I screamed as I went over the edge of the path, slung into open air as something dug claws and teeth into my leg. From this vantage point, hanging off the side of a cliff, it finally dawned on me that it was an Akuma trying to gnaw off my calf. I screamed in pain as I felt the claws rip through my pants and into skin.

Doggonit, I'd just had my legs stitched up, and I was going to keep them from getting stitched again!

I kicked the panther-look-a-like in the head as I tried to unbuckle my weapon from my hip. My heart hammered in my chest as it snarled at me, snapping its jaws at my foot with every kick. I yelped as it managed to get the end of my boot, and I slung it back against the cliff face.

Good God, why did it have to choose me?

Above me, I could hear the Sherpas and Exorcists shouting in surprise as my sudden weight dragged them all back. The rope dug into my waist, and my back screamed with indignation. I looked up as I tried to unbuckle my whip, noting that Kanda was unsheathing his sword. My eyes widened as I watched him brandish it, swinging it in the air. Even with the visibility practically down to nil, I could tell what was on his mind.

"No... no, no, no, no, no, oh no you don't you little -" I muttered under my breath, finally removing my whip and snapping it down at my leg. The wire slammed into the Akuma, which skirted around to stick its claws into my backpack to avoid me.

And suddenly I had a much clearer view of the ground below.

Vertigo overtook me as my stomach attempted to shimmy up my esophagus. The ground had to be more than five thousand feet down. There was between me and an ugly splat at the bottom other than a length of rope.

I started to giggle as I realized that I was being used as a literal chew toy for an Akuma at five thousand feet. I hung on to my rope tenaciously as I used my other hand to punish the thing trying –unsuccessfully- to take off my leg. I could hear the sounds of cutting, and I looked up at Kanda with a glare.

"Hey! I'm not dead yet! Stop sawing me off!" I frantically shouted over the wind.

I wasn't expendable! They couldn't just buy another Exorcist from the local grocery! I didn't care how much Kanda thought partners were a nuisance—he was not going to kill me!

Kanda looked down and shouted back, "It's not you I'm trying to saw off! It's me!"

I did a double-take, largely ignoring the Akuma trying to bite through the layers of padding on my pants.

"What?!" I shouted, looking back up, scrunching my face as wind blew off my hood and left me freezing.

The Sherpas were trying desperately to reel us both in, digging their heels into the snow, and I saw that the rope connecting Kanda and I had tangled around his legs and pinned him against a rock outcropping, essentially cutting off blood to his legs. My eyes widened as I watched him saw the rope with one hand while holding on to my end with gritted teeth.

"Kill the bloody thing already so we can haul you up!" he shouted in frustration.

I didn't need to be told twice. The Akuma, however, had come around to my front again, and it opened its mouth, revealing the barrel of a gatling gun. I shrieked as I began to swing on the rope in a frantic attempt to subvert a gunshot to the face. Several bullets flew around smacking into my surroundings, and I was lucky enough to dodge all of them.

I suddenly smashed my head into the rock, and stars exploded in front of my eyes. Even as dazed as I was, I felt the Akuma claw its way up my body, and it began to scootch up the rope. Its tail smacked me in the face, bringing me back to the world of the living despite having a massive headache. A hammer seemed to materialize out of the snow to swing over my head, smacking the Akuma off of my rope all the way to Timbuktu. Relieved, I tried to spin around and grab the rock when, without warning, I dropped.

I screamed until I came to an abrupt stop, my back almost snapping in half. I grunted as I took those G-forces and stuffed them in places they should not go. Dazed, I looked above me. Kanda was dangling precariously as another Akuma, probably the counterpart to the one Lavi had just batted into next Tuesday, attacked from ahead rather than behind.

"Mag, climb up here!" Kanda ordered, and I clung to my rope.

I looked up with a squint as snow and ice cut my face, and I immediately shook my head. I squeezed my eyes and curled up around the rope, trying hard not to think about how high up I was. My heart was going at frantic racehorse pace. All my anger had fizzled out, and I was a good couple thousand feet from safety. It just wasn't happening.

The storm lessened enough for me to open my eyes and see Kanda's face, and he looked weary. I didn't blame him. I could sleep for a good decade or so if I ever got out of here alive.

"Look… there's a ledge we can climb up on and try to get back onto the main trail! I have to cut our rope, though, to reach it! If you don't get over here, I'm going to cut this rope, and I'm going without you! Do you hear me!?"

Realizing he was actually suggesting he cut me loose in order to save his own hide, my anger came back in full force. Grumbling all the way, trying to maintain that furious flame, I climbed up the rope with shaking arms, my leg oddly numb. After inching my way up, I grabbed on to Kanda's belt, and he lifted me with his arms until he was holding me around the waist.

"We're sitting ducks hanging here. Eventually Moron Number Two up there is going to notice. The rope is stuck in between those two rocks, and there's no getting it out without digging. I'm going to swing us over to that ledge -"

He pointed to a ledge on the opposite side of the trail, almost three hundred feet below. I gawked. It couldn't be more than a few hand spans wide from this angle!

" - and I'll cut the rope, and we'll land in the snow," he finished, sounding oddly calm for a guy suggesting we fall to our deaths.

I stared at him incredulously before gasping, "You made me climb all the way up that rope just to tell me how we were going to die? You could've at least shouted it to me down there, and I wouldn't have wasted the effort!"

Kanda stared at me, completely deadpan. Without a word, he put his legs to the rock wall and began to push. I clung to him, realizing he was serious. This really was his great plan. A part of me had been hoping there'd been a Plan B. Or a Plan C. I would settle for a Plan Z, if it had more chance of survival than a snowball in the Sahara.

"Kanda... Kanda, this is a really bad idea. We're not going to make that."

Of course, he ignored me. The sounds of fighting grew more intense, and now we were swinging in a wider and wider arc.

"Kanda, I'm serious, let's not do this!"

I was clinging pretty tight now. We were going to die. We were going to seriously, messily die. I'd always imagined I'd pass away as an old woman with a ton of cats in my house, surrounded by my siblings along with about twenty nieces and nephews, fifty great-nieces and -nephews, several dogs, and Parley's descendants. Being turned into a salsa… not so much.

"Have I mentioned I don't want to die?" I squeaked as I stared, wide-eyed, at the precipice we were aiming for.

We were at the pinnacle of our arc, now, and at this point, I had my face pressed into his neck so I could avoid seeing my death rush up to meet me. I tried to take what little comfort there was in the fact I, at least, had something to hang on to, and that maybe I'd black out before we hit the ground. I was also frantically searching for my Happy Place.

I couldn't seem to find it. Go figure.

"If I bite it—don't tell them how I went," I gasped, scrunching my eyes shut, half-hoping that Kanda couldn't hear me out of embarrassment, half-hoping he could on the off-chance he survived. It was almost a good bet that I wouldn't. If anything, my last thought was going to be about my family. And I was pretty darn well sure this was going to be my last thought.

"I won't have to," he answered.

Sharply he cut the rope, and we went sailing through the air.

Most people, during great moments of fear, completely separate the screaming from the screamer, usually themselves, whenever experiencing something terrifying, as there is this blissful disconnect from reality. I didn't get the disconnect. I could tell I was screeching the entire way.

I felt him curl around me suddenly, and he pressed my face into his neck deliberately, muffling my scream as we seemed to drift through the air for what seemed like forever.

We hit the ground so hard, I think all of my bones popped out of place before putting themselves back together again. He rolled to lessen the impact, and I realized why he'd curled around me pretty soon as I heard the crunch of our packs hitting rocks. I myself ended up rolling and smacking a couple patches of rocks, and I was almost certain that I'd have those bruises for the rest of my life. After another eternity, we stopped, the air whipping around us. I was laying on top of him, tense as a bowstring. I shivered, adrenaline practically drugging me, and I risked looking up. It sure didn't look like heaven, and I was hurting, so I was going to guess that we survived. Our packs had saved us from most of the force from the landing.

Shaken, I lay my head back down against Kanda's neck, not even bothering to go with my gut as it rebelled against me. I was so tired that I didn't care I was hanging on to my least favorite mentor like a monkey. For now, I wasn't Mag, obsessively ordered and prudish to a fault. Instead, I was tired, beaten, but alive. Suddenly, I started to giggle, and I felt Kanda shift.

"What are you laughing about?" he grumbled.

His voice practically hummed in my throat, and I was rudely brought back to the present. Immediately, I tacked 'propriety' onto the list of things I should uphold now that I was no longer in danger. I rolled off of him quickly, regretting it as just about every part of my body threw in its two cents to my brain. Nevertheless, I continued to laugh, finally laying down in the snow and guffawing.

"I'm alive! Hahahaha, I'm still alive. Oh my God, I am still in one piece. Ah, I think I'm just going to lay here for a bit and just... enjoy breathing a little longer," I sighed, finally done with my laughing fit.

I was sore all over, and I was sweating like a pig inside of my snow suit, but I wasn't scattered across the mountain side. I just felt this amazing feeling of appreciation for being able to just breathe.

"Is this how you feel every time you nearly die?" I asked breathlessly, craning my neck up to look up at Kanda. He turned his head slowly, and he almost smiled. Well, color me surprised. That puts his number of possible facial expressions to three.

"Just about. This was nothing. I've jumped from higher without breaking a sweat," he grumbled, heaving himself up into a sitting position. He dusted off the snow that caked his jacket, and I tried to sit up myself.

"What now?" I asked, slowly getting up. He looked down at the snow, and I realized that quite a lot of red was splattered over a good portion where I'd been sitting. I winced as the two of us realized I was more injured than previously thought. Well, if that wasn't fantastic.

I was going to live through falling three hundred feet, and die of a pinprick.

"We get that checked out. We'll hike a bit higher and set up there. Taking off your pants here would freeze off your legs," Kanda told me, and at the mention of 'taking off pants' I felt like someone had stuck my face in a heater.

Did he have to phrase it like that? It was sad to say that it was becoming a rather unfortunate habit of mine to have to get my legs patched up. I don't remember getting this many leg injuries before starting off with these three. Before all this was over, I'd end up with more stitches than leg.

After a hundred feet up the new trail, I realized that we'd lost a visual of the others, and I groaned. We were now completely separated from the main party, which, of course, was never a good sign.

Before us, the bare, snowy outcrop stretched into a massive field of ice until finally turning into a sheer wall. The ridge we needed to take was nearly half a mile to the left, but the storm made it practically invisible. All in all, the entire task seemed exceedingly daunting, and the fact I was dead tired did not help in the least.

I took another step and toppled into the snow. Hands gripped the back of my jacket and hauled me to my feet again, and I tried to find my balance. Kanda leaned down to take a look at my leg, his hair whipping in the fierce wind, and I wondered how he could see anything with the snow this thick. He shook his head, and he shouted, "No good! We set up over there!"

He pointed to a small formation in the lee of the wind, and I nodded wearily. I couldn't feel my other leg, but I could tell that it was getting worse. It was so stiff, I had to swing it ahead of me instead of bending the knee, which I took was not a good thing.

It took us about an hour to set up our tent. We both were carrying tents that could hold two people on the off chance that someone lost their gear on the mountain, and our forethought was coming in handy. We only had to unpack one tent rather than two, and it would keep us together. I hated the idea of sharing living space, though. I loathed to say it, but I enjoyed my space now that I was away from my family. I was so used to being surrounded by clutter that it had been a freeing experience to finally live somewhere that didn't have clothes, toys, books, and food spread everywhere like some sort of cyclone had ripped through the house.

We lit a lantern inside of the tent after sealing it from the inside, and the wind threatened to shove everything over. It was dark, and the sun had already set. I shivered in the tent, sitting on my sleeping bag, as I watched the tent's hide exterior buck and strain.

Kanda clambered over next to me, and he said, "Take 'em off."

I blinked in perplexity before realizing what he was talking about. It dawned on me that if I didn't, he'd never be able to see how bad the wounds on my legs were. After a moment's deliberation, I conceded with a grumble, and I started to slip them off.

Halfway through fighting with my pants, I looked up at him and asked irately, "Do you mind? Can't you face the wall or something first? I'd like to keep some scrap of my dignity."

Kanda sniffed, but nevertheless he turned around.

Keeping an eye on him, I shrugged the rest of them off, exposing the wounds to open air. I sighed as I noticed that these were definitely not as large as the others I'd had nearly two months ago. There were minor scratches from the Akuma clawing away at the fabric and just barely nicking the skin, but the other, deeper punctures were from it initially grabbing my leg in the first attack. They were mostly lodged in my lower thigh and upper calf.

We ended up wrapping it in bandages from the first aid kit Kanda had packed in his bag after cleaning the punctures with near-frozen water. Afterwards, we set our sleeping bags as far apart as possible and tried to forget that the other person existed.

And then it got very, very cold. And then it got very, very dark. And then I got very, very uncomfortable. With the lantern on, and Grouchy just across the tent, my sleep was fitful, and I could bet that the next few days would be more of the same.

Oh. Joy.


"How much farther?" I groaned.

I had been hiking for the past seven hours since the sun had come up. My lungs hurt from breathing the freezing air, and I was beginning to cough. Even Kanda wasn't immune - he was hacking away about fifty feet ahead of me, the rope the only thing holding us together.

After he was finished spewing a lung, he answered over his shoulder, "Another two hundred feet. We'll stop at that ledge."

The storm had slowly grown fiercer the higher we'd climbed, and the golem packed in Kanda's bag continued to malfunction, giving us only half the transmissions and then sending half the transmissions back out. From what we'd heard, Bookman had opted that we both go down K2, but from what I could tell from Kanda's decision to continue the hike, that wasn't happening any time soon.

Much to my chagrin. I could do with going back to base camp.

The storm suddenly gusted a blast of snow in my face, and I shouted in surprise as a jagged piece of ice hit me in the eye. I tripped over a rock and fell, yanking my rope. I slowly sat up in the snow, facing back down the mountain. We had been walking the knife's edge towards another ridge, and my legs were nearly straddling the trail, a massive drop on either side. If not for the nails in my boots, I would've long fallen to either side.

I tried not to think of that much.

I could feel Kanda tugging the rope, his way of telling me to get my fat, lazy bum off the ground and start moving again. I slowly got up -

And I was subsequently attacked for the second time in less than forty-eight hours. My only thought happened to be Oh dear God, not again.

The thing I wrestled with had six legs, all of which had sharp hooves, and a horse's face full of long, needle sharp teeth. I screamed as I tried to kick it off of me, and it suddenly revealed two canons in its midsection as it reared on its hind legs. I scrambled to my feet, dodging the hit by inches as I was showered with snow and bits of rock, and I slid on the snow as I raced upwards towards a sharp plain where we'd have the space to fight and not end up down the mountainside.

"Kanda! I'm being attacked again! I think Lavi didn't kill that other Akuma very well considering it's coming after me! Help me, please?!" I shouted as I finally got my fingers to cooperate with my whip. I snapped it back behind me, not even bothering to look, and the horse-insect-thing whinnied in pain.

"YOU WILL PAY, EXORCIST, FOR THE DEATH OF IMOGEN!" it screamed after me, and I tried to just keep my legs pumping. Kanda noticed my predicament, finally, and he stood at the top of the slope as if he didn't have a single care in the world. He very well may not have. I skidded behind him as the thing behind me raced up the slope, and I gave it another whack, in the hopes it might slow it down. It reared up, and I moaned, "Not again."

Kanda looked a little perplexed, and I dropped to the ground and ordered loudly, "Duck."

No sooner had I said that, a cannonball with teeth screeched, and Kanda hit the deck to avoid it. However, it seemed to have a mind of its own considering it came back.

"I'll take care of the cannonball! You take out the Akuma! Bigger target - more to hit!" Kanda ordered, and I was only too happy to oblige.

Fear sank into my skin, making me stink of fright as I begged my Innocence to work with me today. Some days it was more gracious than others. I was hoping today was one of the gracious days.

It seemed that was the case. It suddenly burst into flame at my beckoning, and I momentarily forgot my fear to whisper thanks to God. I was brought back down to Earth when the Akuma that had chased me whinnied twenty feet away. I shouted in surprise, whipping it across the torso.

After a good thirty minutes of fighting, I'd managed to whittle off three of the Akuma's legs, put a nice-looking gash in its horsey face, and get rid of its tail (which I learned had spikes the hard way). Kanda was still busy dispatching the cannonball with teeth, and the Akuma had released about four more. He looked like he was holding up well, all things considered.

We were pushed over the ledge on to a large, flat shelf. The Akuma followed us, and the storm was not helping me too much considering I could see about as well as a bat in broad daylight. Blindly, I snapped my whip, and Kanda cried out. I turned to him, and with my guard down the Akuma bowled me over, covered in demonic insects. I screamed as the ghostly prawns chewed away at the whinnying Akuma, and it took me a minute to realize they were Kanda's doing. I tripped it with a swift flick of the wrist (though it took me three tries), and the Akuma finally whinnied its last. I sighed in relief, glad that I had a chance to finally rest.

A cannonball latched on to my shoulder and neck the second after, and Kanda speared it, nearly taking off my arm. It had happened so fast that I registered Kanda's sword before realizing that the cannonball had bitten me.

That was quickly remedied. I gasped as I felt pinching, sharp pain clamp around my shoulder. The teeth must've gone deep. My hands shook as I touched the holes in my jacket, several fingers coming back completely bloodied.

"Great. One more thing I'm going to have to undress for," I muttered under my breath with a shudder as Kanda yanked me along with the rope.

The pain was so great that I started to tear up. It was cold, though, and the open wound eventually began to dull into an ache. Later in the tent, I'd probably sob my heart out, though. For the moment, adrenaline kept me from turning on the waterworks.

I jogged weakly to catch up to Kanda, and I told him, "Where to now? Do we continue to the top, or do we wait for a reception?"

He shrugged, and I rolled my eyes with gritted teeth. He never had a plan. It was just 'hack, cut, slash'. I decided to walk ahead of him instead, taking the lead and letting him rest. We'd taken turns on point so far, though he'd had to walk next to me in the rougher parts of the track because of my injured leg.

Eventually, though, we ended up playing a bit of leap frog as he and I got ahead of each other.

That is, until I smashed into a rock face.

"Ugh. This is where the shelf ends," I muttered in a bit of a daze, looking up and rubbing my nose.

Kanda didn't deign to answer, and I sighed. I didn't know why I'd thought he'd do anything different. He got ahead of me, walking farther away from the rock wall. I followed faithfully behind, and then, as always, we were hit with another disaster.

A large part of the sheer rock face above broke off, and I could only stare as it came down.

"Oh, God," I breathed, and I ran for the safety of the wall, hoping it would shield me from the falling debris. Kanda disappeared from my line of sight, but then again I was preoccupied with trying not to die. The rocks continued to fall for nearly ten minutes, raining down from above. I could guess where they had come from, seeing as I heard gunshots and explosions overhead. Well, it looked like we found the other group...

The storm seemed to clear near the wall, and I could finally seefarther than my nose. I slowly came out of the crouch that I was in and stared out at the aftermath. Rocks were everywhere, and they had broken the shelf. The shelf, well, wasn't actually a shelf - it was a massive, frozen lake. Ice chunks floated amid new monoliths while dark water reflected the sky. I shook in shock as I realized that the spot I'd been standing was now replaced by a massive hunk of stone bigger than an automobile, and I took a deep breath. I looked up and mouthed 'thank you' before picking my way through the debris, looking for my mentor. Luckily the rope I had around my waist led me directly to him.

Unluckily, he was crushed into the lake, half-in, half-out.

I felt as if someone had doused me with ice. A massive rock must have fallen on top of him, breaking a hole into the lake. His hands clawing at the ice as only the top of his head poked out of the dark water. I gasped as I realized that it was drowning him, and I raced to get to him, careful not to send myself plummeting into the hole.

"No, no, no, no," I rapidly muttered as I gripped his hands, trying to pull him out. He shouted in pain, as did I, my shoulder screaming as I tried to pull him towards me. He wrapped his arms around my neck, hanging on for dear life. His face was plastered with his hair, and he was icy cold to the touch. His lips had quickly turned blue, and he was shivering. The cold was so intense that my skin felt almost as if it was burning, and I could only imagine what it must feel like to have your whole body covered in it.

"Don't let go," he said, and for a moment I could've sworn that a touch of desperation crept into his voice. His breathing was labored, and I continued to hold him up. He was losing strength quickly. The moisture seeping out of his clothes was enough to freeze my hands into stiff claws. I shifted my grip around him, and I said, "I won't, don't worry. You're my ticket out of here."

He seemed to chuckle, and he leaned his head on my shoulder. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my face away from him. His hair was so cold that it seemed to radiate with chill, numbing my cheek.

"All right. Try to move me," Kanda ordered, and I attempted to haul him back out. The wound in my shoulder and my leg screamed, and I whimpered as I gave up. Kanda grunted as he slipped back into the water. For several moments, we remained in gridlock, his arms around my neck, and my arms linked around his chest. I realized that night was slowly falling. We would already be in danger of freezing to death in daylight. Nighttime would surely kill us both. I felt panic start to creep into my veins as I realized that I had to make a choice: either I left him and he died, or I stayed with him and we both died.

"Mag?"

Kanda's voice sounded pretty far away, and his body was a block of ice. He wasn't even shivering anymore. I was so cold that I was numb all over, my wounds failing to get a reaction from me.

"Yeah?" I breathed, coughing into my shoulder.

The snow flew into my eyes, making it hard to see. The ice was beginning to refreeze, and Kanda squirmed, trying to shimmy his way out. He finally leaned his head back against my shoulder again, staring at the sky. He was breathing in gasps now, tired from trying to free himself.

"I don't want to die," he chattered fiercely.

His face scrunched with pain, and I heaved up again. He hissed in pain, but he worked his legs up and back, attempting to get out of the water. His grip was strong, a telling sign. If I hadn't known better, I would've thought he was scared. And... who knew, maybe he was.

Night was going to fall, and I realized that I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I left him here. He was an immense prick, but not a big enough prick that I could leave him alone to die afraid.

"Hey... y-you ar-aren't going to d-d-die. I promise you won't," I murmured, pulling back on him. We worked back and forth, inching him out of the ice.

As we did, he chuckled darkly and said, "You know, of all the ways to bite it, this is the most embarrassing I can think of. Killed by a falling rock - tch."

He coughed, hacking so hard I almost thought he'd spew blood. Painfully I smiled, my lips cracking.

"I have to admit, that is a pretty sorry way to go out," I stated, and with a last heave, I leaned back and managed to get him all the way out of the ice.

I took the chance to scuttle backwards with him, dragging him out of the water before I lost my momentum. He tried to stand, but his legs were two hunks of iced-over flesh. It was like trying to stand him up on crooked wooden planks. With the darkness quickly hiding the terrain, I fumbled with our equipment, but it was slow going in the wind and wet. Quickly, I set up camp as fast as I could manage, hoping to deter frostbite and the storm. Twice the tent nearly blew away, but I managed to keep a hold of it.

At last, we both got in.

"Alright, now your turn. Take 'em off," I said, motioning to his legs, breathless with exhaustion and chattering.

I fought with another lantern, trying to light it with shaking fingers. It wouldn't give us much heat, but it might do more than pure darkness. The Science Department had given us heat-bricks as well, something that they said was years ahead of its time but had no use just yet. I'd littered three in the tent, but they were taking a while to beat away the cold.

Kanda hesitated before rolling his eyes at the irony, and he worked his way out of his pants with my help. From his upper thigh to his ankle, the entire thing looked pulped. He wasn't going anywhere like that. I nearly gagged at the sight of it. Kanda's skin was still cold to the touch, and it was apparently that we were both going to have to take... drastic measures. I covered him with my jacket, the inside lining warm and dry, and I rubbed his shoulders hoping to get some warmth back into his skin. He was shaking so hard that his teeth clacked together, and I felt sick with worry that he was going to freeze to death even after we managed to get him out of the lake.

After he was at a suitable temperature—or at least no longer so cold my skin nearly stuck to him- I splinted and bound up his leg despite his cursing and spitting. I myself was beginning to shiver as the cold set into my skin, the water doing its work. The heat-bricks were finally hot enough to start working, but I could barely feel the tips of my fingers and toes. I still hadn't had my shoulder looked at, and I just about cried as Kanda helped me peel off the shirt. It seemed like the both of us were getting injured left and right. We might as well walk around in our underwear with a massive sign over our heads saying 'TARGET PRACTICE: 25 CENTS'. I had my shoulder bound, much to my embarrassment, and the two of us finally faced the one thing we were trying to avoid.

His sleeping bag was soaked. Mine was still dry.

"Just get it over with. Touch me, and I'll slice off your hand," Kanda grumbled, his teeth chattering, looking angry and crossing his arms belligerently. I sighed as I hesitantly began to help him into my sleeping bag. The fur-trimmed insides didn't stretch well, unfortunately, so that meant it was going to be a bit of a tight squeeze. I momentarily considered not climbing in with him and instead just stealing a heat-brick and setting it in my lap for the night.

Of course, I wasn't an idiot. I wasn't about to sacrifice sleep for modesty. Not to mention, I was so exhausted that I couldn't hardly think straight. I finally crawled into the sleeping bag, chewing on a piece of jerky as I did so, that being the only dinner we could scrape together from my pack. At least, we were back to back, and my face probably glowed in the dark. We were almost right on top of each other in this one-person sleeping bag, and between him and the heat-bricks I was getting very, very warm. Luckily, Kanda had extra clothes that had managed not to get wet, so we weren't literally going to sleep skin to skin.

"Hey, idiot 'student.'"

Though my eyes were closed, I rolled them anyways. Sighing, I shifted to show I'd heard, staring at the only light source, our lantern, and I felt a certain amount of paranoia. What if Akuma attacked us in our sleep? What if they could see the light from outside? What if Kanda decided to kill me in the middle of the night? What if a Yeti came out of nowhere and just wrecked the place? What if, what if, what if, what if...

"You... uh, you're... I'm holding you to that promise," Kanda suddenly spat out, obviously just as awkward as I felt. I turned to look at him over my shoulder in surprise.

"What promise?" I asked blearily.

Kanda looked back as well, but he quickly turned to stare out the other way as he realized he was looking straight at me, and he muttered, "Nothing."

I backtracked in my head, trying to remember when I said that, and it finally hit me. I plucked up the courage to turn over, propping my head up on my uninjured arm. My curiosity got the better of me as I asked, "Are you afraid to die?"

Kanda was quiet, and he turned over as well. I was startled at just how much younger he looked, and I shifted to give him room. He winced as he probably landed on his leg, and he said, "Never thought much of it."

"You're oddly chatty now," I quipped, and he glared.

"Enjoy it while it lasts," he muttered.

I sighed, ruffling my hair.

"I heard you and Lavi talking about something earlier. About... something about you -"

He cut me off with a look, and I took the hint.

"It's not your business," Kanda said quietly, but rather than opt to turn back over, he looked down. He toyed with a stray piece of fur, and suddenly he asked, "How much did you hear?"

I sighed, wondering how much I could give away. If I told him too much, he'd know I heard the rest of that conversation, too.

"Enough of it to understand that something's going on... with you and... your health," I answered, hoping that was vague enough to discourage suspicion.

Kanda looked oddly contemplative before telling me, "I am afraid to die. I don't want to - I've still got things to do down here, and there's someone..."

Gruffly, he rudely looked off, becoming his usual, grouchy self. Well, there went that window of opportunity.

"Are you afraid to die?" he asked hesitantly, and I looked at him incredulously.

"Don't you see me running like the devil's after me whenever I'm chased? Yes, I'm afraid to die," I stated plainly.

"Well... I'm glad, then. Some idiots don't understand the concept of fear. It's not always a bad thing. You just can't let it overrule you," Kanda muttered, looking up briefly.

We locked eyes for a moment, and I couldn't help wondering if maybe the cold had addled his brain. He'd never said more than a few words to me, usually half in grunt form. Now he was actually talking.

"So you can be... afraid?" I asked, stumbling for the right words.

Kanda stopped for a moment. Looking oddly pensive again, he muttered, "Yeah. I can be afraid. It doesn't happen often. But it happens."

It suddenly occurred to me that I'd kind of considered Kanda nothing more than a dumb brute, and now that I was realizing he actually had a brain in that thick skull I was beginning to feel a little boggled and maybe a touch guilty.

I had contemplated leaving him to die, even if I'd changed my mind, and that gave me a greasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. The skin-to-clothes contact wasn't helping that feeling either, though.

"What are you afraid of? Besides dying? I mean, I have a fear of slime mold and donkeys," I inquired quietly, as if by speaking too loud I'd shatter his sudden streak of good-naturedness.

He glanced at me, frowning darkly, and it took me a moment to understand. I pointed at myself in surprise, raising my eyebrows. He wasn't serious, was he?

He pursed his lips and gave me a deadpan stare. He was serious!

"Why would you be afraid of me?" I whispered, oddly flattered and dismayed at the same time. What, was I ugly? Or so dense that he was afraid of killing himself out of sheer frustration? I wasn't exactly a fearsome young lady. The most 'fearsome' I could put up on my own was when Mother Nature kept me company once a month. What could possibly make me frightening?

"Not you in particular. I never wanted a student. They need to be babysat and taken care of. You get attached," Kanda grumbled, turning over to look away from me.

Aaah, there's the problem—I'm a responsibility. What was I, a puppy? That was almost downright insulting. Besides, he was doing an awfully good job of staying at arm's length as it was. Forget arm's length, he had me at rugby-court-length. I hadn't met a more antisocial person in my life.

"What's so bad about attachment?" I asked boldly now that we were digging into something more personal.

I raised myself higher so I could see his face over his shoulder.

He didn't even bother to look back as he said, "When everyone around you begins to die, there's not much point to making attachments."

The statement floored me a bit. I had had quite a few people die on me in the past, but they were… deaths I had expected. Yes, I had encountered the funerals of Finders, but never any I knew personally or had worked with, thank God. I bit my lip, thinking on that for a bit. This was probably very true in his case. From what I'd heard, he could go through Finders like popcorn at a movie theater. I could see how getting attached to anyone would… hurt. Still, as I thought back, I noticed that those people who'd risked attachment had been better off for it, even if that person... died. Or left. Or disappeared one day out of the blue, just on a whim.

"Some people are worth it, I think. Sometimes it's better to have known that person and watched them leave or die rather than never having known them at all," I rebutted quietly.

Kanda looked at me over his shoulder, and he only scoffed. He didn't say anything, and I figured that Happy Heart-To-Heart Hour was over. I lay back down, still facing his back to favor my injured shoulder. I was halfway asleep when he suddenly said, "You'd better be worth it, then. I'm stuck with you for nearly a year."

"If I make it that long," I muttered.

He jabbed me with his elbow, albeit softly, and he growled, "You'd better not die, either. I'm not going to put all that work into someone who's just going to bite the dust in a week."

I smiled, thinking about all the ways that I was likely to take a one-way ticket to Heaven. He had an awfully tall order ahead of him. I wasn't known for being especially capable on my own.

"I guess you're just going to have to keep me alive," I quipped back.

"Knowing you, that's going to take an act of God," he grumbled, and he turned over. At this point I didn't care that I was practically butted up right next to him. I was so tired I could take on Rip Van Winkle in a napping contest. Personal space was becoming the least of my worries.

"Take it... as... a challenge, then, Mr. Elite Swordsman..." I sighed, the warmth sending me off to sleep. As soon as I'd finished that sentence I fell to oblivion.