The fight continued Niccolo tactfully hitting Chris square in the chest or face and the other sloppily grazing him as he passed.

He simply allowed himself to be hit, anything to keep that sound going. He was slow, carefully crafting it into a perfect sphere, but Niccolo never moved away. He bent over and curled more snow into his hands. Then the giggle came again and after a moment it dissolved into a deep laugh, one that shook Chris's shoulders with the motion of it. It hit him directly in his shocked face, leaving him sputtering out rapidly melting ice. He briefly regretted not wearing thicker gloves to brave against the chill before throwing the misshapen ball at Chris. Instead of embarrassing the other further, Niccolo scooped up a chunk of the snow. How did he explain that he had just fallen a little bit more in love? Chris looked panicked that he had allowed himself to slip up like he was waiting for Nic to make fun of him. He opened his mouth to crack a joke about it but shut it just as quickly. Was that all it took? A snowball fight? If he had known that, he would have brought Chris to the German countryside ages ago.

They stared at each other for a moment, breath fogging in front of their faces from the cold. So the freezing ice running down his back wasn't near as shocking as the sound that had just come from behind him.Ĭhristopher Wolfe did not giggle. His nonstop efforts had proved to be almost entirely fruitless as of yet. All Chris had to do was make witty comments or critique the never-ending list of authors he seemed to have a vendetta against to make Niccolo laugh.įrankly, it wasn't fair that he had to bend over backward only to get a quirked mouth corner or a harsh snort. Of course, he hadn't known the other too well when they solidified their budding relationship, but he never imagined it would be this hard. A year prior, Niccolo had made it his goal to draw as many laughs and smiles out of Christopher as he could.

The great library series rachel caine