Work Text:
“Jo, oh my god, it’s snowing!”
It’s Friday evening, and for the first time in far too long they had both clocked off work at five on the dot and come home to spend an evening in. Which in Kate’s case means hours scrolling social media and eating all the snacks she can find to hand, and for Jo means dozing off against Kate’s shoulder to the sound of the tv in the background, stealing the occasional extra large crisp in moments of wakefulness.
But now she’s been jolted thoroughly awake, almost thrown to the floor along with Kate’s bag of snacks when she had jumped up to run to the window. Jo stretches, pulling her cardigan more tightly around herself as she moves to the window that Kate is gesticulating to so wildly.
“It’s snowing!” Kate says again, needlessly, and she looks more like Josh than ever in this moment of childlike glee.
“As it does tend to do every single year here.” Jo murmurs, glancing out to where the snow is falling in big fat flakes.
Kate huffs. “Don’t reveal to me after all this time that you’re a secret snow hater.”
Jo shivers. “It’s just so cold. And I’m always so cold anyway. Not a good combination.”
Kate wraps her arms around her, squeezing her to her chest. “If I wrap you up in all the layers I can find and promise to make coffee after, will you come on a snow walk with me? I won’t ask again, I swear. Just this first one.”
Jo bites her lip, looking at Kate, then at the snow, and then at Kate again before raising an eyebrow. “Ok. Long as you warm me up after.”
Kate’s eyes light up. “Deal.”
___________________
By the time Jo’s bundled up in a vest, a shirt, a thin jumper, a cardigan, another jumper, a hoodie, and a coat it’s half an hour later, and the snow is coming down properly.
Kate grabs the keys off the table, and lets them out into the building’s corridor just as their neighbours to the left tumble out of their front door.
“It’s snowing!”
Somewhere beyond her many scarves Jo hears a child’s voice excitedly squeak, and Kate’s almost as excited exclamation in return.
She feels movement beside her. “You taking yours out to play in the snow too?” The child’s mother laughs to her, as they all begin to walk together towards the lift that’ll take them to the building’s front door.
Jo smiles. “Pretty much. She won’t sit still and watch shit TV with me unless I allow her a run-around first.”
Kate twists herself around from where she’s walking in front of Jo, engaged in animated conversation with the child about how to make the most effective snowballs, and rolls her eyes at her.
Jo just laughs, and as they wave goodbye to their neighbours outside the front door she takes Kate’s hand. “It is very pretty. Especially when it’s fresh like this, almost no tire tracks yet.”
Kate swings her hand as they walk along. “Josh always loves the first snow. We were visiting my sister and his cousins the first Christmas he can really remember. Snow and a trampoline seem like a fun combination until you land in a&e with a broken arm on Boxing Day, but I do have a few blurry pictures of him in the air having the time of his life before disaster struck. Silly boy.” Kate smiles fondly, before poking out her tongue to catch a snowflake.
“You really are a child.” Jo elbows her and laughs.
“And you have snowflakes on your eyelashes.”
“Oh god, my mascara’s going to go everywhere.”
“All the more excuse for me to run us a bath when we get home then.” Kate squeezes her hand.
“Yeah…” But Jo isn’t listening. Instead, she drops Kate’s hand and leans down to pick up a massive handful of snow, and posts it down the back of Kate’s neck.
“Fucking hell!” An irate voice squawks behind her as Jo runs away giggling, Kate and a snowball soon in hot pursuit.