InsaneJournal

Who: Agent York, Agent Washington, Anna of Arendelle
When: In the Snow
Where: Outside Wash and Carolina's apartment building
What: Random Encounter
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete


This. was. the. Best. York was hiding around the corner, wearing a thick jacket, snow pants, and an argyle patterned beanie with a bobble up at the top. And he waited. Silently, still as a ghost, he waited. When he heard Wash’s van pull up, and his friend get out of the car, York’s ears perked up. The grin on his face grew until it was a wicked size, his hands reaching for the stash he had set aside. There were about a dozen snowballs there, sitting, waiting to be chucked.

When Wash was half-way up the walk between the parking lot and the building, York sprung to action. He leaped around the corner with a loud “HA!” and started pelting snowballs at the other Agent and … his girlfriend? Whoops. York didn’t know that Anna was going to be with him, but now that the snowballs were flying, it was too late to stop them.

Wash was a creature of habit. This was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that it was the only way he could exert some sort of control over his life. It made him feel secure. He thrived under crises, but that didn’t mean he liked it. Nor did he particularly like surprises. It was a curse in that because his days were lived under a fairly strict routine, he was sometimes a little too easy to find.

Like tonight for example.

He was on his way home from work. No bounty hunting tonight, it was a night he purposefully took off since he technically didn’t have weekends like most people in the workforce. He’d picked up a pizza and Anna on the way home like he usually did. As much as Wash found comfort in routine, he was still on constant alert. A decade in the military had ground the necessity to always be ready for anything so far into his skull it had become a part of him, practically in his DNA. As such, he reacted quickly when he heard someone call out behind him. In one motion he had turned, pulled Anna behind him and had reached for his sidearm, tucked into its holster under the hem of his jacket and-

Piff!

Wash watched, slightly bemused, as a snowball sailed by his shoulder and hit the wall behind him. What the actual… Wash had barely enough time to raise a brow when splat, splat, splat!, three snowballs hit him square in the chest and shoulders. The force knocked him back a few paces, but not hard enough to actually knock him down.

At first Wash was furious. Who the fucking hell was out throwing snowballs at him?! A quick look up and he had his answer when he saw York’s grinning face peering at him from under a cap. He should have known. Shoulders instantly relaxed and Wash’s hand came away from his sidearm. “York!” He shouted. “Have you lost your mind?”

Anna was carrying the pizza out of the car and up the drive. She was completely oblivious to the world around her, thinking about movie night with pizza and Wash, wondering if Carolina was going to join them. Tis the season, right? Anna wanted to revisit all the old classics: White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life… But she’d watch whatever Wash wanted to watch. Her Finals were mostly over now, too, which gave her a whole world of freedom.

Then Wash was pulling her behind him, and Anna gasped. The gentle piff! And splat-splat-splat made her startle. She turned to ask what was going on, but Wash was already yelling, and--

“Think fast!!” York was laughing. He’d never played baseball, but he kept up with his brother. And hey, the middle York brother made it to the minor leagues. This York had to stifle his laughter so he could launch more snowballs at Wash and Anna. Rapid fire, he threw over and over again, aiming mostly for the chest (because he knew how much a snowball to the face could hurt) and legs. Oh, and he avoided the pizza box. (He couldn’t very well bum a couple of pieces later if he’d knocked the thing to the ground, could he?

It was very York. He’d always been the one to run pranks in their group. The baby oil in the shampoo bottle or cling wrap on the toilet seat were his favorites. But a one-way snowball fight came in a very close third.

“York!” Wash shouted as two more snowballs came at him. Suddenly it was as if they were back on the squad again. Hiding behind a wall and pelting the Rookie with snowballs as he was coming back from mess was a very York thing to do and something York had been known to do from time to time, if one traded snowballs for water balloons. Whatever anger Wash’d had initially had died and he gave in to the prank, just as he always had.

“Anna, take cover!” Wash was laughing a little when he grabbed his girlfriend by the arm and dashed around to the front side of the van for protection. Once there he hunkered down a little and pulled her down with him. “Alright, our mission is to protect the package,” he indicated the box containing their delicious hot pizza still in Anna’s hands. “I’m a pretty good shot, but I’m gonna need ammo. How are you at making snowballs?”

Anna gave a little yelp as a snowball hit her straight in the chest, showering the box with flakes of snow. She laughed, though, as the water seeped under her sweater at her collar and made her shiver. Wash pulled her aside and she was more than willing to duck behind the van. The pizza was going to get cold, but Anna didn’t care. Snowball fights were too much fun to worry about something like that.

“Are you kidding?” Anna asked, incredulously. “My sister makes snow. I can handle myself in a snowfight.” She set the pizza box down carefully, and moved to create as many little balls as she could. “Thankfully, I’m wearing my mittens.” They were amazing at protecting her sensitive flesh from the ice and snow, and made really good shovels for the powder.

Hey, York didn’t always pick on the Rookie. The only person on the squad safe from his pranks was Carolina--though she always had to deal with the aftermath. (And sometimes secondary prank effects, too.) The rain of snowballs ceased when Wash and Anna ducked behind the car. “What kind of pizza did you get me?” He called out, ducking down to hastily put together more snowballs. “You know I hate olives!”

“It’s covered in olives!” Wash shouted back over the hood of the van. It wasn’t, but York didn’t need to know that. When it came to food, Wash was not a picky eater, and therefore was happy to eat just about anything on a pizza. Except for pineapple. Pineapple went in a fruit salad or maybe on a ham, not on a pizza. “Olives everywhere!”

He scrambled to pack a few fistfuls of snow into balls along with Anna. Wash did own a pair of gloves (not including the set that came with his armor), but they were mainly used for keeping his hands warm on those cold mornings when his van hadn’t warmed up yet and it felt as though he was gripping an icicle rather than a steering wheel. They were leather and not made for the snow, so Wash pulled them off with his teeth and used his bare hands to pack the snow together quickly.

York’s volley of snowballs seemed to have stopped for a moment. Wash peered around the front of the van. “Anna, if I distract him, do you think you can sneak around behind him?”

“I think so!” Anna said. “Am I taking the package, or you? Or do we leave it here and clear a path, then come back for it?” She asked, finishing up a couple more snowballs and adding them to the pile. Anna’s were big, round, and perfect. They were compacted just enough to hold their shape in flight, but loose enough that they’d explode on impact.

“Yer killin’ me, Smalls!” York called out, waiting for his friend to make one wrong move. He saw what he thought was a head poking out from the front of the van, and let loose another handful of snowballs. Then he ducked behind a tree and bent down to make some more. Thankfully, (and surprisingly?) there was enough snow on the ground for all this.

Wash glanced at the pizza box thoughtfully. “Leave it here,” he said. “While I have him distracted, you’ll get him from behind and you’ll need both hands for that. We’re going to have to make him surrender, otherwise, he’ll just follow us inside.” As he spoke, Wash was packing more snow into balls and he had himself a nice little pile of ammo at his feet. “With the two of us attacking on both fronts, I believe we stand a chance of him throwing in the towel. Then we can enjoy our victory pizza.” Which would have been cold, if not a little soggy by then.

Wash risked another peek around the front of the van. It took him a moment to spot York ducked behind a tree making more snowballs. Ahh, perfect. “Ok,” Wash said over his shoulder to his little recruit. “He’s behind that pine tree just a few feet back. On my signal, take as many snowballs as you can and circle around…” he scanned the area for cover Anna could use and spotted another car parked along the road. “There’s a red Toyota Corolla parked behind us. Use it to hide behind if you need to. Ready?”

Anna set the pizza box carefully next to the car, but out of the way of everything. Then she gathered up the snowballs. “You’ve got it.” She leaned over to tap a kiss against his cheek for good luck, then stood and rushed away down the sidewalk.

York didn’t see it coming. He called out, “So, I hope you got an extra large, because I’ve got quite an appetiiiii-- Oi!” He cut off, devolving into a surprised cry when Anna rained down a barrage of snowballs at him from behind. The snow splattered the back of his neck and face, dribbling down inside his jacket. He laughed. “Damn, Wash! Your girl’s got aim!”

Before he could retaliate, Anna ducked behind the Toyota. Laughing.

Wash smiled after Anna as she took off. Once she had gotten behind the Toyota, Wash stepped from his hiding spot in front of the van, drawing York’s attention to him. He did so by lobbing a couple of snowballs at York so that Anna could pummel him from behind. Watching her attack made Wash laugh hard. He had no idea just how good her aim was. It was damn impressive! However, when Anna ducked behind the Toyota again, Wash pelted York from the front. “That’s for ambushing me, Frosty!”

There was definitely a plus to having an Ice Queen as a sister. Anna was amazing at building snowmen, making snow angels, snowball fights...that sort of thing. Unfortunately, she was rubbish when it came to ice skating. She lobbed a couple of large snowballs over the car and in York’s general direction, though they didn’t quite hit the mark.

York had just turned to gently toss a rain of snowballs in Anna’s direction when Wash came at him again from the other side. “Ack!” He cried out. “No fair, no fair! Two against one? C’mon…” He was almost out of pre-made snowballs anyway. “Cheaters!” He laughed, completely teasing. After all, he’d ambushed them, not the other way around.

“You’re the one who ambushed us,” Wash laughed back at him, another snowball at the ready. “C’mone man, Anna’s sister is an Ice Queen, you couldn’t have honestly expected this to go well for you.” He let the snowball fly, piffing York on the shoulder. There wasn’t much force behind the throw, just enough to send snow spraying everywhere. “Ya give up yet? If so, we can go in and enjoy our pizza.” Which would have been great. Wash’s hands were freezing.

Anna hadn’t run around and thrown snowballs in a long time. (It’d been… well, maybe since last year? But still.) It was good, solid exercise, the likes of which she didn’t get all that often. Sure, Wash was up early in the morning to jog, with Carolina, or whatever… but Anna was a bit lazy. She slept in and didn’t go out of her way to get winded. Exertion wasn’t really her thing. So running around the car to throw snowballs at York had taken a bit out of her. “Say Uncle!” Anna said, throwing a snowball at York.

Of course, said snowball flew straight into the man’s face. It smashed, bits of ice, water, and cold going into his nose. He laughed and coughed. “All right! All right, I give! I give!” He held his hands up, letting all the snow he’d been holding fall to the ground. “Parley!” He added, lifting fingers to dig snow off his face and out of his eyes.

“Parley?” Wash laughed. “What are we? Pirates?” Now that York had given up, Wash dropped the rest of the snowballs he’d made as well. His hands were bright red and glistening damp in the lights from the street lamps overhead. He held up one of those hands to Anna, “Ceasefire, Anna. We won!”

Wash retrieved the pizza box where it had been left in front of his van. The box still had a bit of warmth clinging on to it, and Wash hoped the pizza inside was still warm as well. Not that they couldn’t microwave it once they were inside, or maybe even stick it in the oven (Wash had gotten a lot more comfortable using the oven as more than just a space to store stuff), but it wasn’t quite the same as eating a freshly baked pizza.

He joined York where he stood, partially covered in snow. “That was probably not one of your better ideas,” he said, giving the older ex-soldier a smug kind of grin. The Rookie had won. There was a first time for everything. Granted, this time around, he had a little help. “Two against one, man, not great odds. That and I almost shot you, you know. Next time you decide you want a snowball fight, maybe you should do something more to announce yourself. I suppose you wanna come up and have some pizza with us?”

Anna dropped the last of the snow that she’d been carrying, and with a triumphant “woop!” she came jogging over to where York was standing. She clapped him hard on the shoulder, then jogged around him and flopped against Wash, wrapping her arms around him in a big, excited hug. “God, I love snow. Is it weird that I love snow? I mean, me. I really shouldn’t… after everything I’ve been through in my Dreams and everything.” She mused aloud to no one in particular.

“Hey, I think it was an excellent idea,” York countered Wash, raising an eyebrow. “It just… could have been executed a little better.” He moved onto the sidewalk to join his friend and his friend’s girl. “You were kidding about the olives, right?” He asked, grinning.

Wash didn’t think it was weird or odd that Anna liked snow so much. He was a battle weary soldier and yet he thrived more when the shit went down in Orange County than when it was calm and serene. To him it was only natural.

Wash put an arm around Anna, a gesture that came very naturally to him. He shot a look over Anna’s red head at York. “Yeah. The execution could use a little work. Like next time not sneaking up on me like that.” The look turned into a teasing smirk. “I would never kid about pizza toppings, York.”