#im not super pleased with how this turned out but its bettre than nothing

[one-that-had-to]

Winter

The fire does a lot to keep the winter chill off of him, but no matter what it seems Bradford cannot keep entirely warm. He nearly jumps out of his skin when he figures out why.

Tatiana sits at the other end of the log, staring into the fire like she could scry the future from it. Her trench coat makes her blend too easily into the snow behind her, though now that he’s noticed her, he can spot the collar of her green uniform as well. “I was wondering when you’d notice,” she says casually.

“How long have you been there?” he asks.

She shrugs and glances at him out of the corner of her eye. “A little bit.”

“Who’s idea was it to give you a white coat?” he teases. “You blend in too well.”

Her expression instantly drops into something melancholy. “My sister got it for me as a gift. She’d given up explaining fashion to me by then, though,” she says. Her voice is measured and even, not betraying any of the emotion that either of them surely feel. “You’ll have to ask her why she decided on white.”

“Do you know if she —” He stops himself before he can finish. If he didn’t know what had befallen her family, then the apparition didn’t either.

“I’ll be sure to ask, if I run into her,” he corrects carefully. Tatiana relaxes slightly at his words, but her grin doesn’t return to her face. “Need to thank her for helping you with your wardrobe, at least.”

That makes the apparition break out into a grin again. “Don’t do that unless you want to be grilled about our relationship,” she retorts, looking at him. “That goes for any of my family, if you run into them.”

“Noted,” he laughs.

They linger and chat well into the evening about the events of the day, about the future of the resistance, about everything. When he finally has to give in and let himself sleep, he digs through his bag to find the same white coat the apparition had been wearing. It doesn’t smell of her any longer, but he curls up with it regardless.