-8-

They hadn't expected a snowfall. Karen- and I, of course- had planned to visit, but there was a sudden storm that had rushed through, and there was just simply no way to get across to them. Thankfully we are blessed with phone lines and other convenient ways of communicating, and so it was all settled that we would just have to come around sometime later when the snow mercifully cleared.

Andy had had to shovel out the driveway and defrost the car before getting anywhere- and scraping the frost off of the windows had proven to be more of a chore than work that day. In the end, not many other employers showed up, and head decided to close out early for the day, shaking her head as she watched the frozen precipitation continue to fall determinedly.

"Have a safe drive home, Andy!" she'd called out the door to him, with a serious undertone to her warning. Andy gave a grim smile before making some sort of promise he'd at least try, stomping across the parking lot through the snow in his large boots.

He arrived home to find Chucky attempting his very best at re-clearing the driveway he had just shoveled that morning, and, though somewhere inside he felt mildly cruel, watched the doll struggling with a snow shovel that was perhaps a mite too big for him.

"Need a hand there? Or should I say several feet." Chucky looked up to see Andy grinning down at him, the car still humming away just outside the driveway. He scrunched up his nose at him, his breath coming out in angry little puffs against the cold air.

"You're an ass, you know that?" he griped spitefully at him, but Andy only laughed and took the shovel out of the doll's hands, taking a huge swipe with it and clearing a good bit of what Chucky had been struggling to be rid of with several small strokes. He smiled good naturedly. "I've got this. Go make a snowman or something."

Chucky stomped his foot angrily and pulled at Andy's leg. "No, you go make a fucking snowman!" he shouted, trying in vain to pull the young man off his balance. Andy continued clearing the driveway, careful to drag the still clinging on doll as gently as possible across the snow.

At one point, he made a wrong turn, and, in an effort to make sure he didn't topple over onto Chucky, twisted far out into the thick bank of snow he'd created, dragging the doll with him. The shovel flew off into the yard, falling into the snow with a soft plop.

"Ow- c'mon, Chucky, just let go already, will you?" Andy insisted. He started to pry the doll's fingers off of his pant leg. "The shovel is too big for you to carry, just admit it. We can just go get one your size tomorrow or something."

"Oh, yeah?" Chucky argued, grasping higher up and clutching harder this time making Andy gasp in surprise and make a disdainful face at him. "Where we gonna buy it at, Toys R Us?"

"Yes…" Andy grunted, attempting to release himself from the death grip the doll had on him. "Where else… do you get… doll… accessories…!"

He'd successfully managed to pull Chucky off of him and turned them over to bury his face in the snow playfully. "Gotcha!"

Chucky gave a heinous cry, snow exploding out from where he emerged from his grave. "You're such a fucking moron, you know that?" he cried, packing snow into his hands and throwing them at Andy forcefully. Andy fell back onto his haunches, laughing helplessly as the doll continued to pelt him with snow.

"I hate you!"

"You should've seen the look on your face!" Andy snorted, clearly very amused at his own antics. He leaned upward on his elbows. "You look like a snow angel."

"Angel, my…" Chucky was cut off from finishing a very non-angelic like phrase when Andy suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders, clearly having moved onto another subject.

"Let's make some!" cried he, shaking the doll a bit. At his questioning glare, Andy clarified quickly. "Let's make some snow angels!"

Chucky shook his head and stubbornly refused, but when Andy turned it into a competition, he raced after the young man across the yard, trying his best to demolish every creation in the snow Andy had made. Andy would retaliate by dumping snow on him, before running off to create another snow angel in a farther part of the yard. Most of the snow that had been shoveled out of the driveway had slid back in, seeing as the two of them truly only know how to create messes. They were both rather breathless and pink-faced by the time they considered the rivalry over, Chucky besting Andy by a mere four to two.

"You… cheated…" Andy protested, laying against the snow and spreading out his arms again in a lazy attempt to make yet another. Chucky laughed and dropped down beside him, pretending he wasn't about to make the same movements.

"I did no such thing, you little bitch," he responded plainly, watching Andy's arms slide back and forth in the snow, the fabric of his coat creating a strange sound as it rubbed this way and that. "This one you're making doesn't count either, by the way."

Andy laughed, breath making smoke in the air. "Hey, look, I'm you every morning, breathing out steam like Smaug, the old dragon," he teased. Chucky satisfied himself in punching the young man in the arm and muttering, "Freaking nerd."

"Takes one to know one," Andy remarked, elbowing him back. "Besides, don't you have to sort of be a nerd to have gotten that reference?" He was still laughing, his smile causing his eyes to crinkle just a bit, and Chucky finally relented and let out a low sort of chuckle- but only a low one, may the skies fall should he ever do much more than that.

There was a calming whirring sound in their silence, and Andy suddenly sat up straight and shouted in alarm, "The car! Oh my gosh, the car!" leaving Chucky to laugh menacingly at the way he jumped up and practically skid across the snow towards the still running vehicle just outside the once again snow covered driveway. His imprint was still perfectly laid out, a large snow angel next to the doll's smaller one.