Yeeeeeah... I started this back in December and finally finished it. The whole story is done, but I'm only posting a chapter a day. (Unless I forget) so enjoy a winter themed fic and just ignore the fact it's goin up in March. ? Thanks!
(read til the end of the chapter, there's a twist)
Getting snowed in didn't seem like the worse thing in the world. Ash hadn't realized it was going to snow so much when she invited her friends to her place after work. Had the porcupine known the heavy snow would shift into a full on storm and trap the Meena and Johnny in with her, she probably wouldn't have invited them. That said, Ash was still kind of glad they were there with her. She was still adjusting to life on her own and had found she actually didn't like living alone. Too proud to say anything about it though, she just invited the elephant and gorilla over as often as possible. Meena and Johnny were the only close friends Ash had that weren't also friends with Lance. After the breakup, Ash had learned that a majority of their friends had really been his friends, which stung. Luckily, she dumped him right when she met everyone at Moon theater and was lucky enough to have them all take a liking to her. Except Mike, but Ash wasn't sure he liked anyone other than himself.
Things had changed a lot over the year they had all been working for Mr. Moon. Johnny had admitted he didn't like being alone and had taken Rosita's very insistent offer to stay with her family. Meena had grown surprisingly close to Ash despite her shy nature and Ash had spent much of her time at Meena's house to avoid her own empty apartment. Ash never told the elephant this, or anyone for that matter. And when Meena's mother, Leslie, got suspicious and offered to have Ash stay with them, the porcupine couldn't bring herself to accept.
But, she still found reasons for inviting both the other teens to her apartment whenever possible. Today, she hadn't bothered coming up with a good excuse and simply ask of they'd come over and hang.
Meena had long since caught on to the fact Ash sometimes couldn't stand being alone, and this felt like one of those times. She had smiled innocently when agreeing to come over and send her mother a text saying she probably won't be home until the next day. Johnny had no clue Ash felt lonely and had just agreed because he had nothing else planned.
Now here they were, trapped by a heavy layer of snow and chilling temperatures. The three had been throughly occupied by trying to best each other at violent video games and coming up with witty comebacks, so none of them bothered to look out a window until Leslie call her daughter's phone. After Meena jumped from her phone going off and fumbled to bring it to her ear, she heard her mother warn her not to try to come home. Meena got up to look out a window and saw the unforgiving winter land outside.
"Uh, guys?" Meena piped up, diverting Ash's and Johnny's attention from the T.V. screen. They looked in the direction she was facing and saw frozen scene outside.
Johnny gave an long whisper at the sight. Ash's eyes brows shot up and her expression turned guilty at the realization that she had essentially trapped her friends in with her. Her guilt was short lived after Johnny shot her a sheepish smile and spoke up. "Guess you're stuck with us for the night. Sorry 'bout that."
"Huh? Oh! No, it's fine! I don't mind you guys being around!" Ash answered a little more forcefully than she would have liked, thankfully the other two didn't seem to notice.
Getting snowed in didn't seem that bad, but it got worse a few minutes later. Johnny had called Rosita's household and was in the middle of explaining what was going on to her when the light suddenly went out and the other end of his conversation got dropped. "Er, hello? ...hellooo? ...Line's dead. The power outage must've hit them too." He looked up at the girl's from his spot on the couch with a shrug. After looking back at his phone, his brow furrowed in concern as he continued. "In fact... I don't 'ave any service at all. Or data."
The other two quickly checked their phones as well and found themselves in a similar situation. A quick rush of nerves passed through all three of them as they became unsettlingly aware of how disconnected they were from the rest of the world. Johnny was the first to shake it off as he got off the couch. Animals had survived thousands of years without internet and electricity, he figured they could survive the night. "Ey, Ash? Ya' got any torches or anything?"
His question brought Ash back from the edge of internal panic and she gave him a throughly confused stare. "...Why would I have a- Oh! you mean flashlight!" Her face lit up with realization. "Yeah, there should be some in the kitchen. Top far right drawer." She got up and walked out of the living room, pointing Johnny down the hall towards her small kitchen. The gorilla rolled his eyes at the torch comment as he causally stuck his hands in his pockets and headed down the hall. Meena shuffled after Ash and followed the porcupine into her room.
After a bit of scrounging around, Ash produced some key chain lights, a couple electric lanterns, and an impressive number of candles. The two were sat on Ash's bed looking over the light sources critically and had started discussing where each should go when they heard a disgusted shout from the kitchen.
"Gwuack! Ash! When's the last time ya' took yer trash out!" Johnny called and got the attention of both girls.
"When I kicked Lance out!" Ash shouted back without needing to think. This earned heard a snicker and light high five front from the elephant sat next to her. "But seriously, yeah, it's been a while!" She called with a shrug as she started climbing down from her bed. Rustling sounds from the kitchen made Ash walk quicker down the hall. She walked in on Johnny grumbling and tying off the garbage bag with a thoroughly grossed out expression.
Glancing up, he caught sight of the porcupine in the doorway watching him skeptically. "I'm gonna take this real quick, kay?" He switched back to his normal, cheery demeanor and gave a smile as he spoke. This didn't stop Ash from giving him a uneasy look from where she was leaning against the doorframe.
"Dude, just leave it 'til tomorrow." Ash dismissed the overstuffed plastic bag threatening to break at any minute.
Johnny was not deterred and slung the bag over his shoulder. "It still kinda light out na'. 'Nd the dumpste' right next next to the building, it'll be fine." He reasoned soundly as he brushed off her concerns and lugged the bag out of the kitchen. Ash shrugged and allowed him to pass, no bothering to argue further. The same could not be said for Meena.
As soon as the elephant spotted Johnny headed towards the door and realized he was intending to go outside, she immediately tried to reason him out of it. After a good five minutes of reassuring Meena that he wasn't going to slip on the icy ground and fall to his death or get impaled by an icicle, he managed to slip out the front door and away from Meena's fretting stare. Ash rolled her eyes at how Meena worriedly watch the door, waiting for her friend's safe return. She grabbed the elephant's hand to pull her away and have her help set up candles and other lighting method for when it got dark.
The girls were mostly finished setting everything when they heard the front open and close with a heavy thud. But rather than hear their friend continued further into the apartment, they heard Johnny's eerily unsteady voice. "Um...g-guys...?" His voice wavered and both girls glanced at each other in concern before quickly darting from the living room to the hall. They found Johnny wide-eyed with his back pressed against the door with a look of utter shock. Snow clung to his jeans and the arms of his thick leather jacket were dirty. In his arms was of mess of cloth. Meena's first thought upon seeing him was to wonder what was causing the almost horrified expression he had. Ash's first thought was to wonder why he was carrying what looked like filthy curtains.
The porcupine opened her mouth to ask Johnny why he had apparently stolen curtains out of the dumpster when said curtains started to move. The bundle squirmed and a tiny paw kicked up into view. The movement was accompanied by an awakening gurgle, followed by strained crying. Ash's jaw dropped and Meena gasped as she hurried to where Johnny was frozen in place with the bundle. "Oh my god!" The elephant breath out when her peered down at the incredibly young cub squirming in its fabric cocoon. She carefully took the bundle from her paralyzed friend and quickly carried it further into the warmth of the apartment, leaving Ash and Johnny in the hall to process what just happened.
"You were just taking out the trash!" Ash spit out in disbelief. "Where the hell did you get a baby?!" She shot a hand out in the direction Meena had just went with their new house guest.
Johnny looked down at her helplessly. "It was in the dumpste'." He answered in a bleak tone. Ash dragged a hand over her face and came to terms with the fact that they were snowed, without power or means of contacting anyone, and with an baby. This was bad.
Surprise! Betcha weren't expecting a baby were ya?! I have been dying to write about these guys with an infant! I always wonder what they'd be like around kids or babies. Now we'll find out!