"Yeah." Pulling his gloves on again, Ginji slung his arm around Ban's back while Ban's own arm settled back over his shoulders, and they continued down the slope. With every step the sky was a little darker, and even with the open current flowing inside him, Ginji's fingers and toes were prickling with the chill. His cheeks were numb enough that he could no longer feel the brush of the ice-caked ruff of his hood. Ban leaning against him was an awkward weight, not that heavy, but as his partner's uneven steps fell out of synch with his he stumbled, caught both of them barely in time before they tumbled down the incline.

With the collar over his mouth, talking was difficult, but as it grew duskier he needed to hear something besides their footsteps. The wind was so constant that after a while you stopped noticing it at all. He knew that silence, had once sought that peace in the highest reaches of Mugenjou's skyscrapers. But here it made the cold all the more frigid. It didn't really matter what he was saying, as long as it was more than the hiss of his own breaths. "We're almost down, Ban-chan, and then we'll be climbing again--it doesn't look too steep, though, and sometimes it's easier to go up. At least the snow's not that deep. Didn't you say it's been a mild winter, Ban-chan? Do they get more snow than this, usually? Ban-chan?"

He gave Ban a little shake, hitching him up as they walked, and Ban's head lifted slightly. "Yeah," he said, muffled by his parka. "Usually."

Not really a conversation, but an answer, at least, and it was infinitely better to hear than the wind. So he kept babbling, and Ban responded most of the time, though just the fact that Ban didn't snap at him for asking pointless questions made the icy lump lodged in his belly grow all the colder and heavier. He should be hungry, but even when his stomach growled he didn't think of food, just the warm golden lights of the lodge.

There had been flashlights in the packs on the snowmobiles, he remembered as full night fell. The moon was hidden but its glow was diffused by the clouds, shimmering across the snow, so it wasn't too difficult to see, but he craved something brighter than that pallid luminance. He was tempted to make his own light, but with no power source nearby to draw on he would be wasting his own energy.

He had thought the next slope was gentler, but it seemed more and more sheer the higher they climbed. The last one had definitely not been so difficult to navigate. And Ban was leaning against him heavily enough that Ginji was dragging him, not really supporting him up so much as pushing him along. Strange that it should take so much effort, because even in the thick parka Ban didn't weigh all that much, and Ginji should be able to carry him if necessary. Though Ban would certainly not like that idea.

One step after another, lift his foot and put it a little higher on the mountainside. He missed his sneakers; the boots were too heavy. Though his toes would be even colder without them. He realized he had stopped talking somewhere along the way, and his voice sounded husky to his ears when he started again. "We're almost over this one," which was sort of a lie, when he looked up the slope, but then he wasn't sure how far they had come and it would be too tricky to look back without losing their balance. "So it can't be much farther now, right, Ban-chan?"

He squeezed his partner with his stiff arm. Ban's head had fallen against his shoulder, a light but solid weight. "Ban-chan?" Ginji shrugged to jog him alert, and Ban slumped, his arm slipping off Ginji's shoulders.

Ginji stopped. His ears rang in the abrupt silence of the trampled snow. "Ban-chan?" he repeated, twisting to face his partner, and shook him again, harder now.

"Yeah...I c'n hear you." Slowly Ban's head came up, his face a pale streak in the darkness. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Smiling hurt. It felt as if his cheeks were cracking, like frozen metal fractures under a sharp blow.

"How far're we?" Ban sounded as if his lips and tongue were frozen as well.

Ginji's fingers were clumsy in the gloves; it took him three tries to unzip the jacket pocket and pull out the tracker. The screen's soft glow was chill as the moon's, and he had to blink to make the little numbers come into focus. "Uh. Three point...four kilometers more, I think." It took him a little while to remember what it had said before, and then he smiled again. "We're more than halfway there, Ban-chan."

But Ban was silent, his head down again. Ginji nudged him worriedly, and Ban shook his head, sharply, like he was jerking himself awake. "Yeah," he said. "Okay. New plan, Ginji."

"Ban-chan?"

"Too damn slow like this...You go ahead, I'll catch up."

"Ban-chan..."

"I...just need a breather, Ginji. Faster on your own...you'll get there in no time. Will just take me...little longer."

"It won't be too long if I stay with you, Ban-chan. We're doing fine."

Ban's hand bore down on his shoulder, heavy enough that Ginji could tell that grip was holding him up as much as his legs were. "You'll be warmer, running."

"It's all right, Ban-chan, I'm not that cold--"

"Idiot...we didn't dress for the night, you're shivering like a damn..." Ban leaned forward, close enough that he blocked the wind. His eyes were glittering dark slits, the moonlight dulling all colors to shades of gray. "Look," he said, quietly over the wind, speaking slowly as if it were an effort to order his words. "We gotta get the recorder back, right? You go ahead. I'll be right behind you. Soon as I've rested. You can come back, get me. Take a snowmobile. Or get the monkey trainer..."

"Ban-chan." He took Ban's arms, closed his grip under his elbows to steady him and leaned forward himself until their hoods were pushed together, their foreheads nearly touching. "I'm not leaving you. We're going to keep walking together, okay?"

If Ban's misting breath had any warmth left he couldn't feel it against his face, but he could hear him breathe, a hoarse rasping that sounded painful. "Shit..." Without warning his partner pushed away, a quick, violent shove that rocked Ginji back on his heels. Ban lurched back, fought for his balance in the snow. "Just get going, will you? No point in us both--think about the retrieval!"

"I'm not worried about the damn retrieval."

"Goddammit, Ginji, stop being stupid--"

"I'll stop if you stop, Ban-chan!" He saw Ban take a step back, lunged for him as his leg folded under him and caught him in a tight embrace, bearing him up. Even with his arms wrapped around him he could feel no warmth, just stiff weight, as if Ban were an ice sculpture under the parka. The sudden bizarre flash of all the various people who had told him how cold-blooded his partner was made him choke on an unlikely giggle. Somehow he doubted Ban would appreciate the joke.

"Ginji." Ban's words were muffled, his face buried against the shoulder of Ginji's coat. "I can't...too damn cold...sorry, but you gotta..."

"Ban-chan, we're going to get going again now, all right?" He slid Ban around to his side, hooked his left arm under his partner's and steadied him with his right. Ban's hooded head sank against his shoulder, dead weight sagging against him. Ginji braced himself under it, gave him a little shake. "You have to walk, okay, Ban-chan? Just a little."

It was hard enough for him to convince his own legs to begin moving again; his knees were locked tight by the cold. He couldn't imagine what it was like for Ban, who had been hurting already and was much colder and probably concussed. But he moved, a little but enough, shuffling blindly.

His head down with the effort, Ginji hardly realized when they finally reached the crest of the slope. After a few meters he noticed walking was easier, thought at first that he had gotten a second wind--fifth? sixth?--and raised his head to see not white mountainside above them but the cloud-strewn sky.

The next step he took, his boot plunged through the crusted snow, and they both tumbled over. He grabbed for Ban, curled around him protectively as they slithered halfway down the slope on their backs, ice crystals tearing at his face and blinding him.

When they stopped, he raised his head, cautiously looked up the mountainside and the long trail they had scraped. Ban coughed and Ginji knelt in the snow, pulled his partner close and bent over him, peering into his face anxiously. "Ban-chan? Are you all right?"

"Wha..."

"A shortcut." He did laugh this time, though it hurt his throat. But so did breathing. "We're...getting there."

"Gin...ji." Ban tried to sit up, hunching over his stomach. Ginji could hardly hear his short, shallow panting, his words jagged around it. "I can't...Please. Just..."

"Ban-chan. I'm sorry. I can't." If he were warmer he might have been able to say more, but the words were frozen somewhere in his throat. And Ban knew them anyway. He had been the one to explain what the s meant, after all. Especially here on this mountainside, when there was nothing and no one else--not for three kilometers, and somehow that seemed farther than it ever had before.

But they were still here, the invincible GetBackers, and Ban was right, they had to remember the retrieval. Ban would be angry if they lost their one hundred percent success rate, and Ginji didn't want to, either. But this wasn't like so many of their other jobs; there was no deliberate menace stopping them now. As much as he didn't like to fight, he would prefer an enemy here. Someone he could match himself against, with the power zigzagging through his nerves...

He sat up, suddenly hyper-aware of that ever present current, its tingle warming him a little still. It would be difficult but he had managed it before, knew he had, though his memories were vague, that finesse more an aspect of his other self...but what he had done before he must be able to again. There was a fight here, and one they had to win. "Ban-chan?"

He took his partner's shoulders, shook him until Ban's eyes cracked open and he groaned. "Ban-chan," Ginji said, carefully and deliberately, cupping his cheeks in his gloved hands to make Ban look at him. "I'm going to try something. But I'm not sure about it--so you have to tell me if it hurts, okay? You understand?"

Ban stared at him, and for a moment Ginji thought he didn't, maybe he wasn't hearing him at all, and then his partner nodded, jerkily. Ginji smiled, as well as he could, closed his eyes. And concentrated on that internal current, the waves of energy, discharging it not in a clumsy burst, but a measured trickle.

Warping it, like running clay through his fingers and shaping it as it surged past, directing it as an even, rippling sheet, not visible but tangible all the same. Where a thunderstrike tore from him, this was gently drawn, once initiated continuing, as water pours from a tapped vessel. Not really difficult at all...

"--Ginji! Ginji!"

Something patted his cheek, the contact a grounding that disrupted the flow of power, cut it short. He snapped open his eyes, to find Ban's fierce blue gaze only a foot from his, staring at him with sharp, fully aware attention. "Ban-chan?"

"What'd you do, you idiot?" Ban sounded out of breath still, but he was sitting up, and the shadows across his face seemed less blue than before.

"You're warmer, right, Ban-chan?" Ginji asked anxiously. "It didn't hurt, did it?"

"Yeah. And not really." Ban folded his arms over his chest, the parka bunching around them. His teeth were chattering at little. "The hell did you..." He stopped, jerked up his head. "You--dammit, Ginji, I'm not instant ramen--you can't microwave people!"

"It wasn't, Ban-chan...it was higher than that. More like info-red..."

"Infrared." Ban shook his head. "You..."

"But it worked, Ban-chan--you're feeling better, right?" Ginji stood, reached down to pull Ban up, only to almost lose his own footing on the snow. He caught himself, braced by Ban, for a moment the two of them leaning together in an unstable arch.

Then Ban draped his arm around Ginji's shoulders, swung his leg forward in their first step. "Let's go, Ginji."

"Okay, Ban-chan!"

Their pace was initially steady, but by the time they made it over the next rise, Ban's shivering was severe enough that Ginji could feel him shaking even over his own shivers. His teeth were clenched against chattering, or just in pain, to tell from the vertical slashes etched between his brows.

Ginji had to stop them to manage it, but it took less concentration this time to mold the current, and Ban straightened up under it, that visible improvement as warming as the power itself. As they continued down the slope he didn't entirely cut it short, running a little of that flow in a circuit between them, the level too low to hurt, or even be noticed.

The night was very chill, but he wasn't as cold as he had been, and the numbness of his feet was better than the sharp tingling before, even if it made them clumsy. Like walking with wooden blocks instead of boots, and the snow was deeper. But the ground was more level, as they traversed the dip between two mountains, and there were more trees here, blocking the worst of the wind. He thought he recognized that peculiar fir, twisted into a curve...

"Look," Ban said suddenly. His hoarse voice echoed weirdly against the night. "Over there," he said, and extended his arm. "'Least we're going the right way."

"Huh?" Ginji levered up his head, peered at the mountainside and saw long streaks in the snow, ridged shadows in the moonlight. Like a path, but doubled for some reason.

"Our snowmobile tracks," Ban said.

"Oh. That's good." It must be, since Ban was sounding pleased by it, though he really couldn't think of why. The snow was smooth here, placid as a pond on a windless day, and those frozen ripples seemed a defacement, though not as choppy as their prints behind them.

"Ginji?"

He didn't know what happened, but he couldn't see the snow anymore, smooth or disturbed. The moon seemed to be eclipsed, blotting out all those pallid night grays. Something was patting him, his cheek he thought, but it was hard to tell, like it was happening to someone else entirely, and he was only imagining what it would feel like.

"--Ginji! Ginji!"

That was more immediate, that note in Ban's voice, which could be anger, except Ban's anger didn't falter like that, catching in his throat as if he were choking.

Ginji opened his eyes, found he was lying on the snow, across Ban's legs--must have knocked them both down, though he didn't remember falling. "What..." he tried to say, but wasn't sure if his mouth moved.

"Dammit--what the hell did you do?" Ban's face was close to his, and Ginji could see the black of his gloves out of the corners of his eyes, curved around his own cheeks, though he could barely feel them. "That heatwave trick--you didn't stop--that was your own energy you were burning, you idiot!" Ban's teeth were chattering again, but he couldn't do anything about it now. When he reached inside himself he felt hollow, the singing energy muted to the merest hiss.

"Ginji--Ginji! Open your eyes!"

He did, not exactly sure when they had slid shut again. But Ban was shaking him, wrestling him up. He tried to help but his body felt as if it were a sack of stones, too awkward and heavy to manage. And yet Ban strangely did not sound angry anymore. "Ginji, listen to me, you have to get up, all right? We're almost there, we have to get moving again. Like you kept saying. It's just a little further. Let's get up. One, two, three--"

Ban pushed off him, and he pushed off Ban, and together they fought their way standing. Black spots crowded close in his vision, negative snowflakes, but Ban's voice was louder than their insistent buzz. "We've got the retrieval to think of, Ginji. Yokomori's songs, you wanted to hear them--I'll make him play you all of them, you just have to walk a little more."

A push guided him and he stumbled forward, almost fell again but was propped up by his partner. Ban's soft curse was pained and he winced. "Sorry..."

"Ginji, shit, don't be sorry, just keep walking. Okay? I can't--you're too damn heavy to carry--you just have to keep moving. Got it? It's not much farther."

"Ban-chan...maybe..." He was out-of-breath, the effort to talk and move at once almost too much, but maybe Ban hadn't thought of it. "You could...go." He wasn't really that cold, after all, just tired, and he had a little power still left. Probably not enough to make light for himself, but he could try. "I'll just...wait..."

He lost track of how long they kept walking after that, long enough that he started to believe he had only thought he had said it aloud, before Ban finally replied, a little anger back in his tone, "You damn idiot, that was my idea. Not yours."

"But, Ban-chan..."

"And it was a stupid one anyway. We're the GetBackers, right?"

"Right," he managed to say, and Ban's arm over his shoulders tightened, pulled them even closer together.

"Not much further," he said, "you're doing fine."

Only he wasn't. He wanted to shake his head, but that was too difficult, harder than speaking, and he couldn't even do that anymore.

He didn't realize he had stopped walking, except Ban was shouting at him, and he would have sounded mad if it weren't for the way his voice was cracking. It must be the cold, fracturing everything, the gray night crumbling into pitch darkness. He tried to apologize, because he somehow couldn't understand what Ban was saying, but those words wouldn't come, either. And then he was buried under an avalanche just as heavy as before, for all this one was only in his own mind.

to be continued...

Big thanks to everyone who's left reviews - for this and for my other fic. Makes my day to know folks are enjoying this stuff ^^ And Sholio...it's not me, it's my sister who insisted I put them in snow! I told her I'd just done it with the Saiyuki boys but she wasn't sympathetic...