Snow: Loved and Loathed

December. Just a few months after two Avengers and two Force-wielders held and ran off a Sith from Earth, the end of the year was close at hand; but, Mother Nature wanted to end the year in a beautiful, yet cold way. Starting on the first day of December, she slowly lowered the temperature of the Northern Hemisphere, so that she would not damage any living creature's delicate state of living. Once that was done, she commanded the winds from the far north of the planet to travel down South, away from their icy homes. Within a week, the upper half of the Northern Hemisphere had crisp, cold air everywhere. Anything that was outside was cold to the touch. It was perfect for Mother Nature to bring in her early Christmas present to the people closest to the North part of the planet. Off the East Coast of the United States, Mother Nature brings in a storm that would normally be rain, if the air was warmer. Instead of the present being drops of rain, it was frozen flakes of water, otherwise known as snow.

New York was given the biggest part of this gift. During the night, the snow flew in the darkness, whipping through the air with each gust of wind. Even though tiny individually, the snowflakes met with each other in the air, forming clumps of chilled water droplets that fell to the concrete and cement ground of the city. Although the man-made streets and walkways naturally held in heat, the snow storm above overwhelmed it. In no time, the streets and walkways were covered in a thin layer of pure, white snow. It stayed in its cleanest form until vehicles and boots trampled on the fluffy flakes. Even though the storm came to the city at night, people had places to be. They weren't going to let a little bit of snow stop them. It may prolong the travel time, but they were going to continue starting the day like they had done every day that year. Mother Nature's present wasn't going to delay or stop their tasks in everyday life.

Since it was a Saturday, Angela had decided that she would sleep in for once. Before going to bed last night, she made sure that her new alarm clock had been shut off by taking out the batteries and putting the energy sources in the top drawer of the stand beside her bed. After taking off her normal, everyday clothes and putting on some bed clothes, she curled up in her cream colored blanket and rested her head on the soft, fluffy pillow. She instantly fell asleep.

Over the course of several months on Earth, Angela was not only trying to repair her Starfighter, she was also trying to learn much about Earth. Even with Tony and Trent helping to bring the Starfighter's hyperdrive into a working status, her curiosity about the culture, society, and nature about the planet kept interrupting her. Even when she was able to focus on repairing her ship, she never made progress. Any piece that she needed for the hyperdrive didn't exist. She would have to make any piece that she needed; and the parts that only needed repair took weeks of work since Tony's tech was the closest thing that could fix any broken pieces. Since Angela didn't know how each unique, high-tech tool worked, she would have to translate how each piece, that was being repaired, worked and how it had to be repaired so that Tony could correctly use each tool needed to fix each part.

The time and energy put into repairing the craft had drained most of Angela's energy and hope from her. Because of these events, she decided, for once, to give in and sleep as long as she wanted. She did so and slept soundly for twelve hours straight. She didn't wake up. She didn't have any nightmares or dreams. She just slept away the night. At around eleven, the next morning, Angela's mind woke her up and opened her blue eyes to bring her into living another day on Earth. The first thing she noticed was that it was dark in her room. Even though the curtains were drawn together, some light should still be seeping through the fabric if she had woken up during the day. Wanting to know the exact time, she rolls onto her back and gazes up at the white ceiling. Since she couldn't read English, she had to ask someone the time instead of reading it on her alarm clock that was on top the stand, to her right side of the bed.

Angela slowly takes in a deep breath and just as slowly breathes it out, before asking the A.I. her question. "Jarvis, what time is it?"

Jarvis responds in his usual tone of voice. "It is 11:23 in the morning."

While still lying on her back, Angela stretches under the covers, while continuing to talk to Jarvis."So, if it is almost noon, then why is it so dark in this room? The sun should be up, right?"

"Yes, the sun is "up"; but, when there are dark storm clouds that cover the sky, they tend to block out most of the sun's rays from the surface of the planet, Angela." When most people would have considered Angela's question about the sun being up a stupid thing to ask, Jarvis was polite and patient when answering such simple questions. Tony had programmed him to function that way. However, the inventor always puts a piece of himself in his work. In Jarvis's case, he inherited a fraction of Tony's sarcasm.

Knowing that Jarvis had been sarcastic with his answer, Angela decides to ask a more sensible question. "Is it raining? I can't hear it hit the windows, if it is."

"The reason you can't hear it hit the windows is because it's much softer and lighter than the usual precipitation that falls out of the sky."

Sitting upright on the side of the bed facing the curtained windows, Angela uses the Force to bring her denim jacket and jeans, along with her white, long-sleeved shirt to her. Soon enough, she had dressed for the another day. Standing up, Angela, once again, uses her abilities to make the bed and places her bed clothes on top of the blanket. Once that his finished, she decides to walk over to the curtains. Grabbing onto the tan curtains, she separates them from each other, allowing her to see out at New York City.

Her eyes widen at the sight that was playing out outside. The city of New York was dressed in layers of white, fluffy snow. Every single building top had a covering of the snow. The streets below could barely be seen, since the snow was falling slightly faster than it could melt from the asphalt. The same was happening with the walkways surrounding the buildings. The snow had managed to bury the walkways underneath itself. However, Angela spotted people and vehicles moving about on the streets and sidewalks. The cars were moving slower, but they still carried on their way, not giving a care to the white, frozen crystals of water that had arrived during the night.

Breaking the silence that had settled in the room, Angela tells herself what she was seeing. "Snow...cold, wet...snow." She lets out a moan of disapproval as she closes the curtain together and walks towards her bedroom door. Before grabbing the doorknob, she remember her lightsabers that she had laid on the stand next her bed. She calls them to her, and they come immediate to her side and latch onto her belt, one on either side of her. Having everything she wanted from her room, she turns the silver-colored doorknob and opens the door.

After shutting the door behind her, Angela makes her way down the hall and into the main room. Even though it had been wrecked a few months earlier by Trent, the island for the bar area was repaired, the furniture that was thrown against the wall had been replaced, and the window that was shot out by the Tie-Fighter was replaced with a new piece. It had looked the same way it had before the little scrimmage between Trent and the three heroes.

Looking around the room, she finally spots Tony, Steve and Trent sitting down on the furniture, talking amongst themselves and goes over to join them. Steve was sitting on the sofa, while Trent and Tony each had their own recliners. And since the furniture made a small semicircle, they could all talk to each other without turning their heads from side to side.

"I can't believe that I'm actually seeing snow for the first time!" Trent states as he glances out the window at the flakes of snow flying around outside.

"This is your first time seeing snow?" Steve words tell Trent that the soldier was a bit surprised, so he explains why this was the first time seeing snow for himself.

"Yeah. I had been trained by...my former master ever since I could remember. In fact, most of my life, I had been living in starships, orbital stations, battle cruisers, you name it. The only times I wasn't in one of those places was when I was on an Imperial world or on a mission." He looks away from Steve and back out the ceiling-tall windows. "It's actually nice to see something new for a change. I'm glad that I finally get to see snow!"

"Speak for yourself." The three of them look to see Angela make her way over to the empty seat on the couch next to Steve. Just before she sits down, Tony greets her with sarcasm.

"Wow! You're up early."

After sitting down next to Steve, Angela looks at Tony, who had picked up his cup of coffee from the table and was taking a sip of it. Wondering what the drink could be, she asks him what it is.

"What's that?"

Tony stops drinking the streaming liquid. "This? It's coffee." Tony realizes that Angela hadn't had coffee yet. She had been on Earth for several months and he had never offered her the precious, liquid necessary for most people to get through everyday life. "Here." Tony holds out the cup to Angela. "If you're not awake completely, this will do it."

Taking up the cup in her right hand, Angela brings the cup to her. Looking down into the container, she sees the liquid was light brown in color; and she feels the steam of the coffee hit her face. She was hesitant about taking a sip of the drink. Several times, when she tried a new drink, the drink wasn't that bad. However, on a few occasions, she tried drinks that were heated and were brown in color that had the taste of dirt. In fact, one of the drinks was a mixture of dirt and hot water.

Trent, who had loved the drink from the first sip, reassures her about the coffee. "Don't worry. It's tastes great."

Believing in Trent's words, Angela takes a sip of the coffee, stops for a brief moment, then tilts the cup so that she gets every last drop of coffee. Setting the empty cup on the coffee table in front of her. She nods and compliments the drink.

"I think that coffee is the best drink that I have ever had."

Tony agrees with her. "It's the liquid necessity of most Americans."

Remembering Angela's comment about the snow, Trent asks her what she means by it. "Angela, earlier when I said that I was glad to see snow and you said 'Speak for yourself', were you implying that you hate snow?"

Angela looks to see that all of them had their eyes on her, as if she had uttered unforgivable words. "I don't 'hate' snow. It's the other stuff that comes with it."

Steve says one word, hoping she would continue to explain. "Like?"

"Like the cold wind, lower visibility when the snow blows around, and the fact that it tends to make walking in it a bit of a challenge."

Trent is slow in believing the last fact. "Oh, come on. Walking in light, fluffy, frozen water droplets can't be THAT difficult."

Angela tries to make her point clear and correct by asking Trent a question. "Have you ever set foot on Hoth?"

"No."

"Well, then you have no idea how difficult it is to tread in snow that can get waist deep; and that is when it isn't snowing. If it's snowing, you have deep snow to walk through while having snowflakes hit your face when you're trying to see in front of you." She reminisces about one of the moment she had on Hoth. "I could barely make out my hand in front of my face."

Hearing Angela's argument against the weather, he quickly gets up from his seat and gestures with his hand to the world outside. "That's not Hoth, though. Even though the wind is blowing the snow around, it isn't bad. I can see for miles." A sudden idea suddenly pops into Trent's head. "I think I'm going to the roof and enjoy this beautiful weather."

Angela points out an important detail to Trent. "You're going to go outside in those clothes?"

Glancing down at his attire, he concludes that he isn't dressed enough for the type of weather. He was wearing a light blue t-shirt, that had fancy black detailing on the left side. His pants were denim jeans that looked worn in, even though they had been worn for only a few days by Trent. Even though his old Sith armor, that he had traveled to Earth in, would have kept him from getting cold outside, he refused to wear it unless he absolutely needed it to save someone's life besides his own.

Seeing Angela's point, he looked outside at the elegant snowfall once more. "Wish I had better clothes for the weather. But, I going up to the roof anyways. A little cold wind and frozen water won't kill me."

Even though Steve's face didn't show a reaction to Trent's declaration, his words got to him. At that moment, Steve remembers himself crashing in the Arctic. Frozen in water for over half a century could not only kill you, it can change your whole future. His time was different from the present, and he was still getting use to it. In fact, he, Angela, Trent had been learning about everyday life on Earth together. It was comforting to know that he wasn't alone in understand how the world worked.

Pushing the thoughts away, he focuses back on the discussion that they were having about the weather.

"Why don't we both go to the rooftop, Angela?"

Rolling Trent's question around in her head and looking through the windows at the snow falling slowly from the sky, Angela states, "Maybe if I had a coat of some kind...and gloves."

A sudden snap of Tony's fingers draws everyone's gaze on him. "Got it. I got just what you two need. Wait here." Quickly getting up from his seat, Tony walks hastily out of the room and is soon back holding one black coat and one dark blue coat with his right hand, and two sets of black, leather gloves in the other. Tony hands Angela the dark blue one and Trent takes the black one.

"I figured since you two would be stuck here for while, you would need some suitable clothing for each season."

Trent puts his coat and gloves on as Angela stands up from the sofa and does the same. Soon enough, both of them were wearing their new clothing for the winter weather. Smirking at the two of them, Tony tells them, "You'll have to thank Pepper the next time you see her. She's the one who picked them out for you two; and I must say that she did an excellent job."

Angela and Trent nod at Tony's statement. Looking at the snow falling outside and then at Angela, who was on his right, he asks if she's ready. "You ready to face the less harsh weather of Earth with me on the rooftop?"

She looks outside. Trent had a point. The snowstorm outside had slowed down to the point that the snowfall was slightly visible and the wind had faded away. Knowing that the coat and gloves, she had just received, would shield her from the cold air outside, she nods. "Yeah, I'm ready. Let's get to the roof."

As they both make their way towards the elevator, Tony makes it known to them that he and Steve would join them on the roof. "We will meet you two up there."

Tony looks over at Steve. "I assume you have a coat, right?"

"Yeah, I do." He starts making his way towards the hall to get to his room. "I will meet you on the roof as well."

"Alright." Answering Steve, Tony also makes his way down the hall, past Steve's room on his left, and enters the next door. Strolling up to his closet, he opens it, and starts pulling out all the garments he considered essential to wear on a cold, December day.

First chapter :D I'm so excited for this! With 2014 quickly approaching, more excitement is starting to build in me. With Captain America: The Winter Soldier and X-Men: Days of Future's Past coming out, I might just have the best year ever...until Avengers: Age of Ultron comes out. Guardians of the Galaxy is also coming out next year, but it'll be new to me, so no comments about it yet.

So, how was this chapter? Even though there isn't much going on, it'll happen in my story. I have to set the stage first and figure out how I want this to go. Let's just say that this story is going to be a little bit dark for Angela. I'm going to try to fit in bits and pieces of her back-story into the book, but I'm going to make it work so that it doesn't pull away from the main story.

This is going to be great. So, if you guys and girls love a challenge, I'll give you one right now. I challenge you guys and girls to favorite, follow, and review this story more than the first one! If you want to challenge me, send me you question. I'm ready!

Enjoy this epic story. ~TheJediAvenger~