He lingered back to watch her as she neared the edge of the building and betrayed a soft sound of surprise when she not only expressed thanks to him, but seemed to genuinely... understand. This realization made him still, looking down at her with something akin to wonderment until she tilted her head back to meet his gaze, though even then he could not find it within himself to fully mask it. He did not think he had ever spent so much time with anyone in his entire life as he spent with her, and still she proved herself to be the most confounding person he had ever met and the most capable of surprising him at every turn. By all accounts he could not see how this could be, yet it often lent itself to her unparalleled ability to piss him off royally. However, there were also moments such as these where she would look at him like that and... see him, and he could not help but feel struck dumb by it each and every time.
He allowed her to pull him closer and stepped up beside her at the building's ledge, staring down at her and tracing the places where the snow fell and melted against her skin. The heat from her mouth still lingered against his cheek when he slid his hand against the side of her head and kept her from withdrawing any further, lowering his mouth to devour her thanks before it even fully left her lips. He always had to be mindful of his strength when he handled her, and now was no exception; she was fragile, and one of the only things that he found it within himself to treat with any kind of gentleness.
One of the only things he had ever allowed himself to cherish. One of the only things that had ever been his.
He pulled her up against him and deepened the kiss, allowing it to convey his own, unspoken gratitude. When he finally broke his mouth from hers it was only to whisper against her, his hoarse words so low that had their faces not been so close she would not have heard them at all.
"I know I speak without thinking," he confessed. "But you... have the strangest effect on me, Violeta."