-it's cold as fuck outside haha-
There was an arctic outflow sweeping through the state, and while a couple of the children harbored hopes for snow, Dinah struggled to keep the household running.
It was -8°, -15° counting windchill, and the front door even froze shut. Conner offered to open it, but worried he might knock it off its hinges, Dinah politely declined. They could get by using the garage door for now.
"Kaldur, darling, you really aren't meant to be out when it's below-zero." She chided, hurrying him inside. "we don't know what it could do to your body." She shut the door. "And wear a scarf, you have to keep your gills from freezing together..."
"I'm sorry."
She softened, petting the oldest teen's buzzed hair. "You're not in trouble. I just want you to be safe."
"STOP!"
"Give it back!"
There were two shrieks as Wally, shortly followed by M'gann, shot into the room, looped around them, and left out he door they'd entered.
Dinah, who'd pulled Kaldur out of the way of harm, released him. "I'd better see what all that's about."
M'gann and Wally didn't give a clear explanation, shouting and giggling and dodging each other around the kitchen island.
"Gimme!"
"Come get it!"
M'gann shot over the table, grabbing at the remote.
"Hey, whoa, slow down everyone." Dinah called. "Now, what were you two doing before the chase started?"
The children looked up at her with doe eyes, then at each other. "Oh, uh, we were playing the Madagascar DVD game." M'gann explained, pointing at Wally. "Then he wouldn't le me take my turn."
"Why?" Dinah asked.
Wally shrugged, losing a fight against his grin. "Funny."
She chuckled. "Alright, give M'gann the remote and get back to your game."
"HA!" M'gann snatched it back and took off to the living room, Wally hot on her heels.
Dinah shook her head, smiling. She checked the chore chart and headed upstairs.
Dick was on his laptop, lying in bed, Artemis was sat on her own, explaining something to Conner. "It's a really good movie. There's a lot of blood and gore, but there's some really cool cinematography and it's all about sisterhood and coming of age, and... Hi mom."
"Talking about that movie again?"
"It's SO good." She replied. "I wanna show it to Conner."
Dinah wasn't sure about that; there were a lot of sex scenes in that movie and it was rated R for a reason. "Dick, sweetie?"
"Hmm?" He pulled an earbud out.
"You're on for dishes tonight."
"Got it." The boy replied genially.
"Look." Conner said, speaking up for the first time in almost an hour of listening to Artemis. They followed his finger to the window.
"Snow!"
"Hold it!" Dinah shouted, but there were already kids streaming past her and down the stairs. Unable to keep up, she followed them at her own post-pubescent pace.
Wally and M'gann were already outside, their game abandoned.
"This is real snow?" The latter basked in the cold, twirling like a spinning top so that her skirt flew out at all angles. "Wow, it's so much colder and wetter than it looks on TV."
"This is nothing, out in Blue Valley we'd get ten times this much snow."
"Ugh." Artemis exclaimed. "Don't get him on his midwestern kid rant again."
"Just snow and cornfields out there."
"We know."
"I miss old Nebraska now that I'm closer to the coast..."
Forming an unspoken agreement to just let Wally ramble, the others pushed past into the cold.
"This is awesome, I haven't seen snow like this in years!" Dick remarked. "Look at how fast it's coming down."
He was right, the snow was coming down handsomely, blocking out the surrounding houses in a thick white fog.
"Do you think we can build a snowman?!" M'gann exclaimed. "I've always wanted to build a snowman!"
"Maybe when it gets a little deeper."
"Hey, Hey, Hey!" Dinah shouted out the garage door. "Get back in here!"
"But the snow!"
Dinah shook her head. "I get how Conner could not realize he needs a jacket, but the rest of you really should know better!"
They tramped back inside, apologizing, as their foster mother went to the closet.
"I've already removed the appropriate garments." Kaldur held up a wire mesh box. "I hope you don't mind."
"Of course not, thank you." She took the scarves and hats and jackets back out to the garage. She grabbed a kid at random and began dressing it for the weather. "Come on, everyone get your jackets on. You can fight crime and save the day all you like, but I won't have you freezing out there."
With murmurs of reluctant agreement the children began to don their outer layers.
"It's okay," M'gann said, rather optimistically. "by the time we get all this on the snow will be even deeper!"
"By the time we get all this on it'll be September!" Wally complained impatiently as his mom draped a scarf around him.
Conner was unlucky, even though he didn't really get cold, he was still made to wear a jacket.
Dick, who was treating 'get dressed' as if it were a race, shot to the door again. "See you guys out there!"
He burtst out into the minor blizzard, filled with such infantile wonder and excitement by how the neighborhood was transformed by just a little snow. He twirled a little, slipped, and landed square on his butt, laughing. There was something so exciting about even a little bit of snow, even if it barely stuck to the ground.
The others joined him quickly, dragging Kaldur with them. Except Conner, who was delayed by starting a fight over whether or not he needed a scarf.
Obviously snowballs were first on the agenda, after all, they had Artemis out there; Artemis took every game of assassin or tag as if it's her sworn duty to make enemies.
Dinah watched from the livingroom window to keep warm, watching the fight escalate. She was almost glad to see the kids playing so ruthlessly. Thanks to the cold weather they'd been rather shut in and needed to blow off some steam. She gave them about thirty minutes, getting started on dinner in the meantime, before going out to call them in. "INSIDE!"
"Aw, but it's not even deep enough to build forts yet."
"Maybe it will be after dinner, come inside."
At dinner, the primary topic was how exciting it was to get snow. Dinah stewed on the difficulties of shoveling and salting the sidewalk and keeping warm, while the kids talked about what they would doif the house got snowed in.
Wally finished dinner first. "Mom, can we go out star tipping?"
"Star tipping?"
Wally tried to explain. "You, uh, you look up at a star and spin around fifteen times, and then you look into your friend's flashlight and it makes you fall over."
"...I'm not sure that's safe."
"It'll be fine, we used to do it all the time when I was in Blue Valley."
"and," Dick agreed, "The snow will cushion our fall."
Dinah thought it over carefully. "Only if you all bundle up."
"We will!"
"And if there are any head injuries, everyone's coming inside."
"Got it."
"Alright, go for it." She relented.
Dinah prepared a couple hot water bottles, laying extra blankets on many of the children's beds.
When the kids inevitably reentered after M'gann hit their head, she sent them all off to take turns in the shower while she tended to the minor wound. M'gann and Conner didn't get inured often, so when they did, even the most minor bruise felt like a big deal.
She stuck a bandaid over the spot, kissed it to make it get better fast, and sent the martian upstairs to get ready for bed.
She had to fight Conner a second time that day, trying to make him wear a sweater. She didn't want him sleeping in his drafty little closed in just a shirt, but Conner seemed to think wearing a sweater was some kind of personal insult. So when she finally deescalated the situation and get the boy into a sweatshirt, it was practically bedtime already.
The went by to tuck in the kids who wanted it and wish them good night before returning to her own bed, exhausted and cold, but happy.
It was no surprise, early the next morning, when she found M'gann snuggled into Kaldur's bed, nor when she found Dick and Artemis cuddled up in Wally's. The night was cold after all.