The Evil, White and Cold (One-shot)
It’s white, well it’s white apart from that yellow patch down the road, and Katie’s not one hundred percent sure whether thats the fault of an animal or a drunk returning from a hard night on the town. Yellow patch or not, she hates the snow, passionately. Currently staring out the window, she’s watching Emily and Naomi have some epic snowball fight with James and his fuckwit friend Gordon, Emily’s called her a couple of times asking for backup, but Katie Fitch doesn’t do snow, she thinks to herself, shaking her head furiously and turning to walk away and off into the kitchen.
The kettle takes an age to boil, Katie’s drumming her fingers impatiently, because really all she fucking wants is a cup of tea, and is it that difficult for an appliance to just comply and do what it’s supposed to do? Apparently so, because the bloody thing has cut out and the waters only lukewarm. For something that cost so much bloody money, (her mother has a thing about designer kitchen appliances, so that when the rest of the identikit housewives come round for morning coffee, she can keep up appearances), it sure is a piece shit.
This is distressing to say the least, she starts to sort of slap the kettle, as if thats going to do anything at all, in fact all it achieves is causing the kettle to fall over and now there’s water everywhere.
“Oh just fuck right off.” Katie grumbles, sort of half heartedly mopping it up with a tea towel, before moving to grab her coat, hat and scarf. Now she’s going to have to bloody leave the house just to get a hot drink, which is ridiculous, because its cold, and she’s pissed off.
Katie tentatively steps outside, because its not just that she doesn’t like snow, she’s pretty much terrified of the stuff. Anything with the power to cause an entire country to come grinding to a halt, has too much power, in her opinion. Katie’s walking now, she’s almost got a stride going, when suddenly a ball of wet snow smacks her in the back of the head. Spinning round, Katie meets Naomi’s wicked grin, remnants of snow stuck to her glove, just to provide the evidence that this was in fact the fault of the smug looking blonde.
“Bitch!” Katie squeals, desperately clawing at her hair to get the snow out, Naomi is laughing hard and this only serves to annoy Katie further. Naomi’s almost doubled over now, as if throwing a snowball is comedy gold or something, Emily’s looking over, realised what is happening and is trying to suppress her own giggles. Katie sends an evil look to Emily, and Emily mouths a halfhearted sorry, some attempt at sisterly loyalty. Naomi isn’t laughing anymore, she’s running round the garden, grabbed hold of James and is spinning him round whilst he screams. It’s all a little too idyllic for Katie, a bit too ‘perfect family’ and she just can’t be fucked with it. Doesn’t even want to go and smack Naomi in the face for being a twat, just wants to get out of there.
It’s only when she reaches the town that she realises what a stupid idea leaving the house was, it’s not thick snow here, it’s been walked on so many times that it’s just slippery and icy and Katie doesn’t have good balance at the best of times. She’s sort of stranded now, stuck in the middle of the street not moving, scared that if she does she’s going to fall on her arse and that will bloody hurt, plus she’ll look a dick so she doesn’t want to risk it. Katie almost wants to cry, thats how distressing this situation is, because she’s pretty sure she’ll be stuck here until the snow melts away and according to the news that could be weeks. She’s got no food either, well she’s got half a packet of Starburst in her bag, but that’s hardly sustenance, she’ll probably waste away and all that will left will be a pile of dust. She’d probably be a hot pile of dust though, Katie thinks to herself, grinning inanely at the thought.
“Need an arm?” A voice interrupts, it’s JJ and he’s offering his arm in an old fashioned gentlemanly way. Normally she wouldn’t bother with JJ because, well because he’s a bit weird, but he’s offering to help her out and rescue her from certain starvation.
“Oh thank god, it’s like a fucking ice rink here! I only wanted a cup of tea!” Katie exclaims, JJ flinches when she swears, he probably doesn’t think it’s ladylike, not that Katie gives a toss, yet for some reason her brain tells her to consider her vocabulary a little more carefully, at least whilst JJ’s helping her.
“Right so I take you’re heading in there?” JJ asks, pointing towards the cafe across the road, Katie nods and they start walking, JJ’s holding on tightly and finally she feels safe. He’s talking about something, some adventure that Cook took him on, and from what she can gather it didn’t end well. Finally they’re across the road and standing outside, JJ’s looking sort of awkward, like he doesn’t know what to do next, Katie knows she has to say something, she just doesn’t expect what comes out of her mouth.
“Come and have a drink with me.” Katie blurted out, telling herself it was only because she was going to need someone to walk her home, not because she was desperate for company or anything.
“Okay then.” JJ smiled, that sort of goofy smile he has Katie noted, it’s cute, if you like that kind of thing she thought.
JJ asks her what she wants, orders it, as well as a piece of cake which she’s incredibly grateful for, because ever since she start considering the possibility of starvation she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about food. JJ pays for it all as well, she offers him the money but he shakes his head, just sits there sipping his hot chocolate whilst listening to her bitch about Naomi.
“Snowballs?! I mean what is she ten?” Katie complains, plunging her fork into the cake, shoving it in greedily before stopping herself, realising she looks ever so slightly like a pig, and then slowing down. Not that what JJ thinks of her means anything.
“You’re not a fan of the snow then?” JJ asks, reaching out with a napkin to wipe the corner of Katie’s mouth, because there’s chocolate everywhere and he knows how pissy she’d get if anyone saw her like that. Katie just lets him, she’s sort of stunned by the action, she twitches when his finger catches the side of her face, her chest constricts in a funny sort of way that she doesn’t understand.
“Snow is evil. Who the hell likes snow?” Katie grumbles, JJ’s snatched his hand back now, realised he’d lingered a little too long, his eyes are trained on his hot chocolate, anywhere but Katie’s because she’s making him feel strange and he doesn’t like unexplainable emotions, they just don’t make sense to him, and JJ likes things to make sense.
“I quite like it. Come on, drink up, I'll show you the fun side. I promise, I’ll protect you from any snowballs that come flying by!” JJ smiles, his eyes sort of twinkle, Katie quite likes blue eyes, quite likes JJ’s eyes.
JJ’s holding his hand out now, not his arm, his hand. Katie sort of stares at it like it’s a foreign object for a few minutes, before downing the rest of her tea and grabbing hold of it. She just doesn’t want to fall over, that’s what she tells herself. It’s also warm, not clammy, just warm and thats helpful because she didn’t remember gloves when she was storming out of the house.
They pass the park, that’s where Katie figured they’d go, but they don’t they keep walking. JJ’s walking in a sort of determined way, his hand never letting go, never slipping from hers and she’s just following, obediently following, and really thats strange because she’s never obedient for anyone or anything, doesn’t trust people, but she trusts JJ. Strange.
They get there eventually, it’s just a big space, an undisturbed blanket of snow and Katie can’t quite work out why everyone isn’t here, because it’s beautiful. Katie never thought she’d find the ‘evil’ snow beautiful, but right here, right now, it’s the only word that describes this.
“Snowman?” JJ suggests, mentally calculating the dimensions, the weight, everything that is needed to make the perfect snowman. It’s not a simple case of putting snow on top of snow, thats why so many snowmen fail, because people just don’t think about it, not properly.
“Our hands will freeze Jay!” Katie sighs, she doesn’t really want to touch the snow, but she can see that JJ looks hurt, he clearly wants to make this snowman.
“Here take these.” JJ reaches in his pocket and pulls out a pair of gloves, they’re a pretty good pair as well, and Katie wonders why he hasn’t been wearing them. Realises that it was because he was holding her hand, wonders why that realisation makes her smile. Takes the gloves and they begin to gather snow.
It doesn’t take them long, JJ’s sort of in charge, he knows what he’s doing, gathering the snow like a professional. Sometimes Katie just stands there and watches him, the determined look on his face, the way he sticks his tongue out when he’s wrestling with a tricky bit. She wanders off, gathers twigs for arms, tries to find the perfect twigs for the perfect snowman. They don’t say a lot, they’re working so perfectly in sync that there’s no need for words.
Finally they finish, stand back and look at their achievement, Katie slips off one of the gloves and rejoins her hand with JJ’s. Tells herself that it’s just because she wants to warm up his hand, it’s almost blue and she feels bad for taking the gloves. He squeezes it, smiles and pulls out his phone, he wants to take a picture of the snowman, preserve it as a good memory.
“We should take one of us, with the snowman.” Katie suggests, pulls JJ over towards the snowman and he sticks out the phone, attempts to take one of those awkward photos of the two of them together by holding the phone above their heads. They’re both smiling, put the position is so awkward that JJ feels himself slipping, and the next thing he knows he’s on the floor, Katie’s been brought down with him and is sort of slumped on top of him.
They don’t laugh. They should laugh because it’s funny. But they don’t laugh, they sort of just stare, and Katie can feel JJ’s heart racing, and she can feel her own heart racing, and this is strange, really strange because he’s JJ and she’s Katie and this was never supposed to happen.
But it does. She dives in, captures his lips with her own and she’s kissing him like she’s never kissed anyone. He takes a couple of seconds to respond, because of all the things to happen he didn’t expect this. But then his brain catches up with the situation, and finally he can start to respond, and when he does Katie can’t believe it, Katie can’t believe how utterly perfect this is. Pulls her body up close to his, relishing the warmth, brings her hands up to his hair, curls her fingers in it and she kisses him forcefully.
When she pulls away he’s looking at her like he doesn’t quite believe it, looks around like he’s waiting for Jeremy fucking Beadle to come running out and tell him that this is just one massive set up. She smiles at him, its the most genuine smile she has, he knows it is, he knows that she’s not joking around with him and so he leans up and pecks her on the lips again, before settling back into the snow.
“I’m rather wet...” JJ trails, looks up at Katie who’s smirking at the double meaning of his words and he finds himself blushing, getting horribly embarrassed. “I meant the snow, the snow, its the snow thats making me wet, not anything else, its the snow.”
Katie tries to stop herself from smirking, because he’s getting locked on, and she doesn’t know much about it, but she knows its bad so she just kisses him instead. It works, he’s calm, and he’s kissing her back sweetly, not diving in shoving his tongue down her throat like Danny used to do, or making a sloppy mess like Freddie used to do, he’s just sort of perfect.
“Are you cold?” JJ asks, he runs his hand along the side of Katie’s face, he can feel her shivering above him, doesn’t want her to be cold, just wants to look after her.
“A bit.” Katie admits, she pulls herself up, standing she reaches out for JJ’s hand and helps him get up, brushes the snow off the back of his coat. Grips his hand, and they start to walk, heading in the direction of home, leaving their snowman masterpiece sitting in the field watching them walk away.
“Sometimes things happen, instinctively, and you don’t mean for them to happen, it’s simply the situation and afterwards you’re left with a horrible sense of regret because even though it was instinct it still wasn’t supposed to happen...” JJ starts rambling, Katie looks at him slightly horrified, her heart starting to hurt, was he telling her that he regretted their kiss.
“Oh.” Is all Katie can utter, she wants to say something bitchy, say something about not wanting a fucking geek like him anyway, but she can’t find the words, suddenly her mouth feels dry and she’s having to hold in a tear.
“I didn’t mean... Oh bobbins... I just meant that if that was the way you felt then I would understand, and that I wouldn’t tell anyone, I wouldn’t embarrass you.” JJ explained, blushing as Katie stopped walking.
This was how insecure JJ was, it was the way that people had always made him feel, he fully expected Katie to completely regret her actions, to want to keep it their dirty secret. It made him all the more surprised when she grabbed him and kissed him again, her arms crossed behind his neck, standing on tiptoes to reach his mouth.
They carried on walking after that, didn’t say a word till they were nearly at Katie’s house. JJ could see Naomi and Emily in the distance, didn’t know whether Katie would want him to go any further, could see the potential for awkwardness the situation had. Not that they’d noticed JJ and Katie anyway, Naomi was too busy chasing Emily round the garden with fistfuls of snow.
“You’ve got my number yeah? You better fucking text me.” Katie instructed, placing a chaste kiss to JJ’s lips, before leaving him standing there. He watched as Katie walked towards her house, raising a panicked eyebrow when she nearly slipped, sighed with relief when she regained her composure and carried on walking, and watched fascinated as she leant down to gather up some snow, picking it up and hurling it at Naomi as she walked into the front garden. He couldn’t help but laugh, guess Katie didn’t hate snow so much after all.
The kettle takes an age to boil, Katie’s drumming her fingers impatiently, because really all she fucking wants is a cup of tea, and is it that difficult for an appliance to just comply and do what it’s supposed to do? Apparently so, because the bloody thing has cut out and the waters only lukewarm. For something that cost so much bloody money, (her mother has a thing about designer kitchen appliances, so that when the rest of the identikit housewives come round for morning coffee, she can keep up appearances), it sure is a piece shit.
This is distressing to say the least, she starts to sort of slap the kettle, as if thats going to do anything at all, in fact all it achieves is causing the kettle to fall over and now there’s water everywhere.
“Oh just fuck right off.” Katie grumbles, sort of half heartedly mopping it up with a tea towel, before moving to grab her coat, hat and scarf. Now she’s going to have to bloody leave the house just to get a hot drink, which is ridiculous, because its cold, and she’s pissed off.
Katie tentatively steps outside, because its not just that she doesn’t like snow, she’s pretty much terrified of the stuff. Anything with the power to cause an entire country to come grinding to a halt, has too much power, in her opinion. Katie’s walking now, she’s almost got a stride going, when suddenly a ball of wet snow smacks her in the back of the head. Spinning round, Katie meets Naomi’s wicked grin, remnants of snow stuck to her glove, just to provide the evidence that this was in fact the fault of the smug looking blonde.
“Bitch!” Katie squeals, desperately clawing at her hair to get the snow out, Naomi is laughing hard and this only serves to annoy Katie further. Naomi’s almost doubled over now, as if throwing a snowball is comedy gold or something, Emily’s looking over, realised what is happening and is trying to suppress her own giggles. Katie sends an evil look to Emily, and Emily mouths a halfhearted sorry, some attempt at sisterly loyalty. Naomi isn’t laughing anymore, she’s running round the garden, grabbed hold of James and is spinning him round whilst he screams. It’s all a little too idyllic for Katie, a bit too ‘perfect family’ and she just can’t be fucked with it. Doesn’t even want to go and smack Naomi in the face for being a twat, just wants to get out of there.
It’s only when she reaches the town that she realises what a stupid idea leaving the house was, it’s not thick snow here, it’s been walked on so many times that it’s just slippery and icy and Katie doesn’t have good balance at the best of times. She’s sort of stranded now, stuck in the middle of the street not moving, scared that if she does she’s going to fall on her arse and that will bloody hurt, plus she’ll look a dick so she doesn’t want to risk it. Katie almost wants to cry, thats how distressing this situation is, because she’s pretty sure she’ll be stuck here until the snow melts away and according to the news that could be weeks. She’s got no food either, well she’s got half a packet of Starburst in her bag, but that’s hardly sustenance, she’ll probably waste away and all that will left will be a pile of dust. She’d probably be a hot pile of dust though, Katie thinks to herself, grinning inanely at the thought.
“Need an arm?” A voice interrupts, it’s JJ and he’s offering his arm in an old fashioned gentlemanly way. Normally she wouldn’t bother with JJ because, well because he’s a bit weird, but he’s offering to help her out and rescue her from certain starvation.
“Oh thank god, it’s like a fucking ice rink here! I only wanted a cup of tea!” Katie exclaims, JJ flinches when she swears, he probably doesn’t think it’s ladylike, not that Katie gives a toss, yet for some reason her brain tells her to consider her vocabulary a little more carefully, at least whilst JJ’s helping her.
“Right so I take you’re heading in there?” JJ asks, pointing towards the cafe across the road, Katie nods and they start walking, JJ’s holding on tightly and finally she feels safe. He’s talking about something, some adventure that Cook took him on, and from what she can gather it didn’t end well. Finally they’re across the road and standing outside, JJ’s looking sort of awkward, like he doesn’t know what to do next, Katie knows she has to say something, she just doesn’t expect what comes out of her mouth.
“Come and have a drink with me.” Katie blurted out, telling herself it was only because she was going to need someone to walk her home, not because she was desperate for company or anything.
“Okay then.” JJ smiled, that sort of goofy smile he has Katie noted, it’s cute, if you like that kind of thing she thought.
JJ asks her what she wants, orders it, as well as a piece of cake which she’s incredibly grateful for, because ever since she start considering the possibility of starvation she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about food. JJ pays for it all as well, she offers him the money but he shakes his head, just sits there sipping his hot chocolate whilst listening to her bitch about Naomi.
“Snowballs?! I mean what is she ten?” Katie complains, plunging her fork into the cake, shoving it in greedily before stopping herself, realising she looks ever so slightly like a pig, and then slowing down. Not that what JJ thinks of her means anything.
“You’re not a fan of the snow then?” JJ asks, reaching out with a napkin to wipe the corner of Katie’s mouth, because there’s chocolate everywhere and he knows how pissy she’d get if anyone saw her like that. Katie just lets him, she’s sort of stunned by the action, she twitches when his finger catches the side of her face, her chest constricts in a funny sort of way that she doesn’t understand.
“Snow is evil. Who the hell likes snow?” Katie grumbles, JJ’s snatched his hand back now, realised he’d lingered a little too long, his eyes are trained on his hot chocolate, anywhere but Katie’s because she’s making him feel strange and he doesn’t like unexplainable emotions, they just don’t make sense to him, and JJ likes things to make sense.
“I quite like it. Come on, drink up, I'll show you the fun side. I promise, I’ll protect you from any snowballs that come flying by!” JJ smiles, his eyes sort of twinkle, Katie quite likes blue eyes, quite likes JJ’s eyes.
JJ’s holding his hand out now, not his arm, his hand. Katie sort of stares at it like it’s a foreign object for a few minutes, before downing the rest of her tea and grabbing hold of it. She just doesn’t want to fall over, that’s what she tells herself. It’s also warm, not clammy, just warm and thats helpful because she didn’t remember gloves when she was storming out of the house.
They pass the park, that’s where Katie figured they’d go, but they don’t they keep walking. JJ’s walking in a sort of determined way, his hand never letting go, never slipping from hers and she’s just following, obediently following, and really thats strange because she’s never obedient for anyone or anything, doesn’t trust people, but she trusts JJ. Strange.
They get there eventually, it’s just a big space, an undisturbed blanket of snow and Katie can’t quite work out why everyone isn’t here, because it’s beautiful. Katie never thought she’d find the ‘evil’ snow beautiful, but right here, right now, it’s the only word that describes this.
“Snowman?” JJ suggests, mentally calculating the dimensions, the weight, everything that is needed to make the perfect snowman. It’s not a simple case of putting snow on top of snow, thats why so many snowmen fail, because people just don’t think about it, not properly.
“Our hands will freeze Jay!” Katie sighs, she doesn’t really want to touch the snow, but she can see that JJ looks hurt, he clearly wants to make this snowman.
“Here take these.” JJ reaches in his pocket and pulls out a pair of gloves, they’re a pretty good pair as well, and Katie wonders why he hasn’t been wearing them. Realises that it was because he was holding her hand, wonders why that realisation makes her smile. Takes the gloves and they begin to gather snow.
It doesn’t take them long, JJ’s sort of in charge, he knows what he’s doing, gathering the snow like a professional. Sometimes Katie just stands there and watches him, the determined look on his face, the way he sticks his tongue out when he’s wrestling with a tricky bit. She wanders off, gathers twigs for arms, tries to find the perfect twigs for the perfect snowman. They don’t say a lot, they’re working so perfectly in sync that there’s no need for words.
Finally they finish, stand back and look at their achievement, Katie slips off one of the gloves and rejoins her hand with JJ’s. Tells herself that it’s just because she wants to warm up his hand, it’s almost blue and she feels bad for taking the gloves. He squeezes it, smiles and pulls out his phone, he wants to take a picture of the snowman, preserve it as a good memory.
“We should take one of us, with the snowman.” Katie suggests, pulls JJ over towards the snowman and he sticks out the phone, attempts to take one of those awkward photos of the two of them together by holding the phone above their heads. They’re both smiling, put the position is so awkward that JJ feels himself slipping, and the next thing he knows he’s on the floor, Katie’s been brought down with him and is sort of slumped on top of him.
They don’t laugh. They should laugh because it’s funny. But they don’t laugh, they sort of just stare, and Katie can feel JJ’s heart racing, and she can feel her own heart racing, and this is strange, really strange because he’s JJ and she’s Katie and this was never supposed to happen.
But it does. She dives in, captures his lips with her own and she’s kissing him like she’s never kissed anyone. He takes a couple of seconds to respond, because of all the things to happen he didn’t expect this. But then his brain catches up with the situation, and finally he can start to respond, and when he does Katie can’t believe it, Katie can’t believe how utterly perfect this is. Pulls her body up close to his, relishing the warmth, brings her hands up to his hair, curls her fingers in it and she kisses him forcefully.
When she pulls away he’s looking at her like he doesn’t quite believe it, looks around like he’s waiting for Jeremy fucking Beadle to come running out and tell him that this is just one massive set up. She smiles at him, its the most genuine smile she has, he knows it is, he knows that she’s not joking around with him and so he leans up and pecks her on the lips again, before settling back into the snow.
“I’m rather wet...” JJ trails, looks up at Katie who’s smirking at the double meaning of his words and he finds himself blushing, getting horribly embarrassed. “I meant the snow, the snow, its the snow thats making me wet, not anything else, its the snow.”
Katie tries to stop herself from smirking, because he’s getting locked on, and she doesn’t know much about it, but she knows its bad so she just kisses him instead. It works, he’s calm, and he’s kissing her back sweetly, not diving in shoving his tongue down her throat like Danny used to do, or making a sloppy mess like Freddie used to do, he’s just sort of perfect.
“Are you cold?” JJ asks, he runs his hand along the side of Katie’s face, he can feel her shivering above him, doesn’t want her to be cold, just wants to look after her.
“A bit.” Katie admits, she pulls herself up, standing she reaches out for JJ’s hand and helps him get up, brushes the snow off the back of his coat. Grips his hand, and they start to walk, heading in the direction of home, leaving their snowman masterpiece sitting in the field watching them walk away.
“Sometimes things happen, instinctively, and you don’t mean for them to happen, it’s simply the situation and afterwards you’re left with a horrible sense of regret because even though it was instinct it still wasn’t supposed to happen...” JJ starts rambling, Katie looks at him slightly horrified, her heart starting to hurt, was he telling her that he regretted their kiss.
“Oh.” Is all Katie can utter, she wants to say something bitchy, say something about not wanting a fucking geek like him anyway, but she can’t find the words, suddenly her mouth feels dry and she’s having to hold in a tear.
“I didn’t mean... Oh bobbins... I just meant that if that was the way you felt then I would understand, and that I wouldn’t tell anyone, I wouldn’t embarrass you.” JJ explained, blushing as Katie stopped walking.
This was how insecure JJ was, it was the way that people had always made him feel, he fully expected Katie to completely regret her actions, to want to keep it their dirty secret. It made him all the more surprised when she grabbed him and kissed him again, her arms crossed behind his neck, standing on tiptoes to reach his mouth.
They carried on walking after that, didn’t say a word till they were nearly at Katie’s house. JJ could see Naomi and Emily in the distance, didn’t know whether Katie would want him to go any further, could see the potential for awkwardness the situation had. Not that they’d noticed JJ and Katie anyway, Naomi was too busy chasing Emily round the garden with fistfuls of snow.
“You’ve got my number yeah? You better fucking text me.” Katie instructed, placing a chaste kiss to JJ’s lips, before leaving him standing there. He watched as Katie walked towards her house, raising a panicked eyebrow when she nearly slipped, sighed with relief when she regained her composure and carried on walking, and watched fascinated as she leant down to gather up some snow, picking it up and hurling it at Naomi as she walked into the front garden. He couldn’t help but laugh, guess Katie didn’t hate snow so much after all.