"Mmmhhhmmm..."
Tara stretched her body out comfortably in the bed as she felt herself start to awaken fully, the memories of the day previous, spending Christmas with their friends and family and the amorous night that had followed pushing gently to the forefront of her mind and making her smile.
"You awake, Will?" she asked lazily and opened her eyes when she got no response.
She turned her head and frowned when she saw the empty space on the bed beside her before glancing at the clock and seeing it was already late morning, so she surmised that her wife, ever the early-riser was already up. She sat up in the bed and stretched her arms behind her head for a moment with a satisfied sigh, then swung her legs off the bed and went to retrieve some clothes for the day.
She quickly got dressed and slipped her charm bracelet back over her wrist before walking over to the window and pulling back the curtains, gasping softly at what she saw. Their front yard, and the entire street, was covered in a thick blanket of snow as light flakes continued to descend from the sky. She smiled as she wondered whether her wife had seen it yet.
Willow loved snow. Tara could still remember the first time they'd spent the holidays together, ten months into their relationship and how the redhead had been blown away when it had started snowing one of the days. Tara was used to snow, having grown up in upstate New York, but Willow, a Cali-girl through and through had never seen it before, the winters before their meeting having been plenty cold but the conditions never harsh enough to bring snow.
Tara smiled again as she saw some of the neighbourhood kids throwing snowballs at each other and building snowmen, before walking out of the bedroom and down the stairs. She popped her head into the kitchen, expecting to see Willow sitting with a cup of coffee or something and frowned when it was empty.
"Will?" she called out, moving to peek into the living room, also empty, "Willow? Sweetie, if this is some kind of 'hide and seek' thing, you should know, I'm really bad at that game..."
Tara frowned again when she got no response. It wasn't like Willow to go out without leaving a note and she didn't think her wife would've gone driving anywhere with such heavy snow down. Just to be sure, she walked out the front door and down their driveway, exhaling slowly when she saw the car parked there.
Where the hell is she?
She didn't have time to ponder the question as she suddenly felt something tug roughly on her leg so she fell to her knees behind the snow-capped hedge that encircled their yard.
"Tara, get down!" Willow hissed from her position crouched behind the hedge, pulling the blonde even further down, the end result being the taller girl lying face-down across the redhead's lap, which made the smaller girl giggle, "Hehe, hello Tara's butt."
"Willow, what the hell?" Tara asked irately, having gotten a mouthful of snow and trying to sit back up but found she was held in place, so turned her head to her wife with a quirked eyebrow, "Unless you're planning to publicly spank me, do I really need to be in this position?"
"Ooh, you telling me you wanna be spanked?" Willow asked with a teasing grin and lightly rubbing her hand over the blonde's clothed-butt, "'Cause that can be arranged."
Tara blushed and quickly pushed herself off her wife and into a crouching position as well, more than well aware of the fact that any of their neighbours who happened to be looking out their top windows could see straight into their yard.
"Care to explain why we're hiding behind the bushes when it's like 25° out?"
"Oh god, here, baby, you'll freeze," Willow said quickly, slipping her green bomber jacket - that she'd gotten in college to survive the cold Boston winters – over her shoulders and putting it over Tara's.
"Well now you'll freeze," Tara replied with a roll of her eyes, "Can we not just go inside?"
"No way," Willow scoffed, "And I'm fine, I'm warmed up on adrenaline. The kids from across the road think they have me beat, but I'm planning an all-out assault. See, look at my stash!"
Tara looked as her wife pointed to a bunch of made-up snowballs on the other side of her and gave the redhead an exasperated look.
"You're having a snowball fight with the neighbourhood kids?"
"Duh," Willow replied as if it was obvious, "There's snow. What else would I be doing?"
"Hmm, I dunno," Tara replied with a pointed look, "How about setting a fire and making hot chocolate and snuggling up with your lovely wife on the sofa?"
Willow glanced between her stash of snowballs and Tara for a moment before looking sheepish.
"We can do that later?"
Tara just shook her head with a sigh, though she was internally smiling at her wife's childlike behaviour.
"Okay. But I'm going inside."
"You can't!" Willow wailed, tugging at the blonde's sleeve when she moved to stand up, "Then they'll know my hiding place!"
Tara just gaped at the redhead, her legs starting to cramp from having to crouch.
"Willow, you're such a child sometimes."
"We can be a team, Tare," Willow said excitedly, "We're bigger and smarter than them. We just have to make a few more snowballs and then attack them all at once and we can declare victory!"
Tara stared at her wife for another moment before a sly half-smile appeared on her face.
"Alright. What's our plan of attack?"
Willow scrunched up her nose and leaning forwards to place a quick kiss on the blonde's lips before pointing over the hedge.
"Okay, now look over there," she said and squealed when Tara raised her entire head over the bush, "Just peek, Tara, they'll see us!"
Tara cowered her head down so she could see just over the hedge and across the street.
"Okay, now where is everyone?" Willow asked, packing more snow into ball shapes between her hands.
"There's 5 kids on the lawn directly across and to the left of us," Tara answered, "I can't see anyone else."
"Damn, they've formed an army," Willow muttered, as Tara crouched down beside her again, "Stupid resourceful kids. Okay. We need to use our greater throwing ability against them. Here, take a bunch of snowballs and when I say 'go' just start throwing as fast and as hard as you can. You got it?"
"I got it," Tara confirmed, taking one of the snowballs, "When?"
Willow manoeuvred herself onto her knees behind the hedge and gave her wife a small nod.
"Go!"
Both girls raised their heads and arms, ready to throw, but it seemed that the kids had seen Tara when she'd been acting as the look-out and were standing on the other side of their hedge, already prepared. The couple both got pummelled in the face with a flurry of snowballs before the children let out what could only be described as a warrior cry and ran into the yard, tackling Willow and Tara to ground, with 4 of the children holding down their arms and legs while the biggest of the kids, a boy stood between them, smirking and holding a snowball in each hand.
"Say it," the boy said.
Tara wondered how on earth she'd managed to get herself into a position that she was currently being threatened by a 10 year old with a snowball. And then she remembered. Willow.
"Never," Willow replied, squirming and trying to overpower the younger kids but finding they had quite a bit of strength between them.
The boy just bent down, holding the snowball over the redhead's face and letting a single, icy flake drop onto her nose, making her flinch.
"Say it."
"No," Willow almost yelled, refusing to admit defeat under any circumstances.
The boy's smirk got wider and he moved the snowball over to Tara, making Willow's eyes widen.
"Willow, unless you want to sleep on the couch tonight, you better say whatever it is he wants you to say," Tara said tersely, really not wanting to get a mouthful of snow for the third time in 10 minutes.
"Kids rule, adults drool," Willow said quickly, though with reluctance and the kids all jumped up and started high-fiving each other while the redhead stood up and dusted the snow off of her sweater, "Alright, alright, you guys won this round. But that's only 'cause you threatened my wife. Not something I take kindly to."
"You're the one who brought her into the game!" one of the smaller children, a girl of around 6 protested, her mitten-clad hands on her hips.
"She's right," another boy of about 8, wearing glasses spoke up, "It's your own fault."
"Yea, yea," Willow grumbled as Tara stood up next to her, "She brought herself in, actually. I just had to pay the price."
Tara narrowed her eyes at her wife.
"Willow has to go inside now."
There was a chorus of 'awws' and 'no fairs' from the kids before one of them suggested the brilliant idea of trying to build an igloo and they all scarpered off while Willow just turned to her wife, sheepish.
"Am I in trouble?"
"Sometimes, I actually feel like your mother," Tara said with a shake of her head as she moved to walk back inside the house, Willow at her heels.
"Baby, you were into the game," Willow objected as she closed the front door behind them, "I'm sorry we got snowballed but that's the risk you have to take when you go into battle."
Tara turned towards her wife with her arms across her chest and her gaze directed downwards.
"You didn't have to blame me for us losing."
Willow almost laughed; she'd been called a child but Tara was very much acting like a petulant kid in that moment. She knew better than to laugh though and walked over to the blonde, holding onto her hips.
"I'm sorry. But you know, I'd rather lose a thousand games with you by my side than win one where you're not there."
Tara continued to look down but Willow saw there was a small grin on her face.
"You can spank me if you want," Willow grinned, pulling on the blonde's hips, then taking one of her hands and bringing it down hard against her own jean-clad ass, "Ooh, baby..."
Tara finally raised her head and Willow knew she was forgiven from the huge grin on her wife's face so she leant forwards and let their lips meet softly.
"Now...I believe you said something about fireside snuggles?"
"I'll make the cocoa," Tara said, shrugging Willow's jacket off her shoulders, which made the smaller girl frown, "What?"
"You just look cute when you wear my clothes is all," Willow replied, with a sheepish shrug.
Tara smiled and reached forwards, pulling her wife's sweater over her head and then onto her own body, holding her arms around herself and leaning her head down to her shoulder, inhaling softly.
"Smells like you," she said sweetly, before noticing goosebumps on her wife's arms, "Do you want it back? You're cold."
"No, I'm not," Willow shook her head, "I get goosebumps every time you look at me."
Tara felt her heart swell and reached out to toy with the ends of her wife's hair.
"You always make me feel so special."
"'Cause you are," Willow replied simply before smiling excitedly, "Can I have extra marshmallows in my cocoa?"
"Of course," Tara giggled, "Can you get the fire going?"
"Uh huh," Willow responded as she bounced up and down on her heels, "Can we really snuggle all day?"
Tara nodded with a smile.
"You promised yesterday morning, remember? All-day kisses and cuddles."
"I remember," Willow grinned, sticking her tongue out slightly between her teeth, "We could watch Christmas movies! Miracle on 34th Street and, and oh! The Muppet Christmas Carol! I love that one! Except Kermit. Stupid frog. Oh but Fozzie the bear is awesome! Wocka Wocka Wocka!"
Tara laughed out loud and couldn't resist pulling her wife into a tight hug.
Willow closed the embrace warmly and they both stood there, hugging each other and giggling softly for a couple of minutes, Tara inhaling the scent of her wife's hair.
"God, I love you," Tara whispered with a final squeeze before pulling back and placing a lingering kiss against the redhead's temple, then turning and making her way into the kitchen.
Willow stayed rooted to the spot for a moment, basking in the love and affection Tara had just shown her before grinning goofily and walking into the living room. They didn't generally used their fireplace, but kept a small amount of wood in a basket by the fire in case they ever wanted to.
She placed some of the wood in the fire place, then grabbed the old newspaper that was in the basket as well and bunched up a few of the pages, taking a box of matches from the mantelpiece and lighting them, putting them under the wood. She watched patiently for a few minutes and smiled when the wood started to burn before walking over to the television set and finding The Muppet Christmas Carol DVD.
She popped it into the player and grabbed the remote control before plopping down on the sofa, just as Tara came in the room, juggling two steaming mugs and a bowl.
"Oh, here," Willow said, quickly standing up and taking the bowl, which was filled with grapes.
"I'll make us some lunch in a while," Tara said, smiling, "I just didn't get a chance for any breakfast."
"Me either," Willow giggled, as they both sat on the sofa, "I saw snow and was out there like a shot."
Tara rolled her eyes playfully.
"Shocking."
Willow stuck out her tongue as she placed the bowl of grapes on Tara's lap, then threw her legs onto the sofa and cuddled into the blonde's side, sighing contentedly as she held her steaming mug between her hands and inhaled its sweet scent.
"Mmhh, cocoa, my girl and puppets telling us about the meaning of Christmas. Doesn't get any better than this."