Chapter Text
Skye knew the way to Jake’s cabin like the back of her paw. She trotted along the path underneath the early afternoon sky, with her two best friends Chase and Marshall following close behind. Jake was away doing errands today, so the three pups thought it would be nice to give Everest some company. It was Marshall’s idea, and Chase would go wherever Marshall went. Skye asked to join too, perhaps a bit too excitedly.
It was pretty much an open secret at this point that Skye had a thing for Everest. All the other pups managed to easily catch on just based on how she acted, besides Marshall and Rubble. However, Skye had a suspicion Chase may have spilled the secret to Marshall as well. While it embarrassed her, Skye was thankful none of the pups ever said anything about it. It wasn’t like her liking another girl was taboo in the PAW Patrol, as she wasn’t even the only gay pup there.
Chase and Marshall had been dating for a couple months now, and were practically obsessed with each other. Even now, Skye could hear them whispering and giggling at each other from behind her as they walked. For the most part, Skye and the other pups were happy for the two of them. Since they had gotten together, they looked so happy all the time, and everyone found them really cute together.
On the other hand, those pups were basically the kings of PDA. They were always nuzzling or licking each other’s fur or kissing each other. It made Skye feel like the biggest third wheel every time the three of them hung out with each other. Even now, as they walked up the mountain, Skye practically forced herself into Chase and Marshall’s conversation.
“So, what do you guys want to do with Everest when we arrive?” Skye asked.
Skye saw the two pups pause and think for a minute before Marshall said, “Well, we could play tag! Or maybe hide and seek!”
“Chase is too good at seeking,” Skye said with a laugh. “He’d find you instantly.”
This caused the other pups to laugh as well before continuing to exchange ideas as they walked.
“What do you want to do, Skye?” Chase asked. “You seemed pretty enthusiastic about going.”
“Well…” Skye began to speak. “I… I don’t really know. I liked the idea of playing tag.”
“You just wanted to see Everest, didn’t you,” Chase said, changing his tone with a small smirk.
“I… uhh…” Skye struggled for words and started to blush beneath her fur.
“It’s fine if you like her,” Chase said, quickly trying to change the tone of the conversation after noticing her discomfort. Despite being the secondary leader, he wasn’t always the best at social skills, but Marshall has been helping with that. “It’s not like me and Marshall would judge you; that would make us the biggest hypocrites on the planet.”
“Thanks,” Skye responded sarcastically. “What I really need is her opinion. For all I know, she could be the straightest pup in Adventure bay!”
“Well… maybe you should just confess to her,” Marshall responded. “You never know.”
“Do you two remember how hard it was to get you two to confess?” Skye said, rolling her eyes. “Well, maybe I should ask her… just… not today!”
Skye trotted off ahead of the group, desperately wanting to end this conversation. Despite how much she liked the other pup, now was not the time. They were just there to play and have fun. The three pups were silent for the rest of the walk.
When they arrived at the cabin, they saw Everest sitting at the front waiting for them. She smiled when she saw them and instantly walked over to her new companions.
“Hey guys!” Everest said, happily wagging her tail.
“Hi Everest!” Marshall responded first, being the most social out of the three pups, especially because he always got along with Everest well.
“It’s good to see you!” Chase continued.
“Good to see you guys too,” Everest responded to the two boys. “Thanks for coming. It gets pretty lonely up here in the mountains sometimes, especially when Jake isn’t here.”
Skye smiled but didn’t say anything at first. She couldn’t stop looking at how her blue eyes matched her fur, and how pretty her little freckles were. She only allowed herself to look at her for a moment before shifting her eyes away, for fear of being caught staring.
“Hi Everest,” she finally managed to say.
“Hi Skye!” Everest said, still enthusiastic, but Skye could tell she could sense there was something wrong.
“So, what should we do first?” Marshall asked, eager to play and oblivious to the awkwardness Skye had caused.
The four pups thought for a moment, before Everest offered, “What if we went snowboarding? There’s plenty of spare snowboards in the cabin.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea!” Chase responded, while Marshall and Skye quickly nodded their heads.
As Chase and Marshall headed inside the cabin at the snowboarding resort to fetch their snowboards, Everest instead pulled Skye aside.
“You doing okay Skye?” Everest asked, only mildly concerned. “You haven’t talked that much, and I know that’s not really like you.”
In that moment, Skye was thankful she was an animal with fur, or else Everest would have seen how red her cheeks were getting. It was partially embarrassment for getting caught acting weird, and partially excitement at how Everest was able to notice things like that about her. It made her heart flutter a little just thinking about it.
“What? Oh yeah, I’m fine,” Skye played it off. “Let’s go snowboarding.”
Everest gave her a suspicious glance, but thankfully let it go. Skye followed her into the cabin, where they just barely caught Chase and Marshall in the act of kissing before they swiftly broke apart.
“We leave you two alone for two seconds and you’re already showing each other your affection, huh,” Everest teased with a laugh.
“Well, I uh…” Marshall failed to defend himself, clearly embarrassed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Everest interrupted before picking out a snowboard to ride. The other pups followed suit and followed her back out of the cabin, carrying their respective snowboards in their mouths.
They set up their snowboards at the top of the hill and climbed on them. Skye obviously wasn't scared of heights, but she forgot how scary the slope could be, yet it also looked thrilling. Then, they began to use their paws to push their snowboards, sending themselves towards the incline.
Chase was the first to start sliding down, quickly followed by Marshall. Skye quickly slid down after, with Everest to her side. She started off focused, attention on any rocks or trees in the way. She saw Everest pass her, and couldn’t help but take just one glance.
Maybe two.
Skye was in awe by how easily the other pup was able to swerve around any obstacle in her path as she quickly passed her. It felt impossible for her to look away. Skye felt her heart beat fast for the other girl, and wondered if this was what being in love with someone felt like. The other pup was way up in the mountains, so she couldn’t see her like Chase and Marshall were always able to see each other. As such, Skye got to see just how pretty Everest was much more rarely, but absence only made her heart grow fonder, as they say.
Unfortunately, Skye was so focused on the other pup that she didn't watch where she was going, and her snowboard slid onto a rock shaped like a ramp. She was launched into the air and separated from her snowboard just before she crashed into the snow at the bottom.
While no serious damage was done to her, Skye could feel the pain from the impact; however, the pain was the least of her worries. She silently cursed herself for not looking where she was going. She was the aviator pup, watching out for things and paying attention was her job, it was supposed to be the thing she was good at, and all it took was one pretty girl for all of that to go out of the window.
“Skye, are you okay!?” Everest asked, standing over her. Skye could see Chase and Marshall from behind her looking concerned as well.
“Yes, I'm… I'm fine,” Skye reassured them as she got up to her feet. “I'm not hurt.”
“Do you need to go inside?” Marshall asked, ready to use his EMT knowledge if necessary.
“No really, I'm fine,” Skye insisted. “I'm not hurt… just a little embarrassed, that's all.”
“Don't be,” Everest said with a warm smile. She turned her attention to Chase and Marshall. “You two can take the ski lift back up for another round if you want. We'll catch up.”
Chase and Marshall obliged, and headed towards the ski lift. “Do you want to go for another round, or are you done?” Everest asked.
“I want to try again,” Skye responded. She knew she wasn't a quitter, and would do it perfectly this time if she could just focus.
Everest nodded, and she stuck out her paw for Skye to grab. Skye took it and was helped up on her feet. After standing up, Everest led her to the ski lift and onto a seat. Skye tried to not fixate on the pup sitting next to her again, and decided to look everywhere that was not her. She looked at the trees surrounding her, the clouds starting to appear in the sky, and Chase and Marshall sitting a few seats in front of them. They were talking and giggling as usual, in their own little world once again.
“Are they always like that?” Everest asked, clearly having noticed too.
“Yeah,” Skye said with a snort, too caught up with the other two lovebirds to worry about her own feelings. “It’s really sweet, but— they just…”
“Make you feel like a third wheel?” Everest asked, and Skye nodded. “Yeah, I get that. There might be jealousy involved too, huh? At least there is for me…”
“Huh?” Skye asked, confused about that last part.
“Well, it can be kinda lonely up here. I love Jake, and all the people and pups that I visit or visit me, but it’s just not the same. Do you get what I mean?”
Skye smiled solemnly in understanding and slowly nodded her head. “Yeah, sometimes I feel like I’m ignored when I’m just with the two of them, even though I know they don’t ignore me on purpose. It just makes me feel… small.”
It was Everest's turn to nod in understanding, before they reached the top of the hill and had to jump out. “Do you want to go for another round?” Everest asked the group.
The other pups nodded their heads quickly, especially Skye, who was determined to do better this time. She got on her snowboard and took a deep breath before sliding back down the mountain. She swerved around trees and rocks, too focused to wonder why they were sliding on a hill full of obstacles in the first place. She saw Everest beside her, still able to catch up to her, but she didn’t dare let herself get distracted again. She stayed focused on dodging everything in her way until she was near the bottom of the hill, and saw that rock again. Instead of avoiding it, she decided to embrace the jump this time and aimed straight for it.
Making sure to stay steady on the snowboard, she let the rock launch her into the air and then safely back onto the ground upright. She could hear the sounds of the other pups cheering for her and gave them a warm smile before getting off her snowboard. She was about to say something, but a cold feeling on her nose distracted her. She crossed her eyes inwards to see that a snowflake had fallen on her nose. She began to notice other snowflakes falling from the sky as well, and began to realize it must have started snowing while she was snowboarding.
“It’s snowing!” Skye exclaimed. She and the other pups didn’t check the weather beforehand, so this came as a bit of a surprise.
The other pups smiled and admired the snow before heading back up on the ski lift. They all squeezed onto one seat and talked about how fun it was to snowboard.
“You did so good on your second round, Skye!” Everest commented warmly, with Chase and Marshall giving their agreements afterwards.
“Yeah, well— thank you everyone,” Skye said. “So… what next?”
The pups didn’t know, but were momentarily saved from answering by reaching the top of the ski lift again. After hopping off the lift, the four pups brought their snowboards into the cabin to put them away; afterwards, the pups headed back outside to play more.
“Let’s do something simple, like tag,” Chase suggested before pressing his paw onto Marshall. “You’re it!”
“That’s not fair!” Marshall cried in a fake-serious voice before running after him and the two girls who swiftly ran away.
Marshall tagged back his boyfriend first, who quickly went after Skye and Everest. Skye managed to weave out of the way, but not Everest, who was quickly tagged by the german shepherd. Everest then chased after Skye, presumably because she was the only one who hadn’t been tagged. Skye was able to run away for a while, but not long enough and was eventually tagged. After that, she tagged Marshall, who tagged Everest. As the game went on, it only got more chaotic, and none of the pups noticed that the snowfall was increasing more and more.
They didn’t notice more snow had fallen until they were tuckered out and lying underneath the overhanging roof of the cabin. The snow looked to be over a foot deep now.
“Maybe we should head back now,” Marshall suggested, being the most sensible one of the group. “We didn’t check the weather, and I didn’t know it would snow this much. The walk back will be a lot more difficult.”
Chase looked ready to agree with Marshall, but Skye noticed Everest trying to hide a sad expression. Skye felt sympathy for the other pup, this was one of the few times they had hung out together outside of being required for missions, and she wasn’t ready to end it anytime soon either.
“Come on, we can stay a little longer, please,” she said.
Everest nodded her head in agreement. Chase and Marshall shared a look, before eventually agreeing they could play just one more game; after that, they had to go home.
They settled on playing Capture the Flag; Chase and Marshall against Everest and Skye. They both had ten minutes to build a fortress out of snow to defend their flag. The first team to bring their flag to the other team’s fortress would win. If you were pinned down onto the ground, you were required to return to your fort afterward.
“You really think this will work, Everest?” Skye asked as she packed snow to create an outer wall around the flag in a circular formation. The flag was placed in the center of a big hole they just dug out, with a little wall around the rim.
“Totally,” Everest said. “This hole could be our battle arena. If Rubble were here, we could probably make something better, but this will do.”
Just as they were finishing up, Chase and Marshall concluded the time had been about ten minutes, and yelled that the game had started.
“Oh crap,” Skye said to Everest.. “I’ll go try to get their flag, you should stay here and defend the fort.”
“Got it Skye,” Everest replied, agreeing to her plan.
Skye got out of the fort and slowly crept through the fallen and falling snow. She knew her small size would stop her from defending well (and she hated that), but also figured that it could help her sneak into the other fort.
She could see Chase and Marshall heading over to her fort, and hoped Everest would be able to defend it. She snuck past them and got a look at their fort. It was a tower that looked to be five feet tall with the flag at the very top. Skye was impressed at what they managed to accomplish in that short amount of time.
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Everest could see Chase and Marshall approaching the fortress. She was worried about her ability to go against the two boys on her own, but that was what Skye wanted to do, and she would always trust Skye as a leader. She thought her leadership skills were better than Chase’s and maybe even Ryder’s, which were shown to her during their road trip adventures. It was one of the many qualities Everest admired about Skye.
Everest knew staying in the fort would be a bad idea, so she decided it would be better to strike first. She quietly snuck out of the fort, her fur almost blending in with the falling snow.
She pounced onto Marshall, who fell into the snow. Everest put her paw on his stomach, successfully pinning down the dalmatian. “You got me,” he exclaimed.
She then turned to the stronger german shepherd, who looked for a moment like he was planning on striking back. But instead, Chase decided to make a dash for the flag. Everest ran to stop him, but Chase had already grabbed the flag with his mouth.
Everest ran after the other pup, who was trying to climb out of the fort. Noticing this made Everest smile, as this was proof that her idea of creating a hole was working. She pounced on the other pup and flipped him over, but Chase put up more of a fight. He tried to paw Everest away, but eventually Everest managed to pin him down, forcing him to join Marshall in retreat.
Everest watched them leave proudly, and then grabbed the flag with her mouth and put it back in the center of their fort.
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Skye could see Marshall approaching the fortress, and Chase following behind. She felt proud of the other pup for how she was able to defend their flag against both of them. But she didn’t have time for that, she needed to make sure she wouldn’t get spotted; if she was, she knew the other pups could easily overpower her and force her to retreat. Seeing nowhere else to hid, she decided to hide behind the tower that was their fortress.
“Everest really kicked our asses, huh,” Skye overheard Marshall say to Chase. Despite not being able to see either of the pups, she could sense the eyeroll Chase gave to Marshall upon hearing him swear.
“You know, I haven’t seen Skye all game,” Chase said, choosing to change the topic. “I wonder where she is.”
“Huh— maybe I could go look out for her?” Marshall offered.
“Wait no,” Chase replied. “I think I smell her.”
This caused Skye’s breath to hitch. She knew she was going to be spotted quickly, and had to make the most of her time immediately. She turned to face the tower and began climbing up it. Luck was on her side, because the sound of her climbing was almost being drowned out by a sudden chilly wind which caused all the pups to shiver. Skye was too focused to worry about the implications of this, and continued to climb.
“Wait, there she is!” Marshall exclaimed, looking up at her just as she reached the top of the tower.
Skye climbed on top and grabbed the flag, thankful it could just barely support her weight. She used her mouth to grab their flag, and then leapt over Chase and Marshall. She ran as fast as she could, but could see the two pups—more specifically Chase— catching up to her. She could see her fortress getting closer and closer, but she could see Chase nearing on her, and she knew she wasn’t going to make it in time.
Suddenly, she saw Everest dashing towards her from the corner of her eye. No— she was dashing towards Chase. She crashed into his side, causing them both to fall in the snow. Skye continued to run and eventually made it to her fortress, where she dropped the flag inside.
“Yes! We win!” she cheered. She looked to see Everest happily get back onto her feet. “Thanks for that, Everest.”
“No problem,” Everest said. “I’d do anything for you— us, to win.”
Skye blushed. For her? Was there a chance that…
“Guys, it’s really starting to get cold,” Marshall exclaimed, interrupting her train of thought. As if on cue, another burst of wind rushed through making the pups shiver again.
“L-let’s go to the cabin,” Chase suggested, which everyone quickly agreed to. Now that they weren’t playing a game, they were less blind to how cold it was.
They all rushed into the cabin and shut the door. “I don’t know if we can travel back home now,” Skye said.
“Yeah,” Chase agreed. “It’s too dangerous. One of us could get lost or hurt.”
Skye could see the way Chase’s eyes focused on Marshall during that last part. She knew that if something bad happened to that dalmatian, he would never forgive himself. In fact, she knew if anyone got hurt Chase would probably end up blaming himself. This meant that trying to endure the wind and snow on the travel home was not a viable option.
“So, what do we do now?” Marshall asked, voicing Skye’s and Everest’s thoughts.
“Call Ryder,” Chase immediately said. He had always been the closest to Ryder, and was always the first to turn to their leader. All the other pups quickly nodded in agreement, hoping that Ryder would know what to do.
Chase activated his pup tag and began to speak into it. “Ryder, we uh… forgot to check the weather, and it started snowing! The snow is getting pretty deep, and uh… we don’t know how to get home.”
There was a brief pause before Ryder responded, “Are the four of you indoors right now?”
“Yes, we all are inside Jake’s cabin.”
“Okay, I will check the weather tonight, I’ll be right back.” The pups turned to each other but didn’t speak. Skye looked to Everest anxiously, who also seemed to be at a loss as to what to do.
“Okay, I have bad news,” they eventually heard Ryder say from Chase’s pup tag. “It looks like the snow you pups are experiencing is the beginning of a snowstorm.”
“A… snowstorm?” Marshall clarified after activating his own pup tag in concern.
“Yes, a snowstorm,” Ryder responded.
“So… what are we supposed to do?” Skye asked, beginning to panic.
There was a brief pause before Ryder answered. Skye looked around the room nervously; Everest looked down at her paws; Marshall started to lean into Chase for comfort; Chase tried to desperately soothe his mate.
“Okay, so if the four of you are safe right now, then the best course of action to make sure everyone is safe is for you pups to stay the night,” Ryder eventually said. “I will go retrieve you pups with Rubble’s bulldozer in the morning. I would have preferred to use your snow plow, Everest, but the bulldozer is the best thing we have right now.”
Skye took a deep breath, and all the pups exchanged glances at each other. “I guess that makes sense,” Marshall eventually said.
“Yeah, it will be fine,” Chase said. “If anything, maybe it will give us more time to spend together!”
Skye was both intrigued and worried at the thought. On one hand, she absolutely wanted to spend more time with Everest. On the other hand, she was already pining for her enough already during the day time, and she did not want that to continue. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like she had a choice in the matter anyway.