It is one of the harshest winters in decades for Switzerland according to the weather forecast. She has never seen this much snow and ice in one storm since she moved in with Angela in a cosy cabin on the side of a mountain, but she now has slight regrets that she didn’t finish their new stairs up to the cabin itself.

As another gust of snowy wind batters her face making her wince. In a futile attempt to fight the cold Fareeha puts the scarf, her mother knitted for her, more over her face to protect her already freezing nose from hurting even more. Curses and other bad words escape her mouth when she nearly slips over a patch of ice hidden below a pile of snow. She manages to recover and slowly walks to their brand-new gate Reinhardt put up for them as the original was so decrepit that is fell apart when they bought the cabin.

She turns to where she thinks the path up to her house is and her guesses are right as she fails to see the gate and nearly trips over the opening gate. She readjusts her coat once more before she walks up to the porch. She opens the door and as she walks in her ears pick up the sound of the TV in the living room

“I’m home from town, ya amar!”

“How’s the weather, Liebe?” Comes from the living room.

“Snowy and cold as fuck! I think we might be getting snowed in.”

When nothing comes from the living room Fareeha moves to their upstairs bedroom to get changed out of her now wet clothes.

While naked she tries to find her old Helix hoodie, but she can’t find it anywhere. She searches through their entire top floor, but after searching their bedroom for the third time she gives up and settles for one of Angela’s older t-shirts that surprisingly fit her albeit a bit snug. As she moves downstairs she still wonders where her favourite hoodie might be but when she enters the living room she finds her hoodie and the culprit who stole it.

“Angela, why did you steal my favourite hoodie?” Fareeha asks with a scolding smile.

“Because I missed your smell because you were gone for far too long.” A small squeaky voice says from the couch “And I missed you.”

Fareeha walks towards the source of the voice and she sees the Swiss doctor huddled in a pile of blankets, but her hair is still poking out together with her blue hoodie while watching the weather forecast with the fire crackling cosily in the fireplace.

While Fareeha moves towards the kitchen her phone rings.

“Ziegler Residence, Fareeha speaking.”

“Hello Habibti, how are you doing?” Ana’s voice asks from the other side. “Me and Reinhardt are wondering if you prepared yourself for the coming snow storm?”

“Yes, we did. Our neighbour brought us firewood for a whole week and his wife cooked us some meals with other groceries to last us a while too.”

“That’s so nice of them!” Fareeha hears Reinhardt boom from the other side. “We are planning to drop by from Stuttgart soon, to possibly dig you two out.” Ana continues as she scolds her husband.

“That’s nice mom but I think we will be fine. This cabin is built for snow and we are both off from work the coming two weeks due to the already bad weather.” Fareeha says as she fills a pan with chocolate milk from the fridge. “We’ll be fine, Overwatch has taught is that much. I mean, that mission in Siberia was nuts back then.”

“I remember that one yes,” Ana replies. “You didn’t enjoy it one bit”

“And I still ask myself why I moved here with Angela after we married. I mean with all this cold and snow.”

“Anyway, I just wanted to give you a heads-up for the weather that is coming to Switzerland.”

“Thanks mother, we will be fine.”

“We might drop by anyway, Mako and Jamison are excited to see your new cabin.”

“I figured as much.” Fareeha chuckles as the chocolate milk starts heating up on the stove. “I really need to go now. Talk to you later!”

“Bye!”

Fareeha closes the connection and quickly stirs in the pan where the chocolate milk is nearly boiling.

“Angela!” She shouts to her wife in the living room. “Want a hot cocoa? I’m craving one myself.”

“Will there be whipped cream and marshmallows?”

“For you? Always!” Fareeha chuckles as she fills the white mug with the Valkyrie logo printed on it together with her Raptora branded mug she got from Helix back when she left for Overwatch.

“One hot cocoa ala Ziegler coming right up!” Fareeha bows towards the Swiss doctor who is still swaddled in a heap of blankets and the (in)famous Helix sweater.

She prepares the drinks as the chocolate cools down to near drinkable temperatures, pours it in the mugs, adds the marshmallow and, whipped cream. To top it all off she adds an extra-large cacao curl for decoration and her wife’s sweet tooth, who gratefully accepts the hot liquid treat. She carefully takes a sip of the still steaming drink and as it flows down her throat she lets out a satisfied moan.

“You outdid yourself again Liebe.” Angela says as she takes another sip. “How do you keep doing this?”

“Thanks, ya amar” Fareeha responds flattered “I just thought you’d like the chocolate with the sweet whipped cream, knowing your sweet tooth.”

“Is this why I married you?”

“Obviously, among other reasons.” Fareeha grins, waggling her eyebrows as she spots a rosy colour on her wife’s cheeks.

She joins Angela on the couch to watch some movies while the storm outside rages on. As the night passes along, Angela snuggles up to her wife, as if she felt that Fareeha could protect her from the weather outside.

After the first movie Fareeha notices some soft snoring coming from the heap of blankets next to her. She gives the blonde going grey woman a kiss on the head and then closes her eyes for a nap too, thinking she will carry her wife to bed soon after.

When Fareeha and Angela wake up they find themselves still on the couch. It is still dark outside Fareeha judges from the low light coming from the windows and she gets up to gather some wood, just in case the storm picks up again. Their current pile of firewood will last them a few more days so it is not a necessity for them to gather wood, but it is peace of mind for the Egyptian ex-soldier. She gets dressed, puts on her snow coat and opens the door.

“I’m going to get some more firewood, be right ba-UHNF” Fareeha shouts to Angela in the kitchen but she hits a soft and cold white wall. “Umm, Angie? I might know why it is still dark outside…”

“What is it, Fareeha?” a voice with a hint of worry comes from the kitchen. “Did Jean-Luc put up a mattress on our front door again?”

“Nope, Mother Nature did however, put an over two metres thick blanket of snow in front of our door…”

“So, we got snowed in?!” Angela squeaks slightly panicked “How long will our food and fire wood last us?”

“Around three to four days so, we will be fine until my mother and Reinhard come.”

“I guess we better get comfortable and get some warmth.” Angela says as she hugs her wife from behind. “I might have some ideas to get some heat going on.”

“Um, Angela?” Fareeha asks her obviously horny wife confused. “Why are you humping me?”

“To give you a hint, Liebe.”

“Understood” Fareeha says with a seductive growl as she picks up her wife in bridal style.

Both the women move to the bedroom and soon the creaks and moans can be heard from the room.

“Reinhardt! Mako! Jamison!” Ana calls from their living room in their house in Stuttgart. “I just saw in the news that the area surrounding Zürich has been struck by the worst snow storm in decades!”

“What about it?” Mako grunts as he finishes his tea.

“Yeah! Why are you telling us this Ana? It’s not even snowing out here!” Jamison croaks while sloppily sloshing around his mug of coffee making Ana wince.

“That means the birds are snowed in probably and this weather will keep going for a week or two.” Reinhardt answers concerned.

“Hold on a tick, who are the birds again? I keep forgetting.” Jamison asks the group confused.

“Angela and Fareeha.” Mako responds with his gruff voice.

“Oooohh! Because of the flying thing!” Jamison says as he jumps up. “If they are in trouble we need to save them! Let’s go!” He storms off but Mako grabs him by his shirt and drags him back to his chair at Ana’s kitchen table.

“Jamie, calm down Angela and Fareeha faced worse weather but we might want to check up on them.” Ana says as she pours him a fresh cup of tea which the Australian gladly accepts. “Besides, I was already planning to visit them.”

Ana tells the three that the Swiss government is busy clearing the roads of snow so that they can visit Angela and Fareeha, but they must dig their own path up the mountain where Angela’s cabin is located. She just finished knitting some warm sweaters for Mako and Jamison but Mako’s size was a challenge. The large man does not say anything as usual besides a slightly offended grunt.

As they start devising their plan of attack, Jamison immediately gets shut down for suggesting the use of explosives to clear the snow, but Reinhardt suggests to just use shovels or maybe find a snow blower. After much discussion and planning, the four start preparing their latest rescue “mission”.

“That’s it.” Fareeha sighs “This is the last dry firewood, we need to get more soon.”

“We’ll be fine. I’ll just snuggle more with you, so we can share body heat.” Angela coos as she looks up from her book. “We still have each other, right? You generate a lot of body heat with that hot body of yours.”

“Your body isn’t cold either, ya amar.” Fareeha says as she puts the last large log on the fire and then joins her wife on the couch. “At least we still have enough food to last us to the end of the week and I hope by then the authorities have dug free the roads, so we can do some shopping.”

“Mhm.” Angela hums agreeing as she picks up her guitar besides the couch. She starts strumming some loving lullabies to soothe the slightly nervous Egyptian ex-soldier. This appears to have the desired effect as she notices some greying hair on her shoulder. Angela gives her wife a kiss on the head while still playing, but soon after she is overcome with sleep, so she puts the guitar carefully back besides the couch and snuggles up to Fareeha to take a nap too. Being snowed in for this long made her lose all perception of time so they both do not have a clue what time it is.

As both the women in the cabin sleep soundly, outside a small rescue party assembles on the somewhat de-snowed roads, armed with giant shovels, thermos flasks filled with all kinds of hot drinks to warm the women in the cabin up in the event they got cold.

“Reinhardt? Mako? Are you two ready? Up there is Angela’s cabin and it is still quite the climb up there.”

“Let’s do this!” Reinhardt roars as he proudly lifts his massive snow shovel. “We are coming for you birds! Just hold on!”

Mako being his usual silent self just picks up his equally massive shovel and starts clearing the stairs to the Swiss doctor’s cabin. Progress is slow but steady and soon Mako and Reinhardt close in on their destination. Jamison and Ana stay close behind the large men to clear away stray snow and to support them in any way possible.

“You know this would be a lot easier if we just used some bombs, right?” Jamison giggles earning him a stern look from the ex-sniper next to him.

“You know that would cause an avalanche which might kill us all, right.” She says with a mocking tone at the end of her sentence. “We are here to help my daughter and her wife, not destroy the entire village.”

“RIIIIGHT, the snow thing is still new for me.” The Australian says as he slaps his face. “Forget I said anything.”

The group continues up the path until they hit the front porch of the cabin. While Reinhardt widens the path a bit, Mako clears the front door of snow so they can get to it. Ana walks back down the path and grabs the bags with food together with the flasks with warm drinks.

After the door has been cleared, Reinhardt knocks on the door multiple times but because the door does not open Ana has to stop him from not ramming it open. She pulls out a key and calmly opens the door where they see both women sleeping soundly on the couch while the fire crackles in the fireplace. Mako makes a “shhh” gesture and Ana moves to the women to gently wake them up.

“Wake up habibti,” Ana gently shakes her daughter. “You are free from the snow.”

Both the women slowly wake up and as soon as Fareeha gains conscience she blinks twice to confirm that she sees her mother and the three men in their living room.

“Mom, Rein, Mako, Jamie?!” Fareeha asks groggily. “What are you doing here?”

“Digging you two out of course!” Jamison quips as he gives the Egyptian woman a firm hug nearly strangling her. “We were so worried that you guys were buried in all this white stuff that we just had to assemble a rescue party!”

“Worry is a bit of an overstatement.” Ana says as she sits down next to the still sleepy women. “We were just concerned that you two had enough supplies to last the time until the local authorities would free you.”

“How did you get here?” Angela asks while Fareeha silently

“Shovels.” Mako grunts as he shows them his shovel.

“Ja, we just dug you two out since the government was taking too long.”

“Only you would do this, we both appreciate the gesture, but I think we would be fine.” Angela says as she stretches herself. “We only ran out of firewood just an hour ago and we have enough food to last a few more days.”

“Well, we brought some more food and fresh coffee for you both.”

“That is something I cannot refuse!” Angela quips as she accepts the cup of coffee from Ana.

“Well, now you four are here it might be a good idea to start preparing the guest beds but sadly the beds for you Mako and Reinhardt aren’t here yet, I’m sorry.” Fareeha says as she returns from getting dressed into something more appropriate than her underwear.

“We got that covered. Mako and I brought our own beds just in case.”

Relieved, Fareeha shows the men an empty bedroom where they can set up their own beds and she shows Ana and Jamison the other bedroom with some bunk beds.

While Mako sets up his and Reinhardt’s beds Ana and Jamison help Angela in the kitchen. Outside Fareeha and Reinhardt collect some more firewood from the shed built to the side of the cabin.

After they had some dinner made of the food that they brought together with the food that Angela still had left.

As they finish dinner night has fallen and the rescue party is getting quite tired so they wish the women a good night and move upstairs for the night.

“We are blessed with such friends, although two are ex-criminals they mean well.” Angela sighs as she clears the table in their living room.

“Yeah, that new anti-radiation medication you developed helped Jamison to get his sanity mostly back.”

“Indeed, together with Mako’s implant the pair has turned around immensely. It is shocking what radiation can do to someone’s mind.”

“I don’t know about you, but I am still tired, so I am going to bed.” Fareeha says with a loud jaw cracking yawn.

“Be right there. I want to finish this first and then I will join you.”

Fareeha gives her wife a good night before also moving upstairs where she can hear loud snoring from the two spare rooms. She opens the door where Jamison and her mother sleep and she sees Ana sleeping sound with earplugs in apparently against the snoring Australian.

“Thanks mom.” She whispers as she gives the sleeping ex-sniper a kiss on the head before heading to bed.