Archive of Our Own ^beta

The snow crunched underneath the soles of Kevin’s boots as he drove a heavy shovel into a pile of snow with a small grunt. Looking around, children of all ages and even parents were enjoying the rare snow day in their small hazardous town. With some lying flat and creating “snow-angels” and others simply making the traditional snowman.

He squinted, recognising three troublesome kids that would always come into the Candy Club and wreak havoc having a wild snowball fight. Kevin watched as Ross, the one with dark hair and always wore a beanie (He’s called the cops on the three of them enough times to learn each of their names), misses his shot and hurls a snowball straight at his mother’s face. Jaune and Kevin could be considered friends, but they haven’t caught up in a while.

Jaune rose from her seat on the bunch with a murderous glint in her eyes as Ross practically soiled his pants out of fear. Jaune gathered a large ball of snow in her hands and chased her son while the other two menaces buckled, laughing their asses off.

Watching this go down, Kevin really couldn’t stop the corner of his lips lifting into a slight smile. And maybe a twinge of jealousy. He wished he could be enjoying the day too, but ultimately he’s stuck with the chore of shovelling the driveway of his apartment block, since apparently nobody else was willing to do it. Plus, he needed to run some errands and the layers of snow pretty much prevented him from driving his car out.

His situation truly wasn’t the greatest, his fingers freezing and cramping up underneath the wool of his gloves. Though, there was his one week holiday break he could be thankful for at least. With a struggling push, he managed to heave a fairly large mountain of snow off of the ground, chucking it over his shoulder. He clenched the shovel, hearing a sharp yelp from behind him.

Kevin turned around, stabbing the shovel into the snow and dusting his hands, or gloves, off. He tilted his head, trying to hold back a fit of laughter as he came face to face with his boyfriend, Streber, head covered in the snow he’d just launched behind him. Kevin snorted, the latter was not amused, his cheeks and the tip of his nose bright red from the cold snow.

“Dammit Kev, I was trying to sneak up and scare you,” He messed with his hair, shaking the remaining specks of snow and thrusting his hands into his jacket pockets.

Kevin rolled his eyes with a sigh, staring at his partner like he was a prized jewel inside a museum. He could never stay mad at his beautiful face. The taller leaned on the shovel with a raised eyebrow.

“Shouldn’t you be helping me shovel?” He changed the subject while still thinking about how the hell he managed to sneak behind him without noticing the sound of his footsteps in the snow. “What have you been up to?”

Streber lit up, smirking playfully and rocking back and forth on his heels, “Aha! Well you see I’ve been preoccupied.”

“With what?” Kevin tilted his head, countless theories materialising in his mind.

“C’mere, look!” Streber grabbed his hand and led him over to a tall, very dead tree, its branches drenched in the white that rains from the sky. Beside it was a peculiar looking snowman

Streber bit across his bottom lip trying to contain his excitement before revealing his creation to his tired boyfriend. 

“Ta-da!” He exclaimed, waving his hands.

Kevin paused, blinking in confusion upon seeing what was simply a funny-looking snowman. He smiled, erupting into a giggling fit and gripping his stomach. The snowman was almost as tall as Streber, with a hairstyle that looked almost identical to Kevin’s, two stones for eyes and a wide mouth with fangs. Of course he’d add fangs. 

Streber deflated, thinking that he did something wrong, but upon seeing the look on his face, Kevin immediately stopped, wiping the tears from his eyes as he did so. The smile on his face never left, joined by a faint blush that dusted his cheeks.

“Streb, I love it, it’s so–” he let out another chuckle, “--So you. The vampire fangs and everything.”

“Really? Do you mean it?” Streber’s eyes sparkled. Kevin took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Yeah. What are you gonna name him?” Now that he got a good look, it really did look a lot like the two of them combined into one person. Or snowman, to be exact.

Streber’s gaze was warm, and so was his hand, thankfully.

“We should name it Strevin.”

Kevin huffed, “What?” 

Blinking for a moment, Streber fixed him with a half-lidded stare as Kevin continued to smile at him. Strevin? What was that supposed to mean? What an exotic name choice. He didn’t think he’d ever met any Strevins, perhaps they didn’t exist until this very moment.

“Y’know, our names combined. Look at him! He looks like our love child,” Streber giggled.

Kevin raised an eyebrow, blush deepening. Love child!? What the– Oh no, wait he sees it. With his hair.. And Streber’s signature vampire fangs. 

“Oh my god, you did that on purpose. You’re insane,” he muttered, shaking his head adoringly.

Streber nudged his side, “Pfft, What? You hate kids or something–”

He suddenly remembered everytime Kevin would be complaining about his job at the Candy Club and how much he despises every single child that roams the planet. His smile faltered for a short second as he scratched his cheek.

“No, no. I like it. I like our.. ‘Love child’” Kevin quoted the foreign word with his fingers, “It’s cute. Like you,” he gave Streber a swift peck on the forehead. The shorter’s cheeks faded crimson, his face burning.

Streber pushed him away playfully, crossing his arms with a sarcastic ‘hmph!’.

“You can’t flatter me, Kevin! You hate me sooo much, you don’t even wanna have a kid with me!” he whined sarcastically, using all his strength and willpower to not burst into laughter.

Kevin gave in and laughed at his antics, hands on his hips, “Hey, I never said–” he sighed, “Jeez, sweetheart. At least wait until marriage.”

Streber turned back to him, peering at him like a meerkat. His eyes were big and full of surprise. His lips broke into a smile that reached his ears.

“Did you just propose to me?” He teased. Kevin’s face seemed to turn impossibly red, realising what he’d said.

“Wait, no I didn’t mean–”

“Nope! No take backs! Admit it Kev, you wanna marry me sooo bad,” Streber continued to tease him and poke his face like a preschooler. Suddenly they both stopped, noticing that it had begun to snow again, white particles raining upon their heads. They should probably be heading back. They both stood facing each other, Streber leaning forward into Kevin’s chest as he wrapped his arms around him. 

Kevin buried his face in his hair, taking in his scent and swaying them ever so slightly. They both remained quiet, enjoying each other’s presence and savouring the sweet moment. 

Finally, one of them mumbled, “We should head home. Don’t want to catch a cold.”

Streber pulled away from him, rubbing at his eyes like he’d just taken a nap before fishing out his phone, “One more thing.”

He dragged Kevin over to their snowman ‘Strevin’ and pulled him into a crouch so he could take a selfie. By now the snow was really coming down, so they’d have to wrap up quickly. Kevin stared at the snowman just a little longer than needed. Something was missing.

Streber tugged at his sleeve, “Ready to go?”

Kevin nodded, “Mhm, just give me a sec.”

He patted at his neck, gripping the scarf that wrapped around it safely and tugging it off, kneeling down to wrap it around the neck of their snowman. 

“There we go. Nice and cozy.” he smiled softly.

As they made their way home hand in hand, Kevin completely forgot about finishing off the driveway, and especially forgot about all the errands he had to run that day. But he supposed it was alright. He’d rather spend the special day with his lovely partner instead. He wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world.

And as he gazed upon the photo Streber sent of them, the two of them and their snowman, he couldn’t help but feel like the luckiest man to ever live, whether he had a crappy job or not.

Today he’d lost a scarf, but gained a new favourite memory that he’d treasure forever.