Rude ought to know, he was currently soaked due to Reno’s skill in snowball making.
“Yer supposed to throw your own back,” Reno shouted at him. He was ducked behind a snow-covered rock, red hair a blazing beacon even from this distance.
“I thought that was what I was trying to do,” Rude shouted in answer. However, try as he might, he couldn’t get the damn things to stay packed together enough to make the flying journey. They always broke apart before impact.
“You don’t know how to make a decent snowball?” Reno asked, incredulity coloring his tone. “C’mon Rude, everyone knows how to make snowballs.”
“No, everyone does not,” Rude replied from behind the rock he was using for cover. “It didn’t snow much where I grew up.” And his mother didn’t like her children doing things that made them cold and wet and possibly dirty.
He heard the sound of approaching footsteps and, dreading a short ranged attack, started gathering snow into his gloved hands, hurriedly shaping his own ammunition. But the attack never came and the footfalls stopped beside him, heralding Reno’s arrival.
“You’re fucking kidding me, right?” Reno sat down beside him, shoulder to shoulder.
“I was telling the truth,” Rude replied, secretly enjoying the warmth that was seeping into him from the contact with Reno.
“Well here, let me show you then. Everyone should know how to make a snowball.”
Over the span of the next twenty minutes or so, Reno showed Rude how to shape an effective ball of snow, how to start small with a solid core before adding the other layers, and how to apply just the right amount of pressure so the snowball stayed together after it was thrown, but splattered after it hit its target. By the time he was finished, they had a sizable pile between them.
“Think you got the hang of it now?” Reno asked when the lesson concluded, giving Rude a smile that held the affection of friendship, perhaps the promise of more.
Rude found himself smiling back, echoing that same promise, wishing suddenly they were somewhere warm and comfortable and private. Although they were alone at the moment, and surely Reno wouldn’t rebuke his kiss…
“Reno! Rude! Elena and I are finished. We should go back to the helicopter and return.” Tseng’s voice rang out, breaking the silence and interrupting the moment.
Beside him, Reno cursed. Rude sighed and stood, catching sight of Tseng and Elena as they came up the hill toward them. He’d dusted the snow from his gloves and taken a single step forward when a snowball flew by him and landed squarely on Tseng’s chest. Reno’s laughter filled the air, drowning out Tseng’s surprised shout.
Before Rude could consider any course of action, Reno was nudging his side, handing him more of the snowballs they’d created together. Without a second thought, he threw them, watching with much satisfaction as they found their targets and covered both Elena and Tseng. Reno cheered.
Rude never realized that snow could be so much fun.