Life isn’t a matter of milestones but a matter of moments – Rose Kennedy

Chance didn’t take long to get ready. He threw on a light jacket, snuck back to the kitchen for another cinnamon bun, and then tidied the living room while he waited for Faith. He was unexpectedly excited. After being cooped up in the house for so long, it would be nice to get out… and spending time with Faith only sweetened the deal.

As though summoned by his thoughts, Chance heard her footsteps skip lightly along the hallway to the living room. He turned in time to see her skid to a stop, clad only in her brown pea coat, not two feet from him.

“Um, weird question, but suddenly the magic in this house isn’t being very cooperative but I feel the need to impose…” She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Do you have a pair of mitts, a scarf, and a hat?”

“Oh…” Chance remembered her close scrape with the cold, and understood her concern. He shook his head apologetically, sliding his large hands into the pockets of his jacket. “No, I...” he paused, feeling something soft in his pockets, and withdrew a knitted set of pink gloves and matching hat from one pocket, and a yellow scarf from the other. “… apparently I do.”

“Thanks.” Faith murmured.

Chance passed her the gloves and teased, “So you never thought to search my pockets? Noob.”

“No, actually.” Faith blushed slightly and reached for the hat once her gloves were on. She pulled it over her ears and Chance marvelled at how cute she looked. “Next time I’ll specify that I want my magical items to be left out in the open.”

“The house still likes you better than me.” Chance reminded her, secretly pleased that he could play the hero on this one. Before Faith could reach for the scarf he moved to wind it around her neck, causing her blush to deepen ever so slightly.

“... I could do that myself, you know.” She mumbled.

“I know. I just want to make sure you stay warm,” Chance replied, grinning.

Faith rolled her eyes and pulled back. “Are you ready to build the most kick-ass snowman the world has ever known?”

“I think so.” He waited for her to put on her uggs at the front door and then followed her out into the snow.





In comparison to the house, the outdoors were sparkling, clean, and white. The sun reflected off of the undisturbed snow, causing both Faith and Chance to shield their eyes. After a moment Chance moved his hand from his eyes and squinted both sets of eyelids and glanced down at Faith, who was peering up at him through her eyelashes, still shielding her eyes with her arm.

“We need to get out more often,” She muttered.

“Apparently.” Chance replied. “You didn’t think to get a pair of sunglasses to go with everything else?”

“I don’t even think to bring a hat or mitts in the dead of winter. Why would I have he forethought to ask for sunglasses?” Faith asked, smiling in spite of herself.

Chance reached into his pocket, guessing that he could play the hero again. He guessed right and handed a pair of sunglasses to faith – pink, to match her hat. “Good thing you have me.”

“Thanks.” Faith put them on and looked around. “But what about you?”

“I’ll be fine.” His eyes were already adjusting to the light, and Chance wasn’t squinting anymore. “Well, let’s get this party started.”

“Indeed.”





Faith picked the spot for their snowman. She made a snowball and started rolling it while Chance followed suit. Chance’s snowball became the base for their snowman and he started a new one while Faith’s was soon too big for her to roll anymore. She struggled with it for about thirty seconds before Chance lifted it with ease and put it on top of his.

Soon they had three balls stacked. Faith started sculpting a face on the ball that served as a head while Chance found two sticks for arms. They used a carrot for the nose and bottle caps for eyes. After a brief discussion on the merits of a piece of liquorice for the mouth verses drawing it on with food colouring they chose the food colouring. Chance painted it on while Faith smoothed the two balls they had used for the body until they looked less like the bulky body of a snowman and more like a human profile.

After about two hours they stood back to look at their work. The snowman didn’t look anything like the kind typically found in a child’s back yard. It looked a little more like...

“It looks like the Joker from Dark Knight,” Faith blurted out, laughing. “Like he got old and bald...”

“You’re the one who wanted to use red food colouring for the mouth,” Chance replied, pretending to be offended by her comment. Secretly, he was pleased with the way the snowman had turned out... and even more pleased that he had been able to make it with her.

“Yes but you’re the one who put it on like he’s a penny hooker.” Faith snickered out.

“I happen to think it looks awesome,” Chance muttered.

“Oh, it does. It’s just missing something...” Faith paused, stepped back, and studied their creation. After a few seconds she pulled off her scarf and hat and moved towards the snowman.

“What are you doing?” Chance asked.

“I’m giving him some personality.” She wrapped the scarf around the snowman’s neck and pulled the knit hat over its head. She stepped back and admired her work. “There.”

“... Now he looks like a crazy bag lady.” Chance teased.

“That’s because of the crazy lipstick you gave him. But I like him.” Faith replied. “Let’s give him a name.”

“Jim-Bob.” Chance suggested.

“What kind of name is that?” Faith asked.

“A cool one.” Chance grinned and crossed his arms over his chest. “He looks like a Jim-Bob to me.”

“... Jim-Bob...” Faith mused. “Now that you mention it, it does kind of fit him...”

“Exactly.”

“Well, we’ve accomplished out goal. We now have a kick-ass snowman with a weird name. Our lives are complete.”

“Not quite,” Chance replied.

“Oh, okay. What else is required to make our lives-“

Because Faith had been looking at the snowman, she hadn’t noticed that Chance had backed away and inconspicuously gathered enough snow together to make a large snowball, which he had aimed at her lower back. It had met its mark, and it was enough of a surprise to make her cry out. Chance grinned and pretended that he hadn’t done anything.

“Oh my god, you ass!” Faith cried. She started making her own snowball.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Chance warned playfully.

“Oh, no?”

“No. I’m going to win no matter what.”

“I’d like to see you try.” Faith replied, and she lobbed her snowball. It struck him square in the chest.

“Oh, I see. You think you can beat this?” Chance started another snowball.

“I do.” Faith made hers quicker and threw it at his head. She missed, and as a consequence of trying to run away, got a snowball right in the ass.

“I told you, you can’t beat me!” Gloating got Chance a snowball in the neck.

Soon they were throwing and dodging too much to carry on a conversation. Chance let Faith hit him a few times and missed every once and a while just so he could see her victorious smile. His snowballs were bigger than hers and packed more of a punch, though he was making a conscious effort not to make them too big. Hers exploded into a fine powder and Chance could barely feel them through his jacket.

Eventually Chance stopped throwing snowballs in favour of chasing Faith around. She screamed and laughed, but usually managed to get away from him and throw a snowball at him before he could get his own ammo.

Chance had never had so much fun, had never been so carefree, and had never been so in love. Faith hid behind the snowman and he knocked the head off it in an attempt to catch her, throwing up a spray of snow. He had kept is pace slower than he was capable of in the beginning, just so she could get away, but he was kicking it up a notch now. He wanted to catch her.

Faith stopped to make a snowball and Chance did the same, throwing it hard and fast. It caught her in the back of the head and exploded, covering Faith in snow. She screamed and dropped her own snowball and tore off her gloves in favour of brushing it away with bare hands.

“OH MY GOD!”

She laughed and tried to dislodge the snow from her collar, but by now Chance had closed the distance between them and he growled playfully, grabbing her in a huge bear hug. Faith screamed and giggled, struggling to get away, but Chance held her tightly.

“HA! Got you!”

“You ass, the snow is melting in my coat!”

Faith laughed, pushing away, but it did no good. Chance held her about three feet above the ground and spun around with her in his arms. Her sunglasses were askew, but there was a carefree joy in her dark eyes. Faith had never seen Chance so happy and she threw her arms around her neck, trying to ignore the sensation of snow and ice water running down her back.

Looking into her eyes, Chance wanted nothing more than to kiss her. He resisted the temptation, though, and placed Faith gently on the ground. “Are you okay?” he asked, trying to ignore the pull he felt to have her in his arms again.

“Yeah, just cold,” Faith replied. She glanced back at their newly headless snowman. “Oh my god, you killed Jim-Bob!”

“He wasn’t long for this world anyway.” Chance replied, smiling.

“Yeah, I guess not.” Faith tried and failed to dig the snow from where it was lodged against the flesh of her neck. “Do you mind if we go inside for a bit? I need to get this snow out.”

“No, not at all.” Chance knelt to retrieve one of her gloves, which had fallen to the ground in their excitement. “Sorry about getting it in your coat.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Faith waited for him to stand before heading back to the house. “That was awesome.”

“I thought so, too,” Chance replied. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of her, and he followed closely behind.





They had spent the better part of the day outside, although it felt like they had been gone for mere minutes. The sun was beginning to set as they got back inside the house, and Chance retired to the living room while he waited for Faith to change into something that wasn’t covered in snow.

Chance smiled to himself as he thought of the day they had spent together, barely able to contain his joy at having been so close to Faith. Being able to pick her up and hold her in his arms, and having her wrap her arms around his neck, was the greatest gift he could ever imagine.





Faith undressed quickly, letting her cold clothes fall into a heap on the floor. A pair of purple sweat pants and a black sweater was lying across her bed and she grabbed them, pulling them on over her goose-pimpled skin.

After running a comb through her hair Faith made her way back to the living room, suddenly tired from a day of activity. She sat next to Chance on the couch, glad to see him despite the fact that she had only been away from him for a few moments.

“That was fun,” Chance murmured.

“Yeah,” Faith replied. She leaned against him, grateful for his body heat. “How’s your back?”

“Fine,” Chance answered. Sensing the reason for her nearness, he asked, “Are you cold?”

“A little,” Faith admitted.

After a moment’s hesitation, Chance wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. “Is that better?” he asked.

“Yes,” Faith murmured.

Had she been a little less tired, she might have thought this inappropriate. As things stood, she was simply grateful for his closeness. They sat quietly for a few moments. Faith was close to drifting off to sleep and her head came to rest on Chance’s shoulder. Chance would have been content to sit like that forever but his stomach suddenly growled loud enough to make Faith’s eyes snap open.

“... are you hungry?” she asked, suppressing a smile.

“Apparently,” Chance replied, utterly embarrassed. He realized that he hadn’t eaten since the cinnamon buns at breakfast and cursed his stomach for making him aware of that fact.

“Want me to make something for supper?” Faith offered.

“No,” Chance replied. “You don’t need to make supper every time I get hungry.”

“I like cooking,” Faith promised. She sat up straight and Chance’s arm fell away. Her shoulders suddenly felt cold. “Did you have any requests?”

“... We could always order pizza.” Chance suggested. “Pizza and a movie.”

“Order pizza?”

“... well... ask the house for some pizza...” Chance clarified. He cleared his throat and raised his voice. “Can we get some pizza over here, please?”

“I thought the house never listened to you.” Faith muttered.

“Usually, it never listens to me. But every once and a while I catch a break.” Chance replied. He put his arm around her again and pulled her close. “Just wait.” Secretly grateful to sink back into his warm embrace, Faith decided that making supper could wait until Chance realized that pizza wasn’t going to just appear on the coffee table.

At that moment, a large pizza appeared on the coffee table.

“What the hell?” Faith gasped. She’d used the magic enough to come to the conclusion that it never worked out in the open. It worked while your back was turned, or made something appear in your pockets. It didn’t deliver pizza.

“I told you,” Chance replied. He leaned forward, pulling her with him, and took a slice with his free hand. “I was kind of hoping for Hawaiian, but I’ll settle for this.”

Faith took her own piece. “This place never gets old.”

On its own accord, the TV turned itself on and started to play Dark Knight. Faith glanced at Chance but he only grinned through a mouthful of pizza. The house had never played along so well, and he was grateful that it was letting him spend this day with Faith the way he wanted to. This was one of the first days he could remember that being a Beast hadn’t bothered him in the slightest. He actually was beginning to enjoy some of the things that came with this body.





Faith fell asleep after the first hour of the movie, despite the noise coming from the TV. She cuddled close to Chance in her sleep until they were both lying across the couch. Faith’s head was on his chest and his arms were around her, keeping her warm. The TV turned off as the movie hit the end credits, and the lights in the house followed suit, flicking off one by one. Soon Chance was holding Faith in complete darkness, and she was fast asleep on his chest.

Chance remained awake, listening to the rhythm of their breathing. Soon they breathed in sync, and Chance felt Faith clutch the fabric of his shirt in his sleep. He tightened his grip on her, suddenly struck by how deeply he loved her. He knew that she was asleep, but spoke anyways.

“Faith?”

Of course she didn’t respond.

Chance waited a long moment, and then spoke quietly, his voice a low growl. “Thank you for this. Today was the best day of my life.”