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To say Kala’s not exactly used to cold weather is an understatement.
To say she can handle it well, however, is an outright lie.
“Come on, let’s get you inside.” Wolfgang has to juggle shopping bags, numb fingers, and an absolutely frozen Kala Dandekar under his arm, clinging to him for dear life, to slide the key into the lock of their flat and open the door.
They’d been having a nice time, spending the day out at a nearby mall to buy a few things for the flat, have lunch, and generally have pleasant day. It was five in the afternoon when they left, stepping out to see the world had been covered in a heavy layer of snow in the time they’d been inside, the tiny flakes still falling from the sky with no sign of letting up.
To add insult to injury, the few cabs still left on the streets weren’t stopping for passengers, and they’d had to walk through the snow to get home before they were trapped in the mall overnight.
“H-how are you n-not freezing?” she says as she walks into the slightly warmer flat, a nearly violent wave of shivers racking through her body as she does.
Wolfgang shrugs, dropping their bags on the floor and taking quick steps to the kitchen. “I’m used to it, I guess.”
Kala walks into their bedroom, which is usually the warmest area of their flat, and stands huddled in on herself in an attempt to conserve what feels like the last few degrees of body heat before she hits absolute zero. She hears water running, then a few beeping sounds and the hum of the microwave before Wolfgang’s voice calls out from the kitchen.
“Take your clothes off.”
Kala rolls her eyes. “It’s not really the time for that, Wolfgang.”
She can barely hear the responding soft chuckle, but it’s there. “Your clothes are dripping wet and freezing. Trust me, take it all off.”
She hesitates a moment longer, a few thermodynamic principles floating through her head ( water’s specific heat is 4.184; it takes that many joules to heat up one gram of water in one degree Celsius, which is energy that’s being transferred from my warm body to the water until both reach the same temperature... ) before deciding there’s definitely truth to what Wolfie is saying and complying. She toes off her wet shoes and undoes the flies of her trousers before kicking them off along with her dripping socks, gooseflesh rising over her now bare legs. She ignores the increasing intensity of the clattering of her teeth as she quickly shrugs out of her jacket and scarf before whipping her shirt off, left standing in her underwear for a couple seconds as Wolfie walks back into the bedroom and digs through his wardrobe.
“Here, put these on.” He tosses her his warmest pullover hoodie, dark heathered grey with a fleece interior, and she rushes to pull it on with trembling hands.
The microwave beeps just as Wolfgang hands her a pair of her own sweatpants and closes the drawer he was digging in.
“Get in bed,” he says over his shoulder, heading back into the kitchen. She doesn’t need telling twice and climbs into the still-cold blankets the second her numb fingers finish tying the drawstring on her sweatpants.
Wolfgang walks in a moment later with two water-filled heating pads, leaning over a curled up Kala to press a quick, cold-lipped kiss to her forehead before sliding the silicone pouches under the sheets and into her hands.
A shaky sigh of relief escapes Kala’s lips the moment her skin makes contact with the much-needed warmth. Her eyes fall closed as she pulls the pads into her arms, holding them close as her body trembles around them.
“Th-thank you.”
She feels rather than sees Wolfgang’s answering smile before a new wave of chills takes over her. She cracks one eye open just in time to see him drop his shirt to the floor and slip out of his pants, replacing his cold, wet clothes with soft, dry ones and slipping in next to Kala.
Kala shifts and turns so that she’s facing Wolfgang, making to give him one of the heating pads, but he simply shakes his head and pushes it back gently.
“You need it more than I do,” he chuckles. “I’m cold-blooded.”
Her eyes fall back closed and she nestles closer to Wolfgang, so that they’re both touching the warm pouches between them. “You’re really not, you know.”
Wolfgang doesn’t tense up, exactly, but there’s a sudden stillness to him that Kala knows only happens when she surprises him with something neither of them saw coming.
She knows better than to press it, though, so she just huddles even closer and slides one hand over his side, gently caressing his lower back in slow circles.
He breaks out of whatever corner of his mind he’s gone off to after a few seconds and weaves one arm under her neck and the other over her hip, pulling her impossibly close. The warmth is absolutely delicious, and a gentle tremor runs through them both as their muscles warm up against each other.
Neither of them speak for a few long minutes, simply revelling their little cocoon of ever-increasing warmth. Kala caresses Wolfgang’s chest with one hand, both arms nestled safely between them. Wolfgang’s hand, in turn, continues rubbing up and down her back, slower now, with the purpose of comfort and closeness rather than friction and heat.
“Better?”
Kala opens her mouth to reply but a large yawn comes out instead.
Wolfie smiles and brushes yet another kiss onto her forehead. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
She tilts her head up and meets his lips with hers. It’s a relatively chaste kiss, compared to so many others they’ve shared, but it still sends a tingle up and down their spines that has nothing to do with the cold.