If it were any other night, Yongsun would've found it beautiful.

The forest was quiet around them, so cold and so white, as winter had laid it's snowy blanket upon the world, sending it to bed and sprinkling gentle lullabies upon it's bedding, thickening it one snowflake at a time. They stood at the edge of the frosted forest as a giant glass lay before them, reflecting the milky drawings of the sky like a mirror in the dark, the quiet waters laying still underneath their icy canopy.

The trees, stripped of their fiery robes by the eager hand of the northern wind, stood tall above them, their looming figures nearly lost to the darkness of the sky, saved only by the silver linings the moon shone down upon them. branches intertwined against the blinding backdrop of the luminary in a strange net of twisted shapes, eerily beautiful, bleeding onto the starry night sky like veins through pale skin. Their scintillating garments of icy jewels shone like diamonds in the moonlight, their brightness rivaling that of the stars.

As she looked upon Mother Nature's haunting artwork, Yongsun felt the weight on her shoulder grow heavier until it was too much to support anymore, the burden of the night's events personified through the person she desperately tried to hold upwards just a little longer, just a few more seconds. Even through the unforgiving bite of the cold, everything burnt in Yongsun's body. He throat felt raw and irritated, the violent breaths she was heaving a mere minute ago as she ran for her life had scratched mercilessly on their way through and if she concentrated, she swore she could taste blood in .

Every muscle in her body felt like they were about to snap, tension pulling them taught as fire seemed to be eating at them torturously slowly, the withdrawal of adrenaline literally feeling like the life was slowly leaking out of her aching frame, leaving her shaking on wobbly limbs. She sank onto the frosty carpet at their feet when her legs finally gave in to the strain, her knees hitting the cold of the ground with such a weight, one would think she was carrying the entire world on her shoulders.

In a way, she was.

Yongsun tried to handle her partner with the utmost care, breaking her inevitable fall with the last of the strength she could muster, trying to shield her from the frigid temperature of the ground by draping her onto her lap. She flinched slightly when she felt warmth slowly dripping through the seems of the steel plating covering her legs, greedily latching onto her padded under armor and staining it bright, like ink on parchment.

Yongsun refused to look down, focusing instead on the ridiculously pale visage resting in the crook of her elbow, still beautiful and radiating warmth even if she knew that if she dared touch it, it would be colder than ice. The snowflakes lazily falling from the heavens seemed to cling to the other girl's skin, refusing to melt even after time trickled down the hourglass and so, Yongsun resorted to gently wiping them off herself, careful not to hurt her with the hard metal and rough leather shaping around her hands. She watched in silence as the smoky puffs of breath coming from the other's mouth became shorter and shorter, unbearable to watch even through the mist clouding her vision and stinging her eyes.

"Wheein-ah..." Her voice barely disturbed the deafening silence, cracked and broken as the lump in seemed to want to silence her, to prevent her from disturbing the other's peaceful slumber. Wheein's eyelids slowly slid open, the action seemingly more burdensome than anything else in the world as her eyes struggled to focus on Yongsun, taking in her frosted lips, her tear stained cheeks, her glistening eyes...

"So where am I going now, I wonder." Wheein whispered in a breath, as if the candid question was one of the many secrets they constantly exchanged as kids, a sweet smile etching itself onto her bluing lips. It was merely a pale echo of the playful and loving grins she would send Yongsun whenever she got the chance, lighting up her world like fire in the dark, but the latter felt the barest hint of comfort in it just the same, even if just for a second.

"Don't talk. Please..."

"Do you know what's ironic?" The younger cut her off, feeling as the cold of her body became greater than the weather of the world surrounding them, feeling the weight of every single second moving through her in shockwaves. She had too much to say, too much she wanted Yongsun to hear, "I always thought that if ever we had to part, I'd be the one crying a stream." She move her arm slightly, her limb far too heavy to do anything more than twitching slightly, but Yongsun understood.

She always did.

The elder gently intertwined their fingers, sniffing loudly as she ignored the cold biting into the wetness of her cheeks, her entire being religiously focusing on the woman laying in her arms. "Now, I find myself strangely content," the younger continued, "Knowing that you'll live on safely to remember me, to remember us, is all the courage I need to let go." Wheein struggled to finish the sentence, taking a moment to catch her shortening breath as she looked deep into the other's eyes, seeing the infinity of the despair staining their usual brightness before she continued, "So please, let go too, for I will be waiting for you with open arms, wherever I might be going next."

Yongsun struggled to hear the end of the younger's words as she expired the last of her air, the light in her eyes disappearing soon after. She didn't breathe back in. The elder was frozen in place, looking at the once vibrant girl now limp in her arms, her gaze traveling from her peaceful face, to her armor clad torso enveloping her in a halo of moonlight, to the sea of red trickling from the side of her body, staining the pure white of her death bed into the deep shade of the dead.

Somewhere, far away under the cover of the ice bound trees, a wolf cried out a hauntingly beautiful howl, ripping through the night's silence painfully as if it knew of Yongsun's agonizing grief. Only then did the woman finally allow herself to break, a single, loud sob shaking her entire being before she curled to rest her face into the crook of Wheein's neck, not even bothering to stop a desperate cry of anguish from ripping itself out of her chest.

If it were any other night, Yongsun would've found it beautiful.

If it were any other night...

-a/n-

Don't hate me, please...
I wanted to try and write a chapter that was a little more scenic and somber, but with a touch of beauty and light to contrast the angsty tone
I hope it worked out okay :3
Feel free to tell me what you thought of it in the comments and thanks again for the continued support!
Have a wonderful day~