Winter in London was typically a long and drawn-out affair whose winds and rain kept Niall house-bound and stir crazy. After a particularly long stretch of miserable weather, Niall woke up that Saturday expecting more of the same. What he hadn’t predicted when he looked out his window was that those ominous clouds from the day before had delivered snow.
Willie wasn’t home to be on the receiving end of Niall’s excitement so he did one better and called Teneil.
“It snowed! It snowed!” Niall yipped into the phone
“Why are you calling?” Harry stonily replied. “It’s only half-eight.”
“It snowed,” Niall reiterated, Harry seemingly not understanding the magnitude of what had occurred in their little corner of the world. “Put Neil on. She gets me.”
“Getting ready to come over here and play in the snow, yeah?” Harry was silent. Niall bounced on the balls of his feet. “Make sure you wear your mittens. We all know you get a bit grumpy in the cold.”
Niall hung up on him, purely by accident of course, just a slip of the finger as he searched through his wardrobe for his boots.
Niall was nearly giddy with excitement by the time Harry’s car pulled into the driveway.
“What took you so long?” he exclaimed as he hurried out the door.
Neil jumped out of the car, her curly hair sticking out funny because of her hat, a familiar one she’d borrowed from Harry. She kicked up the fluffy snow, squealing all the while, until she reached Niall’s side.
“Harry slipped on the ice on our driveway before we left,” she giggled. “He’s a bit cross.”
“Such a scrooge. We should show him the joys of snow,” Niall said conspiratorially.
Neil’s eyes widened with realization. The partners-in-crime set to work, rolling snowballs in their matching gloves, chuckling to each other as though this day, this moment, was what they’d been looking forward to all year.
Meanwhile Harry had finally gotten out of the car and joined his bandmate and girlfriend in the back garden. He did appreciate the sparkling white alternative to the grey winter days but it was just so cold. Seeing Teneil and Niall putter around in the soft stuff almost made his early morning wake up call and the slip on the ice worth it. Almost.
Until he realized what they were up to.
“Don’t you dare throw that snowba-, goddammit!”
Two snowballs, thrown in unison, hit Harry square in the chest. He staggered backward with the impact, almost slipping again in his treadless boots. Teneil and Niall tried and failed to hide their laughs behind their gloved hands. He might have found it funny too if there wasn’t a chunk of ice sliding down the front of his shirt.
“That’s it!” he huffed. “I’m going inside to make cocoa and I don’t want to see either of you until you’ve burned off some energy. All right?”
“Yes Dad,” Niall smirked. Teneil laughed harder than ever.