"So, how did you like Coppelia, Victor?" asked Nora as they left the theater together. "Think it'll be your first ballet of many?"
Fries was silent. "I thought you said it was a comedy, Nora," he said.
"It is," she insisted. "A comedy is any drama that has a happy ending."
"It did not have a happy ending," he replied.
"Sure it did," she said. "The two young lovers were reconciled and married…"
"But what about the poor doctor?" asked Fries. "He was so desperately in love with this doll he created that he was willing to sacrifice a human soul to bring her to life. And then when he thinks he has succeeded, when the cup of happiness is at his lips, he discovers that it is all a cruel prank, and she was never alive at all. And his recompense is a bag of money? What good is money to him when his heart is breaking? He will never have his love. It is an incredibly tragic story."
Nora looked at him, and sighed heavily. "Well, that's ruined that ballet for me," she muttered.
"I am sorry…" he began.
"No, you're right, Victor," she said. "I just never thought about it that way before." She grinned. "You have a very gloomy personality, you know that? Forget the Iceman, I'm going to start calling you the Raincloud."
Fries was silent. "That was a joke," she said, threading her hand through his arm as they walked.
"The…experience was an enjoyable one," he said, trying to ignore the warmth spreading to his face again.
"You seemed distracted through a lot of it," she replied.
"Yes, I…I was," he stammered. He couldn't tell her that he had been distracted from the ballet by her face. But he had never seen such happiness beaming out from anyone's eyes as Nora's did while she had watched the production. And he was drawn toward her happiness, like flowers toward the sun.
"Well, you'd better take me home," she said as they reached his car. "Unless you want to go to your place for a drink first."
"Do…you?" he stammered, surprised.
"I just suggested it, didn't I, Victor?" she said, grinning as she climbed into the passenger seat.
Fries unlocked the door to his apartment and held it open for her. "Fan of minimalism, I see," she said, nodding as she looked around the scantily furnished room.
A soft miaowing made her look down, to see a cat appearing out of the shadows and rubbing itself against her legs. "Aw, hi, sweetie," she said, bending down to pet it. "I didn't think of you as an animal person, Victor."
"I am full of surprises, like you said," he replied. "This is Gretchen."
"Unusual name," said Nora, as the cat began purring.
"It is from Goethe's Faust," he explained. "Gretchen was seduced by Faust, but saved from damnation at the end of the play. Just as…this Gretchen was."
"What did she do to deserve damnation?" asked Nora, grinning.
"I found her dying in the street," replied Fries. "She had been run over, and lost a lot of blood. Too much to live long. So I…froze her."
Nora stared at him. "You froze her?" she repeated.
"Yes," he said. "I kept her in cryostasis until I could do a blood transfusion, and then I revived her. And as you can see, she is none the worse for wear."
The cat miaowed again, moving to rub affectionately against Fries's legs. "I have always been fascinated by the ability to freeze, the ability to slow time and possibly…cheat death," murmured Fries as he stroked the cat gently. "When I was a boy, I tried to freeze my pets to prolong their lives, until my…parents discovered what I was doing. They put a stop to that very quickly. And then they sent me away, to a…correctional facility for troubled children. I think they were hoping that with enough pain, they could beat the desire for knowledge out of me. They failed. "
He entered the kitchen with Gretchen following him. Nora stood in the doorway, watching him as he poured two drinks. "I'm sorry," she murmured, softly.
"Do not be – it was not your fault," he retorted. "And I did not stay there long. I ran away, left the country, started a new life here in Gotham. But I have never forgotten the penalty for being different. Nor the extreme cruelty of ignorant people in the face of the unknown."
He handed her a drink. "You wondered why I do not often smile. I have not had a reason to for a very long time," he said. "You have changed all that, Nora. I thank you."
She beamed. "Well, let's drink to your smile, Victor," she said, raising her glass.
"Let us drink to my reason," he murmured, nodding at her.
They drank in silence. "And now that we have had our drink, perhaps I should take you home," he said. "We both have an early start tomorrow."
She nodded. "Would you like to…do this again sometime?" she asked slowly.
"Yes," he said, firmly. "I would like that very much."
He pulled up the car in front of her apartment. "I had a wonderful time tonight, Victor," she said, smiling at him as she opened the door. "Thank you."
He caught her hand. "Nora…will you answer me one question? It is something I have been thinking about for a long time."
"Sure," she said.
He looked at her. "I do not understand…why you work with ice," he murmured. "When everything about you is warm and alive. It seems nonsensical to me that you should devote yourself to something cold and static. It is so unlike you."
She grinned. "Maybe that's why I love it," she murmured.
Then she leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss on his lips. "Goodnight, Victor," she whispered.
"Goodnight…Nora," he stammered. He watched her as she entered her apartment complex, turning to smile and wave at him before she shut the door.
He drove home in a daze. His entire body was flushed and reeling from the kiss. He had never experienced anything so electric, and he suddenly felt as if he were truly alive. He had always thought of his heart as a frozen entity, frozen by the coldness and cruelty of humanity. But now he could feel it beating, loud and strong. In an odd reversal of roles, he felt almost like Sleeping Beauty awakening from a death sleep by the kiss of true love. Fries had never been a man who believed in the morals of fairy tales, for fairy tales claimed the good ended happily and the wicked were punished. That had never been his experience of life.
But for the first time, he began to hope that was about to change.