The night around them grew quieter as the two explorers sat next to each other in the snow. Exhausted by their previous stunt, none of them could muster enough strength to speak and instead, they let the forest fill out the silence around them as the birds started their last encore for the day.

Once he finally set down a lantern and glanced around the area, Kenny couldn't been more thankful when he realized, that the small room they stumbled into seemed to be a common resting spot among adventurers. Thanks to the surrounding rubbles of ancient walls and the dense forest around them, their attackers couldn't get inside unless they somehow found a secret switch that operated these doors. Though, sometimes the other side of a door hid even worse monsters and deadly traps, but this time Fortuna seemed to take pity on them and provided a safe haven for the time being.

It was like an ancient version of cat and mouse, if the mouse hid in its house, then the cat couldn't catch it no matter how much he wanted to dig the critter out. The devil is hiding in the details, though. If the mouse sticks its head out too soon, it might lose it.

Resting his back against a stone column Kenny heaved a sigh as he closed his eyes. He still couldn't see the light at the end of the dark tunnel. Furthermore, these past five hours were longer and more exhausting than any of their worst trips, with no chance for a proper resting place…

He was about to stretch out his leg when he kicked something. The survivalist lazily opened one of his eyes and upon closer glance, the he noticed that around them dozens of small snowmen looked into the forest, wearing crooked smiles made of acorns and rocks, as if they wanted to scare away the monsters with their positivity. He didn't even notice them at first…

But even with this small delay, they invited a tired smile to his face as he tried to readjust the statue with a lopsided head with a light kick.

It was either a tradition started by a sole guild or someone got really bored while waiting for their time to escape from the frozen prison…

Maybe they should follow their example and add one to the collection…?

However, his attention quickly shifted to Kyle when the gunner started fidgeting next to him. Until now, Kenny didn't have a chance to observe cuts on his partner's face, nor the torn fabric of his warm coat. Flowers made of blood were slowly seeping through the thick green fabric and freezing to its surface as a warning sign. Right now, the black flower was big enough to be visible from the other side and the sight struck him with worry.

"Can I take a look at it?" inching closer, he nudged Kyle carefully, but the gunner barely reacted. He kept his eyes trained on the ground as if that would help him stay awake.

"It's fine."

"It's still bleeding." Kenny corrected the statement. His hand was already in his bag, searching for the gauze and the bottle of medicinal alcohol he got from Butters. Once he managed to dig everything out, he crawled to Kyle's other side, pulling the gunner's arm toward himself, slowly pulling apart the ruined fabric.

The moment his eyes caught a glimpse of something wet and red in the darkness, Kenny's stomach made a flip and he had to fight down a sudden wave of weakness that came over him. There was a good reason why he never tried to imitate Butters as the team's doctor and tried to stay away from looking at open wounds. He was having second thoughts, but in the end, the blond managed to swallow back his nausea and gripped the bottle of alcohol even harder.

"It's fine!" Kyle hissed at him, but didn't do anything to pull his arm away and let Kenny examine the wound he got from one of his meeting with the local wildlife.

"Well, it is not. They got you good…" he muttered under his breath as he tried to disinfect the wound without fainting. Defensively, he pulled his scarf over his mouth to keep the stench of alcohol away from his nose. Sadly it didn't take away the sight blood running down Kyle's arm.

It almost looked like the gunner had a fight with a knife; he looked for discolorations around the cut or some kind of change in skin texture but in the dim light provided by the lantern, he could barely make out anything.

"I hope it wasn't one of those statues. I have nothing that could cure petrification."

"No. For your information, it was a frostbeak!" Kyle retorted indignantly like being pecked by an angry bird that froze its helpless victims was better than taking a hit from a statue that turns people into stone. Both of them were capable of immobilizing their preys, after all.

"Don't be so proud of yourself, asshole!" Kenny growled at him, before gently pushing a wet cloth to Kyle's wound. The gunner was about to let out a shriek, but instinctively brought his free hand in front of his mouth to muffle out the scream. This didn't stop him from kicking the ground, stirring up freshly fallen snow around him. Another proud snowman fell in the battle.

In any other situation, Kenny would've felt sorry for the boy. Maybe he would even whisper soothing words to Kyle, hold his other hand… But they were trapped in the labyrinth because of Kyle's stupidity, so he deserved to suffer a bit for his reckless actions!

Yet, despite his thoughts and the stern tone of his voice, Kenny touched the skin around the wound ever so gently, slipping a hand inside the hole in the fabric without touching the broken skin. He thanked whatever god lived up there in the Heavenly Keep that the bleeding finally stopped. They both needed all the heat their clothes could hold for them, and undressing Kyle to gain access to a gushing cut would've been equal with a death sentence.

"How are you feeling?" he asked when he felt Kyle's weight slowly falling toward him.

"Dizzy… My head is about to fall off. I think I need to vomit too..." Kyle answered weakly.

"Do me a favour and turn to the other side then. Give this gift to that snowman." Kenny muttered as he took off his gloves to get better access to Kyle's arm. The freezing cold almost immediately bit into his fingers causing him to wince when he reached for the gauze. He tried to pull the jacket and shirt Kyle was wearing beneath. He wanted to treat the wound, not the fabric, after all… With quick movements, he put the creamy blue medicine Butters usually used on a thicker square cloth and pushed it beneath the layers of clothing, before he started to secure it with a long gauze; slowly rolling it around Kyle's arm several times, hands never leaving the other boy's coat. Was this the right procedure? To be honest, he had no idea. Probably not. But for the time being, this was more than nothing.

Once he secured the gauze on Kyle's arm Kenny pulled out his hand from the warmth of the hare fur padded coat. He almost immediately regretted the decision as his cold gloves refused to hold any heat for him. To avert his attention from the cold, the blond turned back to Kyle and used the remaining gauze roll to put a layer around the hole on Kyle's green coat to keep the cold out. Once again, this reflected his skills almost perfectly.

After he finished patching up the bruises and cuts on Kyle's face, both of them grew quiet and an uncomfortable and without the chirping birds a suffocating kind of silence enveloped them. It only became worse when they felt the judging stares of several inanimate snowmen, as if they were about to ask 'You are here yet you refuse to talk to each other?!' in a mocking tone. Or maybe this only existed in Kyle's mind because the poison still made his thoughts wonky and unorganized. He was about to voice his concerns about man eating tiny snow golems with their black little eyes, when suddenly Kenny started speaking.

"What's gotten into you?! Coming to the worst known stratum?" he asked, trying to hide his gloved hands in his pockets to warm up his freezing hands.

Seriously! Why would Kyle come to the most unfriendly part if the labyrinth if not… his eyes widened as suddenly his heart picked up. He gripped Kyle's shoulders, turning the boy toward him.

"You don't have a rope, right?! Ky, tell me you didn't bring one!"

"No, and I don't have a ladder either!" Kyle replied almost snapping at him. Did Kenny just assume that he came to the forest only to hang himself?! He knew better! Also what idiot would try that in a pine forest?! The trees were fragile and the branches were too high!

"Don't even think stuff like that. Dude, I was about to argue why a pine forest is a bad place to-" he stopped himself from voicing his thoughts. Yggdrasil had a dark side they refused to talk about for obvious reasons. " Just don't assume that."

"I didn't mean to… Sorry," the blond slumped back against the ice covered wall. "But you still didn't explain why you came here to the frozen hell. I was worried sick."

"Really Kenny..." Kyle let out an exasperated sigh, "It's none of your business."

"Well, I'm stuck here with you so it is kind of MY business now." Kenny countered. "If not for that then why? Why did you come here all alone, Ky?"

Kyle pondered for a moment whether or not he should let Kenny in and tell him about the insanely stupid idea he had and decided to follow.

"It's stupid…" he told at last, pulling his thin scarf up to his mouth. The night was getting colder with each passing moment.

"Certainly," Kenny nodded in agreement. "Like that matters at this point. So, what was it?"

At first Kyle refused to open his mouth, pulling back into his coat like a scared turtle, embarrassed by his own irrational actions. When he did speak, it was a string of words mashed together that sounded almost too foreign for Kenny's ears.

"Hey, slow down! The damage has been done already!" he held Kyle's shoulder, trying to stop the rambling. In the end he managed to slow down the torrent of words, but Kenny needed to focus all of his attention to catch everything Kyle tried to explain within one minute.

"...So I thought maybe you deserved this much after I ruined everything. I mean, it was not exactly my fault, you had your fair share in it, because you just had to wink at that waitress, who is much better looking than I and I don't even know why didn't you just ask her out on the spot, because-" he rambled but Kenny stopped him, once again pushing his hand to his scarfed mouth.

"Wait, what? The reason why you pretty much flipped the table on me and stormed out of the tavern was because you were jealous of a nobody?!"

"A hot nobody!" Kyle corrected him.

"Oh, Come on, Kyle! Did you just assume that I'd take you out on a date then woo a random chick?!"

"Beats me!" Kyle raised his voice before he realized what Kenny just told him. "That was supposed to be a date?!"

"Why would I invite you out alone at night?"

"To help you woo girls. To make you even more handsome with my lame red hair! I don't know!" Kyle raised his arms in anger, immediately regretting as a sharp pain ran through his shoulder.

"Goddamnit Kyle…" Kenny sighed. "The only person I tried to woo there is sitting right next to me."

"I knew it!" then suddenly his logic kicked in and he threw Kenny a terrified glance. "Wait. Wait! Are you out of your mind?"

"Looking at our situation, it seems so," Kenny nodded expressionlessly.

"So does that mean that you love me?" a blush spread over his cheeks.

"I do."

A moment of silence.

"That's not fair! I wanted to tell you first!" Kyle blurted out reminding Kenny that he was still fighting the mind-numbing poison. He could only hope that these were Kyle's true feelings and he won't take it back once he finally sobers up.

"Kyle, you are not in the right state of mind for love confessions."

"Yes, I am!"

"No, you are not!" Before Kyle could answer him, Kenny decided to switch topics. The redhead would certainly latch into the new train of thoughts. "Instead tell me what are we doing here or is it still none of my business?"

"I already told you... I wanted to find something for you."

"Last time I checked, I didn't lose anything in the labyrinth."

"Look. Fatass, told me about a flower that grows around here and worth heaps of money. Your birthday is coming up, I still felt terrible about the incident at the tavern so I thought 'why not?' I wanted to give you something else, but I know you work hard to be able to afford a home for you and Karen and even if it was coming from Cartman, the idea of profit seemed to be more logical than sentimental gizmos. He even gave me a map, and fuck, he is our guild leader so why would he try to trick me? It seemed safe, until, you know, it obviously wasn't because the map was fake. By the time I realized this, I got lost in the middle of the forest…" ha paused to catch his breath. "Dude, I feel so stupid right now."

"Rightfully so," Kenny agreed, but couldn't really hide the smile that appeared on his lips.

He was still angry about Kyle's little stunt, but at the same time, it warmed him that the gunner wanted to give him something so badly. If it was still possible, he probably fell more deeply for this hot headed idiot.

Heaving a sigh, he pulled the gunner closer.

"Like I would sell anything that was given by you," he murmured under his breath resting his hands on the other's waist. What probably surprised him more that not long after that, he felt Kyle's weight against his side and the redhead wriggled next to him until he could rest his head on Kenny's shoulder.

-.-.-.-.-

Snowflakes danced around them ever so lightly, finding a resting place on their clothes and slowly piling up on the cold fabric. However, as they sat there in complete silence, the forest came to life around them, animals greeting the safety and freedom provided by the darkness. Instead of the previous heavy and fearsome atmosphere, it decided to show them its much kinder and natural side.

Somewhere near Kenny and Kyle one of the branches cracked under the weight of snow, sending a pile down toward the earth where it landed with a dull thump, followed by another in the other side. In the distance flock of frostbeaks let out a rattling laughter by rapidly opening and closing their beaks as if they wanted to invite another pile of snow to the ground. They grew quiet and after another thump, they started laughing again.

On the other side of the forest, trails softly shook under the heavy footsteps of seven-headed dragons, which kept patrolling their respective territories after they finally woke up from their daytime slumber.

These off-kilter noises came together and created the voice of the forest resounding ever so slightly around them like the softest of lullabies.

Kenny watched the flickering light of their lantern and finally let his muscles relax. However, his mind never stopped and his thoughts joined the rhythm of the white forest around them. Thinking, planning, reconsidering.

He had Kyle by his side in one piece, that was great for starters, but he had no idea how to get out of the forest. In normal cases, a simple Ariadne thread could do the trick, warping them back to the gates. It served as a one way teleporter all adventurers should keep on themselves so situations like this won't occur. As for its mechanism. Kenny had some vague ideas about the threads, they were probably soaked with magic and connected to the glowing geomagnetic poles but aside from that, all he registered was that the threads took them away from danger. That's all they needed anyway.

"You don't happen to have an Ariadne Thread on you, right, Kyle?"

To this Kyle gave him a look of disappointment with a hint of the expression he tended to show when Cartman did something extremely stupid and flamboyant.

"You came to save me and you didn't bring an Ariadne Thread? Look, Ken, I don't want to be ungrateful, and I appreciate the rescue mission, but did you have any kind of plan at all?"

"Hey! I had to think under time restrictions!" Kenny quickly defended himself and gave Kyle a soft nudge with his shoulders "You should've brought a Thread instead. Let me remind you who came here first, asshole."

"And I did bring a thre-...!" Spoken too soon, Kyle quickly bit the last part of the sentence but this didn't stop Kenny from shaking next to him as he tried to hold back his laughter.

"You petted the squirrel."

"I did not!" Kyle exclaimed his face slowly turning red from embarrassment as he pulled the ears of his hat.

"Dude, you totally did. You are turning into Stan! Petting squirrels left and right, then being naively surprised when they steal your stuff!"

"Oh, just shut up, Kenny," Kyle gave him a little shove with his shoulder.

Kenny missed this. These innocent jabs, the light yet comfortable atmosphere that surrounded them. Right now, almost everything was the same except that they still needed to get out of the labyrinth if they didn't want to join the snowmen as warning statues in this safe little heaven. He decided to give Kyle an hour to rest and to collect his thoughts. Seeing how his head kept falling to his shoulders as he tried to keep himself awake, they couldn't really tackle the labyrinth right now.

Oh, how much he wanted to make a campfire and just forget about the deadly creatures that lurked outside these walls. He wouldn't really refuse cuddling in front of a fireplace either. Preferably under several layers of blankets! Drinking mulled wine together with Kyle sounded tempting too…And maybe, just maybe…

"Kyle…?"

"Hm?"

"I love you," he whispered into Kyle's red curls, secretly hoping that his muffled words will completely miss their recipient.

"Wow, Kenny. So now I'm in the right state of mind for love confessions?" the redhead chuckled into his shoulder. In response Kenny only pulled him closer, refusing to let go of him.

"No, not really. I just felt like saying it."

Kyle nodded, almost knowingly but he wasn't quite there even now. He was really losing his foothold against exhaustion and the more he tried to pry his eyes open the longer it took.

If I fall asleep, I will fall asleep for good, Kyle kept reminding himself.

But he was too tired.

And Kenny's warmth was way too comforting.

As he watched snowflakes flutter in front of his face, his body sank further into the tempting promise of rest and slowly his entire world fell into soothing silence.