Happy Birthday, Yuki!

Yuki was a dreamer. He could be in a crowd full of other buns and all he would think about was some distant lands. Most of his dreams were nonsensical, many were rather silly, but none of them were sad. Except one. He doesn’t remember when the dream occurred, or whether it was a daydream or a regular one. However, what he does remember is that the dream struck a chord with him.

He woke to the smell of a candle being snuffed. The room was dark and warm and smelled of spiced vanilla and a hint of apples. Yuki closed his eyes once more and snuggled up close to the soft blanket that surrounded him. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew open the door, and the room was surrounded by freezing cold air. Yuki shivered and pulled the blanket closer, quickly hopping down to close the door. 

Upon reaching said door, he found himself in a bit of a predicament, as he was not strong enough to close it. The wind seemed to be blowing at just the right angle to prevent closing, and his little body could not keep the darn thing shut, though he did come close a couple of times. Eventually he gave up and sat down, accepting the coldness into his home. 

He caught a glimpse of something in the distance, and decided to put on something to keep warm and go check it out. He threw on a pair of boots, a beanie, and a puffy jacket, and for good measure he wrapped a white knitted scarf around him. Once his warmth was as secure as it could be with the winter night beaming through his doorway, he set off to find the thing he had seen. 

What surrounded him surprised him, as the snow was not as heavy when he stepped hoof outside of his humble abode. The snow twinkled against the dim lights surrounding his house, and the darkness made it have a gray hue to it. It was breathtaking, he thought. He hadn’t noticed the snowfall slow until now, where it kept at a sluggish but consistent pace. 

He chuckled and stuck out a tongue, hoping to taste a snowflake on his tongue. When he did, it surprised him. It actually had a taste to it, which was rather salty. It was like sea salt mochi, ever bitter on his tongue. He instinctively puckered his lips and squinted his eyes at the taste, then spitting out whatever remained within his mouth.
He dug a hoof into the snow and began balling it up as best he could, effectively making a snowball. He then began to roll it around, making a bigger snowball. Repeating this three times, Yuki then stacked the snowballs on top of one another and made the rudimentary form of a snowbun. Reaching into his pocket, he found a few loose buttons and used them for eyes and a rough shaped mouth. He used sticks to make horns and hooves, and lastly took his scarf off and wrapped it around the snowbun. Even snowbuns need to keep warm, he thought. 

He then trudged on in the cold, now shivering slightly more than before. In the distance, he saw a stray imp, to which he stopped in his tracks. It was a freign, which he had never seen before–he only recognized it from the pictures Hutch had shown him. He went towards it, and it quickly ran off, leaving nothing but its prints in the snow. 

Yuki stood there for a moment, beginning to really feel the cold around him. He rubbed his hooves together and crossed his arms, trying to garner some amount of warmth to keep him going. That’s when he began to see it, the glimmer that he had seen at his home. It was then that he began to shake a little, as what he saw made him start to tear up. It was his friends setting up a birthday party for him, but when he reached a hoof out, it clinked against a glass-like material. Jackal seemed to have heard something and looked around, but eventually she shrugged it off and continued to work on the confetti she was cutting out. 

The buns working on Yuki’s party seemed to be much larger than Yuki, as if he was the size of a pea. It was at that very moment that he realized where he was… he seemed to be positioned in the same spot where Hops had put the snowglobe Yuki had given her in the bar. Yuki began extremely upset, as if he was stuck in the snowglobe, how was he to get to his own party? He began to tear up, those tears growing into full streams on his cheek, which grew cold and stuck to his fur like glue.
He began banging on the snowglobe, the soft clinking sound on the other end alerting his friends. They all looked around, and their mouths moved as if to ask one another if they heard that. It was then that Yuki felt a weight on his body like none other, and he then noticed he was in the hands of Oleander, who had picked up the snowglobe. He waved with his other hand, and Yuki waved back. 

The rest of the succubuns preparing the party rushed over, and they all looked worried. Surrounded by his friends, he had never felt more alone. 

It was at that moment that Yuki woke up. A soft warmth surrounded him once more, as his fluffy blanket was wrapped around him. He stretched and heard a knock on his door, to which he answered. To his surprise, all of his friends were there, with Quince holding a cake.

“Happy Birthday!” They all exclaimed.

And Yuki smiled, now more than ever thankful for the warmth provided by the kindness of the succubuns surrounding him. He was thankful for their hospitality when he first arrived, and even more so for them remembering and preparing something for his birthday. It was at that moment when he heard clinking behind him, he slowly turned, looking to where his matching snowglobe was positioned… This time, nothing was inside the snowglobe, but a small snowbun and a miniature toy freign.