The penetrating cold of a winter's night has been the setting for many a misadventure or misdeed. Harsh elements of nature pitted against the desires and ambitions of men makes for good dramatic tension. How many novels had come through the book store in Karanese with some climactic event or other taking place under such conditions? Too many to count. And so it became, one frigid night in January, we got acquainted with just why it so well suited an author's pen.

What do I do? What can I do? WHAT IN THE HELL DO I DO?! Goddammit! Shit! Josh moved around frantically, digging through the snow for anything he could use to compensate for his inability to swim. A log, a branch, SOMETHING, for God's sake! His first thought was to see if he could wade into the pond enough where he wouldn't have to, but there was an immediate drop off past the water's edge. He thought about finding a stable place on the remaining ice, but quickly found the entirety of it to be compromised. This was worse than bad; it was a nightmare. Please, Lord, don't let me lose either of them tonight…I know I'm not the most pious, or a regular fixture in the pew, but please

Not a moment after those thoughts were given life, he hit his ankle and fell, face first into a snowdrift. A bit of exposed wood protruded from the field of white. A birch-branch. Josh dug feverishly to remove it. When he dug away a certain amount of snow, he pulled. The branch didn't budge. He scooped away more of it and tried again. Nothing. There was an anxious glance back at the still rippling pond. It was impossible to tell whether any air bubbles were coming up from where he stood. How long could Annie hold her breath? Did she even have the opportunity to do so when she fell in?

His attempts to break the limb off were failing to yield results in the face of mounting panic. Come on you bastard! Josh yanked and twisted the branch with every ounce of his strength. The wood protested fiercely, but he could hear it cracking under the strain. "Give it up already, asshole!" A final pull, the snapping of dead wood, and he went over backwards into the powder. Before he even got to his feet, he was dragging the branch with him towards the water.

At the pond's edge he raised the branch up, hesitating momentarily, unsure of where to reach with it, or whether he would strike Annie in the process. "…If you can hear me, I'm sticking a branch into the water! Just…grab on and…I'll pull you up!" He submerged as much of it as he could while still maintaining a firm hold, and waited, heart threatening to beat out of his chest. Please…please, please, please…

Five seconds passed. Ten seconds, fifteen, then, there was a sudden jerk and the branch dipped a bit further into the water. Josh immediately started pulling upwards and backwards. The addition of substantial weight upon the branch, which was already far from light, strained his grip. At one point he feared he might lose hold of it, dooming his beloved back to the icy depths.

(***)

So heavy…heavy, stifled, and so very, very cold. How many years had it been since she'd done something so physically taxing? She'd protested against much of the training, but her father's thoroughness had eventually paid off in every respect. And for that reason, she could endure far more than most. Another moment of appreciation which had come in this frigid abyss. Four and a half minutes under water was more than most people could hold their breath for, and she was still holding firm.

Conserving the oxygen in her lungs proved an arduous task, what with the need to shed her equipment and heavier garments. Shrugging off a backpack, easy. Unclasping and removing a waterlogged greatcoat, not so much. The garment fit snugly, meaning that it clung to her arms as the water seeped into every fiber. The winter gloves and neck-scarf she wore were similarly cumbersome to remove. Beyond that, she dared not abandon any more of her clothes, even if they weighed her down. She couldn't very well walk back to camp naked. Still, trying to swim up wasn't working, and the walls of the pond didn't have anything solid to grab onto. If she had maybe a tree root, or a branch to climb up…

An object broke the water's surface above her, plunging sharply downwards. Annie narrowly avoided being struck with it. It was a branch, about the thickness of her thigh, with a few slender protrusions jutting off of it. Shouting accompanied the branch's arrival, the intent of the words requiring little thought to interpret. Were it not for his stubborn singlemindedness, Josh's swiftness of action could be quite chivalrous and…attractive. His armor isn't precisely shining, but a handsome knight nonetheless when it counts. She grabbed firm hold of the branch and felt herself quickly rising towards the night again. A handful of seconds to mentally prepare for the wind's ferocious bite.

Those seconds didn't prepare her for how truly painful those first breaths of air were going to be, made worse because she had to gasp for them. It was like a thousand needles stabbing her chest from the inside. For a brief instant she wished to go back under.

"Goddammit!" Annie swore. Cold, cold, cold, cold, so mind-numbingly cold! She came back to solid ground shaking like a tree in a wind storm. Josh pulled her the rest of way out of the water and onto shore, where she slumped to her knees in a soaking heap.

"Shit…" he breathed; the hardest part having passed. Or so he'd like to think. Now hypothermia was the great risk to survival. "We gotta get out of the open," he thought aloud. The cabin would provide cover, but they also needed a fire and blankets. He grabbed Annie, putting an arm around his shoulder. Her limbs wobbled so much she couldn't properly stand. "Hang in there for me, okay?" Please have had the decency to leave a few things behind.

Josh hurried the pair of them back to the door of the darkened domicile. After reluctantly setting her to the side, he turned his shoulder towards the entrance. Whoever owned this cabin was going to need a new door. He slammed himself sidelong against it. The padding of his winter clothing didn't cushion as much of the impact as he'd hoped, and the door didn't give either. He took a couple of steps back and made a second attempt. Nothing. Well…even if I dislocate it, an injured shoulder is way better than Annie freezing to death. Josh charged the door a third time. While painful, he definitely felt it push inward some. Come on, you stupid bastard; one more.

Four assaults were all the door could handle. Whatever mechanism kept it shut broke and the door flew wide, smashing into the wall. Josh scooped up his lantern and hurried Annie inside. The cabin's darkness was deeper than the night's, an empty blackness that creaked as the wind battered the structure. And despite the orderly appearance of the place, it was readily apparent that whoever owned it hadn't been by in some time. Neither had anyone else for that matter. However, the house appeared to have remained stocked of possessions. Fingers crossed.

"Alright, I'm going to see if I can find some blankets." Josh managed to get the door securely shut again. He set Annie down in one of several chairs by a worn table. "Just um…wait here a moment and get the wet clothes off."

"Josh…" she rasped as he turned to leave. "I'm so cold I can barely move…and my clothes feel like…they're freezing to my skin." She stared at him. "You need…to help me…undress."

He stiffened. "I…oh…um…well…"

"I can only maintain my body temperature a little longer. If it drops much more, I could go into shock, maybe pass out. It's a possibility I could develop some frostbite as well. So please…cast any awkwardness aside for right now and help me."

"…Okay." No need to freak out, Kassmeyer. You've got to do this so she doesn't get sick. There's nothing perverted about it at all. There aren't any dirty thoughts running through your mind. He knelt down and began unlacing her boots. "If my hands…if I touch…I'm not trying to be opportunistic here, hon, I swear." One might remember as well, a winter's night could also grant more intimate encounters with which to fill the pages of a book. Suddenly, the frigid cabin was feeling several degrees warmer.

"Not the…point right now, Josh." And one would think the last person I'd be worried about touching me is my freaking boyfriend. Especially considering some of the more intense bouts of kissing they'd had. But he tended to be an "ask permission" as opposed to an "ask forgiveness" kind of guy outside of those contexts. Then again, neither of them had seen the other naked before. Sure, there'd been plenty of everything that could be accomplished with clothes on, but they'd never gotten enough time in seclusion at the academy, or they'd been too nervous, to follow such behaviors to their logical conclusion. Out in the cold lonesome of the wilderness, no external impediments kept them from doing so. Great…I definitely needed a reason to push my heartrate higher.

Her boots came off after a solid tug, making a wet, sucking sound as they did so. Upending the footwear was like dumping out a pitcher. The socks proved Annie's assertion that removing her garments would've been near impossible without help, and far too slow of a process. Moisture, soaked into the fibers, clung dearly to her dermis, like a suckerfish might cling gluttonously to a grimy rock. Beneath, her feet were shown in the lantern light to be bright red. This would likely be the case across all of her extremities. His efforts to prioritize clinical urgency over pubescent sexual anxiety weren't going as smoothly as he wished.

Removing the pants and her sweatshirt weren't impossible, although the act proceeded far slower than should've been the case under the circumstances. Her undergarments were what really stopped him. Internal debate kept his hands from moving, and the lewd imaginings that Aline put in his head earlier that evening came back to the forefront of his mind. He felt guilty. Even if hormones were to blame, she was suffering while his head was in his pants. After a seeming eternity of indecision, he settled on keeping his eyes mostly closed, so as to only see vague shapes. That, and he was very cautious with where and how his fingers moved.

Then, with nothing but droplets of water remaining to cover Annie's body, Josh swiftly put his overcoat around her and stood up. "I'm going to go find those blankets now…" His voice was higher in pitch than he'd intended. "…and um, something to get a fire going."

(***)

Outside those timber walls, the storm's rage only grew. Wind howling like an ever-increasing pack of wolves, windows rattling like they'd be torn off at any moment, and snow piling up at a centimeter a minute. Getting stranded at a time like this? I never figured my luck to turn so shitty. He didn't pack more than a day's worth of water and rations. Tending to the fireplace, he'd also gotten a pretty good idea of how long the wood would last them too. About as long as the food, maybe. Heaven help them if the blizzard buried the front of the house.

Above the crackling flames, water intermittently dripped from damp attire, evaporating into steam upon contact with the searing wood beneath. Those sizzling drops punctuated the silence within the abode. Silence neither of them cared for, but were nervous to break for a variety of reasons. It was a hell of a thing to have a moment as awkward as this when they'd been together since 847. Even something stupid would be better than being this quiet.

"Listen, I—" they both said.

"Sorry, you can—"

"No, please—" Josh and Annie continued stepping on each other's tongues. Attempting to avoid further annoyance, she closed her mouth and gestured for him to go first.

"I don't even know how to begin apologizing," he started.

"It isn't your fault I fell."

He looked down at the floor. "The ice there was weak because I ran across it."

"We both should've been more careful with our steps," she added. Josh was something of a guilt-sponge, soaking up all the remorse and sadness in the room after he made any particularly egregious mistake. It didn't suit someone who usually appeared so positive and determined.

"There wasn't any light..."

"Huh?"

Josh gestured to the window. "The glow I saw from outside…it was my lantern. It caught the glass at just the right angle to produce a glare, probably by reflecting off the snow." He'd put them through an ordeal for an empty building. "So much for all my big-talk earlier," he sighed. "If my feet turn black from frostbite…that's how hard I was willing to go to find Christa, how I actually thought. Now look at us." He slammed his fist against the floorboards. "I'm such an ass. Didn't take more than a half-hour for me to screw things up."

"The others are still out there searching for Christa."

"We split up because we couldn't cover enough ground in a single group. They can't search everywhere themselves, and thanks to me you almost caught hypothermia. I'm sure we've missed the rendezvous by now too."

Annie pulled the blanket tighter around her. "I'm getting warmer."

"…there's that, yeah." And he only just managed to help in that regard. "Sorry…about the whole…how I was acting when I was getting your wet clothes off." Josh rubbed at his neck. "I psyched myself out over it, even though I should've been solely concerned with what needed to be done."

"It's not like the cold was the only reason my body was trembling so much." Annie tucked her knees up to her chest. "Neither of us really have any experience with…that stuff." And she'd been more anxious with each fewer piece of clothing between her skin and his eyes. Yet, in spite of that, she felt a sense of arousal growing within her in the moment. Arousal that, by the end of the undressing, left her more than slightly disappointed that Josh hadn't done anything. More so than any anger she'd had about falling in the pond. It all amounted to a wasted opportunity that most guys in his shoes would've surely jumped on.

Life's too short to be idle after all.

"Well, I didn't see much; I kept my eyes where they were supposed to be." Although, a few times there'd been glimpses of her…more private regions.

Annie bit into her lip for a moment. "What did you think?"

"What?"

"You said you didn't see much. What about what you did see?" Despite the softness with which she uttered the words, the question sounded just as bold.

"I, uh…well, I wasn't exactly thinking about how to, um, score…anything?" That's a hell of a way to phrase it, you jackass.

"The muscles were too much, weren't they?" Given the nature of their training, most cadets developed very well-toned physiques. Annie however, with her training regimen being far more intensive, and given she began doing so at a much earlier age, had a very well-defined body. Though she was loath to admit it, as she physically excelled at many tasks far beyond her peers, looking in the mirror, she didn't feel as feminine as she might've liked.

"…I don't think so at all." Okay, maybe he'd looked a bit more than he wanted to admit. "A solid core is nothing to be ashamed of."

"Is this the point where you reveal you've got some sort of muscle fetish?"

Josh flushed. "What, no! That's not what I'm talking about in the slightest! Bad enough Aline makes me out to be a degenerate, now you too?!"

"You're too easy to tease when you're flustered." She smirked.

"Considering tonight, I have thatcoming at the very least," he sighed. "Much as it gets to me."

"Just trying to ease some of the tension is all." For both their sakes. That said, she wasn't satisfied with the answer he'd given her. "…My body, you really don't think it looks weird?" Her question was more straightforward this time.

"Annie, you've got a great figure. I could've told you that without seeing you naked." Not that he was complaining in the slightest.

"That's not what I was asking."

"You're being awfully self-conscious all of a sudden; what's wrong?"

"Just because I'm strong, doesn't mean I don't need reassurance once and a while.

He turned to her. "What are you so worried about?"

"I guess I don't feel like I'm all that pretty or sexy most of the time. Abs aren't a conventionally attractive feature for a girl to have. My…chest isn't very big either."

He raised an eyebrow. "What in the world gives you the idea I don't think you're pretty and sexy?" It'd never once occurred to him that Annie would have self-confidence issues, given how he himself looked at her. "You think I'd prefer some wide-hipped chambermaid with melon-sized breasts?" I know Jansen definitely would.

"Not you, just…people talk. Girls gossip in the bunkhouses and shower rooms." People who were more suited to being snakes than human beings. Annie figured she didn't have much of a right to call somebody else that. Those reasons were kept close to her chest. Still, whether she outwardly expressed them to most folks or not, she had feelings like everyone else. And she still was a teenager, as her classmates were. She wasn't immune to mean words just because she didn't wear her heart on her sleeve. Even thick skin can be broken if its chipped away at for long enough. "You know what they call me, yeah?"

"Only because they don't know you."

"It's not always what's said, but how. Talking like I don't have ears, then hurrying out of the room the second I turn my head."

"You never told me any of that bothered you."

She shrugged. "Most of the time it doesn't. Some days though…God, I picked a strange time to open the floodgates about all this." Easier to ignore things. Harder to deal with emotions you aren't accustomed to. One of the downsides to her particular upbringing was the near-complete lack of socialization, which made puberty that much more frustrating to deal with.

"If I may say so, how many hushed whispers could you dispel simply by dropping the façade? I realize I've asked a thousand times, but why keep it up? What's the harm in people seeing you for who you actually are?"

Who I actually am, huh? "It's not like I'm out to become everyone's best friend. I'm not the most people-oriented person, you know that. And no matter how many times you ask, you're getting the same answer. I've got my own reasons. Even the people you care about aren't entitled to every last secret."

"You seem to forget how persistent I am."

She punched him in the arm. "I can't forget, you remind me all the time."

Josh smiled. "You know, there's people who'd view your physically aggression as spousal abuse."

"Maybe, but we're not married."

"Yet…" It was an inevitability. Certainly, after so much time together, nobody could insinuate they wouldn't. Not at their age, obviously, but in time. Too much love was shared between them for anything other eventuality.

Still, on that cold night, so many days away from the summer's warmth, he had no way of knowing how far away yet would become.

"…Hey, Josh?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever thought about running away, starting over someplace else?"

"Eloping certainly is romantic enough when you read about it, but not exactly my first choice for furthering a relationship." Not to mention the baggage that tended to inevitably come up in the interim.

"No, not like that. I mean, just tossing responsibility to the wind and telling the world to piss off."

This elicited a laugh from him. "I'm starting to see a bit of a rebellious side to you; I like it. Not sure I see much to be running away from at our age though. I don't have a clue where I'd go or what I'd do."

"I wouldn't know either, but…sometimes I think about it. How liberating would it be to cast off all the problems of life and reinvent myself."

She sounded more like a regular teenager tonight than he'd ever seen her. "And what's wrong with who you are?"

If only he knew… "Is there ever a point you could imagine falling out of love with me?"

He turned around fully this time. "Where'd that come from? You're asking a lot of odd questions tonight, and it's not like you." As though on a seesaw, her demeanor had been bouncing from high to low, sometimes lingering in the middle.

"I'm just asking. Maybe it has something to do with almost drowning? A near-death experience brings up a lot of unusual thoughts I suppose. Still, I'd like an answer all the same. Is there anything I could do that would change how you feel about me?"

"Not in the slightest. Hell," he snickered, "you could be a vampire or a werewolf and even that wouldn't sway me."

"…what about a titan?"

"Ha! At your size, that'd be some trick! Perhaps if people could turn into titans, you might have a little luck convincing someone with a line like that?!" Josh laughed. "But yeah, sure, I'd still love you, even if you were a titan."

Annie didn't respond.

(***)

"Hard to believe we've been here almost five years."

"It's a long time to keep cover, and it almost seems to me like you've forgotten why we came in the first place. As well as you've adjusted to things, one could be forgiven for thinking you've had a change of heart."

"I've forgotten nothing; the act has become a natural part of my routine, diverting suspicion."

"All the same, don't forget that an act is all it is. The fairytale will come to an end in a few months."

"I'd hardly call the life we've been living a fairytale."

"We? No. But you have certainly built yourself up something along those lines."

"That's none of your business."

"The hell it isn't. You've potentially put the entire operation at risk, and for what, a bout of teenage romance?!"

"I'm not compromised."

"Will you still be able to say that when the time comes to initiate our primary objective?"

"…I won't falter. The mission comes before all else."

"Take extra care that you don't forget where your loyalties lie, Annie."

(***)

"God, I'm freezing my balls off." Jansen shivered. "Somehow, I think it actually got colder." Not to mention how much the wind had picked up. They couldn't hear one another without nearly shouting, despite being no further than two meters from each other.

"Please don't remind me," Aline groaned. She placed her hands around her mouth and nose, breathing hot air into them to keep her face warm.

Albrecht led the trio, lantern held aloft, although he wondered if he continued to do so because his arm might be frozen in place. "The snow is burying our tracks pretty fast too." They could've been walking in circles, like-as-not and wouldn't be able to tell. "Unless they're nearby, anyone else's footprints will be gone before we find them."

"Can't yell to nobody, can't track nobody, can't hardly see. Lady luck is a nasty bitch sometimes."

"Hey Alb," Aline tugged on his sleeve. "What if we circle around to the edge of the woods and come back in?" There was a deeply etched tiredness in her face. She could be likened to a fraying piece of worn fabric, desperately trying to hold it together.

"Could work…if I knew which direction the edge of the forest was." All the trees looked the same. They stood thick, fanning out densely in every direction. North, south, east, and west were meaningless words here. Not only were Christa's whereabouts less certain than before, but they'd managed to get lost. "I think we're going to miss the rendezvous, or we already have. Some rescue op this is turning out to be."

"Visibility is too bad for us to spread further apart with only one lantern. If we had more light, maybe we could…" A flash in the distance, a sound like rolling thunder, rising above the storm's howl. Tendrils stretched out from the center, like capillaries from a vein. Both sound and light were in existence for but a second, then night swallowed them up.

Jansen blinked. "Was…was that lightning?"

"Don't be stupid, it's snowing." Aline kept her eyes on the spot nonetheless.

"It's not unheard of for lightning to strike in winter," Albrecht said. "Differences in temperature generate static just like when it's raining, but…I don't think I've ever seen yellow lightning before." A sight at once alien, yet seemingly familiar for a reason not readily apparent. He started walking forward. "I think we should check it out."

"You know that thing about lightning never striking the same place twice is a myth, don't you?!"

"Something in my gut is saying we need to get over there. Besides, it's not like we'd be safe from a strike under all these trees." Jansen didn't question, he just followed Albrecht. Aline protested again, though went after them when it became clear she'd be left in the dark otherwise. Taking risks is the last thing we should be doing at a time like this.

They kept as direct of a heading as possible; one couldn't become turned around if you never turned. However, the distance between them and the lightning strike wasn't known. Despite not taking very long to reach them, the brief count between flash and thunderclap couldn't be counted on. The wind carried sound differently during an intense storm, twisting and distorting it. Likewise, darkness hindered their perception.

Curious thoughts arose partway into this side jaunt: On the one hand, Albrecht felt compelled to approach where the lightning touched the earth. On the other, why did he feel such a compulsion? What in the world could be at the end of a lightning strike except something burnt? Anything with more life in it than a tree would've met a most sudden, and violent demise. There could easily be nothing at all. If fact, that was the likely conclusion. Neither people, aside from themselves, or animals would be out in this. And yet, something deep within his subconscious was saying to him "Come and see." He'd never heard voices in his head before, and the sensation was more than a little creepy. A voice that was simultaneously his own and that of another. Its' tone betrayed excitement, as if quite eager to see where heaven's fury had met the earth. So, why'd he tell Aline it was a gut feeling? Albrecht laughed nervously to himself. I think I've been out in the cold too long; my brain's getting frozen too.

"Hey, Alb," Jansen grabbed him by the shoulder. "I think I see something over there." Just ahead on the right, forest gave way to a massive wall of stone, a clearing forming a semi-circle about ten meters deep in front of it. A promontory in the middle of the woods?

"This place…was on the map." Assuming they were in the location he surmised they might be. "Point Soren I think it was."

"Meaning what exactly?" Aline asked.

He gestured off to the left. "Meaning that the forest continues for another two hundred meters or so in that direction, before opening back up into the valley. Even in this storm, the lights from camp should be visible from the top."

"Oh sure, why I don't I just unpacked my climbing gear and head right up?" Aline mimed digging through her backpack for a moment, retrieving nonexistent equipment for the task. She took a couple steps forward, faced Albrecht, and spread her arms. Icy cliffs in both directions, without so much as a crevice to grab onto. "There's no way for us to get up there!" And therefore, no way to confirm their true whereabouts. "Face it, we are hopelessly freaking lost!"

"The field manual says that panicking in these sorts of situations is the worst—"

"Oh, the great soldier has granted us the wisdom of the HOLY FIELD MANUAL! Bestow upon us the sermons of the divine text!" She put her face in her hands and screamed. "We screwed this up! We've been looking for a needle in a haystack, and we've become needles ourselves!"

"Can you calm down for a se—"

"How in the unholy hell am I supposed to remain calm?! Christa is still lost, Josh and Annie are out there, probably lost, and we are WHO KNOWS WHERE! We're going to freeze to death at this point! Aline screamed again, balling her fists and plowing her boot into a snowbank.

"Ow…" came a muffled response from within the white mound. Aline stumbled backwards in surprise. A head and shoulders steadily emerged, twisting about until the shrouded face found the three wandering cadets. A hand came up to remove the scarf, revealing a familiar freckled face.

Jansen squinted. "Ymir?"

"Well, isn't this a nice surprise; out for a late-night stroll?" She stood up and brushed the powder off of her head.

"We're out looking for Christa, and by extension, you," Albrecht answered. "The column had a few stragglers on the way into camp, but neither of you ever showed up. Some of us got tired of waiting."

"Aw, you came out here for little old me? I'm touched."

"In a way, seeing as you were the last one to share company with Christa." Which means the smaller of the two issues was taken care of, if only by some stroke of strange fortune. "Damn storm's really making it a pain in the ass. Been wandering around lost for a while, then we saw a lightning strike of all things, looked like it touched down around here. If that hadn't happened, I don't think we'd have thought to head over this way."

"Pft, you're stumbling around in the dark trying to find lightning?" Her expression was a mixture of amusement and incredulity. "Not to be mean, but are you dense?"

He ignored the insult. "Something was strange about it, the color didn't seem…I don't know, natural? All three of us saw it."

"I didn't see shit, honestly."

Now it was Aline's turn to express amusement. "Unless you've been unconscious, there's no way you could've missed it. Bright, yellow flash, lit everything up like a bonfire for a second." She would've had to be inside that snowbank for the last ten minutes to not have seen it.

"Maybe my eyes are broken then," she said flatly. "I saw no lightning."

Existence of strange weather phenomena aside, there was a question of greater import as yet unasked. "What are you doing over here?" Jansen raised an eyebrow.

"Took a bit of a tumble," she pointed upwards. "Fortunately, the snow's still soft." The sheer rockface behind her was at least sixty meters high. Tumble was a tiny little bit of an understatement.

"Soft snow or not, that's neck breaking height." The lantern betrayed no obvious injuries to Ymir, not even a tear in her jacket. "How'd you manage that?"

"Got a devil's luck?" She shrugged. Not the first lucky fall she'd had in her life, and probably not the last. Not to mention that they'd been far enough away to avoid seeing anything. Christa's other associates tended to be a bit too involved for her liking. Still, she'd have been lying to herself if she'd thought for a single moment that they wouldn't come looking. Her charge had thankfully stayed out during the fall. Maybe he had died after all?

No, even if he did, it wouldn't look very good to arrive empty-handed. People might start rumors, which could, in turn, impede her other efforts. "Oh, that reminds me; I'd like some help with my cargo." Sticking out of the snow behind her, a sled, bearing upon it the half-frozen body of one of their classmates, Daz.

"You brought Daz down with you?"

"No, Duerk; don't be an idiot. The ground gave out and we both fell. I'm not an asshole."

"That's debatable," Albrecht responded. "Where's Christa?"

Right to business then. She pointed again to the top of the cliff. "Up there, somewhere, probably fell into a snow drift. She's small enough to get lost in one." Well, pushed into one at any rate, but Ymir kept that part to herself.

He made a fist. "I'm going to need you to elaborate, now."

"Hey, I just told you where I last saw her. I'm not a babysitter. Also, quit giving me a look like I stepped on a puppy."

"We're supposed to look out for our comrades. Abandon someone in a storm like this, and they'll die, like as not."

Ymir groaned. "Didn't abandon anyone, I fell; already told you that."

"You don't seem all that broken up about her being by herself," Aline added. "Even by your usual standards, that's low. General impression has always been that Christa was the one person you actually gave two shits about."

"A girl's gotta watch out for herself too."

"If something happens to Christa…I'd avoid being alone with sharp objects."

"Goodness me, that sounds like a threat." She feigned astonishment just enough to make the sarcasm in her voice obvious. "What about you, Duerk? I haven't heard anything menacing from you yet?"

"Don't want anything in the open that could be handed to an attorney."

A smile edged onto Ymir's lips. "Damn, you guys really hate me, huh?"

"It's nothing you haven't brought on yourself," Albrecht said, a growl dancing on the edge of his syllables.

"Ooo, that's a little harsh, don't you think? I'm a wonderful person."

"You're a self-serving bitch."

"So what," she glanced at his closed fist and grinned, "planning to give me a good smacking?"

"I'm not going to give you that satisfaction."

Aline snorted. "I might."

"The lot of you should really keep your panties on. Christa will be fine."

"How in the hell do you figure that?"

"She'll find her way, to the camp, or to the other fools traipsing around looking for her. I'd stake every pfennig I've ever seen on that. Maybe this will offend you, but I've got a better understanding of her tenacity than anyone." Ymir would further bet that Christa set about finding a path down the hill as soon as she got up. The girl was quick to act.

"For your sake, I hope you're right," Albrecht snarled.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. You're all going to stab me in my sleep. Now unless you want to have someone else's blood on your hands, let's cut the mellow drama and move. Much more exposure, and the swaddled dumbass here will be losing more than a couple toes to frostbite."

"Do you have any idea where we are or which way we're going?"

"Of course," she replied, triumphantly. "Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'not all who wander are lost'?" I've done enough wandering to last three lifetimes after all.

(***)

The cabin didn't have a clock by which the passage of time could be measured. Intervals passed by the burning down of a log on the fire. The garments above no longer dripped water into the flames, but the storm showed no signs of stopping yet. Josh and Annie sat back-to-back, both gazing silently into the flames. It felt awkward again, and he wasn't sure who made it so. Odd questions and conversation, coupled with raging teenage hormones, compounded by the isolated domicile, and rolled together in the mechanisms of his brain kept him from being able to focus for long.

"Your…um, clothes look like they've dried out," Josh said clumsily. "Should I…get them for you?"

"I don't mind being like this…" Annie replied in a soft tone. "Warm socks would be hard to turn down though."

"Certainly!" His voice cracked. Josh scrambled over to retrieve the dry hosiery, glad to be able to do more than sit. Calm the hell down. Take a deep breath. You're making things far more uncomfortable than they need to be. He pulled the footwear off of the iron bar they'd been draped over, and in his haste, nearly burned his hand.

Straightening himself up, he returned to her, making a greater effort to conceal how wrongfooted this had made him. He actually wished Annie would say something, make a joke or whatever. She was being so serious tonight. "Your socks, milady." Josh held out his hands.

Annie half-turned her face away from him, cheeks flushed red. "Would you…mind helping me put them on?" She raised one of her legs part-way out of the blanket.

"S-sure, no problem…" Oh shit, oh shit, oh what in the ever loving…Lord preserve me, what is happening?! Is she teasing me, or is she just embarrassed?! His hands were shaking as he slid the sock over her foot. He barely managed the task. "Go—got it. Um…uh—other one?"

There was more hesitance as she withdrew the other limb from the wool's embrace. The hue of her cheeks grew more vibrant, and Annie kept her eyes averted. "…Here." At least try to pretend you're calm. Being so obvious about it isn't…or…maybe…

Josh swallowed hard. A small patch of darkness concealed the area beyond her lower thighs, a heart-poundingly small patch of darkness. He was having a difficult time focusing. It's just putting on a sock. It's just putting on a sock. It's just putting on a sock. He couldn't tell if he was lying to himself. With shaking hands, he slipped it onto her foot as before. Although, this time, after rolling the tube of the sock up her calve, his hands kept ascending, stopping just above her knee at the shadow's edge. His heart felt like it was about to explode.

"Annie, I—" She lunged, knocking him back onto the floor. Her hands clenched around his shoulders like a vise, and the shroud fell away from her body. Nothing more to cover her except the fire's glow. The temperature in the cabin became like that of noonday in August.

"What's gotten into you tonight?" He panted, each inhalation of air feeling heavy in his chest. Hormones and confusion regarding them shifted within him like a tide. His trousers felt incredibly tight in the groin.

Her breaths were similar. "I don't know…nothing, everything. Maybe I just want to seize an opportunity before it's gone." While we're still alone, while everything is still as it should be. "We've held back for so long that I don't think I can take it anymore."

She wanted him, and he wanted her. Pent up frustrations, so long expunged in the privacy of the restrooms and shower stalls, could be unleashed here and now without restraint. Caution went flying straight out the window to be carried off on the wind. Turning back now wouldn't just be difficult, it'd be damn near impossible. Neither of them even cared to consider stopping. A thousand colorful euphemisms for it, a thousand ugly ones too. The pair stared intently at each other for a moment, speaking wordlessly through ragged breaths.

And suddenly, Josh felt all the anxiety slip away, replaced by a single solitary notion. "I love you," he said.

"I love you too." She smiled, and then was on him.

Their lips locked together with an intensity they'd never experienced before, barely even breaking apart to get oxygen. Annie repeatedly tugged at handfuls of his shirt fabric, saying nothing, only whimpering to convey her wishes. He groaned in apology and began unfastening his buttons. Josh got halfway down before she tired of waiting and simply ripped it open. She ran one hand over his chest and guided one of his onto her own, all without interrupting the kiss. He was surprised by how soft it felt in his palm. She was surprised at the firmness of his muscles. Both of them released gentle moans into the other's mouth, the sensation of bare skin on skin contact firing pleasure receptors throughout their bodies.

Fire flowed into their veins, urging them on towards greater expressions of passion by the moment. Hands began moving of their own volition, not losing a single second to explore. The kisses got deeper, the breathing heavier. They'd starting sweating profusely. Did the young couple understand what they were doing? Like as not, no. Biological instinct was guiding them now. All they perceived was the burning sense of longing in their hearts. They were a ship, adrift on a sea of romantic ardor and potent lust.

And all this before we've even gotten to the deed itself.

Annie had gotten down to his waistband. She unfastened his belt and buttons with a zealous haste. A task she again accomplished without leaving his lips unattended.

"Wait," he said in between breaths. "Let me get my boots off."

She shook her head. "Not right now. My body can't take any more waiting. You can worry about them if we need to move."

"Then at least let me help, yeah?" She accepted, which made sliding his pants down a lot easier. Now the last obstacle remaining was his undergarments. This feels a little like déjà vu. Annie hesitated, if only for a second before grabbing at them. Maybe it was the realization of what was about to occur setting in; maybe she was mentally preparing for that? Regardless, any second thoughts she may have had were incredibly short lived as she pulled the drawers towards his ankles.

BAM! BAM! BAM! Came a pounding at the door, and Josh and Annie stopped still as sculptures. They waited a few seconds. Had it been imagined? Was it heavy snow falling from a tree? Branches snapping? Please let me be hearing things.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! Nope, someone was definitely outside. "Please, is anyone in there?!" A feminine voice, muffled by the wood and wind. The two lovers considered for a moment the best course of action. A couple of outcomes were likely. They couldn't very well ignore it; the individual would surely either wrench the door open, or look in the window in search of the occupants. They'd only just become open to the idea of being naked in front of each other, God forbid some accidental voyeurist. Not to mention, they had no way of knowing who was out there, except that they had a woman's voice. Maybe they weren't alone. BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! "SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Not exactly the best time for my brain to dredge up all those old folktales.

Josh looked from Annie, to the door, and back. It didn't matter; their current position was no longer tenable, and their training reasserted itself. "Get covered up and go over by the fireplace," he whispered. "There's a fighting knife in my pack. I'll stall whoever it is until you can grab it."

Even in the middle of nowhere… She rolled off of his lap, something both of them begrudged. "Wasn't anticipating stabbing anybody tonight."

"Not the first thing we weren't anticipating." He precipitately returned his undershorts and trousers to their proper position, then closed his shirt. There were several more loud knocks on the door. He moved toward it steadily, mentally preparing.

"Who's out there?" Josh asked of the unseen visitor, attempting to emphasize the deeper part of his voice.

"I'm lost, and got separated from my friend! We had a sick person with us; I'm begging you, please help me!" The visitor answered.

"You're alone?" He again tried to sound as intimidating as possible.

"Yes, and my friend is too! Which is why I need to find her as quickly as possible!"

The visitor sounded sincere enough, and the pleading in her tone was getting worse. He still couldn't be certain though. If he opened the door just a bit and yanked her in, closely it quickly behind her, even if anyone was accompanying her, they wouldn't have an opportunity to push their way in. A somewhat risky, but solid plan. Josh gestured his intent to Annie, who nodded, concealing the knife in the folds of the blanket.

"On the count of three," he mouthed. "One…two…three!" The door opened swiftly and he reached into the night to grab hold of the visitor, yanking them inside by the coat and slamming the door again, which he pinned her against. She was astonishingly small and light.

"If you think I'll be taken that easy, you've got another thing coming!" The visitor shouted in a very familiar voice, waving minute fists about her head. Her face was obscured by the hood of her coat.

Josh blinked several times, grasped the hood, and pulled it back. "Christa?"

Christa Lenz blinked several times, equally surprised. "Kassy?"

He threw his arms tightly around her. "Oh, thank God! We've all been worried sick! When you never made it to the camp…" Josh lost the rest of his sentence in the emotion of the moment.

"What are you doing out here?" She asked him.

"Ha, we've been looking for you, obviously!"

"We?"

"Yeah: Albrecht, Aline, Jansen, Annie, and me. Although, we split into two teams after a while so that we could cover more ground."

"Then…how come you're at this cabin; how'd you end up here?"

"Um…well, there's a bit of a story to that."

She looked around, taking notice of Annie, sitting by the fireplace. She glanced back at Josh, looking him up and down. Then, back to Annie, back to Josh, and once more back to Annie. She became aware of his haphazardly dressed state and began connecting dots. "Oh…Oh my God…Oh my God, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt, I swear!"

Annie's face turned bright crimson. "Wait, no, it's not what it looks like!"

Christa rounded on her heel. "I'll wait outside!"

"No, Christa, wait!" Josh grabbed her arm. "Allow me to explain, please!"

(***)

Explaining only marginally helped matters, but it did give Christa a moment to calm down. And us too, honestly. Josh recounted the evening, from the arrival at the camp up to the present, in the most coherent manner possible so as to avoid any misunderstandings. Annie interjected whenever he started stumbling over his words. Which he did on several occasions.

"Okay, so I think I get it." Christa sat on the floor, opposite them. Josh had fixed up his attire some, and Annie got a few pieces of hers back on. At least the underwear and her sweatshirt. The pants are still a tiny bit damp. "In fact, the progression from search to sex makes a ton of sense, considering. I can't really blame you two."

"We weren't…" Christa halted his excuse with a pointed stare and raised eyebrows. "…maybe we were. Things just happened."

She glanced at Annie. "Sorry, again for…cutting your time short."

"Don't be. We were trying to find you and—"

"Ymir!" Christa shot up. How could it have slipped her mind?! Was she so easily shocked that she'd been struck dumb?! "We've got to get back out there!"

"Whoa, whoa, settle down! You've been trudging through that storm all night; I'm not letting you freeze to death over that girl!"

"We had a fight, and, and, there was this cliff, and she—and then—she was just gone! What if she fell and got hurt, or worse?!"

"Albrecht, Aline, and Jansen are out there searching, remember? I'm sure they'll find her." We managed to run into you after all. "If she's injured, they'll help with that too. But Christa, for the love of all that is holy, sit and rest. Any longer in that blizzard and you'll likely catch frostbite!"

"But—"

"But nothing! No one on God's green earth is more selfless and dedicated to the aiding of those in need, no one I've ever known. You have got to know when to quit! Worrying about you takes a toll on me I can't begin to describe."

"You might think he's being melodramatic, but I can attest to every word. He'd have come looking for you by himself if need be. When he's stressing over you, he doesn't sleep, he doesn't eat, and he loses that spark in his eyes."

Josh smiled wearily. Thanks, sweetheart. I can always count on you to keep a cool head. Well…ninety-nine percent of the time. "Go have a seat by the fire and get yourself warmed up. Take one of my ration bars too."

"Not a chance," Annie interjected. "You need that just as much as she does; she can have one of mine. I'm better at conserving my energy anyway." Josh held up his hands. He knew he didn't have a hallway decent rebuttal. Not to mention he'd starting feeling the hunger gnaw away at his stomach.

"How long are we going to stay here?" Christa sounded anxious.

"Until the storm lets up, or a bit before dawn, whatever comes first." He hoped the former was in the cards after the night's ordeal.

Once Christa had sat down and unlaced her boots, she noticed that Josh had been correct about the frostbite. Her toes weren't in the best of shape and there were some minor cuts on her feet from where the boots had rubbed her skin raw. Thin layers of ice had formed on her socks as well. It wasn't until she saw all this, that she realized she couldn't feel her toes at all. She may have had strength of character, but her very small body wasn't, by nature, as resilient against the elements. No matter how she felt, or what she'd tried to tell Ymir, Christa had to confront the fact that, had she tried to save Daz by herself, she'd be a corpse.

Given the opportunity to sit, she also felt the dam of adrenaline break within her, unleashing a deluge of aching and exhaustion throughout her body. Ten minutes in, and only the lightest of movements were bereft of pain. Her eyelids too, becoming heavier by the moment. Nonstop marching since the morning, the past few hours lugging around dead weight, how did she expect to feel? In the end, pushing herself so hard hadn't accomplished anything either. A small dog with an oversized bark. She saw right through me.

"Why don't you shut your eyes for a while?" Annie nudged her. "You look ready to pass out." Christa found she didn't actually have the energy to voice a response, instead managing a half-nod. Annie offered space beneath the woolen blanket, but when Christa didn't move, she threw the cover around the younger girl's shoulder. No sooner had she done so, then Christa slumped over against her. "Someone certainly overdid it today," Annie said softly and patted her on the head.

"That's a good look for you," Josh said from the table by the window.

"What do you mean?"

He smiled. "It makes you seem like a mom."

"Nah," she shook her head. "I'm not mom material. No way in hell I could pull off something as…nurturing as raising a child."

"Heh, nobody said anything about right now; we're only in our mid-teens after all. Well, I'll be seventeen next month, which is practically an adult, but still. There's plenty of time to mature enough to start a family."

"Gotta be married for any of that though."

"Give me a couple years, I'll make an honest woman out of you," Josh laughed.

She sighed. "A lot can happen in a couple of years, you know?"

"Don't look so gloomy, sweetheart. It'll be a cold day in hell before some naked bastard makes a meal of me. What sort of man would I be if I went off and died on you? Trust me, I'm not going anywhere."

"I suppose you're a bit too stubborn to make for proper food," she faked a smile. But nobody said that anything was going to happen to you. A terrible secret. A task too horrible for words. And how many bodies would be left in the wake of it? Tender moments always made her dwell on such things, despite how desperately she wished to cherish them. Deep down, she knew herself to be undeserving. And when the great day came, they'd all know it too. A day that was far closer than she wanted it to be, but she was only the hand, not the one who wound the clock.

If there's a God in heaven, I'm going to ask your forgiveness for my selfishness. Someday, I'm going to have to do unspeakable, likely quite evil things. I'll be reviled, feared, marked for death. I would not presume to be redeemed once all is said and done. I cannot seek absolution for those acts. My selfish request is this: Please, let me live this fantasy as long as possible. Every day, hour, and minute you can give me, I'll take it. And when I am made to stand and answer for everything I've done, you may fling me down into the fires of whatever hells exist beyond this world.

Storms within and without. An as yet unknown reckoning which would shatter them all. No man or woman to be spared the struggle. No soldier to be spared the untold carnage, and no soul to escape it whole.

(***)

Early was the hour when the heavens ceased their inundation of the earth below. On the horizon, the beginnings of cold, morning light could be seen underneath the clouds. Josh, Annie, and Christa ended up having to climb through the window to leave the cabin, so high had the snow piled. The refuge and the soothing warmth of its hearth had outlasted the storm. There was some mercy remaining in this brutal world, it seemed.

With a couple hours rest under their belts, there was energy enough to go at almost walking pace through the deep powder. They vaguely managed to trace the path back upon whence they'd come into the forest. With the visual impediment gone, finding their way was far simpler than before. And after about twenty minutes, they reached the edge of the wood, with the lights of camp bidding them come. Their long night was at an end.

Outside the bunkhouses, a dozen paces or so inside the camp gates, a small group was gathered, awaiting their arrival. "Well, look who finally decided to show up?" Aline snorted. "I was beginning to wonder if they'd deserted on us."

Albrecht tapped the back of his hand on her arm. "Don't make it sound like we've been sitting out here the whole time."

"Maybe not outside, but we've been awake the whole night."

"You were super worried about them," Jansen smirked.

"Was not. I knew they'd come around sooner or later. They probably just found someplace warm to hold up and screw." Not that Aline needed to be made aware one way or another…

"Believe or not, there was another team getting ready to go look for us when we got back. Sasha, Connie, Reiner, Bertolt, even Eren, Armin, and Mikasa. Looks like they got themselves all dressed up for nothing. The search and rescue turned out well in the end, for everybody."

At that, Christa peaked out from behind Josh. Separate from the others, Ymir was leaning against a split-rail fence. She offered a tired wave. "You're okay…?" Christa said, as much a question as a statement.

"Yeah, a bit tired and sore, but okay." And as opposed to the rest, she had remained outside the whole time.

"Daz, is he—"

"Just fine," Albrecht added before she could finish. "I guarantee he's got a cold or something, but he's fine.

"How'd you guys find them?" Josh asked.

"It's a bit of a strange thing actually. We were wandering around, there was this weird lightning; we can tell you all about it inside. What about you then? How'd you and Annie find Christa?"

"That's…somewhat of a story in itself."

"I knew it," Aline folded her arms. "They were screwing."

"There was no sex!" Some intense foreplay at most.

"Oh, I cannot wait to hear this one." Aline started back towards the bunkhouse, stifling a hearty cackle.

Jansen gestured after her with his arm. "We kept the kettle on so there was tea when you got here. Figured that's one of the best things after nearly freezing your nuts off."

Annie went past him. "I think I've had enough snow for a while."

The group shuffled back into the warmth of the bunkhouse. More good-natured jabs went between them, jokes, and the attempt to effectively explain the night they'd been through. Ymir and Christa stayed close to each other the rest of the morning. On a couple of occasions, Annie surreptitiously glanced over at Ymir. Lightning huh?

(***)

Months passed by. At Spring's end came graduation, when they remained blissfully unaware of the hell to come. Then Trost, joining the Survey Corps, the Forest of Giant Trees, Wall Sina, Castle Utgard, and the battle atop Wall Rose. Only half the year behind them, and it was like an eternity had gone by.

Present Day, Perimeter of Wall Rose.

That night…so many things had happened. Looking back on it now, they'd learned so much and never even given it a second thought. What might've changed. If they knew then what they knew now, how many people would still be alive? Josh Kassmeyer wondered if he might have been able to save her, save Jansen, the poor souls of the 57th Recon Mission, and all the citizens of Stohess. He wondered how many of those thundering across the plains in pursuit of Reiner and Bertolt had their fates decided by a bunch of kids who couldn't see what was right in front of their faces.

WHEW, that was an endeavor. I struggled quite a bit trying to write this chapter. So many times I changed things, rewrote scenes, dialogue, and even now, I'm certain I'll want to change something in short order. Not to say I'm not happy with any of it though; some parts I relished putting to page. Been a LONG while since I wrote anything "steamy". The intervening two months since the last update have been...stressful to say the least. Not just for me, but I know for a lot of people. I hope y'all are hanging in there and staying healthy.

I'd like to take this moment to give some recognition to the new followers and favoritors (favoriters?) who've added this work to their lists.

EchoFives, SolidHawk, Aemon The DragonKnight, bmark2182000, greensnake12, Lawrence Cartwright, Argonian Dovahkiin, Jackejsh, Brothehood, Ace2free, I-Zelan, Ghost Leviathan, and bobbot118. Thanks, all of you for taking the time to read and give me that little notice that you've enjoyed my work. It means the world to me and gives me encouragement to continue this years-long project of mine. I need to get back and do some editing on my earlier chapters though, as I owe it to you all to make that as readable as my current work (given my greater understanding of formatting.)

Until next time, brave defenders of humanity. WIR SIND DIE JAEGER!