Holiday Treats

Candy Canes

The fire alarm was going off.

Ethan groaned, squinting into the near-dark of his bedroom as the bleep-bleep-bleep sound penetrated his sleep-fogged mind. The fire alarm wasn't in his bedroom.

Neither was Mike.

Pushing the covers back, Ethan paused as the alarm finally stopped bleeping. Go back to sleep and ignore the possible damage that Mike had wreaked in the kitchen or see what it was and sleep without the mystery hanging over his head?

What the hell was Mike doing cooking, let alone cooking at six in the morning? Decided, Ethan slid out of bed and headed out of the bedroom, meandering towards the kitchen. There was a definite smell of scalded something, but Ethan couldn't place what it was. As he got closer to the kitchen, the sound of running water met his ears.

Stepping into the kitchen, Ethan took in the mess slowly. Mike was making something sweet, or trying to, in any case. There was sugar spilled across half the counter, and Mike had managed to knock the sugar container on the floor—possibly in his haste to stop whatever he'd caught on fire from burning. There was also corn syrup, measuring cups, a few bottles of extract, and his good measuring spoons scattered about.

Mike was standing at the sink, muttering to himself as he was prone to doing when he screwed something up.

"Mike?" Ethan asked, confused. Mike didn't cook. Mike was a lousy cook.

"Damn it," Mike muttered, then straightened. "You were supposed to stay asleep."

"The fire alarm woke me," Ethan said, crossing the room and skirting around the spilled sugar. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Mike said, making a face. "I was trying to surprise you."

"With what?" Ethan asked, baffled as he glanced around the kitchen. Mike shut off the tap, letting the water stop flowing out of the saucepan he'd been trying to scour.

"Well," Mike said, frowning at the spilled sugar. "You said you missed candy canes. I was going to try and make them, without the dye you're allergic to."

"Oh," Ethan said, a little dumbfounded. He'd mentioned the candy canes a little wistfully, true, but he'd never expected... "It's the thought that counts?"

"I burned sugar to the bottom of one of your good pans," Mike said glumly, eyeing the kitchen sink as though it had betrayed him. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Ethan said, summoning a smile. "You were trying to do something nice, and you're going to scrub that pot until it shines later. It's too early to deal with this, come back to bed."

"Are you sure?" Mike said, glancing at the submerged pot again. "Shouldn't I scrub it while it's fresh?"

"Let it soak," Ethan said, smiling slowly. "I can think of a better reason to be up this early?"

"Oh?" Mike said, reaching for a dish towel and wiping off his hands. "What about the spilled sugar?"

"It'll keep," Ethan said confidently, then paused. "Unless you'd rather clean up the kitchen?"

"Definitely no," Mike said, grinning and pulling Ethan across the kitchen.

Snow Angel

"Pass me the Treatise on Constructing Polarizing Spells?" Tyler asked without looking up, frowning when there was no response, not even a pissy 'get it yourself.' Sitting up straighter, Tyler glanced around the room, wondering when Austin had left and why he hadn't said so much as goodbye.

Grimacing, Tyler stood, ignoring the way his joints protested the movement after so long sitting at the library table. The treatise he wanted wasn't too far away, so he grabbed it and returned to his seat, intent on finishing his thrice-damned essay.

He hadn't thought he'd been that intent on his work, that he'd miss Austin leaving. He always paid attention to where Austin was and what Austin was doing, even if Austin didn't realize it. How had he managed to miss that Austin had left? Tyler glanced over at the table that Austin had been using, noting that Austin's had managed to pack up his things, too.

It didn't matter, Tyler decided, flipping open the treatise and dismissing it. He could find Austin again later and still finish his essay before dinner. Glancing at Austin's empty table again, Tyler scowled and focused on the words in front of him.

He managed another half a page of essay before giving up. He was rambling and disjointed and he was going to have to rewrite the entire half-page before he turned the essay in. Standing, Tyler started packing up his things, wishing he could impress upon Austin the importance of their bond. Austin never seemed to get it, though, never seemed to suffer the same twitchiness that plagued Tyler whenever Austin was out of his sight.

Tyler knew he hadn't been Austin's first choice for a mage-bond, but it wasn't like the spell lied. They were compatible, highly so, but Austin was more concerned with hanging around with his friends and continuing to skate through school using his charm and smiles instead of actually working. Stifling a sigh, Tyler wondered where he could find Austin this time of day. Neither of them had classes today, a quirk of scheduling, but how Austin spent his free time—aside from trying to lose Tyler—was a mystery to Tyler.

Tyler sighed, swinging his satchel over his shoulder and leaving the library. He wasn't going to go looking again. He was sick of following Austin around like a lost puppy. He would go for a walk, that might relieve his restlessness. At the very least, it would distract him until dinner, which Austin never missed. Pushing his hair out of his face, Tyler began the walk back to his dormitory room, ducking outside to cut across the courtyard.

It was snowing, Tyler realized, startled. It had been snowing for a good while, if the snow that came up to his ankle was any indication. It had been cloudy that morning, but Tyler hadn't realized it had finally started to snow.

"Tyler!" Austin's voice rang out loudly, startling him. Austin never called his name. "Tyler, there you are!"

That was all the warning Tyler got before Austin was suddenly there, grinning brightly, like Tyler had finally done something right. "Took you long enough."

"What?" Tyler asked, baffled as Austin dragged him across the courtyard—barely missing a first-year's badly animated snowman—to where Austin's friends were trying and apparently failing to sculpt something out of the snow.

"Tyler's here," Austin announced loudly, making one girl's sculpture spontaneously explode. Tyler made a face, wiping snow from his face. "You know how to snow-sculpt, right?"

"Yes?" Tyler said, still confused. "I'm from Cadelia on the northern border."

"Make us something?" The girl whose sculpture exploded asked brightly. "None of us can get them to hold together long enough to stay animated."

"What do you want?" Tyler asked, still a little confused but willing to go with it. Austin's smile may or may not have been influencing that opinion.

"A snow angel," another of the girls suggested. "That's what I was trying to do."

"Okay," Tyler agreed, frowning in thought before speaking the spell slowly. He substituted the proper parameters, ignoring everything else to focus on the snow-sculpting spell. A few moments later, a trio of small snow angels were formed, dancing slowly on top of the snow.

"Oooh, pretty," the girls cooed in sync as Tyler finished the spell. Tyler blinked, startled as the two girls kneeled behind the dancing sculptures.

"Nice," Austin said, making Tyler jump at how close he'd gotten. "I was afraid you'd gotten sucked in by the library."

"What do you mean?" Tyler asked, confused.

"You said you'd come out when I asked, but I know how fanatic you are about your studying," Austin said, smiling cheerfully, as though he thought Tyler's studying habits weren't anything strange.

"I…" Tyler hesitated—he didn't remember Austin asking him to come out here. Did he admit that or play along?

"You don't remember, do you?" Austin asked, grinning wider. "I need to remember to not ask you questions when your head is in a book."

"Sorry," Tyler muttered, feeling stupid. What else had he missed? Usually he was a lot better at paying attention to people, especially Austin.

"It's cool," Austin said, shrugging. "I got used to it after the first few times it happened."

"It's happened more than once?" Tyler asked, wishing he could hide in the snow. He was an idiot, apparently.

"Yep," Austin said, casually hooking his arm through Tyler's. "I think I could ask you almost anything and get an 'uh-huh, sure' out of you."

"Sorry, I just—" Tyler began, mortified. What had Austin asked him?

"It's cute, how intent you get on your essays. It's easy to see why you're top of the class," Austin said, cheerfully, apparently unperturbed. "I admit, I was annoyed the first few times, when you didn't remember, but I got over that."

"What did you ask?" Tyler asked, frowning.

"If you'd pass this book, if you knew whether Thompson was including water spells on his final, if I could copy your notes for elemental class, and whether you'd like to go to dinner," Austin listed, and Tyler nearly tripped over a bit of the sidewalk. Austin steadied him. "You said yes, to all of those."

"Dinner?" Tyler repeated weakly. He'd missed Austin asking him out to dinner?

"Is that a yes? A real yes?" Austin asked hopefully. "I was really disappointed when you said yes—and agreed to a time and place—but then didn't show."

"Oh, god," Tyler muttered, using his free hand to smack his forehead. "I mean, yes, that's a real yes, why haven't you killed me yet?"

"Because you're cute," Austin said cheerfully, letting go of his arm. "I have to go meet a professor about a test, but I will meet you at six in the mess hall for dinner?"

"Definitely, I promise," Tyler said, smiling stupidly. "Six, at the mess hall, and if I don't show you can steal all my books.

"See you then," Austin said, smiling brightly before darting off to his meeting.