Missing [ST]

Seventy Nine

A/N: Tiny amount of mature content near the end- barely worth a warning in my opinion but I'll give it anyway :)

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"STEVEN!" Leah yelped, her ski-gloved hands flicking the snow that had made a sudden heavy weight in her hood. "You little-"

"Ah-ah. You must accept your punishment."

She tried to escape, but the more she wriggled against the arm around her waist, the further the snow began to fall down her neck.

"I hope you weren't about to cuss." Teasingly low with his voice, Steven's face appeared dead serious over her shoulder. "There are children around."

"I haaay-"

"Hm? You what?" he challenged, pushing her hood to the back of her neck.

Leah caught her shaky breath that had rudely been taken away from her by the freezing snow sliding down her back, and scowled at Steven's pink dusted cheeks and nose.

Trouble was, he looked so cute in his floppy hat that had been unpinned so it fell over his ears, and the scarf wrapped around his neck. Even the thick, padded coat he wore, that just about covered his bottom, and the gloves on his hands was something worth appreciating.

"I hate you so much," Leah gritted, straight to his smug face.

Steven, on the contrary, had the audacity to smirk.

"Told you I'd get you back, and now I have."

There could have easily been a kiss from how he leaned in, almost brushing the tip of his cold nose against hers, but Leah shoved him by the shoulders, listening to his naughty laugh in return.

It had been a fifteen minute walk to the park, or in Liv's case, a free sled ride pulled by her man-child of a father, and they weren't the only people wanting to take advantage of the weather. They were met by a winter wonderland of squealing children flailing about in snow, and parents, for once, actually looking like they were enjoying themselves.

The fluffy clouds in the sky had snowflakes falling from them and captured the perfect scene of the frozen lake, tree branches decorated in white blankets, and varying levels of snowmen construction in almost every direction.

It was good snow too, almost ankle deep, and not the shitty stuff that melted within an hour after settling, and that fantasy winter, for Leah at least, was rare back at home.

She had borrowed a navy bobble hat, thicker ski gloves to go on top of her existing ones and one of Steven's scarves, but she wasn't so lucky with footwear because he was four and a half sizes bigger than her, and there was absolutely no hope there.

Leah didn't bring anything other than converse boots, and the best she could do was wear one pair of normal socks with a thicker pair of socks, jam her feet in, and lace them up the best she could.

Within a minute of being in the sub zero degree celsius conditions, her feet became blocks of ice and completely numb. Steven sympathised, saying she could go back if she was too cold, until he decided to stuff snow down her neck.

"LEAH! Come help make a snowman!"

At his cheery voice, Leah swooped her eyes a fraction left, to see Steven crouched down and beckoning her over with Liv pushing snow into a base.

Smiling a numb smile, she joined them in their area under a tree.

She was about to crouch down, when Steven revealed his hidden hand and threw a snowball into her coat, the impact exploding in a mess of white sprinkles.