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It had been snowing pretty much non-stop all week, and Agatha was really starting to grow tired of it. They were going through more firewood than she would have liked and the cottage was still never warm enough, freezing wind cutting through every single crack in the walls, no matter how small, and chasing away whatever warmth their pathetic fire managed to produce. Not even her magic did much to keep the cold out.
Nicky had been elated at first, glued to their only real window as soon as he noticed the first flurries of snow and begging to go out and play in it as soon as there was enough to cover the ground. She didn’t want to let him go out at first, worried that he would catch a cold, but Rio promised to go with him and make sure he would keep all of his winter clothes on, and their combined puppy-eyes were too strong for Agatha to resist long.
Less than an hour later, they had pulled her out into the cold as well, and then the entire family was playing together, building snowmen and just running around in the flurries for the rest of the afternoon. They warmed up with tea and soup after, and even with his still extremely limited vocabulary, Nicky managed to insist on doing the exact same thing again as soon as he woke up way too early the next morning, and Rio went along with it, just like she always did. That day, she taught him how to make – and throw – snowballs while Agatha watched them from the window in between everything she had to do in the house.
And somehow, even though she didn’t go outside nearly as much as the rest of the family, Agatha was the one who ended up sick, waking up with a stuffy nose and a headache when Nicky crawled into the bed she shared with Rio and accidentally kicked her in the stomach. It still hadn’t stopped snowing and she walked around with a blanket around her shoulders all day, trying to keep Nicky occupied and happy inside for hours because Rio had to go to work, saying that she had already put it off for too long and apologizing profusely and repeatedly on her way out.
She didn’t come back until two days later, and by then, the snow came up to her hip and even blocked their door. Agatha would have shovelled a path but she still wasn’t feeling well and Nicky had been throwing tantrums at least three times a day because she wouldn’t let him go outside, so she simply didn’t have the energy to do anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary.
Rio still made it home without issues, and immediately took the screaming toddler from Agatha’s arms so she could finally get some well-deserved rest. It was still snowing and Nicky still wanted nothing more than to play outside, which would probably have been kind of dangerous at this point considering that the snow was stacked up higher than he was tall, and that he could have easily gotten lost in it. Besides, he wouldn’t even have been able to get out of the house by himself even if someone opened the door for him.
In the end, Rio decided to compromise with him, securing the child to her front after she got him into his outside clothes and even putting on a warm coat that she didn’t need herself, just so she could close it around both of them. Then they braved the outdoors together, crawling through the gap at the top of the door and immediately being greeted with a facefull of snow for both of them.
Nicky squealed in happiness and clapped his mittened hands while Rio wiped away some of the snow that was already gathering on top of his hooded head, which just made him giggle even more. Rio leaned down to kiss the top of his head while trying to get through the now nearly shoulder-high snow to the back of the cottage, where they kept all of the supplies she would need.
She had to dig through the snow to even reach the tiny shed – it was really more of a wardrobe – they used to store their tools and even had to use some magic to get it open and get out some of the stuff they stored there, closing it up again as soon as she had everything so not too much snow would seep into it. Now both of her hands were full, though not so much that she couldn’t still pass a tiny shovel on to her son, who took it with a wide smile and started babbling happily, Rio occasionally making noises of agreement when he looked up at her in search of a response.
They walked back to the front of the house so Rio could open the door just enough to push some of the stuff she was carrying – mostly more wood for the fire – inside as quickly as possible. Then she closed the door again before too much snow or cold could fall in and took a few steps away from the house, picking a spot that was nearby and had relatively dense snow so she could set Nicky down without losing him as soon as she turned away.
Rio didn’t like leaving the toddler unsupervised, even just for a few moments, and neither did Agatha, but they were still basically at home and she made sure to put several magick wards around him, just in case. Even with all of that, she still kept looking over her shoulder every other step on her way back to the cottage, and decided to hurry through everything she had to do there so she could get back as quickly as possible.
It would have probably been easier to just use magick to get all of that snow off the roof but sometimes Rio just liked doing things like this the way normal people would. Besides, it wasn’t like it was that much work to climb up onto the roof and start shovelling, building up a pile of snow next to the cottage that was bigger than the building itself.
She used this new mountain of snow to slide off the roof again and started making her way back to Nicky, who was watching her with wide eyes and a mitten stuck halfway in his mouth. Rio waved at him on her way down, and then used the same movement to finally clear up the path leading up to their front door, dumping the snow that had just been there next to Nicky so he would have even more to play with, which made him squeal with joy.
Rio was smiling, widely and freely, and sped up as she got closer to her son, who got up himself to take a few stumbling steps towards her. He nearly landed on his face but she managed to catch him just in time, secretly glad that Agatha was still inside and hadn’t seen the almost-accident. She would have never heard the end of it, even though Nicky was still completely safe the entire time and would have only fallen onto soft snow anyway.
At the same time, she wished her wife would be a part of this moment as well, just like she always did when they were apart, even if she knew that Agatha was nearby, enjoying the warmth of their home rather than braving the cold with her and Nicky. She would probably come outside to join them for a little while later if she felt better again. Until then, Rio and Nicky would just have fun in the snow without her.
Nicky was already pushing some of the snow around, clearly trying to get it into some specific shape with limited success. Rio watched him for a moment, trying to figure out what he was trying to make, and eventually came to the conclusion that it was supposed to be a snowman but that he didn’t actually know he was supposed to form the different parts of its body separately. She gave him a few more minutes to see if he would figure it out himself but decided to step in and help him when she could see that he was starting to get frustrated.
So they built a family of snowmen together, two big ones for the parents and one much smaller one that was supposed to be their child and that Nicky managed to build without any help from Rio. He wanted to put his hat on it, and for Rio to do the same with one of the others, but she convinced him that they needed their clothes more than the snowmen because snowmen couldn’t get cold or sick, and Nicky very much could.
He complained a bit but she managed to distract him by bringing up the idea of building a snow fort together. Nicky threw himself into the work immediately and with great enthusiasm, and Rio wasn’t far behind, digging through the snow with mittened hands and piling it up in some spaces while creating caves and tunnels in others, making sure that they were big and stable enough that Nicky could easily crawl through them.
Agatha would probably complain about that once she found out – she tended to be a bit overprotective over Nicky ever since he got sick as a newborn – but Rio made sure that it was all safe and wouldn’t collapse and trap him inside. She had seen how dangerous things like that could be at her work, but that also meant that she knew how to avoid the riskier aspects of such a construction, especially because she had her magick to help her.
Nicky barely seemed to notice, too entranced by his new castle to mind much whenever his mother redirected his building efforts or added her own touches to it, both for safety and to add some decorations that made Nicky cheer happily. They spent hours working on their castle, building several tunnels leading into a room that was big enough to fit both of them and still leave space for Agatha – though it would have been a bit of a tight squeeze if she decided to join them – as well as even more decorations all over the place.
They were outside, working hard and completely forgetting about the time that passed them by until the sun went down and it got too dark to see what they were doing. Rio was tempted to keep working anyway – she didn’t actually need light to see and Nicky always loved when she created light with just a snap of her fingers – but although it wasn’t actually that late yet, Nicky was probably getting tired, cold, and hungry.
On top of that, Agatha would have been both concerned and furious if they stayed outside for much longer, even if the inside of their castle was surprisingly warm and they all knew Nicky was entirely safe with Rio. That was honestly the main reason why Rio decided to go back inside. Nicky whined about it, of course, because he had been having a lot of fun, but he also didn’t fight back when Rio picked him up to carry him inside.
Agatha was waiting for them by the door, opening it to call them in for dinner just as they reached the cottage, which made both women laugh. Nicky clearly had no idea what was so funny, but he smiled anyway, and his grin grew into an all-out beam when Agatha leaned in as if she were about to kiss the top of his head, which was still covered in a hat, and then blew a raspberry instead.
She already looked much better than she had earlier that day, once again full of energy and without any traces of disease left. She was also holding two steaming cups of hot chocolate that smelled absolutely divine. When Rio followed her into their joint living room and kitchen, she saw that Agatha must have been up again for a while, because she had set up a blanket fort for them.
Their small family sat down together, surrounded by blankets and warmth after a day spent outside in the cold, and drank their hot chocolate while just enjoying their time together. Nicky insisted on telling his mother everything they had done throughout the day in exhaustive detail, and Agatha listened attentively to his mostly unintelligible babbling.
It didn’t take long for them to finish their warm drinks and for Nicky to start yawning and rubbing at his eyes to stay awake. His parents briefly considered just coaxing him into falling asleep right then and there – it was nearly impossible to get him to settle down most nights – but he had been pretty active all day so letting him skip dinner probably wouldn’t have been a good idea, even if getting him to eat meant getting him to stay awake a little longer.
Dinner was a relatively quick affair, all things considered, and Nicky somehow didn’t complain even once. Both him and Agatha were nearly ravenous, eating like they were worried their soup would run away if they took too long, while Rio – who didn’t actually need to eat – mostly watched them, smiling like a lovesick idiot and once again reminded of how incredibly lucky she was to get to experience all of this.
As soon as he was done eating, Nicky insisted on showing Agatha their fort right then, claiming that he wouldn’t be able to sleep all night if she didn’t come with him. It was clearly extremely important to him, and he even managed to articulate it surprisingly well, so Agatha agreed and stuffed Nicky back into all of his outdoor clothes that were still hanging by the fire to dry, even wrapping an extra blanket around him as well.
Rio briefly considered going out with them but decided against it so she could get back to the original reason she had gone outside that day in the first place, something she should have probably done a while ago already. It wasn’t a problem yet, but she had noticed a few thinning spots in their roof that could easily turn into leaks once it got warmer again and all of the snow piling up everywhere started to melt.
So she patched up all of the spots she had noticed, even finding another one she must have missed when she first checked. They would have to check the roof from the outside again in the spring, maybe even replace some parts of it, but for now it would certainly be enough to keep the water and the cold air out. She was done by the time Agatha came back inside, Nicky already asleep in her arms.