Snowflake Escapades
Pairing: SaboAce Friendship
Rating: K
This was written as a gift for the OP Secret Santa project on tumblr, and dedicated to my dear secret santee, delectablypinkhottub. I hope you like your gift, and thank you for putting up with my random ways! Merry Christmas!
A special 'thank you' goes out to lunarshores for being an absolute doll and betaing this for me, thank you!
"Man, I could really go for some cookies and hot cocoa right now," Ace said, thinking about his treats and a warm, cozy blanket as he continued to pack snow into a gigantic snowball that was already taller than himself.
"We can take a break after we're finished making our snowman!" Sabo declared with a note of determination in his voice as he smoothed over Ace's patchwork on the large snowball with mitten-clad hands.
"Oh, c'mon," Ace tried again. "Surely taking a small cookie break wouldn't hurt anything."
Honestly, even though homemade cookies and a piping cup of hot chocolate sounded really good right now, Ace was half-joking when he made the comment. He knew how important setting this record was for Sabo; he felt wholly honored that Sabo asked him to partake in his quest to make the world's largest snowman.
"Normally it wouldn't," Sabo replied, gathering snow in order to start on the midsection of their snowman, "but for you, stopping for food is always followed by a nap."
"You say that like it's such a bad thing." Ace grinned. Although Ace was thoroughly dedicated to helping Sabo achieve his goal, that didn't mean he wasn't going to mildly tease him or suggest they take a meal break when he got the chance. They had been out in the cold all morning after all, surely they both deserved a little rest.
"We don't have time for that!" Once Sabo had packed enough snow together to make a decently-sized snowball, he got down on his knees and began to roll his newly-formed snowball across fresh snow that had yet to be touched by either of them.
"When you're done smoothing the bottom out, roll it over to the jungle gym, alright? That's the only way we're gonna get high enough to put 'Frosty's' head on."
"Yeah, yeah," Ace replied, rolling his eyes as he followed Sabo's directions, and started to push the huge snowball over to the playset.
Truthfully, he didn't mind following Sabo's lead on this endeavor. Sabo clearly had a vision in mind as to what this snowman needed to look like, and Ace had absolutely no intention of ruining the dream. So even though he knew better, Ace didn't say anything about it. It wasn't like they had a better option anyway.
After the ladder in the tree incident last spring, there was absolutely no way that Ace's grandfather, Garp, was going to let them get their hands on the metal deathtrap anytime in the near future, and Ace still hadn't cracked the combination to the enormous safe that Garp had locked the ladder up in. Ace huffed indignantly; one small mishap with the ladder that involved one or two broken bones, and suddenly both he and Sabo had been banned for life. Naturally, Ace had thought that this new rule was supremely unfair.
He had long since lost count on how many adventures he and Sabo had where the aid of a ladder would have been invaluable; but until Ace broke the code-or the extremely unlikely event, that Garp decided to lift the life-long ladder restriction he had imposed upon both Sabo and himself, occurred-they would have to get inventive in their methods for getting off the ground.
Today, it had been decided that the jungle gym was the most logical tool to use. Not only could they use the gym to get the snowman's head to the proper height, but they could also use the playset as a way to measure their finished creation. In fact, it had been Ace who had suggested building the snowman near the jungle gym in the first place. He was the absolute last person who needed to be told to push Fro-
"Oi!" Ace yelled playfully, stopping in mid-roll to look over at Sabo. "Why would you name it 'Frosty'? That's so boring," Ace drawled, purposely elongating his vowel sounds, which only added to his lighthearted teasing.
"It's a classic name," Sabo countered, immediately defending his choice. He turned to Ace with a big grin plastered on his face. "I doubt you've got a better idea anyway."
Before Ace could refute Sabo's audacious claim, Sabo quickly gathered up a clump of white snow and threw it in Ace's direction. Ace didn't bother to try and dodge Sabo's oncoming snowball attack. He let the cluster of snow burst into millions of tiny flakes upon hitting his right arm. As per usual, the impact didn't hurt in the slightest, however Ace was more than eager to return the favor. He wasted no time in assembling a brand new snowball.
"I could come up with one-hundred better names than you could!" Ace proclaimed loudly as he whipped his cluster of snow at Sabo.
Unfortunately for Ace, his near-instant retaliation wasn't fast enough for Sabo. By the time Ace had flung his own attack, Sabo had delivered a preemptive strike against him. This time, Sabo's snowball hit Ace squarely in the chest.
Sabo, on the other hand, dove to the side, managing to avoid getting smacked in the head with Ace's snowball. In spite of Sabo's narrow evasion, diving head-first into a large pile of snow still resulted in him getting covered in a shimmery layer of snow.
Ace couldn't help but grin to himself in satisfaction. Sure, he had just taken two hits from Sabo, but in the end Sabo was the one who ended up getting blanketed in the fluffy ice crystals. He chuckled jovially; obviously it didn't always pay to sidestep oncoming snowball attacks.
Ace was still reveling in his small victory when Sabo picked himself off the ground and dusted the thin layer of snow off of his black snow pants and dark blue puffer coat.
"What are you looking so smug for?" Sabo glared in Ace's direction, which only caused Ace's smile to grow. He knew very well that Sabo was just pretending to be angry-Sabo might have been a little annoyed that his plan had backfired on him-but he wasn't upset with Ace.
"It's not like you came up with a better name than 'Frosty'," Sabo said confidently, crossing his arms across his chest and pretending to have a haughty attitude.
"I do too!" Ace blurted out automatically.
"Oh yeah?" Sabo's tone was skeptical, yet he apparently decided to humor Ace and his antics. "Let's hear it."
"Hmm," Ace hummed softly as he pondered the question. Ace was absolutely positive that any name would be better than 'Frosty', but now that he'd been put on the spot to think of something good, his mind was drawing a complete blank.
Ace noted the expectant look in Sabo's eyes; it was crystal clear that he wouldn't be letting Ace off the hook until he either backed up his claims or backed down from the challenge. Although Ace didn't really care if he ended up having to concede to Sabo, his competitive side wouldn't drop the issue. Almost any name would be better than 'Frosty', but yet Ace was still having trouble thinking of even a single name.
Well, that wasn't quite true. Ace had a few suggestions up his sleeve, but those ideas suited his personal sense of humor more than anything else. Ace was almost certain that Sabo wouldn't go for any of his recommendations, but saying them out loud was definitely better than saying nothing at all.
After deciding that he didn't have anything to lose by giving Sabo his suggestions, a silly grin spread across Ace's face. "What about something like, 'Blazing Inferno'? We can call him 'Blaze' or maybe even 'Fern' for short!"
Sabo tilted his head to the side. "Really, is that your best?"
"No!" Ace exclaimed before he could stop himself. "What about," he paused for another moment, wondering if the other ideas he had were actually better than the first one or not, "'Scorching Embers' or maybe 'Spontaneous Combustion'? You know having a nickname like 'Combusto', would be totally awesome!"
Although Ace's creativity earned him a few laughs, Sabo still shook his head, essentially vetoing Ace's recommendations. "Making something ironic doesn't always make it better." Sabo resumed pushing his growing snowball across the yard.
"The irony makes it funny, which is better than 'Frosty', at the very least!"
"Sorry Ace," Sabo's voice held a melancholic tone to it, as if he regretted having to reject Ace's idea. "It just doesn't beat 'Frosty'."
Ace only shrugged before once again smoothing over the snow ball he had rolled over to the jungle gym. It didn't really matter to him whether or not Sabo took his naming suggestions. The entire snowman building idea was Sabo's idea in the first place; he was the one who really wanted to break the record. Ace was just happy to be included.
"'S your loss," Ace feigned personal offense before going over to help Sabo push the newest snowball across the lawn.
"I'll get over it somehow." Sabo smirked.
Ace only laughed and began to roll the growing snowball faster. Soon, he had gained enough speed so that he was almost running with the ball. The wind whipped across his face as he continued to get faster; it was as if the cold breeze had given his entire being a renewed sense of vitality and vigor.
"Hey!" Sabo yelled, picking up his pace so he could catch up with Ace. "Wait up!"
Once he had found his new resolve, Ace had been so fixated on making the new snowball that he hadn't realized that he had lost Sabo during the excitement.
"C'mon, quit being pokey and catch up to me!" Despite his words, Ace slowed down quite a bit so Sabo could easily meet up with him. He gave Sabo a moment to relax and catch his breath before picking up speed again. This time, he made sure that Sabo was pushing the ball right along with him.
"You know, if we keep going like this, we'll be inside, wrapped up in blankets, and munching on my mom's Christmas cookies within the hour," Ace said happily, rolling the ball to make it turn as they reached the wooden fence that separated his backyard from the neighbors'.
"You just now realized that?" Sabo asked with a note of complete disbelief in his voice.
"I can't help it if my stomach is giving me an incentive to work faster," Ace quickly defended his stance. When he and Sabo rounded another corner and made it back to the jungle gym, Ace came to a sudden stop, accidentally causing to Sabo to run face-first into the enormous ball of snow.
"What the heck?" Sabo's tone made it clear to Ace that he was slightly vexed from his sudden collision with the snowball.
"Sorry about that," Ace gave Sabo an apologetic smile as he helped Sabo brush off the snow that had gotten all over him. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Sabo replied, adjusting his hat. "Why did you stop so suddenly anyway?"
"Look at our midsection and compare it to our bottom." Ace gestured from snowball to snowball, hoping that Sabo would see the vast differences and see the blatantly obvious issue.
"Oh," Sabo nodded. "You got so overzealous with your rolling that you made the midsection bigger than the bottom part," he said matter-of-factly. "It's not that big of a deal though. This," Sabo patted the larger snowball, "will be the bottom now, and likewise," he pointed to the smaller snowball, "will be our midsection." Sabo smiled cheerfully. "This is kind of better, actually."
"You think so?" Ace asked with a note of hopefulness in his voice. He was supremely elated by the prospect that his small blunder could actually turn out to be something good.
"I do!" Sabo announced loudly. "This means that 'Frosty' can be even bigger than we planned it to be!"
Ace didn't even bat an eye at the mention of 'Frosty's' name; he was much too excited by the prospect of surpassing Sabo's original goal to pester him about the subject.
Ace caught a glimpse of the gleam in Sabo's eyes, and he was sure that the look perfectly matched the adventurous glint in his own grey eyes. Ace was completely overwhelmed with enthusiasm; he completely forgot about cookies and hot chocolate.
"Let's do it then!" Ace agreed enthusiastically as he moved over to the smaller snowball and started to push it out of the way.
Once Ace had the midsection a fair distance away from the jungle gym, Sabo immediately rolled the bottom section to its rightful place.
Ace grinned up at Sabo. "You ready to stack them up?"
"You got it!" Sabo smiled back as he ran over to meet Ace at the midsection snowball.
"Alright," Ace crouched down and dug his gloved fingers under the bottom of the snowball, and he waited for Sabo to follow suit.
"Ready?" Ace asked as soon as he was sure that Sabo was in position.
"On the count of three," Sabo confirmed.
"1… 2… 3!"
Almost instantaneously, Ace and Sabo lifted up the snowball. Although the massive ball of snow was extremely bulky and awkward to hold, Ace was surprised to find that the snowball wasn't nearly as heavy as he thought it would be. The snowman's midsection was still quite cumbersome to maneuver and position on top of the bottom snowball, however, he and Sabo ended up having to lean the smaller snowball against the larger one and roll it on top to adjust and arrange it properly.
When the midsection snowball had been firmly positioned on top of the bottom snowball, Sabo pulled away from the nearly-finished snowman.
"If you smooth out everything out here, I'll make the head of our snowman real quick." Without waiting for Ace's reply, Sabo got to work on making the top of the snowman.
"I'm on it," Ace assured Sabo before following his directions, starting to knead out the bumpy patches of snow with his knuckles.
Ace worked quickly and efficiently, knowing that it wouldn't take long for Sabo to make 'Frosty's' head. He was confident that Sabo would be able to make the head perfectly proportionate to the rest of the body too, whereas he might go overboard and make a third snowball that was bigger than either of the two they already had. Ace couldn't help but snicker at the thought. As humorous as rearranging 'Frosty's' segments around, or better, attempting to give him an oversized head might be, Ace knew that experiment was for another snowman adventure. He and Sabo were so close to finishing this one; Ace could almost taste his well-deserved reward of chocolate-chip cookies.
By the time that Ace had finished leveling out the midsection and bottom snowballs, making them nearly-perfect spheres, Sabo had finished 'Frosty's' head and was already trying to carry it up the jungle gym's ladder. Although Ace couldn't do much to help Sabo carry the third snowball, he diligently spotted him, just in case Sabo fell or slipped on the ladder's icy railings.
Ace sighed in relief when Sabo made it to the highest platform of the gym without any troubles. Ace smiled up at Sabo, whom waved down at him in return.
"Grab the sack we left on the ground, would ya?" Sabo asked. "We need to dress him up a bit!"
"Sure thing," Ace nodded enthusiastically, grabbing the small satchel that Sabo had left at the base of the playset earlier that morning. Ace secured the pack's strap over his shoulder before making his way up the jungle gym. Like Sabo, Ace was weary of the patches of ice on the ladder's rails, but nevertheless, Ace still made it to the top quite easily.
To his dismay, Sabo was already trying to secure 'Frosty's' head on top of the midsection by the time Ace met him on the top of the jungle gym.
"Hey! Wait a sec-"
Ace didn't even have time to set 'Frosty's' new belongings down; he dashed over to the side railings and immediately took a hold of the side of 'Frosty's' head that Sabo couldn't reach. From where Ace was standing, it looked as if Sabo was about to lose his grip on the snowball, and accidentally send it crashing to the ground.
Luckily, Ace got there just in the nick of time. Together, they easily positioned 'Frosty's' head so that it was firmly attached to his midsection. Without needing to be asked, Ace started to smooth out the surface of the new snowball.
"Ace?"
Ace looked back up at Sabo with a questioning look in his eyes. "Yeah?"
"Thank you, you know, for building Frosty with me," Sabo said sincerely as he started to decorate Frosty with the items Ace had brought up.
"No problem," Ace gave Sabo a goofy grin, taking a scarf from the bag and wrapping it securely around 'Frosty's' neck. "This was fun, and not to mention, good practice for when we do the real thing!"
Sabo almost dropped one of the rocks he was using to create 'Frosty's' smile with. "What do you mean, 'practice'?"
"Practice," Ace nodded, reiterating the word as if doing so was a sufficient explanation all on its own. "'Frosty' is work of art, don't get me wrong, but he's not the world's largest snowman. I heard that the record was over one-hundred and twenty-two feet tall!"
The expression Sabo gave Ace was utterly priceless. It was a look of true happiness, and it filled Ace's entire being with warmth and satisfaction. Sabo was practically his brother after all, and Ace knew him all too well.
"You know, I was thinking that 'Frosty' could use a 'Combusto' for a companion," Sabo said eagerly, setting his prized possession, that was a top hat and goggles combination on top of 'Frosty's' head, finally finishing the snowman.
Ace's smile only grew; he knew that 'Combusto' was a really cool name for a snowman. "Looks like we have our weekend planned, huh?"
Before Sabo could respond, Ace's stomach started to growl loudly, making his previously forgotten hunger known.
"Let's go get that snack," Sabo chuckled as he started to climb down the ladder.
"About time!" Ace agreed as he followed Sabo down the ladder and raced him to the house. Before long, Sabo and Ace were cozily wrapped up in warm blankets, guzzling hot cocoa and chomping down on Christmas cookies. As they warmed up, both Sabo and Ace were buzzing with excitement as they talked and planned about how they should go about building 'Combusto'. After all, they had a world record to break, and perhaps more importantly, 'Frosty' needed a friend too.