Winter had finally settled in around the small cabin. The storm from the night before had left several feet of snow, and the terrible winds that battered against the windows so fiercely that they seemed in danger of breaking. Now, in the clear light of dawn, it was hard to imagine anything so contrasting to the peaceful morning. Love sighed and took a sip of cocoa. It was just the right temperature, the perfect amount of cocoa and marshmallows, and the view out the window was serene.

The chair beside Love was vacant and their eyes lingered on the untouched contours of the cushions. No one had ever sat in that chair, and yet Love still hoped. How could it not? That was, after all, a large part of what it meant to be the Earthly Personification of Love.

Love wasn’t immortal. None of the Earthly Personifications were. They were all born like anyone else, had all the usual requirements of life. They all knew, from their earliest remembered moments, that they were what they were. Love had always known that they were Love. They also knew the general state of things around the world regarding their particular aspect of humanity. From time to time, they would manifest in an area that was particularly strong for them, fading away from wherever they had been and materializing in the new location. This could cause some problems for their normal life back home.

They also recognized one another instinctively and were often drawn to one another as well. That was about the extent of their powers, however. They weren’t reincarnations of their predecessors, and when one of them died it could sometimes take years, even decades, for their replacement to be born. War, for example, wasn’t even around for either World War.

That was one of the things Love didn’t understand. With or without them, people carried on whether or not the Earthly Personifications were there to manage things.

Someone knocked on the cabin’s door and Love nearly spilled their hot cocoa from the surprise.

“Who…?” Love muttered to themself but did not get up from their chair.

The snow was so deep, and the cabin so remote, that it was hard to imagine how anyone could have gotten there. Even more puzzling was the fact that no one else knew about Love’s cabin. Love had built it in secret over the past couple years, buying the materials a bit at a time and spending weekends and holidays building it up.

The knock at the door was repeated and Love still didn’t get up to answer it. Another minute or two passed and then the door opened. It moved slowly, tentatively, until a familiar face poked around the door and into view. The confusion and anticipation that Love had been feeling dissipated at once and became disappointment.

“Hello,” the newcomer, Misery, said with a weak smile on his face.

He looked awful. His skin on his face was raw, his lips were chapped and bleeding, and it was clear that he hadn’t slept at all the night before.

“I should have known it was you,” Love said, looking away and taking a deliberate sip from their cocoa as if to emphasize their desire to be left alone.

“Don’t be like that, Love.”

“Generally,” Love said, over emphasizing each syllable, “when a person goes someplace to be alone, they don’t appreciate having others show up uninvited.”

“Love, no one ever invites any of us over. We just show up and…you know…do our thing.”

Love finally turned to face Misery who had now come fully into the cabin, shut the door, removed his winter gear, and was currently poking around the cabin. There was only the one room in the cabin so there wasn’t much to look at or explore. Misery soon found the tin of cocoa powder and a mug and began mixing himself up some hot cocoa as well.

When Misery made as though he was going to sit down in the chair beside Love, they grabbed him by the sleeve and yanked him back. His cocoa splashed all down his front and Misery gasped in shock and pain as the scalding liquid soaked quickly through his shirt and pants.

“I swear, Misery,” Love growled, “if you try to sit there again I’ll throw you out.”

Misery said nothing as he hurriedly pulled off his shirt. He was well muscled and Love felt the familiar pangs of inadequacy and longing that practically everyone felt around Misery. Fortunately, Misery had the decency not to continue disrobing. He wrung out his shirt as best he could over the wash basin, rinsing out the cocoa before hanging the shirt above the cast iron stove to dry. Love saw his eyes dart over to the chair he’d been forbidden from sitting in but he left it alone, instead settling himself down onto a wooden stool. It was the only other available seat in the cabin and not terribly comfortable. Love only ever used it when they were working outside but had brought it in the night before when the storm started to get serious.

The two of them sat in silence for a while. Love glaring at Misery who seemed to be trying to look casual and friendly.

“Nice place you got here,” Misery finally said, breaking the silence and nodding his head approvingly. “You put a lot of care and hard work into it.”

“What do you want?” Love demanded.

Misery had the decency to feign being embarrassed but Love knew he never actually meant it. Just like Love, there was nothing any Earthly Personification enjoyed more than fulfilling their role. It was that knowledge alone that allowed Love to tolerate Misery. He couldn’t help being who he was any more than Love could.

“You know I almost froze to death coming here?” Misery said.

“You came to the wrong place if you’re looking for sympathy.”

Misery chuckled and Love noticed the slight disdain in his voice.

“You know Sympathy and I don’t really get along.”

“I would have thought the two of you would be bosom friends.”

“Nah,” Misery shook his head. “Once Sympathy gets involved I tend to leave.”

“Hmm, maybe I should give her a call then.”

“Too bad there’s no cell reception out here,” Misery said without any conviction.

Love picked up their satellite phone and waved it for Misery to see.

Misery’s nonchalance was gone in an instance and was replaced with the sour, angry, petulance that Love knew was always lurking beneath the surface.

“Don’t,” he spat. “She doesn’t want to talk to you anyway. That’s why I’m here instead of her anyway.”

Love ignored him and called Sympathy anyway. Misery scowled and crossed his arms.

“Fine,” he said, “I need to check my shirt anyway to make sure it doesn’t catch fire. I’d hate for it to burn your cabin down.”

Love ignored his not-so-subtle threat. The phone rang a few times before Sympathy picked up.

“Love, how are you?” Sympathy was the youngest of the current Earthly Personifications, barely into her twenties, and Love always found her youthful voice to be calming.

“Oh, you know,” Love said. “Just trying to get Misery to leave me alone.”

“Is he there right now?” Sympathy asked, sounding as though she already knew the answer to her question.

“Yeah, just showed up this morning.”

“Is he behaving himself?”

“About the usual amount.”

Love heard Sympathy sigh and they both sat in silence for a moment.

“What have you been up to, lately?” Love asked.

“Work, mostly,” Sympathy replied, “but school will be starting back up next week so that’ll be nice. What about you?”

“I took the week off,” Love said. “Work’s been really stressful lately and I wanted some time to myself.”

“You’re still working retail, right?” Sympathy asked. “I can only imagine how much of a relief it must be to be on this side of the new year and all that craziness.”

“Yeah, the past month is definitely my least favorite time of year.”

“Did you get to visit your family this year?”

“No,” Love admitted, “My parents wanted to go to Hawaii but I couldn’t get the time off.”

“Rough,” Sympathy said and then paused for a moment before continuing on, this time with much less of her usual, upbeat demeanor. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” Love said.

“How long did it take you to figure out how to…how to be you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, how do you know you’re doing what Love is supposed to do? How do you know you’re not messing things up?”

Love’s confusion and concern must have been showing because Misery, who had taken to pacing in front of the stove, perked up and mouthed, ‘what’s going on?’. Love waved a dismissive hand at him but he continued to watch with newfound interest.

“I don’t know,” Love said, “I mean, I don’t think we can really mess it up. That’s what it means to be one of us.”

“It’s just, I’m Sympathy but I don’t feel like I’m any better at being sympathetic than anyone else!”

There was almost panic in Sympathy’s voice as she spoke. It was a panic that Love had felt before as well.

“That’s how we all are,” Love told her. “We can’t be anything more than what people make of us. I’m not any better at loving others than you are.”

“Then why do we exist?”

Love didn’t have any answer for that question. Several previous Earthly Personifications had waxed philosophical over that question but no one had ever come to a particularly meaningful conclusion.

“I’m sorry, Love,” Sympathy said in a much more subdued voice. “I’m just having a hard time being me right now.”

“I know how that is,” Love said and their eyes fell on the empty chair beside them.

“Really?” Sympathy replied. “I thought everyone loved you?”

Love let out a dry laugh.

“Not hardly,” they said and shot Misery a glare who returned a confused, what-now, sort of shrug.

“I guess I just assumed, since you always seem so easy to like.”

“Being liked and being loved are not the same.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Sympathy didn’t sound convinced. “Anyway, I should go. I’ve got work in the morning and it’s pretty late.”

Love only then remembered how many time zones were between them and felt guilty for calling Sympathy and probably waking her up in the middle of the night.

“Right, sorry for calling so late.”

“No worries, Love, I appreciate the call. Even if I couldn’t really help you with your Misery problem, I’m glad you thought to call me.”

“Good night.”

“Night.”

Love hung up and put away the phone. Misery immediately plopped himself back down on the stool.

“So, how’s little miss Sympathy?”

Love didn’t respond, instead picking up their hot cocoa and looking back out the window. It was still morning, though the sun was arching slowly towards its zenith and would soon begin its march back down towards the horizon. Days were incredibly short this far North.

“You’ll need to be heading out soon if you want to avoid another night out there,” Love said without looking at Misery.

“What? You’re kicking me out?”

“This is my vacation,” Love said. “You chose to come here, uninvited, and I don’t feel any obligation to let you stay here and ruin it.”

“I won’t ruin—

“You will,” Love interrupted. “You’ve already made it just that much less enjoyable. Now get out.”

Misery muttered darkly beneath his breath but began regressing. His shirt looked as though it had at least dried off though his pants were still clearly wet.

“If I freeze to death out there,” Misery began, but again, Love cut him off.

“If you freeze it’ll be your own fault for coming here. You obviously knew where I was, so you could have prepared better for the weather. If I had to guess I’d say you came unprepared intentionally to try and guilt me into letting you stay. That, or you did come prepared and just left your gear out there so you could appear unprepared. Either way, you’re going now.”

With that, Love stood up, took Misery by the arm, and towed him over to the door. He struggled weakly, not really trying to stop from being thrown out but enough to be a nuisance. Love opened the door and Misery left. As soon as the door was shut, Love let out a sigh of relief. They waited a moment and then peaked outside. Misery was a few yards away, tromping through the track he had cut earlier in the snow on his way to the cabin. Love nodded sourly when Misery bent down beside some brambles and came back up with a decently sized pack.

As love returned to their chair, they felt the familiar sensation of something pulling at them. Love had just picked up their hot cocoa when the cabin began to fade from view. Somewhere, some great act of love was taking place and Love was being drawn to it.

“So much for my vacation,” Love sighed and downed the final dregs of their cocoa.

Hopefully it wouldn’t be too hard to get back home from wherever it was that they were going.