kissing death and loosing my breath

For a brief moment, Serafina's stormy grey eyes stare upwards at the taller male. Her gaze noting the flakes of snow that had settled into his golden locks, snow that she yearned to reach out and brush off his hair. Her gaze traveled every facet of his masculine features, her eyes softening ever so slightly. Serafina had no notion of the thoughts that plagued his mind, no notion of the ghost of his past that she reminded him off. In that singular moment she felt a sense of placidity, a kind of safeness that she hadn't felt in perhaps her entire life. It was peculiar to her, after her life on the streets, after her tutelage beneath a controlling, derisive man, she had never thought such a feeling could exist. Her eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly as his features twisted, turning back to hold that hint of coldness she was so used to marring his handsome face. It was a shame but, just like that, Serafina knew the moment had passed. She shrugged ever so slightly, ready to offer him an out and return to her baking. She had always been "easy" in that manner, willing to overlook elephants in the room, willing to shove back her emotions in same fashion or another if only because moving forward despite everything was a trait that had been fostered within her at a very young age. Hungry? Cold? Just keep moving - quite literally.

The firm assurance of the singular word leaving his lips, however, caught the girl off guard and for a moment her gaze shifted back upwards to look at him with the vaguest hint of curiosity. After a moment she nodded, turning to bounce lightly up the stairs of her deck, her short night gown bouncing in the process as she led him back into the warmth of her home. She paused in the door way, watching him take the boots off his feet as he shut the door behind them. Her gaze briefly swept over her home, even though she knew all too well that every item was neatly within her place. Serafina had an obsession with order and cleanliness, one that invaded her home and her dingy store. She led him down the hallway of her warm home and into the kitchen, pausing only at the sound of his voice. She glanced over her shoulder at him, her eyebrows wrinkling together in thought. "Why?" She inquired simply, "You wanted to do it....and I wanted you to." Serafina added, her voice no more then a softly spoken whisper.

The shift in topic momentarily distracted the girl, her grey tinged gaze shifting towards the cookies cooling on the counter. "Not...actively." She admitted, in truth she had no one to bake or cook for. She was eternally alone - her visitors few and her friends even fewer. "Would you like to try one?" Serafina inquired, reaching out to pluck a Christmas tree from the wire wrack and offer it to him. Before she could ask if he even liked it, however, Serafina was met with an entirely different sentiment. "Oh...sorry, I don't get visitor's often." She admitted, quickly rushing to remedy the situation. She moved around him, pulling out a chair in the adjoining breakfast nook before busing herself with what she could only assume as appropriate host behavior. It took her only minutes to place cookies upon a plate and pour a tall glass of milk before presenting it and his spot to him. Frankly, Serafina didn't have the faintest idea of what she was doing. Every little bit of knowledge she had on the topic was gained from television shows or movies. She had no parents to teach her proper ways to entertain guests or flirt with men. Everything, especially when it came to him, was a matter of experimentation - one that Serafina seemed to fall constantly short of. Never the less, the girl found her grey tinged gaze sliding towards him, searching his masculine features for any subtle sign of approval.