"Are those...?"

"Um. Yeah."

"...Why are they here?"

"No idea."

"Is this part of a joke or something?"

"Who knows. We might be expected to use them."

"For what? It's the middle of winter! They aren't exactly aerodynamic either."

"At least we know they won't hurt."

"Much."

"Maybe we're just going to play around today."

"...Boy, that must be a nice fantasy world you're living in."

"I'm trying to be optimistic!"

"Oooh? And how's that working for ya?"

"Children! Enough! We should be more worried about what the Captain has planned for today! Different is never good."

"If we're supposed to use these the way they're supposed to be used..."

"We're going to spend the rest of the night sleeping in the middle of our fireplaces."

"Ha! If we live that long."

"Oh come on. I'm sure it won't be too bad...maybe."

"...I don't think you get what "optimism" is."

"Two favors says half of us get hypothermia tonight."

"Three says we all do."

"Two that half of us chicken out midway."

"One that the newbie transfers incite the Captain's rage."

"Pfft. That's a given. How about you kid?"

"...Five says three fourths of us get some form of hypothermia, and the rest will give up after nearly drowning. Three of the newbie transfers will have to endure extra punishment, one will be late, and two will faint."

"That's a little more, uh, specific than I was askin', but for five favors, I'll take that bet."

"You're crazy."

"You're not gonna sleep for the next week, you know that?"

"All right, all right. Bets are placed, now lets get ready. Savor your last moments."

"...Was that supposed to be encouraging?"

"It's the most encouraging I can get."

"Great. We're doomed."

"They're just pool noodles. Don't you think you're overreacting?"

"Oh, you poor, naïve fool."

~Several Hours Later~

"Oh! Hitsugi-san! You're back! I have a message for you."

Hitsugi looked over at Ichihara-san with interest, not pausing as she closed the door. The cold wind pushed her into the house, and she nearly stumbled as a stronger gust rose. "This late? From who?" Her breath came out in a tiny wisp of fog, the last sign of the freezing temperature outside fading away as the heat of the house smothered it.

"The young woman with the toothy smirk." The maid handed over the note, sniffing as she remembered the nurse's nonchalant attitude. She fidgeted, wanting to help her mistress remove her jacket, but aware that her offer would have been refused.

"Uryuu-san then." she guessed correctly, glancing through the message. "The symptoms and treatment of hypothermia? When was this delivered?" Why it was delivered was a better question, but she could make a good guess as to whom the note concerned.

"Only a few minutes ago. She dropped off Shizuku-san from training. The poor dear. She was utterly exhausted! There's no telling what she endured at the hands of that merciless woman!" The woman ranted, no doubt imagining Shizuku being tortured and crying out for help while a badly disguised guard captain laughed evilly in the background.

"Ahaha. Now, now. I hardly think Shizuku is seriously harmed. If she were, I would have been informed." She looked at the note again. "It seems a hot drink may be in order, however. Tea or cocoa, if you would."

"I have already started on it."

Divested of her jacket, scarf, and shoes, Hitsugi wasted no time in heading off to search for her partner. The quest was a short one. Shizuku had planted herself on the corner of the couch, where she had scrunched herself up in a shivering ball underneath a small, but thick blanket. She was dazedly attempting to rub heat back into her feet, remaining completely oblivious to her partner's presence until her hands were grabbed. She blinked at the intrusion, taking in Hitsugi's sudden approach with confusion.

"Hi, Hi'sugi. San. When...?" Shizuku trailed off. Her voice had so little energy behind it that what tried to come out as surprise ended up sounding like dull disinterest. Her body must have decided to shut down all but basic functions in the absence of heat. Even her hair looked like it was drooping, though that was most likely due to the fact that it was still damp.

"Just now. I take it your training today was especially arduous?" She inspected her partner critically, not seeing any injury to be concerned about. That was good. There were limits even for her energetic friend. Very few, but they were there.

"K, kinda." The younger girl replied haltingly, eyes pointedly focused on the very warm hands that were holding her own.

"Well. I cannot claim to be an expert in the matter, but I believe that a bigger blanket, or several, would be of considerable use to you in this situation, unless you would prefer to continue attempting to generate enough friction to light your feet on fire. In which case, you might want to try moving faster." Not that it would have worked anyway, since Shizuku's hands were ice cold. She would have been more likely to rub her skin off first.

"Was goin' to..." Shizuku muttered, continuing sheepishly under her breath. She didn't quite catch it, but it sounded suspiciously like a very slurred "once I could walk." Her gaze refused to move away from their joined hands, wanting to pull all that warmth closer, but aware enough to remember that she was conscious of personal boundaries, even if her friend wasn't. In the end, all she could do was twitch her hands and flick her gaze between them and her partner.

Hitsugi wanted to poke fun at her, she really did, but her friend chose that moment to curl up even more as a violent tremor ran through her body, accidentally pulling her closer with a badly suppressed whimper. Sighing, she let go of Shizuku's hands and headed to the hallway closet. The flash of disappointment in purple eyes did not go unnoticed, but that would be put aside for now. Health first.

"Stay." she said firmly, knowing that behind her the shivering girl had started to move, albeit very slowly. "Ichihara-san will be bringing you a nice, warm cup of hot chocolate in just a minute. I will retrieve blankets." She took another look at the note, mentally checked off the instructions, and searched the closet for the thickest blankets they had. If heat was what Shizuku needed, she would bury the girl under as many blankets as possible.

When she returned, Shizuku had only moved enough to position the cup of hot chocolate that had been delivered down on the armrest. A practical move, since she wasn't yet capable of holding it still. The maid who had been fretting over the girl rushed to take the blankets from Hitsugi. In the time it took her to open her mouth to speak, the maid had unfolded the blankets and spread them across their patient.

"You shouldn't warm your limbs first. It will hurt you more in the end. Focus on warming your body for now. Can we get a scarf for her?" She directed the last question at the maid, who nodded sharply and went off to get the requested item. "Are you feeling warmer yet?"

Shizuku hummed instead of speaking, blurry eyes tracking her partner's every movement. The lack of protest at being treated like a child was a major sign that she was not feeling well. "Mm okay." she mumbled slowly.

"You would surely feel better if you drank the hot chocolate." Hitsugi picked up the forgotten cup and held it out. After a long second of neither moving, she raised an eyebrow. "Unless you would prefer to have me feed you myself."

Her friend blinked slowly as her mind processed the statement. She sluggishly looked down at her arms, considered the idea of having to hold the cup, then made the only decision her tired mind could accept. "Nnnkay."

"It would truly be better if I were to...ah. Come again?" That was unexpected. There had been no protest, no shouting, no deadpan rejection, no second thought, no...anything Shizuku-like. Now she found herself pinned by an expectant stare that was surprisingly focused, if only in expectation of a warm drink.

"A scarf, just like you asked Hitsugi-san." The maid had returned, and wasted no time in wrapping up the top of Shizuku's head at the older girl's order. The note said to wrap her up completely, head included. Left alone with her inactive young friend, who was using what little concentration she had to keep track of the awaited cup of hot chocolate, she plotted her next course of action

"Well, if you insist." she stated gleefully. Planting herself next to the unresponsive girl, carefully so as to avoid spilling, she held up the cup to Shizuku's lips. "Drink." Without any protest, her order was obeyed.

She had to admit that, despite her adoration of her partner's absolutely stubborn nature, she was most definitely enjoying this passive side. Shizuku had never cared for being coddled when they were younger, but for the past few years she had become particularly stubborn about it, especially when it was Hitsugi who insisted on doing the coddling. That left the older girl with sadly few chances to pamper her friend these days.

"I wonder if we should make you some hot soup as well." she mused absently. Shizuku let out disagreeing hum in response. Or rather, what sounded like a disagreeing hum. "Considering the fact that you are currently permitting me to feed you, I believe all opinions you hereby utter shall be accepted with caution, then immediately disregarded."

Sleepy purple eyes stared at her without a single moment of comprehension lightening them. Shizuku was still shivering, and looked as if she would topple over with the slightest push. It was a shame really, because she could think of so many ways to take advantage of the situation for some fun, but it was hard to do so when Shizuku stared at her like that. She looked like a puppy. A fluffy shivering ball of a red-haired, purple-eyed puppy that was begging to be cuddled.

The lack of reaction her requests were getting was somewhat off-putting as well. It was hardly any fun teasing someone who couldn't react.

Hitsugi broke the staring contest, sighed, and took another look at the note. It consisted solely of instructions on how to care for patients suffering hypothermia, which could essentially be summed up to "get them warm" and "keep them warm." Frowning, she flipped the note in search of more information, and found nothing but a quickly scrawled line on the back, underlined several times for emphasis. Next to it, a small caricature of who she assumed was the nurse Captain was giving her a thumbs up.

'Body heat works best.'

...Undeniable proof that great minds truly do think alike.

Shizuku let out a jaw popping yawn, snuggled deeper into her cave of blankets, and continued to stare with half-lidded eyes at her partner.

"If you aren't going to eat," Shizuku mumbled, which she took as a denial, "then perhaps we should get you to bed." There was no protest to the proclamation, or any reaction at all. She wondered why food alone would garner some sort of response, then shrugged it off. "Are you capable of walking? No, nevermind. You need not answer." Not that the girl was about to do so. That left only one option: carry her.

"Donneed. Cawa. Skay." The energy she used to mumble that completely incoherent sentence must have been all she had left, because before she could even finish, she fell asleep.

Hitsugi blinked. "Knowing you as I do, I will assume that you were attempting to form a protest of some sort. I'm uncertain if I should be impressed that, even in your condition, you instinctively reject my offer to help." she huffed, pouting. That said, her partner's opinion was, as she had warned earlier, promptly ignored.

Shizuku really had no right to comment about someone's reluctance to ask for help when she herself was as stubborn about it as they came.

It was a simple matter to relocate Shizuku to her room. The girl was unbelievably light, and even with the blankets, carrying her was a small task. Once in the room, Hitsugi considered how she would get Shizuku tucked in with the least amount of fuss. The bed truly was a much better place for her to recover, no matter how much she was enjoying holding her. The girl in her arms had given no reaction to show that she was aware of being moved, but, as if sensing that she would be losing her new source of warmth soon, clung tighter to her partner.

Hitsugi twitched. "No, no. You'll have plenty of time for this later. Health comes first." She scolded herself for the momentary lapse in concentration her friend had unconsciously caused.

After managing to free her neck from her partner's grip, she made quick work of settling Shizuku into bed, sitting herself at the edge. "There now. Is that not better?" Shizuku grumbled at the loss of warmth in answer, making her smile. The shivering girl was scooting herself as close to Hitsugi as she could, unhappy with the sudden change in temperature and attempting to fix it by hugging the older girl as tightly as possible.

Even though her work here was done, she made no move to leave. She was reluctant to leave Shizuku at the best of times, much less when she was sick, trembling, and wholly uncaring of personal boundaries.

The note had said that body heat worked best, and Shizuku certainly seemed to agree. It couldn't hurt to indulge, just for a small time. All in the name of her partner's health, of course. The thought of Shizuku's reaction should she wake up in such a position was rather tempting as well. The question to answer was whether or not the chance for a reaction that could end up being worth several months (years?) of teasing merited spending one night in a not-so-uncomfortable position.

Truly, that was no question at all.

~Early Morning~

Of all the pleasant ways there were to wake up to, frantic scrabbling and all the blankets disappearing wasn't usually one of them. In Hitsugi's case, it was quite possibly the best way to wake up, after the necessary fleeting moment of concern and dismay was over with. She had watched over her partner until she fell asleep herself after all, so she would honestly prefer to still be asleep. It wasn't even light out. Sleepily, she dragged herself to the other side of the bed and rested her chin on the edge, staring down at her now awake friend, sitting underneath the blankets she had dragged with her.

Shizuku, however, was wide awake, and on the verge of having a heart attack, it seemed. At any rate, she was definitely having trouble forming any sound more complicated than "wha." Hitsugi contented herself with passively waiting for her friend to pull herself together. She absently noted that the scarlet tint on Shizuku's face was a good sign of recovered health, but she still looked dazed.

"Hitsugi-san! What are you doing here? What, what am I doing here? When did I get home? How did I get home? And, why? Why were you in bed with me? More importantly, where are my clothes?" Shizuku woozily demanded, utterly frazzled by what she had woken to. Hitsugi might have even answered, had she been allowed, but the other girl was giving her no room to do so.

"If you're jus'-"

"Shizuku." She interrupted.

"-playin' 'round with me, this is-"

"Shizuku."

"too much-"

"Shizuku."

"-don't you thi...eh?"

"It's early."

"Um."

"Come back to bed."

"But!"

"I'm tired."

"But I. You. This..." Shizuku stuttered.

"You took the blankets."

"Ah. Well. "

"It's cold."

"But. Clothes."

"You have some."

"Not enough-!"

"Soon, please."

"..." She opened her mouth to speak, shut it, then dropped her shoulders and head. As the adrenaline wore off, she calmed down enough to realize that it was really hard to concentrate, or think, or move, or anything, really. And she was cold. Really, really cold. "I...okay."

Pleased with the submission, Hitsugi rolled back to her now distressingly cold side of the bed and stayed up long enough to ensure Shizuku fixed the blankets, then fell back asleep as soon as she was warm again.

Ten minutes later, the still awake Shizuku was firmly convinced that she was cursed. She was tired and floating in the dark space between awareness and oblivion. Her mind refused to surrender its hard earned consciousness, but her body begged for rest. She felt as if the coldness seeping into her bones wouldn't go away, no matter how much she curled up or rubbed her arms and legs. In desperation she found herself moving as close as possible to her partner. Hitsugi was radiating heat, and she was just so cold, and before she knew it she was snuggling into that heat without even caring that she should be embarrassed for a list of reasons a mile long.

Hitsugi, alerted by Shizuku's shuffling, then awakened by her touch, snorted softly in tired amusement. Her friend was far too stubborn for her own good, and yet, at the same time, gave in so easily. Rolling over, she pulled the unresisting girl closer, half expecting her to come to her senses and jump off the bed again.

Shizuku surprised her yet again, by continuing her new habit of ignoring personal boundaries and throwing an arm over her. She refused to move as the shorter girl made herself comfortable, afraid that any action on her part would scare her away. It was, after all, extremely rare for Shizuku to initiate contact of any sort outside sparring.

"Maybe you should get hypothermia more often." Hitsugi mused with a yawn, once the other girl was asleep again. "Although...it's a little hard to breathe." Shizuku was keeping her in place with all her not-so-inconsiderable strength, as if her captive would escape if given even the smallest bit of leeway. Not that she minded. No. She definitely did not mind.

She made a mental note to give the head nurse a bonus for this wonderful idea.

~Next Day, Infirmary~

"I expected this out of that one there, but how did you manage to get sick, Kaicho?" Ai snickered as she took their temperatures, Shizuku twitching as she tried not to pout at having to accept the brightly colored medicine in her hands.

"Shizuku stole all the blankets." Hitsugi answered with the straightest face she could muster, causing the dual-wielder to fumble the syrupy liquid.

"What? I did not!" She protested, cheeks red.

"You need not apologize to me Shizuku. I do not blame you. You haven't any control over your actions when asleep or delirious."

"I didn't!"

"Oh, you're being honest. Tell me, how much of last night do you remember?"

"Erk. Ah. Well. The. The last thing I can remember was...being in the locker room? No. Umm. I think I saw Uryuu-san after...and then. I was...really cold? And there was hot chocolate!"

"...Hot chocolate is the only thing you are able recall about the entire night?"

"Huh? Am I wrong?" she asked, visibly wilting in disappointment and embarrassment.

"...No. There was hot chocolate." Hitsugi crossed her arms and sulked at the waste some of her effort had been. It was always more fun when Shizuku knew that the things she was teasing her about were true. If she didn't remember it happening, it as good as didn't, in her mind. She was far more likely to produce an amusing reaction if she couldn't dismiss the comment as a product of her partner's far too overactive imagination.

"You do know that you were in the infirmary for an hour before I hauled you home, right?" Ai interjected, wondering how severe the girl's symptoms had been. Not out of concern, but personal curiosity. The girl was obviously fine, except for the loss of memory. "You were sleeping on your feet. That maid of yours was makin' a fuss too, like always."

"I was?" Shizuku frowned in mild worry. Yes, her memory of anything after training was foggy, but she hadn't thought it was that bad. If she had truly been that out of it, it would certainly go a long way towards explaining why she had woken up clinging to her partner, in her bed, in...no. She was not going to think about it. That was too much for her to handle outside of her room, where she could suffocate herself in peace.

"Hmph. Not that any of the others were better off. The newbies didn't even make it to infirmary without help. Weaklings."

"Uh. Aren't you being a little harsh?"

"You were the one who complained about the newbies being "weak willed, arrogant little jerks who have more fluff in their brains than the sheep they act like" if I remember right."

"...My. Those are some resentful words there, Shizuku. Bravo."

"Eh? I said that? When? Why?"

"When you and Jodo dragged in a couple of the rookies who fainted. You said a lot of other things too. Thanks for that, by the way. I don't think I've laughed so hard in a while."

"I, I don't remember any of that. At all."

"Clear proof that you remain blameless for any actions you made last night. You were not in your right mind."

"Guh. Hey, wait! I couldn't have moved, even if I wanted to! You were holding me too tightly!"

"Oh...yes. I suppose I was."

"Wha! How could you forget? Please just, drop the subject."

"However, to clarify, you were the one clinging to me. Rather tightly, if I may add. You refused to let me go after you woke up the first time. I merely gave in to the inevitable and made myself comfortable."

"I what? You could have gotten away if you wanted."

"Perhaps, but doing so would have required far more effort than I was willing to put forth."

"...Are you admitting that you just wanted to take advantage of the situation?"

Ai watched them leave, still quibbling (mostly one-sided), without comment. Not even an injured student being dragged in shook her from her thoughts, the commotion not registering as she considered the conversation she had just witnessed.

"Was that the Kaicho and Miyamoto-san? Miyamoto-san looked a little flushed." Kotake Rina remarked, slightly out of breath from carrying the student in. Having spotted the woman in the corner, she wasn't sure if she should be more alarmed at the lack of enthusiasm the Captain displayed, or at the intense look of deep thought that she wore instead. "Did something happen?"

"I was just playing around with that note, but..." Ai muttered thoughtfully, ignoring the judge's questions. "Hmph. You learn something new everyday. I wish you luck, Shizuku."

"...I don't know what you're rambling about, as usual, but I think your students need you to go back to work." Rina sent the nurse a flat look of barely concealed annoyance. The imaginary daggers, while doing nothing to hurt her physically, garnered enough of her attention to snap her out of her thoughts.

"Oi! Sharp eyes! When'd you get here?" Ai grinned, mood changing in an instant.

"A minute ago. Did you hear anything I just said? And don't call me that!"

~End~

And another story for you. It ended up being a lot longer than I thought. Well. It's also a completely different story than I had planned. It morphed along the way, and I just went with it. Again, any errors you see, don't be afraid to point them out. Loudly. Whenever I try and go through for grammar edits, I end up getting distracted changing sentences and whatnot. There are a few parts on here that I'm not exactly happy with, but at the same time, I like it? Weird. Now that this is done, I can put some more effort on the second fanart I've got in the works, though the season for it has passed. Ah well.