A/N: This was a prompt fill from my blog over at automaticthree-sixty. The prompt was Nudge + "Oh my gosh an actual reindeer!" It is basically tooth-rotting fluff. Happy holidays!
"Max," Angel whined, "I'm tired."
Nudge bit her lip. She was tired, too. They had been flying for what must have been hours, non-stop, in weather cold enough to make her nose run. Her windbreaker, jacket, and the sweater she had picked up from a library's lost and found only worked as well as the slits cut in the back allowed, and she thought her back was numb enough from the constant gusts of icy wind that her wings would stop working any minute now.
But she wasn't about to say anything.
"Just a little further," Max said, throat rough from inhaling the cold air. "We need to get out of range of the snowstorm."
"I still think we should have gone south," Iggy grumbled from his place just above Nudge.
"Iggy, you know why we couldn't go south."
"Yeah, remind me what could possibly be worse than freezing our tail feathers off?"
"Erasers," Fang supplied.
"Holiday traffic through Pennsylvania," Gazzy piped in.
"Getting caught, put in a zoo, and looked at through a glass wall for the rest of our lives," Nudge said.
Max grimaced at the thought and looked back to find Nudge's face. "Yeesh, Nudge. You doing okay back there?"
Nudge forced herself to smile, stretching her dry and cracked lips. "Great."
When she didn't continue, Max frowned and searched for Fang. Nudge dropped her façade with a huff at Max and Fang's wordless exchange. She couldn't see enough of their faces to make out what they were deciding.
"Hey, Nudge," Angel said, getting her attention from Nudge's left. Nudge looked over, and Angel, ear cocked to the side to better hear Max's thoughts—did her powers actually work like that? —used the Flock's signs language to signal they were going to land. Nudge beamed for real this time, giving Angel a thumbs-up that the girl returned with finger guns.
She had been hanging out with Gazzy to much.
"Okay, guys," Max shouted over the wind with a mixture of her leader-voice and her I-don't-like-this-but-we-don't-have-a-choice voice, "Start looking for a place to wait it out."
Gazzy whooped, and at the prospect of resting, the Flock's collective speed almost doubled.
It wasn't more than ten minutes before Gazzy spotted a cabin, hundreds of feet below them. It was a miracle he was able to find anything in the snow flurries that had begun to drift in; there were no lights in the windows, no smoke from the chimney, and best of all, no cars parked anywhere near it. Max nodded, and they swerved to begin a gentle glide downward.
There wasn't another cabin in sight, so they didn't bother with subtlety and landed right in front of the door. Just before Max could test the doorknob, Iggy stepped forward and grabbed her hand. She opened her mouth to say something cross and grouchy-Max-like, but paused when Iggy held up a finger to be quiet.
"I hear something," he barely whispered. At the words, everybody's posture shifted into something more defensive; Fang stepped in front of Nudge and Gazzy and Max hid Angel behind her.
For several long, agonizing seconds, there was silence. Then a loud groan, like cow was getting murdered. It lasted for what felt like years, and Nudge swore she was freezing straight to the ground.
"What. On earth. Was that," she asked.
Max shook her head, backing up and bumping into Angel in the process. "Nope, not staying here. Come on, up and a—Nudge!"
Nudge broke out from behind Fang and ran around the corner of the cozy little cabin. When she got to the end, she skid to a stop on the frozen ground. She stared with her mouth hanging open, not caring that the quickly-fattening snowflakes were landing on her tongue.
"Get back here!" Max had run up next to her, and similarly paused, hand poised to yank Nudge out of harm's way.
"Nudge?"
"Oh my gosh," Nudge whispered. She blinked, and it was like the spell was broken and she could move again. She didn't even spare Max a glance as she raced up to the edge of the fence. "Actual reindeer!"
The reindeer standing at the edge of the fence made that awful sound again, and this time Nudge recognized it as a reindeer call. She stopped inches away from the border fence separating her from the animal. It easily could have weighed three hundred pounds, but she didn't hesitate to reach a half-frozen hand over the border and brush against the animal's nose. It huffed out a warm, steamy breath. Encouraged by the reaction, she pet the animal's nose again.
Max came up next to her and crossed her arms. "Nudge, we need to go. This place is sketchy—"
The window facing their side of the house shimmied open, and both of them froze, afraid they'd been caught by some hermit who lives out here in the middle of nowhere with a grudge and a shotgun. But Gazzy popped his head out, grinned, and gestured for them to come inside. Max began to give him the "what-do-you-think-you're-doing-you're-disobeying-direct-orders" look, but Gazzy's attention was focused on Nudge, who was gesturing wildly to the reindeer, who had rested its heavy head on her shoulder. Gazzy's eyes widened, and he scurried away from the window before Max could finish her lecture.
Max stomped away to give the lecture to Fang, who had presumably been the one to give the go-ahead to break in. Nudge rested her head against the animal's, and heard crunching behind it. When she looked up, there were two more, another adult and a baby, following. She squealed in excitement, wincing in sympathy when the reindeer on her shoulder flinched at the sound. Just as she began to become acquainted with the baby, Angel and Gazzy rounded the corner with red faces and giant grins.
"Nudge!" Angel yelled. "Come inside! It's like lava!"
"What?" Nudge laughed, entranced with the texture of the fur on the baby's ears.
"Yeah," Gazzy added, coming to a stop next to her. The reindeer eyed him warily. "There's a giant fireplace inside, and Fang lit it and the whole place is so warm I thought my face would melt off!"
"And Iggy found stuff in the kitchen so he's making cookies!" Angel shouted, practically bouncing with excitement. The baby reindeer trot up to her curiously and tried to chew on the overly-long sleeve of her sweatshirt. Angel giggled, softly pulling it away.
The reindeer seemed to decide Gazzy wasn't a threat, because it snuffed his head once before licking his hair back, mussing it up ridiculously.
"Guys! Come on!" Max called from the door, most of her wariness replaced with exhaustion. They all gave final pats to the heads of the reindeer, and Gazzy and Angel practically dragged Nudge inside.
"You weren't kidding," she breathed, upon stepping over the threshold.
It was a small, cozy cabin, but a fireplace nearly half the size of the far wall was crackling invitingly, and Nudge felt her wings flutter when the warm draft of air washed over them. She took Fang's place at the fire when he muttered something about draftiness and wandered away.
Slowly, feeling came back into her fingers and toes. Iggy brought sugar cookies out that were still too hot to eat, but that had never stopped any of them.
Then she heard another moo from outside. "Hey, Max, I was thinking. . . "
"What?" Max asked, wariness back full-force.
"Well, we couldn't see the reindeer while we were flying, right? So there must only be those three, which means this isn't like a farm, so maybe they don't have good shelter. And, like, their owner normally takes care of them but can't get here because of the snowstorm—"
"Or because it's Christmas!" Gazzy added.
Nudge nodded. "—yeah, so it is looking pretty nasty out there, and that little baby reindeer is so cute! And I don't want it to, like, freeze to death, you know?"
"No."
Nudge gasped. "You want it to condemn a cute innocent little baby reindeer to a slow cold miserable death?!"
"Nudge, we are not bringing them inside!"
"Too late."
They all whipped their heads around, and there was Fang, flanked by two large and one slightly-smaller reindeer. The antlers of the biggest one brushed the doorjamb, but it ducked its head almost habitually as it loped up to the fire and plopped down next to Nudge, casually resting its head in her lap.
"I found the draft," Fang said, as though it explained everything.
Max looked like she was about to explode—Nudge sneaked a peek at Angel, whose smile slid off her face faster than toast off a paper plate. The smallest reindeer approached the thunderous girl, sniffed at her hand, and lightly nipped the cookie from her hand. It carried it back next to the big one and happily munched while Nudge tensed, waiting for Max's impending implosion.
Then, a Christmas miracle: Max's frown snuck up around the corners, and she sat with a huff, arms crossed. "Fine." The smallest reindeer went over to her and sniffed her hair curiously, hoping to find more cookies. Max wrinkled her nose. "But everybody has to shower first thing in the morning. You stink."
Nudge echoed Gazzy and Angel's cheers.
Later that night, after Gazzy and Angel had drifted to sleep and the fire had dimmed to more tolerable heat levels, Nudge brushed her fingers through the medium reindeer's thick fur and wondered aloud, "This place must be magical."
"How's that?" Max asked groggily.
Nudge duck-faced the older girl. "Somebody stole one of your cookies and nobody was violently murdered."
Fang huffed, and Max rolled her eyes. "Don't push your luck; there's always tomorrow for vengeance."
"Uh-huh," Nudge yawned. "G'night, guys." She leaned her head on the animal's warm flank.
"'Night, Nudge. Merry Christmas."