Disclaimer: I do not own Blindspot. More like it's the other way around… I've come to realize that THEY own ME. :)

A/N: Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! Clearly we're going to get to Christmas Day before Jane and Kurt, even though they had a head start, but they'll catch up... ;)

He'd felt her lay her head down against his chest, and despite the three layers of clothing between them, he couldn't help but feel like nothing separated them. He realized then that putting his hand over her hair with gloves on was probably – though he couldn't see it, or even feel it very well through the knit fabric – making a mess of her hair, so his hand stopped moving and just sat atop her head, only his thumb moving ever so slightly.

Also realizing then that, no matter how comfortable this unlikely position had become, it was in their best interest to stay awake, he knew he'd better say something to Jane.

"Jane?" he said, his voice coming out a little hoarsely. "You still awake?"

When she chuckled, he felt it through his whole body, as she shook slightly with laughter. She was on top of him, after all, and it was a movement that he couldn't fail to notice. "Mmmmm… comfortable enough to fall asleep but yes, still awake. Why?"

"That's good, actually, because it's really better if we stay awake. Your body temperature – well, not just yours personally, but anyone's – falls when you sleep," he told her, now glad for what he'd long since considered to be knowledge that he would never use.

"So what you're saying is, for my own safety, I should stay awake and enjoy the pleasure of your company?" she said, her left hand now flat on his chest. He could feel that she'd leaned her chin against her hand again, as she had a little while ago, as she looked in vain in his direction.

He couldn't help but smile at her question. "If you want to look at it that way, I guess so… sure. Whatever works."

"Have you texted Sarah lately?" she asked him. "To give her an update." There was a heavy sigh and she knew that that meant that he hadn't.

"No," he said reluctantly. "I was hoping not to have to tell her about this. She's… she's not going to take it nearly as well as you did, I think." After all, his sister had never really dealt with unforeseen emergencies very well. It seemed to Kurt that he had inherited all of those genes.

"Well unless it's now clear for us to continue, I think you'd better text her," Jane told him seriously. "And actually, even if it is clear to continue, she should get an updated ETA."

Nodding at her in the darkness, he let his hand drop from her head via her cheek, brushing his fingers across it slowly.

"I guess we should check on the white world outside the blanket, huh?" he asked, to which she nodded, her chin still perched on her hand, so that he could feel the pressure of her nod against his chest. "Alright, but just to warn you… it's going to be very bright, and possibly very cold, when I take the blanket off of our heads."

"Okay," she replied, "thanks for the warning." She inhaled sharply at the not so sudden but still marked difference in temperature and brightness, her eyes taking a few seconds to adjust to the difference as the cold air hit her cheeks. She squinted as he stopped moving the blanket down, stopping just far enough down so that they could see the world outside the car. The blanket now actually rested on the top of her head, and Kurt wasted no time in pulling it more tightly around her, then up towards his shoulders to compensate for the noticeable loss of heat. Still, that left a large uncovered area between them, and she scooted up to try to make up for some of the distance. This meant that he could pull the blanket back up a little farther, which was helpful, and it also meant that their faces were now closer together.

They both stared into each other's eyes, smiling almost in awe, before they remembered why they'd taken the blanket off of their head in the first place, and craned their necks to see outside the car. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see. Everything was white in every direction. The storm, as the howling wind that they'd been able to hear from under the blanket correctly suggested, was still just as bad outside.

As much as she was disappointed to see the storm, she breathed a sigh of relief over the fact that she could now see Kurt, even if it was only for a few minutes. There was just something about looking at him that calmed her down.

Even though logically she'd known that things weren't clear yet, she couldn't help feeling more than a little bit disappointed. Not that she wasn't happy to have an excuse to be laying where she was… she'd gotten used to this position, actually, and she now found it rather cozy. Even so, she preferred not having to worry about whether or not they were going to live to see Christmas Day. She wiggled her way up higher against him, then awkwardly tugged the blankets up after her, so that less heat was lost in the gap between them. This meant that their face were closer together than ever.

"As long as we're uncovered," he said, "we should have a snack."

"We should?" She looked at him in surprise. She wasn't hungry, and she was about to protest the idea, when he continued talking.

"Yes," he said with a nod of his head, "both staying hydrated and eating something small help your body stay warm. It needs fuel, after all."

"And here I didn't realize I was stranded with a Boy Scout," Jane replied in amusement, to which Kurt only chuckled, reaching his right arm outside of the blanket awkwardly toward his bag. She felt the cool air rush in between them, and shivered slightly, at which he tightened his left arm around her shoulders, then pulled the blanket up a little higher.

"I'd say being prepared has worked out pretty well so far," he said, enjoying the fact that he could glance at her again after the time with their heads under the blanket. Having reached what he wanted from his bag, his arm swung slowly back around toward them.

Knowing that they needed at least a little space between them if they were going to be able to eat and drink, and that he'd need to at least be able to pull himself partially upright to drink, she anchored her forearms on either side of his head so that she could hold up her own weight slightly, taking it temporarily off of his chest. This presented a different problem, of course, since she didn't have a free hand.

"Here," he said, trying to figure out how to hand her the water bottle, only to quickly figure out that she didn't have a free hand for him to put it in just then. Looking at her with a grimace, he wondered how she would react to his next thought. She'd done surprisingly well so far, and seemed to be taking everything in stride…

This may be a little awkward but it's not exactly unpleasant… she thought to herself.

Unable to find an alternative, he uncapped the bottle and lifted the opening slowly up to her mouth, careful not to tip it too far too fast. After all, if it spilled, it would be on him, and getting wet right now was a very, very bad idea. Normally a little spill of water wouldn't be something he'd think twice about, but this time he knew better. Cold and wet in this situation could turn dangerous very quickly.

She blushed slightly when she realized that he was going to hold the bottle up to her mouth, but it really was the solution that made the most sense. Taking a small drink, she realized that she'd actually been thirsty and hadn't realized it. He tipped the bottle upright again, and she smiled. "Thanks," she said shyly.

Then it was Kurt's turn. He lifted himself up slowly, as Jane lifted herself a little higher on her arms to give him space, so that he could have a drink as well. Even though she leaned back, he had still moved closer to her, and she had to move slightly to the side for him to have room to hold the bottle high enough take a drink. When he finished, and she moved her face back to where it had been, their faces were so close that their noses were nearly touching.

They stared into each other's eyes in surprise for a few seconds, not having expected the sudden proximity, before they both smiled, almost at the same time. Jane looked away for a second, but when she looked back she saw the Kurt was still watching her closely. Without taking time to think about it, she leaned forward the tiniest bit, just enough for her nose and her forehead to bump against his, just as they'd done… had it been last night? It seemed like long ago now, and yet it had to have been within the last twenty-four hours – less than that, even.

That small amount of contact, as innocent as it was, was enough to make Jane feel like sparks were moving from the two contact points into the rest of her head. Never mind that you're literally laying on top of him, silly, she told herself, but she couldn't help it. After all, their only exposed skin was on their faces, so this was just different.

"We need to eat something, too," he told her reluctantly. Not that he was complaining about where he was just then, with their faces pressed together… but he knew that it was important to stay focused on the basics. Like what they needed to do to not freeze. Relaxing back against the pillow behind him, he reluctantly allowed the contact with her face to break, watching her carefully.

She saw the expression on his face when he leaned away, and she could tell that he wasn't removing his face from against hers because he wanted to, but because he was right, they needed to eat something… and then, despite the fact that she loved being able to see him again, she supposed that they should put their heads back under the blanket. It was certainly warmer under there, after all.

"I have some trail mix," he said. "Maybe not the easiest thing to eat under the circumstances, but…"

"What's a little more awkward while we're at it, right?" she asked with a chuckle. Without even thinking about it, she moved her elbows ever so slightly, and suddenly she felt them, despite their layers, against his shoulders. Though it hadn't been on purpose, her forearms had framed his face, and when she moved her thumbs just a tiny bit, she saw that they were practically in his hair on either side of the top of his head.

Slow down, she thought to herself, suddenly a little bit panicked. She pulled her thumbs tightly into her fists, contenting herself to lay them against the pillow on either sides of him.

He was watching her very carefully – as he had been the whole time – and he noticed her expression as her elbows came to rest against his shoulders. Again, he certainly didn't hate the sensation. She hadn't done it on purpose, he could tell from the surprise on her face, and it took a minute before a look of mild panic mixed in with her surprise faded from her expression. She looked back into his eyes then, almost as if she'd forgotten that he was watching her. Smiling reassuringly, he was glad to see her seem to relax again when she looked at him. It could have been his imagination, but he'd noticed that that had seemed to happen several times now.

"So this mix has cashews, almonds, pecans, dried cranberries and M&Ms," he told her. "Any of those you don't like?" he asked her quietly. There was no reason to talk any louder, after all. She squinted slightly, as if she was thinking. "That you know of, anyway?" he added gently.

Smiling at his thoughtfulness, she replied, "Cranberries are good. M&Ms are definitely good… As for the nuts… I think I've had them all, I just don't really remember which one was which." He nodded, looking down at the bag he was holding to see if he was going to be able to pick them up one at a time. This whole thing was going to be more difficult with gloves on, anyway, so he took the glove off of his right hand.

"Hey, what're you doing?" she asked in alarm. "You can't afford to lose the heat…"

He just shook his head at her, holding a cashew between his fingers. Her eyes widened slightly, finally realizing what was about to happen, that he was going to feed her the trail mix… It had been one thing to hold the water bottle for her, but this was… This was a whole other level of intimacy. She knew that she needed to eat something, but… She felt herself beginning to panic.

You remember that you're lying on top of him, right? the voice in her head asked, pleading for her to be rational. And that the alternative is freezing to death? And that you actually don't hate this… You actually really, really like the idea…?

She could feel herself struggling to breathe just a little bit as her thoughts overwhelmed her. Looking away from him, she could still feel him watching her, even when she closed her eyes for a second, opening them again and only making eye contact with him again very slowly. Stop freaking out, she ordered herself, but it seemed that that was easier said than done.

"Jane," he said softly, bringing her back to reality. "Hey…" It was his most soothing, calm voice, the one he used when he could see that she was lost inside her head and couldn't quite get back out on her own. She took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly, still feeling unsteady as she looked at him.

Stop overthinking it, she demanded of her brain. Stop! But the words weren't quite enough, and continued not to be able to catch her breath completely.

All he could think of was helping her stop panicking, both because she needed to stay calm in general, so she didn't strain her body too much, but mostly because he hated to see her get herself so worked up. Shifting slightly toward the back of the seat to her right and his left, he tried to lean her towards it by lifting his right shoulder slightly. She didn't understand what he was doing at first, and tried to fight the momentum.

"Just lean to the side," he said, and smiled when she did just that. Though she clearly didn't understand what he was trying to do, she'd done it simply because he'd told her that she should. To him, that said a lot about the level of trust that she had for him. He ate the cashew that he'd been holding, putting his glove back on his cold fingers, and then held the bag up. "Can you get it yourself now?" he asked.

Understanding dawned on her then. He'd leaned her over to her right, towards the seat, so that all of her weight wouldn't be leaning against her arms and she could pick up the trail mix with her left hand. Leaning harder to the right to compensate for only having one arm to lean on, she found that this technique actually worked.

"Not that I wouldn't be willing to feed you trail mix…" he said with a devilish grin as he watched her turn pink with embarrassment.

Her face screwed up in mock annoyance as she chewed. "Shut up, Weller," she said a few seconds later, when her mouth was empty.

"I can say that because you don't have a free hand to punch me with," he added, grinning even harder. Biting her lip to keep from laughing, she punched him gently with her left hand before taking another small amount of trail mix from the bag. "I stand corrected," he said, once he stopped laughing.

"I don't think you're standing," she told him matter-of-factly.

"No, you're right… this is much better than standing," he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her. Rolling her eyes, she couldn't help but laugh. "Do you want any more of this?" he asked her.

Realizing that he was helping to hold her up so that she could feed herself, and that it probably wasn't something he wanted to sustain too long, she shook her head, feeling a little guilty. "No, thanks, I'm good." He nodded, shifting them back to where they'd been before, with his back squarely on the seat and her elbows against his shoulders once again – this time she had put them there on purpose, smiling at him.

Thinking back to a few minutes before, and how she'd simply lost her mind with panic for a minute or so, a concerned look suddenly clouded her face. "Sorry… about just now. I… I just wasn't expecting…"

Shaking his head at her, he held an index finger up to her lips. "Nope," he told her simply. "None of that. This is all… very, very unlike what we would have to deal with in any other situation. After everything that's happened between us…" He just shook his head, closing his eyes for a second, then opening them to look at her, seeing a slightly sheepish look on her face. "I get it. I really do. And you're doing fine, Jane. Better than fine. Most people who have probably lost their minds long ago in this situation. Don't apologize, because you have nothing to be sorry for."

Once again, he pulled his left arm tighter around her shoulders, slowly letting his finger fall from her lips. Even with a glove on that hand, the gesture hand been both innocent and intimate at the same time, and she was sorry to see it end.

"Okay?" he asked her, looking into her eyes and trying to determine whether or not she believed him.

"Okay," she whispered. I'm never going to get over how he does that, she thought. How he just knows what I'm thinking, and exactly what to say and do.

"Alright," he said, taking another handful of trail mix and then closing the bag. When he finished chewing, he tucked the bag back into his duffle bag and said, "It's getting chilly… back under the blanket for a while?"

She looked at him for a second, trying to look extra hard to make up for the fact that she'd be unable to see him shortly. "I guess so," she sighed.

Before he moved to pull the blanket up, however, she saw him pull just his left thumb out of his glove – the warmer of his two hands, since he'd only had his right glove off a few minutes ago – and before she realized what he was doing, he had put his thumb up against her right cheek, moving it slowly along her skin for a few seconds. Surprised by the touch, but certainly not about to complain, she wondered what he was doing – besides making her smile, of course.

"As I suspected… you're getting chilly," he observed. "I'm pretty chilly myself." Scooting down into the sleeping back slightly, as he'd done when he'd pulled the blanket up over their heads before, he looked at her and smiled. "Why don't you put your cheek right there?" he suggested, pointing at his cheek.

"Just for warmth," she said, and he could hear the laughter in her voice.

"What else?" he asked innocently. She shook her head, smiling broadly, and obediently slowly lowering her head down beside his until their cheeks touched. After all, why not? Compared to where she already was, lying on top of him, that was pretty innocent – and it would help warm them up, too. While her cheek was leaned against his, he pulled the blanket over their heads again.

He felt her tense just a little bit, and he leaned just the slightest bit harder against her cheek in response.

"Not so bad, right?" he asked, now speaking softly into her ear.

Leaning into him in reply, in much the same way that he had done when she'd tensed a few seconds before, her heart suddenly felt like it was overflowing with happiness. Not even sure what to do with this unfamiliar feeling, she shook her head slowly, but without lifting her cheek off of his. "Not so bad," she whispered back. They stayed that way for a few minutes, until thanks to the blanket over their heads, they did feel warmer again.

"Okay, let's switch sides," he told her quietly.

"That's probably harder than it sounds without any light," she said, wondering if they could pull off something like that, when their faces were so close together, and end up with their faces where they intended them to go… Even though she trusted him, she was a little uneasy.

Oh come on, the voice in her head said. What exactly are you afraid of?

"Easy," he said, "Just lean back and I'll lean to the other side, and then you lean back down again."

It sounded easy, but she had a feeling that the execution of this plan would somehow be slightly trickier. Still, what was the worst thing that could happen?

You could kiss him, by accident of course, the voice in her head said. While she tensed slightly at the thought, that wasn't exactly bad as far as 'worst things that could happen' went, and she knew it. As much as she didn't even want to lift her cheek off of his, she did so reluctantly, then heard rustling as he shifted his head.

"Okay, ready," he said. She moved her face back toward his so slowly, that her previous hesitant movements now seemed positively rushed. He smiled to himself when he finally felt her right cheek against his. He hadn't been sure that she'd go through with it, literally blind. He'd known how easily he could have 'accidentally' put his face at the wrong angle and ended up kissing her again, and he was pretty sure she was even thinking about just that. However, at the moment, besides keeping them alive, of course, the most important thing to him was that she start to trust him again, and know that he cared about her more than anything else – even more than how much he wanted to kiss her, which he did.

That almost makes sense, the voice in his head said sarcastically.

It makes sense to me, and that's all that matters, he told the voice, pushing it aside to focus on Jane.

When she realized that her cheek now rested against his cheek, and that they had successfully switched sides without mishap, she relaxed again. It was silly, she knew, that she was so worried about something so small as their faces bumping together when they had already kissed three times, and she had enjoyed each of them. It wasn't as though she could think of anything bad about kissing him. On the contrary, it was something she could definitely picture them doing again.

No, it was more the principle of the thing: he could easily have kissed her there under the blanket in the dark and claimed that it had been a mistake, apologized and they would both have laughed awkwardly, maybe even done it again, on purpose. Deep down she knew that she wouldn't even have minded… but there was something about this dance they were doing, this forced level of intimacy between them that never in a million years would have happened anywhere near this fast under any other circumstances. In a way, her circuits were already overloaded and she just needed to go even slower with the things that were under her control than she would have otherwise to compensate for how fast the rest of it seemed to be going.

He had felt her heart rate shoot up when they shifted, as had the tension in her, and he was glad to see that she had relaxed again almost as soon as their cheeks rested against each other. It was amazing just how much the two of them relied on eye contact for their communication, he now realized. With Jane, it had always been that way, more so than with anyone else, which was why being under this blanket was so difficult for her. As he had earlier, he had one hand on the middle of her back and one on the back of her head, smoothing her hair absently before once again resting his hand on her head, not wanting to create any additional static electricity in her hair with his gloved hand.

She chuckled against his cheek then, and he leaned into the movement happily. "You didn't text Sarah with an update, did you?" she asked in his ear.

Now it was his turn to join in laughing. That had been why they'd pulled the blanket off of them before, to assess the conditions outside of the car and then update Sarah, but then they'd had a snack, and gotten… distracted.

"What would I do without you?" he asked, and she could actually hear the smile in his voice.

"Probably freeze to death," she replied without skipping a beat, and then felt him shake with quiet laughter beneath her. The hand that was on her back pulled her tighter and the one on her head, his right, moved only very slowly away from her, reaching outside of their small blanket fort in search of his phone. He'd set it on top of his duffle bag, which was wedged between the seat and the chair in front of him, and he pulled it back under the covers almost without disturbing the blanket, determined to keep as much heat in as possible.

He had to take his glove off to use his phone, and his fingers immediately felt the cold, though it wasn't as bad as he'd expected under the blanket.

As she stared into the darkness, the soft glow of his phone screen suddenly illuminated the small, dark space around them. Seeing the light coming from behind her, Jane slowly lifted her cheek off of his, even though she'd been enjoying the contact, wanting to take advantage of this change to look at him while she could. As she'd done before, she moved back slightly and put her right hand flat against his chest, leaning her chin gently against her hand, finally able to look up at him again.

Jane couldn't help but smile. It had only been a few minutes that she hadn't been able to see his face now, but there was something very comforting about being able to see it again.

"That's better," Jane sighed, watching him intently, knowing that this chance wasn't going to last.

"What?" Kurt asked, looking up from his phone.

"I can see you," Jane replied simply. "I missed that." He smiled in her direction and then turned the phone as if to show her the message he was typing, but really just so that the light would illuminate her.

"I see you too," he said with a smile. "And yes, it's a little bit unsettling not being able to… But you know where I am. And unfortunately, we need to conserve phone batteries as much as we can."

"I know," she told him wistfully. "I just missed you." When he chuckled as he turned the phone back around to finish typing his message to Sarah, she felt it all over. His face reappeared in the darkness in front of her and she sighed slightly, enjoying the chance to see him while it lasted, knowing that it wouldn't.

"There," he said a few minutes later. "That's done. Good call, by the way. If I didn't update her and then she assumed the worst… Well, that would have been bad." He turned the phone around once more to shine the light in her direction, and she smiled up at him. "Once more before I turn it off," he said, knowing that he'd done it just to get a look at her, then he shone the light back on his face for a few more seconds before turning the screen off once more, laying the phone beside him against the back of the seat.

Sighing heavily and turning the lay her head back against his chest once more, she wondered how much longer this was going to go on. Not that she was uncomfortable, exactly, but the element of the unknown was a little bit unsettling. The most frustrating thing was knowing that since it was a storm, there really was no way to predict. Realistically, it could be an hour or it could be tomorrow or even longer before it stopped.

You should be used to uncertainty by now, she told herself, that's pretty much your life – the unknown. But that was why it bothered her so much, because she already dealt with so much of it. She craved stability, exactly because she had so little of it. And stability was exactly what she felt whenever she was with Kurt, whenever she looked at him. He had always had that effect on her.

He heard impatience in her sigh. It was understandable, given their situation, that she was frustrated. "You're doing great, Jane," he whispered. Then suddenly he had an idea, and wondered why he hadn't done this before. While the storm had appeared despite not necessarily having been forecast – at least, not for this much snow – it wouldn't hurt to look at the weather app on his phone, to see how long it was allegedly going to last. Knowing that this would backfire on him if it said the storm was going to go on for hours and hours, he decided to take that chance. If that was the case, he decided, he'd just have to think of a way to distract her. He may have smiled just a little at that thought.

When his hand left her back again, she turned her head toward the direction it had gone, though she couldn't see it.

"What're you doing?" she asked, and seconds later, she saw the glow of his phone again, and with it, his face. She smiled, feeling a tug at her heart just from the fact that she had another, unexpected chance to look at him while he did whatever it was that he was doing.

"Checking to see if the weather app has any good news for us," he told her. Hating how hopeful that one statement made her feel, she braced herself for bad news. That the snow was going to continue for… the next two days, or something along those lines.

"Okay, well first of all, there are a lot of texts from Sarah… how did she type so much in such a short time?" he asked in wonder, and Jane couldn't help but laugh. "Alright, it looks like it should be tapering off in about an hour or so," he said. It was almost 3:30 by then, so even though the sky wasn't exactly bright and sunny, it would be starting to get significantly darker right around the time the snow stopped. Of course, after that they would have to wait for a plow to come through, and he was going to have to dig out the car as well… Glad that he had a shovel in the trunk, since he hadn't been sure how many there were at the house and figured that having one couldn't hurt, he reminded himself that it could have been a lot worse.

"But we won't be able to start driving in an hour," she observed, attempting to figure in all the variables before she got too excited about the possibility of not being there for days and days after all.

"No," he agreed, "the plow will have to come through again, and I'll have to get out there and clear the snow off the car, and around the car. The plow will push the snow off the road and make a nice little wall, too, so… Let's just say it's a good thing I have a snow shovel in the trunk."

"Wait," she replied quickly, "what do you mean you'll have to go out and clear the snow? I can help you with that!" He noticed that she almost sounded hurt that he hadn't included her in the activity of clearing away the snow.

"Jane," he said evenly. "Think about it rationally. Only one of us has good snow boots. Only one of us has snow pants. You have very low boots, which the snow is probably even deeper than they are tall, and the only pants you have are jeans. You would freeze. Plus, there's only one snow shovel." Even in the dim light, he could see the frustration on her face. "Hey," he said, even more gently, "I would love to have your help, but I'm not putting you in danger, which is what I'd be doing. You don't have the gear for this weather."

She opened his mouth to keep arguing with him, but he cut her off with a look that was both stern and compassionate at the same time. "Jane," he said, more forcefully this time. "You don't have to prove anything, okay? You already put yourself in physical harm for my benefit for months at a time, and I'm not going to let you do that again. You're too important to me." He watched as she closed her mouth again, the words that had been waiting to come out dying on her lips.

"Besides," he said mischievously, "I might need someone to warm me up when I come back in."

As expected, this idea made her blush, and she laughed with a mixture of awkwardness and maybe just a little bit of happiness as she pictures such a scenario.

"Fine," she replied dramatically, rolling her eyes, but grinning despite herself before changing the subject. "So, what were you saying about us maybe not having to spend the night out here? If we're lucky?"

"I'm sorry… Are you implying that spending the night with me is unlucky?" he replied, attempting to sound as hurt as possible while working hard to keep a straight face.

Grinning and biting her lip to hold back her laughter, she replied, "In the backseat of your SUV in the middle of a snowstorm, with no idea how long we'll be trapped here? Yes, I'd say there's a certain amount of bad luck involved in that."

"Hmmm," he said, pretending to think it over carefully as he pressed the button on his phone that once again turned off his screen, plunging them into darkness all over again, and setting the phone down by his side. "So you wouldn't rule it out completely, in, say, a different setting?"

She smiled, loving that he could joke this way and take her mind off of the seriousness of where they were, and of the fact that it was now dark again. Punching him lightly on the arm, she chuckled at him.

"Let's just make it out of this first, Weller," she said in a mock serious voice. Even so, he could hear her smiling somehow.

"What I hear is that you're not saying no…" he replied, to which she laughed and punched him gently again. She knew that when he said 'spending the night with me,' he wasn't necessarily referring to anything besides physically being in the same place at the same time, and she loved that about him. Even though it still scared her, the feeling that someone might care that much about her, and that she might feel that way about him, was like a dream that was simply too good to be true… and yet, maybe it was true. She might have kissed him again at that moment, if only she'd been able to look into his eyes first. But there was no rush, after all.

A few hours, she told herself. You can do that. We can do that.

Feeling his arms tighten around her, she allowed herself to be hopeful. After all, while she was a little cold, she wasn't freezing. While she had been forced into an awkward situation, at least she was with the person she was most willing to share body heat with. And though there was a snowstorm raging outside, at least it was supposed to be over soon.

Yes, it could all have definitely been a lot worse.