Natalia hadn't dramatically eaten snow like she had on her first attempt at skiing, but still, she was dead tired. Most afternoons were spent learning how not to fall, and it turned out to be even more exhausting than crashing head-first.

It helped that Melissa followed her closely, somehow always managing to catch her by the elbow just before she went down.

By the time they checked into the double-bedroom lakeview suite, Natalia felt as though her body had been flattened beneath a snowplough. She dozed off without realising it.

When she woke, it was dark beyond the balcony glass. Her stomach made its complaint loud and clear, and she sat up, also complaining as she did. "Ow. Ow. Ow."

Turns out, everywhere hurt.

Glancing at her phone she realised it was only 9:00 p.m. Her stomach protested again and she muttered, "Alright, alright, I get it."

Two soft knocks at the bedroom door. Natalia opened it to find Melissa in the suite's little living room, finishing a text. The powder-blue midi dress she wore was asymmetrical and elegant, long sheer sleeves drifting at her wrists.

Melissa pocketed her phone in a white leather purse and smiled. "And here I thought you'd stay horizontal until morning. Come here."

She guided Natalia down to the sofa. A faint blue glow kindled in her palm as she reached out, but Natalia caught her wrist before she could touch her.

"There's no need for that, Mel."

Melissa tilted her head. "Pale skin, slow reflexes, and…" She pressed Natalia's forearm with two fingers.

"Ow. Ow! Okay. Rude."

"I heard you through the wall, Red. You're sore and fatigued." Melissa paused. "Also, your stomach made it pretty clear that—"

"I'll just grab some snacks from the fridge. It'll be fine," Natalia's stomach betrayed her again with a loud protest. Traitor. She glared at it, then at the cartoon monkeys on her pyjamas who looked, frankly, ridiculous.

"Well, the Grill is still open. Want to grab a bite?" Melissa sounded amused.

It sounded expensive, but Natalia nodded anyway. At first, Melissa had wanted to cover the entire trip, but after Natalia protested, she agreed to send Lionel a third of the bill.

Natalia pulled a forest-green turtleneck over her head and tucked it into high-waisted boyfriend jeans. The belt needed an extra notch since she'd lost weight lately. Those nightmares had dampened her appetite. She'd only managed three burgers at lunch.

She shrugged into a red bomber and stepped out. Melissa was waiting in a long beige wool coat. Side by side, they looked like opposites, but somehow, Natalia never felt self-conscious around her.

In the corridor towards the resort's restaurant, Melissa gave Natalia a quick once-over. "Are you sure you don't want my help? You're walking a little funny."

"I do not walk funny," Natalia said and exaggerated the wobble. "Besides, pain is good. You said so."

Melissa laughed. "Ah. The masochist archetype."

"Again? No, please, what?" Natalia puffed one cheek. "Anyway, you said pain is the body warning you to avoid dangerous or harmful things."

Melissa lifted an eyebrow. "One. I'm impressed you listened. Two. That is not an invitation to collect more data."

"Glad to know you think I'm a total airhead." She nudged Melissa's elbow with hers. "But I do have a point."

"Oh? I love points. Go on."

"If you take it all away, I don't know. I feel less like a person. Because when I stretch, ow, okay, bad example, but it reminds me why I hurt. Which was skiing. Which you suggested."

"Ah, so I'm on your mind, then," Melissa teased with a pout. "The harmful source of your pain."

"Harmful of—no, that came out wrong. How do I even explain…"

"You don't have to."

Natalia searched for the right words, lost them, then tried again. "I mean, I'm grateful, Mel."

Melissa slowed.

Natalia's voice did too. "Every time I almost fell—"

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Closer than almost."

"Will you let me finish?" Natalia huffed. "Every time I almost fell, you were there. It was supposed to be your holiday, but you spent half of it catching me. I want to be reminded of… that. I mean—"

Melissa stopped her rambling with a gentle touch, brushing a tear from her cheek. "That's… not what I expected you to say." Her voice held a tenderness she rarely let anyone, including Natalia, hear. "But I enjoyed every moment."

"Of seeing me fall?"

"Of seeing you get back up every time, refusing treatment from the world's best doctor."

"Humble too," Natalia added.

Melissa rolled her eyes. "Some might say you're stubborn as hell. I'd say…" Her voice dropped as she walked ahead, glancing over her shoulder with a soft smile. "You're unexpectedly… brave. Choosing to feel pain to remember the care that followed, that is something I'd forgotten existed."

"Naïvety?"

"Optimism. Something uniquely you," Melissa said quietly.

"Is that… a compliment?"

"It might even be two." Melissa smirked and faced forward again, her soft blue hair catching the amber corridor light.

The sight tugged at a distant memory she couldn't remember. Déjà vu. Natalia curled her fingers to stop herself from finding out if Melissa's wavy hair felt as soft as it looked.

Touches had been easy, once. After all, Melissa had spent that night, or dawn, on the balcony, holding her when she was most vulnerable.

Now, it felt strange somehow.

Stranger still for reasons she couldn't explain.

After a delicious venison dinner at the Grill, Melissa tipped her head towards the windows. "Wanna check out the lake?"

Natalia followed her through the restaurant. The doors opened onto a stone terrace, a circular white lounge wrapped around a low firepit already burning. They sank into the cushions and chose a seat that faced the water. Across the lake, the town centre glittered softly, almost lost beneath the colossal ranges.

Melissa drew a long breath, then frowned. "How odd."

"What is it, Mel?" Natalia watched the flames dance in the icy wind and fought the ridiculous urge to toast a marshmallow.

"The air has felt right on the verge of snow all evening, but nothing has happened." Melissa leaned back, arms crossed.

"You said it's expected to snow tomorrow?"

"I am expecting it to snow now." She glanced at her wristwatch, then opened her palm and flexed her fingers as if she could read weather from her own skin. "It is holding back, or… something's holding it back."

Something in her tone made it sound serious.

"Is that why we're out here trying not to freeze to death?" Natalia added a playful chatter of teeth.

"So dramatic. You know you could warm the place, right?" Melissa still glared daggers at her own long, slender fingers.

The air warmed at once. Heat shouldered the cold aside.

Melissa's eyebrow climbed in surprised approval.

"I don't mind waiting here with you," Natalia said earnestly.

Melissa's shoulder tensed, then softened. "Who's the one speaking without a filter now?"

Natalia chuckled as she watched the flickering flames and let them hypnotise her to sleep. Many strange things had happened, and yet she felt oddly safe here. Her eyelids drifted shut.

The flames kneeled, bent, rose, then roared to life. In the dream she was back on the day her Gift awoke.

She could smell smoke and burnt timber.

Worse, she could smell herself — that disturbing scent no one should ever know.

Her arms were blistered, then charred. Her own flames were attuned to her essence, but the fire that burst from the old gas heater was not. The apartment blocks she'd grown up in used an outdated system. She had been too inexperienced to control an external fire.

Glass shattered outward, yet she could not hear it. The world went silent, as though her body and the fire had fused into one.

Gold light became orange, then whitened out until light tasted like heat. Until heat tasted like—

Life.

She woke with a gasp and met Melissa's blue, concerned gaze.

"You okay?"

"Nothing. I… Just a bad dream." Natalia blinked away the shock and rolled up her sleeves to her elbows. Her arms were blemish-free.

She didn't remember being hurt that night. Everything was fuzzy. Partly she had been too young, partly she had not wanted to remember the pain and the rest of it.

But now that she let herself think about it… why did it feel so real?

"Mel, the night you found me and Lionel, was I… hurt? Did you heal me?" Natalia blurted.

Melissa looked surprised, then pursed her lips. "No, only…" She glanced at Natalia and lowered her voice. "Only Lionel. Why? Is everything okay?"

Natalia pressed her face into her palm, and drew a deep breath. It was just a dream. It must be. It was not the first time her dreams had touched something real and bent the truth out of shape.

"I'll be all right, Mel."

Melissa wrapped an arm around her, and the mint-and-ocean scent flooded Natalia's lungs. Her shoulder sagged in relief and only then did she realise the sensation of charred skin still clung to her, vividly.

She buried her nose in the crook of Melissa's neck and ignored the way Melissa straightened, startled.

Natalia did not hesitate this time. She felt a little braver because, with Melissa, maybe it would be all right. She threaded her fingers through the azure waves, the strands slipping like liquid.

Like water.

Oh.

She remembered doing exactly that a long time ago, a warm bright morning followed by a night that tasted of ash and fear. The words then had been all maybes and regret, and for a long time she forgot what happiness felt like on that very day. She had chosen not to remember pain…

And in doing so had almost forgotten the person who stood beside her through every moment.

Melissa.

Natalia could fall, could sink until the water turned black, and somehow a hand would still find hers.

She remembered.

Her eyes stung. Her heart throbbed. It felt like that night long ago, when Melissa had been all she had after Lionel was hurt because of her. This wasn't the same. This wasn't tragedy.

"You do look like a real mermaid now, you know that?" Natalia whispered at the crook of Melissa's neck, suddenly embarrassed by the truth of it.

Melissa's blue eyes widened. A beautiful smile played at her mouth. "I wondered if you'd ever remember that."

"The hair gave you away. It is so much softer now."

"And here I was hoping it would be my voice that did it."

"Please, never sing," Natalia laughed. "You're good at almost everything, Mel—just not that."

"Rude." Melissa laughed too. "And you still hold on the same way, you know. Like you're afraid I'll vanish."

"Maybe I am," Natalia whispered. "You did, twice."

"I'm not going anywhere," Melissa said again, and a small, childish part of Natalia wanted her to repeat it.

For now, she felt safe. She would focus on that, and that was all that mattered. She should not focus on the sudden quickening of her heart at those now familiar promises.

Somewhere beyond them a single flake dared the fall, then vanished, as if the stillness had swallowed it.

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