festival of lights : stozier

3

"stan, stan, wake up" richie was closing his fingers around stanley's forearm, poking out from under the covers. the duvet shifted around stanley as he rolled to face him, hushing the boy. richie laughed softly, pointing his arm past stanley.

in confusion, stanley stayed still, feeling richie's arm rest on his hip as he pointed to something past him. stanley looked into richie's eyes, not that he could see the other boy very well, before richie shook him back and forth a little more.

succumbing, stanley rolled back over, following richie's line of sight to the window behind him, curtains drawn open.

"it's snowing!" richie said, his voice still soft no matter how excited. the sky wasn't even black, stanley realized. it was grey, light with the snow falling. it flew to the ground and stanley shuffled, to get out of bed. richie kicked the duvet off his feet with a jolt, climbing over stanley's own legs to get to the window.

"mm, guess it is." stanley mumbled, still not entirely awake. richie leaned his head on stanley's shoulder, in a way that stanley would normally only expect in front of richie's family.

listening intently, all stanley could hear in the house right now was the heater running. maybe it was just the two of them awake in this moment.

"can we go outside?" richie whispered, and stanley laughed through his nose. richie sat up, "i'm serious!" he looked a little hurt at stanley's laugh. stanley shook his head kindly.

"of course we can, dumbass. c'mon, get your stuff," stanley said, speaking perhaps a little too loud. he heard the clack of nails on the floor and the door was pushed open by a dog's snout. the dog, jack, was sarah's, and stanley had taken a liking to him. he made richie insanely happy. 

richie started getting ready, layering intensely.

"yes, jack, you can come with us!" richie scratched jack's head gently, slipping on a shirt with his other hand. jack sped from one side of the room to the other, over and over again. stanley laughed, trying to shush him.

ten minutes later, the two were slipping into richie's home's backyard, jack following quickly behind. stanley, decked out in layers of richie's snow clothing, felt like he was being eaten by the snow, up to his knees. richie seemed to be in his element, flying from place to place with excitement.

"we've got to make snow angels, stan," richie said, kicking snow around with his feet. stan watched as the perfectly flat snow was disrupted, and richie and jack chased each other around, laughing heartily.

"yeah, yeah, okay," stanley made his way to richie, shuffling and struggling. richie put his hands out for stanley to take, to make his steps easier. stanley took them cautiously, thankful that the cold air kept him from heating up.

richie laughed suddenly, pulling stanley so quickly that he fell onto richie, who fell into the snow. stanley, stacked on top of richie immediately snickered, his hands dug into the snow to avoid touching richie. richie shook stanley to the side, essentially burying him into the snow.

"dickhead!" stanley yelped, richie rolling into stanley.

the two lay there, entangled in the snow at the earliest hours of the morning. jack jumped around them, spraying the two of them with more snow as they lied around.

"mm, forget about snow angels, rich, we've made a snow pit." stanley said, talking into richie's neck. he wasn't complaining about how close richie had gotten, because it was keeping him warm. the heat of his mouth bounced off of richie's neck and warmed up stanley's nose a little bit.

"stan, your morning breath is disgusting," richie replied, stanley repeatedly breathing heavily into richie's face as richie shrieked.

"god, no wonder your family believed you," stanley chuckled vaguely, finally trying to push richie off. richie got up, stumbling to another area of flat snow, free falling onto his back, arms spread.

"snow angels, staniel!" richie said, sing-songy. stanley groaned, getting up and wandering over to richie, falling beside him.

richie began to wave his arms, jack excitedly hopping around the two, leaving paw prints as he did so. his legs did the same, and reluctantly, stanley copied him.