i.
Their first time in the snow, it was like this:
The wind on LOFAF whipped Jade's hair around her face, reddened her cheeks, and inspired her to mischief.
In what later seemed like insanity to Karkat, she balled up ice and snow and pelted it at his back while he was retreating inside, away from this miserable weather. He squawked and hit the ground, thinking he was under attack.
"Karkat get down from there!" Jade called up to him, where he was sitting in a tree, sickle out.
"Jade shut up! Do you want to get us killed? Something is still out there!"
"Karkat that was me, you dingus!" To punctuate her sentence, she threw another snowball at him. "You're supposed to come down here and play with me!"
"I refuse!" he said, flailing an arm so strongly it knocked him off-balance on the icy branch he was perched on, and slid down the tree trunk, landing in the snow with a muffled thump. "This land is a death trap, Jade, how can you stand it?"
Jade had the nerve to laugh at him. "No, it's fun, Karkat. Why don't you calm down and play with me?"
Karkat opened his mouth to begin a scathing speech on playing with girls and why it was dangerous as well as stupid, but then he noticed Jade had bent down and formed another snowball while he was preparing, and he switched tracks. "You are not going to hit me with that -"
Wham! This one hit his exposed neck, sliding down under his (borrowed and outrageously puffy) jacket, making him shriek as it melted against his skin.
"Come on, Karkat! Keep up with me!"
Jade watched as he stumbled up, shook himself as if trying to dislodge the ice under his jacket, and then clumsily rolled up a blob of snow and tossed it at her.
It flew in a wide arc and missed her by a mile, and she snickered at him before running off.
He chased after her.
It was war, and they darted through the trees and slid down snowbanks, baiting each other by tossing snowballs and barbs as they did. Jade was more used to the land, and her legs carried her over snow and ice easily, while Karkat stumbled after her. But he was adaptable, and a few times he managed to corner her and press ice to her neck or jump on her back and roll them around in the snow, before she'd shake him off and go running again.
They paused in a small clearing, sitting at the bases of trees and catching their breath. Jade's hair was stuck to her face and falling over shoulders in tendrils, and Karkat watched her as she gathered it together and began braiding it over her right shoulder.
"It gets in the way," she said when she caught him looking. Her dog ears twitched involuntarily.
When she'd finished and was making no sign of moving, he was confused.
He stood up. "What's wrong? That was fun, let's keep doing it."
She shook her head. "I'm tired, let's go home."
"Wiggler," he snorted, but held out a hand to help her up.
"Jerk," she said, but took it, and they held hands on the walk home.
ii.
Their second time in the snow, it was like this:
Jade kissed his forehead gently and invited him to play.
He grumbled a lot, but complied, following her outside, covered head to toe in alchemized winter gear because he'd had enough ice on his skin for a lifetime, thank you.
They didn't throw snowballs though. Instead, Jade busted out some horrible-looking thing that she said her brother had given her - a sled.
Karkat eyed the metal runners warily, not trusting the rickety-looking thing, but she dragged him to the top of a hill anyway, and forced him to sit behind her on it.
"Okay, if we start to skid, lean into it!"
"What?"
But she pushed off rather than clarifying, and they started to pick up speed, cutting through the snow. The wind pulled at his face, and he buried it in the back of her neck, clinging to her waist as they started to swerve.
The bump took them both by surprise, and the sled rocked violently before leaping up, sending them both flying to land in a snowbank nearby, the sled skidding right by them before its runners bit into the ground, coming to a stop.
Karkat had landed on his face, ice so cold it was burning it, and he sat up in time to watch Jade roll over like a dog, shake snow off of herself, and smile at him.
"Wanna go again?"
Karkat crossed sledding off of his winter activities list for the foreseeable future.
iii.
Their third time in the snow, it was like this:
"It's a snowman."
"Looks stupid,"
"It's not done yet. Shut up and help me roll the body."
Karkat watched her instead, on her knees in the snow, rolling it up into a ball that was slightly smaller than the big one she'd made a moment ago. Her face was pinched in concentration as she gathered nearby powder and forced it to grow, then hesitantly lifted it and balanced it on top of the large ball.
"What should its face be?"
Karkat didn't answer. This was the most inane of the snow games Jade has asked him to play, and he didn't want to continue it, so he sat down in the snow and ignored her.
"Hey dickprince, it's you!"
She'd made him. The snowtroll looked angry, and she had even given it tiny flowers for horns, making it look ridiculous.
"You -!" he spluttered, and then sprung up, leaping at her and taking her down.
They wrestled, shoving ice and snow at each other, yelling and laughing, until they wore themselves out and lay half in the snow and half on each other, breathing heavily.
He kissed her cheek, she kissed his mouth, and she smiled at him, full and beautiful.
"I'm happy you came here, even if you are an asshole."
"...This wasn't the worst way I could have spent my time."
She groaned and tapped her fist against his cheek.
In the end, he was happy he'd learned how to play in the snow.