🎄 Holiday Prompt Challenge 2022 🎄

First Snow - Valdemar×Reader

    A deep breath of crisp air fills your lungs, the cool smell of freshly fallen snow. You made your way through the city marketplace, the ringing of bells and the clinking of baubles dancing in the yuletide air. It was the first snow of the season and you decided to have some fun with a certain reclusive demon.

    The palace was aflame with preparations for the upcoming celebrations, servants rushing around like worker bees, spurred on by their queen, Portia, who was, herself, quite busy along with them. She gave you a quick smile and wave, alas she had to return to her duties before the two of you could really catch up. Thankfully, you were here for someone who (you hoped) wouldn't be busy.

    Passing Nadia on your way to the library, you exchanged greetings and concerns for Portia, before departing for your separate duties. You boarded the elevator, giddy goosebumps rising along your arms and legs as you grew more excited.

    "Valdemar!"

    "Hm? Oh, hello, y/n,"

    They were hovered over a freshly cleaned slab, still dripping with chemicals.

    "It's snowing! First snow of the season! I was wondering if you would join me for a snowy stroll, a snoll, perhaps?"

    "Very well, I've not much left to do in here, as long as you never try to put two words together like that again,"

    "No promises,"

    You waited for them to finish up their cleaning, a bit less patiently than normal, but there was a whole fun flurry waiting for you.

    "Oh, Val, I'm not sure if this really matters to you, but it is pretty cold outside,"

    They perked up a little at the mention of cold weather. You donned your coat and earmuffs, headed out through the secret passage. Looking behind you, you see the Quaestor following with a scarf wrapped around their shoulders and neck.

    You wondered if they even needed it, what with being a demon and all. Once you saw it in the light, you realized just how ancient it was. Moth-eaten, dusty, and ragged, it made the normally clean looking Valdemar somehow more unsettling. The corners of their eyes smirked at your expression, and you shook your head with a chuckle.

    The palace garden was eerily quiet compared to the bustling halls you had been greeted with. Sparse, lonely groundskeepers moved sluggishly through the snow, tending to what foliage remained. The shipments of winter plants had been delayed by the sudden weather-shift. A few imposing evergreens dotted the scene with their deep green. Valdemar took a deep, shuddering breath, startling you out of your gazing.

    "I thought you didn't need to breathe?"

    They rolled their eyes and took your hand, waiting for you to show them what was so special about snow in the mortal realm. You took them into the hedge maze, dark brown spiderwebs of the sleeping vegetation surrounding you both. Only the crunching of your feet upon the frosty earth to tell the world where you are and the tips of a certain demon's horns to let anyone know who you're with(or hair? They don't ever take the bandages off, so you're not entirely sure).

    "Isn't this nice? Just the two of us, everything dead, it's like your dream come true!"

    "I suppose it's alright, but claiming *everything* is dead is simply untrue,"

    They bend down to examine a branch from the hedges, you lean in as well, your faces very close together. They snap the branch and hold it out expectantly, yet with a whimsical look in their eye.

   As your fingers graze their glove, a whole new world opens up before you, like looking through a thousand spying glasses. Strange alien forms sprawl out along the softly breathing stretch of bark. An elongated shape resembling a cucumber with hair seems to look up at you before munching on a small yellow bubble creature.

    "Alas, as you see, there's an entire ecosystem of living things, thriving, despite the best efforts of the weather,"

    "That's... amazing... can you see that all the time??"

    "Yes, as saddening as it is to see such gross displays of life, it can help in my medicinal and more ~personal~ duties,"

    And in the flash of an eye, they pull down their mask and exhale the withheld air, a noxious gas pouring onto the branch. It wilts and turns to dust in their grasp. They look slightly more pleased having brought a permanent end to that stick.

    They walk silently away. By the time your normal sight returns to you, they're already gone, leaving you lost in the middle of an increasingly chilly labyrinth.

    "V-Valdemar? Where'd you go?"

    A 'tsk tsk' emanates from behind you, but nothing is there. Perhaps they're toying with you? A good old fashioned game of hide and seek it is then. You nod affirmatively to yourself, before beginning down one of the many corridors of the maze.

    Mistletoe grows along some of the bushes, bright white berries glistening against their green leaves. You notice a suspicious looking spot missing its mistletoe and don a cheeky grin.

    "I wonder whoever could have taken that, hmm?"

    No answer, but you didn't guess it would that easy. Now that you know your reward for finding the sneaky Quaestor, however, you're much more enthusiastic about this little game. With all the quiet you can muster, you crunch your way over to a split in the maze. A familiar pair of bandaged peaks to the left.

    "Aha! Wait. What."

    A perfect replica of Valdemar stands frozen before you. Two shiny beetle shells for eyes and a body made completely out of snow. Before you can think further, the hairs on the back of your neck raise and then fall down as a slurry of slush floods down your back. You can't help but yelp at the sneak attack. You catch the tail end of a scarf as you look behind you. Quickly running after it, you fall for yet another trap, this time quite literally, as a hidden snowpit opens out from under you.

    "Enjoying your snow day, dear fool?"

    You put on your best grumpy face and blew the Quaestor a raspberry, eliciting a short but sweet chortle from their lips. They held a long arm out to you and pulled you out of their trap with inhuman ease. A bundle of mistletoe hung neatly between their horns, tied together by a green silk ribbon with a pair of silent, ghostly chimes to either side of it. They smirked and pointed to the bundle, leaning down and closing their eyes, not even bothering to remove their mask for you.

    You explode into a giggling fit after the bamboozled look on their face when you slip a handful of snow into their mask. Before they can react further to your first atrack, you launch a snowball directly at their chest. When it flew straight through a gaping hole in their torso, you knew you made a terrible mistake. You ran from one corridor to another, trying in vain to avoid the onslaught of the demon's snow barrage.

    "I give up! I give up! No more! Please!"

    Your words may have become muffled by the snow encasing you, but that didn't stop Valdemar from relenting. They dig you out of the cold lump and pulled you close by the small of your back.

    "Now, for my finder's fee,"

    They pressed their cold lips to yours, their soft, dead skin sending shivers up and down your spine. You pressed into their kiss, wrapping your arms around their neck. Even after they stopped kissing you, you stared deeply into one another's eyes, close enough to practically be kissing again.

    "Thank you for taking me out of the dungeon, little magician, it was an enlightening experience,"

    You laughed and kissed their cheek.

    "I'm glad we got to spend today together too, doc,"