"What are you doing?"

Bemusedly Gold peeked into the storage room that had caught her attention as she walked past, shuffling noises and curious hums interlaced with sparks of psychic energy pulling her in to see what Silver was doing in there. The absolute mess she found gracing her vision inside first made her gasp, then laugh; inbetween the plethora of opened boxes and stuff on the ground sat the younger psychic, glowing in the light of the rising sun coming in from a small window in the back and beaming at her with his usual bright grin. "Hey, Gold!" Quickly clearing a path through the wreckage he gestured for her to come in also, the tenrec slowly weaving around discarded scientific instruments and long-forgotten books as she made her way over. "I'll clean all this up later, no worries. This attic is cool, isn't it? There's so much stuff here!"

"Ah... this isn't an attic," the telepath teased gently, stifling a sneeze at the dustiness of the air around her as she looked around. Just what in the world was Silver up to? She knew the other liked exploring, no room in the Science Center was safe for his curiosity and predisposition to get in trouble... but he usually had the tendency to at least leave everything in its place, something that had clearly gone amiss right now. "And you have not answered my question," she added, settling down politely next to him before she could trip over a poorly-placed piece of rubbish and careen face-first into a few of the boxes. That wouldn't be the first time.

With a chuckle Silver pulled down yet another dusty carton from the racks against the wall, its contents – old test tubes and some equipment that had long become outdated – getting rummaged through rapidly and clinking to the floor as they got carelessly pushed aside. "It's winter!!" the hedgehog beamed at her, clearly caring much less about his mess-creating actions than Gold was. "Cold, ice, torrents of wind and snow forming a pretty white blanket over the streets and the houses... It's that time of year again!"

Gold blinked at those words, quirking up her eyebrow as she beheld the eager telekinetic. "Cold, well... If you want to call it that," she mused, not missing the irony of her wearing her usual sari and Silver nothing at all as they discussed the alleged most frigid time of year... which she could not recall ever noticing on Onyx Island. She knew what seasons were, such knowledge she could recall from where she was very young and her life was simple still, but to say the urban marvel they lived in truly experienced them would be nothing short of a lie.

"Yeah! Have you ever seen it before?"

"I... believe I have, yes." More helplessly the tenrec sighed; she could vaguely recall some memories of powdery white looming all around her and icy cold nibbling at her nose as she was bundled up warmly, but nothing concrete followed the muted thoughts. It simply had happened too long ago, like most things she wished she could remember had. "I know for certain we had snow in my own dimension, and I might have played in it once or twice," she told Silver all the same with a sad smile. "When I was little. I don't remember much of it, though."

"Oh... I'm sorry. Snow is amazing, you have to have fun in it at least one time!" Silver told her more sympathetically, though Gold merely shrugged at his proposition.

"It is what it is. And besides, I myself would not say it has gotten much colder the past few days here, so I doubt I'll come across any snow anytime soon."

"That's because you never go outside! ...But it hasn't, indeed," Silver admitted more quietly, before his usual smile came back and the box he was digging through got shut anew and pushed into the ever-growing tower of others. "I was hoping it would, though... and then I need to have some winter gear to keep me warm! Like a scarf, or something."

"Is that what you are looking for in here? I do fear you are not likely to find such stuff in our storage room for old scientific equipment," Gold smiled back, deciding she might as well begin help with the clean-up; she could already hear the complaints of whoever was responsible to keep this particular room in the building in check, giving her yet another afternoon of work. "Are such things commonly kept in an attic?"

"Yup!" With cyan sparks filling the room and haphazardly dumping everything back into boxes each object almost certainly had not found itself prior Silver hummed pensively. "And stuff like skiis or snowboards too... thick winter coats... mittens... We do have those things here, right? I've never seen them before, now that I think about it..."

Deciding it was best to not bring up the fact she had no idea what especially the first two things were, or the use of all mentioned items, Gold shrugged as she moved to lift a box back into the racks. Onyx City didn't really do seasons; rain and sticky hot air were mostly what they were used to, intercepted by the occasional drier heatwave, and not much more than that. But Silver, with his history, perhaps would not know that... "Dear Silver... You do know that Onyx City's geographical location and the state of the climate make it rather hard for it to experience a true winter like you have in mind, right? That is, it's nigh-impossible," she told the other, suppressing a grunt as she fought the heavy carton back into its place.

"...What?!" Head shooting up Silver stared at her, the boxes in his psychic grasp skidding to a stand-still in the air and a clatter resounding as some stuff fell out from the overflowing tops.

"I'm sorry," Gold apologised, pausing in her quickly-losing battle to reach out and stroke over a drooping grey ear. "It's just too warm here, lovely- ugh, there we go." Giving the box one final push and firmly lodging it in its rack she wiped her forehead, shooting her dear friend a sympathetic smile. "I doubt we'll be reaching any temperature frigid enough for snow to form, let alone not melt completely."

"...Oh." With a quiet sigh Silver stared out of the tiny window, the tenrec's gaze following his as the vast city expanded across her vision exactly the same way it always did with not a speck of white to be found. "Hm. This sucks, Gold," the younger psychic huffed, bristling in great disdain but rubbing his chin contemplatively also. "So... geographical location, you said? Do you think I'd be scolded if I tried to move the entire island over to somewhere colder-"

Dryly Gold tugged on the other's ear to bring a halt to that particular train of thought before it could take form and elicit a mass panic. "Yes, because we'd be cut off from all our food and resources on the mainland and then we're going to starve," she pointedly told him, narrowing her eyes as best she could at the more cheeky yellow ones meeting hers. It was difficult, to scold the other, and she was certain Silver was aware of that.

"Hehe. I mean... Yes. Good point." Nose twitching the younger psychic rubbed his chin, pondering her words deeply. "You can't really eat snow, no. It's not tasty..." Placing his hands behind his head before Gold could ask just how he had figured that out the hedgehog sighed deeply, smile slowly fading away. "And the Arctic probably has melted away too by now, then... And we don't even have winter garb... here..."

"...We do not," Gold agreed, suspicion growing tremendously as the other fell silent with his eyes slowly widening. She recognised that look... "I am sorry, but--"

"That's it!!" With a triumphant cry Silver shot right to his feet, the tenrec shrieking at the unexpected movement in front of here and scrambling right into the tower of dusty cartons with another yell. "We don't have it here! I'll be right back!"

And with that he whirled around, cyan sparks racing through the air and haphazardly dumping all the left-over clutter in boxes that got pushed to the side. "Wait, Silver!" Gold called out after him as the realisation he was leaving struck and made her scramble to her feet, but the other was long gone; all that was left was the slightly-improved mess and the dust in the air, a sneeze forcing its way out her nose before she could do anything else. "...Oh, dear," she mumbled, slowly dusting off her sari before turning around and looking at the boxes she had toppled right into after all.

This did not bode well for her.

-----

With a small grin Silver let his powers shift around, preparing the last bits of his surprise and beaming in pride at the way it glowed in the afternoon sun. An empty laboratory to put it in had been found quickly enough, and pushing aside tables and other equipment to create enough space to place it down had been easy also. He had had no idea if his plan even had any chance of success, but so far it seemed to be working just fine; everything he had deemed necessary had been collected, his backpack carelessly flung in a corner of the room overflowing with goodies, but just one component was missing still... and he would find her quickly enough. Checking one final time to see if the thermostat he had been messing with had indeed lowered the temperature and contently noting the rapidly-dropping number on the screen he raced out, shutting and locking the door before setting off into the endless halls of the Science Center. If they truly could not have snow in Onyx City, due to whatever convoluted reason Gold had explained to him... Well, he grinned smugly as he followed the slight call of telepathic energy he could feel from a few floors up. Why would he not simply get the snow himself?

"Gold," he whispered as he opened the door to the study area he knew she liked to make use of, the other indeed sitting there and writing diligently on her screen. She hadn't noticed him come in, as usual; with a chuckle Silver let his powers spark up, the telepath subconsciously picking up on it before his appearance could startle here. "I'm back!"

Jolting a little before turning around Gold smiled at him, pausing in her work. "Ah, Silver. Greetings."

"Hullo," Silver purred, struggling to keep the grin off his face and his body from bouncing in excitement. "Are you busy...?"

"Other than emotionally preparing myself for cleaning up the storage you have left in disarray, not really."

"Good!" Grabbing her hand before she could protest or bring up any other responsibility he did not have time for now Silver quickly tugged her to her feet, his friend's yelp of protest left ignored. "I need to show you something," he told her, any objection dying out on the tenrec's lips as he shot her his most pleading glance. "It's really important, and we don't have much time!"

"Uh... Okay...?" Gold tried to answer, but before she had gotten the word out Silver had already scooped her up in his arms and taken off into the sky.

"Alright, hold on then!"

"Wait, where are we-" the other sputtered from within his grasp, though Silver merely smiled as he kept an eye out for any wayward scientist meandering where they were not supposed to be or robot willing to chase him down for daring to show any sign of his powers. "Silver!" resounded from just below him once again, and he fondly nosed the mark on the tenrec's forehead to soothe her.

"It's a surprise," he told his friend with the smile unable to be withheld from his face any longer, slowly coming to a halt in front of the room he had picked to hide said surprise in. Hopefully it was still there... but he had readjusted the thermostat, so that had to have all been fine. "Can you close your eyes for me, please?"

"...For what?"

"It won't be a surprise if you can see it immediately, Gold. Please?"

The tenrec beheld him most incredulously as Silver beamed most pleadingly, but then she sighed and relented as her gloved hands moved to cover the sceptical glance sent his way. "Oh, alright. Is it far?"

"Nope, it's right here!"

Undoing the electronic lock on the door with his powers Silver purred, slowly opening it and smiling as he saw the absolutely ginormous heap of snow he had taken with him from the past, still glistening in the light of the sun. Just like it had in the frosty region where he had found it... He had to make do considering his current circumstances, the hedgehog conceded as he entered, and so far he certainly couldn't complain. "...It's cold here," Gold mumbled from within his arms, and Silver purred most assuringly before locking the door behind him again. Clearly his little trick with lowering the thermostat had worked; indeed it was rather frigid in the room compared to the hallway, his pelt fluffing up instinctively in the chill. He had a scarf with him in his bag, and a quick inquiry at Amy's place had netted him a soft winter sweater also, but they could put those on later.

"It's supposed to be," he chuckled, gaze drifting from the tenrec to the expanse of white in front of him as an idea slowly formed in his mind. When he himself had first come across snow – and subsequently freaked out, his friends needing more than one explanation to tell him the occurrence was entirely normal – it had not taken long for the others to play a few pranks on him with the soft white flakes... And he himself wasn't above mischief either, and Gold sometimes made it so easy...

Taking to the air again he grinned brightly as he moved right above the snowdrift. "What are you doing?" his friend inquired, the scrunching of her brow a clear indication she knew something was going to happen... but then she shrieked as he all but let her fall right out of his arms, the tenrec's eyes flying right open as she dropped right into cold white powder beneath him and promptly got engulfed up to her ears. "SILVER!!"

"Gotcha!" With a laugh the hedgehog crooned at the floundering and sparks of yellow telepathy racing around him, his body flopping right into the snow also with a cry of delight. He had missed this; he had missed the cold, the impromptu snowball fights that always seemed to be brought to life with Sonic and friends around, the cosy evenings and the frosty mornings and all the fun moments inbetween. Had Gold truly never experienced it? She could vaguely recall it, so surely such warm memories had been a part of it also. He hoped they had been, at least.

A loud sneeze resounded from beside him, wide blue eyes above a crystal-covered nose glaring at him as he got shaken from his musings. "Mean!!" Gold wailed, floundering and scrambling in the mountain of white with only bits of her face visible. "Help-!"

"I had to, Gold," was all Silver stated in his defence as he gently picked her up with his powers and placed her fully on her feet, though the layer of snow he had assembled was so grand Gold sunk into it halfway through her midriff immediately anyway. "This is what snow is like! If I can't find it in the city itself, I'll just bring it over!" he told her delightedly, letting the white powder flurry into the air with his powers. "Ta-daah!"

A most incredulous huff followed as the telepath's body disappeared a tad further. "You went to your friends in the past to collect all this?"

"Yep, hehe. And I got some of that winter garb I was asking you about too, so you don't need to be cold!"

"...It is cold," Gold murmured, the goosebumps on her arms and shivers spilling over her body clear as day as Silver lifted both of them out of the snow mountain and moved towards the edge instead. But she didn't sound mad about it; instead she was staring at the expanse of white, gaze distant in the way Silver recognised. She was thinking about her old world. "I... I had forgotten it was like this..."

"But now you can remember again!" Brushing most of the white flakes off her sari Silver gently put the tenrec down, diving for his bag next to pull out the thick sweater he had been given. "Here, this'll make the cold better."

With a murmur of thanks Gold took the clothing, Silver diving into the heap of snow once more as she tried to wring herself inside them without getting stuck in her sari. "Is there much of it in the past?" his friend asked rather muffledly from within the sweater her quills were getting tangled in, a spark of cyan moving over to help. "From what I can recall, there was a lot of it in my world during one winter... but maybe I just remember it being so grand because I myself was smaller."

"I like to think there is. It changes by the day, I like that," Silver purred, a snowball forming in his hand and ominously floating over to Gold the moment her head popped out from the sweater's collar. "Do you remember playing games with it?"

Leering at the ball hovering over her the tenrec quickly sidestepped, swatting with a soft laugh at the snow orb as it followed her unbiddenly. "Not really and if you throw that at me I will end you- hey!!"

Mushing the snow right into her face and cutting through her protest Silver laughed as his friend sputtered, the hedgehog quickly diving back into the snowheap to peek at her in relative safety. "You can make snowmen, and snow angels, and have snowball fights, and you can burrow your way through it too!" he explained delightedly, tail giving a wag at the mention of the activities alone. His friends had shown all of them to him, and he had enjoyed it so much; surely the more withdrawn tenrec would too.

"Let's make a snowman, that seems like the safest way to spend our time without devolving into a full-fledged snow war," Gold proposed instantly, both teens laughing only more as Silver scampered over and flopped down on the edge of the heap instead. He hadn't expected his friend to be willing to go rummage through the snow in the way he liked; he was more of a burrowing animal than she was, after all. But making something out of the snow was plenty of fun too!

"You'd be surprised, heh. Sonic and his friends always make snowmen together, and then one of them falls over, or they get sabotaged, or someone steals all the scarves and we can't decorate them anymore... It's chaos," the hedgehog reminisced fondly as he scooped together some snow for the base, Gold slowly copying his movements next to him. "But fun chaos!"

"Rambunctious... I think I prefer it this way. Though we really should clean up the storage room, and this place too-"

"Later," Silver retorted, flicking some snow in her face as Gold giggled with a fond shake of her head. "We're gonna enjoy this as much as we can! It always melts more quickly than you think." Indeed, the snow at the edge of his pile was getting a little mushy, and he scooped up some from the middle instead to continue their creation. He probably would not be able to roll three nice round orbs with the limited amount he had been able to take with him, but that was no matter. Gold seemed to be enjoying herself regardless, staring at the snow in wonder and slowly adding handful after handful to the snowman's body as it grew in size underneath their hands. "This is fun, right?" he purred at her, deciding the bottom layer of the snowman was large enough and beginning with the middle part.

With a fond smile the tenrec nodded. "It is... and just look at what I can do with it, too!"

"Ooh, what's that?" Leaning over Silver peeked at the ball she had been forming in her hands, tail wagging as he prepared himself to tell her how nicely round it was... before shrieking as the tenrec whirled around and all but flung it into his face with a triumphant cry, hitting him head-on as Silver squealed in surprise and staggered right back into the heap of snow. "Gold!!" Floundering up he stared at her with wide eyes, shaking the powder from his quills as his friend's laughter rang out around him. "Mean!"

"I had to, Silver," Gold giggled in response, the hedgehog huffing as his actions and words got thrown back at him literally and figuratively. "I can see why such shenanigans would be considered fun, heh. You did not see that coming."

"Unbelievable. This is anarchy!" Grabbing some more snow himself Silver narrowed his eyes, the tenrec ducking away with a squeak as he threw it just above her head.

"We should finish the snowman-!"

"Nuh uh-!! Hm. Maybe we should, actually." Quickly darting over to the thermostat Silver sighed; it was still well above zero degrees despite how much he had lowered it – it would make sense the device had a forced minimal temperature, considering they were in some old laboratory that was still used on occasion – and small puddles were forming on the ground as the snow melted ever so slowly. "Okay, finish the snowman before it's all gone!" he decreed, diving right back into the snowheap to grab more snow and add it to the snowman's body.

"I can see if there is a freezer cell somewhere we can store him for the time being," Gold smiled, the two teens quickly working together to finish their creation as they shook frosty water droplets from their quills and chuckled as some more wet snow was flung around. "Then we can keep him for a while longer. It would be a shame if he were to melt so quickly also."

"I'd like that." Stepping back Silver grinned at the finished product of their hard work, grabbing his bag with his powers and wrapping the unused scarf he got from it around the highest and middle orb. "There, now he will be warm too!"

"Why does he need to be warm? It's a snowman," his friend dryly brought up as Silver rummaged through his backpack further and pulled out a carrot, two sticks, and some rocks also; carefully decorating the snowman's exterior he smiled at the sceptically-frowning tenrec.

"That's what you're supposed to do with them, Gold! See, he's happy with how he looks," he told her, pointing at the smile he had placed on the snowman's face with the rocks. But the snow truly was melting now; shaking some water off his boots Silver sighed and grabbed the liquid with his powers as it dripped around him and Gold. Cleaning this up would be... a bit difficult, he realised as a small frown formed on his face, but immediately he shook it away again with a smile taking its place. His dear friend had had fun, and he himself had too, and that was all that mattered. "Would you... be up for this again?" he asked more shyly, depositing the first bits of water into a laboratory sink placed in the wall. "When you have some time off?"

"I would like that, heh. Thank you so much, Silver."

Grabbing Gold's hand as she reached to clasp his Silver gave it a squeeze, before flicking some more snow in her face and laughing at the squeal of disdain it elicited. "You're welcome- hey, don't you dare throw that back at me!"

And sometime later, when they had safely disposed of the melted snow and put their snowman in a fridge somewhere and Gold had dragged him along by his quills to clean up that accursed storage room after all and the laboratory too, Silver decided it would not take long at all before he would take either Gold with him to the past or a new batch of snow with him to the future so they could play in it again.

Then they could finally settle the score with a true snowball fight, too.

Author's notes:

Hi everyone! ^-^ The very first fic I have ever published about Gold! (but not the first one I have written :3) I adore her, but there is little content of her to be found... so then the best thing you can do is begin making your own! XD I might sporadically write more one-shots about her and Silver, but this whole story is set after the conclusion of my fic Genesis, which hasn't even been published yet so far. That's why details regarding their situation and how they live are a bit vague, but I hope you enjoyed regardless! This was written as a Christmas present for a friend of mine; Kitty, I hope you like it!🍀💕