New Story: We Can Build a Snowman (Part 1 of 2)

[willow_25]

We Can Build a Snowman

By: willow_25
Rating: Very, very G

Written for Noel of Spike 2008

 

Author’s Note: This story was written in response to a challenge from maryperk, who requested the following:

 

A Spuffy story, using this starting sentence: Buffy stared out her bedroom window at the snowman that had appeared in her yard overnight. Any season or post Chosen, any length, with a happy ending.

 

 

I hope this lives up to your expectations, dear, and that you enjoy. This fic follows my stories ‘Hole In My Pocket’ and ‘Fade Away Again’, but you don’t need to read those stories to be able to follow this one. It’s basically fluff.

 

 

 

Buffy stared out her bedroom window at the snowman that had appeared in her yard overnight. The existence of the four-foot snow sculpture was a surprise to say the least; not only was there no snow in Los Angeles at the moment, they were actually having record highs this Christmas. And, yet, there was the snowman. Buffy frowned, and headed outside to investigate. It was possible that Dawn or someone had simply bought a very realistic decoration, after all.

 

Buffy threw on her bathrobe and wound her way through the apartment, passing the Christmas tree and the jumbled wrapping paper and bows on the coffee table, which indicated that Spike had been hard at work wrapping while she slept. 

 

Unlocking the patio door, Buffy examined the little area of private yard, searching for clues. Nothing looked strange to her, except for the snowman. Buffy stepped outside into the cloying heat, gasping at the suddenly oppressive air, and approached the snowman. She could tell that it was, in fact, made from snow even before her fingers touched the refreshingly cool surface; in the unusually hot LA December, the cold was palpable from inches away. Also, a puddle was starting to form around the figure.

 

Buffy gave the snowman another once over, hoping there would be a note or some type of reasonable explanation for its presence. No such luck; it was just a melting snowman, with stones for eyes, a baby carrot for a nose, and two pieces of yarn for a mouth. He was wearing a purple scarf and a newsboy’s hat, with a couple of buttons stuck to his front. And, that was it. Buffy looked hard at the scarf and hat, but since it had been far too hot for such things this winter, they didn’t look familiar.

 

Frustrated, Buffy headed back inside where there was air conditioning to contemplate the problem. She thought it over all through her shower, while getting dressed, and as she sat and ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast. By that time the snowman was smaller and had lost his buttons, but it was still there. The obvious potential culprits were Dawn and William; but Dawn had been gone overnight with Connor visiting his foster parents, and William had left with Gunn before sun-up today to volunteer at the shelter. He could have put the snowman up before he left, but Buffy had a feeling the figure would have been a lot more melt-y when she woke up if it had been sitting out for a couple of hours.

 

Just as Buffy started going through her mental checklist of other Hyperion residents who could have left a snowman in the yard, Dawn and Connor came into the apartment from the elevator. “Hey! How are you feeling?” Dawn rushed over to Buffy, excited to see her sister awake and not vomiting, but concerned by the troubled look on Buffy’ face.

 

“I’m okay. Actually, I’m really good this morning, I haven’t been nauseous or anything. There’s an unidentified snowman in the yard.”

 

Dawn blinked, and looked at her sister like she was insane. “Umm, okay…Not to burst your bubble or anything, but that little patch of rocks and plants out on the roof is not really a yard. And, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m wearing shorts and a tank top; it’s not exactly snowman weather.”

 

Connor, who had fled to the sliding door at the word ‘snowman’, was grinning like a loon as he looked outside. “That is one of the awesomest things I’ve ever freakin’ seen! Who made it? How did they make it?” Not waiting for an answer, he fled outside to examine the melting pile. Attracted by his excitement, Dawn went over and peered out the door. After watching Connor poke the snowman for a few seconds, she returned to Buffy’s side. Patting her older sister on the shoulder, Dawn said soberly, “I apologize for thinking the pregnancy hormones had driven you insane.”

 

Buffy laughed, “It’s okay, I was wondering about that myself at first. Then I went outside and it was touchable, and cold, so I figured my sanity was pretty well intact.”

 

“So, you haven’t felt sick at all this morning? Did you eat yet?”

 

“I had cereal. You know, until you asked me about it, I didn’t even think about the fact that I was all happy stomach having this morning. I’ve been too distracted wondering where the mystery snowman out there came from.”

 

Dawn smiled, and went to start some coffee. “Well, maybe that’s the secret to not feeling yucky, then. We just have to distract you with some puzzle to figure out first thing in the morning.”

 

“Maybe. I sure would like to know who left it there, though.” Buffy leaned back, until she could see Connor outside. He was trying, without much evident success, to get the buttons back on the front of the snowman. She noticed that he was attempting to place them in different spots from where they had previously been attached. Definitely not involved, then.

 

“There was no note or anything?” Dawn asked, distracted by Buffy’s words.

 

“Nope. I mean, it could have blown away, I guess…”

 

“I wouldn’t think so. There’s barely a breeze out there.”

 

“Well, I don’t know; I’m grasping at straws, here. Or, you know, grasping at snow.”

 

Dawn shook her head. “That was lame, even for you. Hey, what do you have planned for today? I’m going to run out and finish my Christmas shopping, wanna come with?”

 

“Yeah, that sounds good. I have a counseling appointment at 11:00, and some paperwork I need to finish, but the rest of my day is free.”

 

“Cool. Do you know what time Spike’s coming back, yet?” Dawn poured herself a cup of the fresh coffee and sat down across from her sister.

 

“I got the impression from Gunn that they had a lot of odd jobs saved up for the two of them, so I’m guessing sometime this afternoon. I’ll call in a while. What are you going to do with your morning, while I’m down in the office?”

 

“I have some homework I want to finish before the Christmas break takes over my brain and I can’t think about it anymore. Japanese is kicking my butt, so I want to make sure I study a little extra. Connor said he’d drill me. And, he wanted me to model for some pictures for his photography class…”

 

“Top stays on. For that matter, all the clothes stay on.” Buffy gave her a severe look. Connor chose that moment to come bounding back inside, and Buffy turned on him. “I mean it young man, no naked pictures of my little sister better end up in the UCLA gallery!”

 

Connor blinked dumbly for a second, before schooling his face into a pout and dramatically snapping his fingers. “Darn. I was planning to strip her naked and tie her up like an anime character. Now what am I going to do?”

 

Dawn began laughing hysterically, but Buffy was less than amused. 

 

Seeing the frown on the older Slayer’s face, Connor rushed to reassure her. “I’m kidding, geez. It’s not even that type of photography class. I’m taking it because learning about lighting and filters and all that is supposed to help you be able to photograph dig sites and stuff. It’s geared towards the Archeology students.”

 

“There are a few drama students in the class, too.” Dawn reported. “You know that girl who plays Gabby’s little sister on ‘Passions’? She’s in the class. I got to meet her last week, she’s pretty cool.”

 

Buffy smiled. “Did you tell Spike about that? I bet he’ll be excited.”

 

“Eh, he wasn’t as impressed as I thought he’d be. She’s not one of his favorite characters, and I guess when you’ve met people like Billie Holiday, meeting a few TV actors isn’t such a big deal.”

 

Buffy shrugged, and hauled herself out of her chair. “Well, can’t win them all, I guess. I’d better head down and get going on that paperwork, or I’ll have to break our shopping date later.” With a sigh of regret and a promise to call when she was finished, she hugged Dawn and Connor goodbye and headed downstairs to her office. 

 

On the elevator ride down, her thoughts turned to the snowman again. She really would like to know who’d left the thing there for her. At very least, she’d like to be able to say thank you. But, as much thought as she’d put into figuring out the mystery, she’d gotten exactly nowhere. She had no idea how one would get real snow during a heat wave in Los Angeles, so she couldn’t even bug the snowmaker for a name. Maybe the snowman would just have to stay a mystery. 

 

She’d almost managed to push the puzzle from her mind, and focus her thoughts on her appointment, when she unlocked her office door and found another snowman inside. Or, a snow-woman, since this one was obviously intended to be female.

 

“Hey!” Buffy gasped in surprise. “How’d you get in here?” The second snowman was smaller; about two and a half feet tall, it sported a wig and glasses, a red yarn mouth and carrot nose, and an apron.

 

The figure had no answer, but it’s presence in her office made the question of who was leaving the snow-people a little easier to answer. Spike had her extra office key, in case she lost hers; Jezebel had one, because she was the headmistress; and there was one in the lockbox downstairs at security. Since those were the only options for getting into her office, it must be Spike; that was the only logical explanation. After all, the figure on her desk was sitting in a metal pan, and the AC was jacked way up, so this one could have been here for a while. Not that that explained how the other one had gotten onto the roof right before she woke up…

 

Buffy carefully lifted the pan containing the figure off her desk, and positioned it on top of a side table directly under a vent spewing cold air. Then she got a sweater for herself out of the closet, and put out one for any guests who might have trouble with the super-high air conditioning, and sat down in her comfy desk chair.

 

She looked the figure over, hoping for a clue to the identity of the perpetrator, but nothing leaped out at her. The wig had likely come from the ‘costume room’, where everyone at the Hyperion dumped cast-off clothes and accessories. The idea was that the items could be donated to people they rescued, worn for undercover assignments, or used in a dramatic production if they ever got a Watcher in who was willing to serve as a drama teacher; but for now it was just a room full of poorly organized stuff. Come to think of it, all the snow-person clothing could have come from there.

 

If you figured that the snow-people ‘clothes’ had come from the costume room, it tipped the scale towards Jezebel being the creator of the figures. She had access to the room, and Spike didn’t. And, she was here today.

 

Hoping to pry a confession or denial out of her ex-vampire boyfriend, Buffy called his cell phone, but he didn’t answer. Frustrated, she turned her attention to the paperwork she was trying to finish before Christmas break closing, but between the snow-woman and the cold she couldn’t concentrate.

 

Fortunately for Buffy, there was a knock at her door. “Come in.” She called, happy for the distraction. Another few minutes, and she would have started hitting things.

 

Merry poked her head around the door. “Hey. Oh, crap, it’s cold in here. What are you trying to do, capture the Christmas spirit and freeze it to death?” Then she spotted the snow-woman. “Oh, wow, is that a decoration? It looks so real!”

 

Buffy smiled. “It is real, why do you think it’s like a freezer in here? Go ahead, touch it.”

 

Merry crept towards the little woman in her little tray and touched the snow-woman in awe. “Wow.  I haven’t seen a real snowman since…Well, I can’t even really remember. I must have been about 14. Where did you get the snow?” She asked, puzzled.

 

“I have no clue, I didn’t make it. I unlocked my office this morning, and there it was. There was one out in the yard when I woke up, too. A bigger one.” Buffy frowned. “I don’t know who’s leaving them, either. Or, where they’re getting the snow. We didn’t buy one of those snow cone makers for the girls, did we?”

 

Merry shook her head. “Not that I’m aware of. That’s not what this is, anyway. Those snow cone things aren’t really snow, they’re crushed ice. This is real snow. Ooh, ski resorts make snow! What about Spike’s friends who work at that ski resort in Colorado?”

 

Buffy looked at her skeptically. “I can’t imagine Clem going to all this trouble to give me a present and not sending a card along with it; and I’m pretty sure the only present Harmony would give me would include a gaping wound.” She turned her gaze back to the snow-figure on the table. “Although, they could have shipped snow to someone here, I guess. And, that brings me back to the whole idea of Spike as the snowman creator.”

 

Merry pouted. “Well, if it’s him, you can tell him I’m insulted that I didn’t get to be involved.”

 

Laughing, Buffy nodded. Once she could speak again, Buffy said, “Maybe I should call Clem, and see if he’ll tell me if he shipped snow to anyone here.”

 

“Sounds like a plan.” Merry smiled. “Hey, what are you up to for the rest of the day? I was thinking of putting together a Christmas movie-fest in the student lounge.”

 

“Sounds like fun. When I’m done here, Dawn and I are going out to finish our Christmas shopping, but I’ll stop by when we get back. Oh, and if you need movies, Dawn’s up in the apartment, you can ask her for ours.”

 

“Thanks. I’d better go get things together, if I’m gonna have the room ready for 2:00. I’ll see you later, okay? Cheerio!”

 

Buffy waved at Merry’s retreating back, and returned her attention to the paperwork she was trying to finish. It had to be done by 1:00, when the school officially closed; Jezebel would be coming around to pick up grades, plus Buffy had to submit transfer recommendations for five students, and she had an appointment in between.