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Through the thick cobwebs of sleep that still weaved through his mind, Nico reached his hands out across the bed, searching for the warmth of his husband. Nico groaned as his hands found nothing but cold sheets. As he softly opened his eyes, he registered it was still early based on the lack of light in the room. Nico groaned again as he raised his head slightly to look at the clock next to the bed. The glowing green numbers had to be wrong, it couldn’t only be 8 AM. Nico was proud of the fact that he had slowly trained Will to sleep in on his days off, especially when the day off was a Sunday. It had been months since the last time Will was out of bed before 9 AM.
Nico stared at the ceiling for several moments, trying to decide whether to go back to sleep or try to find Will and drag him back to bed. Before he could make up his mind, the sound of something scraping outside peaked Nico’s curiosity. Nico listened to the noise, then groaned for the third time when he realized what it was and simultaneously figured out where Will was. A strong snowstorm had hit the day before, with the weather forecast saying up to a foot of snow was expected overnight. Nico rolled out of bed and walked to the window, seeing Will bundled up in the driveway shoveling the snow. Nico couldn’t help but smile, he knew how much Will hated the cold but was out there shoveling anyway. For a brief moment, Nico almost crawled back into bed, it was insane to willingly go shovel snow at this ungodly hour. But Nico couldn’t let Will shovel it all by himself.
After he changed into more suitable clothes, Nico went downstairs, made a cup of coffee, and braced himself to go outside. He stood in the garage leaning against their car for a few minutes, just enjoying watching Will work. From the time when Nico looked outside to actually standing outside, Will had discarded his heavy winter coat, having worked up a sweat from the shoveling. Nico admired the way Will’s muscles flexed as lifted shovelfuls of snow.
Will turned around and noticed Nico, his blue eyes twinkling as a smile graced his lips. “Hey you,” Will walked over to Nico and gave him a kiss. Nico flinched as Will’s cold lips touched his own. Will laughed and put his cold hands on Nico’s face, prompting a swift punch to Will’s arm. “I didn’t expect you to be up so early.” Nico could tell there was a question in the statement from the inquisitive look on Will’s face.
“How could anyone sleep with all the noise you are making?” Nico grumbled playfully. “I figured you needed some supervision.”
Will rolled his eyes and handed Nico the spare shovel. “Or you could make yourself useful and help me. Then we can go inside and do… other activities.” Will winked at Nico and it was Nico’s turn to roll his eyes.
The two went out to the driveway. Nico looked around, admiring the beauty of the snow in the morning sunlight. Everything seemed to sparkle like a tub of glitter had been knocked over.There was a gentle quiet that surrounded them, everything seemed to be resting. Nico loved the crunch of fresh snow under his feet and took a few extra steps in the snow just to hear the sound. He took off a glove and reached down, touching the snow with his bare hand. It was light and fluffy, and Nico’s inner child wanted desperately to make a snowball to throw at Will. Nico looked over at his husband and decided a snowball (or two) would definitely be in order before they were done.
Will had managed to get about a third of the driveway done, which was impressive considering the amount of snow. There was easily one foot of snow, maybe a few inches more. They worked in silence, and quickly Nico realized why Will had shed his jacket. Nico hadn’t dressed warmly enough underneath his winter coat, so he suffered through for now. Nico threw a rather large shovel full of snow to the side just as a gust of wind caught the snow, blowing it directly at Will. Nico laughed as Will turned, his face a mixture of shock and amusement.
“It was the wind, I swear!” Nico still couldn’t help but laugh and Will shot him a playful glare.
“Sure, blame the wind.”
Nico stuck his tongue out and resumed shoveling. “At least the snow is light and fluffy. It makes it easier to shovel.”
“Yeah, it’s the perfect…” Will’s voice trailed off, causing Nico to look over at his husband in confusion. Will had a dangerous twinkle in his eyes and a mischievous smirk on his face. Nico did not like the combination.
They stared at each other briefly when Will sang “Do you wanna build a snowman?”
Nico gave Will the best glare he could manage. “Will, I swear you will regret it if you sing one more line of that song.” Nico knew it was hopeless, though, they most likely would end up watching Frozen now.
Will stayed silent, but the mischievous look remained. Nico resumed shoveling, hoping Will took his threat seriously. Will had been impossible when the movie first came out, and even now he loved finding any excuse to sing one of the songs.
Will is definitely getting a snowball to the face Nico thought as he worked, and soon became lost in thought trying to figure out the best way to accomplish his mission. The more he contemplated his options, the less he was paying attention to what was going on around him. Nico let loose a string of profanity as he felt the unnerving sensation of snow on the back of his neck. He whipped around to find Will standing behind him looking triumphant.
All thoughts of being sneaky left Nico. He needed revenge. He reached down, grabbed a handful of snow, and threw it in Will’s face, all before Will could even comprehend what Nico was doing. With snow clinging to his blonde hair, Will’s mischievous smile vanished for a brief moment only to return with more enthusiasm. “This means war!” Will ran past Nico and threw some snow over his shoulder, laughing like a little kid.
Nico ran after Will, trying to catch him. Will managed to evade Nico and the two kept throwing snow at each other. Nico was too wrapped up in trying to catch Will, but a small part of his brain registered how adorable Will looked, cheeks flushed as he ran through the snow. Even after 10 years together, Will could do the smallest things that made Nico fall even more in love with him.
After a few minutes of running around like idiots, Nico finally caught Will, causing them both to fall to the ground. Thankfully the snow was soft and fluffy, make it a soft landing. They laughed and just stayed on the ground, neither in a hurry to get up. Will rolled over on top of Nico, the mischievous look replaced by something softer and sweeter. That look always made Nico melt. “I love you”. The words came out as barely a whisper, but they caused Nico to feel like a teenager again, like the first time he heard the words. Will didn’t give Nico a chance to respond and pressed his lips to Nico’s and the moment turned from playful to passionate in a heartbeat. Nico wrapped his hands behind Will’s neck as the kiss deepened, keeping him close and savoring the moment.
Nico would have been content to stay in that moment forever but became very aware of how cold it was laying in the snow. Will must have felt the same way because he slowly pulled away from the kiss. “I love you too” Nico finally said, breaking the silence. Will smiled as he got to his feet, helping Nico up and brushed the snow off him.
“Let’s finish the driveway so we can go inside and... warm up.” Will winked at Nico again, but this time Nico didn’t roll his eyes. Nico wanted nothing more than to spend the day curled up with Will.