(A/N): Written for the Tumblr prompt: "Let's build a fort!"

Caitlin must have gotten in really early, because when Cisco walked into the cortex, she said, "Is it snowing?"

"Uh, yeah, pretty hard, too." He pulled his cap off, shaking melting flakes off the knitted wool and wondering how bad his hat hair was.

She jumped up and bolted past him toward the elevator.

He whipped around. "Where are you going? You need your coat! When did I turn into my mama?" he asked himself, bolting after her.

He caught the elevator just in time to slide in next to her and watch her wiggle with anticipation. "You're really excited?"

"The first snowfall," she said.

"Yeah, but last year you - "

"Practically locked myself up all winter," she finished. "I know." She rubbed a shiny patch of skin on the knobby bone in her wrist, where the power-dampening cuffs had rubbed it raw last winter. (Which she hadn't told him so he could adjust the fit. Great, Caitlin, way to really be a martyr.) "But last year I was - "

When she didn't go on, he said, "Yeah."

She shrugged. "I don't know. It feels magical to think about snow now. Not horrible."

The light marked L blinked off, and the elevator doors opened with a ding. She headed for the front doors.

"There are these wonderful things called windows," Cisco called out. Never mind his mama. He was turning into Caitlin.

She stood just outside the big glass front doors, under the awning, watching snow drift down and settle over the parking lot and the river. The snow hushed the usual city noises, so it felt like they were all alone in the world.

He put his arm around her shoulders. "It's really pretty."

"It really is," she whispered, leaning into him. "And so peaceful."

"Yeah."

They watched the flakes swirl in a whisper of a breeze that caught her hair and set it fluttering.

Last winter had felt endless, bitter, full of freezing rain and cold that bit through to the bone and icicles that loomed and stabbed. Caitlin had worn the cuffs day in and day out, afraid to take them off even to shower or let Cisco adjust them. He'd dreamed dank and icy dreams the whole winter through, seeing again what she'd done as Killer Frost, wondering if she'd ever go so far into her own anger and fear that they couldn't get her back.

But now that she'd spent months slowly testing her powers, working out their limits, learning to control them instead of letting them control her - winter's cool, calm, peaceful magic was back.

(Although - man. If it kept coming down at this rate, he was going to have to boom all the snow off his car tonight.)

He decided not think of that. Instead, he rested his chin on her shoulder and, with his mouth almost at her ear, sang, "Do you wanna build a snowman?"

She shoved him hard, and he teetered away, laughing. She laughed, too. "How long have you been wanting to do that?"

"Long time," he admitted.

She shook her head. "Now I'm going to have that stuck in my head."

He paused. "Oh, shit, me too."

"Serves you right," she said. "Let's do it, though."

"A snowman?" He scuffed at the snow on the concrete. "I mean, it is coming down pretty good, but do you think there's enough, yet?"

"Cisco," she said. "That's not going to be a problem." She splayed her hands.

He watched, mouth hanging open, as the snow peeled off their cars and out of the air and funneled toward of Star Labs, slamming against the walls and the windows in soft ploof-ploofs and spilling down to pile up the side of the building.

She bit her lip. "Maybe too much juice?"

He looked at the snow mounded higher than his head, and then out over the huge, clean-swept parking lot. "No, I think that was just about enough if we wanted a snowman the size of Grodd."

She tilted her head. "Okay, forget the snowman." She grinned brightly. "Let's build a fort."

He grinned back. "You're on."

FINIS