A/N: So this was supposed to be my entry for an 'ice' challenge but I screwed up and published it early... so I wrote "Princess of Ice" for that instead and unpublished this until that was released. Confused? Awesome.
Violet and AJ stood, spears poised above the cold river rapids, attempting to catch everyone's dinner. They worked in silence as the cold air surrounded them, a light breeze blew, causing AJ to shiver.
"You should have worn your jacket." Violet looked down at AJ protectively. "It's starting to get really cool out." As if on cue the wind picked up, snowflakes caught in stream as they tumbled through the sky and down to the earth. Violet smiled as she held her hand out, trying to catch a large one. "First snow of the year." She smiled down at the boy.
"Snow is bad." AJ frowned, looking up at the white flakes, as they increased in size and amount.
"Bad? No, snow is fun." Violet held her spear in front of her, leaning on it with both hands as she looked at AJ in dismay.
"Clem says that snow makes the walkers slow, which is good, but it can hurt us too. If you get too cold you can die and that's bad." AJ speared a fish, keeping focused on his task.
"The snow isn't all bad." Violet went back to spearing fish beside the diligent boy. "Haven't you ever built a snow man? Or had a snow ball fight?"
"What's a snow man?" AJ giggled, dropping a fish into the bucket. "And how do you fight with snow? It's soft and mushy."
"You smash the snow together so it sticks and you make a ball, then you roll it around on the ground and it gets bigger and bigger. Then you stack the balls on top of each other and then you make a face with rocks and sticks.... what were you and Clementine doing out there during the winter all this time?" Violet smiled, picking up her spear and looking back into the stream.
"We stayed in the car a lot... Clementine would hug me to keep me warm and tell me stories about Lee and Kenny and my parents." AJ stared into the stream without really seeing it, "When we ran out of gas we would go on adventures to find more. Clementine would build me a fire and give me her jackets when she'd go hunting, she said she didn't need them when she hunted because she got warm enough running around the woods... but I think she was just protecting me."
Violet looked sadly at the boy, he had missed out on so much fun because they were so busy just trying to live. Her heart fluttered thinking of all Clementine had sacrificed just trying to take care of him. "I think we have enough fish. Let's go." Violet said, AJ smiled and grabbed the spear from her hand, running to put it back in the shack.
Violet picked up the bucket and started walking back to the school, AJ ran out of the shack and caught up with her. "As soon as we get some good snow on the ground I'll show you how to build a snowman, make a snow angel and we can all have a snow ball fight."
"Yeah!" AJ grinned, dancing slightly as they walked down the path.
"My two favorite people!" Clementine grinned as she opened the gate when they arrived, leaning on her crutches for support. AJ hugged Clementine before running off to sit next to Willy on the couches.
Violet closed the gate behind her, set down her bucket, wrapped her arms around Clementine's waist and pulled her in for a sweet kiss.
"What was that for?" Clementine asked with a sheepish smile, rocking slightly on her crutches as Violet loosened her grip.
"Just for being you." Violet leaned in and pecked her lips again.
"Then I need to be myself more often." Clementine grinned.
