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Description
Secret Santa gift for changeofheart505 , who wanted Donnie showing her character, blind newt-mutant December, the warmth of Christmas. I had the good fortune to already be familiar with December through the monthly OC contest.
Hope you like it, !

PS: the molecular structure on Donnie's mug is for caffeine.

***

She could feel the snowflakes as they hit her hands and cheeks, a couple on her tongue when she stuck it out, but she would never be able to see the way the snow piled up on the faraway tree branches, the way it drifted and swirled in little eddies around the eaves of the farmhouse roof. He wanted to describe it all to her, but a general description of it left out too much of the experience, the beauty of the way the snow moved, the sense of vertigo it gave him as he stared up into the endlessly falling downy flakes, how the moonlight that occasionally shifted through the clouds shone and turned everything silver. He didn’t have the right words… He knew science in and out, but poetry… He was no Robert Frost. He tried, doing his best not to go off on some scientific or mathematical tangent. Pretty, beautiful, gorgeous were the best terms he could come up with. It wasn’t sufficient. She gave him a wan smile in return.

If she listened hard enough, if it was perfectly still, she could hear the clumps of snowflakes as they landed… each a gentle plut. She could feel how it had piled up on the railing, now nearly four inches and still coming. She felt it scrunch together as she packed the powder into a snowball, heard Donnie’s “Oof!” when she hit him with it, heard it crunch under his foot when he purposely moved into its path to make sure it did, giving her a small victory. She didn’t need his charity, but it was a sweet gesture. Perhaps in the morning, they would all build snowmen, or snow-turtles, together. Nonetheless, chill wind and frozen water was about the extent of what there was to experience in a snowy night outside, and the low cut of her velvet Christmas dress, though warm otherwise, was doing her no favors. She sighed and turned back toward the door.

He picked up on her downheartedness. “Something the matter?” Then he noticed, “You’re shivering!”

“Just a little… disappointed, I guess. And cold.” She smiled. “How about showing me something warmer for Christmas?”

“All right,” he agreed, offering his arm to guide her. He led her before the fireplace, and pulled her into a seated position on the rug. He jabbed at the burning wood with the poker, then threw another log on for good measure. It was soon blazing and crackling happily. “You stay right there… I’ll go get us some hot chocolate.” He grabbed a blanket from the pile draped over the couch, wrapping it over her shoulders. She began to soak in the heat, glad to be back inside, listening to the whooshing of the flames pushing air around. After a couple of minutes of clanking around in the kitchen and the kettle whistling, Don returned, taking her hand and guiding it to the mug of cocoa. “It’s here, but careful, it’s very hot. Now you can be warm inside and out!”

She inhaled the chocolatey brew deeply, letting the steam flow over her nose, warming it further. “Mmmm…” She dared a sip after blowing on it to cool it. “Yummy…”

He took a seat beside her, wrapped in his own fuzzy blanket, and snuggled up close to her. “Warm yet?”

“Mm-hmm, getting there,” she nodded.

“Now… There’s one more thing I can do,” he said, fumbling in his belt, “…to warm your heart.” A second later, he pressed something into her palm, closing her fingers over it.

“But… we already exchanged gifts earlier!”

“I… um… wanted to wait on this one… until we were alone. I hope you like it.”

December pressed her fingers to the object, making out the two rounds and point and the long, delicate chain of the heart pendant. It, too, was warm, holding heat from his body, gaining more from the now roaring fire before them. “Donnie, it’s beautiful! Thank you!” She immediately slipped it on.

“I-it’s nothing,” he mumbled. She could practically hear him blushing.

She reached out, finding his face and moving her hand to his cheek. “Oh, and I found something else warm, too!” Don giggled bashfully, his cheeks growing even hotter under her hand.

“How does it look?” she asked, her own heart now warmer than the little piece of metal resting against her chest.

Donnie was a scientist, not a poet. He wanted to tell her how lovely the gold of the heart looked against the red velvet of her dress without rambling about the attributes of the element marked Au, from the Latin word aurum. He didn’t have the words to describe how stunningly her white hair caught the firelight, turning it to molten gold itself. And he could only think of one which didn’t nearly do justice to the dancing flames reflecting in her unseeing but emotion-filled warm eyes.

“…Beautiful.”

Description
Secret Santa gift for changeofheart505 , who wanted Donnie showing her character, blind newt-mutant December, the warmth of Christmas. I had the good fortune to already be familiar with December through the monthly OC contest.
Hope you like it, !

PS: the molecular structure on Donnie's mug is for caffeine.

***

She could feel the snowflakes as they hit her hands and cheeks, a couple on her tongue when she stuck it out, but she would never be able to see the way the snow piled up on the faraway tree branches, the way it drifted and swirled in little eddies around the eaves of the farmhouse roof. He wanted to describe it all to her, but a general description of it left out too much of the experience, the beauty of the way the snow moved, the sense of vertigo it gave him as he stared up into the endlessly falling downy flakes, how the moonlight that occasionally shifted through the clouds shone and turned everything silver. He didn’t have the right words… He knew science in and out, but poetry… He was no Robert Frost. He tried, doing his best not to go off on some scientific or mathematical tangent. Pretty, beautiful, gorgeous were the best terms he could come up with. It wasn’t sufficient. She gave him a wan smile in return.

If she listened hard enough, if it was perfectly still, she could hear the clumps of snowflakes as they landed… each a gentle plut. She could feel how it had piled up on the railing, now nearly four inches and still coming. She felt it scrunch together as she packed the powder into a snowball, heard Donnie’s “Oof!” when she hit him with it, heard it crunch under his foot when he purposely moved into its path to make sure it did, giving her a small victory. She didn’t need his charity, but it was a sweet gesture. Perhaps in the morning, they would all build snowmen, or snow-turtles, together. Nonetheless, chill wind and frozen water was about the extent of what there was to experience in a snowy night outside, and the low cut of her velvet Christmas dress, though warm otherwise, was doing her no favors. She sighed and turned back toward the door.

He picked up on her downheartedness. “Something the matter?” Then he noticed, “You’re shivering!”

“Just a little… disappointed, I guess. And cold.” She smiled. “How about showing me something warmer for Christmas?”

“All right,” he agreed, offering his arm to guide her. He led her before the fireplace, and pulled her into a seated position on the rug. He jabbed at the burning wood with the poker, then threw another log on for good measure. It was soon blazing and crackling happily. “You stay right there… I’ll go get us some hot chocolate.” He grabbed a blanket from the pile draped over the couch, wrapping it over her shoulders. She began to soak in the heat, glad to be back inside, listening to the whooshing of the flames pushing air around. After a couple of minutes of clanking around in the kitchen and the kettle whistling, Don returned, taking her hand and guiding it to the mug of cocoa. “It’s here, but careful, it’s very hot. Now you can be warm inside and out!”

She inhaled the chocolatey brew deeply, letting the steam flow over her nose, warming it further. “Mmmm…” She dared a sip after blowing on it to cool it. “Yummy…”

He took a seat beside her, wrapped in his own fuzzy blanket, and snuggled up close to her. “Warm yet?”

“Mm-hmm, getting there,” she nodded.

“Now… There’s one more thing I can do,” he said, fumbling in his belt, “…to warm your heart.” A second later, he pressed something into her palm, closing her fingers over it.

“But… we already exchanged gifts earlier!”

“I… um… wanted to wait on this one… until we were alone. I hope you like it.”

December pressed her fingers to the object, making out the two rounds and point and the long, delicate chain of the heart pendant. It, too, was warm, holding heat from his body, gaining more from the now roaring fire before them. “Donnie, it’s beautiful! Thank you!” She immediately slipped it on.

“I-it’s nothing,” he mumbled. She could practically hear him blushing.

She reached out, finding his face and moving her hand to his cheek. “Oh, and I found something else warm, too!” Don giggled bashfully, his cheeks growing even hotter under her hand.

“How does it look?” she asked, her own heart now warmer than the little piece of metal resting against her chest.

Donnie was a scientist, not a poet. He wanted to tell her how lovely the gold of the heart looked against the red velvet of her dress without rambling about the attributes of the element marked Au, from the Latin word aurum. He didn’t have the words to describe how stunningly her white hair caught the firelight, turning it to molten gold itself. And he could only think of one which didn’t nearly do justice to the dancing flames reflecting in her unseeing but emotion-filled warm eyes.

“…Beautiful.”