A/N: This was written as a holiday gift for my dear friend Jedi-Ant/Abagael, who is a huge Anakin and Tahiri fan. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, girl! Hopefully I've done your favourite duo's more playful natures justice in this AU story.

Snow Trust

"I'm going to kill you, Anakin Solo."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really!"

"Hm."

"What?!"

"Something tells me that nature doesn't agree with your intentions."

"Well. Then… Fine! I'm going to kill you, Anakin Solo."

Anakin laughed. Tahiri glared at him, though the Meaningful Jedi Glare of Death did have a tendency to lose its effect when it had to fight against three layers of coats and sweaters drawn up to one's chin; two brightly coloured scarves wrapped around one's neck and the lower face; and a giant, floppy ear-covering hat – with pom-poms. If Anakin could even see her glowing green eyes beyond the oh-so-scary winter outfit, it would be a miracle. As a result, Tahiri glared even harder and somehow managed to knock herself over, face-planting into the snow.

She heard muffled laughter filter through the ridiculous ear-flaps of her hat and grimaced. Tahiri struggled to pull herself upright, but only got so far as a sitting position. She flopped down ungracefully in the snow bank, wildly trying to brush snow out of her face, which was a difficult thing to do when her fingers were stuck together inside three layers of thick, woolly mittens. They were warm, but they couldn't really do anything either.

"S… s… stop la... laugh...ing!" Tahiri managed to splutter, spitting out snow. She nudged her scarves down as far as they would go so she would have a better view of Anakin, who was perched calmly on the side of the hill they were supposed to be heading down, leaning on his poles as if nothing was the matter at all.

"I can't help it!" he answered, grinning.

Tahiri stuck out her lower lip in what was a half-grimace, half-pout. Anakin erupted into more laughter.

"I hate you!"

"If only you could see yourself, Tahiri," Anakin said.

"If you take a holo, I will kill you!"

"So you've said."

Tahiri scooped up as much snow as she could with one hand and tossed it at him. It didn't quite have the effect she wanted – the hapless snowball felt apart mid-air and landed at her feet. Anakin could only shake his head, now positively roaring with laughter. He laughed so hard that he momentarily lost his balance and began slipping down the hill; he caught himself just in time and remained upright.

Tahiri glared at him.

"What?"

"How did you do that?" she asked.

"You know," Anakin answered, "it's not really all that hard. It's all about finding your balance."

"I have balance," Tahiri shot back, slowly standing up and trying to tighten her grip on her poles. "My skis just don't like me!"

"Oh, really?"

"Would you stop saying that?"

"Why? It's fun!"

"Fun to see me try to murder myself on thin little sticks strapped to my feet?"

She didn't find it very funny when she lost her balance right at the end of her sentence and found herself flopping back into the snow. Again.

Tahiri huffed and tried to pull herself together. She didn't know how she had let herself get talked into this little adventure. They were out in the middle of nowhere – literally nowhere, as all her efforts put into keeping herself upright as they trudged through this thick blanket of white fluffy nonsense had made her forget what planet they were on, exactly. She didn't know the time and she didn't know where they were. All she knew was that the little sticks on her feet were plotting to kill her.

"You know," she said as she struggled to her feet, leaning heavily on her poles for support, "this wasn't quite my idea of a vacation."

"I thought you wanted to try something new," Anakin said brightly.

Tahiri stuck her tongue out at him just as her hat slid down her face, covering her eyes. "Maybe I'll have a better time if I can't see where I'm going," she sighed, frustrated.

"Use the Force, Tahiri!" Anakin said in his best ghostly voice.

"Ha ha ha."

"Thanks, I guess."

Tahiri, now standing upright, pushed her hat back up on to her forehead and wiggled herself forward one inch at a time, trying to free her skis from the snow bank and put herself back on the groomed trail. "This is the last time I'm going to be doing this."

"But it's so much fun!"

"It's so annoying!"

Anakin raised an eyebrow. "Don't you mean to say that I'm so annoying?" he said jokingly.

"Same thing, really," Tahiri answered. "I'm now going to be calling you it."

"Ah."

"Mhm. Now, are you going to help me or not, it?"

Before Anakin could answer, her skis were back on the trail and gravity was already working against her. Tahiri yelped as she felt herself sliding forwards, accompanied with the dreadful feeling that she was going to fall backwards. Desperately, she tried to slow herself down, but nothing came of her flapping her arms wildly in the air. Her skis pointed downwards and she began sliding down the hill at full force, her sense of balance swerving all over the place.

Anakin was shouting something at her, but she couldn't hear him. She could barely even see him as her hat had fallen into her eyes again. She could sense him, though, and right now she sensed that he was perched right in the middle of the trail – right where she was headed.

"EEEEEEEEeeeeek!"

THUD.

With the force of rampaging banthas, Tahiri crashed into Anakin and they tumbled down the hill in a ball of poles and skis. Thankfully, their winter attire acted as padding, as did the snow, which was the only useful thing the two had done today, as Tahiri saw it.

When they finally stopped rolling, they had landed at the bottom of the hill. They were now on a little plateau between two large hills – the one they had come down and the one they were scheduled to go up. Through the snow-covered trees was a frozen lake that looked like a large expanse of snowy fields. It was in the base of the valley far below. Tahiri hadn't released that they had gotten so high up in the hills since they started this little adventure.

"Okay," Anakin said, winded. "How… how about we take a break?"

"I like that idea," Tahiri said. She lay flat on her back, staring up at the clear blue sky through the canopy of tree branches. She had been knocked completely breathless and she was very, very sore. "I vote that we don't fall down any more hills."

"Sounds good," Anakin agreed. He had already managed to sit up and he had slung off the pack he was carrying. Opening it, he dug out a heated container and two cups. Setting them on the snow, he poured a hot, steaming brown creamy liquid into them.

"What's this?" Tahiri asked as he handed her the cup.

"Hot chocolate," Anakin answered, stowing the container away and picking up his own cup. "Perfect on cold days, don't you know?"

"I wouldn't," Tahiri dead-panned. "I'm a desert girl."

Anakin raised his cup. "Well, here's for your first snow day, Desert Girl."

"Thanks, Snow Boy."

They clinked their cups together and took long swigs of hot chocolate. Immediately, Tahiri felt better. She was warming up, finally. She sat contentedly in the snow; the hot chocolate was truly delicious.

"It's kind of nice," she said, lying back down. "The snow is pretty, even if it's horrible."

"Horrible?"

"It gets everywhere and then it melts," Tahiri explained. "I don't really want to feel like a semi-frozen ice pack when we're done."

"Awww, come on, Tahiri! The snow's not that bad."

"It's pretty."

"Is that all?"

"Mmm… yep. That's all."

Anakin sighed. "I give up!"

Tahiri giggled. "I thought your goal was to convert me to a professional skier."

"Yeah, well… obviously the plan isn't going so well. Why are you lying down?"

"So I don't go anywhere."

"Oh." He paused. "You know, that's probably the fastest way to semi-frozen ice packery status."

"What?! Yeek!"

Tahiri tried to jump to her feet, but it didn't quite work as she immediately started sliding forward and towards the edge of the trail. Beyond the edge of the trail, the hills took a steep incline, heading towards the lake.

She grabbed hold of the nearest tree and tried to calm her near heart-attack.

"ANAKIN!"

"What?!" He stood up, balancing perfectly on his skis, and looked at her. "Oh."

Tahiri continued to clutch on to her tree, hanging on for dear life. She tried to calm down her breathing, but she was still hyperventilating. "Okay, okay, okay… not slipping, not sliding, no hill-ing…"

"Tahiri, you're not going to fall down the hill—"

"Says the one who can actually ski!"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, an idea came into her head. Tahiri jabbed her pole at her ski, trying to undo the straps that were keeping the mean skinny plank stuck to her foot.

"Uhh, Tahiri?"

She ignored him and continued to poke at the straps with her pole. She was successful after the first several jabs; the ski popped off and her foot was free.

Free to immediately sink a foot into the snow bank.

Tahiri sighed, exasperated. Snow just was not her thing.

"Tahiri, you do realize that you will have to wade through the snow if you can't ski?"

"Hmm?"

"Snows meant for skiing on, not walking through."

"What? Oh—!"

Too late. There was the sound of something sliding over snow and off went Tahiri's ski, racing down the steep slope towards the lake and out of sight. Tahiri swallowed. So much for skiing.

She turned to Anakin. "Sorry?"

His face was in his hands. He was trying not to laugh again.

"Anakin!"

"What?"

"Stop laughing!"

"Can't help it!"

Tahiri stomped and snow went flying everywhere; her ski-less foot sunk even deeper in the snow. "So much for that," she grumbled.

Anakin was still laughing. He skied over to her and tried to pull her on to the trail. Tahiri flew into Anakin, once again knocking him over. In the process, Tahiri's second ski got stuck and her foot pulled free of the binding, sending the ski flying down the hill after its partner. Now only her poles remained, lying in the centre of the trail where she had left them after she had begun sliding.

Tahiri and Anakin had landed on the trail; once again, Tahiri had face-planted. She pushed herself up, spitting out another mouthful of snow.

"Not… cool." Her hat was lopsided; it covered one eye. She glared at Anakin, who reached out and pushed her hat back the way it should be.

"You seriously need to trust the snow for once," he said, sending her a lopsided grin.

Tahiri rolled her eyes. A moment later, a snowball caught Anakin full in the face.

"W… w… what was that for?" he spluttered.

Tahiri was already standing up, another snowball in hand. "You're the one who says that you need to trust snow!" she said sweetly.

Anakin pushed himself upright, planting his poles firmly in the snow. "All right. I accept!"

"Snowball fight?"

Anakin raised an eyebrow. He stuck his tongue out at her and turned, skiing off briskly up the hill, kicking up snow behind him. Tahiri chased after him, her voice carrying far into the hills.

"COME BACK, YOU… YOU DUMMY!"

fin