The way the fluffy flakes drifted through the sky and stuck to the ground and everything around them, covering the city in a chilly blanket of  sparkling white.

Winter has always been my favorite season for this exact reason: it's so beautiful.

Everything seems bigger when covered in snow, too. My backyard when I was a kid was no exception, nor the city now in the present day.

And...love, too, seems bigger, more pronounced.

 

"Chansung-ah!" Junho called, snapping me from my reverie as I stared at a particularly handsome pine tree dusted with the fluffy white stuff. "Channie!" he giggled again, but louder, when I didn't turn.

 

I knew I'd lose my breath when I did turn to face him, though. That's just the effect Lee Junho had on me.

Sure enough, a brisk gush of air knocked my breath out of me when I turned towards my hyung. He was dressed thickly in a dark green winter coat with a black beanie topping his fiery locks, a megawatt grin on his face making his cheeks stand out and his eyes turn to cute crescents as he smiled at me and waved.

His eyebrows raised as he held up a lumpy sphere of the snow and his grin widened when he drew his arm back and shot it forward, landing the lump of freezing ice right on my equally bundled chest to my bewilderment.

 

His face lit up as he laughed, loud and dripping with joy. I couldn't help but chuckle some, too. "Channie! You didn't even attempt to stop that!"

 

He ran over to me and giggled some more while trying to brush the ice from my own winter coat and scarf as I helped him. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention." And with the leftovers from his snowball, I dropped a few pieces down the back of his neck and laughed as he squirmed and and jumped a bit at the cold that invaded his bundle of warmth. "Ha! Payback!" The inevitable smile that stretched across my face made my cheeks hurt, stiff with the frigid cold.

 

He mock-pouted and stuck his tongue out at me. "You're lucky I love you like I do or I'd have to pay you back more," he mumbled, and glanced up at me through joking eyelashes.

 

My stomach bubbled with warmth at his shy words as I took his gloved hand, using that leverage to pull him into my chest, cradling his rosy cheeks between my palms as I looked back and forth between his warm brown eyes. "It's because I love you that I pay you back."

 

He grinned, satisfied, and stretched up on his tiptoes, pressing his lips to mine. His lips were icy with cold, but I soon fixed that, pumping warmth back into him as I kissed him back, smooth and slow. He sighed into my mouth, permitting the tongue that I just couldn't hold back from tasting his mouth that had the unusual flavor of winter to it. I could have taken him then and there with where the kiss was going, but I don't think my lover would appreciate getting snow down that perfect hobutt of his, especially with how cold it was.

 

He pulled away to breathe and chuckled breathlessly, his breath showing in the air between us. "I love you," he whispered a bit shyly.

 

My heart reacting the way it always did when he said he loved me, skipping more than just a couple beats, I smiled widely and brought Junho in for a tight hug. "I love you, too," I murmured into his uncharacteristically warm hair.

 

We walked along, my fingers weaving with his gloved ones, and strayed a bit from our dorm and into a nearby park that was completely vacant. I submitted and let Junho be the one to lead, letting him go wherever he wanted. We ended up somewhat deep into the park and on a small hill that overlooked the rest of the park from above. Even though it was empty of people, the trees that were scattered here and there were pretty, dusted with light snow that mixed with the deep green. Come to think of it, it wasn't that far off from Junho's coat.

He plopped down on his bum at the peak of the hill and pulled me down with him. As soon as I sat down, he crawled in front of me and laid back between my knees and against my chest, snuggling into the warmth of my jacket. My arms instinctively encircled him to keep him safe, protecting my smaller, yet older, lover from anything that might cause him discomfort, including cold breezes and drifting snow. His smooth, warm hair felt nice under my fingertips as I absently ran my fingers through it beneath the beanie.

 

"It's really peaceful up here," Junho murmured after a few moments of silence, tilting his chin up so he could look up into my eyes and I could look down into his, our noses barely apart.

 

I smiled and his cheek with my thumb. "Yes...the snow muffles everything and makes it quieter. Listen."

 

His lips parted slightly and I watched his eyes as they zoned out far away, flickering this way and that as he listened to the dampened silence. He looked unbearably cute with that expression, twisted around in my lap. "Ohh you're right..." he murmured when his eyes zeroed in back to mine and he smiled serenely. "I don't even hear cars. I hear nothing." 

 

I looked into his eyes and they suddenly sharpened. "No, not nothing," he corrected himself and motioned to my jacket slightly. He then rested his hands on my waist as I watched him with burning curiosity as to what he could be up to as he pressed his ear gently to my chest. His expression then turned to searching again and after a moment it switched to one of contentment. He smirked. "I hear your heart."

 

My stomach bubbled again with warmth despite the cold climate around us. At the moment the weather didn't matter; we had our own little cornucopia of warmth.

My fingers through his hair again as I smiled upon Junho. "And?"

 

He looked up at me then with the cutest eye-crinkling smile. "I like it, the way it sounds," he placed his ear to my chest again. "It sounds warm..."

 

I cupped his sharp jaw in my hands and brought his mouth to mine with overflowing love in my actions, totally on impulse and with no hesitation. I expected his lips to be cool again, but as it turns out they never cooled down from the last kiss we shared. He also lost no memory of it, kissing me just the same and with even more enthusiasm than before.

"And it's completely yours," I murmured when I pulled away from his face, our noses still touching.

 

We never left each others' sides the whole rest of the night, not even when Junho retrieved his pillow from his room and joined me in my room later that night with confused looks from the other guys.

 

~*~

 

A/N: I'm sorry if this was terrible. I tried~~~