Title: Snow Angel
Pairing: Angel/Mimi friendship
Summary: Mimi Marquez meets her best friend on a cold day in December on the corner outside of her apartment, six years old and innocent despite the harsh reality all around her.
A/N: I dedicate this to my very good friend Mimi (TheBroadwaywannabe) for always being there for me, for trusting me with your own secrets whenever I'm not whining about mine, and for writing beautifully fucked up stories that I can't get enough of. You go, girl. :D You're amazing and I hope you know that. Happy holidays! Sorry this is way late.
It's the middle of winter, closing in on Christmas Eve tucked into this corner on the outskirts of the city, and not too cold for it to look pretty outside. A young Mimi Marquez has been sitting in the windowsill all night watching the snowstorm through the frigid glass, brown eyes huge with wonder. She knew that her mother wouldn't care; she had the boys to take care of and her newborn sister, and Maria wouldn't be home until tomorrow to help take care of the kids. She had more things to worry about than her second eldest daughter.
Dawn came slowly and sweetly, the howling wind finally having calmed and let the snow flutter to the ground in a pristine blanket of white. All the way over here, the very edges of the city, no one has stepped outside yet to run it- the clock on the wall reads seven a.m. or at least she thinks so. Her little sister is crying in her mother's room quietly, but that is a noise they have all gotten used to.
She wastes no time pulling on her full snow gear- coat and gloves and boots and scarf and even the snow pants that were starting to get small, exposing her ankles to the chill. But it would be worth it, she told herself, dark curls bouncing around her face. Worth being the first one to put footprints in that nice white snow outside, and claim the city as her own. At six years old this is a novelty that she wouldn't miss out on for the world; to her, the city is only as big as the parts she has seen- and that doesn't much extend past the block she lives on.
It's with the quietest of creaks that she opens the door and shuts it again behind her, making sure that it has locked- one of the first things her mother had taught her, when she was old enough to try leaving the apartment by herself- before prancing down the hallway in excitement. She would be singing the Christmas carols that she's heard on the radio the past week and a half but the neighbors, she's learned though experience, aren't appreciative of her sweet young voice.
A blast of freezing air greets her as she exits the building, but that doesn't deter Mimi. She can take a little cold; heat is a rarity in her apartment, anyways, and nothing can stop her from being the first outside. She imagines that across the city other children her age are scrambling to catch up with her, somehow knowing that she is in the lead and about to beat them and none can seem to catch up with her. The thought makes her smile and she walks out of the buildings long shadow into the snow-covered street, silent and snow-covered and perfect.
Her first step makes the prettiest crunching noise and she sighs in relief. Yes, she is the winner of a contest going on in her own imagination, but it is a good feeling. And almost in the same moment, she sees across the street a dark shape slipping out of another worn brick building and looking around in wonder.
Squinting, she bites her lip and leans forward trying to see. Mimi knows not to talk to strangers, but this one looks about her age anyways- the figure tentatively stepped into the snow the same way she had. Curiosity consumed her and she made up her mind. The young Latina girl began striding evenly across the empty street in the pink light of the early morning and towards he child on the other side.
He looks up- it's a boy, she thinks, or at least looks like it- and blinks in surprise as she approaches. "Hello," he says, startled, and maybe she was wrong. If this is a boy, he has a very feminine voice.
"Hi," she replies brightly, all dimples and that curly hair peeking out from beneath her hat. "My name's Mimi. Do you want to make a snowman?" This is Mimi, impulse and energy. She's never believed in waiting for anything.
"…Can it be a snow woman?" the boy asked tentatively after a moment. He seemed a little shy. Well. That could be fixed.
"Sure," she chirped, all sun and smiles and dimples and the other child grins right back at her automatically. Yeah, he's a keeper. She thinks to herself that he really doesn't require a whole lot of work- hammer out that pesky shyness and he would be good to go. A perfect companion.
The two of them kneel on the ground and begin to roll balls of snow in their gloved hands, disregarding the cold seeping through. A companionable silence wrapped them in a blanket of friendship.
It wasn't long before they had two large snowballs. With the boy's help, Mimi hoisted it up and balanced it on top of the other, patting it down. She used her finger, now numb from the cold and damp, to draw a shaky smiley face onto it's "head".
The boy glanced at her around the snow-woman and smiled, wider this time. Genuine. He opened his mouth and spoke, high and clear.
"I'm Angel."
Mimi smiled back and pulled him into a hug, giggling into his ear. The sun was rising in the sky and from across the street, she could hear her little sister start to cry and her mother scouring the house in search of her.
But never mind all of that. Today, something much more important had happened than sneaking out and building a snowman.
Mimi had made her first friend.