When Everest awoke, it was most definitely not daytime yet; in fact, the sky was still pitch black, save for the countless stars that hung in it. Looking out of her puphouse, she could only see trees and darkness; when she instead listened closely to her surroundings, she could hear crickets, a breeze blowing through the treetops, and...something shivering?

Curious, she decided to stand up from her cozy position and exit her puphouse, but as soon as she did, even she could feel the freezing nighttime winds passing through the forest, despite her thick coat of fur. She now turned her attention to where Marshall had been located with the blanket earlier that night, and all she saw was Marshall, trying desperately to maintain warmth, with his emergency blanket nowhere in sight, seemingly sent away by the wind.

"How dumb of me!" Thought Everest. "With my warm fur, I would've been more comfortable sleeping outside. He should've been in my puphouse to shield him from the wind. Poor pup."

She walked over to the Dalmatian and began trying to wake him by saying his name, but to no avail. She decided to lay on the ground and snuggle up against him to share some of her warmth.

He awoke, even if only slightly, to move closer into the new fuzzy presence. "Mmm…" he said, still mostly asleep and now contented with his temperature.

"Come on, let's get you inside my puphouse," Everest said to him softly.

She helped stand him up and walk him over to the entrance of her puphouse, where Marshall stepped inside, turned around, and laid down, more conscious now.

"Good. Do you need another blanket?" She inquired.

"How many can you spare?" He asked, half-jokingly.

"Oh, come on, Marshall. It can't be that cold."

"You'd be surprised, although I guess you really can't tell when you have that much fur."

She thought for a moment. "Hmm...that gives me an idea," she stated. "Can you move over to the side?"

"Sure..?" he replied, doing as she had asked.

She managed to squeeze in next to him, and her thick fur kept him much warmer than he had been outside with just a blanket (as well as no blanket at all). She closed the door to the puphouse to prevent any more especially cold air from entering.

"Comfortable now?" She asked.

"Very," he said dreamily.

"Me too," she said with a smile.

It had been a long day, and the two pups were now in a state of bliss, cozily wrapped in security, darkness, and one another's warmth. They laid there happily snuggled into each other for a few minutes as they began to fall asleep. Marshall managed to mumble out a "Goodnight, Everest," to which she sleepily replied, "Goodnight."

"Thank you."

After a good night's rest, Everest awoke the next morning to the sound of birds singing outside. Marshall was still sleeping next to her and she didn't want to wake him quite yet, so she opened the puphouse's door and gingerly stepped outside. Upon going a short distance from the puphouse, she simply stopped, sat down, and looked around at the trees and sky. The chilly breeze from the previous night had now mostly gone, with only a trace still affecting the trees' leaves and branches. The bright blue sky held a few clouds here and there, but Everest could tell it was going to be yet another day with favorable weather.

While she was appreciating the peaceful morning, her thoughts turned to the day before: driving to the forest and exploring it, suddenly hearing Marshall's cries, walking with him back to her puphouse and chatting about recent events in their lives, confronting him about his insecurity and accidentally telling him that she thought his mishaps were cute, and then having to bring him in to sleep next to her when the night time wind proved to be too cold for him. She was never really able to spend much time with him alone because the only time she got to be with the rest of the PAW Patrol was for missions, and missions that required her capabilities only came around for one season of the year. In the past, she was unsure if or when she would ever tell him that she had a crush on him, but now that they were actually alone together for a little more time, she was seriously considering it.

As the Dalmatian was occupying her thoughts, he arose from his sleep with a yawn and, upon spotting her, began to quickly walk towards his friend. Of course, unbeknownst to him, there was a sizable branch in his path to the other pup, which, naturally, he tripped over. He was sent flying through the air with a, "Woaaah!", landing right next to Everest, who was unaware that he had awoken until she heard him yell. The snow pup began to giggle at the situation. Before Marshall had a chance to be remotely upset with himself, the sound of his companion's amusement made him begin to laugh as well.

After a few moments, their mirth began to die down, allowing Everest to ask, "How did you sleep?"

"Well it was awful outside, but as soon you brought me in with you, I slept way better than I have in a while," he replied honestly. "This is a little weird to say, but your fur is suuuper cozy."

This made her blush, although the fur in question mostly prevented it from being visible. "Hehe, thanks. I'm glad you were comfortable." There was a pause as the two sat and admired the forest's beauty. Marshall glanced over at Everest to admire her own beauty, but when she looked back after a few seconds, he instinctively turned back away.

Hesitantly, he began, "…Well, I guess we should get going. Ryder's probably expecting me at the Lookout sooner than later."

"Um, wait!" Everest didn't want to miss her chance, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to reveal her long-hidden feelings. "He said they had you covered, right? I mean, It's a gorgeous day out, and you and I don't get much time together. We should do something!"

"Well, okay, sure!" Marshall liked the thought of that. "Do you have anything in mind?"

Everest thought for a moment, until the perfect thing popped into her head. "Yes, actually! There's a really pretty spot through this forest that I've been to only a couple times before, and I wanna show it to you."

"Awesome, sounds good to me!" He beamed.

Relieved he was happy to go along, she said, "Great, then come on! It's far enough that we'll have to drive, so we can share my pupmobile. Oh, and about yours, if you remember where it is then I can take you by it on the way home."

"Sweet, thank you so much Everest. You've been a huge help."

"Any time," she said with a smile. "Now, let's go!"

With that, the two ran over to her puphouse. Everest switched it to a vehicle, jumped in with Marshall right after her, sitting behind, and they started off driving through the woods on an old dirt road. Everest was feeling a fair bit nervous in anticipation of what was to come. She knew if she didn't confess her crush once they got there, there may not be another time as ideal as this. It was now or never.

"How much further is this place?"

"Not too much longer Marshall, we should be there any minute."

The pair had been driving for almost 10 minutes now, fairly far away from where they'd camped out the previous night, let alone the town of Adventure Bay. The woods they were passing through had become shadier and the dirt road had turned to worn grass, indicating there was generally little to no traffic through these parts, which raised even more questions in Marshall's mind as to where they were headed. The thick density of trees and leaves around them prevented him from seeing much of anything that stood out, but it almost looked like there was an opening at the end of the path they were on, bright with broad sunlight shining on the grass and reflecting in the distance off of what appeared to be water.

As they were approaching the end of the shaded path, Everest pulled over to the side and parked the pupmobile just a bit before the opening. She hopped out and said to him, "Alright, this is the place! Follow me!," and began bounding towards the lit-up opening.

"Hey, wait up!" Marshall called with a laugh, and he started running after her. Everest made it out of the trees and began practically glowing in contrast with the cover of the forest, and Marshall was quickly approaching. He didn't know what to expect when he stepped into the sunlight, but what met his eyes was beyond any expectations he might've had. He walked over to beside Everest and simply sat down to take in the view.

The two were sitting on the bank of a huge lake, bright and blue with reflections of the clouds in the sky which became more distorted the further away the water was from the grass where they sat. There were sizable patches of lily pads growing on the water's surface, adding a complement of green to the glassy blue. The lake's overall size for proximity to Adventure Bay was stunning, and it would've appeared to go on forever were it not for the tall mountains that stood far across from the pups. The mountains were not as large or tall as the one Jake and Everest resided on but they were still a sight to behold, especially with the beautiful body of water that sat before them.

"Wooooow…" Marshall breathed out. "This is incredible, Everest."

"I know. It's breathtaking," she said placidly.

"How did you even find this place?"

"I was just driving around through this area one day trying to clear my head, kinda like you yesterday. At the same time I was starting to familiarize myself with this part of the woods and when I stumbled upon this I view I knew I'd found something really special. I haven't even told Jake about it yet; I'm sure the lake's on maps and I definitely wasn't the first to see it, but I still wanted to keep it to myself for then."

"And you shared it with me? Why?"

"Well, uh." She paused. This was it.

"I-I have something I need to tell you," she began, "and we don't get much time alone so I knew it had to be some time today before I took you back home."

He sat quietly. "I'm listening," he reassured her, although in truth he was a bit nervous as he really only had a guess as to what she was about to say.

"So…" She paused for a moment, thinking where to start. "You remember that day when Jake got lost in the South Pole and I rescued him, and was helping take care of him while you all were on the way to bring him back?"

Marshall nodded.

"Well, before I met Jake, I'd been alone, for…a while. It was pretty cold down there, and penguins don't make the greatest of friends, so y'know, when I found Jake and had someone I could not only rescue but someone I could take care of, and be taken care of by, to say I was happy would be an understatement. He was the greatest thing that happened to me. Then I learned he was gonna take me with him back home, and then I got to meet all of you, and…that day was the best day of my life."

While she was speaking, Marshall divided his time between looking at the lake and watching her face as she spoke. It had crossed his mind in the past a couple of times that he wasn't too sure what her life was like before she found Jake, but this now gave at least a glimpse of it.

"Wow," he said. "I guess I don't really know what that must've felt like for you. I mean, there was the time before Ryder found me and recruited me to be part of the team, but that was so long ago I almost don't remember what it was like. I'm just so used to having people beside me that I can rely on that it's hard to imagine being alone."

"Yeah, that's fair. I'm just happy to have you all now." She smiled.

Before he had the chance to be disappointed, she began again.

"That- isn't everything, though. There's something else I wanted to tell you. That first day, when I met you all, I was happy to greet everyone and get to know you all and make friends, right, but when I was thinking back on all that in the following days, well…you stood out. You were the one who carried the towel to me and Jake, and you were the one who kept bringing me treats of my favorite flavor. You were there to help me with anything I needed when I was settling in, and that made an impression. After being by myself for so long, and finding another pup like me who really was by my side, I think that must've been…when I first had feelings for you."

He stared. "Whuh…" He shook his head. "What?" Marshall was stunned, naturally. He wasn't quite sure he heard her correctly.

"Yeah, hehe…I've felt the same way ever since then, right after we met. You're a really caring pup, Marshall. And honestly that's why it bothers me so much when you disparage yourself, because I know that you're trying your best and that you have good intentions. And I mean, when you're not wreaking havoc, I think your clumsiness makes you even cuter, like I uh, accidentally said yesterday, heh." At this point Everest was red enough that it was easily passing through her fur.

"W-wow…I mean, it'd crossed my mind a couple of times since yesterday, but I wasn't actually sure if you…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, I do," she said with a slight smile. "A-and don't worry, if you don't feel the same way, then—"

"No, I do, Everest, I really like you! I mean, I thought you were pretty when I first saw you, but over time, as I got to know you, it definitely grew into more than just that. You know I'm thick as thieves with Chase and he's generally there for me with everything, but any time you're around for a mission or just with us at the Lookout is always a treat. Even getting to just see you for a bit brightens up my day, and I've wanted to tell you that for a while, but, y'know, I didn't wanna make things…weird." He glanced towards the water in front of him.

She just turned to look at him and smiled. "You are so sweet."

He met her gaze, and started to smile. "Well, so are you," he chuckled.

There was a pause.

"…Can I?"

"Of course."

She leaned over and gave him a big lick on the cheek.

She scooted next to him and leaned her head against his.

He leaned in as well, and the two stared out at the beautiful landscape in front of them.

"So," he began quietly, "you want this lake to be our secret?"

"Sure."

He smiled. "I like that."