Snow

Montpelier, Vorland, 1437 ATC

Sunlight shone brightly off the fresh layer of snow, sending the sharp beams into the large house. Dark brown curtains helped keep the master bedroom semi-dark. Resting peacefully in the large bed were three women and one man, all cuddled into each other. Their hair were sprawled over the pillows, intermixing the white, dark, and red strands.

There was a crisp stillness to the new winter air. Something that was shattered by a high pitched shout. Everyone on the bed jerked at the sound before going still, trying to identify what was going on. Another shout, closer to their bedroom, along with two sets of little feet moving rapidly, signaled approaching visitors.

“Ugh... Mornin! Kids!" Venser's tired exclamation forced a hearty chuckle from his lovers. When the man shifted however, Kari pouted cutely and pulled the man closer.

“Nooooo….!” The woman smirked when her plea worked for a brief second. “The twins are old enough to deal with it themselves surely… Stay in bed with me…?”

"Asher isn't. I'll be back soon." Alexis Bonneville said giving all of them a kiss before sliding out of bed and slipping on a robe, leaving the room.

The man sighed through his nose but didn’t move away. He moved back into place, grasping her Marvella and Kari close once again, while they both smiled with satisfaction.

Just as they relaxed, the door started to creak open. Two bright green eyes peeked around door frame on each side. The boy's short white locks hung over his face as he brushed them back, his eyes were followed by a very similar pair that belonged to a girl his own age with long raven locks.

“Told you! They’re still asleep!” Soarin scolded in a whisper, glaring at his twin sister. “You can’t come with me!”

The bearded man exhaled and sat up more. Limbs loose, the beard man shuffled even closer to his lovers, silently signaling her non-involvement. Kari situated her mouth to the top of the bearded man's head to speak clearly as she kept her eyes closed.

“Kids, where do you think you're going?”

The siblings in the doorway froze, eyes wide.

“We were going to have a snowball fight…” The lad inched forward, opening the door further with his lanky shoulders.

His sister, hunched close to the ground, edged out from around the boy's hands. “And I want to go!” Lucinda exclaimed.

Kari silently laughed at the feeling before complying. “Okay then kids, make sure to bundle up and stay around the house!''

The two children let out a whoop of excitement and ran down the hall respectively. Venser murmured once more, forming another name. Marvella rolled her eyes with a bemused grin, then looked to Kari, reaching out to poke her white haired sister in arms.

Two shouts agreed as the children raced downstairs. The lovers listened to the front door open when the bearded man sat up in bed, he shouted to the excited young twins.

“You two had better be wearing your winter clothes and not running around naked!”

The lovers waited, noting the several long seconds of silence, before they heard their children yell once more as they left. “We are!”

''Ugh again, morning everyone...'' Venser said moving into a hug with all of the girls in his bed, when a happy gurgle from the door to the master bedroom distracted them. Looking over, they saw Alex carrying their newest baby, Asher, who had auburn hair and grass green eyes, cooing gleefully to his mother, other mothers, and his father from Alex's arms. Kari, mother to the twins, started making baby noises just as happily back, though she stayed in the bed. Venser watched with a wide grin for another minute before moving past the girls and out of bed.

“Alright loves, gotta make sure we've got plenty of firewood and check on the food storage.” The man gave them all a loving kiss. Standing up with a half stretch, he walked up to the Alex and their newborn son, giving the tiny baby a nose nuzzle. “Behave for your mother and other mothers, you hear little Asher?”

Kari, Marvella, and Alex watched with a sweet gaze as their mate walked out. Asher continued to make the same burbling noises back as they walked downstairs. The living room was strewn with garland along the tops of the walls, ribbons decoratively placed and a medium sized pine tree with miniature candles placed among the branches.

Kari picked up some leftover dishes into the sink and reached out to the cabinets near the fridge. Once she selected an appropriate meal for the baby, she began to pull out ingredients for herself and the other adults of the house. While the meal was underway, the Alex washed the dishes as they dirtied, trying to save time and effort for the holiday.

The baby Asher scooted along the ground, heading for the family room where more shiny things awaited a curious, chubby hand. Two golden hands took her small form and lifted her up into the air. The captain picked him up and set him down in his high chair. He looked over his new domain, tapping both hands against the oak tray.

Alex smiled at the happy Asher and pulled over her chore list for the day, letting out a soft sigh. Unfolding the long paper shared amongst the family with bullet points detailing each item, she looked over her notes as she set the food on low while absent-mindedly trying to feed the baby.

“We have a lot to do today, don’t we?” Kari nodded to herself, barely glancing to the frying eggs and bacon cooking or the spoon of mashed peas and celery.

Alex tsked to herself. It was the smell of eggs almost turning too overdone that distracted her from the self-made list. The little baby laughed at the funny face her mother made as she rushed to save the meal. Two seconds later, she found the sink was getting close to full and about to overflow with bubbly suds. Asher leaned back with a laugh at the high pitched half-shriek of distress.

The front door opened just after the noise, showing the bearded with a half-uncertain face, snow on his bright red boots as he began to wipe his feet on the mat. Spotting the source of the issue, Venser released the nervousness in favor of amusement.

“All of you doing alright?”

“Yes, just fine. Have you finished sweetie?” Kari asked.

“Thanks love.” Venser grabbed a cloth and began to clean off his tunic. “I think I might need some backup if... I'll ask Marvella. Though, I know you would love to swing an axe, or a sword, Alex.''

The auburn haired captain laughed as she wiped the dribble from the young boy's chin. She shook her head with a disappointed smile. “Remember, we still have to finish this evening’s meal and I wanted to plan for us moving into the villa, and helping decorate too I guess.

Venser shrugged and watched as his lovers cleaned the house,Marvella was coming down the stairs, dressed in winter furs now. ''The place looks plenty clean. You sure ya don’t want to come play outside?”

“No no, it’s fine ,'' Alex waved a hand as she brought the adults’ meal to the table. She waved for Venser and Kari to sit as she took her own place beside them. “We’ll be nice and warm in here as I get the last few things done.”

“Alright. I’ll be finishin’ up and check on the kids.”

“If you wish sweetie.” Kari gave them a light-hearted grin, certain of what would truly happen if they stepped one foot outside.

It wasn’t long before the family finished their meals. The white haired cryomancer grabbed the plates and immediately washed them. Venser gave Kari a smooch while she did the dishes and put on a scarf. Kissing Kari and Marvella, and brushing baby Asher's hair and giving him a kiss on the forehead as he passed, the bearded man opened the door, tilting his head down rapidly as five snowballs were shot right at him.

''Ah!'' Quickly, he made a backhand motion with his left hand, mark flashing greenish white as he obliterated the snowballs with a strong gust of wind.

''That was close.'' Closing the door and stepping outside, he scooped up some of the white powder in his bare hands. Licking his lips, he shot the projectiles in a straight line forward. There was an explosion of laughter along with several sounds of pelting snowballs.

Alex wiped the rest of the mess from her child’s mouth and put away feeding time supplies. She lifted Asher up from her chair and nuzzled his face as he reached both hands to his mom.

“Come along my little monkey, let’s start getting ready for your first winter.” The auburn haired captain walked up the stairs to the upper levels of the house. Once there, she set the Asher in his crib while she began to clean up each of the rooms.

''Here it comes!'' Venser exclaimed grabbing a chunk of snow, quickly packing it into a cube rather than a ball

''Take that!'' Venser yelled tossing the snow cube right at Marvella's head who decided to join them, moving back a bit and making more snowballs. ''Eh!'' Lucinda tossed a small snowball at Marvella as well, but it only went a mere few feet in front of her. She threw several more, but few of them made it even close to the girl in the combat uniform and furs.. ''Kablamo!'' Soarin said from behind slapping Marvella's rear with a large chunk of snow in his hand, which also contained a bit of ice.

As Marvella was frantically trying to pick up snow to make a snow ball, she was getting bombarded with snow from Venser, Lucinda and Soarin. She squealed lightly, but could not escape the bits of laughter coming from between her lips. She then simply ran her hands against the snow, brushing it up to cause a light wave of snow to rush towards Venser and Lucinda. Then she wiggled the snow down on Soarin. "Hahahaha!" she cried out and started to run.

The children laughed happily. ''Noooo...!'' Soarin covered his hands with both arms to block the snow, only to get it all over his bare arms. Nevertheless, he didn't mind. ''Eh!'' He punched Marvella in the rear as she took off running. ''Son, don't hit her.'' Venser said walking over to him. He bent down and put his leather red jacket on. ''Thanks daddy!'' Venser ruffled his hair and handed him a big snowball. ''Go get her!'' Lucinda wore a crystal bracelet around her right wrist, with a small tag that read 'Do Not Remove' on it. She did and flicked her wrist in front of her, giggling and accidently freezing the ground in front of them into a slippery field. '

Marvella yipped as she was punched on the bottom, and then ended up slipping on some ice and fell with a good thud. "HEY, you used magic!" She spoke out poorly. "Alright, since you wanna cheat." she got up from the ice carefully, threw off her gloves and created a few small orange portals that caught the snowballs, and then shot them all back at the twins and Venser.

Lucinda opened her mouth to protest but was smacked in the face by the perfectly round snowball. ''Ow! Owwwiie...! You knocked my eye out!'' Lucinda squealed falling face first into the snow, circling up a bit. ''Lewcinda!'' Soarin called running over to help his sister, slipping on the ice too and landing on his back. ''Ow!''

Marvella lowered her hands to place them on her hips, "Yeah, falling on ice did not feel very good now did it?" She spoke lightly, then offered both of her hands to help both of them up with a light smile.

''No it didn't poop head!'' Lucinda yelled flipping over, slinging a snowball up into her face. Afterwards Venser spoke up, standing right behind Marvella with a snow shovel full of snow in hand. ''Yeah! Poop head.'' He then proceeded to dump it all on her head.

Marvella did not have anyone in her side at this moment as she was again bombarded with snow all over her from. So much so, she had to sit down on another snow heap so she could wipe the snow from her face to see better.

''Ah!'' Venser was hit in the head by some snow. ''Bullseye! Ha!'' Soarin ran past his father and got behind his sister. Now the two began to pelt snowballs at Venser. He teleported back and began to punch the snowballs out of the air.

Marvella smiled and watched as the kids then turned onto there father, throwing those snow balls like a team while Venser was bunching them. Watching in slight amazement, her eyes went from one person to the other.

After a few minutes the twins began to make snow angels in the snow. ''By the void how do they not get tired after running around so much?'' Venser asked sitting next to Marvella.

"I have no idea.. but I am exhausted." Marvella spoke honestly, watching as the twins were making snow angels. ''Hoo boy... Part of me feels like this is going to be a short winter.''