"Emma, for the love of Christ what are we doing out here?" Regina asked unhappily, her words were accompanied by a cloud of air as her breath froze around her.

"We're building a snowman." Emma replied simply from where she was on her knees in the crunchy snow.

Regina stamped her cold feet and tried not to think about what temperature it was. Her leather boots, thick coat, gloves, scarf and hat she was wearing did not feel like enough protection from the crisp wintery morning.

"Why are we building a snowman?" Regina questioned her wife as she shivered violently. "It's freezing."

"Look, the sun's coming up." Emma said encouraging and gestured to the pale light beginning to shine in the east. She ignored her wife's question, but Regina understood why.

They were out here in the cold, before dawn and building a snowman of all things, because of the rough time they'd experienced in their marriage recently and their councillor had given them a list of things to do together to try and reconnect.

Regina bit her lip and tried to shake off her reluctance. She wanted to save her marriage, and if saving it meant getting soaking wet and freezing half to death, then so be it.

"Alright, let me give you hand." Regina offered as she pulled her coat up and knelt beside Emma. She withheld a sigh as the snow soaked through her wool knit leggings and began gathering snow into Emma's pile.

Together they shaped the glistening snow into a round base, and then they got up and began rolling a smaller ball for the middle.

The sun rose slowly, daintily, as the women worked together, and it shone brightly on them as they finished their creation.

"You've put his head on wonky." Emma accused, her tone playful as she eyed up their work.

"Oh really?" Regina responded, faking offense before surprising her wife with a well-timed snowball to the stomach. "Because you look a little wonky to me."

"Do I now?" Emma laughed, crouching to scoop up some snow for retaliation. She was quick, and before Regina had produced a follow-up projectile Emma was pelting her with icy missiles.

Regina squealed with laughter and took refuge behind their snowman, so she could return fire at Emma from safety. She knelt to make a snowball before getting up and peeking around her barricade to aim at her wife. For a moment she was disappointed, as she didn't see Emma's distinctive blonde hair or red leather jacket anywhere in the snowy yard, but her worry was soon eased as Emma let out a victorious holler and tackled Regina from behind.

Regina giggled uncontrollably, gasping for air as she and Emma wrestled about before they tipped over, crushing the snowman in the process. There was a confusion of limbs and snow before Emma managed to roll them, so Regina was lying on her back in the remains of the snowman and she was sitting astride her wife.

Regina panted softly, the cold of the icy ground beneath her, the warmth of Emma above her, and looked into her wife's sparkling eyes happily.

"Gotcha." Emma whispered before she lowered her head and planted a warm kiss on Regina's parted lips.

Regina kissed her back softly, deepening their embrace as she wrapped her arms around Emma's thighs.

"I've missed you." Regina told her quietly as she broke the kiss and turned her head away from her wife, so she wouldn't see the emotion in her eyes. Emma reached forward, put her thumb on Regina's chin and turned her face back up to look at her.

"I've wanted nothing more than to hear you say that." Emma said as she proceeded to wipe the tears gathering in the corners of her wife's eyes. "I only want you Regina. Always."

Regina sniffed and pulled Emma in for another kiss. "I'll say it sooner next time."

"Or, we could say nothing at all and just love each other quite physically, right here, right now?" Emma suggested and gave Regina a cheeky grin as she cupped her wife's large breasts through the many layers of snow dampened fabric she was wearing.

"On the lawn? Outside? In the SNOW?" Regina was aghast. "Absolutely not."

"Fine." Emma raised an eyebrow and bit her lip. "Maybe I'll just, tickle you instead?"

"No, Emma, don't you dare! Stop I-." Regina's protests were cut off as she burst into that special kind of laughter only tickling can produce. Emma tickled her mercilessly, ceasing only once her rosy-cheeked wife looked like she needed to break for some air.

"I'm going to get you for that." Regina gasped with her eyes twinkling. She used her feet to propel them sideways and roll them over until she was sitting on top of Emma. After a quick power wrestle, she took each of Emma's wrists and pinned them above her head in the snow.

"What're you going to do to me?" Emma asked nonchalantly, excited by Regina's passion.

"What do you want me to do?" Regina replied with a seductive purr, lowering her mouth to just above Emma's.

"Anything." Emma said, straining against Regina's hold as she tried to reach her wife,

Regina gave Emma her sexiest smile and moved in, filling her wife with sensuous anticipation, moving slowly enough to tease her, before she laughed in triumph, pressed her lips to Emma's forehead and blew a loud raspberry against her smooth skin.

Emma burst into laughter and tried to shake her off. Regina let her wife go with a chuckle and they both sat up, cold, wet, and much happier than they'd been only hours before.

Emma wrapped her arms around Regina and pressed her head to her shoulder.

"I love you so much you know."

"I know." Regina replied softly and pulled Emma into her lap and put her arms around her.

She pressed her face into her fragrant hair and breathed in her familiar scent.

"I love you too."