Inclement Weather Games

One night, right before Baekhyun is tucked into bed, his parents routinely tuned in to the local weather channel for the next day’s forecast. Although the red and blue arrows didn’t make much sense to him, the iconic snowflakes scattered across the maps certainly did.  As cautionary red words scrolled across the bottom of the screen, the weather man spoke of a heavy snow fall that would potentially go on for days.

Baekhyun turned towards his parents with hopeful and beaming eyes, recognizing what the weather man was predicting. His parents just smiled to themselves before they sent him off to bed. Once warm underneath his blankets, Baekhyun fell asleep with dreams of extravangant ice castles and abominable snowmans.

When he awoke the next morning without the aid of his alarm clock, Baekhyun could barely contain his excitement. The leap from his bed was large and the sprint to his bedroom window was quick. Beyond the blinds and the glass was the epitome of his hopes and dreams.

Baekhyun knew time could not be wasted gawking at the sight, so he thumped down the stairs and into the kitchen where his mother was cooking. The pancakes were delicious, though Baekhyun barely took the time to appreciate the taste. After all, the outdoors was still calling his name.

After dressing in layers upon layers of warm clothing and his mother’s worrisome coos, Baekhyun was free to play in a winter wonderland.

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“Man down, I said man down!” cried Jongin after Joonmyun face-planted into a snow bank.

“Retreat to the fort!”  Baekhyun ordered immediately once recognizing how the opponent foresaw their advances, “come on! Go help Joonmyun, I’ll cover!”

Jongin nodded and raced over to help Joonmyun remove his foot from a hole the enemy dug up. Baekhyun was sure to take note of such a sneaky tactic for future use.

A flash of black amongst the white caught his attention and his arm became aimed and ready. The head appeared again and was struck by snow accordingly. With a satisfying groan reaching his ears, Baekhyun cheered silently. His feeling of victory didn’t last very long because he himself got hit. He didn’t understand how because his prime real estate of a location was behind a tree and it would take an aim and arm as good as his to strike him.

Joonmyun was finally freed and the three of them hurried back to their wall of snow boulders (however, Joonmyun did fall behind due to one of his boots being half off).

“Did anyone see who that was?” Baekhyun questioned through his pants, stealing glances over their snowy barrier.

“See who?” Jongin shot right back and then threw a snowball in an unknown direction.

“The one who hit me—and don’t throw our good snowballs unless you have one of them in sight!” Baekhyun whined, shoving the perfectly round balls of snow away from Jongin. He received a glare in return and a typical bickering match began.

“Guuuuuys, my socks are wet. I think I should go change them because my mom says people catch the flu from cold feet and I don’t want the flu 'cause I heard that you can’t go outside and that you have to stay in bed all day and eat porridge and I hate porridge, especially the type my mom makes—"     

“Shut it, Joonmyun!” Both Baekhyun and Jongin chorused and cut off Joonmyun’s rambling. Although Joonmyun was a sissy and was pretty much useless on a winter battle field, going home for a small break sounded reasonable. Baekhyun was getting hungry anyways and his cheeks were burning a little too much from the cold. 

With one final sigh, Baekhyun’s arms rose above his head and his legs stood up straight. Noticing the signal, Joonmyun mimicked the action and Jongin followed shortly behind.

“Break!” Baekhyun yelled out as loud as he could. His voice echoed across the far and wide playing field, spreading over the snowy soccer field and into the small forest bordering it.

Three figures came out of their individual hiding spots and made their way over to the trio’s snow fort. Baekhyun became confused because the third figure was awkwardly tall and unrecognizable.

“Who’s this?” Baekhyun questioned the approaching gang immediately, “You can’t just add a player without telling us, that’s cheating!”

Sehun scowled back, “We weren’t adding a player; Jongdae couldn’t play today because he’s sick with the flu (“See!” Joonmyun hissed) and we found Chanyeol playing by himself on the way here. We thought it would be fine…” 

“Yeah, but you still should have told us. We weren’t looking for some tall weirdo!” Baekhyun overdramatically waved toward Chanyeol.

“A weirdo who whipped your ...” Chanyeol muttered under his breath and shuffled the snow under his feet.

Baekhyun could not believe his ears. Was this newbie giving him attitude? Why he oughta…“What did you just say?” Baekhyun glared and took a step toward the stranger.

After a moment, Chanyeol sighed and readjusted his knitted hat, “I said, a weirdo who whipped your . Why don’t you take a chill pill, dude.”

Aw hell nah.

“Hold me back, Jongin, before I make his fugly face fuglier!”  Baekhyun seethed through his teeth as he pushed against Jongin. The sudden pushes caused Jongin to awaken from his stupor and curse internally once he realized he was making googly eyes at an uncomfortable looking Kyungsoo again.  He quickly diverted his attention toward Chanyeol to size him up and decided to only raise a statement-making eyebrow to Baekhyun. An eyebrow that said: You, take on this giant? Good luck.

“Guuuys.” Joonmyun drawled, “Let’s go already, I’m cold and my feet are colder. You know you guys can just throw snowballs at each other later.”

Baekhyun became pacified with the promise of whopping Chanyeol’s after lunch. With one more exchange of fiery glances and pouting lips, the six of them went their separate ways.

An hour later, the two teams of three met with dryer winter wear, fuller stomachs and burning competitiveness. They did their ceremonial friendly handshakes and the sixty second run-for-your-lives countdown began.

“So, what’s our strategy?” Joonmyun asked once Baekhyun, Jongin and himself were safely behind their wall of snow boulders.

“I don’t care what you guys do, that tall weirdo is mine.” Baekhyun replied before he stood and peeked over the wall, most likely searching for his new found nemesis.

“What? You can’t do that!” Jongin complained, “We’re supposed to be a team, you know.”

Baekhyun scoffed and glanced between his inferior teammates. “Fine,” He waved pointed finger to Jongin, “You take down Kyungsoo, and you,” He swung the finger to Joonmyun, “take down Sehun. All good?”

…

“Good, I’m going now. Good luck,” and Baekhyun fled the fort, ignoring the look of hesitation on Jongin’s face and the frightened expression on Joonmyun’s. He liked to think that the arrangement was perfectly hunky-dory because Jongin hadn’t even touched Kyungsoo with snow thus far (Baekhyun couldn’t fathom why) and well, Joonmyun needed to man up somehow. Of course, the main purpose of the plan was to leave that good-for-nothing, snarky, arrogant turd of a snowballer to Baekhyun.

Despite all that, that dumb snowballer was admittedly a good one because as soon as Baekhyun reached the forest, he was hit in the shoulder. He quickly hid behind a tree and retaliated in the direction of the oncoming fire. He relished in glory when one of his snowballs made contact with Chanyeol’s bicep.

Chanyeol glared sharply and receded further into the forest. Baekhyun, of course, followed after like only a true predator would.

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During that time, Jongin was behind a different snow barrier and had Kyungsoo in his throwing range. The opportunity was perfect and a snowball was certainly waiting within his grasp, but his hand just couldn’t seem to throw it. Something about the way Kyungsoo looked around in a skittish panic made Jongin want to come out and give him a bouquet of pine needles rather than a face full of snow. 

NO. Not. Again.

Do not let some bugged-eyed wimpy kid get the best of you. Wake up, Jongin, this was war. No real warrior imagined making snow angels with their enemy or to laugh with them once they finished making a snowman together. No, real warriors bludgeon their enemies with snowballs until they cry in mercy. And, gosh darn it, Kyungsoo would be the one crying by the end of this battle (Jongin winced when a vision of Kyungsoo’s crying face appeared in his mind).

A snowball was finally thrown and it hit Kyungsoo in the lower back. Kyungsoo whipped around immediately and spotted Jongin. They both froze for a moment before Jongin erupted into a battle cry and threw more snowballs (vaguely) in Kyungsoo’s direction.

So many snowballs were coming his way that Kyungsoo thought it would be best to run away instead of fighting back. And so, he ran and Jongin scrambled to his feet in order to run after him. For a minute or two, Jongin was painstakingly chasing after Kyungsoo in knee deep snow.

The distance between them shrunk with every second and with one last jump, Kyungsoo was tackled to the ground.

“Surrender!” Jongin managed to yell in between gasps of air; a handful of snow ready to strike down on Kyungsoo’s face at any given moment.

Kyungsoo struggled underneath with no avail, yet his eyes were still firmly set into a defiant glare.

“I said surrender, o-or else!” Jongin said again, raising the hand further up into the air. His arm shook because he really doesn’t feel like doing what he was about to do.

“No,” Kyungsoo spat back and wiggled some more. At that point, Jongin the mighty warrior knew that he had no choice but to squash the snow onto Kyungsoo’s face. A second passed and his hand indeed followed through on its threat. Kyungsoo spluttered out the snow that got into his mouth and his cheeks and nose became pinker than before. For some reason, the sight made Jongin’s own cheeks redden.

“D-do you surrender now!” Jongin fumbled out another yell and hoped that Kyungsoo would agree to his demand because being on top of Kyungsoo was starting to cause weird thoughts in his head.

“No.” Kyungsoo gritted his teeth, and wow, did his eyes always look so pretty?  

Nononono, Jongin needed to end this. Quickly.

“I’ll put snow down your jacket if you don’t!” He warned with another bundle of snow ready within his hand, his eyes trying hard not to stare at the boy’s smooth and pale neck.

“Do your worst!” Kyungsoo scowled back. Jongin found himself wondering about how soft those scowling lips were, then he shook the weird weird thought away and shoved a fistful of snow down Kyungsoo’s collar. Finally, Kyungsoo decided to show a sign of weakness when he gasped deeply. He squirmed and squirmed but Jongin still rested above him.

“How about now?”

This was it. Kyungsoo had to give u—

“N-not a chance.” Kyungsoo whispered through his chattering teeth. Jongin could feel the shivers beneath him and felt the need to ask why Kyungsoo was so friggin’ stubborn. Obviously the others are unable to save their teammate; his fate was practically sealed at that point. If Kyungsoo remained so stubborn, Jongin thought he might actually have to make Kyungsoo cry. Warrior spirit aside, he didn’t reallly want to see Kyungsoo cry because only bad people make people cry (at least, that’s what his mom told him).

There was only one option left. It was a dirty move but Jongin had no other tricks.

“Would you surrender already?” Jongin begged sighed.

“I told you no.”

Eyes widened once Jongin forced the bottom of Kyungsoo’s winter coat up a little to reveal the waist band of his snow pants. His struggling increased because Kyungsoo didn’t think Jongin would go that far.

“Last chance.”

(It really was too bad that children put their pride in the wrong places.)

It was very cold. Kyungsoo tried to resist curling into himself but failed when Jongin added more snow to his nether regions.

“S-surrender?” Jongin stuttered, widened eyes never leaving the flustered boy below him.

With nothing but whines in return, Jongin reluctantly added another handful of snow. Kyungsoo choked then and it drove Jongin bonkers. He actually felt a sick sense of enjoyment as tears started to build up in Kyungsoo’s eyes. Jongin tried really hard to wish away all nonsensical thoughts regarding the cute, dewy eyed boy under him.

“S-stop.” Kyungsoo said, but Jongin knew he couldn’t. He wanted to because, lord, why didn’t girls look that good while crying? However, the rules of the game were that one word and one word only would mean true defeat. One more handful of snow and Kyungsoo’s tears escaped his eyes and trailed into his hairline.

“S-st-stop, I s-s-surre-nder.”

Finally.

Jongin jumped off Kyungsoo as quickly as he could and flopped onto his back next to Kyungsoo, who was in the state of being a shivering ball. Guilt smacked into Jongin like a freight train. Kyungsoo didn’t deserve snow down his pants. He was a good guy and snowballer.

“Here.” Jongin mumbled after a few minutes. Kyungsoo looked over his shoulder and saw snow pants being held by a now snow-pants-less Jongin, “sorry.”

If Jongin knew how Kyungsoo’s eyes would brighten at the prospect of dry snow pants, he would have offered them right away.

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Sometime before Jongin tackled Kyungsoo, Joonmyun was still sitting behind the wall of snow boulders and attempted to calm himself with words of encouragement. Yes, he was the eldest of the bunch and yes, he was definitely not a force to be reckoned with. You bet he could snipe Sehun down if he wanted to. He was a beast, a beast equipped with snowballs that could be thrown at the speed of light and—

“Hey.”

Scream. Manly warrior cry.

“You want to get some hot chocolate?” Sehun crouched down next to Joonmyun, “my mom can add marshmallows if you want.”

 “W-what?” Joonmyun slowly lowered the arms he had put up defensively, “but, aren’t you suppose to attack me and stuff?”

“Why bother when you’re just going to hide or surrender anyways?”

Point taken.

Joonmyun’s expression did a one-eighty and beamed happily, “Then what are we waiting for! Let’s go!”

Together they walked away from the neighbourhood’s park and trekked through the snow covered streets. Joonmyun started to whine about how cold his hands felt and how thin his gloves were. He was quickly silenced when Sehun grasped one of his cool hands within his own warm ones and shoved both of them into his coat pocket. Joonmyun didn’t complain about the cold after that.

During their arrival, Sehun’s mother was very welcoming and kind to Sehun’s new friend. Her caring smile only widened once Joonmyun introduced himself (“So, you must be the Joonmyun that Sehun always talks about.” “MOM!”). Joonmyun was easily distracted by the conversation around him when he saw a massive LED television with a state-of-the-art game system attached.

“Is that…?” Joonmyun’s eyes glittered once he recognized the game paused on the screen.

“Yeah, you wanna play?”

“Do I ever!”

Joonmyun may be a wuss in real life, but he rocked anyone’s socks off when it came to video games. His hand-eye coordination had no problems beating down fictional characters. After all, it wasn't like they could physically get revenge against you anyways.

After hot chocolate (plus marshmallows) warmed their bellies, Sehun and Joonmyun played games until dinner time. Joonmyun called his home in order to get his parents’ permission to stay for dinner and rejoiced once he was given it. Upon tasting the meal, Joonmyun was quick to tell Sehun’s mother that she must make the best meatloaf in town. Flattered, Sehun’s mom responded by saying Joonmyun was welcomed to join them for dinner whenever he so pleased. 

Sehun and Joonmyun cleaned the dishes together and after one more quick game, Joonmyun knew he had to go home.

“Thanks for everything, Sehun. I had a lot of fun today,” Joonmyun smiled from Sehun’s doorstep. Sehun’s bottom lip started to quiver and Joonmyun wasn’t quite sure why until Sehun began to cry. Joonmyun looked around frantically because the stoic Sehun does not simply cry.

“J-Joonmyun,”Sehun sniffled and wiped at his eyes, “You’re still going to be my friend, right? I know we have snow fights with each other, but I always wanted to be your friend and I really liked playing with you today—"

Sehun’s wailing was cut off by the hard contact of Joonmyun’s bear bug, “of course we’re still friends! I don’t eat dinner at just anybody's house.” Joonmyun said through his own sniffles ('cause come on, the moment was pretty touching).

Thus, Joonmyun left with a tearful grin and a play date scheduled for the next day.

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Baekhyun was not sure if he was going to live to see the next day because the snowball match between the tall weirdo and himself was exhausting. He soured at the thought of the other boy not even breaking a sweat throughout their day long chase and snow throwing. It wasn’t fair that the other had mile-long legs and good pitching skills.

Baekhyun dodged an oncoming snowball and automatically threw one in response. It sadly hit a tree instead of its intended target. Chanyeol then appeared out of thin air and threw two snowballs toward Baekhyun.

Although he hated to admit it, they were too evenly matched. Never did he conceive of someone else as ruthless as he was when it came to winter warfare. Despite all of his determination, Baekhyun was getting hungry again and the darkening sky was a sign that he would have head home soon for dinner. Perhaps it was time to call for a truce.

But then, any thought of a compromise vanished when a bundle of snow struck him hard and cold traces of slush melted down his neck and back.

That was it for him. Baekhyun turned to where Chanyeol was and marched his way, dodging the snowballs that flew at him. When he was just a few feet away from his enemy, a mixture of cold and pain erupted on his left brow. He cried out and his hands raced up to touch the stinging area. A large rock with red stained snow laid at his feet and claimed responsibility for Baekhyun’s injury.

 “Oh my god!”

Baekhyun looked up in disbelief as Chanyeol bolted towards him, horror clear in his expression.

“I didn’t mean to—I didn’t know there was a rock and, you’re bleeding!” Chanyeol was frantic with his words, voice slightly cracking in distress. He took Baekhyun by surprise when he lightly grasped his face and closely examined the damaged brow.

Baekhyun remained still because seeing Chanyeol up close was a shocking experience in itself. The tall boy had distinctly wide slanted eyes that matched with his equally wide and plump lips. Overall, his facial composition was definitely something to be jealous of. Why was this boy gifted with everything?

A green with envy Baekhyun pouted and removed Chanyeol’s hands from his face, “it’s fine, you didn’t do it on purpose anyways.” Although his words did seem to comfort Chanyeol, it immediately went away when Baekhyun touched the cut and reflexively wince.

Before Baekhyun could ask why the heck Chanyeol gripped his arm so hard, he found himself dragged out of the forest and onto a street’s sidewalk. Baekhyun couldn’t find his words because Chanyeol looked ten times more determined than when they were catapulting snow at each other.

He became a little confused when they silently to his own street and proceeded past his house. They passed a few more houses before Baekhyun was pulled to the front entrance of a home and forced through a large red door. 

Chanyeol stripped off his winter gear in a hurry and decided to help Baekhyun out of his as well. After leaving a mess of wet winter coats, boots and pants in the foyer, Chanyeol resumed his grip on Baekhyun’s forearm and led him up the stairs.

So, there was Baekhyun, forced to sit on top of a toilet seat as Chanyeol fumbled through a first aid kit. Sure, the silence might have been lethal to anyone else, but Baekhyun’s eyes seemed perfectly content with gluing themselves to Chanyeol’s troubled face. It was weird to have a stranger worry over him so much. Jongin would have probably dropped him off at his house and blamed him for not dodging a rock-filled snowball while Joonmyun would just sob for ages like he had killed Baekhyun or something.

When Chanyeol finished, there was a significant amount of weight added to Baekhyun's brow due to the mess of cotton attached to it. Chanyeol was sure to apologize every time Baekhyun ever so much as blinked when applying antiseptics, cotton pads and medical tape.

“Thanks.” Baekhyun finally spoke, lightly touching the bandage. It wasn’t really done all that well and his mother would probably just redo it once he got home, but the effort definitely counted for something.

“I’m reallyreallyreallyreallyreally sorry.” Chanyeol apologized for the gazillionth time, “please don’t be mad.”’

Baekhyun rapidly blinked up as Chanyeol tightly gripped the bottom of his Christmas sweater, “why would I be mad?” Baekhyun frowned, “you did say it was an accident.”

“B-but,” Chanyeol’s deep voice suddenly plummeted down to a whisper, “you got hurt because of me.”

“No, it was 'cause of the rock,” Baekhyun sighed in exasperation and lightly kicked Chanyeol in the shin, “ and not you, you tall weirdo. So, stop saying you’re sorry already.”

It sort of surprised Baekhyun how meek Chanyeol was acting, he definitely wasn’t the same boy who glared and told him off earlier that day. Either way, Baekhyun stood up from the toilet seat and stretched out his limbs.

“Well…I guess I should be going now.” Baekhyun stated awkwardly, but his feet remained unmoving due to Chanyeol blocking his only exit.

“What, already?” Chanyeol’s eyes widened a little more, “W-why, was it something I did? Did I apologize much?” He then approached Baekhyun closer with a puppy dog stare that would melt any villain’s defenses.  No guy should be able to get away with that look…okay, maybe Baekhyun could, but that was beside the point.

“W-well, yes but um, no. My parents said I had to be home for dinner and it’s a school night. And if I don’t get home on time, they’ll take my playstation away.” Baekhyun pouted a little, remembering how his parents recently powered off his game console right in the middle of him defeating a boss and took the machine away.

“Oh…I guess that’s a good reason to go home.”

Something was fishy. To be more specific, Chanyeol was being fishy. Baekhyun knew he was one cool kid but his friends were normally never that upset to see him go. So, Chanyeol should not be close to crying (or throwing a tantrum) when he barely knew Baekhyun.

Well, Baekhyun asked what’s wrong like every other kid would because kids don’t believe in subtlety. When Chanyeol gave him a lacklustre response stating that nothing was wrong, Baekhyun got a little ticked off. Lying wasn’t cool in his books. He huffed out his frustrations and pushed past Chanyeol and made his way down the stairs. He managed to shove one boot on when Chanyeol’s hand once again found its way around his forearm.

“I-I have an Xbox, so you can stay longer...if you want.”

Baekhyun ignored him and pushed the other foot into the remaining boot. He shook off Chanyeol and grabbed his wet coat off the floor.

“Please don’t go, I don’t have any other friends!” Chanyeol's raised voice echoed in the foyer. Finally having caught Baekhyun’s attention, Chanyeol flushed an embarrassed and ashamed shade of red.

“What do you mean you don’t have friends?” Once again, Baekhyun felt no need to hide his blatant confusion.

“I’m…homeschooled.”

 A few moments passed and Baekhyun then casually put his coat on. He snugged his snow pants in his arms and walked toward the front door. Once reaching the door knob, Baekhyun turned abruptly to a discouraged Chanyeol, “Listen, your Xbox might be nice and all but I’m still hungry. So, tomorrow, four o’clock, house number 46. It’s just you, me and a playstation. Prepare for defeat, tall weirdo.” Baekhyun scowled one last time before he opened the door and marched out of the house.

Even three houses away, he could still hear Chanyeol’s cheering. He snickered as he trudged his way home.

Baekhyun’s mother gasped when she saw him and worried over his poorly bandaged brow. Once he was seated on the kitchen counter top with a first aid kit next to him, he told his mother about glittering snowflakes, soaked mittens, and a new friend.   

dahdahdahdah, done. 
MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND NEW YEARS AND ALL THAT GOOD STUFF!
I hope this was cute enough. They're kids...so not much romance is to be expected, am I right or am I right? 
Everyone savvy with Seho btw? I know crack pairings make some fans uncomfortable (omg, what are you guys waiting for, come on over to the crack-shipping dark side). 
This was more like three drabbles smashed into one but EHHH. Whatchu gon' do bout it?
I will reread this later...when I'm less tired. (Proofreading at 3am? No wonder I at corrections).

Kay. So you guys rule ;~; Already this much support with a simple foreword. Le crying le everywhere. Thank you so much! I hope it was to your liking If you didn't....well, I had fun writing it and I'm pretty sure that's what matters the most.

BYE. MERRY WINTER YA'LL

ps: Turns out the clingy Sehun I saw are not from Disney but London, ooops. 

pss: SNOWMAN ALT CODE FOR THE WIN:

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