limbs trembled. A bloom of a strange, new pain unfurled in their chest.
They didn’t want to think about it. They wiped their eyes, stopped the tap to keep the tub from overflowing, and shucked off their clothes.
Their skin burned, plunging into the warm water. The difference in temperature made them really feel how cold they’d been. They clenched their teeth against the pain until it subsided, then they sank down and leaned back against the back of the tub.
They stayed in the water until it no longer felt warm, then they climbed out, shivering, and wrapped themselves in a towel.
Soon after, there was a knock on the door.
“Everything, ahem, alright in there, Kris?” Berdly asked from the other side.
“Mn.”
“What was that?”
Kris sighed and opened the door.
“Ah! Kris you—you’re not dressed!” Berdly covered his face and turned around. His feathers all poofed up, and his tail flicked behind him, agitated. Kris chuckled.
“So? I’m completely covered.”
“It isn’t right! I shouldn’t see you like this!” Berdly shook his head. “It’s immodest!”
“You’re weird,” Kris kicked the back of his leg, and Berdly yelped, jumping away. Kris closed the door again, but kept it open a crack this time.
“There. Can you hear me now?” they asked.
“U-uh… yes! Yes, that’s better.” There was some shuffling, and Berdly cleared his throat. “Are your clothes dry? Or do you need to borrow some?”
“Oh. Uh…” Kris picked up their sweater and jeans. “My sweater’s fine. Pants are kinda wet around the ankles.”
“Ah. I only own shorts… but they’ll probably fit you?”
“That’s fine,” Kris said, then added, softer: “Thanks.”
“But of course! You shouldn’t have to wear soiled clothing! And, besides, we can’t have you getting the furniture dirty…” Berdly wandered off, then returned a moment later to slip a pair of his long gym shorts in through the cracked door. Kris took them and put them on, along with the rest of their clothes. The shorts were a little too big, and kept slowly slipping down, but they weren't falling off, so Kris decided it was fine.
When they came out of the bathroom, Berdly called them downstairs. The steps felt cold under their bare feet, so they walked tip-toed down into the living room.
“I have gathered blankets!” Berdly announced, gesturing to the couch. It looked like he’d piled every blanket in the house onto it, along with several pillows for good measure.
“So you have.”
“See, um, if you intend to stay, I propose we should make use of our time to hone our gaming skills, and this way we can hardcore game while also keeping you warm!” Berdly explained.
“I’d say you killed two birds with one stone, but that seems kind of morbid of you to do,” Kris said.
Berdly gave them an unamused look, and Kris grinned a little wider.
“For that, I’m not going to go easy on you,” Berdly said.
“Oh nooo, I’m sooo scared,” Kris said in monotone.
Berdly growled and picked up the blankets on the right side of the couch.
“Just get in!”
Kris giggled and plopped down on the cleared seat. He tossed the blankets back over them, and they tucked their feet up for maximum warmth and coziness. Berdly nestled into the other side of the couch, arranging his blankets and pillows just-so, then grabbed the controllers from the table and passed Kris’s theirs.
It wasn’t really theirs, of course. It was just the spare controller. Still, Kris wondered if anyone else ever used it. They knew Berdly and Noelle were friends, but they’d never heard of the two of them playing Super Smashing Fighters together, just studying or playing online games like Minecrap.
So maybe this really was Kris’s controller.
Something about that thought made their chest burn a little warmer. They snuggled down into the blankets until their hands only just barely poked out to hold the controller, and prepared to wipe the floor with Berdly in their first round.