It was a white, silent world surrounding them. Thick snowflakes kept flowing down from the sky, piling up on the ground. You could almost hear them accumulate. The heavy snowfall took away all other sound from their environment. Shanks and Benn had been off to explore the winter island their crew had landed on. Normally some other team instead of the captain and his first mate would check out a new area but for some reason Shanks was adamant to take it upon himself this time so Benn did what he always did, he followed his captain's whim.
They did not really talk much during their walk. As far as exploring goes there also did not seem to be much to explore. It appeared to be an uninhabited winter island, nothing special, but Shanks kept trudging on through the thick snow. He was leading them towards a mountain area not too far away. Further in the distance to their sides, hardly visible through the wall of falling snow, there seemed to be a thick coniferous forest. The green of the pine trees was painted over by a heavy coat of snow, the branches heaving with the weight. Big poofy clouds covered the sky, yet the world was almost bright, the snow glistening mysterically where it was left untouched.
In this eerily quiet world the sounds of the crunching snow under their boots was almost loud, even louder to their ears were their own breaths and heartbeats. Shanks' famous red hair stood out harshly in the absence of colour. Only one step behind his captain, it automatically drew Benn's eyes towards him. Snow clung to the top of it and some strands were frozen where it had melted before but Shanks did not even bother shaking it off.
A brisk wind forced them to draw the collars of their coats higher and warned of an impending snowstorm. Not willing to be caught in the middle of a blizzard in an open snow field they picked up their pace to reach the mountain faster so that they could look for a shelter.
With luck on their side, Benn was able to make out an abandoned cave as soon as they reached the rocks. Shanks was still shaking off his coat at the entrance when his first mate was already inside the den. A beast must have resided in that cavern at some point, there was evidence of a huge nest close to the wall at the end of it. When Shanks finally reached the far inside, ducked as to not hit his head on the low ceiling, Benn was already gathering some of the dried leaves and twigs to make a small fire.
When his first mate pulled a matchbox out of his pockets and lit the cigarette dangling from his lips with it before throwing it in the fireplace to ignite the dried leaves, Shanks' face split into a big grin.
"So smoking does have its advantages afterall!"
Benn just huffed at that comment, took a deep drag of his cigarette and let out the smoke in one long exhale.
The campfire came to life fast and soon it radiated enough heat that Shanks took off his coat and laid it close to the fire to dry, Benn followed suit. Biting at the fabric around his middle finger Shanks took his glove off with one swift motion, threw it approximately close to their coats and held his hand out to the fire to warm up a bit. Benn sat down next to him, legs crossed, thighs touching and his shoulder brushing against Shanks' stump of a missing arm. He leasurely put his right arm around his captain's torso and pulled him a little closer. Shanks smiled at the gesture and leaned into it just a tiny bit. The howling of the wind grew louder soon and through the small entrance nothing but a white flurry was visible.
When Benn awoke with a jolt, jerking his head back from where it had rested on his chest with a painful and loud crack in his neck, he found himself alone in the cavern and the fire in front of him slowly dying down. Absentmindedly he grabbed some more of those twigs lying around and threw them into the fire to rekindle it a bit. He hadn't even noticed that he was tired enough to nod off much less falling asleep and not even waking up when his captain left his side. A frown drew Benn's brows together when he noticed the coats were still lying where they had put them. Suddenly alert he shot to his feet but when his gaze fell towards the mouth of the cave he instantly relaxed again as he saw that his capatin was standing right outside their little den.
With the fire dying down the cold had sneakily crept back inside. Benn quickly put his previously shed additional clothing back on, grabbed Shanks' coat and his glove and made his way outside.
Just as he ducked out of the entrance his question to his captain of what he was doing outside died on his lips. Shanks was looking up into the night sky, entranced he stretched his arm reachingly towards it, wonder and amazement etched into his features.
Up above them, with no cloud in sight anymore, was the beautiful, bright starry sky. That alone would have been a breathtaking view but amongst the deep dark blue and the twinkling bright stars danced a wondrous and eerie light, pale green mostly but with a hint of yellow, pink and violet in places. It moved across the sky in a rippling curtain, bewitching arcs of fluorescent light. It was incredibly beautiful.
It took a while until Benn was able to rip his gaze from that sight and flicker it to his captain, who was still entranced by it. For how long had he been standing there outside in the biting cold? He took the remaining three steps towards Shanks and gently put his captain's coat around his shoulders. Benn kept his arms slung around him in a soft embrace and looked back up into the sky to watch nature's light show. Shanks lowered his arm and put his hand on Benn's forearm that was wrapped around him. He leaned back into the embrace and wordlessly enjoyed this small magical and seemingly endless moment.
The snowy world had cast its veil of silence over everything again but nothing could drown out the sound of those joined heartbeats in the night.