Snow-kissed

It was unfair, Arion decided. It was grossly unfair how good she looked in winter. Evangeline's nose had been kissed pink by snowflakes, brown eyes lit up by the Christmas decorations draping casually over the evergreen trees. A heavy woollen sweater covered her popsicle-stick fingers.

"What?" She laughed. Her dimples appeared just above her thick yellow scarf, almost shyly. "Stop staring at me, you creep."

He shook his head. His heart would give out at this rate. He had held out--for how long? Through summer, when she had first smiled at him, making his cheeks burn as hotly as the sun; through fall, the maple leaves that danced around her mimicking the way his head spun whenever her clear, bell voice broke through the chilly air.

He hadn't realised he had drawn this close to her. Her doe eyes were big, her cheeks lightly squished under his gloved fingers. A question hung unanswered between them, jostled occasionally by the puffs of smoke they exhaled from their warm mouths, until--

"Go on, then." The corners of Evangeline's mouth had quirked upwards.

Arion leaned in and for a glorious moment, he breathed her in--then they were anchored, grounded by the warmth of each other's lips. She tasted like snow, cold and fresh. He felt her smiling. "Took you long enough," her hot breath dusted over him.

He drew back, his own smile breaking through the white landscape, a brilliant ray that melted the frost around him. He put a hand gently in hers, sharing his warmth. She ducked her head. "C'mon, you big idiot."

The snow parted under their shoes, allowing them to trudge on smoothly into the palely smiling sunset.