Despite what Marina professed in her rants, productivity aboard the ship did not always come to a standstill. Every time she paced the length of my room, I reminded her how the men took their jobs seriously and missions generally went off without a hitch.

But sometimes the men made it difficult for me to stand up for them. As the bay doors opened, a blast of snow and thin, chilled air greeted me like a slap to the face. I nabbed the brim of my hat before it could fly off, while the lift lowered me into the planet’s snowy surface. Though it was far from an ideal stop for repairs, the hole punched through our hull left us little room to be picky. The sooner we fixed it, the sooner we could head out to the next mission, which was exactly why the men were stalling.

I heard them before I saw them, laughter carried along by the wind. Their footsteps crunched in the snow while they tossed jokes back and forth like snowballs. I spotted them scattered across the ground, rolling snow into what appeared to be pieces for the dozen snowmen added to their ranks. Not one of them worked on patching the hole. They were all too busy having fun. I wasn’t sure I could fault them for that.

I walked over to them, hands stuffed in my pockets to keep feelings in my fingers. The snow swallowed my feet until I reached the circle the men carved out from rolling it up. The base of each snowman reached my hip or higher. Those with heads stood taller than Grenadier, who appeared to be the leader of this whole operation. He barked orders to the rest, directing them in their task. From what I could see, each snowman followed a pre-planned format. Each face, thrown together with spare pieces, had a unique expression. One had eyebrows made from electrical tape. Another sported a mustache with the help of a few wires. I couldn’t say they weren’t creative.

But productivity was definitely at a standstill. I strode over to Grenadier, looked up to him, and waited for an explanation. He took little notice of me at first, only turning my way when he realized I wasn’t moving. “Need something, Captain?” he asked as though nothing abnormal was happening around us.

“I do need that hole fixed,” I said, tilting my head toward the damage. “I’d prefer it was done before the ship fills with snow.”

He smiled and shrugged it off. “Ah, it’ll melt.”

At this rate I could already hear Marina grumbling an “I told you so.” I heard that from her enough without this incidence to help.

“Look,” I sighed. “I’m glad you’re all having fun, but if we don’t get going soon, our bosses will be chewing me out for an explanation. I am too sober right now to deal with the chairwoman and Marina telling me off.”

“So Marina counts as one of your bosses?” he asked with a grin. Before I could find the words to shut him up, he turned his attentions back to the men. “Make sure to put angry eyebrows on the captain’s too.” I turned back to look only for a burst of wind to blow through my hair. Frantic, I grasped for my hat and spun around to find it in Grenadier’s hand. “And since he’s here, we can put this on it too,” he said. “We still need a carrot or something for his nose though.”

None of the other snowmen had anything resembling carrot noses. I placed my hand across my face to cover the blush heating up my face as I realized what was going on. “Do not make a snowman of me,” I hissed.

“Why not?” Grenadier asked. “We made one of Marina.” He cocked his thumb toward a particularly angry-looking snowman with snarling teeth made of nails. If she found out, we were all dead.

I reached up to grab my hat back, but he held it out of reach and placed his hand on the top of my head to keep me down like some schoolyard bully. “You could at least try to make them flattering,” I snapped as I pawed for my hat.

“I think accuracy is better.” One of the men came to take the hat from him, and I followed its course to the head of a pouting snowman. Then the men jammed a screwdriver in the middle of its face, so the handle stuck out for the nose.

“You’re all fired,” I muttered.

“Captain,” Marina said as she frowned at her mug. “I have a hunch the Machine Men were the only ones on cooking duty today.”

I snorted. “You think? Well, I give them props for trying.” My usual black mug was piping hot to the touch, so warm I could feel it through my gloves. I tried to raise it to my mouth again, but before I could even scald my tongue, the sickeningly sweet smell made me lower it again. It was enough to make my stomach turn.

Had this been real hot chocolate, and had Marina not been standing next to me, I could have mixed in some alcohol. The sweetness of it would probably still make me feel heavy and nauseous for a while, but it would have been more bearable.

Technically, this was hot chocolate. The Machine Men chefs followed the recipe of the title to a T. Now everyone on the bridge was stuck with a mug full of melted milk chocolate. It seemed like a good idea to ask for it at first, at least to the rest of the boys.

“It’ll be festive, Captain,” and “It’ll be nostalgic,” they said. Now they were all frowning at their drinks just like Marina.

“I didn’t know we had this much chocolate,” Ishikura murmured.

“Is it safe to drink this?” Grenadier asked.

“I imagine it will be once it isn’t molten hot,” I said. “I’m just not sure everyone having a sugar rush all at once is a good idea.” Instead of a sugar rush, I was more likely to be stuck throwing up until all the repulsive sweetness was gone.

“Do we actually have to drink it?” Grenadier asked.

I twisted the mug to watch the thick syrup roll around. Trails of steam rolled from the top, but I attempted another sip. My eyes shut tight as a shudder tore through me, but I didn’t taste anything beyond the searing heat. Once it was down and all my taste buds were thoroughly burned off, I set the mug on the console in front of me. “If we happen to accidentally leave them sitting for too long, they’ll harden when they cool, right?”

Marina nodded, setting hers down next to mine. “That would be a shame,” she said. I imagined she was just content because I didn’t mix in any bourbon.

The men all followed suit, except Rai, who seemed content with his drink. I wasn’t looking forward to him bouncing off the walls and begging to shoot at something.

I ran my singed tongue over my teeth, where some of the chocolate stuck. I could taste it now, so sweet my toes curled and a ground my teeth together. “Next time you boys want your hot chocolate fix, go make it yourselves,” I sighed. “Or let me make it, so I can spike it.”

The captain must have done some impressive bartering with the chairwoman to ensure we were stationed on Earth during the holidays. When we touched down, the men thanked him through tentative smiles before rushing off to meet with their families. The few of us remaining could at least understand his glowering, even if we didn’t share it.

“Lighten up, Captain,” Grenadier said as he smacked Zero’s back. I winced for him. “Weather report says it’s snowing, so we should at least head out and see it.”

Snowing, just like back home. “We are on vacation,” I said. “We shouldn’t spend it on the ship.”

“If the first officer of all people is telling us we can get off the ship, I figure we should take the opportunity,” Unabara said. Grenadier shared his grin, but I didn’t appreciate the joke. It didn’t appear to faze the captain, chin in his palm as he glared down at his console.

After letting silence hold the air for a breath, he finally sighed, as if signaling his defeat. “Right, we can go out to eat or something.” He removed his hat to run his hand through his hair. “I’m not drunk enough for this.”

I was about to get onto him, when Grenadier jumped in. “You don’t need to be drunk to have a good time. Hell, I’m sober sometimes, and it’s not all that bad.” He threw me a winning smile, and I glared in return.

“Don’t antagonize Marina,” the captain sighed, though his expression cracked into a tired smile. When he stood, the three of us followed, out to the frosted city. Snow blanketed the world in comforting, quiet white. The gray skies felt nostalgic instead of gloomy. I didn’t feel cold, not like I could in the past, but the boys did as soon as we set foot outside the hangar.

“I lived on a desert planet too long,” Grenadier said, kicking snow out from underfoot. “I forgot what a pain this stuff was.”

“Should have brought a better jacket,” Unabara said with a shudder.

The captain didn’t appear to mind. Hands jammed in his pockets, he watched the sky or perhaps the little puffs of flakes coming down. They clung to his hat and shoulders. It lasted until Grenadier smacked a snowball into the back of his head. The captain stumbled forward and without his hands to catch him, fell face-first into the snow.

“Ten points!” Grenadier chimed.

Zero pushed himself up and turned on his navigator in a huff. “You don’t get any points for hitting someone in the back! That’s cowardly.” Grabbing a handful of snow, he packed it into a ball.

“Says the person who pretended to pass out from a shot to the arm,” Grenadier muttered as he scooped up snow as well.

“You two aren’t actually going to have a snowball fight right now, are you?” I asked. “Weren’t we going to go eat?”

Grenadier reached over my head and smacked the snowball down on top of it. “You need to lighten up too, missy,” he said.

Clumps of snow covered my hair and shoulders. I was about to break a few of his toes with my heel when another snowball hit him in the face. “Ten points,” Zero mocked.

Unabara took a few steps back, saying something about how he was too old for this. I imagined we were all too old for this, but that didn’t stop me from packing together my own ammunition. Grenadier had to pay.

“Two against one isn’t fair,” he said as he found his captain and first officer glaring him down.

Zero shrugged. “Maybe you should have thought this through then.”

“Lighten up,” I said just before launching a snowball at his ear.

We arrived at the restaurant soaked to the bone. The captain’s hair stuck to his cheeks, my uniform was wrinkled all over, and Grenadier’s boots sloshed with each step. Unabara looked out of place in our group, still mostly dry.