Frosted

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

“I envy you.”

“Hm?” I blink and look up, my hands faltering around a half-formed snowball.

“I envy you.” Carol repeated. The tiny strip of face visible between her pulled-low hood and thick cowl doesn’t give me much to work with.

“Uh… sorry?” I dust my hands off, fumbling for something to say.

“Don’t be.” She turns away to prod the snowy curb with her boot. “It’s not… I wasn’t trying to complain. I just… it’s a complement, really.”

“Mm.” It doesn’t feel like a complement. “It’s… the Winterchild thing, right?”

“Yeah.” Her hood turns back towards me. “Like… look at you! I can’t believe you’re fine like this!”

Better than fine. I’m in my element. This is the only time my hometown feels like a home.

“Uh, yeah. There’s a reason I spend summers working in the artic. Anything above like fifteen degrees feels sweltering.”

That… came out sharper than I’d meant.

The silence is now awkward.

“…Sorry.” I’m not sure what for, but I do mean it.

“No, no, it… I started it.” She forces a laugh.

“Here, I, um…” I slowly extend a hand. “I can try and take your cold. Leave you with, y’know, your natural warmth.”

“Really?” Her voice is lively again. Curious. Eager.

I always forget how exciting this kind of thing is to all-seasons folk. Those without a strong enough alignment to Twist.

But even though it’s another distance between us, her childlike enthusiasm makes me smile. “Well, it shouldn’t make you colder, at least. Worth a shot?”

“Ok!” Her hand, wrapped in its thick puffy sheath, clumsily clasps mine.

I focus on the Threads, coaxing the silken winter away from her body until it forms a cocoon, a second skin of perfect chill a few millimetres from her.

“…Did it work?”

“Yeah!” She fumbles with her cowl, pulling it down so I can see her beaming grin, then suddenly hugs me. The cold shell I’ve woven for her making this the first time such close contact with someone isn’t stifling.

“Woo!” I hug back tightly. Does she notice that the gesture is free and comfortable? “Now we can both have fun.”

“Can… can I touch snow like this?” She tugs a mitten off and stoops to gingerly prod the ground. The Threads of the snow splaying across her protective cocoon, not quite touching her skin. “I can! Wow, this is… weird. But a good weird.”

I grin. “Soooo… no excuse not to have a snowball fight, right?”

“I gue- blagh!”

Bullseye! Right in the kisser. And the Threads just harmlessly scatter against the shell and flutter away.

My victory revere is broken by her grabbing another snowball from the pile and squashing it into my face.

“EAT YOUR MOTHER, YOU FROSTY SHIT!”

“That’s not- blagulath!”

Prompt was “Warmth in the Ice”