A/N. Just some fluff that came to me the other day during a lunch break. Now that it's getting hot in the Southeastern US, I was thinking about how nice it'd be to see snow since we hardly ever see it. What can I say, I prefer cooler weather. This bit came to me after reading River2027's story entitled Christmas with the Connors and inspired me to do my own winter piece. If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend it.
John Connor was alert, tense. The snow had been falling for several hours and to increase difficulty, the wind was picking up and visibility had been reduced. He had sent Cameron around the side of the house to scout out potential enemies. He turned his head, scanning the perimeter in all directions. His objective was to find his target and pelt it with the most readily available form of ammunition. From the direction of the porch, an icy projectile came shooting down, striking him in the neck. Snow dribbled down his collar, chilling his bones to the core.
"AHHHH!!!" John screamed. "Damn it, that's cold!" He hopped around for a moment, trying to shake the quickly melting snow from his skin, but it had already trickled down under his clothes. From the direction of the porch, he heard his uncle laugh. John didn't hear his uncle laugh often, but when he did it sounded like a hyena and it seemed impossible for Derek to stop quickly. Derek walked down the steps, still laughing and clad as always in his green overcoat with a matching hat and gloves to ward off the cold.
When Derek was finally able to speak, he managed to gasp out. "Seriously, John. You should have seen your face. It was priceless. I loved the hopping up and down bit a second ago. If this savior of the world bit doesn't work out for you, there's always a career in dancing." At this point, Derek had to bend over to keep from bursting out again. He straightened up and added, "Goes to show you, first rule of war is to always take the high ground when possible, John Connor." Looking at John and seeing the snow still dripping off his neck, he couldn't hold a straight face any longer and turned to the side, bursting out laughing again. At that moment, a snowball hurtled out from behind a drift and caught Derek flush in the face.
Sputtering through a mouthful of snow, Derek narrowed his eyes and looked around for what he knew to be out there. Metal. Cameron walked out from behind a mound of snow, cocked her head and explained, "You should be aware that the second rule of war is to watch your flanks, Derek Reese." With that, she flung another snowball, catching Derek at the base of the throat. The snowball quickly melted, leaving a dripping trail down Derek's coat, soaking his clothing. John burst out laughing at this. Cameron cocked her head again, watching his reaction before letting a small smile creep across her face.
John finally caught his breath and was able to stop laughing. "Thanks for being my guardian angel, Cam." he managed to wheeze out.
Derek snorted to himself and stomped off up the steps toward the house. "This isn't over, John!" he called half joking, half threatening.
Once John could contain himself, he looked over at Cameron. She was dressed for the cold weather with a dark purple, almost black heavy coat, purple scarf, gloves, and a purple hat with tassels. John wondered if she picked them because reminded her of her favorite leather jacket. As usual, she had tried to explain that none of it was necessary, that the cold didn't bother her as much as it did John or Derek. With a sigh, John had reminded her that she needed to keep up appearances. By the way she was constantly playing with the tassels on her hat, John began to think she had found another article of clothing to be attached to.
"John?" Cameron asked. "You have been staring at me for 17.4 seconds without saying anything."
"Sorry Cam. It's just such a human thing you're doing right now, playing with your hat." John replied with a smile.
"It is a bit problematic. I am trying to find the purpose of these attachments and I have been unable to find any." Cameron stated.
"Well, it doesn't really have a purpose." John tried to explain. "It's more of a decoration, you know? It looks...cute."
"You think this looks cute on me?" Cameron asked with a small smile, taking a closer step towards John.
John couldn't take his eyes off of her. Whether her processes were consciously increasing the synthetic blood flow to her skin or whether it was an unconscious reaction, John couldn't deny that she seemed to positively glow. Add in the snow sticking to her hair flowing out from under her hat and her deep brown eyes staring back at him and John couldn't make a coherent statement if his life depended on it.
"Uhh, ummm..., yes, yes, it's very cute." John finally managed to spit out. "It's, umm...perfect." His breath came out in wisps of steam, mixing with the snow falling. Cameron stepped closer to John, close enough to touch him. Her eyes glowed a faint blue before...
"Down!" she yelled, pushing him backwards into the snow as a snowball came whizzing towards them, quickly followed by another. Derek and Sarah had emerged from the porch, hurling snowballs from the snow that had gathered along the porch rail. Preoccupied with Cameron, John had failed to notice them come out and briefly wondered how long they'd been standing there.
"Told you this wasn't over John!" Derek yelled. "Third rule!! If outnumbered, call for reinforcements!"
Sarah came running down into the yard, clad like the others in heavy coat, gloves, and hat. She quickly scooped together more snow and threw it at Cameron, managing to catch her shoulder as Cameron was forced to dodge a shot from Derek at the same time.
"Well, that felt good to get her with something." Sarah spoke with a smile.
"Enjoy it, mom. It will be the last time." John said as he got up from the ground. True to his words, Cameron whipped a snowball that caught Sarah in the chest.
"Fourth rule, Sarah. Don't underestimate your enemy." Cameron replied with a small smile.
"Cameron, I don't care so much how hard you whip them at Derek, but how about dialing it back a bit on me?" Sarah yelled but smiled as she did so.
Distracted as she was, Sarah failed to notice John gathering together another projectile and sending it hurtling towards Sarah, catching her unawares. The snowball caught Sarah just inside the neck, another perfect soaking shot.
"John!!!" Sarah screamed in mock distress. "I'm your mother!"
"Yea, you are, so you should have been more aware." John said with a grin.
Laughing it off, Sarah leapt at John, bringing them both down into the snow.
"John, do you require assistance?" Cameron called from across the yard, caught up in her own battle with Derek.
"No, Cam, I'm fine, carry on." John replied back, breathing a bit heavy from laughing and rolling around.
John looked over at his mother still grinning on the ground and watching Derek and Cameron continue their snowball fight. "How much do you think they're both enjoying the opportunity to pummel each other?"
"I think if Cameron didn't have to patrol and Derek didn't have to sleep, they'd be out here all day pelting each other." Sarah replied.
"Yea, well maybe they'll get some of that animosity out in something relatively harmless." John said.
"Not so sure about harmless, John. She's not holding anything back." Sarah grinned.
"Yea, better call it off since I know Derek won't admit defeat even if we have to carry him back inside." John said with a wry smile as he got up off the ground. "Cam!! C'mon, let's call it a day on this." John called to her.
Derek walked back towards the house, holding his chest a bit gingerly. "You're lucky John called it off, metal. I had you just where I wanted you."
John called up to him. "I'm sure you wanted her hitting you with snowballs while you were still trying to get up from the first few shots."
At this, Derek grumbled and went inside, Sarah following him, pink cheeked and slightly out of breath. "John, don't stay out too much later, it's getting colder. Cameron, keep an eye on him." With that, she went inside and closed the door.
Taking Cameron's arm, John pulled her along towards an undisturbed patch of snow. "Cam, I want to show you something."
Laying down in the snow, John spread his arms and legs and moved them back and forth before carefully getting up. Looking back, he grinned. A perfect snow angel. Cameron looked at him quizzically.
"John, I don't understand. It appears to be a mold of your body with the arms and legs spread." she stated.
"No Cam, it's a snow angel. Do you see it?"
"Oh, I see it now. Thank you for explaining." Cameron looked at John and gave him a soft smile, one that she saved only for him.
John returned her smile and took her hand. "See, the thing about snow angels is they are better in pairs." She tilted her head, looking confused for a moment before her eyes lit up with understanding. Without another word, she let go of his hand and carefully lowered herself next to John's angel and moved her arms and legs to form another angel. She carefully got up and stood next to John, brushing the loose snow off her coat.
John looked wistfully at her. She really was learning human characteristics well. She never acted like a cyborg around him when it was just the two of them. She could just be herself and that was all he'd ever want.
"John, you're staring at me again." Cameron said with a smile.
"Sorry."
"Don't be. I like it when you look at me." Brushing her lips against his cheek, Cameron gave his hand a squeeze. Releasing his hand, she knelt down in the snow and with her gloved finger, wrote his name under her snow angel and his name under hers.
"Cam, shouldn't those be switched?" John asked with a confused look.
"No." She simply stated. "You've told me before that I'm your guardian angel and you're my guardian angel as well, always protecting me from Sarah and Derek. I just protect you from Terminators and bullets."
John's jaw dropped slightly. To her credit, Cameron noticed but didn't say anything. "Doesn't sound like much of a fair trade." John tried to joke.
"To me it is, I like to think of you as my angel and it pleases me that you think of me as your angel so we should have a record of it, even if it is in snow." Cameron stated with a smile.
John lifted her head slightly so he could look in her eyes. The snow continued to fall, small flakes caressing her cheeks and making her skin glow. Cameron looked back at John and they both leaned into each other, kissing each other gently before breaking off.
"We better go inside." Cameron smiled softly. "It's getting colder."
Hand in hand, John and Cameron walked back towards the house, pausing once to glance back at their snow angels, side by side.