Most likely, this will be the last update until after the holidays! Happy xmas/hanukkah/kwanzaa/solstice, you lovely readers. Let me know what you think; reviews are the best presents :)

The night wrapped it's frigid shade around the sleeping princess. DG shook violently in her sleep as her body fought to stay warm. Soon enough, the cold began working its way into her dreams and DG began talking in her sleep. Wyatt Cain ducked his head inside the tent when he heard his name murmured faintly.

"Your highness?" he said softly.

The princess didn't reply, but her body writhed under the thin blanket. Cain furrowed his brow and closed the tent flap.

"DG," he said a bit louder. She let out a faint whimper. Cain knelt beside the bed and touched her cheek. Her skin was chilled and taut, a combination that felt brittle beneath his well trained hands. In all the times he had touched DG's skin, it had always felt supple and warm. "Hey," he said, shaking DG's shoulder. "Your highness!"

The Regent's eyes snapped open, blood-shot, and dilated. She pulled the scratchy wool blanket tightly beneath her chin and shuddered. "Wh-what do you want?" she asked softly,

"You're freezing," Cain whispered.

"Wh-what was your fi-first clue?" she replied, glaring at him.

Cain smiled in spite of the Princess' sour expression. "Would you like me to get you another blanket?"

"What kind of Regent am I if I can't sleep in the same conditions as my men?" DG spoke slowly to keep her teeth from chattering.

"DG," he chuckled. "These beds are made for hardened soldiers who have been trained to sleep on stone slabs, with only the clothes on their backs to warm them. When the Regent's tent arrives, you will sleep on feathers, under silk and furs. Nobody expects you to sleep like we do."

"I've never seen you sleep," she growled.

"You've never asked," Cain said, raising an eyebrow.

DG opened her mouth to answer, but nothing adequate came out. "You've been doing that a lot."

"Doing what?"

"Insinuating."

"In regards to…?"

"You know what I mean!" DG said, nearly full voice, but then calmed herself. "It's not safe to say those thing here, where one of your men could hear you."

"My men are nothing but loyal to me."

"Cain, the Council will remove me from the field if I am compromised in any way. That's what Mother said."

"And my insinuations are going to compromise you?" he said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"In every possible way," she said. A look of understanding passed between them. She meant it, in every possible sense. DG looked away as pearling tears threatened. She had not meant to cry, but a tremendous heaviness sat in her chest. If DG's affections for Cain were revealed to the Council, she would be declared an emotional liability to Cain, which could result in his demotion and her banishment from his side. The princess was desperately frustrated; the two of them would have gotten grief on the Otherside for their age difference, but that's all. The only person who'd take issue with the Tin Man would be Gulch, because Cain would probably hunt him down for the way he'd treated DG in the past. Their relationship, whatever it was turning into, would have plenty of room to grow, and plenty of locked doors to explore behind.

This man gave her no reason to doubt just how far he was willing to explore with her, but she was still the crown princess of the OZ. Her father might have been a slipper, but he wasn't the Council's idea of a perfect Consort. Wyatt Cain as Consort might make the Council crap their proverbial trousers.

"I'm sorry," Cain said.

"Don't be."

"How about that blanket?" he asked. DG nodded slightly, but her gaze remained fastened to the corner of the tent opposite him.

Cain stood up and left the tent. As he walked to the Medical Tent, Cain wondered how he could ever have thought that things might be more open with DG out there on the brink of battle. War, at least the potential for it, made him honest, and he wanted to tell her all the things he had dreamed of doing with her. To her. All that he was at that moment came down to DG, and what he had done to be by her side. It never occurred to him that something outside of his control might tear them apart. Something as simple as telling her that he loved her, and someone else overhearing.

A softer blanket was a hopeless cause, but Cain found a thicker one in a trunk in the medical tent. He returned to his own tent, where the Princess of the OZ. and Regent to the militia lay, freezing. Cain felt it best if he returned to full time bodyguard duties, at least at night, until his division was engaged in combat, so he sent all of DG's other guards away and entered the tent alone. She didn't look at him.

He gripped the edge of the blanket tightly, at once feeling sixteen years old. "Deeg?"

"Hmm."

Cain stepped a bit closer and laid the blanket over DG. "Here, this will help."

"Thanks," she murmured, turning over on her side and facing away from him.

"DG," Cain started, and then sighed. He unbuckled his holster, placed it on the desk, and sat in the chair beside it. He removed his hat as well and ran a hand through his hair.

"I know that I've been a little… frank about my feelings for you lately, especially since you called me a coward—and you were right to say so, I am still afraid of what might happen to you again. Truth is, seeing you fall from that balcony hurt me. I joined the academy again because I felt like it was my fault that you fell. But I won't deny that having you here makes me more worried than ever. I want to be with you, and I want you safe, but I don't know if I can have both of those things. I think you shouldn't have come, if I'm being honest." Cain rubbed his stubbly chin. "I don't want you to go, because I want to see you every day. I want to kiss you when somebody might see. I want to be someone that you deserve, but I can't. I'm the head of this whole operation, not to mention about as poor as a church mouse, and the Council wouldn't—um, they don't seem to like me much. I don't know whether to send you home or keep you here, because either way, I'm being selfish."

Cain thought the princess had fallen asleep. He smiled slightly and sat back in the chair in defeat. Then, she spoke softly.

"I'm still cold."

"Do you want another—"

"Come here, please," she said, pulling back the covers beside her. She still had her back to him, but she looked over her shoulder when he didn't answer. "Wyatt."

He stood hesitantly. "I don't think—"

"Good, don't think. Are you going to stand there and let me freeze?" A touch of amusement graced her voice. "You asked me if I'd be in your bed and I am."

Cain walked to the bed and sat on the edge, internally debating whether he ought to take his shoes off. He decided not to, lying down slowly beside DG. Of its own volition, his arm curled around her waist and he fitted his form to the shape of hers.

"You're an idiot," she said quietly, chuckling.

"I am?" he asked quite close to her ear.

"You are. You tell me you want me to come with you, and then you say you wish I'd stayed home. You invite me into your bed, but you think I want another blanket when I'm freezing to death. Wyatt Cain, I don't think I've ever liked someone so mixed up," DG giggled.

"You 'like' me?" Cain repeated, somewhat hurt.

"Of course I do."

"Oh."

"What does that mean?" DG asked, lying on her back so she could look him in the eye. Cain propped himself up on his elbow.

"You just 'like' me."

"Yes. If 'like' means that I want to make out with you whenever I see you," she said, smiling.

Cain cleared his throat. "DG, I am in love with you."

"You are?" she asked, propping herself up to mimic his position.

"You really think I rejoined the Academy just because I felt guilty?"

"That's what you just said."

"Oh… yeah, well, I am an idiot, as you pointed out," Cain said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

"That 'coward' thing," he said.

"How long have you loved me?"

"Long enough that it's making me crazy, Deeg," Cain said. "I know you don't want to put a name to what this is between us, but I am going crazy trying to figure out how to keep what happened to Adora from happening to you."

"Wyatt, if I had known—"

"You would've come anyway." He smiled.

"Yeah, I would have," DG laughed.

"Since when did you start calling me 'Wyatt', by the way?" Cain asked, pushing a stray piece of hair off DG's face.

"Does it bother you?"

"No," he said softly. "But it's strange hearing it from the woman I love again."

DG studied his face. This was the man that sat by her as she lay in a coma, who rejoined the Tin Man Academy for her, who set records for her. The best a man ever did for her on the Otherside was leaving her a big tip at the diner.

"So. You love me," she said.

"And I'm not trying to pressure you, or make you say it—"

"I want to say it. When I can say it with no pretense, and not because you've made me feel so wonderful by telling me, but because I do." DG touched his cheek. "I'm sorry if that sounded rude."

"It didn't," Cain said. He clasped his free hand with DG's, interlacing their fingers. "Are you still cold?"

"I forgot all about it," she said.

Cain pulled DG's arm over his shoulder as he leaned towards her. Their lips touched and he laid her back on the pillow as her hand found its way to his hair. The kiss was brief, but when it was over, DG felt a compelling warmth fill her chest. With Wyatt Cain, she'd never be cold again.

An hour or so later, DG lay awake, listening to the even breaths of Cain beside her. She was terrified of what the Council would say if they found out about her attachment to him. Worse than having to leave him, she'd have to sit at home and wait for him to come back whole, wondering what their relationship could have grown into. She shifted as gently as possible so her side wasn't pressed to his; her leg was throbbing so badly, she could hear her heart beating in her ears. Or maybe it was Cain's proximity, a man who had just confessed that he loved her. Loving him would certainly compromise her. Even now, she knew that she would be devastated if he was hurt, or worse.

A faint thud sounded from outside the tent. DG turned her head towards the sound, and saw a glow from behind the fabric. All of a sudden, the glow became a flame that ripped through the dry fabric. Another thud landed on the opposite side and quickly caught fire.

"Wyatt!" DG gasped, shoving his shoulder hard.

"What?" He asked tiredly, opening one eye.

"The tent is on fire!"

Cain leapt to his feet and pulled DG up with him. The flames had overtaken the tent's entrance, so he flicked open his pocketknife and tore a large rip in the only side of the tent that wasn't already engulfed in flames. He yanked DG through the tear and pushed her towards the edge of the forest.

"Run!" He growled.

"What about you?" DG gasped.

"I'll find you. Run, now, for Gods' sake." Cain turned and ran around their burning tent to face the encampment, which had been completely overtaken by walls of fire.

DG ran as best as she could with her sore leg, ran hard, until she caught her foot in a hole and tripped. Face down in the dirt, DG gasped for breath. She pulled herself into a hollow that formed beneath the roots of a giant tree and lifted the jagged edge of her dress. Her leg was purple now and the bruise had spread towards her hip. She could barely see the glow of the burning camp through the trees beyond, and Cain was there, fighting to save the camp. Sometime in between the pain and the exhaustion, DG fell into a fitful sleep.

A hand gripped DG's arm forcefully and she jerked awake. Cain knelt beside her, covered in soot and smelling like smoke. Daylight had broken, and he looked exhausted.

"We need to get out of here quickly," he said.

"What happened to the camp? Where are all the men?" DG asked.

Cain didn't answer, just shook his head. DG wrapped her arms around his neck and he pulled her out of the hollow, hugging her to his chest. He set her on her feet and on cue, her left leg gave out. Cain caught her again, furrowing his eyebrows.

"What's wrong?" he asked, holding her around the waist.

"Wyatt—"

"Are you hurt?"

"It's nothing."

"You can't stand," he said.

DG shut her eyes and sighed. When she opened them again, Cain raised an eyebrow.

"It's just my leg," she murmured.

Cain promptly set DG down on a root. "Show me."

Slowly, DG bared her left leg. Cain crossed his arms.

"I'm sorry, I should've told you." DG replaced her skirt.

"Come on. The forest isn't safe," he said, stooping to cradle her in his arms. DG looped her arms around his neck and he looked around to make sure he wasn't followed. Cain walked for hours without speaking, and when he finally stopped at a small inn, DG noticed that he was unarmed and neither of them had any supplies or money. All DG had was a solid gold necklace that bought them a night in a drafty room. Cain hardly spoke, but he wrapped his arms around DG in the uncomfortable bed. DG wanted to ask if all the men were gone, or if he was mad at her for hiding her leg, but no words felt adequate after a night of losing everything.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!