The Good, The Bad, And The Frostbite

(A/N): sorry i keep changing the story title lol (i can't make a decision to save my life XD)

There was an explosion of red against the white snow, Zeron releasing a guttural cry as he doubled over.

I dropped my serrator to my hip, pivoting on my heel and clasping Eli's hand as he heaved me into the ambulance.

"You bitch!" He screamed behind us, crumpling to the ground as he gripped his leg. "I'll kill you for this! You too, Cryptid! I'll rip your brain right out of your skull!"

"You bastards already tried that with me!" Eli spat back, then slammed the doors as loud and as hard as he could.

My hair flew behind me as I launched myself into the driver's seat, my hand pulling the knit hat down over my scar. My foot pounded over the gas pedal and we shot forward, hard enough to knock Eli onto his back pockets.

My serrator fell to the floor, my knuckles white around the steering wheel as I swerved us onto a back alley way - far, far from Zeron and anyone like him.

A breathy laugh burst from my throat, a triumphant warmth traveling all the way down to my fingers. I was tingling with it, almost dancing in the seat and giggling madly at the open road ahead of us.

"We did it!" I called back to Eli. "Ha, ha! We did it!"

"Yeah," He breathed, his eyes brighter than the lights flashing above us. "We did."

He climbed up to the passenger seat, one hand holding my Chatter and the other pressed against the comm still in his ear.

"Woohoo," He whistled. "I think Alpha just invented three new cuss words."

I threw my head back against the seat, laughing from the deep end of my stomach. God, this felt good.

"His creativity knows no bounds," Eli snickered, pulling the device from his ear, then flinging it out the window.

"He'll be knowing lots of bounds when he gets back to HQ," I added. "And not just because I shattered every bone in his foot."

Eli laughed again, his voice cracking a little halfway through it. His fingers began fiddling with the Chatter, pulling up the coordinates Zadra had sent. "Philadelphia here we come."

"Which way are we going?"

"Right now? East," He replied. "When we hit New York, we'll start heading south."

"How much of a head start do we have?"

"Maybe a few hours," He put a hand on my shoulder, making me lean back a little more in my seat. After all, I was still a giant glow stick. "If we're lucky. By then they'll actually have a widespread search for us. So we should stay low, try to make it to a train station or something."

"Whatever it takes to get to Philadelphia," I said. "Whatever it takes to get to Krel."

We drove through the night, getting into the outskirts of New York around one in the morning. It was only two hours later that we had run completely of out gas.

"What?" I slammed my palm against the steering wheel as the car slowed to a stop. "How much gas was in this thing?"

"Probably not much," Eli muttered from where he was curled up on the passenger seat, half-asleep. "You know, with the gas crisis and all?"

I went to rake my fingers through my hair, only to knock the knit hat off and undo the bun I'd stuffed beneath it. My chest was tight with frustration, the cold already leaking through the walls of the ambulance from the snowfall outside. We didn't have much choice but to go on foot, and according to the Chatter's GPS there was a town within a few miles of here, but in this weather . . .

I tied my hair back again with a sigh, pulling the hat back over my head.

"Come on," I said to Eli. "Get up. We need to get moving."

His eyes were open as he stared at the floor, the only movement of his boney shoulders as he breathed. It took me until that moment to realize he couldn't get up.

I felt myself deflate. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to forget -"

"It's okay," He whispered, clearly not wanting to elaborate.

My chest just got tighter, almost making it hard to breathe as I undid my seatbelt. The burning memory of the last time I abandoned a car on the road was not helping either.

Climbing into the back, I pulled up both of our packs and began filling them with what we could from the ambulance. First aid kits, flashlights, blankets, and - as much as it made me want to slam my head into a wall - the second glow coat.

It felt like a waste to leave it behind, especially since Eli had nothing more than an EMT jacket to keep out the blizzarding cold. But now that made us two walking glow-sticks instead of one.

I was practically a beacon on my own against the dark road, my coat shimmering with blue.

"You know," Eli said as I eased his arm into the sleeves of the coat. "These would be really pretty if, you know, we weren't trying to stay invisible."

I sighed, tugging the coat tighter around me as if that could somehow lessen its glow. At least we would be warm. "I've never been good at being invisible."

"Maybe that's not such a bad thing."

I sent him a sour look.

"You know what I meant," He retorted. "I mean, if you'd stayed invisible, you probably never would've found Steve and I."

I reached over to ruffle his hair. "At least there's that."

But all I could hear was my mother's bittersweet words, the thing she had said to me the first time I'd ever tried to run away. You are extraordinary, Aja. You could run from this life, fly far away from this place, and who you are would follow you.

I wondered if my mother ever knew how right she was.

The air was beyond frigid when I stepped out on to the snowy road, thick flakes clinging to my eyelashes as the wind whipped against my face. Rounding the car, I opened the passenger door and watched Eli tense up from the blast of cold air.

"Come on," I grunted, slipping my arms under him and shifting him onto my back. "You can hold on, right?"

He buried himself in the crook of my neck for warmth. "Mhmm."

Kicking the ambulance door closed, I set off along the vacant road, the snow hiking up to my shins as I walked. The tip of my nose went bright red within the first ten minutes, my whole face raw from the pelting snow. At least I had the knit hat to keep my ears warm and my scar covered, next to Eli who had nothing but an EMT baseball cap.

He was clinging to me with what little strength he had, shivering against my frame as the snow caked in his hair. The flashlight beam I held in front of us illuminated our fogging breath, but we almost didn't need it with how bright our coats were already shining.

Because of it, I had to take a detour off the road in an effort to hide in the treeline, just in case anyone came down the road and wondered why two, blue aliens were walking into New York.

At least all the snowfall was covering our tracks.

The GPS on my Chatter estimated we'd be able to reach the closest town by morning. But it wasn't making the walk any easier.

The snow had made my toes go painfully numb within the first hour. My socks were soaked through my pant legs, and my neck ached from how tightly I was scrunching up my shoulders. Not to mention the way my back burned from supporting Eli's weight.

"You know what's funny?" I managed to chuckle in the silence.

"Hmm?"

"The last time I abandoned a car for -" I had to pause, my breath fogging in front of me. "- for walking, it was the hottest I'd ever been. And now -"

"It's the c-coldest you've ever b-been?"

I tried for another laugh but it came out more of a shiver. Eli buried himself deeper in my collar, almost making a whimpering sound.

"What -" I panted. "What did you say?"

Eli lifted his head again. "I h-hate this."

Another chuckle. "You don't see snow like this in California, do you?"

"No," He shook his head, dropping snow from his hair down my collar and making me wince. "N-not that. I just . . . I wish I could carry my own weight."

I shot him a glance out of my peripherals. "You do carry your own weight."

He gave me the same sour look I'd given him in the ambulance. And again, just now.

"You do."

"You are literally c-carrying me right-t now."

"Because I want to, Eli," I said. "This isn't your fault, it's -" Pant. "- it's theirs, Zeron's and everyone like him. It's not fair, more than not fair. So I'm -" Pant. "- I'm okay evening out the score a little."

He lowered his head again. "I just hate being so weak."

"I don't think -" Pant. "- you're weak."

He scoffed, and I could almost feel him roll his eyes.

"Hey," I turned my head to look at him. "I mean it. What we just did? Pulling out of the League? There was no way I could have done that without you -" Pant. "- you and all your badass stealth skills."

He snickered a little. "If anyone's the badass here, it's y-you."

"Oh, please," I replied. "Steve would totally be on my side with this one."

Eli let out a soft sigh, the perspiration from his breath freezing against my neck. "I wonder where Steve is r-right now."

I didn't answer for a moment. "Me too."

"D-do you miss him?"

I would've laughed if I wasn't so out of breath. "Don't you?"

"I miss a-all of them."

I a cool fog appeared before me as I sighed. "So do I."

"He's been c-crazy about you forever," Eli muttered into my collar. "You know that?"

I titled my head. "You mean Steve?"

"No, Damzalski - of course I mean Steve!"

I coughed out a laugh. "Yes, I did know that."

"He wouldn't s-stop talking about you sometimes - God, it was so annoying."

"He wouldn't stop talking about you sometimes either," I said. "He would go on and on about all your adventures. He talked about you like you were his brother."

Eli sunk lower on my back. "He is my brother."

"Then we'll find him again," I glanced back to catch Eli's eyes. "Just like we'll find my brother."

There were a few beats of silence, the only sound of the loud wind and the crunching of my boots through snow. I could almost feel Eli's doubt radiating off of him, crushing through the both of us the longer I held him. He wanted so desperately to hope - we both did.

But so far, hope was only one step above torture.

Eli picked up his head again. "You know what's funny?"

I smiled. "Hmm?"

"It took me literal years to get Steve to talk about his family," He said. "Like, anything at all. And you come along, get to know him for two months, and he just spills everything like a pot of water."

I burst into breathy giggles. "That's what a make-out session will do."

"No," Eli gave me a pointed glare. "It was more than that. You made him feel . . . good. About himself, I mean. You made him want to open up."

"About himself?" I shot him a questioning glance. "What do you mean?"

"You do know Steve was the school bully, right?"

I shrugged to the best of my ability. "Yes, kind of." I'd gotten a few details here and there. Never the full story.

"Let's just say he lived up to the title," Eli said. "I was actually his favorite to pick on. He used to shove me in lockers, beat me up, the whole thing, you know?"

"I suspected," I replied. "You two are so opposite, and yet, so similar. How did you become friends anyway?"

"He . . ." Eli hesitated. "Needed a place to stay one night. We lived across the street from each other, so I ended up being his only choice. And it . . . kinda went from there."

"Did he ever apologize?" I asked. "For all the things he did?"

"Are you kidding?" He scoffed. "About a million times - also trying to make it up to me a million different ways. It's hard to imagine him being that way, but he is. He was raised to be this 'tough guy' asshole that didn't care about anyone but himself, just like his dad. But Steve cares about people a lot, probably more than he'll admit to himself. It's kinda funny, but once you get to know him, he's just a dorky softy."

"Yes," Despite the cold, I felt myself grow warm. "He is."

"You reminded him of that," Eli said, softer this time. "That it was a good thing. That he was a good thing."

"I never meant to."

He gave me a grin. "That's how you know it's true love."

I jostled him on my back. "Shut up."

But the warmth never left my chest, no matter how frozen I became.