Enjoy
"I want snow."
"I want to shove a spoon up your nose because you've said that three times in the last half hour but we don't all get what we want, Jim." Bones grumbled at Kirk. Kirk just chuckled.
"Aww Bones, you know you like snow!"
"I'm a medical student not a yeti I don't care about snow." Bones huffed.
Kirk shrugged. "Yeah well I like snow and you like spending the Holidays at my place so you must not mind it too much." he reasoned. "If you did mind you'd go home for Christmas."
"I do go home for Christmas-I have been home for Christmas day for the last three years."
"And then you come back to my place." Kirk added. "Admit it, you like the whole 'white christmas' vibe we get in Iowa.
"You aren't even celebrating Christmas!"
"Not everyone believes in Baby Jesus and Mangers and Santa and all that, Bones." Kirk shrugged and looked up as Spock came into the living room of their apartment. "Hey! Spock!"
"Oh no..." Bones grumbled. Kirk ignored him.
"Spock, what do you believe on Vulcan? Like, do you have God or...what?"
"Vulcan religious and spiritual beliefs are as varied and intricate as they are on Earth." Spock said, sitting down. "However the existence of Katras drive the majority of people's beliefs."
"Katras?" Kirk asked.
"Souls would be a close approximation. The essence of your being-supposedly removable from your physical form and transferable or even able to be stored at the time of death. Otherwise it would simply redistribute as the energy of all living things does at death."
"But do you believe that?" Kirk asked.
"Yes." Spock said simply.
"Do you have Holidays?"
"Today is a Holiday for some Vulcans." Spock said. "My parents are most likely awake by now and will be making note of the day and it's significance."
"Oh cool! What's it about?" Kirk asked.
"It's in memory of a war back when Vulcan was a more savage place. Or rather the ending of it in a peaceful resolution when both sides were forced to join together to save themselves from mutual destruction due to a natural disaster." Spock said.
"Like what? And earthquake or something?" Bones asked
"Vulcanquake." Kirk corrected with a smirk. Bones groaned.
"No. A volcanic eruption that left enough ash int he air to cause immediate and devastating climate change and Snowfall. a third of the population of the southern hemisphere perished, the rest only survived due to opposing groups banding together to gather safe food and make shelter and keep everyone together and sane." Spock said.
"...You have a holiday to celebrate surviving winter." Kirk said slowly.
"It wasn't winter-Winter is a phenomenon caused by the movement of our planet on it's axis and in it's orbit around our star. This was the sunlight being block out by ash." Spock Explained
"But it was like Winter, right?" Kirk pressed.
"Essentially it was like what you would consider Winter. Yes."
"So you have a holiday where you celebrate surviving winter." Kirk concluded.
"So does humanity. all of your spring holiday are essentially reiterations on the concept of the 'birth' of the year after harsh winters." Spock told them.
"Technically true." Bones conceded. "But with more religious stuff too. My family all went to Church on Easter. And Christmas. Or basically whenever Mom woke up Sunday morning and suddenly decided we were a fine upstanding christian family and dragged me and dad to church."
"Fun." Kirk said before standing up. "I have a class to get to but I'll be in this evening-will you both be?"
"Yes."
"Planning on it."
"See you both then!" Kirk said and left.
"Jim wake up!"
"What?!" Kirk sat straight up in bed and looked at Bones who had shook him awake.
Then he looked past him out the window. It had been getting abnormally cold over the last week but already t had been predicted and mapped out that this cold streak would end in a day or two.
But today came before then and the night had brought snow. A good inch covered the ground already and more was still falling.
"It's too warm still for it to stick long-it'll probably be gone by tomorrow but I thought you'd wanna see while it's still falling." Bones told Jim. "Seeing as how you act like a kindergartner every time it snows over winter break."
Jim leaped out of bed and ran over to the window, grinning like an idiot.
"Snow! Bones it's actual snow!"
"I know I saw it first." Bones reminded him but Jim was already out the door, pulling on his shoes and running outside-past Spock who was already eating breakfast and flopping down in the snow outside the apartment building, opening his mouth to let a few snowflakes land on his tongue.
After a few minutes Spock came outside-ears and cheeks easily flushing green from the cold-and gave Jim a hand up.
"Are you ready to come inside and eat breakfast so we can all get to our classes?"
"Yeah I think so." Kirk said with a laugh, accepting the hand up and heading inside with Spock, glancing back at the spot he'd left in the snow and smiling.
As Bones had said, by the next day the snow was gone, but for many of the students-including Jim-that one day of snow had provided a kind of mood boost that made upcoming finals a bit more bearable.
It also succeeded in bringing forth excitement about the upcoming winter holidays.
"Bones what do you want for Christmas?" Kirk asked Bones suddenly one day about a week away from when they would leave the academy for winter break.
"What?" Bones said. "I don't know-what did you get me last year?"
"..." Kirk furrowed his brow and called out to the living room. "Spock! What did I get Bones for Christmas last year?!"
"You attempted to get him a fish tank and he refused to be responsible for such a thing so it was fortunate you were unable to You got him socks that had profanities on them instead."
"Oh yeah, Heh." Kirk laughed softly and looked to Bones. "What happened to those?"
"I wear them."
"How come I never see them?"
"Because I wear shoes over them, Jim." Bones deadpanned. "Look, don't worry about gifts okay? You let me stay at your house and invade on your tiem with your family during your holiday. That's plenty."
"Well, Alright...I'm still going to get you something." Kirk informed him.
"I know." Bones said with an eyeroll.
"HEY! Spock! I'll get you something cool too!"
"I am aware-and please come in here if you actually intend to speak with me instead of yelling." Spock called back.
"But you're yelling! Kirk yelled back.
Spock didn't answer.
Bones scoffed but smiled after Kirk left the room and went back to his homework, quietly humming Christmas carols all the while.