Her voice was like a cold puff of wind, it hit his heart and he couldn't breathe.
"What are you doing here?" Simple and blunt, solid as the ice they were surrounded by, yet in those words Toris tried desperately to find some sort of hidden warmth, some kind of consolation.
"I—I, ah, Miss Belarus, I came to see if—" the sentence was cut off as his eyes met hers, and again he was out of breath, out of his mind. Her eyes really were pretty, like two pale blue diamonds, glittering. He had never thought that diamonds could look so furious.
Her head tilted to the side ever so slightly, allowing the curtain of her long golden hair to dance in the afternoon sun, falling against the curve of her neck. She was so much like a doll; a beautiful, untouchable china doll that could break into a million pieces with the slightest push.
He knew that she was not so delicate, though, his fingers still ached from the disaster that had been their first date. He had tried to hold her hand. She had not taken the gesture so well.
A demand pierced the gap in the conversation that he had left. "Why did you stop talking? You didn't answer me."
"I came to see if you wanted to walk with me, Miss Belarus. I…It's a nice day, and not as cold as last week, so—"
Her mouth turned down into a frown. "Nice? It is cold. It is cold every week, Lithuania, and every week you stop here, and every week you ask the same thing. Why is this?"
Toris listened, only taking in some of the words, so distracted he was by the sound of her voice. To him, even ridicule sounded sweet from her lips. He was transfixed on her eyes, now sparkling with a mixture of annoyance and confusion. She would never understand; she would never get it through the ice that covered her heart that he loved her. It wasn't that he didn't understand this—he did—but he still had a glimmering hope that one day, maybe, she would smile for him, she would speak kindly to him.
"W-Well, I thought today you might have changed your…" his voice seemed to freeze with the coldness of her glare, and it cracked slightly as he finished his sentence, "…mind."
She made him feel like a fool. She tortured him with her unreadable gazes, and blew his mind with her beauty. But as foolish as he was, he was drawn to her like a moth towards flame. He was taken with her, hypnotized by her every action, helplessly in love.
She took a step back, opening the door that she had been standing in front of since he had arrived and turning to go through it. She turned her head back towards him, her gaze almost painfully tantalizing.
"Go away."
She stepped lightly through the doorway, closing the door with a dull click behind her as she disappeared into the house. Toris stared at where she had stood for minutes after she was gone before finally turning to walk away, the numbing cold finally getting the better of him.
He kept his eyes to his feet, staring at the thin layer of snow that coated the road like white paint, spoiled by animal tracks and the boots of humans, contemplating the loss he felt in his heart. Why did he keep coming back when all she would ever do is send him away, turn him down, shock his warm, open heart with ice?
He wasn't sure, but next time maybe he would bring her flowers.