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Charlie is freezing.

He spends day in and day out on the reserve, surrounded by fire-breathing dragons, and he's still cold. He's not sure how to make himself warm. He's been cold his entire life, so is there even a warm for him? If he doesn't know what warmth feels like, maybe this is it.

"Hey, Charlie," Alex, his coworker, says, giving him a smile and pulling him out of his thoughts.

No, Charlie decides, looking at Alex, this isn't warmth.

Because when Alex looks at Charlie, her smile has something in it. It's something that Charlie can't explain, but it's something.

When Charlie looks at Alex, he still feels cold.

"Hi," he tells her. They're in the changing room at the reserve, switching from their thick leather protective gear to normal clothes. They've been friends for years and it's no big thing to change in front of each other—everyone at the reserve is like a family—but Charlie always feels slightly uncomfortable changing in front of Alex.

Alex isn't subtle. Neither is any of their friends. It's pretty obvious: Charlie is Alex's soulmate.

"Anything interesting happen in your side of the reserve?" Alex asks. Charlie grins, because yes, something interesting did happen—two of the dragons got into a fight. It was intense and Charlie can feel himself smiling as he tells Alex. His thoughts are pulled away from the fact that he's never been warm.

He doesn't know if he'll ever be warm.

And that scares him.