How To Warm Up a Cold Cress

"Thorne?" Captain Carswell Thorne crawled out from underneath the Rampion's furnace. He looked up to see his girlfriend, Cress, looking down at him, arms wrapped around herself. "Is the furnace fixed yet? I'm getting really cold." Poor Cress had been freezing ever since the furnace had gone out while they were in the north of the European Union. She was tiny and got cold easily. She frequently shivered in AC.

"Almost done. I just need to reboot the heating system. It might take a while to work all the bugs out but once it's up and running again we'll be nice and warm again." He rolled back underneath the furnace and tightened the last few parts. Then he rolled back out and went over to a control panel. He pulled up the heating system and hit the reboot button. "There we go! Should only take a half hour or so to work."

"That long?" Cress shivered. "Are you sure? I'm freezing." Thorne felt bad for his little hacker. She had grown up in a climate controlled satellite. The fluxes in temperature on Earth were completely new to her despite having lived on Earth for about 6 months now. There was also the fact that she got sick so easily. Her immune system was very weak since she hadn't been exposed to the outside world as a child. If he wasn't careful she'd catch a cold again.

"I have an idea." Thorne grabbed Cress's hand and led her down the hall to the mess hall and into the kitchen. He pulled some milk out of the fridge and put it in the microwave to warm up. Then he found two mugs and some white packets, pouring the brown powdery contents of the packets into each of the mugs. He put a spoon in each mug and poured warm milk into each, stirring up the contents until they were thoroughly mixed. Finally, he pulled out a canister of the fridge and topped each mug with a pile of whipped cream. "TA DA!" Thorne said, handing Cress a mug. Cress stared at it, confused.

"What is it?"

"Only the best drink to warm you up when you're cold. Hot Chocolate!" Cress lit up. She and Thorne had already discovered that Cress was a chocoholic and now she had this warm chocolatey new drink to enjoy. She leaned in and took a sip. It was definitely hot but also creamy and chocolatey. She hummed happily.

"It's so Good!"

"I know! I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner. Are you warm now?

"I'm warmer but I'm still pretty cold."

"Hmmm…" Thorne thought to himself. Then his face lit up, the way it only did when he had an idea. "C'mon," Thorne said, grabbing his own mug of hot chocolatey goodness. "I guess we still need to warm you up." Cress followed him to the Captain's Quarters that they shared. At first, when they'd started traveling around delivering the cure of letumosis, they'd attempted to sleep in separate rooms. However, they'd quickly found that they both had nightmares following Cinder's revolution and their time on Luna. They'd quickly given up on the idea of sleeping separately and shared Thorne's quarters. This was better because now when either of them had a nightmare, the other was there to wake them up or make them feel better.

Thorne took Cress's mug from her and set it down on the side table next to his own mug. Then he pulled her onto the bed so that the two of them were sitting next to each other.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"For what?"

"This!" With that Thorne pulled up the thick, fluffy blanket and wrapped it around the two of them, pulling Cress into his lap as he did so. He nuzzled his head into her neck before resting it on her shoulder as she giggled happily. "Are you warm now?"

"A bit, I'm still a little chilly though," Cress said through her giggles.

"Still cold huh?" Thorne said thoughtfully. He was quiet for a second. "Alright! I guess we'll just have to go to Plan K!"

"Plan K? Shouldn't it be Plan C?"

"Nope! We've done Plan C: Chocolate and Cuddles."

"Then what does Plan K stand for?" Thorne gently kissed her neck.

"That." He began peppering her neck with little kisses and nips.

"Wha- What! What are you doing?"

"Warming you up," Thorne said, huskily, refusing to pull away from her neck. Cress felt all the blood rush to her face. No matter how long she spent with him, Carswell Thorne never failed to make her blush whenever he got affectionate with her. There was still that part of her who couldn't believe that this man who could have any woman he wanted, had chosen her. That he was in love with her plain self. She didn't care what he said, it still felt like a fairy tale whenever she was with him. Cress felt herself practically purring.

"Are you warm now?"

"Hmm…" she hummed.

"I didn't quite catch that."

"I'm warmer but I think I'm still a little bit cold." Cress was bright crimson but she wasn't backing down. Thorne smirked.

"Well then… we'll just have to go to Plan S." He fell back on the bed, pulling a squealing Cress with him.

Needless to say, Cress warmed up. And it wasn't thanks to the heaters which had been on the whole time.