Light A Way

37

"You know, I distinctly remember seeing the harbour close to my house freeze up once."

"Did you go down?" Charles asked curiously while holding tightly onto Elsie's hand when she decided to climb up onto the stone flower beds and walk along the rim. One arm outstretched and the other lowered to still hold onto his hand in case she slipped.

She sent him a look, one which was accompanied by a very annoyed frown. "Of course not. Perish the thought of that. Think of all the kids I could have accidentally drowned! I've got a high enough body count as it is, don't you think?" She shook her head and stopped. Looking upwards and she blew out a breath which came out in a small plume. "Sorry...didn't mean to snap, it's just..."

"The little things?" Charles offered while holding up his other hand. "Come on," from the bed Elsie was standing on, it went up a level. And from up on this other level he would have to let her unwillingly go.

"Hm?" She seemed to snap out of her thoughts and looked down. Smiling she leaned down slowly, placing her hands on his shoulders and gently fell down while he steadied her by placing his hands on her waist. "Have you ever been ice skating?" She asked curiously once she was back on solid ground. Her question got a raised eyebrow as a response at first before Charles looked thoughtfully around. He shook his head eventually. "Can we go sometime?"

"Why not?" Shrugging he turned and reached down to hold onto her hand as they continued their walk. Truth be told, he always rather liked his home in winter. There was something eerily charming about it. It was eerie because they got snowed in. It made getting from the home itself hard, let alone getting back to it. But yet...the crisp snow which coated everything in a dreamy white, it was like something from a fairytale. It made it also look like something from the front of a Christmas card, he couldn't help but muse over this before looking down at Elsie. "When was the last Christmas you celebrated?" Though the holiday was still a month away, he couldn't help but ask.

Elsie frowned, shrugging she shook her head. "Hm, well, we tried to celebrate it on the road. But...it didn't always work, you know? Like...not all of us celebrated that holiday. So in the end we just stopped." Pausing she held up her other hand and counted quickly away on her fingers. "I was fifteen, that was my last one. Why?"

Charles shrugged slowly looking around he smiled slowly. "First Christmas."

"Oh how positively quaint." She said dramatically while putting a hand to her mouth and trying to hide the grin which was growing. Perhaps making her already existing accent sound posher wasn't really helping the moment, but she did it regardless. But then, he was right. Smiling she nudged her shoulder against his. "What do people like you like for Christmas?"

"'People like you'? What do you mean by that?" He said sounding mock hurt.

"Hm, well, you already have a nice house...not that I can buy you that, you have it all decked out, you have pretty much everything you could want, surely?"

"Are you thinking on what to buy me for Christmas, Elsie?" Charles stopped and looked at her with a growing smile. It started off as a smirk but grew into a smile as she stopped too and stood looking rather flustered. A rather obvious pink shade was appearing slowly on her cheeks. With her face downcast, it was still visible. Mumbling something-or-rather she kicked at the snow beneath her feet before her face got tilted upwards. "It doesn't matter." He said, that and he honestly didn't wish to point out the obvious: what money was she going to buy a present with? She evidently hadn't thought of this, she just got wrapped up in the thought of sharing presents.

Pouting slowly she sighed and threw her arms up in the air and turned away. "Fine! It's the thought that counts right?" She asked while shuffling away. She almost missed the look which was sent her way. Finding an opportune moment to breach the subject of feelings was hard. Or rather Elsie was making it harder still because she didn't wish to be still long enough to actually have a proper meaningful conversation. That moment they just had would've been great, if only she didn't walk away. With a sigh Charles turned on his heels and walked after her. "So! I've been thinking...the snow is meant to be clearing up soon, yeah? Can we try this attempt at going out again?" She looked up at him when he appeared by her side again. He simply nodded at her while putting his hands in his coat pockets. Frowning slowly she put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him from further walking on. "What is it?"