The morning light spilled softly across the windows, casting golden flecks over the blanket that wrapped around Alric and Ivan like a cocoon of warmth against the cold world outside. Alric stirred first, blinking sleep from his eyes, only to realize he was still nestled in Ivan's arms. A soft gasp escaped him.
"You're awake," Ivan murmured, his voice a low, husky hum. His gaze was fixed, unmoving, as though he'd been watching Alric for hours.
Alric flushed and quickly pulled the blanket over his face. "Don't look at me like that."
A teasing chuckle answered him. "You clung to me the whole night like I was your pillow, and now you're shy? Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around?"
Alric peeked from under the blanket, eyes glinting. "You didn't seem to mind."
Ivan grinned, brushing a strand of hair from Alric's forehead. "I didn't."
In the café, the air smelled of cinnamon and warmth. Kyrell had woken early, far earlier than usual, and was bustling in the kitchen with an energy that lit up the room more than the twinkling lights strung across the windows.
Ivan stepped into the kitchen, eyes narrowing. "Is the world ending? You're up before noon."
Kyrell shot him a mock glare while stirring a pan of chocolate ganache. "It's Christmas. I'm allowed to be excited."
"What are you making?"
"Christmas specials," Kyrell beamed. "Snow-dusted tiramisu, peppermint crème brûlée, and... iced heart mochas."
"Iced heart mochas?"
"Because sometimes," Kyrell said, holding a spoon, "love tastes better cold."
Ivan gasped, "You're acting suspicious. Are you the Kyrell Winslow I know?"
Kyrell didn't pay attention to what Ivan blabbered about. His mind was too immersed into something else.
He paused, checking his phone. A small smile tugged at his lips when he saw the text from Mackiah: "I'll stop by this afternoon."
The hours passed with fluttering hope. When Mackiah finally stepped through the door, the little bell above the entrance chimed like a heartbeat. Kyrell looked up, his smile soft.
"Hey," Mackiah said.
"You came."
But just minutes later, a call came in. Mackiah's expression changed, distant.
"I have to go. I'm sorry."
And like snow melting in sunlight, he was gone.
Days passed. Five of them. Each colder than the last. Kyrell waited, each night locking up later than he should, glancing at the door with eyes full of silence. No calls. No texts.
But Mackiah was there. Hidden in the shadows across the street, watching the glow of the café, watching Kyrell.
I messed up, he thought. I shouldn't have kissed him that night. I wasn't supposed to fall...
Yet each time Kyrell laughed with a customer or stared blankly out the window, Mackiah felt the ache return. A love blooming beneath frost, delicate and dangerous.
Meanwhile, Ivan dragged Alric to the mall, the world around them glistening with festive lights.
Alric's eyes widened at the decorations, the cascading icicle lights, and the sheer number of people.
"Never seen a mall before?" Ivan teased.
Alric shrugged. "Wasn't allowed. They always watched. Watched where I went, who I spoke to."
Ivan's smile faltered, just a flicker. He gently nudged Alric. "Then let's make this memory yours. Just ours."
They wandered, laughing and tasting holiday treats, until Ivan froze. He felt it—a shadow in the crowd. A presence.
"We need to go. Now."
He grabbed Alric's hand, rushing him through the maze of stores to a storage hallway.
"Hide here," Ivan instructed. "Don't come out till I return. Please."
Alric grabbed his sleeve. "Don't leave me."
Ivan held his gaze. "I'll come back. I promise."
He misled the suited men, slipping like mist through the crowd. But when he returned, Alric was gone.
"Alric!" Panic rose in his voice. "ALRIC!"
From behind a pillar, Alric appeared. "I saw one of them. I had to move. I'm sorry."
Ivan rushed to him, pulling him into a desperate embrace.
"Don't vanish on me like that again," he whispered, his voice breaking. "Not you. Never you."
Alric heard the rapid thrum of his heartbeat and tightened his hold. "Okay. I won't."
Meanwhile, in the underworld, leaders of the major clans gathered for an annual year end meet. Tension crackled.
Leaders of various major groups suggestedZeus to step down and take rest. All of them were venomous snakes in disguise and Zeus knew it better.
Each one of them raised their concerns and opinions but Zeus didn't even open his mouth all the while. He stood, called off the meeting and left.
Later -
Aurek spoke first. "Zeus is weakening. His health... he would eventually step down."
Nerik agreed. "The war can't be led by a man with no heir."
Aurek turned to the others. "He didn't protest. That means he's planning something. Something big."
They all agreed.
When Zeus is silent, chaos always follows.
The soft crunch of Mackiah's footsteps echoed faintly in the snow-dusted alley behind the café. The winter breeze bit at his skin, but it wasn't the cold that made his heart tremble.
He wandered behind the building, hoping... searching. And there Kyrell was. Crouched again. Just like the first night.
A soft meow made Mackiah turn. A stray cat brushed past.
When he looked again—Kyrell was gone. Mackiah panicked, he was there just a moment ago, where did he vanish off to?
"Kyrell?!"
"Running again?"
Mackiah turned. Kyrell stood behind him, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
"I-I didn't mean to," Mackiah started.
"Then why didn't you come back? Why didn't you answer? You kissed me... and disappeared."
"I was scared," Mackiah admitted. "Of what it meant. I didn't know if you... if we..."
Kyrell stepped closer. "So you watched me suffer instead? I waited every day. For you. You watched me from afar for five days, didn't you?"
he asked quietly. "I saw you, Mackiah. Every night. I waited... hoping you'd just walk in. But you didn't."
Mackiah looked down. "I'm sorry," he whispered, guilt painting his features.
"I thought… maybe what I did was wrong. I kissed you without knowing if you felt the same. And that scared me. I've never felt something like this before.
I like you. I have for a while now. But I was afraid. I didn't know how to face it."
Kyrell's gaze softened. "Then let me be clear"
And before Mackiah could respond, Kyrellclosed the space between them. The world disappeared—the distant sound of traffic, the cold of the alley, the quiet snowfall.
Kyrell's hand slid behind Mackiah's neck, warm despite the chill, anchoring him. He leaned in, his lips brushing Mackiah's like a whisper carried on the wind. Soft. Searching.
Their breath mingled—misty, warm, fleeting—until Kyrell pressed in fully, kissing him with unspoken longing and quiet desperation. It was gentle at first, lips moving like they were afraid to break the moment. But then Mackiah responded—his hands clutching Kyrell's coat, his lips returning the pressure.
And then it wasn't gentle anymore.
It was snowfall turned blizzard.
Years of loneliness, uncertainty, and suppressed longing melted into that kiss like frost beneath the morning sun. Kyrell's hand slid to the side of Mackiah's jaw, thumb grazing his cheek as he tilted his head and deepened the kiss. Mackiah gasped against his lips, overwhelmed but wanting more, needing more.
When they finally pulled apart, breathless, their foreheads touched. Snowflakes landed softly on Kyrell's lashes. His eyes were still closed, savoring the warmth like a flicker of fire in a frozen world.
Mackiah blinked. "What does...that mean-?"
Kyrell chuckled. "Still don't get it?"
Resting his hands on Mackiah's waist, drawing him in until not even the cold could touch them.
"It means… I didn't expect to fall in love with you under falling snow."
Mackiah's eyes widened slightly, stunned. "You… like me?"
"I don't know when it started," Kyrell whispered, "Maybe the first time I saw you in this alley… like a wounded star trying to hide its light. Or maybe it was when you smiled at the café, like I was someone worth looking at."
He pulled back slightly, just enough to meet Mackiah's eyes.
"But it actually means that it's dangerous to fall in love with me," he murmured.
"I'm not as good as I seem. There's frost in my past… and shadows you don't know."
Mackiah reached up and brushed a snowflake from Kyrell's brow. "Then we'll melt it together."
Kyrell laughed softly. "You have no idea that you're making a pact with the devil."
"I don't care even if you're a devil. I just want to be yours." Mackiah said firmly.
"You're already MINE" Kyrell smirked.
And he kissed him again, this time firmer—anchored by choice, not confusion. The snow fell around them like stardust, silent witnesses to the beginning of something neither of them could stop now.
Kyrell pinned him against the wall, hand shielding his head, lips capturing his with fierce emotion. Kissing him, unlike before, this time- deeper, harder and passionate. As if he was devouring him.
Love, raw and untamed, bloomed like red against the snow.
Back at the café-
Alric sat on the couch in the back room, legs pulled to his chest, arms wrapped tightly around them. Snowflakes clung to his tousled hair and lashes, forgotten. His eyes stared down, distant and afraid.
"I don't want to go back," he whispered, voice barely audible over the muffled wind outside. "I hate that man. I don't want to be locked up again. I don't want to be watched. Controlled."
Ivan knelt beside him, worry carved deep into his usually cheerful face. He gently reached for Alric's hand. It was cold—so cold—but Ivan didn't let go. His fingers curled around Alric's like they were catching a snowflake before it shattered.
"I'm here", Ivan said, voice soft as falling snow. "And I won't let you fall into their hands ever again."
Alric's lower lip quivered, his grip tightening. "But what if he comes back? What if I get taken again? I was always just a... thing to them. Something to use. Something to keep locked away and perfect and silent."
His voice broke, and tears finally spilled over, catching the firelight like crystals melting too soon. "I can't go back to that cold."
Ivan moved closer, slowly, carefully—like approaching a frightened bird. He brushed the tears from Alric's cheeks, his touch feather-light. "You won't," he said. "Not as long as I'm breathing. I promise."
Alric's eyes searched Ivan's face, scared, but filled with something fragile and warm—hope.
"Will you stay?" he asked, voice cracking. "With me? Not just now… but after. Even if I'm broken. Even if I'm shattered. Even if I'm hard to love?"
Ivan's breath hitched.
He pulled Alric into his arms—careful, firm—and cradled him like he was something precious. Alric clung to him, burying his face in Ivan's shoulder, his breaths shallow and shaky.
"Even if you don't love me back" Ivan said as
Alric paused. Shocked-stunned.
"I'm not going anywhere," Ivan whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of Alric's head.
"I've seen too much frost in my life to walk away from the one thing that makes me feel warm."
Alric leaned back slightly, eyes wide.
"You… feel that way?"
Ivan nodded, brushing a snowflake from Alric's nose. "I think I've been falling for you since the moment you reached for my hand with trembling fingers and still chose to smile. At first I thought maybe it was just because you helped me and we're kind to me but...I soon realized that what I felt for you was
something beyond-something deeper."
"I didn't think someone like me could ever make someone smile like you do," Alric said, voice quiet. "I didn't think I would smile again...until you showed up.
I've always been kept behind walls. No one ever looked at me and saw anything but porcelain. But you… you saw me."
He bit his lip.
"I know this might be too soon. I know I'm probably not enough. But I like you, Ivan. I… I think I'm in love with you."
The words fell like snow—soft, unexpected, but blanketing everything in sudden clarity.
Alric looked away, cheeks flushed, already regretting saying it.
"I'm sorry. You don't have to say anything. I just needed to—"
Ivan silenced him with a kiss.
It was warm. Steady. Real.
He cupped Alric's face like it was made of glass, but kissed him like he was fire in a frozen world. Alric's eyes fluttered closed, his hands rising instinctively to rest on Ivan's chest. His heart thudded against his palm, loud and fast.
When they parted, Ivan looked down at him with a softness that melted every fear still clinging to Alric's ribs.
"I like you too, Honeydrop," he whispered, forehead against his.
"Maybe too much. More than I should. My past… it's not beautiful. There are parts of me I can't hide forever."
Alric's fingers twitched, curling tighter into Ivan's shirt.
"Mine isn't beautiful either. But the past is cold, and I'm done living in winter."
He leaned in again, lips brushing against Ivan's in a breath of promise.
"Let's make spring together."
Ivan laughed softly, his hand threading into Alric's hair.
"You're going to be the death of me, sweetheart."
"Maybe just the thaw," Alric teased, a rare smile spreading across his lips.
As the clock struck midnight, the sky lit with the brilliant colors of New Year's fireworks, each burst reflecting off the icy streets like a thousand blooming stars. The café glowed with warmth, laughter, and the scent of sugared love. Ivan and Alric sat beside each other, fingers intertwined below the table. While, Kyrell stared at Mackiah who was watching the bright street lights and the fireworks above.
The new year arrived, not like a shout, but like a kiss pressed gently onto frost.
Inside the warmth wasn't just from the fire or the lights—it was from the way their hands stayed locked, and how, in that moment, neither of them felt alone anymore.
And beyond the soft glow of the café windows…
A hooded figure watched.
Unmoving.
Silent.
Before turning away and vanishing into the snow, sending a message that would shake the peace they had just found.
"They're all together. Just as you feared."