Wet, Cold and Fun
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
"Shou! Come on! It's snowing!" Ten years old Natsuko yelled gleefully, her blond curls waving wildly in the air as she jumped up and down.
"Snowing?" Sora peeked out of kitchen door, grinning expectantly.
"Snowing?" Yamato groaned slightly as he looked up from the block tower he and Shou were making.
"Yes! Snowing, snowing, snowing!" Natsuko said with barely controlled excitement. Shou threw a doubtful glance at his father, frowning worriedly.
"Wow!" Sora came to look out the window, "It's so beautiful!" Her wide eyes followed the lazy trail of snowflakes down to the ground, a dazed smile appearing slowly on her face.
"Can I go out, Mommy? Please please please?" Natsuko begged, tugging at her hand. Sora laughed.
"Sure. But bundle up first."
"Yayy." Natsuko ran to her room.
"Really? I don't think that's such a good idea. It's cold outside." Yamato said disapprovingly.
Sora rolled her eyes, "To this day, Yamato, I couldn't get how you could not like snow."
"It's wet?" Yamato suggested, smirking.
Sora made a face, "Come on, Shou. Go get dressed. Daddy can sit here alone if he's going to be so boring." she said encouragingly, shoving Yamato playfully on her way as she walked over to her son. Yamato continued staring at the snow distastefully.
Shou glanced at his father, his brown eyes wide with sympathy, then looked back at his mother apologetically, "I don't like snow either, Mommy." he said, shrugging, "I will be here with Daddy."
Sora raised her eyebrows doubtfully, "Are you sure, sweetie? It hasn't snowed for quite a few years. The last time it snowed, you were very little. It's really fun. Maybe you will like it," she said, stroking back his auburn hair back from his forehead. Shou glanced outside at the swirling mass of white, trees sprayed with confetti, the beginnings of Christmas decorations; the wreaths of Christmas flowers on the doors, getting whiter, and pursed his lips.
"I wanna stay inside." he whispered softly, eyeing his tower.
Yamato and Sora shared a look. Yamato placed a block carefully on the top block and said gently, "If you are doing this because I'm not going -"
"No." Shou insisted, "I really don't wanna get wet." Yamato shrugged at Sora who nodded in understanding and stood up.
"Okay, sweetie. If that's what you want." she said, ruffling his hair affectionately. For an eight year old, he was very serious about his choices. Sora often wondered if he got his shy, hesitant and quiet nature from his father. But then Yamato had faced things Shou has not and it worried her a little. Yamato's look, the one he gave her when she put on her coat and gloves, was one of quiet comfort, silently telling her not to worry. She smiled gratefully.
"I'm ready!" Natsuko announced as she entered the room, wearing a pale yellow coat, orange gloves and brown boots, her blond hair hidden under a soft orange beanie hat.
"Let's go." Sora said, smiling at her excitement as she led the way to their front lawn. Natsuko ran after her, closing the door rather loudly behind them.
Shou kept his eyes determinedly on his blocks, ignoring the laughter and exclamations of joy from his sister outside. They worked quietly on the tower but Yamato could feel that Shou was not really enjoying it quite the same as he was earlier. His enthusiasm seemed to fade away, replaced by a sour feeling of forced will power as he fingered the blocks distastefully.
The tower worked its way up slowly on the dining table, getting higher and higher, but now Shou could no longer kept himself from glancing out at his sister and mother; making a lumpy snowman, chattering over how to best decorate it. The snow kept falling down, clearly shining on his mother's auburn hair and Natsuko's orange beanie hat and once in a while one of them would tip her chin up to feel the snow falling on her face. Shou made a face, trying to look unimpressed as he moved to pick a block from the remaining three. His other hand went up to steady the tower but somehow it landed harder than he intended and the whole tower tipped dangerously to the right. Before Yamato could raise a finger to stop it, or could even realize what's happening, the top half of the tower broke away and crashed on the floor, blocks breaking away to scatter farther on the carpet; the loud crash fading into a soft clatter of individual blocks bouncing away on their edges.
Shou stared at the remaining uneven half of the tower in silent resentment, his lips pressed in disappointment. Yamato looked up from the carpet to read his expressions that were resigned.
"So?" he asked casually.
"I really, really hate snow." Shou muttered stubbornly and Yamato pressed his lips to hide his smile, suddenly reminded of how stubborn Sora used to be.
"Me too," Yamato agreed, nodding glumly, "It's cold and wet and makes my hair all bad."
Shou looked up at him and gave a smile half heartedly. Yamato bent down on the floor to pick up the blocks, "Only once did I enjoy it."
Shou stared at his father, picking up his mess for him, and with a sigh jumped down the chair to help him, "When?"
"When I was fifteen year old and your Mommy forced me out in the snow. I didn't like it at first."
"Mommy said you were grumpy when you were little." Shou said, smiling genuinely this time.
Yamato made a face, "Fifteen is not little."
"How much bigger is fifteen from seven?" Shou asked curiously as he threw the blocks in the box.
"Eight years."
"Wow. Not little."
"Nope. Not little." Yamato grinned at his son, "Anyway, so your Mommy forced me and I kept under the umbrella so I couldn't get wet and my hair don't get bad -"
"Mommy said you used to stand your hair up like this." Shou raked his fingers through his short hair to make them stand up on the edges. Yamato cracked up.
"My hair were bigger," he pointed out, "And it looked cool. Your Dad was one cool kid."
Shou lifted up one eyebrow skeptically; making Yamato marveled at his ability to do so when it took him years to un-synchronize his own eyebrows.
"What?" Yamato asked sullenly.
"Uncle Taichi told me you were like this," Shou crossed his arms and tucked his chin down, frowning at Yamato from under the lock of his hair, his lips curled up as if he had smelled something bad. Yamato stared at him for a second longer before bursting into laughter.
"Uncle Taichi is really a snobby fat mouth and will always be." he advised wisely, "I was cool. Like, the coolest kid ever."
Shou eyed him doubtfully, "O . . . kay . . . "
"So where were we?"
"Mommy forcing you in snow." Shou aid promptly.
"Yeah, that. So anyway, I stayed under the umbrella but your Mom seemed to be having so much fun that I decided to see what's so nice about snow. And so I stepped out in the snow."
"Did you like it?" Shou asked hesitatingly.
Yamato shrugged, "It wasn't that bad. The snow was really soft. And it was cold but cold-good, not cold-bad."
"Then why didn't you go out today?" Shou asked, waving a hand towards the window.
"Because . . . I still don't like snow. Because it's still wet, you know." Shou glanced out the window and Yamato added, "But if you want, we can go out now. And see if we like it or not."
"It's wet." Shou excused half heartedly.
"Yes, but it could be fun. Like swimming pool. It's wet and fun."
Shou stared out at the snow for a while longer, "Okay." he stood up.
"That's my man." Yamato said, messing up his hair and Shou grinned back at him with, what seemed like, excitement and a hint of pride for the first time in the last few hours.
As they stepped out of doors, Sora and Natsuko cheered loudly from beside the snowman. Shou ran over to his mother, crossing Natsuko on her way to Yamato.
"Hey, nice to see you here." Sora said gently, pulling his beanie cap more securely on his head.
"I want to see if I like it or not." Shou said seriously, looking all around him.
"I will show you something you'll like," Sora whispered in his ear as she bent down on the floor, eyeing the other two across the lawn. Shou stared at her wide-eyed as she shaped a snowball.
"What are you doing?" he asked in a whisper.
Sora pressed her finger to her lips as she tiptoed forward where Natsuko was telling Yamato how she found the sticks for snowman's arms. Shou followed his mother quietly, blinking rapidly.
Yamato was listening with rapt attention to his daughter's excited version of building a snowman when suddenly something wet, cold and slushy hit the top of his hair. He closed his eyes in surprise, hearing Natsuko and Shou's hysterical laughter, feeling the snow slowly sliding down the side of his face. He blinked the snow away from his eyes and squinted at Sora who was standing there, grinning devilishly.
"Very funny." he said, unable to hide his smile, reaching up and wiping away the snow from his face, shaking his hair to get rid of the wet, cold mess.
There goes my twenty minutes used to style my hair, he thought with sour amusement.
"Thank you." Sora said as she came close to him, still grinning, and brushed off some of the snow from his shoulder.
"Maybe you will find some of my jokes as funny?" Yamato said as he leaned forward to kiss her. His hair were still dripping wet and so Sora tried to back away but Yamato hold on to her as she protested, laughing hard. Just as he pressed his lips to hers, another snowball hit their heads, making them gasp with surprise and sudden coldness.
"Today is a bad hair-day." Yamato muttered resentfully as he let go of Sora and bent down to get his revenge. Sora laughed even harder, making her own snowball. Natsuko and Shou cheered in victory for a short while before two snowball hit them squarely in the face.
Natsuko shrieked in surprise.
Shou was stunned, blinking fast as the snow drip down his face. His father was right. It was wet. And cold.
He heard the laughter of his parents and sister as Natsuko threatened her parents boldly, quickly shaping a snowball with both hands, and felt a rush of excitement. Wiping his face on his sleeves, he ran to his sister's aid, realizing his father was right about the other thing too.
It sure was fun.
x-x-x
A/N: So here's the drabble substitute of Epilogue of Strange Realities. It wasn't the one I actually planned; the drabble idea I was working on that time is a slightly heavy and emotional one, completely unlike this one. Still working on it. But not really in a mood to complete it. Until then, enjoy this one since so many of you want to read more about Ishida family.
And I'm in a serious review crisis, so give me one word but review. I really, really wanna know what you guys think of my stories.