The day was like any other start of the week. Tired college students trudge along on campus, heading to class, going to get a bite to eat in the cafeteria, or off to meet friends somewhere on campus. It was the same routine for students in the early morning on a Monday in January.

Off into the quad, a lone table could be found with a light dusting of snow from the night before. Its white, fluffy blanket remained untouched except for a few tiny footprints left by some anonymous critter the night before. The table was empty and being avoided by the students as they sought out warmer temperatures inside buildings. Just behind the table sat a fountain, thankfully off during this time of year. Large oaks littered the quad in every direction, their canopies white with the light snow. The stone pathways were shovelled and salted so the students could make their way without sliding every which way with each step. Benches dotted along the pathways, leading to the table and then away towards the buildings.

That lone table was the gathering spot for our small group of friends and it would soon be occupied by them once again.

All things considered, Damon liked the cold. Moreso than heat, at least, though snow-blindness was something he could live without. He squinted through his glasses as he pulled the hunk of scrap metal and plastic he called a car into the school's parking lot. Grabbing his messenger bag from the passenger seat and the thermos full of coffee from the cupholder, he stepped out, taking absentminded sips as he checked his phone with his other hand. Early. Way too early, all things considered, but a certain asshole neighbor decided the crack of dawn was the perfect time to do some lawnmowing and getting back to sleep after that was a hopeless endeavor. As it turned out, it was one of those rare occasions where Damon was first among his little friend group to arrive, as opposed to the last.

After sweeping the snow away over half the table with a single swipe of his arm, he sat himself down, and, for a moment, considered booting up some sudoku or picross on his phone to kill the time. Ultimately he didn't feel quite alive enough for that yet, so instead he popped in some airpods, put on some tunes, took a swig of his coffee, and let his head rest on the table, separated from the cold surface by a folded arm, the other still holding onto his thermos. Like this, he was comfortably dead to the world, doing his best impression of a bereaved drunk, sans the stench and actual unconsciousness. The latter might have been nice until the bell rang, but alas, he wasn't one of those freaks of nature who were physically capable of taking a nap.

The cold winter breeze felt like heaven as it was dancing with Fae's hair, which was wet from a quick morning dip into the local pool. With a soft smile on her face, she walked from her dorm room towards the gathering spot of her friends while happily watching the snow fall. Anyone who noticed her would see that she wasn't wearing a jacket or even a hoodie. A simple black shirt with long sleeves, a dark blue pair of jeans and black sneakers. That was her outfit for the day, although she did bring a pink scarf in her backpack like usual. In her left hand she had a hot chocolate and in her right hand the backpack that almost dragged across the ground.

She wasn't the first the arrive as Damon was already sitting at the table. He clearly had a tough morning and Fae wasn't planning on making it any worse. She wasn't the most talkative person either. That's why she simply walked up to him, held up a peace sign as a greeting as soon as she noticed him looking at her and took a seat next to him. Fae casually threw the backpack next to her on the ground and took a long sip from her hot chocolate while grabbing her phone to take picture of the snow drifting through the air.

Erin couldn’t help but shiver slightly as she exited the dorms and was hit by the chilly outside air. Her choice of clothing today was little more than a simple t-shirt and trousers, the first things she’d managed to uncover from within the pile of cloth atop her dresser in her rush to get out that morning. She was pretty certain at least the clothes were clean enough to wear – though a particularly attentive observer might notice she’d worn the same shirt just a couple of days ago – but she had definitely underdressed for the weather.

As she suppressed another shiver, Erin briefly considered going back to grab a jacket at least before deciding against the idea. She’d already gotten distracted that morning, reading through an interesting article she’d found, and she was excited to meet with her friends before class, so for the time being she decided would just deal with being a little cold.

Shoving her hands into her trouser pockets for warmth, Erin set a brisk pace towards the table that had somehow become the de facto meeting spot for her and her friend group. The moment she spotted Damon and Fae already there and waiting, a wide grin spread across Erin’s face, the cold all but forgotten as she hurried to jog over to her friends.

Putting her bag down on the table, Erin didn’t bother to take a seat, instead continuing to jitter and pace around the table, lest the cold catch back up to her.

“Morning guys,” she chirped, beaming at the pair. “Anything interesting happen since yesterday?”

Max Hudson was bundled up in a purple coat, and a matching scarf around his neck. His strawberry-blonde hair peeked out from beneath a knit beanie. He had a thermos with hot chocolate in one hand, and his beloved sketchbook in the other hand. He was not the first to arrive at the table. Damon, Fae, and Erin got there first. He gave them a grin. “Mornin’ everyone!”

He placed the thermos down gently, unscrewing the lid to let a puff of steam escape into the frosty air. “Hot chocolate and snow—this is what peak cozy looks like,” he said. He took a sip, before pulling out a pencil, and started sketching out the snow covered landscape that surrounded them. “This is gonna look great in ink later,” he muttered, his breath visible in the cold. A sudden gust of wind rustled the pages of his sketchbook, and Max placed the thermos on top of the corner to keep them from fluttering away. “Not today, wind.” he murmured, as he glared at the trees as if they were conspiring against him.

He looked up at the group with a playful smile. “So, what’s the plan for today? Besides, y’know, not freezing our butts off?” Max asked

“Morning guys, anything interesting happen since yesterday?”

Damon sat up, taking another drink of coffee before responding. "Jack shit, fuck all, and a tiny dash of omnipresent vicissitude. Y'know; same shit, different day."

“Mornin’ everyone!”

And there he is, so much energy it gives him whiplash. The good kind, he reluctantly supposes. "Yo."

“So, what’s the plan for today? Besides, y’know, not freezing our butts off?”

Damon hummed noncommittally, responding with his eyes closed, not that anyone else likely noticed given how he was the proud owner of what had to be the world's most reflective pair of glasses. "No plans. Just a directionless craving for spicy food."

When Erin and Max arrived as well, Fae put her phone down and smiled at them as a way of showing that she noticed them. Damon's explanation of his morning made her chuckle. "Glad you're still the same ray of sunshine." Fae turned to the others. "Mornin'. Nothing new. Nothing planned. But I do have doughnuts." With a smile on her face, she took a box out of her backpack, put it on the table and opened it. Without waiting for the others' reactions, she grabbed a pink glazed doughnut and started eating it. "Doughnuts. Hot drinks. Pretty snowfalls. Perfect."

“Exactly! You can’t beat the taste of doughnuts.” Max smiled and took a chocolate frosted one with rainbow sprinkles out of the box. “All I need is a cute boy to cuddle with.” He chuckled, but there was a noticeable sadness in his tone. He quickly glanced away, and pretended to look at his sketchbook. Robbie was never far from his thoughts.

Erin gave a noncommital shrug at Demon’s reply, then she paused for a second, seeming to think for a moment before amending her response to a solemn nod.

“Don’t I know it! Noting all that interesting ever seems to happen round here; it’s always just shit other people have done a thousand times before!” Erin griped, managing to keep the grin off her face for just long enough to get her words out. “But worry not my friend. One of these days I’ll find something truly interesting to explore, and when I do, I’ll be sure to drag all of you along with me.”

Swiping a doughnut, Erin turned to answer Max’s question, but not before swiping a doughnut and cramming the entire thing into her mouth, the first thing she’d eaten all day on account of her earlier distraction. Wanting to swallow the treat as fast as she possibly could in order to get back to more important things like talking to her friends, Erin was rewarded for her impatience with a second of discomfort as her oesophagus struggled to push the too large doughnut bolus to her stomach.

“I was just planning on hanging out with you guys today, unless there were other plans. That and class,” Erin grinned as soon as she could speak again. “Also, thanks for the doughnut Fae!”

“All I need is a cute boy to cuddle with.”

If he didn't know any better, he would think Max was hinting at something; towards himself specifically, given he was the only other boy here, but after actually thinking it through for a moment, he summarily discards it as pure narcissism, since he was not asked directly, and because he was objectively not cute.

He felt silly even considering it. Max was clingy and cuddly with everyone. He couldn't really rely on that to judge his body language. Hell, Max could probably get to third base in plain sight without anyone who knows him thinking anything of it.

Hrmmm... He meant that hyperbolically, but now that he thinks about it, no one else was surprised when Max came out. He knew Robbie was gay, but he would always pass things with Max off as "platonic bro cuddles", and to be fair, it's not like he or anyone else sitting at this table was a stranger to those because of Max, so why would he have questioned cuddles between Max and Robbie? Even if there was something going on, taking things at face value feels like the polite thing to do, whether correct or not. However, the end result was that he ended up spending less and less time with them as Robbie made up excuses to be with his boyfriend instead of hanging out. It's not like he wanted to third-wheel the two, had he known then, but he was closer friends with Fae and Erin at this point despite having only met them in the past year.

He began to feel slightly insecure about his social skills, and began to calculate the potential detrimental ramifications of failing to recognize another budding relationship, using Fae and Erin as examples for the scenario given how he could separate himself from the situation and how it would mirror his positioning from Max and Robbie's relationship. He got to the point in the scenario where the Fae and Erin in his head were arguing over the Lithium Battery bombs in his backpack being either cool or irresponsibly dangerous before Fae took out a box of doughnuts and he resigned himself to social ineptitude, thanking Fae and grabbing himself the cinnamon swirl one.

“I was just planning on hanging out with you guys today, unless there were other plans. That and class,”

Damon shrugged. "I'm thinking Wingstop after classes, if you guys are down." He turned to look at Max. "You still bring your switch to school? We could play smash again. Loser has to try the hottest sauce on the menu." Technically, they didn't need Max's switch for that, though if they had 4 joycons, Fae and Erin could play too.

The joke, of course, was that Damon would eat their hottest hot wings either way.

Fae smiled softly with a slight blush as her friends thanked her for the doughnuts. It was a nice way to start such an early and cold morning. In the meantime, she did notice the sad expression on Max's face. Even if she didn't know what to do to comfort him, she wanted him to know that she would be there for him, which is why she quietly put her hand on his shoulder. Damon's offer was also a nice way to distract him from his depressing memories.

When she heard Erin's comment, she couldn't help but chuckle. It was typical for her to say something like that, and Fae had absolutely no doubt that Erin would drag everyone along if something fun would ever happen around her. "Erin, you kinda sound like a detective or an explorer right now. Like the ones in history books or novels."