Title: Advent Calendar (December 5): First Snow
Author: stellaluna_
Rating: PG
Pairing: Mac/Danny
Summary: Getting out of bed on a cold morning can be hell.
Disclaimer: None of these are mine. Characters are the property of Anthony Zuiker, Jerry Bruckheimer Television, CBS, and Alliance Atlantis.
Notes: This is my attempt at a fic version of an Advent calendar. There will be 25 of these.

***

Danny opens his eyes halfway. The room is still mostly dark, but some light is starting to creep in around the edges of the curtains. More light than there should be, actually, and that makes Danny sit up in a hurry. Did the alarm not go off, he thinks, because if they've overslept...

He manages to grab the clock, and pulls it close to his face. Once his eyes focus enough for him to be able to read the display, he lets out a sigh of relief and drops the clock back on the nightstand. It's only a couple of minutes past five, so they've got almost half an hour before the alarm will go off. That's a relief. Not just because they don't need to worry about running late, but because the room feels really goddamn cold. The longer he can delay going out into that, the better. The radiator is banging away, but Danny knows from experience that it will take awhile before the place actually heats up. He pulls the blankets up around his shoulders, thinking that maybe he can even grab a few more minutes of sleep, if he's lucky.

Before he can start to drift, he feels Mac stir beside him. "Danny," he says in a voice thick with sleep. "What time is it?"

"Early," Danny says, and pulls a pillow over his face.

He hears Mac pick something up and then set it back down: his watch, probably, from the sound of it. "It's not that early," Mac says. "We have to be up soon."

"Not yet we don't. Go back to sleep."

The mattress springs creak as Mac sits up. "Is my watch right? It seems awfully light in here for this hour."

Danny sighs. "Yes, it's right. I just checked the alarm clock. We've got a half-hour. Probably more like twenty minutes now."

"It's bright, though," Mac says. "Did it snow?"

"How should I know? I haven't heard the weather yet," Danny says. "Know why? Because the alarm hasn't gone off."

"There's this thing called a window, Danny," Mac says. He pushes back the blankets and stands up, and Danny tries to burrow deeper under the covers. He's not going to open his eyes. He's not going to look. They're not having a conversation.

He hears Mac open the curtains. "Yeah, it did," Mac says. "Looks like a good few inches, and it's still coming down."

Danny bites back the urge to tell Mac he'll show him a good few inches if he'll just shut up and come back to bed, and opens one eye halfway again. Everything is a blur, but he can just about make out Mac standing at the window, and he doesn't need his glasses to see that the pane and the sill are heavily blanketed with white.

"Great," Danny says. "Go listen for school closings and let me know if we gotta go in today or not, will ya? Maybe Ma will let us stay home and build a snowman."

"Very funny," Mac says. "Come on, Danny, I think we should get up now."

"Why?" Danny has given up any hope of getting back to sleep, but he's still going to call bullshit on this one; he's damned if he's facing the cold before he has to.

"The roads are going to be bad," Mac says. "God knows what the drive into the city is going to be like, and I wouldn't take any bets on the subway running on schedule, either. I think we should allow ourselves extra time."

"Oh, come on," Danny says. "Who cares if we're a little late? If it's that bad out, not only is everyone else gonna be just as late, no one in their right mind is gonna be up to committing murder, either."

Mac doesn't say anything, but Danny can tell by the tense set of his shoulders that he's not happy. He sighs again and sits up, shivering in spite of the thick sweatshirt he's wearing. "Come over here," he says. Mac doesn't move. "Really. C'mere."

Mac comes over and sits down on the bed. "What?" he asks.

"We're not gonna be late," Danny says. "I promise you. We're just going to leave at our normal time, and it'll be fine."

"You don't know that," Mac says. "I really think -- "

"Hey." Danny scoots a little closer to him and puts a hand on his leg. "Relax. When have I ever steered you wrong? Lately."

"Be that as it may, last time I checked, you didn't control the weather."

"And neither do you," Danny says. "That's the point. Look. It's cold out there. It's nice and warm here under the blankets. Wouldn't you rather stay all cozy for however long we still got before the damn alarm goes off?"

Mac bites his lip and looks down at Danny's hand. "I..."

"Live in the moment," Danny says, and leans in and kisses Mac. One of Mac's hands covers his; the other slides into his hair, and he presses closer. Danny can't decide which is hotter, Mac's mouth or his body, and he doesn't much care. It's warmth; that's what matters, and Danny moves a hand under his shirt. Mac's hand tightens on his hair.

"Just think, we could stay home," Danny murmurs in between kisses. "Make tea and read the paper and laze around in bed all day, doesn't that sound good?"

Mac makes a soft sound and doesn't answer, but doesn't stop kissing him, either.

"It's nice and warm," Danny says, kissing the corner of his mouth, "and we could -- "

The alarm goes off.

Danny stops kissing Mac. "Goddammit," he says.

"Seems like we used up all our extra time," Mac says. He leans his forehead against Danny's.

"Seems like it." Danny smiles and gives Mac one last kiss, then stretches and reaches for his glasses.

Getting up is even worse than he imagined it would be. He bounces from foot to foot, wishing he'd remembered to wear socks to bed, and then, hugging himself, he goes over to the window to look at the snow. The street is white and silent, but there are already tire tracks in the street, and as he watches, a Saturn slides by, throwing little sprays of snow in its wake. "First snow," Danny says. "Think this means we'll have a white Christmas?"

"I doubt it," Mac says. "We've still got three weeks to go." But he lingers at the window a little longer, watching the snow fall, and he drops a kiss on Danny's shoulder before he goes to start the coffee.

***