Idk why snowed in fics don’t exist for the mystic messenger characters. It’s cold asf where I live and I just want some comfort fic. Happy holidays xoxo
Summary: when visiting Zen to help him recover from his broken foot, you get snowed in and forced to stay the night
“Thank you again for visiting. I’m so sorry I have to send you home so late. Let me make you some tea before you head out? It was pretty cold out,” Zen offered, walking you back to his apartment from the rooftop where the two of you had looked at the stars as a snow storm began.
It was certainly getting cold. You regretted wearing just a dress, some tights, and a coat to his place. You couldn’t turn down some tea to warm you up before you had to venture back into the cold.
You had almost expected to stay the night. Probably better you didn’t. Zen had a lot going on both physically and mentally, with his broken foot making him unable to perform in the role he had been so looking forward to. But he did ask you to stay the night, then not more than fifteen minutes later asked you to leave. It was a little odd but… completely valid that he would change his mind! You just were internally hoping you didn’t do anything wrong.
You sipped your tea slowly, letting the warmth from the mug warm up your hands. “Thank you for letting me stay so long. I’ll message Jumin and ask him to send his driver now.”
You were surprised to see the half a dozen missed calls from Jumin when you opened your phone.
A bunch of roads are getting closed in your area. Please call me
You stiffened. Noticeably apparently, as Zen chimed in with a “what’s wrong?”
“I guess a bunch of roads are getting closed because of the snow. Jumin told me to call,” you replied, shrugging it off and dialing his number.
“Why didn’t you answer earlier?” Classic Jumin, not opening with any greeting at all.
“Sorry Jumin. I plugged in my phone to charge and then forgot to check it,” you replied honestly.
“Well the entire area near Zen’s is shut down. A bunch of crazy accidents and black ice. They won’t let anyone pass until they can salt the roads.”
You paused, unsure how to approach this issue. “Huh. Well I could always walk to an area more convenient!”
He let out a humorless chuckle. “It’s -20 out. Feels like -34. Blizzard-like conditions. You can get frostbite in under twenty minutes.”
Well you knew it was cold when you went out with Zen, but not that cold. Good thing you were only out there for a few minutes.
“Put me on speakerphone, would you?”
You nodded, even though he couldn’t see such an action, and wordlessly put him on speaker.
“Mr. Director?” Zen asked sarcastically.
Jumin let out a large sigh. “I am, for the record, beyond against this. But unfortunately there’s no other feasible option. The roads are closed and you two are snowed in for the night.”
“Seriously!?” Zen asked, shock evident in his voice.
Jumin groaned quietly on the other end of the phone. “So… be on your best behavior. And my driver will come tomorrow when it’s safe. Zen. I’m talking to you. Best behavior. Don’t me regret sending them to your house.”
“I- I won’t! I’m an absolute gentleman.”
“Alright. Well, I, for one, personally-“
Zen reached over and hung up the call, shaking his head. “Man! I can’t stand that guy. ‘Best behavior’ and who does he think he is! Just because he’s never been attracted to a woman and all he’s ever seen has been his father with women doesn’t mean that all men are absolute animals.”
Your own mind was swarming. You’d be staying the night… with Zen. After he had just abruptly tried to kick you out. “Uh… I’m not really sure how to say this-“ you started, trying to make things less awkward.
“What’s up?” Zen asked, leaning against the counter in his kitchen.
“I know I wasn’t really what you were expecting and you had a lot of hopes when I came here and I didn’t really fulfill them and that’s fine! I’m not going to hold any of it against you. I promise we can try and not make this awkward tonight but I’m really sorry you wanted me to go and then all of a sudden-“
“You didn’t fulfill them?” Zen questioned, cutting off your rambling. “No, you more than fulfilled them. I wanted to send you home because I’m really awful at self control, and you’re so beautiful and sweet and everything I ever dreamed you’d be and it’s… a lot, for someone like me to get that.”
“So you don’t absolutely hate me?”
Zen chuckled, sliding across the counter and closing the distance between the two of you to cup your cheek. “No, I think you’re the most amazing person that I’ve ever met.” He took a deep breath, retracting his hand. “And tonight I’m going to be a perfect gentleman, no matter how tempting you may be.”
You could feel your face heat up at the compliments. It was entertaining to see him just as flirty yet flustered as he always was in the messenger. “No worries, I’ll be good, I promise.”
He buried his face in his hands. “Don’t say that. It makes it worse.”
A moment later, he pulled his face out of his hands. “Well, let’s get you into something more comfortable. I can lend you some sweatpants and a shirt if that’s okay.”
“That would be great, thanks!”
“Okay! I’ll be just a second.” Zen went off to his room and you could hear some rummaging through drawers. All of a sudden, all the lights in his home turned off.
“Babe? Was that you?” He called.
You turned on your phone flashlight and went into the room Zen had entered. His head popped up to look at you when you walked in. “I think the power just went out,” you explained flatly.
Zen took in a deep breath. “Well tell Jumin. Maybe he can get some people on it. I’ll grab you a hoodie to wear too then. I don’t know how cold it’s gonna get in here.”
“Do you have any candles or anything?” You asked, trying to be helpful.
“Uh, I think I got a few a while back. They should be in a cabinet in the bathroom.”
You walked carefully to the bathroom, using your phone flashlight to light the way, then started digging through the cabinet in search of candles. You came back miraculously with a few tea-sized candles and two large candles: rose and vanilla scented. You had half the mind to tease Zen about how romantic it was that he kept these in stock, but then recalled your promise to be good.
You delivered the candles and he traded off with clothes for you to put on. “Thanks Babe. I’ll light these as you get changed. If you need anything just call.”
You got changed in Zen’s dark bedroom, trading your tights for warm and comfy, granted oversized, sweatpants. You tied the drawstrings really tight then, satisfied, went out to meet Zen.
“All comfy and warm now,” you greeted him in the now slightly better-lit room, doing a little spin in your new outfit.
Zen squeezed his eyes shut, then slowly opened them a few seconds later. “You look so cute in my clothes.” Was all he could muster, slinging the hood of your hoodie onto your head and chuckling.
“Ha ha. Take a seat. You shouldn’t be on your foot too much still. Do you have a gas stove? Or is it electric?”
“Gas. It should still run okay.”
You exhaled a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. I’ll take some of the cans of soup we got today and cook them for dinner. It’s already starting to get a little chilly in here and I think the warm food will help.”
Zen nodded. “That’s a good idea. Yeah, low rent kinda means poor insulation in the winter. You need any help?” You shook your head and got to work making the food.
After a chill dinner of Campbell’s soup, you realized you had a lot of time to kill. “You have any board games?” You asked Zen.
He rubbed his elbow awkwardly. “I wish I could say yes?” He put on a flashy smile.
“That’s okay! We can find something to do.” You took a minute looking around, until you saw his stack of colorful highlighters on an old script on his counter.
“You done with this script?” You asked, handing it to him. He nodded. “Wanna cut it or tear it up into a bunch of cards? We can make our own game.”
Zen grabbed a pair of scissors at the corner of the counter and got to work. You went to his pantry and grabbed the sole box of cereal in there, taking the plastic bag out and collapsing the box into a giant strip of cardboard. Perfect for the game base.
You started drawing a giant, winded path on the board then separated them with a bunch of lines. Then you got to work with the highlighters, coloring each space a different color, a few spaces getting fancy symbols like stars or hearts. After putting colors on the pieces of paper Zen had cut out, you had a makeshift Candyland in just a half hour.
“You can be the rubber band and I’ll be the paper clip.” You passed Zen his dark blue rubber band player of honor and the game began. Zen was in the clear lead, getting colors that gave him a ton of spaced of lead, until he pulled the star card, sending him back to nearly the start.
In the end, you triumphed. It was starting to get cold in the apartment. You rubbed your hands together to try and warm them up. “When do you think the power will be back?” You whined.
“If the roads are closed, it’s not a good sign…” Zen trailed off. Then he opened his arms. “Come here. I’ve been told I’m pretty warm.”
It didn’t take much to convince you. You scoot d towards his embrace. Shockingly enough he was pretty warm. You buried your nose into his neck as your hands grabbed his sweatshirt he had on in attempt to warm up.
He jumped a little at your cold nose, but brushed it off, wrapping his arms around you and rubbing them up and down to try and warm you up.
“Why are you so warm?” You mumbled against his skin. Your movement pulled his sweatshirt, so you could feel that his collarbones were warmer, causing you to burrow slightly further into his sweatshirt to the warmest heat source possible.
He couldn’t help but laugh at your movements. “I always have been warm.”
“It’s like you’re my human furnace.”
He laughed, lips brushing against the top of your head (whether intentional or not, you couldn’t be sure), and ran a hand over your hair. “You wanna play again?”
“You’re brave enough for a rematch?” You asked, burrowing out of your warm spot to look at him.
“Oh you bet. I don’t like to lose.”
So you shifted your spot so you were situated between his legs, his arms wrapped tight around you except for when he had to grab a card to play the game. Eventually even that wasn’t warm enough and Zen had to grab the blanket on the sofa behind him to wrap the two of you in.
You played two more rounds to kill time until it got unbearably cold.
“That’s it. I’m officially too cold to continue,” you whined. “I give in, you win.” With two wins, beating your first round of luck, Zen was declared the winner. You buried your face back into his collarbone to try and heat up again.
“Glad you came to your senses to accept defeat. Do you wanna lay in bed under the blankets? That might help.”
You took a minute to think. “What time is it?” You couldn’t be too pitiful and go to bed too early.
“9:30. A totally normal time to get in bed.” It was like he read your mind.
“Okay. Will you lay with me?”
You could hear his heart race a little. “Of course I will.”
His heart was racing even faster.
And then you realized you’re stupid and he’s injured. “My bad!” You retracted from your hiding spot in his sweatshirt so you could look at him. “I forgot about your foot!”
“I could definitely try. I mean I heal fast so-“
“Nope. If anything I should carry you.”
“That isn’t necessary. Come on, let’s head to bed.”
You stood up first, grabbing Zen’s crutches and helping him stand before giving him them. Then you let him head off to his bedroom. You blew out the candles in the living room and grabbed the blanket you had used during Candyland, using your phone flashlight to light the way to the bedroom. Zen was already sat down in bed when you came in. You did a half-loiter in the doorway, not sure exactly how to go about any of this.
“C’mere Babe. Before you get cold,” Zen urged.
You flung the blanket you brought at the bottom of the bed, then made your way to the side opposite Zen, happily burying yourself under the covers.
“Nice?” He asked, watching you snuggle into the covers with heart-eyes practically.
“Soooo nice.” You scooted closer to him, slotting yourself between his warm arms to heat up.
Zen wasted no time to run his hand against your hair, smoothing it down. It was surprisingly relaxing.
“Sorry you got trapped here,” he apologized. “But I appreciate you coming to help me out today.”
You looked up to rest your forehead against his. “I’m having a good time. Sorry I had to stay when you were ready to have some time to yourself.”
He shook his head, bumping your nose with his in the process. “No, no. This is much better. So much better.”
He noticed your eyelids droop sleepily. “Get some rest. Hopefully the power will come on during the night.”
But did he hope that? Right now you were close in his embrace, breath fanning on his face, and he wouldn’t trade this for the world. Thank goodness for the blizzard.
