Scraps - Winter Cub

I’ve always loved flying. There’s something about lifting off the ground, feeling yourself leave the earth in a way that no human was ever intended to, that has fascinated me since my first flight as a child. As much as I loved the takeoff, however, my favorite part was being so high up that you could see everything in a way that you never could before; surveying a silent world like an uninvolved overlord. There was a serene calm to that for me.

It was so serene that Jules ended up taking a nap on the flight. She had subtly leaned against me at first, laying her head against my shoulder before nestling in to get comfortable. I had smiled and sighed silently to the ceiling, knowing it would only be a matter of time before that evolved. I wasn’t wrong. Not even twenty minutes later, my girlfriend practically draped her top half over my lap before falling asleep. How she was comfortable in that awkward position, I’ll never understand.

Jules didn’t walk off the plane as much as she let me drag her off when we finally arrived in Boston. The entire time I did, she complained about how tired she was. This amused me to no end.

“How on earth are you tired?” I asked with an exasperated shake of my head pointed at Jules. “You just slept for nearly six hours.”

“I’m tired,” Jules said with an adorable pout.  

She was just too much. I was convinced that she played up her adorable, innocent factor for my sake sometimes. Times like this, in fact. There was just a deliberateness about it. That didn’t mean, however, that I loved it any less. That cute, coy side of Jules would always be appealing to me.

“You and me both,” I said and pulled her in close so I could kiss the top of her head. “As soon as we get to the hotel, we can lay down for a nap. Okay?”

“Promise?” Jules asked, slurred really, as she nuzzled into my side.  

I liked the way she leaned into me like that. Trusting me to guide her through the airport and out to the rental, without a doubt that I would get her where we were going safely. That odd protective streak over her was one of those unexpected, yet delightful things about being in a relationship that I had never expected – and never experienced – before Jules.

“Promise.”

“Mm, good.” Jules let out another sigh. “Tired.”

I chuckled and shook my head again. Oh, this silly girl. “Yes, you may have mentioned that.”

“Did I?” Jules asked, looking up at me with bleary eyes.

“You did,” I replied with a nod.

“Well let me mention it again… for good measure. I’m tired.”

I laughed and squeezed her tight to my side with one arm before grabbing our bags from the luggage pick up. Jules stood rooted to the spot, wavering only slightly in her sleepy state. She only moved when I motioned with my head for her to follow me after I had loaded up my arms with our combined luggage. I probably would have carried it all anyways, that was just my style, but it was especially necessary given that my zombiefied girlfriend looked like she could be knocked down by a strong breeze right now.

It wasn’t until the hotel that I really realized it was snowing. I had seen it coming down in light flakes, obviously, but I was tired and Jules was tired and all of that was too distracting. When I stepped out of the rented Lexus, however, everything flipped.

My feet made that delightful crunching sound of hitting fresh, packed snow for the first time when they touched the ground. An unconscious grin split my face and I took two steps away from the car and looked up at the sky, where a fresh batch of flakes were coming down. I took in a deep breath, feeling the chilly air fill up my lungs in a way that I remembered from my childhood before I let it out in a heavy sigh.

I’ve missed this…  

“Zoe? Everything okay?” Jules asked apprehensively.  

I glanced over at where she stood on the other side of the car, an expression of concern painted on her face, and laughed. “Yeah. I’m fine.” My eyes swung upward to glance at the gray clouds in the otherwise clear sky. “I just really love the snow. It makes me feel like a kid again. Just something about it that’s-” Something cold and wet collided with the side of my face, abruptly ending my sentence.  

I didn’t have to guess what it was. This was not the first time I had been pelted with a snow ball to the side of the face; I did grow up with Jake and Trent after all. I was surprised that my innocent, sweet, tired girlfriend had the audacity to do such a thing, however.

“Did you…” I wiped the slush away from my face and shook my head in disbelief at the fact that Jules couldn’t even contain herself through my question. “Did you just throw a fucking snowball at my face?”

“Maybe,” Jules drawled out unconvincingly before losing herself to a fit of giggles.

“So you like to play in the snow, huh?” I asked in a menacing tone as I advanced on Jules.

She took a step back as I came towards her and then another one right before she was in my grasp. It was like some kind of game for her now. This was only made more true by the huge grin she sported as she danced out of my grasp. Sure didn’t seem like she was too tired anymore.

“Maybe…” she said again before turning tail and running away from me across the parking lot. With a shake of my head and one low laugh, I dashed after her.  

When I finally caught up to Jules, I wrapped my arms tight around her from behind so she was pinned to my chest. Jules was all giggles and faux pleads to let her go as I held onto her and walked her towards one of the big fir trees right outside of the door. I don’t think Jules had any idea of what I was going to do when I stopped her before that tree, her front pressed against the needles lightly.  

“So,” I stated rather breathlessly. “Like playing in the snow?”

“Mm-hmm,” Jules hummed with a nod and a blinding smile.

“Good,” I remarked simply and kissed her cheek. Then in a moment I reached up and tugged one of the branches of the tree and stepped back, sending all the snow stacked up on the tree cascading down on Jules.

I watched as Jules’ spine went ramrod straight as the frozen slush fell on top of her in a giant heap. Her face held an expression of horrified surprise, aimed right at me that she couldn’t seem to shake at all, and that just made the whole scene even better. Needless to say, I was absolutely losing it right now.

“You!” Jules roared and shook off the clumps of snow from her hair. “Ugh, you!”

“Yeah?” I asked with a sly smile painting my face. “Come and get me.”

***

Okay, so real quick, I wanna make a few announcements. First off, I'm going to be putting Sweet Tooth: Another Morsel on hiatus for awhile. I never really intended to finish it in the first place and I've been sort of forcing the story out for the last chapter or two that I've done and I just don't like it. This doesn't mean that I'm going to stop writing HoneyBear scraps anytime soon. I may have used this as an ice-breaking tool to tell you the bad news, however...

I really want to write what's going to keep me inspired and passionate about my work and I hope you guys can support me in that endeavor, because it's where my best stories come from. So with that being said, I really want to buckle down on Focus and I'm thinking Blitz is going to be my secondary story now. I have so, so many ideas that I want to work on in the future though and I can't wait until I can share more of them with you.

The second thing I wanted to announce was an AMA that I'll be launching this Friday. Basically I want to give an opportunity to all of the new patrons and preexisting ones that are now Discord eligible because of my recent tier shake up to come and ask questions, start a conversation and all of that jazz. Hope to see you guys there!