"I might stay up a little," she allowed but smiled down at him. "Not too long. Don't worry about me. I don't normally go to bed until quite late at home."
He closed his eyes and in a few minutes he was fast asleep, the flames casting shadows against his figure.
She frowned, watching him before shrugging off her yellow cloak and setting it gently over him. For the remainder of the night, she stayed awake, keeping the fire burning. As the night began to turn to morning, the wind picked up outside and she looked around anxiously.
He remained asleep. The snow storm outside had slowly begun to pick up, creating a flurry of snowflakes and covering the world in white. As the night moved on she would find the logs dwindling in numbers.
Her brow furrowed as she considered the remaining wood for the fire and she stood, looking down at him gently. "I'll be back, Z," she whispered, pulling up her hood and heading out into the storm. The cold took her breath away, but determination fueled her and she pressed on, trudging into the snow underneath the sinking moon.
After a bit, Zerras woke. The fire was still lit, but had died down considerably since she left. He frowned, sitting up slowly as he looked around with a deep frown. He glanced down at himself and saw her cloak. He stood up, maybe a little nervously, and called out to her. "June? Juniper!" Seeing she wasn't in the camp, he pulled his cloak tight and called for her, lifting his hood to shield the blinding snow. As he searched he called her name, his voice worried.
He would be able to see her trail, although it was rapidly disappearing underneath the falling snow. It appeared that she had treked towards the nearby woods. As he passed their snowman, he would see that pebbles had been placed on its face, making a smile. She had been here. She had gotten far, and although he would still see the camp in the distance, he would look down to follow her trail and soon see that he wasn't able to see it anymore; it had been obscured.
He frowned, looking back at the camo as if to ground himself direction-wise before continuing the direction the path was last going, trying to find where it continued and may lead to her.
As he was moving past her trail, he would call her name one final time. There was a silence that greeted him for a long moment until he saw it; almost buried under the snow about 40 feet away, he would see a feeble flame flickering before it went out. It happened so quickly, he might've thought he was imagining it.
At the spot of the flame, he would find her huddled in the snow. She had gotten past the point of shivering; she was lying still on her back, staring up at the falling snow. She was holding something large to her chest, her pink cloak fallen around her. Her lips had turned a light shade of blue, and she was trying to catch her breath, her hand that was ignited having fallen back to her chest. She tried to speak as she saw him, but when she opened her mouth, only one word came out, a tearful, frightened croak. "Zer..."
He stood above her with a serious face, as if assessing the situation. However, he was quick to pick her up, holding her close to him as he trudged throw the snow, starting back to the camp wordlessly.
She was extremely light for him, curled up in his arms, but she was clutching a large bundle of sticks to her chest for dear life, presumably for the fire. She was so cold; he wouldn't be able to tell how long she had been sitting out there, but her skin felt like ice, and her cloak was soaked. She fell silent in his arms, going unnaturally still.
He was hurrying, following his fresh trail back. Eventually they made it to the camp, and he carefully set her down, taking off her pink cloak and setting it out to dry, picking up the yellow one and wrapping it around her, as well as his blanket. He took the logs from her, setting one on the fire and blowing it gently to grow again. He did all this with a sort of urgency, focusing intensely.
Taking the logs from her was difficult. Her eyes fluttered open as he took them and she seemed unwilling or unable to open her arms. After a few moments of coaxing, he was able to take them and her arms folded back to her chest. It took her a good ten minutes before she was able to speak again. The shaking had set in at the point and she struggled, trying to sit up, but lacking the strength and the motor capability, whimpering a little as she started to feel the pain from the freezing temperatures. "...Zer..."
"It's okay," he said, his voice shockingly gentle. Once the fire was going, he joined her, carefully helping her sit up. He sat close behind her and carefully pulled her to him, his chest warm against her back as he wrapped her in own cloak as well.
She seemed as shocked as she was capable of being in this state, limply trying to lean forward, trying to stop her back from touching his chest. Her ears were back, and they were like icicles, freezing cold as they brushed him. Her body was noticeably limited; when she tried to pull away from his chest, she essentially ended up folding in half at the waist, falling forward.
He frowned deeply, pulling her back to him again. His voice was low and warm in her ear, almost reflecting his personality by its gentle sternness. "It's okay," he said lowly, barely audible, "it's okay, just relax." It was warm under his cloak with him, and even warmer against his chest, as demons bodies were generally a higher temperature. "I don't mind."
