It snows in Charleston in February, big fluffy puffs of white falling from the sky. Tom stands outside and smiles, snow sticking in his hair and beard.
"Perhaps you should come inside, Tom Mason," Cochise voice comes from behind him. He sounds fearful. "This could be a new Espheni weapon."
"It's snow, Cochise," Tom says, and when he turns to look at Cochise, his eyes are sparkling in delight. "It's snowing."
The last time it had snowed, the 2nd Mass had been on the road, without enough rooms for everyone. It had been rough- their Valley Forge, perhaps- but they had made it. This time they have warm buildings to go back to, so they can enjoy the snow this time.
"And this is a normal occurrence on your planet?" Cochise asks.
"Absolutely!" Tom says.
Cochise makes a humming noise as he considers the snow.
The snow falls and falls and falls, and soon they have a foot of snow. It sparkles in the morning light, and Tom drags Cochise outside before anyone else wakes up.
"We've got to do this early, before everyone else tramples through the snow," Tom says.
"Do what?" Cochise asks.
Tom doesn't actually responds, just jumps backwards and before Cochise can catch him, he's landed on the ground with a fwump.
Cochise quickly kneels beside him, concerned, but Tom shoos him.
"Just wait a sec!" Tom says gleefully. "It's okay."
He waves his arms and legs in a strange way, and if Tom hadn't assured him all was well, Cochise would be concerned. A minute later, he holds his arms up to Cochise.
"Will you help me up, please?" Tom asks.
The answer is yes, of course, and Cochise easily pulls Tom to his feet. Tom hops a little bit and then is standing next to him, arm wrapped tightly around Cochise's waist.
Cochise feels like he is supposed to have some kind of reaction to the vaguely human shaped blob on the ground before him, but the significance is lost on him. He turns to Tom with a confused look.
It's a look that Tom is familiar by now, and it's a look that stays on Cochise's face even after Tom says, "It's a snow angel!"
This means Tom has to launch into a long explanation of what angels are, and by the time he's done, Cochise fears that no matter how much he may love humans, this one human in particular, he will never understand them.
Tom urges him to make a snow angel of his own, and Cochise does so with little reluctance- maybe it will make more sense once he's actually done it. He falls backwards and imitates what Tom had done, waving his arms and legs.
The cold wetness of the snow doesn't bother him- he's spent time in many extremer climates before. It is kind of fun, staring up into the cloudy bright sky while he makes something, even if he doesn't understand what.
When he feels he has done an appropriate amount of limb waving, he has Tom help him to his feet. He sees now why Tom did that little hop; Cochise has stepped right through the bottom of his angel.
Other than his missteps, the two angels look almost the same- their proportions are only slightly different and the shape of Cochise's head isn't quite as round as Tom's.
"The first Volm angel," Tom says, bumping his hip against Cochise's.
It's a pretty appropriate title, in Tom's opinion, considering the Volm had been a godsend.
Cochise is strolling back to the Volm compound when something cold smacks into the back of his head. Fearing imminent attack, he looks around, but only sees Tom's offspring standing innocently behind him.
Or, perhaps, not so innocently- the youngest offspring pulls his arm back and throws a ball made of the tightly packed snow at him.
"Snowball fight!" Matt yells out as he leans down to grab more snow.
Before Cochise can react, both of Tom's other offspring have thrown their snowballs at him as well. Cochise manages to duck out of the way, but just barely.
From the way they're laughing, Cochise can tell it's a game and not a serious battle. Making a ball of snow is quite easy, as it turns out, and soon he's flinging snowballs back at Tom's offspring quicker than the three of them combined.
"We surrender! We surrender!" Hal calls out, holding his hands up in a signal of peace.
He does not quite trust this surrender- both Matt and Ben still have snowballs in their hands.
"We'd never surrender!" Ben yells, throwing his snowball in Hal's face and laughing.
Hal retreats to Cochise, Matt also throwing his snowball in Hal's general direction.
"Perhaps we should form an alliance, Hal Mason," Cochise says.
A half hour later, Cochise and Tom's offspring are laughing together, sprawled in the snow.
"You put up a good fight, Cochise," Matt says.
"I have been training as a warrior from a young age," Cochise says by way of explanation.
"Even the homeworld advantage didn't help," Hal says.
"Hey! At least Matt and me held our own. You were a traitor!" Ben argues.
"How about I treat you guys to hot chocolate? Would that make it better?" Hal asks.
"Yes!" Matt yells.
They all slowly get up, brushing the snow off of themselves. Cochise begins to return his walk back to the Volm compound, when someone starts tugging on his arm.
When he looks down, Matt is looking back up at him. "You get hot chocolate, too!"
"Are you certain? It is Hal Mason who is procuring it after all, not you." Cochise does not want to intrude on a family moment.
Matt looks back at Hal.
"Of course, Cochise!" Hal says. "Come on!"
Not long after, Tom walks in to find his kids and Cochise sitting on their bed, sipping out of mugs. Tom takes a second to take in the scene: Matt is sitting in Hal's lap, looking like he's about to fall asleep. Hal's got an arm protectively around him and he's leaning against the headboard. Ben is sitting next to him, carefully sipping out of his steaming mug. Cochise is sitting at the other side of the bed, also being careful as he sips.
"This is a very enjoyable beverage, especially in comparison to how cold it is outside," Cochise says as Tom enters.
"That's the point!" Ben says. "We go outside to get cold, and then we can warm up."
"Is the cold unpleasant for you?" Cochise asks, tilting his head.
"Kind of, but it's okay if we're having fun, too," Ben says. "You don't want to just be hanging out in it."
"Yeah, definitely not," Hal agrees, nodding. "That's no fun."
"Dad!" Ben says when he sees him lingering in the doorway. He waves him over.
Tom comes and sits on the bed in front of Cochise, leaning back as Cochise wraps an arm around his waist.
"You must try this beverage," Cochise holds out his mug.
Tom takes the mug, wrapping his hands around it to warm them up. "I love hot chocolate," he says before taking a few sips.
"Your offspring are formidable warriors," Cochise says, taking back the mug.
"Oh?" Tom asks, raising at an eyebrow at the three of them.
"They ambushed me and began pelting me with balls of snow," Cochise explains.
"Boys!" Tom starts to scold them.
"Hey!" Hal says defensively. "He ended up totally kicking our butts. Well, Ben and Matt's butts."
"Because you're a traitor!" Ben protests. "You surrendered and then left to join him!"
Tom smiles serenely as watches the low stakes argument unfold. He reaches back to take sips of Cochise's hot chocolate every once in a while as he feels Cochise rub little circles into his side.
The argument comes to a halt when Matt falls asleep, spilling his mug on the floor. Hal just laughs and scoops him up.
"Goodnight, Dad, Cochise," Hal says, heaving himself to his feet.
"I'll go get something to clean that up with," Ben says, following Hal out the door.
Once they're gone, Tom shifts so he's looking up at Cochise. "Sorry they ambushed you like that."
"It is quite alright, Tom Mason," Cochise says. He seems to be struggling with something, and Tom sits patiently as he works it out. They've got all night, or at least until Ben comes back with something to clean up with. "I enjoy spending time with your offspring. They are excellent company."
Tom smiles bright and wide at him.
A week later, it's still snowing, and Cochise again finds himself outside in it, this time with Tom Mason and his offspring.
"We've got to make snowmen," Ben says. "And a snowvolm."
"How do we do so?" Cochise asks.
"You need three balls of snow and then you stack them," Hal says. "Watch us."
Cochise does so, and he slowly sees the misshapen snowhumans take shape. Not wanting to be left behind, Cochise begins constructing his own representation in the snow. It does not look like him, but Cochise senses that is less important than the actual act of making.
"Hey, buddy, what's wrong?" Hal says, kneeling down next to Matt.
"We don't have carrots for the noses. It's not right," Matt says.
"Your snowman still looks good!" Ben says, standing beside his own snowman. "Exactly like you."
"Mom always said they had to have carrot noses. Had to," Matt says stubbornly. He doesn't remember much about Mom, but he remember that.
Cochise witnesses as everyone deflates a little. He halts his construction and goes to kneel next to Matt. "We have a similar vegetable on our Volm ship. It is not the same color, and it is somewhat smaller, but perhaps it will be acceptable."
"Okay," Matt says. He's suspicious, but he's willing to trust Cochise.
"I will return with them as quickly as possible," Cochise says, leaving when Matt nods at him.
Tom watches Cochise go with a sad smile on his face.
"Until he gets back, how about we find something to be the snowman's hair?" Tom says.
Matt perks up a little. "I want it to have a mohawk!"
"We can use sticks for that," Ben says, already starting to hunt around.
When Cochise returns, Matt's snowhuman has many sticks point right up out of his head. Cochise does not ask why (he thought sticks were for arms); he just holds out the vegetables for Matt's inspection.
Matt twists his face around. They look kind of like carrots, except they're bright purple. So, like, radioactive carrots. He grabs one and puts it on his snowman, squinching his face as he looks at it.
"It's good," he declares. Different, and he does miss having real carrots, but this is good too.
Immediately, everyone else grabs the vegetable, Tom leaning up to give Cochise a quick kiss and murmur his thanks.
Soon, everyone's snow creations are completed, all in a vague circle. Everyone stands back and admires their work.
"It's a big snow family," Matt declares. "Like us, but snow."
Tom flashes Cochise a look and nods. Despite the cold temperature, Cochise feels unusually warm.
This is not where he expected to find his family, but he is pleased to have found it.