Phoenix Maplewood there was an empty space in the shadow beside you

She paused at the sound of footfalls, made loud in the silence. She did not turn until he announced himself with a low rumble, the sound ever so familiar. Snow settled thick across her shoulders, was certainly already settling on his, and when she turned to face him her voice was of concern, the words not the ones that battled in her mind but a simple statement. "you're cold."  She moved nearer, mind grasping at the opportunity to think of something else and ignore the thoughts that strengthened when she saw his face, the conflicted feelings she hid well beneath her thick pelt. 

It was not that her love for the sun-touched man was in doubt, no, it was something different, something that at times seemed clear but at others, seemed hard to place. Her breath came thick in the air, fogged and misty, as she regarded him a moment longer. Perhaps this place was too northernly, perhaps they ought to have gone south. Perhaps she ought not to thirst for the uncertainty, the openness of her youth, but find comfort in the security and the knowledge of the future. These thoughts crisscrossed through her mind, like a spider's web gone terribly wrong, the errant threads of thought linked by the oddest things. 

She moved near, swinging her head over his shoulder with the ease of practiced motion, dissuading the snow that settled there. She sighed, low and soft, and wondered if she was being selfish.