It took Karina's breath in her throat as Winter found her eyes, holding for a reply.

Her heart pounded so loudly she wondered if Winter could hear it. The question-Winter's question-hung in the chill of the night air between them, more intimate than anything they'd spoken of yet.

Winter's smirk softened into something almost tender, and her eyes smeared with the dim glow of streetlights, full of affection and mischief.

Karina's head ran literally wild with thoughts; her body felt chigger-sized under Winter's steady gaze. Every inch of her was alive to the feeling of Winter's hand gripping her wrist; the cool night air brushing against them; and the world seemed to hold its breath, waiting. She swallowed to try to steady herself; her voice barely more than a whisper came out when she spoke.

"I... Yes," finally she breathed, her lips quivering as she spoke out words that slipped from her mouth. The heart fluttered as the word settled between them.

Winter's smile yawned wide across her face, her eyes gleaming with some triumphant fire.

"Knew it," she teased low and playful, while Karina rolled her eyes, the blush that clutched at her cheeks growing deeper, as she muttered,

"You're impossible," but part of her was warm and soft inside, pushing away nervousness, if just a little bit.

Winter released Karina's wrist as she seemed to unwind her grip, but her fingers followed down her arm, skimming just little over skin to make Karina shiver. Her breath was caught in her throat, all movement heightened, all touch electric.

She looked away, trying to find a hold on herself, but Winter's presence overwhelmed her, the best kind of overwhelming. She wanted closeness, but she was afraid-of this, of them, of everything changing. And yet it felt so right.

Now they were walking again, the silent night around them with now and then touching her fingers, sending flashes of warmth through Karina every time. The silence between them wasn't awkward-it was full of some unspoken thing, something beautiful but fragile.

It was several minutes later that Winter finally spoke up, her voice low, barely slicing through the cold air.

"You're going to do amazing in college," she whispered, but beneath her confident tone lay a substratum of sadness.

"And I'll be right behind you," she added.

Karina tilted her head the tiniest degree, and Winter caught her there, in her gaze.

"You'd better," Karina whispered back, tension playing on her lips in a faint, slightly bittersweet curve. It was like a promise; even with uncertainty ruled across the future, that much was likely to hold.

With them the air changed, moving toward the gate of Karina's place. Reality prodded at them, reminding them that night was nearly done and that this moment, so perfect and sublime, could not be clutched.

Karina hesitated, her hand lingering on the latch of the gate. She wasn't ready to go in yet. She didn't want to go in with what lay before.

"Guess... I had to go," she said, with the voice quivering as she looked at Winter; it was too much to bear that she would just turn her back on everything.

Winter nodded, still not raising her eyes from Karina's face. The expression there was making Karina's heart cramp-it was a mixture of love and sadness and something almost desperate. Before Karina could do anything, Winter took a step forward closing the distance between them.

Then Winter clasped Karina close, her hands clutching at Karina's waist in jerky movements. And as it would prove, their lips met in a soft kiss-one so swift that Karina found herself breathless. Her mind suddenly cleared, and instinctively, she let her body go limp at the touch of Winter. It pounded like it would pop out of her chest. Her touch was gentle but firm, grounding Karina in this moment and forgetting everything else.

The world faded out of their view. Winter was all Karina could feel - the warmth of her hands and the softness of her lips; how it felt to be pressed against Winter as if two pieces of a puzzle fit together. It was a kiss full of all the things they hadn't said yet, with promises and hopes and the weight of future bearing down on them.

And as Winter finally retreated, Karina stood there dazed with reedling contours of her lips. Her body felt like floating, she was light, while the welled chest spelled out a tangle of any emotions inside her: joy, fear, love, and uncertainty. She lifted up her gaze to Winter with flush across her cheeks; jagged breath; for one moment, they just stood there, gazing at one another with silent sunrise.

Winter smiled, this time shy than cocky, her own face a little red.

"You should go," she whispered, nearly to herself, her breath misting in the icy air.

"Before your mum wakes."

Karina nodded, feeling a trifle precarious beneath her as she stepped forward onto the porch. And she wheeled back around once again for one final look in Winter's direction, her heart swelling almost to too huge size to handle.

And Winter was also there, near the wall, but only eyes were visible, all soft with something, her chest constricted. And then, smiling brightly, teasingly, waving at Karina, she dashed off into the night, frosty that her breath was mist.

Karina stood there, staring as she dissolved into darkness. Her lips still tingled from her kiss, her heart racing, her mind buzzing from everything that had just happened. She touched her lips and a soft blush appeared across her face; she mumbled softly to herself, "Winter..."

She stepped quietly inside her house and then behind the closed door, with her chest going up and down, as if she wished her emotions could blow up from within her.

With a slight blush in her cheeks and standing in her now-shaken world, life settled differently than expected.