The ground was covered in snow. Covered. It was only a few inches, but every surface had a thin layer of powder covering it.

Miko was ecstatic.

He barreled headfirst into a pile of snow, much to the dismay of Willow, who was trying desperately to make him put a coat on.

"Come ON! It's so COLD OUT HERE!" She yelped, wings flapping slightly to conduct heat.

"Oh no..." Persephone muttered, watching Miko's expression.

"Oh, dear sister," Miko said dramatically, placing a hand over his heart. "You failed to remember one thing..."

Miko threw a handful of snow up into the air. "THE COLD NEVER BOTHERED ME ANYWAYYYY- Ooh, is that a random pond I'm totally not going to freeze over?"

Willow's expression was purely exasperated as she ran after Miko. "You know, for the older twin, you should be setting a good example for me!"

"Hm, uh, let me think about that for a moment, um, NO!" Was Miko's enthusiastic response.

Persephone laughed. Miko was... He was quite a character. And he was not subtle about it. She was pretty sure everyone in a five-mile radius could hear him cackling as he evaded Willow expertly.

However, in his successful maneuvering, he slammed directly into some poor soul on their phone who was just walking.

Both of them stumbled and fell over. Willow blushed furiously, running over to tug Miko away forcefully and apologize.

"I'm so sorry; he wasn't looking where he was going-"

"It's fine..." The guy mumbled, standing up and immediately checking his phone for damage.

He was wearing a purple hoodie pulled up over his head and black stretch pants with a few rips in them. It didn't look that warm, but he didn't seem to mind. 

He glanced up, then back down at his phone, then his eyes shot back up again, landing on Miko who was vibrating.

"Oh, it's this guy..." He mumbled, putting his phone away. But it didn't sound... negative if that made sense? It sort of sounded like he was coming to a realization. But a realization of what?

Miko looked like there was so much pent-up energy in him that he was just going to explode on the spot.

"Hi!" He finally burst out, wings fluttering slightly in excitement.

"Hi," The other guy said somewhat dubiously. "Sooo... this is awkward."

Persephone finally decided to butt in. "Sorry, Miko, but... Who is this?" She asked awkwardly, treading lightly so as not to be rude, She glanced at Willow to see if she knew, but the other avian just shrugged.

"My boyfriend," Miko said casually as if he hadn't just dropped a massive fucking bombshell right there.

"Your... what?" Willow asked in a faux-sweet tone, eyes darting from Miko to the guy(who looked a bit uncomfortable, to be honest, maybe he wasn't a people-person.)

Miko faltered slightly under Willow's gaze. "Uh, you know, the vigilante I was telling you about...?"

"I thought you were joking!" Willow yelped, her wings flaring out slightly.

"Heh. Nope. Joke? Me? Imagine it. Neverrrr." Miko said nervously, grabbing this person's - his boyfriend's - hand and starting to drag him away before Willow had an aneurysm.

Willow began pacing, head in one of her hands and the other on her hip. "My immature-ass brother got a boyfriend before I did..." Never mind, she was definitely already having an aneurysm.

"I'm going to, go, uh, watch them..." Persephone said nervously before Willow could explode.

Willow waved her off, her wings shaking and shedding a few too many purple feathers to be healthy.

Persephone hurried away after Miko, who was skipping along towards the lake. His boyfriend - purple guy - was following him, hands in his pockets. Persephone hurried to catch up.

"Miko! Wait!" She called. The avian turned around and the purple guy glanced over his shoulder.

"You're not going to introduce me?" She asked, quickly walking over to where they were standing.

"Oh! Right." Miko said with a sheepish grin. "Uh, let me introduce myself first."

He turned to purple guy and Persephone was bewildered. Did they not... know each other's names??

"I'm Miko! But you could probably tell from everyone calling me that." He said, smiling and fluttering his wings slightly. He held his hand out for purple guy to shake.

"Purpled," The purple guy(Ironic) said, taking his hand to shake. That so happened to be a bit of a mistake, because Miko grabbed Purpled's hand and started dragging him towards the pond.

"Ohhh, boy," Persephone mumbled, running to catch up. Miko was shorter by at least a few inches, so the sight of him dragging Purpled along using only his bare hands was pretty funny.

When they reached the edge of the water, Miko let Purpled go and knelt down, touching the water. It had snowed, so it must have been... pretty cold. But Miko didn't seem to mind. He lifted his hands slightly and the water began to change.

It was freezing over, layers and layers of thin ice molecules forming and replacing the surface. One glance at Purpled showed that he was at least mildly amazed, or maybe just impressed. Still, it was beautiful.

The pond froze over neatly and Miko stood up, cheeks slightly flushed from the exertion. "Ta-da," He said with a small laugh, looking around.

His eye caught something and he scrambled away. Purpled's eyes followed him and then widened. "Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no," Because Miko was approaching the ice skating rental place.

[ • • • ]

Persephone wasn't quite sure how it happened(Probably a mix of force, convincing, and a healthy dose of Miko's puppy eyes) but Purpled had ice skates on.

He looked terrified.

"C'mon, please, I can't skate!" He protested as he was being pushed towards the lake.

"Don't worry, I'll help you!" Miko chirped cheerfully, not at all deterred. He hopped onto the frozen lake, wobbling for a moment before balancing and turning, holding his hands out to Purpled.

"I swear to the Primes above, if I die, I am haunting you," Purpled threatened, putting one foot onto the ice.

His ankle wobbled and he immediately stepped back, only for Miko to scoot over and pull him onto the surface. 

"C'mon, I won't let go!" Miko said, holding onto both of his hands. He started moving slowly, pulling the two of them towards the center of the pond. 

"How am I supposed to control this??" Purpled hissed, half hunched over at the effort it was taking to keep himself steady.

"Just loosen up," Miko encouraged. "Trust me, you won't fall over!"

"I beg to differ..." Purpled mumbled, attempting to stand up straight. 

"How about this..." Miko mumbled. "Here; think about ice skating like levitation. It's pretty much the same balancing and stuff like that. But you have to move your feet in a weird way."

Purpled's face contorted slightly as he tried to imagine it and he looked down at his feet hesitantly.

"Start with floating," Miko prompted. "Here, just float a bit off of the surface - yeah, like that - and watch me; here..."

He backed away from Purpled slightly, balancing on the ice. He skated forward a bit. "See, look at my feet."

Persephone had never really learned how to ice skate, so it was an interesting experience. Purpled looked more dubious, though.

"My feet feel all clunky..." He huffed.

"Come on, just hear me out!" Miko coaxed, making some elaborate hand gestures. "See? You just- your feet move like this, and you just go!"

Persephone tuned them out after a couple more minutes of Miko tirelessly trying to get Purpled to land on the ice.

Obviously, he eventually succeeded, because Purpled sighed and touched down, wobbling before the avian grabbed his hands and started moving backwards.

Persephone glanced to the side and noticed a green-haired man walking down the path, eyes on his phone screen. He appeared to be... looking for something?

His eyes flickered upwards, scanning the park. They passed over Persephone, lingering on her wings slightly, before landing on Miko.

Wait, nevermind, not on Miko. On Purpled, who had moved approximately one foot and then(like he has predicted) fell down, taking Miko with him.

The crunch of snow behind her made her realize someone was coming closer. Trying to seem casual, she peeked over her shoulder. The green-haired guy - who carried himself in such a familiar way - was indeed walking over, eyes darting between Purpled and Miko. A glance behind him showed that Willow was rolling a snowball on the ground.

Persephone turned her gaze back to the boyfriends(Purpled was now dragging Miko off of the ice by his ankle and the avian was protesting dramatically), mind racing. If this guy was coming over to be homophobic...

"Hey," A slightly deep and awkward voice said from behind her. "That your friend?" Persephone turned.

It was green-hair guy, and he was pointing at Miko. Persephone nodded.

"Do you know Purpled?" She asked, going out on a limb. His face looked relieved. 

"Yeah, actually, we've been living together with a couple other friends for some weeks now." Green guy answered with a nod. "Is that - And I'm just going to take a wild guess here - his boyfriend?"

He didn't seem homophobic.

"Yeah, that's Miko." Persephone responded with a nod.

Green guy sat down somewhat next to her - she thought 'somewhat', since he was about four feet away - and slid his phone back in his pocket.

"Oh! Almost forgot," He said sheepishly. "I'm Sam."

Persephone nodded, glad she didn't have to ask for his name and make everything more awkward. "Persephone. Nice to meet you."

Sam's eyes darted over to where Miko and Purpled were, each of them tossing piles of snow onto the other.

Persephone could recall the expression on Purpled's face when his eyes met Sam's. Well, really, there were several expressions. The first was confusion, followed by realization(which also came with a healthy dose of panic). Then was the beautiful, incredible expression of 'my-boyfriend-just-threw-approximately-a-pound-of-snow-in-my-face'.

Well, if an avalanche of snow thrown in your face counts as an expression. We're counting it here. Persephone heard Sam give a sudden laugh, leaning back slightly.

But then Purpled scrambled up from the ground, shaking most of the snow from his person. Miko followed, fluffing his wings up. At least a pound of snow fell from them.

Purpled stumbled over to where they were, turning a flustered and accusatory eye on Sam. "What are you doing here?" He demanded, flushing and crossing his arms.

"I was looking for you," Sam said amiably. Miko made it over.

"Do you know this guy?" He asked Purpled, making a show of looking Sam over.

"Yeah. You jealous?" Purpled shot back with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah." Miko said bluntly, scooting towards Purpled more slightly. Purpled flushed.

"You don't have to be," He said amiably, gravitating towards Purpled subtly. "We're literally dating. That's, like, a thing."

Miko nodded very seriously. "Ah, yes, a thing we are indeed. I know you like guys with weird hair styles, so I was just, you know, making sure."

"My hair isn't that weird..." Sam said, touching it gently.

"Your hair isn't weird." Purpled said. Sam made a noise of thanks. "Actually, I was talking to my boyfriend."

Sam huffed in resignment.

"Huh, I honestly didn't think anyone would be a fan of my... frosty tips." Miko said with a smirk.

Persephone burst out laughing and Purpled laughed quietly too. Sam looked lost. "What? Why is that funny?"

Miko held his hand out. "I'm Elsa." Ice appeared in his hand.

Understanding dawned on Sam's face. "Oh, that's funny."

Persephone glanced down. "Miko... why are you barefoot?"

A yell came from behind her. "HE'S FUCKING WHAT?"

Miko's eyes widened. "That... would be my sister."

He and Purpled exchanged a glance. 

"Fly?" Purpled suggested.

"Nah. She has wings." Miko said. "The correct option is run."

- • - • - • -

"Goodnight, Ranboo."

"Goodnight, Tubbo."

...

"Ranboo?"

"Yeah?" 

"Do you think Tommy's ever coming back to us?"

"I'm sure he will."

"Okay. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

...

"Tubbo?" 

"Yeah, Ranboo?"

"I think I'm non-binary."

"Pog. I'm dyslexic."

"I know, Tubbo."

"Love you. No homo."

"Love you too."

...

"You didn't say 'no homo' back."

"Don't worry, the socks are on."

"Oh. Kay."

...

"Ranboo?"

"Yes, Tubbo?"

"I can't sleep."

"I can. Goodnight."

...

"Love you, Boo."

"Love you, Bee."

...

"Is the 's' or the 'c' silent on the word 'scent'?"

"Tubbo, go the fuck to sleep."

Words: 2012

Sorry it's a bit late; I lost track of time. Anyway, happy New Year's Eve or Happy New Year if you're reading this after 12AM!

This was originally supposed to be a 'Christmas special' but I kept putting it off so now it's a 'holiday/new year' special.

Have a great year, and stay safe!

-ITCFWI