***Sort of a double update?  Make sure you've read the previous chapter which went up 24 hours ago!***

It was completely dark when they were finally under the shelter of trees again, and Seoyeon just about keeled over with exhaustion.  Captain Park snagged her around the waist before she hit the snowy ground.

“Hang on just one moment,” he said.  Seoyeon took him literally, allowing her body to turn into a dead weight rather than expending effort to keep herself upright.  He grunted at the sudden heaviness but didn’t drop her.  Instead, his attention went to the ground.

“Thu,” he commanded after a moment of concentration.

Warmth blasted out from his hand and the snow instantly began to melt, revealing stunted, wet grass beneath.  The grass soon dried, and Captain Park set Seoyeon gently in the snowless patch before moving back and pointing his other hand at the ground.

“Thu,” he repeated.

The snow melted like it was on steroids, and he had soon cleared a space large enough to build both a camp fire and a shelter.  Seoyeon did vaguely process that this was apparently where they were stopping for the night, which was great, but she was much more interested in Captain Park’s ability to generate heat.

“Can you do that to me?” she requested, swaying tiredly on her feet.

He looked up for a moment and contemplated her thoughtfully.

“I’d do better making you a fire,” he mused, but he beckoned to her nonetheless.  Her feet were beginning to regain circulation, and it was painful to walk the few steps towards him, but Seoyeon it up because she really, really needed the warmth.

Rather than just blasting her with hot air from a distance, he placed one hand on her forehead and the other on her shoulder.

“Thu morrein,” he murmured.

Seoyeon felt the warmth immediately, seeping straight into her from his hands, and she sighed blissfully, straining to get closer to his palms.  After a little while, he removed the one on her forehead and pressed it just below her other shoulder, and then carefully reached round with his other hand to place it between her shoulder blades.  Seoyeon could feel the warmth beginning to spread around her body, pulsing down from the points he touched to her still-frozen hands and feet.  A healthy blush was beginning to steal across her cheeks — only to turn full blown when her sluggish brain began to catch up to speed and she suddenly realised that the position they were in was pretty close to Captain Park embracing her.  She held very still.  Part of her wanted to shriek and push him away, but part of her wanted him to pull her close, because that felt like it would be so warm and comfortable she’d never be cold again.

Seoyeon didn’t trust either of those parts of her not to embarrass her, but she was a little bit confused by herself.  Of course Captain Park was there to protect her — but why did she want comfort from him?  Not to mention, so far he’d been pretty terrible in his attempts to cheer her up, if they even were attempts.

“Hands,” he said, letting go of her.  It took a moment or two to compute before Seoyeon allowed her hands out from the confines of the cloak.  He pressed them together and sandwiched them between his.  His own hands were very large — Seoyeon knew that already, of course — and more or less engulfed hers.  They were also still incredibly warm — so warm that her fingers actually began to hurt when proper blood flow returned to them.  She gritted her teeth as tears pricked her eyes.  Gradually, the pain subsided, though her fingers still tingled.

Captain Park let go of her and stepped back.

“Lakthar,” he murmured, pointing to the ground a couple of feet away.  “Mora thu.”  A fire sprang up immediately, just the perfect size for a camp fire, and burning much hotter than one usually should.

A sudden loud crack echoed through the air, followed by a groaning, tearing sound.  Seoyeon jumped, looking around wide-eyed.

“What was that?”

“Sit by the fire and keep warm.  I’ll explain once I’ve built us some kind of shelter for the night.”

Seoyeon obediently moved over to the fire, but looked back just as she was about to sit.  “But Captain, your arm—”

Chanyeol, she remembered, biting her tongue.  She’d been the one who’d asked for that privilege in the first place.  She ought to use his name if he’d granted his permission.

“I mean,” she said.  “Ch… Chanyeol… you’re… you’re injured.”

He wrinkled his nose.  “It’s not hard work.”

Seoyeon begged to differ, but it was obvious he’d do it anyway (plus they were going to need a shelter to protect them from the cold weather), and so she dropped it, choosing instead to sit down by the fire.  She stared drowsily into the flames as he went back and forth, gathering wood and using it for his construction.  By the time he came to sit beside her, she was in a stupor, half hypnotised by the fire.

He nudged her a couple of times until she snapped back into full consciousness, and began pulling small packets out of his clothing and various pouches attached to the belt and criss-crossed leather straps he was wearing over his chest.

“We’re going to have to find more food,” he mumbled as he unwrapped some of the smoked fish and handed her half of one.  Meat from the bird he’d killed before went on a couple of skewers with various fruits and vegetables they still had, and Captain Park held them out over the fire so they could cook.

“Warm?” he asked her without looking around.

Seoyeon nodded happily as she pulled a couple of fish bones out from the flesh.  It was still very oily, but it was well over a week since she’d last had the opportunity to wash and Seoyeon was so mucky she had lost the will to care.

“How’s your ankle?”

She hadn’t had to think about that for a while, and Seoyeon looked down at it.

“Hurts a bit,” she admitted.

“Still swollen?”

She nodded again.

“I can look at it again once we’ve finished eating,” he offered, which took Seoyeon by surprise.  “Though your skills in that field are vastly greater than mine.”

Seoyeon stared at him.  He wasn’t looking at her, instead concentrating on the skewers he had over the fire, which he was slowly turning to ensure that everything was equally cooked.  The firelight gave his face a healthy glow, and the way it flickered seem to make his brown eyes dance with delight.

“Why are you being nice?” she blurted out.

He responded with a question of his own.  “Do you think I hate you?”

A couple of days ago, Seoyeon wouldn’t have hesitated before responding yes, and even though it was her knee-jerk reaction, she found herself pausing to consider.  After a little bit of thought, she realised that she was hopelessly confused.