Baby it's cold outside

Natalie collapsed onto a seat in a random compartment and laid down on it. It was after winter break and she was absolutely exhausted. Most people came back to school feeling refreshed after breaks, but Natalie was the opposite- she used the school as her "relaxation time". She'd spent the entire time in France with her sister, minus the weekend visits to her Uncle Maximus, who took her to a different place in the world each weekend to hunt some exotic creatures, none of which they ever found. She hadn't even had time to write to Landon, save for a very quick note just before Christmas. She wondered where he was, since he'd gone home for the holiday too. Hopefully he hadn't already found a compartment, because she wasn't going to look for him since she was too tired to move. He would just have to come find her.

Though her eyes were closed and she could not see the person talking to her, Natalie smiled, because she would recognize that voice anywhere. She opened her eyes and summoned as much energy as she could and forced herself to stand up. "Hey," she said with a bright smile as she wrapped her arms around him to hug him tightly. "How was your break? I missed you."

Natalie waited for Landon to sit down in one of the seats by the window before laying down, stretching her body out on the rest of the seat and resting her head in his lap and looking up at him. "Wonderful. My whole body is exhausted, but it was wonderful. I stayed with Gabi in Paris during the week and on the weekends I went with Uncle Maximus on expeditions. We were so busy I didn't even know it was Christmas day until we heard a Quop singing," she replied.

Natalie wasn't surprised that Landon hadn't heard of a Quop. He'd never heard of any of her favorite creatures. "A Quop is a bird, basically, but it can sing. In English. But they only like to sing on Christmas, that's how I knew what day it was," she replied, closing her eyes again.

She was confused by his news that he shared and his reaction to it. She thought the normal reaction for something like that was to be happy. "What's the matter? Do you not like her fiance?" she asked.

"I think there's a few that live around Hogwarts, maybe we can try to find them one day," Natalie said happily, since Landon didn't usually take an interest in the creatures she talked about.

As he was talking, Natalie started to get a little worried. She hadn't heard him sound so down before and she didn't like it. She sat up, scooted next to him, and took his hand in hers. "It'll be okay," she assured him, kissing his cheek softly.

"If you want, I'll share Gabi with you," she offered, laughing lightly. "She'd be happy to have another younger sibling that she can boss around."

Natalie grinned at Landon; she was absolutely thrilled that he actually wanted to find the Quops with her. It was going to have to wait a while though, because she didn't think her body could take another day of running around like crazy so soon. Maybe in a week or so...

She was about to ask him what he meant by that's not how we do things when he kissed her on the lips. She returned the kiss and held it for as long as he did. "Are you sure? She'd be so thrilled. She absolutely loves you, you know," she said before kissing him again (she'd missed him over the break and she'd really missed his kisses).

"Not that kind of love," Natalie giggled. "Like, little brother love. She told me once that she'd always wanted a little brother and that, even though she loves me, she wished that I'd been a boy."

Natalie was very glad that she hadn't been born a boy; she liked being who she was and she couldn't imagine being anyone else.

"I really did miss you. A lot," she said quietly. She kissed him yet again, longer and slower than the other ones. It had been over a month since she'd seen him and she was certain that it had driver her almost completely mad.