Pairing: Cedric/Viktor.

Rating: PG-13.

Summary: Viktor and Cedric are warm, even in the snow...

Dedication: To Rachael, for the helpful, yet gentle, beta. She made losing my beta virginity painless and pleasurable.

Author's Notes: This was written for The First Kiss Challenge. I'm really not sure about my characterization of Krum, but I've really been wanting to write him for a long time, and I gave it my best shot. Since J.K. Rowling writes his accent, so did I; I think I took some, uh, creative liberties with it, though.

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns 'em; I just own their leashes.

Still lost in his own thoughts, he headed towards a shade tree on the far bank, beneath which was a rickety, ancient wooden bench where students liked to sit to study or chat on warmer weekend days. In the spring it was rather a romantic spot, so as a result, it was covered with initials and hearts and names whose identities were long lost; someone had once said it was even enchanted. But due to the hour and the degree of chill in the air, he was pretty sure no one would be there, and so he headed there as quickly and quietly as possible (lest he be spotted by either an instructor or a well-meaning, but smitten, witch). He just wanted to be alone for a little while, and he never was. It was impossible in the dorm room and the Hufflepuff common room, and was definitely out of the question during classes as well. He really liked the attention sometimes, but he was having trouble thinking lately, which was bad, because he was sort of confused.

He didn't know what it was, really, but it had something to do with the way he'd wanted to give Cho a good night kiss after the ball, but hadn't been able to. It was so strange, so unlike him. Cedric almost never got cold feet; though he got nervous a lot of the time, he almost never showed it. But he just hadn't been able to go through with just a simple kiss, even though he felt like he wanted to, and had gathered Cho into an awkward hug instead.

Cold feet, thought Cedric as he walked.

His feet were still a little numb, though maybe it was just because he was trudging through snow. There were footprints in a path where someone had been earlier, and he tried to match them, but they were odd strides, more like shuffles. Cedric shoved his tingling hands into his black cloak. Even with his deep grey-blue velvet dress robes on beneath, the cold still penetrated into his chest deeply. Maybe it was just so cold because he was near the icy water. He shuddered at the thought of diving into it, glad the second task wasn't for another two or so months. He fancied he could hear the warbling, wailing mersong coming from within the depths, but it disappeared when he tried to listen to it.

After a few more brisk paces through the snow, Cedric arrived at the bench under the skeletal black tree only to discover that it was occupied, and stopped short, surprised. Viktor Krum sat there beneath his thick furry cloak with his usual surly expression, staring at the water and breathing mist into the air. He looked up at Cedric without a word.

"Oh, er, hello, Viktor. I'm sorry," breathed Cedric, his own voice coming out with a puff of white. "I didn't know anyone would be here."

Viktor Krum remained completely silent.

"Oh, okay. I'll just... I'll just go, then," said Cedric, feeling as if he was very unwelcome.

He stared at Viktor's face, trying to read the unreadable line of his lips, for a moment before turning to step away.

"I vas just leefink."

Cedric stopped and turned back around at the thick, accent-laden voice; he'd only heard Viktor speak in small words and phrases before, though he had apparently been quite deep in conversation with his Yule Ball date, a younger Gryffindor girl that was one of Harry Potter's friends.

"Are you certain?" questioned Cedric politely. "I'm sorry to have bothered you."

"Sit," said Viktor Krum, in a flat way which left no room for argument. There was a small space beside him on the ancient bench that wasn't taken up by fur cloak, so Cedric smiled a bit nervously and slid into it, hoping their weight combined with the heavy cloak Viktor was wearing wouldn't snap the wood beneath them in half. He trailed a finger next to his leg, running it over one of the many sets of initials (LE + JP) carved into the aged seat. The thing had been around to witness the promises of many couples, and he wondered for a moment about the fates of those who had sat here before him.

Well, now he was sitting here with... Viktor Krum. He had no idea what to say, either. He supposed he should say something about the Yule Ball, the Triwizard Tournament, Durmstrang, the Quidditch World Cup, Bulgaria, anything... but he couldn't break Krum's silence.

So he stared out at the stretch of water along with Krum. It was like a shining black sheet of glass; maybe it was frozen over. He wondered if Krum was just staring at it or if there was an actual thought process going on inside his head. He glanced at Viktor's sharp, hawkish profile to see if his expression had changed, but it hadn't. He looked back at the Durmstrang vessel. It was like a ghost ship. No wonder Krum was out here instead of being on board.

When Viktor spoke a minute later, it was very deliberately.

"It is nice out, yes?"

Cedric grinned slowly; it took a lot of effort since his cheeks felt like they were frozen solid.

"It's, er, nice and clear, but, ah, a bit chilly," he said genially. "Is it this cold at-t-t... Durmstrang?"

His teeth had chattered a bit.

It took a moment for Viktor to reply. "Yes, usually it is this cold, and ve are haffing... blizzards for long months."

"Sounds quite cool," said Cedric, who then wondered if he was going to be this lame for the rest of their polite conversation, and considered bowing out and going back to bed rather than alienating Viktor Krum.

"It is cool, yes," said Viktor, who didn't notice Cedric's chagrin. Cedric puzzled over what to say next, but Krum beat him to it and added, "You are fery cold, Ce-drick Dig-gory?"

"I'm f-f-fine," he, his teeth chattering again. "You can just call me Cedric, if you like."

Viktor finally moved; he looked down and reached into his furry cloak, and then drew out his wand, which Cedric remembered from the wand weighing ceremony from a few months earlier. His wand was solid and thick, a handsome wood if not a flexible one.

"Holding out your hands," he instructed, and when he got a confused blink, he added, and correctly, "Cedric."

Cedric pulled his hands from the minimal warmth of his cloak; he was wearing his black knit gloves, but they were quite thin and worn from their years of use. He held them out with his palms facing down, and Krum reached forward a bare brown hand and plucked at his right middle finger - it took Cedric a moment to realize that Krum was (very gently) pulling his glove off his hand by the finger of it. As soon as it was off, Cedric moved his bare numb hand to help remove his other one, and brushed Krum's fingers unintentionally. They were warm and the two had matching calluses from where they gripped their broomsticks.

"Fery cold," Krum muttered, putting the gloves in Cedric's lap; he then took Cedric's hands and rotated them at the wrist until his palms were facing upwards. Then he moved them together, until they were cupping thin air. Cedric's fingers curled in automatically.

Krum raised his wand and pointed its blunt end into Cedric's hands; an electric tingle raced over Cedric's skin as Krum muttered a Flame Freezing Charm and then shot an eerie green flame right into his hands. He gasped in alarm, but didn't drop the flame because it wasn't burning him. The green fire simply flared up into a lively ball and hovered above his bare palms, and a pleasant warmth began to melt through his hands and arms.

"Whoa," Cedric managed under his breath, staring first at the flame and then at Viktor's face; it had shifted into a more relaxed state from its surly scowl; his sharp eyes were dark like chips of obsidian, or pieces of the black glass lake. They were lit up in the light of the flame.

"Is varmer?" Viktor asked.

"It's lovely," said Cedric, smiling warmly at Krum. Krum smiled back uneasily, and it looked strange and ridiculous on his face, but it made Cedric's insides warm up immediately also. It was proving a bit difficult to reconcile this Viktor Krum with the world-famous Seeker he'd seen play, hard and well, over the summer at the Cup. He flew with such skill and weightlessness that it was rather a wonder how he carried himself so differently on the ground than when airborne. He and Krum watched the flame for a few minutes in a pleased silence until Cedric felt like he could comment, "Er, so... I saw you play at the World Cup -- it was brilliant. You're just really a fantastic player. I play Seeker, as well. For my house team."

Krum looked down, as if uncomfortable with the compliment, then formulated a reply. "You must be haffing a good team."

"Well, we won against Harry Potter last year," replied Cedric, to which Krum raised a thick, dark eyebrow. "He has a real winning streak, though. He's so damn lucky. He plays Seeker for Gryffindor and it's nearly impossible to beat him."

"He is a fery good flyer," Krum said. "But you must be being better."

"He fell off his broom," Cedric lamented, and then grinned at Krum, who just raised both eyebrows this time.

"Vhy is he Champion as vail?"

It sounded as if Krum had been dying to get a second opinion on that.

"I don't know, I don't think he put his own name in - that is, I don't think he would have known how to," Cedric said, watching the flame bob and crack. "He's much younger than we are. But he's a decent fellow, really."

Viktor seemed a bit surprised to hear him say that, but Cedric felt a little bit of loyalty to Harry Potter in his absence; they were from the same school, and Harry had gone out of his way to warn him about the dragons involved in the first task. Even though he'd had his initial suspicions, Harry had looked so positively ill before the first task that Cedric had stopped believing he might have gone into the situation willingly. But he had done all right anyway, so he was worthy of respect.

"What do you think of Fleur?" asked Cedric. Krum thought for a moment.

"Pretty, but is being fery concerned with herself."

Cedric hesitated for a moment. "I don't think her Veela powers work on me," he admitted to Krum in a rush. "I can feel her using them, but they just... don't do anything. I can just tell she wants me to be fawning over her, but I actually think she looks a bit silly."

"Me too," said Viktor, and he sounded relieved as well. "They are making me sneeze."

Cedric burst out laughing from nerves, and the flame in his palms was covered in icy mist from his breath. It waned in the face of it and died a second later.

"Ah, damn, I've gone and blown it out," Cedric said, and smiled. "Thank you, though, it was nice while it lasted."

He returned his hands to his lap and began to pull his right glove on. Again, Viktor moved; next to Cedric, his arm had raised like a great feathery wing, parting his cloak so Cedric could see he too was still wearing his dress robes, dark brown, underneath. Cedric wiggled his fingers into his glove and Viktor reddened, letting his arm back down.

"I haff plenty of room," he said cautiously. Cedric coloured too, abruptly. Viktor Krum was offering some of his warm, furry cloak to him.

"Oh, I'm fine!"

Especially since now he was blushing so hard that his face was practically buzzing with heat in the cold.

However, Viktor simply slid over on the bench and draped his arm around Cedric. The warm cloak, which was soft and heavy and smelled like spice and, well, Viktor, fell around his shoulders, and he unconsciously slid in closer to Krum until their legs pressed side by side. A moment later he wasn't sure if Krum had pulled him in or he'd moved in on his own.

"Is varmer," said Krum.

"Is varmer," Cedric echoed softly, his heart drumming in a cadence more fast and furious than it ever had when he was racing for the Snitch, than when Dumbledore had read off his name as the Hogwarts Champion, and when he'd seen Cho coming down the staircase in the Ravenclaw common room earlier with her dress robes on and her hair up elegantly... he felt rather like he couldn't breathe, and now couldn't meet Krum's face, either.

So again, they were silent, Krum with his skinny, but warm, arm around Cedric's shoulders, Cedric's thigh lined right up against Krum's through their robes. Cedric gripped his own leg in trepidation.

It was very warm, and they were very alone.

After a few moments, Krum's bare right hand brushed shakily against Cedric's bare left one, and the two jolted minutely. He left his hand where it was, slightly overlapping Cedric's, but still on his own leg. Closing his eyes, Cedric pondered in bewilderment what he could possibly say now... but this silence was just too strange to disturb, and the moment too heavy to break. He wondered what Viktor was thinking, and decided to hazard a glance at his profile again.

Apparently Viktor had chosen that moment to glance at him, too, and, now caught under each other's stares, neither felt like they could look away. There was a heavy heartbeat, then:

"Fery warmer," said Krum under his breath, and kissed Cedric.

Cedric's numb lips were so cold under Viktor's warm ones that Cedric could feel him shiver in surprise, and Cedric, who had never kissed, let alone been kissed, simply reeled in shock. Krum was... kissing him... After a moment he closed his eyes again and leaned in (or was he being pulled closer?) and experimentally moved his mouth against Krum's, which was soft... very soft... and utterly demanding in a way which was exciting and intoxicating, and highly unskilled.

So perhaps this was Viktor's first kiss, too. The thought melted away any remaining apprehension. But somehow, it ended, and by the time their lips had parted, even Cedric's feet were quite warm.

Viktor blinked dark eyes at him. It had started to snow during the kiss and there were tiny crystals caught in his dark, shaggy hair. He licked his lips, which further enamoured Cedric, and swayed him irreversibly into Bulgaria's favour.

"Ve... ve... you are haffing..." he stuttered. "I am thinking I should not..."

Cedric reached up and grabbed him by the hair and crushed his mouth against Viktor's again; Viktor simply grunted and reached his other arm around Cedric's waist.

It snowed.

Eventually Cedric whispered, in a smother of lips, that it was late, very late, and he must be back in his dorm before he was missed.

"Won't you be missed as well?" Cedric pointed out as he pulled away from a now surly-looking Viktor Krum.

"No, I von't," he replied.

"Yes, you vill be. Er... will be," promised Cedric, who lingered for a few more warm moments before shivering and hurrying across the white ground with black cloak and blue robes swirling in the snow. Viktor watched him, pulling his cloak around him tight once again. It had gotten terribly cold all of a sudden. He watched Cedric until the boy paused and looked back at him for a long minute, and disappeared into the school. Shivering, Viktor looked down in confusion at where Cedric had been sitting, for once, his mind not on Hermione.

CD + VK

Krum's brow furrowed; he stared unblinking at the letters, now filling with snow. Had those been there before?