Every Snowman Needs a Hat
Author: BlueSuede
Title: Every Snowman Needs a Hat
Rating: G
Genre: Fluff
Pairings: Mad Swan
Summary: Emma, Jefferson, Henry, and Grace get into a snowball fight
Warning: none
(btw would love a banner if anyone's up to it!)
prompt from batsonthebrain on Tumblr: "mad swan snowball fight!"
Thank you!
"Henry!"
Henry dodged behind the snowman.
"Henry, what are you doing? You were supposed to be at your grandparents' an hour ago!"
"You have to go?" Grace whispered, giggling as she peered behind the snowman at Henry.
Henry shushed her. "I totally forgot what time it was!" he whispered. "I'm gonna be in so much trouble!"
But Grace couldn't help giggling as Emma approached, clearly not fooled by Henry's attempt to hide.
"Hi, Grace," she greeted, smiling at Grace. "Kid, we gotta go," she added, not even bothering to peek around the snowman to look for him.
"Hi, Miss Emma," Grace beamed politely.
Henry sighed and walked around sheepishly. "Sorry," he shrugged apologetically.
Emma rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Henry. You know how Mary Margaret gets about these family dinners. She's practically obsessive compulsive about 'making up for lost time' or whatever."
Henry smiled slyly at his mom. He knew that in spite of her gruffness on the subject, Emma secretly enjoyed the family dinners as much as his grandmother did. Just like Snow White, she was making up for lost time with her family, but Emma didn't like to get sappy in front of other people, so she pretended she thought Snow was being silly. "Sorry," Henry said again. "Bye, Paige…Grace. Grace-Paige," he gave up. All this time and he was still never sure which name to call his friend. She always insisted it didn't matter.
"Bye, Paige-Grace," Emma imitated with a smile to the girl, and Grace giggled.
"Bye, Sheriff Swan!" she waved as Henry took Emma's hand and they started trudging through the snow toward Emma's car.
Just as Emma turned her back, she was shocked when something cold, hard, and wet collided with the back of her neck. She yelped, frantically brushing snow away from the collar of her coat before too much of it could slide down her skin.
Henry just looked surprised, and Emma turned around, surprised at Grace. "Grace!" she chastised with a look of mild amusement.
But Grace just looked bewildered. "It wasn't me," she protested innocently.
Emma snorted. "Sure, then-" but before she could finish another snowball went whizzing past her, just catching the side of her ear. She looked around wide-eyed, pausing her search when she saw a certain top-hat adorned figure. She rolled her eyes. "Of course," she sighed impatiently.
"Breaking up the fun, as usual, are we, Sheriff Swan?" Jefferson said, approaching with his hands behind his back. He was wearing an expression of all-too-feigned innocence on his face, and his eyes were glinting with fun.
Emma rolled her eyes. "I'd hardly call it that. What do you want, Jefferson?"
"He came to bring us a hat!" Grace said happily, and her father bent down, still keeping his hands hidden, so that Grace could lift the large top hat off his head.
Emma watched wearily from Jefferson's side as Grace dashed over to the snowman to place the hat on its head.
"It's not going to…I don't know…come to life or anything, is it?" she asked, still generally wary of anything and everything magic. She never quite knew what to expect in this town anymore.
Jefferson chuckled, his grin wide as usual. "Don't worry, Sheriff. It's just an ordinary hat. After all," he leaned in close, his lips nearly brushing against her ear as he whispered, "you didn't make that one."
Flushed, Emma stepped to the side to regain her personal space. "Well," she said, eager to get away from Jefferson, who made her nervous, "Henry, we'd better go."
A second time the pair started to head for the car, and a third time, Emma felt a snowball hit her, this time square in the back.
Emma whirled around to find Grace giggling helplessly and Jefferson giving her a come-and-get-it grin. "Jefferson!" she exclaimed.
"You're right, you're right," he said, shrugging helplessly. "You guys should go."
"Yeah, we should," Emma said seriously. But then all of a sudden she ducked down and grabbed the remainder of the last snowball, throwing it straight back at Jefferson and knocking him square in the chest.
Grace squealed giddily as some of the snow hit her as well, and the four of them immediately split up, everyone ducking for cover and scooping up snow to pat into misshapen snowballs. Snow went flying in every direction and no one was left un-hit when suddenly Grace shouted, "Me and Dad against Emma and Henry!"
Laughing delightedly Grace immediately began chasing Henry around their snowman. Emma, now quite out of breath, turned to see Jefferson walking toward her, his expression all mischief. "Oh, no," she warned as she backed up, shaking her head and raising her hands defensively. "Don't you daaaare!" she finished with a yowl, rushing madly to get away from him, only to be caught a moment later, his arm wrapping around her waist as he shoved now down her jacket. Emma laughed and screamed as she struggled to get free, slipping out of her now snow-filled jacket. "You nut-case!" she accused laughingly, shaking the snow out of her hair. "I'll get you for that."
Jefferson was just laughing at her, but his mocking expression dropped in surprise when Emma charged him, tackling him to the ground, making sure he got covered in the foot-deep snow. They were both laughing childishly at first, but all of a sudden Emma remembered she was a grown woman who was currently lying on top of a grown man. Her face flushed red as she laughed nervously and rolled off of him into the snow herself, hoping he hadn't noticed her sudden discomfort and would take it for exhaustion instead.
"Oh, God," she moaned. "I'm soaking wet. I'm just too tired to get up."
Jefferson laughed again. "That is your own fault."
"My fault?" Emma said disbelievingly, looking at him like he was crazy. "You started this. You shoved snow down my coat."
Jefferson looked utterly remorseless. "Yeah, but you knocked us to the ground," he pointed out. Even so, he stood up first and offered her a hand up. She took it gratefully and he pulled her to her feet clumsily, Emma accidentally stumbling into his chest. He grabbed her arms to steady her, and she apologized awkwardly, meeting his eyes and pausing. He was pressing his lips together to avoid smiling.
"You have…snow in your hair," he said distractedly, reaching up to brush it away as best as he could.
Emma swallowed tightly, suddenly remembering the kids and taking a step back from him, looking around for Henry. He and Grace were obliviously alternating between hiding behind trees and trying to hit one another with snow balls.
Emma and Jefferson exchanged looks and nodded to each other, smirking. Quietly, they snuck up on their respective children and snatched them up, Jefferson throwing his shrieking daughter over his shoulder, Emma wrapping her arms around Henry and spinning him around once before setting him down.
Chuckling breathlessly, she said regretfully, "I need to get this one to his grandmother's. We're even later now," she added, trailing off with a sigh.
Jefferson nodded. "We're going to have some dinner ourselves," he said, righting Grace on the ground.
"Bye!" Grace waved to Henry and Emma as they first retrieved Emma's jacket then finally managed to get back to their car.
"That was fun," Henry said in the car, buckling his seatbelt and watching to make sure that Emma did, too.
Emma laughed. "Yeah, but Mary Margaret's gonna have a fit over how soaked we are," she shook her head as she started the car.
"I like Hatter," Henry said, shooting a look at his mom. "He's awesome.
Emma hesitated. "Yeah, me, too, I guess. But do me a favor and don't spend too much time with him unless Grace or I am there. He's a little disconcerting sometimes."
Henry looked thoughtful. "Yeah, but he's seemed a lot more normal ever since he and Grace started spending time together. But," he added, "I'll just bring you with me whenever I want to visit him."
Emma looked dubiously at her son, but he was determinedly looking ahead of them on the road, pretending he hadn't said anything suspicious.
"Sure…" she said