Spacey’s First Snow

Spacey’s eyes glowed with wonder as the powdery fluff fell from the sky. Cool to the touch, but not in a cruel way. This was his first winter on Honyum. This was the first snow of his whole life.

Stephenson stood in the garden, his fruits and vegetables already harvested and stored to last through the cooler months. The bushes surrounding the area weren’t as thick as the summer night the two had met, so they had a clear view of the ocean waves past the edge of the cliffside the castle was rebuilt on.

“You look so confused.” Stephenson giggled when a snowflake landed on Spacey’s snout. “Don’t you have snow back home?”

Spacey’s eyes were crossed, focusing on the melting snow in between his eyes. “Nope, although it’s not like I’ve stayed on Geometrica long enough to find out.”

The prince still didn’t understand his friend’s backstory that well, and the things he did know were very limited. Although his mother and his newfound half-sister seemed to have known more about his origins, he hadn’t asked them anything about it yet. The only things he did know were that he was an alien, and they were soulmates- and even if there wasn’t a specification whether that was platonic or romantic soulmates, Stephenson wanted it to be romantic in its own time. He admits that he had a crush.

“Does this happen every year?” Spacey asked once the snowflake had melted. “Like, this just happens on its own?”

Stephenson nodded, offering up a simplified explanation. “Yes, when it gets cold the water that would normally be rain freezes and ends up like this sometimes.” He shifted from one foot to another. Seeing Spacey confused was something new to him. He supposed it was just being amazed that someone from a far more advanced society knew nothing about things that were less advanced. 

The alien held out his hand to grab more of the snow falling down around them. Luckily the first snow of the year was always gentle, like it was hesitant to disturb the feasts and festivals that occurred in the fall. Even if most of the celebrations this season had been canceled in order to rebuild the castle and surrounding village after the Incident, Stephenson still appreciated the snow being gentle to welcome his new partner. 

Spacey’s gaze was now fixed on the flakes falling on the bushes, already covering them with a blanket of white fluff. “And you guys just let it happen? Is there any way to turn it off?”

Now this was a question he didn’t expect. Stephenson blinked slowly as he tried to process it. “What do you mean by turn it off?”

The alien furrowed his brow in concentration as he tried to come up with the right phrasing. “You know like, is there any way to make it stop once it’s annoying or something?”

He took another moment to understand. “Wait,” he began, corners of his mouth already turned up in a grin, “Did you just ask if there was a way to turn off the weather?”  

Stephenson couldn’t contain a chuckle as he contemplated the notion. He imagined it like extinguishing a candle, as if he could just blow the clouds away and make the sun come back out.

When he looked back however, Spacey didn’t find it funny at all.

“Steph, I’m being serious. What if the snow gets too deep and it covers everything? How will you be able to do anything?” The concern in his voice was clear, although the solution was quite simple in Stephenson’s mind.

“Eventually it does cover everything.” He took in a breath as he watched more snow pile up on his plants. “But we can’t do anything about it, and we aren’t meant to do anything about it. So we stay inside and make warm food and curl up by the fireplace and enjoy the break from the outside because we know spring will come back eventually, and then we keep doing things afterwards, until winter comes back again.”

Spacey’s wings fluttered anxiously. “And you guys have never even tried to figure out how to control it? Doesn’t that freak you out? What if one year it doesnt melt and you run out of food and you’re trapped? Wouldn’t it be better to control it?”

The human took his friend’s hand and squeezed it gently. A sign of reassurance as his wings subconsciously lifted him off the ground. “Well, that hasn’t happened so far. And even if it did, we would learn to live like that. It wouldn’t be impossible.”

“How do you know it’s not impossible?” Spacey questioned.

Stephenson laughed again. “Well, I’ve seen so many impossible things happen that it’s hard to believe there’s something that is actually impossible. I didn’t think life from space was possible, and I didn’t think witches were possible, and-”

Spacey squeezed his hand back as he let himself land on the ground. “Okay, okay, I get it.” He let a sigh escape him. “I still think it would be good to look into though.”

A chill ran through the air as the sun set behind the mountains. Stephenson shook his head as he shivered and took a step back to the castle. 

“No, I think we should trust it.” He smiled, “After all, it would make it a lot more difficult for everyone if we spent all that effort preparing for something that hasn’t even happened before.”

The dusk fell quiet as the pair walked back inside, Stephenson’s mind wandering away from the words he had just spoken and towards a warm cup of tea. But the look of contemplation on Spacey’s face remained through the night. 

The prince didn’t think he could teach someone from another planet something new. All the technology and languages and culture from Spacey’s planet was something he didn’t think he could learn in a lifetime. But even then, he couldn’t help but wonder before he fell asleep if he had helped Spacey learn something that he had known all his life, maybe he had shown him something new too.