Jinsu had stopped shivering and regained feeling in her fingers and toes by the time that Baekhyun gently uncurled himself from around her and nudged her to her feet.  She yawned, trying to protest.

“No, we need to go back,” he told her as he pushed her out to sit by the fire and started taking the tent down.  “I don’t want you falling asleep out here in your current condition.”

“But tired,” she complained around another yawn.

“I know, but if you’re going to sleep with concussion and hypothermia, it’s not going to be in the snow.  Sorry.”

Just about conscious enough to register grumpiness, Jinsu huddled by the fire, already missing Baekhyun’s body heat.  He’d swaddled her up like a baby and then practically smothered her by draping himself over her like a big, gangly koala before covering the pair of them with more blankets, and the warmth had been blissful and toasty.  She wanted it back.

They’d also been there long enough for Baekhyun now to only have one head, even if she blinked or her own head hurt or she moved it a little too quickly.  Some part of her that was more awake than her conscious brain told her that it was a good thing.  She turned back to Baekhyun: he’d probably be happy if she told him this.

“I’m not seeing. . .” she began, and then cut off with a frown, searching out the word.  It wouldn’t come.

Baekhyun looked up in alarm as he folded the tent.  “At all?”

Jinsu opted for simpler language.  “There’s only one of you.”

A bright, relieved smile was what she got in response.  “Great!”

“But my head hurts.”  Jinsu pouted.

“I’d be surprised if it didn’t.”

“But it hurts.”

“And I’d still be surprised if it didn’t.”  Stuffing the tent into its bag and from there into the backpack, Baekhyun slung the backpack onto his back and strode over to her, holding out a hand.  “Come on.  The sooner we get back, the sooner you get to bed.  A real, nice, comfy bed.”

Jinsu looked at his pale, ungloved hand, and then up at him.  “But you’re comfy.”

Even in the dark, and even concussed, and even with the orange glow of the flames, it was obvious that Baekhyun had gone a very bright shade of pink.

“I’m not a bed, Jinsu.”

She just pouted again.  Baekhyun reached for her hand and hauled her up.  She stumbled and he grabbed her around the waist, sliding his arm under her cloak for a better grip.

“Stick with me,” he told her.  “If you feel sick or dizzy or need a rest, just say, okay?”

She nodded, tucking her head into his side, and they set off.

The walk back seemed to go on forever.  Baekhyun wouldn’t let Jinsu go to sleep, no matter how many times she asked, and they stopped every twenty minutes or so for her to gather strength again.  They were both shivering when the rear of the Attayear finally came in sight.  Somehow, Baekhyun managed to get Jinsu in through a porthole around head height (he was worried somebody had noticed he was missing and what kind of welcome delegation they’d receive if they walked in through the front doors, even though it was nearly four in the morning).  She was more lucid than she had been before and not too keen on making the climb.

“Come on,” he told her impatiently as he leant back out of the porthole, trying to grab hold of her wrists.  “For all you know, they’re waiting there with pitchforks or something.”

“Not scary,” Jinsu objected stubbornly.  “I’m my father’s daughter.  He’s scary.  Not them and not the zombie apocalypse and dead bodies and scalpels stuff—”

Baekhyun looked like he wanted to laugh, but was too tired or too exasperated to actually do so.

“You’re going loopy,” he told her, finally getting hold of her and wrenching her off her feet.  She winced as her head was jolted, but the next thing she knew, she was safely inside the warmth of the Attayear and he was closing the porthole window behind them.

And her teeth were chattering like crazy.

Baekhyun stopped short of helping her get into a dry set of pyjamas, instead warning her against taking a hot shower because it might be painful and leaving to get her some food and a warm drink.  Jinsu had curled up in bed, still shivering, by the time he returned.  He regarded her with a sigh before putting the tray down on a chair by the bed.

“I want to sleep,” she told him, blinking dopily in an attempt to challenge him to refuse.  He fiddled with his sleeve paws.

“Okay,” he agreed.  “But I’m going to stay with you.  And I think I’m also going to set the Attayear going before the others wake up.  I don’t think Youngdo and Minhwan will be thrilled to find you aboard and I don’t want them to do something vindictive like kick you off because they find you here.  Besides, the sooner we’re back home, the sooner we can get you checked up at hospital to make sure your head and everything is okay.”

Jinsu yawned in response.  He sat hesitantly on the bed beside her and reached out, placing a hand first on her head and then on the hand that was clutching the duvet up to her chin.  She sighed gratefully at the warmth.

“You’re still cold,” he noted.

“You’re warm,” Jinsu mumbled, and he chuckled.  She rolled closer to him, and he responded by lifting the duvet up.

“Is this okay?” he asked.  Jinsu looked at him blankly, barely able to work out exactly what the question was.  He took it as a yes and slipped in beside her.  Jinsu had absolutely no objection to him pulling her against him and wrapping his arms around her waist.  She could already feel herself drifting off.

“I’ll wake you up in twenty minutes,” he promised.  “You can eat then, okay?”

Jinsu felt like she’d been run over by a truck when she woke up.  The back of her head was throbbing madly, and she was warm to the point that her skin was clammy and sweaty.  Struggling out of the nest she appeared to have made from her duvet, she sat up and looked around, completely disorientated.  Her head was much clearer than it had been when she last remembered being awake, but it was still incredibly painful.

She frowned.  She remembered being out in the snow, and Baekhyun patiently telling her over and over again as they walked (for what seemed like years) that she had to reach that tree over there before she could sit down and rest, and then the next one (or had it been a rock?), but that was about it when it came to the events after being clobbered on the back of the head by Youngdo.  That and bone-biting cold.  The heaters in her room appeared to be on full blast, though, and there was a tray of food on the chair beside her bed which Baekhyun must have left for her.  A thrum almost as annoying as her throbbing head (or mayb