As they walked, the snow continued to fall; steadily heavier. Soon, they were fighting against an icy blizzard and trudging through nearly knee-deep snow. Both had their arms folded across their chest in an attempt to keep warm that was failing for the both of them.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Yumika squinted at something a ways in front of them.

"There!" she shouted over the wind, "there's a hut we can take shelter in!"

"Good!"

Their hopes lifted slightly, they began to make their way slowly to the hut. Suddenly, Yumika, who was in front of Sano, stopped and said: "Don't move."

A pack of wolves stepped noiselessly out of the trees, surrounding them. Their teeth were bared, the wind whipping at their slightly snowy fur coats.

Sanosuke smirked at the animals around them.

"They're just dogs, I can take 'em!" He cracked the knuckles on his left hand.

"But, Sanosuke . . ." Yumika began, turning towards him, "your hand isn't-" In a rush, she felt teeth sink into her right leg. Immediately he sword was out, and she was striking the wolf clamped to her right thigh. It whimpered at the first strike, but then just intensified the hold on her leg.

As this was going on, Sano was trying to fend off three at once, the other wolves taking the first's action as a signal to attack. He threw one away, then attempted to grab another.

Yumika, finally fed up with a wolf attached to her leg, killed the animal with one stab through it's torso. Staggering as two more jumped at her, she blocked one, with her sword, sending it flying near Sanosuke. The other had more success. As its fellow wolf flew towards Sano, it sunk it's teeth into her left calf. Growling at the new pain, Yumika wasted no time with this one, stabbing downwards through the spine, killing it instantly. Her eyes darted towards Sanosuke, the rest of the dogs centered around him.

"Sano!! Move!!" she yelled, struggling to stand.

Sano kicked a wolf off him, then rolled off to one side.

"Doo-ryu-sen!!!" Yumika shouted, and snow and dirt parted as the blast of energy sent three of the wolves flying, the remaining wolves retreating with whimpers and whines.

As Sanosuke picked himself up from the snow, he saw the slouching form of Yumika ahead of him. He plodded up to her, grinning slightly, the rush of battle adrenaline still lingering a bit.

"Well, that was exiting!" he said, quite proud of himself for making it through with only a few minor scratches and teeth marks.

"Yes . . . I suppose it was . . ." Yumika said before her knees buckled under her and she fell into the snow.

Sanosuke's eyes grew wide as he took sudden notice of her blood-soaked hakama. Blood seeped from both of her legs, already turning the snow around her the deep shade of scarlet that is blood.

"Yumika!! Are you okay?!"

Yumika slowly sat up, angry at herself, and annoyed with the pain stabbing at her. "Yes, I'm fine." She attempted to stand, resulting in just falling back down into the blood stained snow. "Blast!"

"No, you're not okay," Sanosuke glowered down at her. Almost without hesitating, he crouched down and picked her up, one arm supporting her knees, the other supporting her back.

Yumika, of course, objected to this action. She began to flail, but then desisted, wincing. She sighed, sheathing her bloody sword.

"This doesn't remind you of anything, now does it, Yumika?" Sano teased as he trudged the last length to the hut, attempting to lighten the situation slightly.

Yumika smirked in spite of herself. "Of course not. Why do you ask?"

Sano grinned as he kicked in the door of the hut. He gently set Yumika on the ground, and went back to replace the door.

"Well, it's not much," Sano observed as he turned back to face Yumika, "but it'll at least keep out the wind and-" He trailed off as he saw Yumika staring angrily down at the bleeding wounds on her legs.

"Stupid animals!" she muttered before she began ripping at her hakama, ripping off long strips of the cloth.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Sanosuke asked, staring almost unbelieving at what Yumika was doing to her hakama.

"Making a makeshift bandage for these silly wounds out of non-bloody parts of my hakama. What's it look like?"

"Um- . . ." Sano decided to take this opportunity to better take in his surroundings. It was a rather small one room hut, made entirely out of wood, and there were no windows, one door, and nothing else. Except, he suddenly noticed, a nondescript lump in one corner. Of which, upon further investigation, was going to be very useful to them. Or one of them.

"Oi!" Yumika heard Sano say as something hit her upside the head, "that'll probably be useful!"

Yumika caught the heavy fabric as it slid off her face. "A blanket? . . .is there only one?"

"Yeah, why? What's it matter?"

"Isn't it obvious? We'll be here until morning. If you don't have something to keep warm with, you'll die."

Sano raised his eyebrows. "So . . ."

Yumika rolled her eyes before hucking the blanket, beaning him on the head with it.

"So use it, Sanosuke. No matter what your level of manliness, that's not going to save you from the cold."

Sanosuke blinked at Yumika going back to the strips of hakama on her leg and the blanket he had just been thrown. "But you just said-"

"I just said what?"

"That if you don't have something to keep warm with, you'll die."

"You have a blanket, don't you?"

"Yeah . . . but . . . you . . . don't."

" . . .wh-what does that matter?"

Sanosuke held up the blanket to see just how big it was. "Yup. Don't you get it? We'll have to . . . to . . ." He almost couldn't bring himself to say it. "We'll have to share the blanket."

The sentence rang in the silence for a time, the howling wind outside seeming to mock him and Yumika struck dumbfounded, Sano's 'slight' embarrassment keeping him silent as well.

Any second now, he thought, mentally cringing, she's gonna blow up and slap me or something to that effect . . .

"I- . . . I suppose you're right . . ." Yumika finally sighed, eyes down. "That thing is pretty big, right?"

"Y-yeah," Sano stammered slightly, the blow he expected not happening. "It's rather large . . ."

"Good. Bring it over here then. The sooner we get to sleep, the sooner this night is over."

Sanosuke shrugged, went over and sat down beside Yumika, throwing her one end of the blanket. They both scooted as far away as possible while still under the blanket.

"Good night," Yumika mumbled over her shoulder, "and I trust you to be a decent man, but . . . just in case . . ." She gripped her sword in her right hand.

"You won't need to worry about that . . ." he muttered.