Prompt: Snow

Summary: John's never seen snow before… he's not sure if he should be worried or not when the rest of SPR realize this. (Set right after Silent Christmas)

"Wait… you've never…" John looked over at Monk, who had just stopped in his tracks. Oh dear, had he said something wrong?

"I guess you wouldn't have," Masako said in her usual soft tone.

"Give him a break, Monk!" Ayako swatted him on the arm.

"Well, I did grow up in Australia…" John said, but he didn't think anyone heard him. Oh dear, what had he gotten himself into?

Mai had heard him, though, "yes, but it's just weird to think that this is your first snow!"

They'd been walking back to the office after finishing up a case at John's church, once Midnight Mass was over, and Mai had regained consciousness from being possessed, when it had started snowing a little harder, and John had (he still wasn't sure if this had been a mistake or not) commented that he hadn't seen snow in person before.

"You've really never seen snow before." Monk was taking a second to process the thought… the disbelief of one who has never gone without a tradition.

"Well I've seen it in movies, and I get the general idea," he didn't think that they wanted him to go into the composition and how snow was formed, so he left it at that.

"But you've never been in a snowball fight, never built a snow fort, or a snow man? That was the best part of winter as a kid!"

"Judging from the look on your face, Monk, I think that, for you, it's still the best part of winter now!" Mai giggled.

"Of course it is!"

"Well," Ayako said with a playful grin on her face… and John was a little nervous, she'd begun to pack the snow into a ball, and… oh dear. "I think there's enough snow on the ground… we can't let John escape without a snowball fight!"

She threw the ball at him, and it hit him square in the chest, exploding. He gave a little yelp as some of it crept down the collar of his sweater.

"It's cold!"

"Yeah, John, it's snow!"

Well he knew that in theory, but actually feeling it…

"Better hurry!" Monk grinned, starting in on making snowballs.

John's first snowball was more than a little pathetic, and Masako, hiding her giggles with her kimono sleeve, helped him.

At some point, Kasuya and Lin had left the group to go back to the office, and they followed… sort of. All five of them were having way too much fun with their impromptu snowball fight. John laughed, they were right, of course, this was a lot of fun!