Prompt: Playing in the snow
Characters/Pairings: Jake/Rose
Chapter content warnings:
Don't forget that you can find me on tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now and that my ao3 account is wearealloflegendnow (even though I haven't posted there yet)!
~TLL~
Jake rolled his little snowball and then he rolled it again, watching it pick up speed. He pushed at it again and again, using the strength of a dragon whenever he needed that extra edge. When he was finished with it, it was standing at his chest height. Jake looked at it triumphantly and then he turned his back on it to smile at Rose, who was sitting in the snow with their three-year-old.
"Cece, we're going to have the biggest snowman ever!"
Cecilia was staring in awe at the snowball. She freed herself from Rose's hold and toddled over, touching it with her bright green mitten. She turned to look at him and then shrieked.
Cecilia pointed dramatically and said, "Snowball!"
Jake laughed, scooping her into his arms. "It's a snowball now but we're going to turn it into Frosty."
"Frosty the Snowman," Cecilia said.
"Right! Frosty the Snowman! Will you help me start another snowball?"
Jake put her down on the snow and she went about clumsily trying to build a snowball while Jake started a new one, sending it rolling toward Rose. She stopped it with the edge of her foot and then picked it up, lobbing it at his head. She was so fast and so casual about it that Jake didn't have a chance to try and dodge it before the snowball exploded in his face and Rose was howling with laughter.
"Daddy! What happened?"
"Mommy wants to have a snowball fight," Jake explained, making a snowball with one hand. "Do you know what that means?"
"What?"
"It means I need a baby shield!"
Jake grabbed Cecilia, who started giggling and held her up in front of his chest, hefting the snowball. Rose was on her feet by now, jumping to the side to try to dodge his snowball but he still managed to catch her arm.
"You can't use our daughter like that," she protested as she grabbed a handful of snow.
"Oh, yes I can." Jake was lowering Cecilia to the ground so that she could scoop up snow for him to make into a snowball. "Are you having fun, Cece?"
"Yeah!" she exclaimed, wiggling in his arms to face him. Before Jake could take the snow from her, she had it dumped down his back and Jake shivered.
"Hey!"
Rose was laughing again. "That's my girl!"
"Mama!"
Jake had to put Cecilia down on her feet, calling her a traitor as she rushed over to Rose.
"She's a good girl," Rose said.
Jake, who was still trying to get the last of the snow out of the back of his jacket, had to disagree, but she definitely was their daughter, because she was throwing wet globs of snow at Rose before running over to Jake and doing the same thing.
"Wanna finish Frosty?" Rose asked as more snow pelted at her legs.
"No, throw!"
Rose hunkered down into Jake's side. "You are so going to regret teaching her that."
"Me? You threw the first snowball!" Jake crouched down. "Time for a little taste of her own medicine."
"Don't hit her in the face," Rose said.
"What kind of father do you think I am?"
Jake's plan backfired because when one small snowball hit her in the shoulder, Cecilia thought it was absolutely fantastic. They chased each other around the yard until Rose checked the time.
"It's nap time!"
Cecilia stopped dead. "No! Mama, what about Frosty?"
"Frosty needs to use his magic to get here," Jake said, "but he can't do that if you're watching."
Cecilia frowned. "He can't?"
"No, he can't. So, go with Mama and take your nap, and Daddy will stay here and help Frosty with Daddy's special dragon powers."
"Do you promise?"
"I promise."
Jake kissed her cheek and she gave him a messy one back. "Love you, Daddy."
"I love you too."
Rose picked Cecilia up and also kissed Jake, whispering in his ear, "I'll come back out when she's asleep."
When their front door closed behind her, Jake went back to his task. He created the giant frosty that he had started, using his wings to put in the coal eyes and the carrot nose, wrap a scarf around its neck, and stick its arms in. Then, because Rose still hadn't returned, he decided to keep going. He made a slightly smaller but still obnoxiously large snowman and then he made a much smaller one. The little snow family. Cecilia would love it.
Jake was just putting the carrot in the little snowman's face when the front door open.
"Whew, you're fast," Rose said.
Jake laughed. "That's the only time you've ever made that sound like a compliment."
Rose laughed too, adjusting some of the buttons on the little snowman so that they were in a straight line.
"Cece's going to be so excited to see her little snow baby," Jake said. "Did she get to sleep okay?"
"Yeah, easy once she decided that she was warm enough." Rose stepped back, eyeing the snowmen with a look that Jake knew all too well.
Jake stepped by her side, her shoulder leaning against his. He tried to look at them with Rose's critical eye because he knew that there was something wrong. Whether it was that one of the buttons was out of line with the others or he had wrapped one of the scarves the wrong way, Rose was going to pick up on it.
"What?" Jake asked. "What's wrong?"
"Something's missing." Rose tapped her chin, pondering.
"What's missing?" Jake asked. "I got everything. Except top hats, I guess. Do you want me to go find top hats? I will."
"No, not top hats."
"Then, what?"
Rose pulled Jake's arm around her waist, cuddling into his shoulder. "The smallest one."
"Huh?"
"There should be a fourth one. Or, at least by next Christmas, there will be a fourth one."
Jake looked down at her and she was already looking up at him, eyes sparkling, cheeks pink with the cold, wearing the wide smile that he remembered from when they were laying in bed one night, nearly four years ago, and she had said casually, "Did you know I'm having your baby?"
"You're serious?" Jake asked, the excitement already thick in his voice. "We're having another baby?"
"We're having another baby!"
Jake picked her up and spun her around, threading his hands through her hair when she was back on the ground, just to pull her to his chest and kiss her.
"God, I love you."
"I love you too," Rose said, giggling. "Now, come on, help me build another one so we can tell Cece."
"One snow baby, coming right up." Rose bent down to help but Jake put her on the front step. "You're doing all the hard work of the real baby. I can handle the snow buttons."
"Aww, come on, Jake. You're going to put the buttons on wrong, you have to let me help."
"Fine, but just for the buttons." Jake kissed her nose. "Another baby!"
"Another baby!"
Jake rolled the snowballs for the littlest one carefully and piled them together, helping Rose get up to but the buttons and the scarf on in just the way that she liked while he found branches for its arms. Then, despite the December chill in the air, they sat back down on the front step together, admiring their snow family, dreaming about completing their own little family, and enjoying the moment of just being together.
