Chapter Text
Distantly, you wonder if you had that survival rule a little backwards. Maybe you were supposed to wait in the car when stuck in the middle of a blizzard, not look for help on foot.
There was no turning back now. The swirls of howling snow had swallowed the path you came. With every step you trudged through shin-deep drifts, the space seemed to fill within seconds. You thought for sure there was a gas station just a little ways up the road. Now, you weren’t even sure you were still on the winding, mountainous highway.
Fucking perfect, you thought, wrapping your arms tighter around yourself. I wouldn’t be dying in the middle of hell as it freezes over if I just cancelled this stupid trip.
This “adventure” was meant to be a birthday present for your partner— ex-partner, now. The outdoors weren’t exactly your best friend, but you were willing to invest in a pair of hiking boots off the sale rack for the sake of a surprise roadtrip to a few major National Parks. After all the time spent planning, booking lodging, and researching, you discovered your relationship was not quite as monogamous as you originally thought.
Unfortunately, their betrayal was revealed a bit too close to this trip. Deposits were nonrefundable, and heartbreak made you willing to entertain the delusional part of your brain you usually ignored. You convinced yourself you could do this week-long roadtrip solo, and so you did.
What you didn’t quite factor in was the reality of your winter-weather driving prowess. While your partner grew up in a cold climate such as this, you didn’t even own a winter jacket before this trip.
Unfortunately, that winter parka you thrifted was not as warm as it looked. You were soaked to the bone. Numb except for where your face burned as snow and ice pelted your exposed cheeks. So cold that when your boot snagged something hard beneath the snow you barely felt until you were falling face first into a deep snow bank. As the snow gave way to your weight and cut you off from the howling wind, the world grew much quieter. You took shaky breaths, trying to bring yourself back to reality. Think of a new plan. Find some help even though you drove for hours without seeing a single other soul on your route.
That realization furthered the dread pooling in your belly. Maybe you were as doomed as you feel. Who in their right mind would be out traveling in this weather?
“Maybe we should turn around?” Rain muttered, glancing out the window of the van with mild unease.
“A little late for that,” Dew grunted from the middle seat. He leaned forward, popping his head between the driver seat where Mountain was doing his best at navigating through the white-out and the passenger seat where Swiss was white-knuckling the safety handle. “How you doin’ Mountain?”
The drummer sighed. “Were almost there… I think.”
“You think?” Swiss groaned. “I shoulda gone with the girls.”
“The party poopers?” Phantom poked between Dew and Swiss.
“The ones with some fucking sense to leave early when we got the blizzard report,” the multi-ghoul said, swatting Phantom back to his seat.
“We’ll make it,” Mountain reassured. “There’s some lights up—”
“Wait, what the fuck is that?” Swiss interrupted, pointing out his window.
“What is—”
“Shit. Shit, stop the car,” his seatbelt was unbuckled and he was flying out of the car before Mountain could make a full stop. Dewdrop followed the frantic ghoul until he realized what Swiss had seen. He swore, hitting Phantom on the thigh to let him out too.
In the sea of fresh powder was a blob of red with a small dusting of snow starting to gather atop it. As the ghouls came upon the the blob it became apparent it was the figure of a human lying face down. Swiss knelt at her side, rolling her into his lap and covering her ice cold cheeks with his hands. Her eyes were closed, but there was a steady rise and fall of her chest that made the tension in both of their shoulders release.
“They’re breathing,” he said, gathering them in his arms and looking up at Dew. “Help me get them to the van.”
The two of them carried the unconscious stranger back to their vehicle. Rain was waiting with the back hatch open, his eyes fixed upon the bundle cradled into Swiss’s shoulder. Dewdrop jumped in first and helped to carefully lay the woman in red down on the carpet. It was lucky their instruments were back at the cabin they were staying at and there was room.
“What’d you pick up?” Mountain asked, trying to assess things through the rearview.
“Someone got caught in the storm,” Dew said.
“Alive?”
“Barely.”
Rain shut the door behind them and jumped into the front seat. They were moving within moments. Swiss stared down at their stowaway, a little shocked at this new development. Where did they even come from? And what if he hadn’t spotted them in the first place?
His musings were interrupted by Dew shrugging off his own jacket and laying it over their frozen friend. Something sparked in Swiss’s memory.
“We gotta do skin-to-skin.”
“What?”
Swiss brushed aside Dew’s coat and pulled out his pocket knife. He quickly cut the red coat back, throwing the soggy rags at Phantom who was watching from the back seat.
“The fuck are you—”
“Take off your clothes,” Swiss said, staring down Dewdrop. It wasn’t the usual tone he used for that statement around the ghouls, and he sensed his seriousness. Dew started working at the buttons of his shirt, and when Swiss finished stripping away their soaked clothing, save for a few pieces for modesty, he got to work on his own clothes.
Once down to her under-dressings, Swiss pulled her into a bear hug. It was like hugging an icicle to the point it seemed to burn a little, but there was some relief when Dew joined him. The fire ghoul was able to regulate his temperature much better and Swiss quickly felt his own temperature start to equalize again. He hoped the same was true for the stowaway.
“Where did you learn this?” Dew asked, laying his chin on the stranger’s shoulder and gazing up at Swiss. The multi-ghoul shrugged.
“Read about it in a book.”
“A book?” the guitarist squinted at him. “The only books you’ve been reading recently are those shitty romance nov— oh you fucking bastard!” Laughter barked from the others in the front of the van. “Are you telling me you got medical advice from fucking Blind Date in a Blizzard?”
“Fuck you, Dew, it was Defrosted with Desire and the author does her fucking research.”
The van came to a stop. Dew peered out the window and thankfully saw the cabin the ghouls were staying at. He untangled himself from the stranger and shrugged on his jacket.
“I’ll get the blankets.”
You awake to a throbbing headache and the sound of hushed voices somewhere near. Opening your eyes reveals nothing but a bright overhead light that makes you immediately snap them shut and pull the blankets to your eyes. You roll to the side, snuggling into the soft hotel bed and deciding a few more minutes wouldn’t hurt.
That’s when movement beneath you makes you grow still. When your muscles tense, you suddenly remember the blizzard. The cold. The feeling of your whole body taut with shivers.
An arm around you tugs you closer softly, and you throw yourself back. Or attempt to. There seems to be a lag between the urgency of your brain and the movement of your muscles so you end up just flopping to the side. The room is still too bright when you force your eyes to see, but a few blinks reveals what you thought was the bed of your hotel and a happy ending to a very bad dream was in fact a very… different kind of dream.
Rather than a frozen snow bank, you were practically swaddled in the middle of what appeared to be a sea of blankets, sheets, and comforters plopped in the center of a cozy cabin living room. The arm that encircled your waist had since fallen away, but remained tucked beneath your body. You followed it to its source, sucking in a shocked breath when it led to a quietly snoozing young man with dark hair falling half in his face. He wasn’t the only one. A warm fire blazed at your feet, or so you thought— when you looked down you quickly realized the heat keeping your toes warm was the body heat of a man lying on his back and chest rising and falling evenly with sleep. Stretched out on the couch behind you was a short blonde women taking up an impressive amount of space. On the other side of the couch, a large man that was probably two or three times the women’s size curled up into a tight ball.
You racked your mind for the sequence of events you were missing. The last thing you remember was trying to get up and finding your muscles didn’t want to work anymore. Numbness finally pulling you under and then— waking up here. Wherever here was. You weren’t sure what to think about any of it.
There was movement in your periphery. Your head snapped to the side and you realized not everyone was asleep. Another man sat quietly in an arm chair watching you with curiosity and underlying concern. The moment you locked eyes, he perked up.
“Hey,” he said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. “You’re awake. They’re awake, Swiss.”
A new figure appeared from the next room, tall and with a mess of dark curly hair. He grinned when his eyes laid upon you.
“Oh good! You’re alive.”
“Was that ever a question?” you asked. The two exchanged a glance that made your stomach drop. Ah. Maybe it was. “What happened? Who are you guys?”
“I’m Swiss. This is Rain,” he said, sitting on the arm of Rain’s chair and throwing an arm across his back. “Under you is Phantom, and keeping your toes warm is Dew. Mountain and Aurora are on the couch. Cirrus and Cumulus are in the other room making cocoa.”
Strange names, you think, glancing around as Swiss identified them all. When you look back at him, both he and Rain are staring at you as though they were waiting for something. You shoot them an inquisitive look.
“We told you our names. It’s your turn, Frosty.” Swiss leans back against the chair, and in doing so his shadow becomes more defined on the wall behind. You gasp softly as the dark contour outlines what looks like horns sticking out from his head. Your heart rate quickens, and you blurt out the first name you can think of just to appease them.
“Angel,” you say, internally cringing at stupid word association your mind came up with. Swiss seemed amused by your answer, not appearing the least bit convinced by your poor lying abilities, but he didn’t call you out on it.
“Okay. Angel. So we’re curious. What motivated you to take a nap on the side of the road?” Rain elbowed Swiss in the ribs as soon as the words left his mouth.
“What he means—”
“I said what I meant.”
“And you wonder why you have to stand on the stage of—”
You got the sense they weren’t going to stop until you started, so you decided it was time to cut in. “I hit a patch of ice,” you said, raising your voice until they stopped bickering and then spoke softer as to not wake the others. “Put my car into a snowbank. Wasn’t in the mood to die in that stupid junker so I took my chances at finding help,” you look around the room sheepishly. “I guess you guys were the help? You’ll have to fill in the blanks after that, I don’t remember a thing after falling.”
Swiss’s gaze softened and Rain’s eyebrows furrowed with concern.
“Are you hurt from the crash?” Rain asked. You honestly hadn’t even thought about that.
“Uh, I don’t think—,” you started, lifting the blankets to look down at yourself only to discover your were wearing just your underwear. You shrieked, recovering yourself with the blanket and staring at the two with wide eyes. “Where the fuck are my clothes?”
Rain looked at Swiss, eyebrow raised in waiting. He rolled his eyes.
“Skin to skin is a fucking thing, I don’t want to hear it,”
“…Skin to—”
“You were soaking wet and freezing cold. Best way to warm up someone with hypothermia is body heat,” he shrugged. “Skin to skin.”
You weren’t sure what to say so you just stared at them. Swiss apparently interpreted that in his own way because he got up, sighing as though he lost an argument you weren’t present for, “I’ll get you some clothes, I guess,”
He turned, sauntering out of the room. Rain shook his head and then turned his attention back to you. “He’s an ass, but he was right. You did warm up pretty good once Dew got in there,” your eyes flickered to the one at your feet who literally felt like a personal space heater. “Never tell Swiss I said that, though.”
“Never tell me what?” Swiss’s voice rang out as he re-entered the room with a bundle of clothes in his hand. He handed it to you and retook his place on the chair. You and Rain exchanged a glance and he reached up to fluff Swiss’s hair.
“That your mustache looks like you do porn.”
By the time you crawled out of the blanket nest and put on real clothes, the others had begun to stir from their naps. You were gradually introduced to the others starting with Cirrus and Cumulus who made you a big cup of cocoa. You came to the realization when Cirrus and Cumulus started discussing chord progressions that the members were part of some band. That theory was proven true when the sound of guitar strumming echoed in from the living room, quickly followed by an outraged voice—
“Phantom what the fuck did I tell you about touching my stuff?”
The guitar strums grew louder and more erratic until there was a shriek and the sound of rapid footsteps and more yelling.
“Is it always like this?” You asked Cumulus. She exchange a knowing glance with Cirrus.
“Pretty much.”
“This is tame, actually,” said Cirrus.
If this was tame, you couldn’t imagine what their normal was. Much to your chagrin, it had begun to look like you were going to find out whether you wanted to or not. Mountain came lumbering into the kitchen, a grim look on his face that you didn’t need to know him well to pick up on.
“What is it?” Cumulus asked.
“We’re pretty snowed in.”
“Shit. What about the plows?”
“Radio station said not to be optimistic. I already messaged Papa.”
You weren’t sure who Papa was, but his name had been mentioned in passing a few times. There was still something strange about their whole dynamic that confused you, but you were a little too timid to come right out and ask. It wasn’t that you didn’t have a reason to not trust them— they’d saved your life and been nothing but kind to you. There was just… something else. A feeling you couldn’t put your finger on. Moments where you could feel you were missing something but weren’t sure what.
“Angel?” Cirrus waved her hand in front of your face and you snapped back to reality. “Where’d you go?”
“Sorry… I was thinking. What did you say?”
“Just that I hope you have nowhere to be. Looks like we’ll be here awhile.”
That meant time to figure out what the missing piece was.