「 GAME ON : OPEN 」

[STEVE]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 1.4;letter-spacing:.1px"]Steve didn't share those sentiments. It would be great if he didn't mind it, but he minded it very much, mostly because snow minded him. Autumn and winter in general had special surprises in store for him, although that wasn't to say the other seasons were any less prone to laying him out for weeks with something minor. Not as much now that he was older, but as a kid, he was knocked flat by just about anything. How he survived was thanks to his mom's determination and his own stubbornness, though these days, it was mostly the former, seeing as she wasn't around anymore.

If only he could've gotten used to it. Where he'd grown up had been freezing come winter, but he spent most of it inside, underneath a mountain of blankets. Couldn't really do that now, all things considered, so he found warmth where he could, and tried to get whatever he needed to do outside finished as quickly as possible. They didn't need the added problem of a too-skinny weakling getting sick.

Still, he did have to go outside. At the moment, he was going to collect some snow to melt, dragging around a small pail, the area between his eyes wrinkled in concentration. That was why he didn't notice the collie with the snowball, seeing only August playing in the snow in his periphery as he shoved more snow into the bucket. His paws burned with the cold, and his small frame shuddered, turning into a full-bodied flinch when something large and white shot by. In startling, he tripped over the pail and knocked his chin on the edge on the way down. Ignoring that bright bit of pain, the feline shoved himself back up quickly, shaking snow from his thin fur. "F-" He cut himself off, exhaling.

"Scared by a snowball. That's a new low, Steven." Embarrassing, more like, and, shivering, he glanced over to where it'd come from, but he couldn't see anything.