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Unique placed her feet carefully as she walked down the snowy sidewalks. She had enough on her plate with finals and the winter concert coming up, she didn't need to slip on ice and break something, too.
As she walked, she sipped from her travel mug of herbal tea. The hot liquid warmed her inside and out and soothed her overworked vocal cords. The cold, dry air brought on by Chicago’s first big snowstorm of the year was only making it more difficult to keep her voice healthy.
It was a fifteen minute walk from her only class of the day on Friday to her apartment. As she turned into her block, she saw Ryder’s unmistakable orange jacket out on the lawn. She didn't even try to guess what he might be doing out in this weather. With Ryder, all of her guesses were guaranteed to be wrong.
When she got closer, she could see that Ryder was concentrating hard on packing snow as if he were making a snowman. But the result looked a lot more like some kind of misshapen bench than like a man.
Ryder didn't even notice her approach their house; he was too intent on his snow structure. She stood watching him for a minute as he crouched down and packed snow around one of the weird legs of his creation. She couldn't help but smile at him. Even with all the work they both had to do, Ryder never forgot to take time to have a little fun.
“Ryder Lynn, what on earth are you doing?” Unique asked after watching him for a minute.
Ryder looked up at her in shock and then tipped over, landing butt-first in the snow. Unique started laughing, and Ryder didn’t even bother to pretend to be annoyed, he just laughed with her.
When their laughter calmed down, Unique stepped carefully into the snow and offered him a hand up. He gave her one of his brightest smiles as he took her hand; it was a smile that he saved just for her, and it always made her feel special. As soon as he was standing, she leaned in and kissed him softly, letting their gloved hands tangle together. Ryder’s lips were cold compared to her tea-warmed ones.
“So what are you doing?” Unique asked.
“I made a snow lion!” Ryder said, grinning.
Unique tilted her head and stared at it. She could sort of see how it was a four legged animal, but she definitely wasn’t seeing anything that specifically indicated a lion. When she quirked an eyebrow at Ryder, he said, “Well, I tried to make a snow lion.”
“Why a snow lion?”
“Lions are your favorite!” Ryder responded, as if that should have been obvious.
Unique shook her head and then leaned in and kissed him again, this time with a lot more heat. “You are, without a doubt, the most ridiculous boy I have ever known,” she said once she pulled back.
“I know I am.” Ryder smiled at her fondly. “But you love it.”
“You may be right,” Unique replied, and then tugged on his hand. “Come on, Picasso, let’s go get some cocoa.”