Neve watched her beautiful artist flee, her fingers pressed against her lips.

What had she done? She hugged herself, feeling more hollow and empty inside than ever before. What had she done? She swallowed hard, marching in amid the naked trees until she found who she was looking for.

The woman leaned against a tree, her plaid clad arms crossed over her chest.

"Well, that didn't go well at all," said Gigi.

Neve rubbed her arms, the cold sinking through to her bones. "I care for him, I know I do, but there's something, something wrong with me," she said.

Gigi sighed. "Call it a manufacturing flaw, dear one. You weren't built to sustain that kind of passion." Her brow rose as she looked at Neve's stark expression. "I warned you not to get so close, my little maiden."

Neve touched her chest, feeling the hollowness inside. "Is it because I have no heart?"

"Yes," said Gigi, without preamble. The woman was also abysmally blunt. She flinched away from that bluntness, remembering the earnest touch of Cameron's lips against hers. Feverishly hot, scalding. What would that feel like, that heat? To feel it with him? "I want that," she said, her voice so soft she doubted Gigi could hear, but the woman had sharp senses.

"Want what, little maiden?"

She swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. "Passion, the heat, I want to feel his love, " she paused, clasping her hands over her empty chest. "I want him to feel mine."

Gigi's green eyes seemed to glow in the dark, fathomless and unreadable as they bore into her. "Is it passion you truly want, little maiden? Passion is fleeting. All consuming. It flares, bright and hot, scorches in the connection of the moment, but that is all you will have. But a mere moment before it swallows you up."

Neve stared at her, her eyes widening as the warning in the words hit her. "It would kill me."

"You would flare bright, and fierce but you are not made to take such heat. It would melt you from the inside out."

She cringed away from the truth, staring at the snow covered ground. From snow born to snow returned. Was it worth it? She only had so long before the weather turned. Wouldn't one night of passion, of connection with Cameron be enough?

"Only one night?"

"It's all you could withstand. I would leave before he wakes, lest he see you melt away like a snowflake against his cheek."

Neve mulled the idea over, chewing on it, masticating it until the idea was mush. "It's my only option."

There was a loaded pause that made her look up into Gigi's bottomless gaze, a hesitation she'd never seen in the woman before. "What is it?"

"Passion is fleeting, but the spectrum of love is vast." The older woman looked up, out into the dark. "Though I wonder if our artist is ready for a connection so deep. It takes time, time you may not have anyway."

Neve recalled the hurt on his face as he pulled away from her, the hollowness in his eyes. "I don't want to wait."

Gigi sighed, the weight of worlds in the sound. "Very well, little maiden, but remember you live to regret your decision."

Neve nodded. One night would be enough.

It had to be.

***

Cameron stared at the clay on his work table.

She'd been cold. Unfeeling.

There was no connection between them.

That hollowness welled up, the loneliness threatening to pull him under. He shoved at the table in front of him, sending tools and clay crashing to the ground. The clay landed with a dull thud, splitting up the middle, cracking apart.

He stared at it, feeling the sensation inside.

Cameron jerked at the knock on the door. He was mindless of his attire, nothing more than a clay stained t-shirt and cargo pants. He opened the door to tear-stained silver eyes.

He blinked, barely registering the sight of Neve's stricken expression before she flung herself into his arms.

For the first time since he'd met her, her skin was lukewarm. She shook in his arms.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she gasped, out of breath. Had she run the whole way here? He looked down at her white blonde head, bewildered.

"Sorry for what?"

She looked up, her eyes intent. "For this," she said.

Her lips crashed into his, bringing all the reaction, the connection he'd been seeking. It was there, flush and strong, sizzling up through his veins. He crushed her against him, slanting his mouth over hers as he deepened their kiss, the first steps to a dance older than words.

She murmured surprise against his lips, responding, heat flaring beneath her skin. Warmer, she was growing warmer beneath his touch, opening like a flower after frost.

Frenzy set it. The emotions that had been simmering between them the past few weeks suddenly boiled over. Her hands were pulling his shirt over his head as he unwrapped the scarf from her, revealing the length of her graceful neck. He moved his lips to the offered flesh, worshipping her skin as she traced the lines of his body. Their hands continued the slow revealing, touching, learning one another.

He was lost in her, barely mindful enough to pull them both to his empty bed. Now filled with their combined heat.

Connection...

***

Neve was soaring. Her soul flaring, a fizzing fire cracker that soared higher and higher as Cameron's hands danced along her skin. He knew the steps to this waltz between them, moving her through instinct, a push and pull that left her breathless and clinging to him.

Connection....

But she could already feel it, even as she soared, the coming crash. The heat in her chest hurt, a special agony that tempered the sweetness of his hands on her. The pain grew the further he drew her in, pulling them together until they were joined in a great brilliant flare. She felt when the heat became too much. She felt herself begin to crack apart inside even as Cameron collapsed with her on the bed, holding her tight, so tight, as if he would never let her go.

He whispered something to her. Some short, indecipherable through the blinding pain that clamped, vise like in her chest.

She didn't have much time now.

"I have to go-" her voice was distant, hoarse, the pain leaking into it like poison. Cameron, her beautiful Cameron rolled over, frowning down at her, his eyes full of worry.

"Did I do something wrong? Did I hurt you?"

Even through the burgeoning pain in her chest, she stroked his face with a steady hand. "No, no, it was perfect. I just--" she sucked in a breath, a hiss through her teeth as something cracked inside.

"What was that? Neve?" His hands were on her, like heated coals stroking her skin. She cried out, rolling away from him, scrambling, struggling into her clothes. It hurt too much to finish. She fled from his home without shoes, without her scarf. Not that she'd need them soon.

She didn't expect him to follow her. How could she, with so little experience how humans worked.

"Neve!"

She jerked at her name, missing a stepped, falling forward, barely catching herself in the snow. Trees surrounded her. Her wild flight managed to bring her home, just in time, just in time...

The new heart in her chest shuddered, burning hot in her chest. Melting her from the inside out.

Connection...

***

Cold fear gripped him when Neve cried out. Something was wrong, horribly wrong. He rushed to her side, ignoring her feeble protests as he pulled her against his chest. His hands shook as he checked her but he couldn't find any obvious injuries.

"Neve, what's happening? Please, tell me what wrong? What do I do?" He cupped her face, shocked anew by her icy skin, somehow colder than before, like true ice. Her silver eyes were glassy.

"You weren't supposed to follow," she whispered. What nonsense was she talking about? If she wasn't in such obvious pain he'd be insulted.

"Not follow? I told you I loved you and you ran away like a bat out of hell," he said, fear for her making him sharper than he intended. What was happening to her?

Fleeting focus returned to her gaze. "Love? You love me?" Tears spilled from her eyes, freezing on her cheeks. She began to shake, violently. "I'm sorry." She grabbed his hand, squeezing his fingers tight as she winced in pain. "I'm so sorry. I--"

She cried out, her hold on him painful.

"Neve? I'm calling 911."

"That won't do you any good."

Cameron's head snapped up as Gigi emerged through the trees, grass green eyes sober. "What are you talking about?"

"It was her choice, son. To feel passion, the heat of physical connection, even though it came with such a high cost."

He shook his head, confused, afraid. "I don't understand. She needs help. We have to get her to a hospital."

Gigi's eyes were cold and distant as she looked down at Neve, who took short shallow breaths, too short, too shallow.

"She's dying," Cameron said, his voice a sob.

As he spoke, Neve seized, her silver eyes glazing over. No, icing over. He could see the crystals forming, spreading over her skin, covering her a moment before she dissolved in his arms. He gave a hoarse shout, horrified by what just happened. There was nothing left, nothing of the woman he loved.

"She knew the price," said Gigi.

"But I didn't!" Cameron snarled, glaring at the older woman. "You knew this would happen. Who the hell are you?"

He looked up into her eyes, cool dark green, the green of deep hidden places where man did not tread. She held his gaze until he flinched and looked away.

"Do you really need to put a name on it, son?"

He didn't want to believe it possible, but he'd just watched his girlfriend dissolve in his arms. "Did you bring her to life?"

"Yes."

His hands curled into fists on his thighs. "Why?"

Her eyebrows rose. "Why bring her to life?"

"Why bring her to life if she was going to die like that?"

Gigi sighed, crouching in front of him. "Everything that lives dies. Many live without every taking risks, or seeking connections." She traced a circle in the snow. "She was not built to feel, you know. To love. No heart."

He stared at her, trying to wrap his head about those impossibilities. "That's cruel."

Gigi sucked on her teeth. "Perhaps. In the end, she wanted to feel love, rather than live without it."

Cameron felt tears on his face. "Why create her? Why give her such an awful choice?"

There was a long moment of silence that made him wonder if she would answer. "You both deserved to connect." There was no guilt in her tone. He doubted if something like her could understand the cruelty of what she'd done.

"Just leave," he said. He didn't hear her go, but when he finally looked up from the ground, Gigi was gone.

And he was alone.

***

Going through the motions was harder.

He didn't go home for Christmas, ignored his parents worried phone call. He continued work at the gallery. He cleaned up his tipped over work table and threw the broken block of clay into the trash.

He didn't touch his tools for months.

He ate less. He didn't go back to central park, holing up inside instead through the rest of the long winter months.

When he did draw, it was the same series of images, over and over, the lines of her face now route memory as he sketched her on the page. That secretive smile. Her confused frown. The light of passion in her eyes. That memory hurt the most.

Pieces of her on paper. He often ripped the drawings out, tearing them to pieces.

Months passed. The weather grew warmer with the first hints of spring.

In April, he visited an art supply store. He passed by the clay, not intending to look, but it flashed in the corner of his eye. He turned, staring at a block. There, inside, just waiting for his fingers to pinch and pull away the extra material.

She was waiting for him.

***

Gigi hadn't been to the gallery in months.

It felt wrong somehow. She'd erred, getting close to the boy, the lonely artist. It'd been a long time since she'd felt anything akin to regret but for her poor Maiden and her lonely artist, she felt a flicker of the emotion.

A complete mistake to engage, but she had a soft spot for creators.

The gallery was buzzing tonight, full of people, full of life and joy with the unveiling of a new exhibit. She loved these nights the best, when she could feel the love of creation in the air she breathed. Gigi strolled through the exhibits, her plaid winter get up exchanged for a lavender dress that swished like a cloud at her knees. The exhibits tonight were lovely, dozens of paintings, even a few sculptures. She turned a corner and froze.

She reached up to touch the wetness on her cheek. It'd been an age since she'd wept for anyone.

Neve ignored her tears from the clay, her face tilted up in a sublime expression, an expression Gigi recognized.

"She looked like that when she danced in the snow," said Cameron from behind her. Gigi wiped the tear from her face and turned to look at her lonely artist.

What had she done?

She could still see the grief etched in his features like a scar. He'd lost weight, he'd gained shadows in his expression. But his eyes....she knew broken when she saw it. Not as if he'd lost a lover but a part of himself.

Her lonely artist was ready for that deep connection after all. She'd given her snow maiden poor consul.

"You captured her perfectly," said Gigi. "Even her flaws."

Cameron reached out to trace Neve's serene face in the clay. "I had a lot of practice."

Gigi watched him trace her lips. There was an offer to be made, an impossible offer, but she had a soft spot for creators. She felt their loneliness keenly. Everyone deserves to connect.

"Man was made from clay you know," she said, stepping up beside him. "It's why they can withstand the heat of passion so well. They were tempered in fire. Snow is not so lucky. But it is malleable, fluid and changeable. Accepting." She reached to press her fingers against his chest, feeling the strong beat of his heart. "She could share your heat, if you are willing to accept her cold."

Hope flared in his eyes. "What are you saying?"

"I am offering you an exception to the rule if you are willing to pay the price." Gigi tapped her chin. "I will recommend moving north."

Cameron caught her hand. "I'll pay it." No hesitation.

"Then meet me at the cold storage warehouse two blocks over in an hour."

***

She opened her eyes to sunshine. At first she flinched from it, the warmth on her skin, but it didn't hurt. Only tingled down through her fingertips.

Warmth, wonderful warmth, it felt wonderful when it didn't hurt. She exhaled, opening her eyes.

Was this heaven? She remembered the pain, dissolving inside. She remember words, and words, and words, spoken to her. Cameron. Her Cameron, staring at her now with wonder and awe in his eyes.

Her heart fluttered in her chest.

Her heart?

Cameron rushed for her, pulling her into his arms, solid and real. She felt the flutter again, the warmth singing through her veins, more than the fiery passion she felt that final night. It encompassed her, pulsing through her, strong and vital. Connection...

"I love you," said Neve, pressing her face to his chest. He felt as warm as she did. Wonderfully, perfectly warm. She could hear his heartbeat, steady and perfectly in sync with her own. Two hearts beating as one.

The End