Not anywhere near all the scene, but here you go…

And I still owe nothing – especially VK.

***

Stumbling up to the hut he was surprised to find the Sayori-girl standing outside the door, her hands on the doorknob , not waiting for them inside where it should've been still warm… but then she opened the door helpfully to let them in and as it hung limply to the side, held in place by only one hinge – a feeling of sick dread grew up in his stomach…

Oh no, God… please, no, God!.. please!.. yes…

… it was just barely, barely warmer inside than it was outside… Even with the heater set at full force it had taken him almost a full day to get the cabin to comfortable warmth before… and he just simply didn't have time for it now.

The pureblood was slipping… he felt it in his bones – slowly and resignedly slipping into the cold dark numbness that – Touga knew it from what the other people who'd experienced this kind of exposure told – felt almost like comfort, almost like release… and if the hunter wanted to bring the bugger out of it, bring him back before he was gone beyond the proverbial no-return point – he had to move fast.

"Why do I bother?" he asked himself even as he lowered the body gently on – oh so cold – bed, kneeling beside, because bending was just something his body wouldn't do right now. "Why do I care what happens to this arrogant… scheming… almighty… and pretty much acting as if he's omniscient to boot… creature?"

But the bluish-pale face that emerged when he opened the protective folds of his own longcoat didn't have the perpetual half-guarded half-amused all-knowing look that oh so irritated Touga on the young vampire… Now, as it relaxed into unconsciousness, his face looked sad, and tired, and filled with such an immense, such habitual sorrow – that the hunter's heart lurched a familiar tenderness previously reserved only for one another tormented vampire child…

"Getting your family extended… eh, Touga?" he imagined Kaien Cross's voice chirping ironically in his head… Kaien Cross – who's own "family" was long being extended to where he was prepared to kill or die for any child in his Academy – Day and Night Class alike – not only for Yuuki and Zero… who weren't actually his children either… and were both vampires now…

"Shit…" the hunter swore silently as his fingers fumbled uselessly on the open neck of the vampires shirt – searching for pulse… There had to still be a pulse, the vampire was strong, there had to… but his hands were too numb from cold to feel any… with his body all sweat-drenched for the exertion – wasn't it strange that his hands would grow cold, only gradually un-numbing into throbbing unwieldy hotness now …

Wait!... Hot?..

With lightning speed – or so it seemed to him – where in fact his movements were uneven and sluggish – he sprang to action, moving the aged, inordinately heavy recliner to where it would be nearest to the heater, where its full blast would come directly on it.

Returning to the motionless figure on the bed he unwrapped Kaname out of the longcoat and jacket, but faultered when it came to the pureblood's own trenchcoat – his fingers just weren't on par to deal with the buttons right now.

"Help me", he rasped to the girl, the urgency of his voice getting to Sayori, as she came to his side and together they removed the wet and heavy garment off Kaname's shoulders.

"Boots too", the hunter urged further cradling the now undressed to the silken shirt vampire closer into his arms and simultaneously fighting to get rid of his own footwear… Asking the girl to remove the pureblood's boots was one thing – the vampire looked ridiculously clean even now, when Touga knew he had been up and about for at least as long as the hunter himself, - but he just knew for sure his socks stank… besides, he wasn't all sure if he had checked them for holes when he donned them the previous morning.

What stupidsensibilities to be having at a moment like this…

"Good", he croaked once both deeds were eventually accomplished. Cringing from the cold as his feet touched the floor of the hut, he hobbled with Kaname in his arms to the waiting recliner and slowly lowered himself to half-sit, half-lie on it, positioning the cold and limp body on top of his own, so that Kaname's feet stretched to his own, and the vampire's head was resting on his shoulder, pressing the pureblood as tightly as he could to himself to ensure full body contact.

"Now, throw everything you can find upon us", he commanded the waiting girl, "bedclothes, covers, our clothes, even floor rug if there is one…"

"You aren't going to lay him in bed?" the girl asked. But he was relieved that even while asking she was already bringing the blanket, and when she wrapped it around them he was surprised that the cloth felt warmer than he expected and belatedly realized that the girl must've piled the bed covers before the heater, when she understood – she'd never have time to warm the cabin enough. "Good thinking," he admitted silently, "good thinking… nice girl…", and his voice caught with gruff gratitude as he explained:

"After all the exertions my body is perhaps the warmest thing there is in this whole damn… uh, never mind… the whole of this room. He would be better this way".

It was subtly unnerving to have the vampire's (and pureblood's at that) head pushed face down so close to his own neck, it made him feel threatened, but the hunter checkered his instincts. In the state he was in the boy was not going to be able to move fast, not fast enough for him not to be able to stop him effectively before the unthinkable happens – even if Kaname's body decided to reach for his blood… unconsciously… He didn't know how he knew it – but he was pretty sure that consciously Kaname would never do it – not to the person who was trying to save his life.

The hunter wondered if it were Kaien's stories of the boy and his parents, or whether he himself had come to grudgingly admire the very nobility of this Kuran princeling… to a certain extent… even though the certainty he felt now was so alien to the one who had professed to never trust a vampire – least of all a pureblood…

Maybe it was just that the boy was just too damn proud to do such a thing… Yeah, too damn proud and full of himself…

But the words fell hollow and meaningless, overshadowed by concern, as he pressed the vampire's body ever closer to himself, urging it to soak in the heat that his own body provided.

"Come on, kid… just soak it in, do… just show me you're still in there somewhere…"

He thought he felt a small flutter, a small feather-like shiver run along the purblood's frame, but it was so light he couldn't be sure he felt it, couldn't be sure it wasn't his own body that shivered – relaxing after the strain.

If the one he was saving were human – the hunter knew that feeding the overexposure victim small amounts of warm salty water would help. He wondered if similar treatment would be good for vampires…

Certainly not one of subjects they teach us as hunters – how to save the beasts…

There was of course another sort of liquid that he knew would help a vampire – undeniably warm and even a trifle salty… it was just that all his hunter feelings rebelled at the very thought of it…

The next soft tremor ran all along the vampire's spine right under his hand – unmistakable now… And then they started coming in quick succession, until the whole slender body in his arms was shivering wildly – the breaths fluttering over the hunters shoulder coming in as hiccups and out as strangled sobs – as the nerves in the unconscious vampire's body re-awakened to the pain that was life.

"Oh, come on, Touga, is it time for your stupid sensibilities now?!" the hunter thought as he held Kaname tightly, as much for warmth now as for sheer relief mixed with a deep concern in the face of boy's obvious distress. "One just does what one hast to. So – you have to do this…"

He looked for the girl that he knew was somewhere nearby – as she was – sitting on the bed at attention, huddling a little for warmth in the still chilly air inside the hut.

"Sayori-chan? Hey? Go to the kitchen now… find a clean cup… no, scratch it – heat up some water and wash one… and the knife… sharp. And there should be some bandages in my pack in the corner… just bring it all over here, will you?" Touga knew he sounded gruff, impolite and commanding – but he was rushing it up so that he wouldn't change his decision, see? "Oh… Sayori-chan…" he added as an afterthought hit him, "have you also turned the water-heater on – for the bathroom?"

The girl stopped at the kitchen door and smiled at him brightly – seemingly unperturbed by his lack of manners:

"Yes, Yagari-sensei, as a matter of fact – I have".

So, she thought about it as well… nice clever girl – this…

"Will you adopt her too – now?" came the Kaien Cross-like voice in his mind and the hunter snorted angrily.

"No, I won't, and I'm not like adopting anyone – full-stop, you hear it? So shut up already, old man, alright?"

And the voice in his head went obediently silent.