Shiryu

"That river must be huge," Hyoga remarked over the roar that had grown steadily louder as he and Shiryu continued their steady track upwards. The Dragon Saint wasn't really listening to the other, lost in his own grim wanderings, but he wouldn't have bothered to dignify such a self evident statement with a response in any case. They had heard the first roarings of the river almost 20 minutes ago and unless Seiya's misfortune had thrown his nature senses off completely—and he wasn't discounting the possibility-then the rushing source of the roaring whoosh should be just beyond the next crest.

"Shiryu are you listening," Hyoga began to start again, annoyed, but the Dragon Saint never got the chance to assure his blond companion just how much he didn't care, because a scream split through the air over the din of the river reverberating in the quiet. A scream that Shiryu knew well, for if was brother to that on the very last of Sarengay's mayday that had played like a broken record eating away at his soul and sent a rush of hope surging through him even as his throat closed over with urgency.

Seiya—and Shun's had been the heart wrenching scream. Shiryu didn't even know how he had gotten his pack off so quickly or how snow drifts once so deep and troublesome seemed no longer to slow his feet; all he knew was that suddenly he was moving toward the sound of the voice and where it had come from close up the river.

Close! His own heartbeat pounded in his ears and Hyoga's curses grew further behind as he left the Cygnus still struggling with his own pack. Seiya… The Dragon Saint barely slowed as he burst finally through the sparse trees that stretched out to drop branches into the freezing waters, dead and bare with winter and crackling away noisily around his grasping hands. Seiya…

The screaming and crying continued from just up the river where a bright mop of green above a huge brown coat indicated Shun running toward him down the far bank in a desperate half stumbling…No. Not toward him.

Ice crunched beneath Shiryu's boots as he moved heedlessly out into the shallows off the ice-ice cold river. Seiya! Shun was running down the bank and screaming after Seiya who was no more than a bobbing blue and black mass struggling in the very center of the torrents. Shiryu wasn't sure he was breathing at all anymore until a sharp exhale was forced from his lungs as he charged heedlessly into the freezing waters.

Seiya was fighting but the current was pulling him down and under, throwing his precious form about amongst the rocks in its white frothy fury—and Seiya was growing weaker. His arms and legs thrashed, but less and less and the river continued to bore him away from Shun…and toward the waiting Dragon. Seiya!

The cold rush of the current was a wild force that tried to pull Shiryu away from his goal as the long black haired Saint threw himself bodily into its currents holding his position like a stone amongst the natural debris that pushed and were forced to move around the rock solid figure. Seiya!

He could see the determined eyes—now opened, now closed—unseeing and lost to vertigo as the Pegasus was dunked again and again, but he forced himself back to the surface every time. Shiryu was so scared, so cold, so relieved—so many things, but also so proud. Seiya was a fighter and that is what he had fallen in love with. The raw wild determination that made him struggle away from a plane crash and through the icy waters…and now it was Shiryu's turn to take the fight and support the Pegasus.

One final shove into the roar and Shiryu was no longer able to brace himself against the bottom, but his momentum brought him with a surge to curl ice bitten, soaked gloves around the blue of the sopping coat and pull Seiya to him, resting the back of the tired struggling head against his shoulder and letting the current drag them slightly downstream even as he worked carefully with the precious gasping burden grasped tightly between his hands back to the shore. Somewhere in the background he could hear Shun crying and Hyoga yelling 'we've found them' and calling for their rescue, but he could hardly move his eyes from the slowly breathing figure lying back against his shoulder as he dragged them both up out of the roaring fury, pulling at the last with his hand through the crunching ice of the shallows. The added weight of all their sopping layers dragged against the shore finally and then the pair just lay there and breathed.

Lying on the bank of the frozen river Shiryu left his arms wrapped around the most precious thing in his life and thanked god that he'd had one more chance to be there for his foolish fighter.

Shun

Shun just couldn't seem to make himself stop crying, but it was a different kind of wetness that streamed down his face now and into Hyoga's turtleneck and shook his hands threatening to spill the hot chocolate he held tightly in them from his spot right at Hyoga's side, with the comforting arms wrapped tightly around him. They were saved and the wetness on Shun's cheeks was all relief and happiness.

He had come so close—so close—to watching Seiya throw his life away in order to give him a better chance to go on…but they were safe now. Seiya was safe, and Hyoga was there.

It had been agonizing to wait on the other side of the river as Hyoga radioed for their rescue and Shiryu saved Seiya from the icy rushing river, but even as the Dragon Saint had begun pulling Seiya into his arms to lift him up, the steady beating of a helicopter had begun to descend picking up both Shun and then the other three and the pilot had been Davenport.

That was when Shun had started crying, because it was Davenport and he had had blankets and food and hot chocolate waiting for them and then the tears had just kept on coming. He'd held onto Hyoga so tightly and felt the reassuring words he'd so longed to hear and he'd held onto Seiya too for a moment just to reassure himself that the other man was really okay and try to erase that terrible last moment before he entered the river from his mind along with the terror that that was the last time he would ever see his friend.

Only for a moment though because though Shiryu had had to strip his own sodden clothes away for the replacements that were stocked with their rescue he had not been keen to let go of the Pegasus for long. Shiryu was holding onto Seiya like he would never let him go and the Pegasus Saint was alright—cold had sent his already sick and wearied body straight to sleep in the warmth and he hadn't put two words together since his desperate struggle with the river, but his breaths were deep and strong and his had one hand fisted in Shiryu's hair even as he slept. It was enough.

Hyoga's arms were around him, and Shun was safe and warm. The Andromeda Saint felt his partner shift slightly and the steaming cup was lifted from his hands as Shun felt himself too, drift off toward sleep.

Ikki

Seiya, Shun, Shiryu, Ikki and Hyoga all clothed in the shining Bronze Armors and with a sort of grim satisfaction, sat their places at the end of the room behind the figure of Athena—and Ikki would continue to call her that no matter what—who was coldly refusing the proposal of a one Julian Solo. It was but a few days after Seiya and Shun's rescue from the ordeals of the snow and both could probably still use a few days of rest—a fact of which Ikki was not likely to forget with the way Shiryu's eyes flickered to him disapprovingly at intervals between trying to keep watch on Seiya and still track every movement of Julian Solo. It was futile effort and Ikki had done what was necessary.

The problem had been that for all that Nodiesop was Poseidon spelled backwards, or Mr. Solo the only one with the foreknowledge to have planned such a botched kidnapping, there simply was no proof, and without that, Athena's as well as his own hands were tied away from getting around the sleek blue haired businessman's neck. And as satisfying as trying to take revenge on the man by force might be, it simply wasn't practical. Saints were no more impervious to bullets than the next man, nor were they any more above the law, but Julian Solo had not won, and that was the key that Ikki would be sure was driven and driven home hard—which was why all five Saints sat boldly in presence behind Athena.

Despite the fact that when he'd first brought up the need Shiryu had adamantly protested and Shun had started crying. He might have caved at those tears too, or at least allowed that as long as Seiya was present it wouldn't matter whether the Andromeda could be seen or not for all that Seiya was the worse off of the pair, but it had been the Pegasus himself that was the first to back the Phoenix's plans from his cozy nook in that huge damn couch which Ikki had also been in charge of moving in the first place… Had Shiryu and Hyoga moved anything at all?

Seiya had wanted to face down Julian Solo for himself and that had been the end of it. It had silenced Shiryu and dried Shun's tears and even put a little backbone into Hyoga, and now here they were. Grim faced and imposing and each of them looking deadly and as though none of the past week had even taken place—a careful lie. Shun's sling had been removed for the occasion but he was under strict orders not to move his arm, and Seiya still couldn't move very far without falling flat on his face, but it was the image that counted and the image that they presented was flawless.

Julian Solo was a beaten man. For all his efforts, for all his attempts to gain the upper hand, in the end he had lost—and as Athena refused him coldly and flatly while the accusing eyes of the Bronze Saints bore into him from beyond, Julian Solo met his defeat. Ikki had won.

Shiryu

"Was it terrible?" Shiryu was asking. Seiya tipped his head back from where he had been dozing in front of a movie at Shiryu's side, noticing only then that the ending credits of whatever it was were rolling across the screen. Another time Athena's bad movie selection would have bothered him, but right now he didn't care.

The fire place was crackling merrily, adding its warmth and light into the room and just outside the darkened windows snowflakes could be seen dancing downwards. Seiya was content to just doze in the Dragon Saint's arms as the tape stopped completely and Shiryu's hand moved automatically to shut off the power. The long haired Saint was still staring at Seiya where the other had his legs curled up leaning against him with a certain light in his eyes that said he had to know. Seiya snuggled loser to the tall figure with half closed eyes and a sleepy smile, wrapping his own hands in the soft fleece of the blanket that covered them.

"I missed you," he said, and that was all, because to Seiya that was all that was important and it was enough. The Pegasus fell asleep warm, comfortable, and content with all that was import in the world at his side, and Shiryu just held him.

END

Thank you all for reading and thank you to all who reviewed!

Looking back, my chapters were getting really short! Hope this more satisfying Little Time Kitty!

Thanks for the reviews to bottlecaps and Miss Sto-Helit. I hope to keep writing forever!