peppermint to be // bronnie

xix

By the time New Year's Eve rolled around I had met a large portion of Brandon's family the previous day. From all his siblings to distant 2nd cousins that apparently he even hadn't talked to in years. Some were curious but mostly supportive. Brandon seemed so happy around all of them I thought that there was no way I could leave him now that I've seen him that happy.

There was also a significant amount of kids around, ranging from babies to teenagers. I got to witness Brandon interact with all of them and subconsciously figured out that I wanted him to father my children. Deep down I wanted to wake up to that version of him every day, our biological children or not.

That night I was this strange mixture of happy and exhausted. I fell asleep in Brandon's bed with him clinging onto me. He was still holding onto me when I woke.

I sat up to look at the time and found that it was around 8:00. I looked at the window and saw that there was an actual blizzard. "Holy shit," I murmured, accidentally waking Brandon up.

"What is it?" Brandon groaned, alarmed and sleepy.

"It is snowing fucking hard," I spat.

"Hmm, yeah, that happens here."

"Brandon -- I wanna build a snowman with you."

"Just five more minutes, please."

"--And I wanna drink hot cocoa with you and I wanna pull you in for a kiss by your scarf and I wanna see snowflakes drift into your soft hair and I wanna cuddle by the fire with you --"

"Ronnie, you're being so cute right now, please save that for when I'm awake."

"I'm excited, Brandon, it never snows where we live!"

He suddenly pushed himself up so he was face-to-face with me. Quickly, he pressed a kiss to my lips and flopped back down. "Just wanted to assure you that you're an adorable baby bear and I'm obsessed with you," Brandon hummed against my chest.

****

When the blizzard stopped, Brandon and I found the motivation to get out of bed. There were quite a bit of kisses exchanged as we dressed for the weather outside. I watched as Brandon pulled on a beanie after he put on a pair of mittens. "You look so cute!" I squealed, hitting a note I hadn't hit since probably 5th grade.

"You're one to talk," he chuckled, "you look like a winter themed teddy bear."

"I'm fucking sweating like crazy right now," I chuckled.

He threw on a scarf, "it'll get better once we're in the arctic."

We stepped out of the bedroom and walked through the living room, gaining Mr.Flowers's attention as we made our way through the front door. "About time you two got up! Shovel the driveway while you're at it!" He called as we were about to open the door.

"Okay, dad," Brandon murmured. We stepped out into the cold air. He took a deep breath, "You know, I've missed this." As he stood there observing the world around him, I observed him. We could have stayed like that forever and I would have been completely fine with it but eventually, Brandon clasped his hands together and marched into his front yard. He picked up a clump of snow and started forming it into a ball. Before I could snap out of my state of admiring him, he threw the ball at me. I was so caught off guard, I fell over onto my ass.

"You asshole, I thought we were going to engage in cute outdoor activities -- not war!" I yelled over his laughter.

"I'm so sorry, babe -- I had to do it!" He cried in-between losing his shit.

I grunted and stood up. Quickly, I made my own snowball before he could become aware of what I was up to. Right as he realized he fucked up, I hurled the snow at him.

"Hey!" He whined after the snow exploded on his chest.

"Revenge is a cold, cold bitch," I chuckled.

He shook his head, "Alright, enough of that -- let's make that snowman, shall we?" We started out rolling the first ball until it was at a sensible size.

"Big muscles," I cooed as he lifted up the second ball which was a big as the first. "My big strong man!"

"Shut up!" He grunted and sat the ball on top of the other. Breathing heavily, he placed his hands on his hips and turned to me. "You finish it!" I snickered at him and started rolling out the head. When I finished, I stacked it on top of the previous ones and took a step back.

"Well, this is underwhelming," I laughed, looking at our completely blank snowman.

Brandon stood beside me, "you're absolutely right." He dug in his pockets for a moment then pulled out a tiny baggy of two buttons.

"What if you need those?" I questioned.

He shrugged and carefully took them out of the bag. I watched as he shoved the two buttons into the snowman's "head". "Gimme your hat," Brandon said.

"What? No," I snorted.

He looked at me and pouted, "pleeease? I'll give up my scarf."

I sighed and removed my hat. He took it from me and sat it on the snowman. He then removed his scarf and wrapped it around it. Brandon's eyes lit up, "there! I love him!"

"He doesn't have arms," I stated.

"Well maybe if you removed that stick from your ass he would."

I laughed and knocked into him playfully. "Fine, I love our weird button-eyed son."

"Are your winter fantasies fulfilled?"

"Well, you didn't give me a chance to pull you into a kiss by your scarf so -- kind of disappointed, really."

"There are a lot of things you can pull me into a kiss with, my coat collar, my hands, my waist, my diiick."

Brandon drew out the I in "dick", making me more and more uncomfortable. Through the discomfort I scoffed and said, "I wish." Brandon giggled and I softly smiled at him, "I think I prefer the coat suggestion though."

I grabbed him by his coat and rested my forehead against his. I got a little distracted by how warm he was in the middle of my romantic action.

"Hi," he whispered softly.

"Oh -- hey," I laughed gently before finally pressing my lips against his.