DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay?

The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 40 (Finally!) Assassin (By the time I finished it, actually, I'm already Lv41. D:), named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, I'm usually not doing anything terribly important online and I'd love to see some peers or fans in-game!

BTW:

Looking back on those Steely prices from the beginning of the story, I had to giggle. Got to love the Mapleconomy.

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(A/N : I'm gonna make the Simply Cold thing kind of long. Four to six chapters. It'll be alternating between Dan's POV and Allie's POV, but I hope you'll be able to figure it out on your own. Enjoy. :D ))

I sat up, finally, unable to stop myself from interrupting.

"You make such a huge deal out of nothing," I said, and Allie frowned. "I would much rather have nearly died than have been around to see you die. Especially since there was obviously something I could have done about it."

"That's selfish," she replied coldly.

"It is," I agreed. "But I didn't see you jumping in front of me, now did I? Happiness comes to those who grasp at it."

"I would have been fine, though!" she exclaimed. "I had on all of my armour!"

"I forgot," I shrugged, sipping more water. My throat still hurt. "Anyway, you said so yourself, what about your neck?"

Allie turned away, wiping away the cold tears on her face. I gave her the security of doing so in private, drinking the rest of my water bowl. She refilled it as soon as we were done.

"So what happened after the surgery, after you went to bed?"

She sniffled once, but continued in a hard, strong voice.

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"HELP ME!"

The shrill plea, a male shout, rang through the darkness, and I rolled out of the couch, wrapped in the blanket like a very tired and flavourless burrito.

"THEY'RE EVERYWHERE AND OH GOD THEY'RE ALL OVER ME AND THEY'RE NOT MOVING AND I CAN'T BRUSH THEM OFF-"

It continued, piercing my ears. The source was, to my utter horror, my favorite Assassin.

"Dan?!" I shouted, to no avail.

"NOTHING IS MOVING! HOLY SHIT NONE OF IT IS MOVING!"

I stared in horror while Hamina appeared at my side. It was impossible to hear her coming. She was holding a brass candle, looking at Dan with the hateful expression that only extremely tired people at three-AM can possibly know.

"Can you hear me?" she asked, while Dan gasped for breath. In the light, you could see that he was tearing at his back with his nails. His dilated eyes told nothing of the fear his mouth was presently articulating. He was shouting over and over, thrashing on the ground, as if trying to tear his skin to shreds.

"GET THEM OFFA ME!" he wailed, continually, leaving red lines all over his body. The skin had broken in some places, and flecks of blood were flying about.

"I see," Hamina said sagely, and stepped forward.

Clunk.

She had hit him over the head with her candlestick, leaving a gaping bloody wound which she Healed. However, her job was complete, and Dan was out cold on the floor. She rolled him onto his side.

"How did you know...?" I started to ask.

"I didn't," she replied, putting the candle into the fire to re-light it. "But he wasn't shutting up and he was doing nothing positive for his health."

"So... You knocked him out?"

She shrugged. "I'll figure it out in the morning. Renon's lucky, I don't think he even woke up."

And with that she tied Dan's hands behind his back with a sash and bade me a good-night.

Warily, glancing often at my best friend and praying that his eyes would not open again, I fell back asleep.

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"So..." I muttered. "What the hell was on my back, and why the hell did she hit me?"

Allie giggled. "We were tired and it was really late."

I growled. "That's, what, the second time she's knocked me out for fun?"

Allie smirked, ignoring me.

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"It's post-trauma syndrome," Hamina had declared around the breakfast table. I had found myself unable to sleep and so wandered around, eventually deciding to make a three-course breakfast for all of us. Dan still wasn't awake.

"Doesn't that come from wars?" Renon asked, a bit of egg yolk on his chin. I wondered if he'd notice it. I wasn't eating. I lost my appetite from last night's events.

Hamina sighed. "It comes form trauma," she said mock-sweetly. "Post-TRAUMA Syndrome. Do you know what trauma is, Nii-san?"

"Of course," Renon rolled his eyes. "It's just that I didn't think that such an explosion would qualify, Nee-chan."

"The explosion that kept you asleep throughout this entire ordeal?" I quipped. Renon glared at me and dabbed at his chin.

"Awww," Hamina groaned. "I was hoping you wouldn't catch that bit of egg."

I laughed, and his glare intensified. I couldn't help but wink at him, which threw him.

"At any rate," Hamina said, back to business. "We need to slow his heart rate. I'm afraid to give him more drugs right now."

All was silent. It was as if it was an examination, the bored Hamina testing us to see if we could answer correctly.

"Is there some kind of nerve we could pinch or anything?" Renon asked.

"Yes, actually," Hamina said. "The central brain stem."

"Wouldn't that kill him?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, actually," Hamina winked. "But it would slow his heart rate, no?"

Renon held a thumbs-down at her. I smiled at the display.

"Couldn't we just lower his body temperature?" I asked quietly, unsure. "Like, slowly, though, so he doesn't catch pneumonia or-"

"Exactly," Hamina said, surprised, nodding twice at me. "I suggest we just pack him up in a sleeping bag in the snow for a day or so. It should calm him down if we lower his body temperature by about a degree and a half. He'll probably get sick, but I'd rather he not kill anyone in his conscious's break."

"Agreed," Renon and I both said, standing. He had a large yellow stain on his shirt, which he definitely did not notice. I didn't find this quite so amusing right now, though. Work was to be done.

We arrived at his body, exactly as Hamina left him. He was breathing softly, a relief.

"I'll get a sleeping bag," Hamina said. "Renon, you go out and make a little coffin for him. In a snowdrift, you know?"

"Gotcha," he said, already on his way out.

"Allie, take off his pants," Hamina commanded, and I stared at her. She glared at me. "No, seriously. I'll be back in a sec."

I stared at the door in which she had just exited, and then turned my gaze to Dan.

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"Wait, what?" I asked, bewildered. "You took off my pants when I was out?"

"Yes," Allie sighed, leaning back and rolling her eyes. "I'm getting there, hold your horses."

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"You can't be for real," I muttered, stepping towards Dan's body. Hands shaking, I cautiously grabbed a pant leg and pulled, looking away. Dan's entire body dragged itself a couple inches across the carpet. I groaned.

I threw the blanket over his body to protect his privacy and pulled harder.

Nothing.

My heart thumping as if I was about to do something totally unforgivable (Which, perhaps, was possible.), I pushed the blanket to the side and loosened his belt. I felt my face turning red, and I quickly threw the blanket over him again.

I pulled at the pants and it all came off. I fell, rolling onto my back and smirking in a blush of victory.

"No, no," Hamina said, at the door. How long she'd been there, I don't know. She was holding a rolled-up blanket and a sheet of paper full of mathematical calculations. "If we leave him completely garmentless, he might lose... Something very valuable to a man. I don't want to risk the frostbite."

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"Wait, wait," I interrupted her. "You took everything offa me and then put me out in the snow?"

"It gets better," Allie said, giggling a little. Laughing at my expense. Ha ha indeed.

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I blushed even harder. "You told me to take off his pants!" I yelled, throwing the expensive Blue Knucklevest Pants at her. "I'm sure I heard you right!"

She grabbed the armour mid-air and pulled his undergarments from it. "Those need to stay on him," she said dryly, tossing the hot-pink boxers back to me.

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I was blushing hard by now, and I knew it.

"Bloody hell. Did you...?" I asked Allie, who seemed to be on the verge of breaking into hysterical laughter.

"I didn't," she grinned. "I refused to and then Hamina ripped off the blanket and put them on for you."

I buried my face into my hands, unable to stop myself from snorting at the unexpected event.

"If it makes you feel any better," Allie said, smiling and putting a hand onto my shoulder. "I didn't peek. I turned around."

"Did Hamina have anything to say on the 'unavoidable subject?' " I asked dryly, forcing my face back to seriousness. Smiling was hurting my one eye.

"No," Allie said, obviously lying. "She said your boxers were too small for you, but I figured she was joking."

I couldn't think of any way to reply to that, except, "Yeah, well, keep in mind that it's cold."

She giggled again and continued the story.

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We wrapped Dan up in the blanket and carried him to the source of Renon's movement. He wasn't quite done, so we spent about five minutes digging a little pod to stick Dan's body in feet-first.

"How long until he regains complete consciousness?" I asked, as Renon checked Dan's temperature.

"I gave him continued dosages of the Knockout pills," Hamina replied, testing the wind speed with an odd tool. "To keep the pain levels down. If he wakes up like he did this morning, he leaves his conscious mind behind. All we have to do is wait for it to wake up."

I nodded. We waited like that for about another minute. I started to shiver in the snow.

"Ninety-seven point six," Renon said. "Are you sure this isn't gonna damage his skin permanently or anything, Hamina?"

She stayed silent, and then kneeled onto the snowy floor to write feverently on her clipboard. It was still cold. Renon and I stared at her for a bit, and when she didn't make any other signs of life, Renon threw a snowball at her.

"Oi!" she yelled in surprise. "The bloody hell was that?!"

"Me!" Renon said, irritated. "Can we go inside yet?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll finish up," Hamina grunted. We left her there with Dan, jogging back into the relative warmth of the house. Renon went ahead and worked up the wood to a wavering blaze, which we wheeled in front of to warm our windbitten fingers.

We would've worried about Dan but our wings were weary. Wenon... Er... Renon laid on the couch as soon as he was content with his temperature.

I think I fell asleep in front of the fireplace, because the next thing I remember was dinner.

"You're gonna burn it, Nee-chan."

"Hush, you."

I awoke to the smell of what seemed to be ramen, propped up over a pillow.

"Nii-San, get me a few bowls."

"Where are they...?"

"How should I know?"

"How should I know?!"

I sat up, rubbing my eyes. My head felt like hell. It made sense; Stress was often a relevant cause for my headaches.

"Guys," I moaned, to no avail.

"You should've been doing something other than watching the snow while I was making the soup!"

"Just take it off the stove for a sec, I'll find them. Sheesh."

"Not 'sheesh'! I made six servings and it's heavy. Hurry up."

I sighed and forced myself to stand, holding onto the couch as a dizzy spell hit me hard. I waited it out, closing my eyes as the floor lost it's solidity and left turned to right.

It's just the blood returning back to my brain and body... It'll end soon.

My temples throbbed and I loosened my grip on the couch a little. I found myself falling, but was that just the dizziness?

Voices now. Running. My head felt like there was something inside of it. Something sharp and white-hot.

Woah, that feeling. Now I was definitely falling. The pain in my skull was immense, and it dulled out the nerves in the rest of my body.

Had I actually fallen over? It didn't feel like it. But my hands weren't holding onto the couch anymore, and my point of gravity had moved from my feet to my back.

I opened my eyes to a blur.

"Allie?"

It was Hamina.

"Where's the Ramen?" I asked. "I'm hungry."

"It's at the table, come on," she said, and I felt strong hands pulling me up. but my balance was still on the floor, with my back. I couldn't hold my weight.

"When's the last time you ate?" Ooh, that was Renon's voice.

I thought about his question. Wasn't it when me and Dan had macaroni and cheese? He'd overcooked it, though, and I wasn't hungry anyway. I never had breakfast that morning, I remembered. But hadn't I had a roll with that special cinnamon butter the night before...?

"On Tuesday night, kinda," I said, and I realized I was mumbling. Maybe he couldn't hear me. That'd be bad. "Tuesday Night."

I made sure to say it very clearly and loud enough for him.

"I heard you," he said with a soft smile.

Good.

"Allie, do you get bad headaches?" Hamina asked me, sitting opposite. I guess I was sitting down now. "Like, migraines or anything of the sort?"

"I used to," I said, noticing the bowl in front of me. I took a mouthful and burned my tongue. Everything was silent as I ate. My headache was unbearable right now. Maybe this was a migraine. Mum used to get migraines all the time. She would blame it on her bad contact lenses.

I finished the bowl and Renon put another in front of me. I realized he and Hamina each had their own, too. I wondered if there would be enough for all of us. Maybe I should stop eating soon.

After this bowl, maybe... Maybe not.

"That means you haven't eaten in about two days," Hamina said. "That's not healthy at all. I want you to take a protein pill when you're done and go back to sleep."

Sounded good to me.

I finished three and a half full bowls of the hot soup (it wasn't that great, but it wasn't bad either) and took two of the pills with a tall glass of cold water. Renon said that I could use my bed and I couldn't muster up the means or energy to argue against it. Feeling bad about acting selfish, I went up and fell asleep after about an hour of trying to get comfortable. It was better than the couch, mind you, but it wasn't my bed. You know?

A lot happened when I was out. Renon and Hamina had to start taking watch because they saw somebody on the porch, and he'd run away with a good Haste before they could confront him. Apparently another person showed up, and Renon later went into detail about how he'd heroically battled the man. Either way, the fight ended in a lot of dagger wounds on Renon's end and a knocked-out bandit on his end. Hamina was sure that this wasn't the guy on the porch, though, and he escaped before any questioning could be made.

The siblings would take turns watching me and Dan and the house and going out to look for information on Hideval. Hamina had made a breakthrough in a passing Syndicate Warrior, who said that the Maffiya had little to no grasp inside the Sleepywood Dungeon and that would be very smart place for a fugitive to hide.

Dan had had another seizure thing, for when someone returned to his site he had crumbled the wall of snow. But he was sleeping when they found him, so it was okay. Hamina'd been giving him pills and water and a rare injection, and she said he was coming close to a mental recovery. We would have to leave him there until he woke himself up and most likely even later than that, though.

She and Renon had been watching me as well, for in the hustle and bustle I had met the brinks of passive starvation to death. By an extremely unlikely series of events, it appeared that I hadn't consumed enough food for my body in about four days. Hamina said that it was surprising that I didn't wake up with a bad headache on Wednesday. I said that maybe I had, and it had left me in the excitement over the Ilbis and meeting Renon in the Market.

Speaking of those two, Renon had found a hobby in the throwing stars. Hamina said that he wasn't bad but he wasn't nearly as great as he made himself out to be.

Eventually I found myself walking freely, stopping at the kitchen for a small snack during bathroom breaks. It was late, late on Friday night that I decided to take a quick shower. I found that my odorly smell was a viable cause for a headache in itself.

Once reclothed, I realized my headache was gone.

Overjoyed, and fully awake as I ever had been, I snuck around the shack. Hamina was asleep. Renon must be outside, then.

I opened the door and an Ilbi, badly thrown, bounced off of Huntress Armour. I smirked.

"Oh my god!" Renon yelped, surprised. "I- I was half awake, and you were there, and I thought you were- Agh! I'm sorry! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, it didn't even hurt," I said, waving him off. "If you're tired, get some rest. I'll keep watch."

"But your headache..."

"Gone," I said gleefully. "I just spent the last two days in bed, so I'm not tired at all. Go to bed, Renon."

He found that he couldn't muster up the means or energy to argue against it, and I wondered if he would feel selfish for taking the bed.

Shrugging it off, I set up a simple twine trap. I tightly wrapped a paper-thin wire around the perimeter of the house, staying a couple feet away from the sidings and porch. If anyone tripped it, the line would break and the bells I had set up would jingle. I lengthened the line of bells, letting the meticulous device trail behind my until I found myself where I wanted to be.

Dan was on the floor, sleeping. A small firepit had been set up near him, and there were several special protective tags pinned up on the trees near him.

I looked at his face. Exactly as I remembered it. I set down my crossbow and I knew that my emotions were starting to take control.

He was okay. He looked perfect, and he was snoring gently. Hamina had trimmed his hair a lot, so she could inspect and heal the wound on the back of his head. It couldn't have been more than a few centimeters long now, but the wavy-curlyness retained itself.

It was a pity; I'd loved his hair...

I frowned. Was that a jingle? I thought I heard a jingle. I scooped my crossbow and turned around.

Yes, lots of jingles. They went off in a pattern, coming towards me... It was nearly a melody. I stared on and the wind tugged at my hair.

...Oh. It was just the wind.

To be sure, I ran back to the trip wire and looked at it carefully. It hadn't been touched.

To be careful, I surveyed the house. Renon was snoring loudly. I returned to my post and started the fire.

You may read that as just another sentence, but be aware that it was a cold, windy night, and I only had a few matches for me. It was very stressful and very thought-producing, but I got it done with a match leftover.

I made two trips to the firewood shed and back, making sure that there was enough lumber to last until morning. The clock on the oven had said 11:38 as I was getting out of the shower, and it had probably been about two hours since. Maybe an hour and a half.

I stared warily at Dan for a long time, just thinking. I thought about the occurrence before the explosion.

I was going to tell him that I deeply cared for him. I wasn't sure how I was going to say it. Probably just what I wanted him to know:

That I really appreciated everything he's done for me. Actually talking to me and stuff. Confiding his worries about Hideval and even just stupid stuff. like he was afraid he could never settle down because he was such a terrible cook. I always said that never worried me, and I wasn't exactly a culinary expert either.

He never hinted that there might be anything for us in our future. No relationships. No closeness of mind and maybe even body. It seemed he'd started trying to make a distance from me.

I wanted to show him, though. I wanted to show him how much he meant to me. I know in my heart that I would take an arrow for his safety, and how hard would it be to say that? Wasn't that love? Some people could call that love.

I mean, I wouldn't. Not at all... Love was something I could never have. Love isn't something you see in Monster Control. Caring and respect, yeah, but not love between two people. It happens, sometimes, but it's a rare occasion. And it usually doesn't turn out well.

This isn't a well-paying job, and it's as addicting as a child's video game. There are people who retire with a hundred mesos from a decade of murdering monsters, and even they'll come back for more. It's fun, as much as I hate to admit it, to murder these mindless, painful creatures.

I suppose it's healthy, though. Somebody's gotta do it, after all. I remember that one day a Mushmom had decided to go for a bit of an adventure in Henesys. Mum was able to stop it before it could injure anyone, but the fear was there. These things were dangerous and we needed people to deal with them.

But if I can't ever fall in love, is it worth it...? I couldn't really ask anybody about this. Mum had kind of gotten married and was still serving in Control. But she's a special case. The great Athena Pierce wouldn't even let a divorced husband get in the way of her job.

I suppose Mum would be a good role model in this situation. She and Dad used to sit around and talk about how they met, during long nights. Back when I was still small. She used to talk about how he followed her around, even though she was a far better fighter than he. It always made me giggle, especially the stories where she saved his butt.

"But if you're going to train like that," as my brother had always said quietly, "Make sure you don't let a third person come along."

It made perfect logical sense. If two people were in love, they might make a bad choice in the group's survival. If someone's too worried about their significant other, they may be blind to the fact that their third Party Member is about to be mauled by a group of Coolies.

Yes... It's dangerous and selfish to love at all in this line of work.

Then why do I still want to hold him so badly? I want to hug him tight and promise that I'll never let him go through something like this again. I want to promise that I'll be there for him. I want to promise that I'll be more careful.

I want to protect him.

...How childish of me. Such sentiments could get us killed.

I stood, leaving my crossbow on the floor. I tended to the blazing fire, even though it didn't need it. My mind needed something to do.

"Allie."

I jumped twenty feet and turned around. That sleepy mumble, from Dan, in his dream. Calling out my name in his unconsciousness. Why?

"I'm right here," I whispered. "I promise."

Silence.

"Mmmkay," he grumbled decidedly, and turned over in his rest. I couldn't help but smile at him. Logic forgotten for now, I rested my hand on his. It was cold, and I was painfully reminded of the rates of Frostbite in this forest.

I took his fingers into both of my hands and applied pressure, just enough for friction to do its work. I'd do his other hand in a second.

His face looked kind of alien without his hair. It showed off a little white scar I hadn't noticed before, behind the back of his ear. I pulled the blanket down carefully to inspect it. It was an older scar, and it looked like a knife wound. From behind his ear to the middle of his back. That crossed at least two major tendons, it looked like it had been serious.

I put the blanket back and went back to my act of warming his fingers/holding his hand.

I alternated hands when I was happy, letting my mind roam. I switched his hands again, and eventually it started getting brighter.

The sun said it was around eight in the morning when the bell alarm tripped. I grabbed my crossbow and ran like hell. It was already loaded.

I nearly ran into Hamina. She had set off the bells.

"Uh, 'morning," she said. It seemed she had just woken up: Her hair was askew and she was still in her pajamas. "I didn't see you in your bed and-"

"I got up and decided to check on Dan," I said. "I'm just really awake."

"Feel better?"

"Definitely. I'm gonna go put out the fire, okay? I can help you guys today."

She nodded. "Leave the fire going, then. Go be with Dan until Renon wakes up."

I did. Nothing extraordinary happened on Saturday, until later that night. Renon had just returned from an information-gathering trip in El Nath. He and Hamina came to me, and we all sat in the clearing. Dan was off to the side.

Birds chirped overhead, and a light snow was falling.

"He's definitely still alive," Renon said, and Hamina and I smiled. "He sent me a message on my ID card. It said 'Help me'. No location or anything."

"Even with this new information," Hamina said, "We haven't a clue to his real location. I mean, we can mark our Orbis and Ludibrium, and probably the five cities in Victoria. We've been receiving data form his ID card for a while."

"So you've known all this, and we still don't know where he might be?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No clue," Renon sighed. "He could be just about anywhere except for those that Nee-chan mentioned. Unless he sends viable information, we wouldn't know."

"But can't we send him messages over the card?" I asked.

"No," Hamina answered tersely. "We've sent a load of messages already. We've done the most we could. He wouldn't ignore them. I'm worried, though..." She gazed up at the sky. "He's impulsive, is all."

I nodded. That wouldn't be good for anyone.

A grunt from Dan's area. All of us turned to look at him (which resulted in a neck strain on my part that would last until I fell asleep later that night), but he was once again asleep.

"I thought I heard something," Renon said with a smile. I could feel myself grinning like an idiot. He was really going to be okay.

Hamina leaned over and poked Dan's cheek. He snorted and rolled over.

"He's recovered fully," Hamina said. "It's just regular sleep. But we can't wake him up, yet, his body still needs to heal." With that, she produced another pill from seemingly nowhere and popped it in.

We returned to the shack to get something for dinner, and after the meal Renon's pants started beeping. He clumsily pulled out his Personal ID card and stared at it as we watched in apprehension.

"He's given me a location," Renon said, almost yelling in relief. "He says he's in the Third Temple of the Gollems, and he's safe." Hamina was already halfway to the door.

"Ruddy timing. The pill I gave Dan should be wearing off soon," she stood still for a second and then ran towards her room, still shouting orders. "Renon, get packed for a long trip. Allie, go be with Dan for a sec, we'll be there soon."

I dashed from the house as fast as I could, even casting a stupid Nimble Feet as I ran. What if something had happened? All of those last-second worries hit me at once.

What if those drugs had changed him? What if Hamina had overdosed and killed him accidentally? What if it wasn't an accident? What if he'd just died?

I slid in next to the sleeping bag, afraid that he'd have gotten up and left... But, of course, there he was, sleeping as usual.

I waited for a couple minutes before boredom struck. Maybe Hamina'd made a mistake? I started playing with his short, messy hair. It was wet from all the snow.

"Dan." I whispered, wondering if he could hear me. His eyes tightened!

"Dan... Danny?" I said, and his lips tightened. "Daaaaany?"

His eyes snapped open and my heart leapt.

"Dan."

He looked confused, saying nothing, letting his eyes wander. He studied my face, and then followed my arm. I retracted it quickly, remembering that it was on the top of his head.

"What?" he snapped.

I felt like he had punched me in the gut.

"I just..." I said stupidly, and realized I didn't want to finish that sentence. He tried to sit up and I jumped to my feet.

"Wait!" he said, and I knew I wouldn't be able to.

"...I just wanted to be sure you were still alive," I said with some hesitation, before the emotions overwhelmed me. I had to get away. I wouldn't let them see me cry.

"Allie!" he shouted. But it was okay. I'd come back.

He's okay… He's really okay.

"Allie?" Hamina asked, quietly. Where did she come from?

I quickly wiped my sleeve over my eyes. "Yeah," I said gruffly. "He's awake. I think he's okay."

Before I could say any more, Hamina had pulled me into a hug. I stood there for a second, surprised, and then I realized I was crying.

"We're gonna get going in a second, so just let us talk to him for a second."

I nodded, and Renon went ahead. Hamina followed soon after.

"Sorry about that."

"…Hamina?"

"You've got me to thank for your life. How's life been?"

"Interesting… I got the job easy. The Dark Lord's a creepy guy, every time I talk to him I get that feeling that he's hiding something from me, you know? Anyway, I'm getting up in there. Level, ah, Thirty-nine. Yourself?"

"Fifties…That's not what I meant, though. I put you on some drugs on top of my healing, but they have some side-effects."

"Namely?"

"Usually drowsiness… Stomachaches, sometimes headaches, sometimes neck cramps. Also, I gave you a pain reliever that might have had some estrogen in it, so if it applies to you your menstrual system-"

"It doesn't. I'm fine. Is the skin going to heal soon?"

"In about a week. Actually, I suggest you go shirtless for a while, and don't lay on your back. I'll just have Allie keep an eye out for you. We need to get going."

"Going? Where?"

"To find Hideval."

Clunk.

For the umpteenth time, Hamina knocked Dan out.

"Do you enjoy doing that or something?" I asked harshly.

"I hit him across the central lobe," she said, pointing to her forehead. "So he won't be out long. Five minutes at most. You need to make sure he doesn't get up and follow us. We won't be back for a few days. Understand?"

I did, and quite well. On my nod, she and Renon began sprinting back to town. They had a long trip before they could reach the ship to Victoria, and then a longer trip after that to find Hideval.

I returned to my unconscious friend and sat near him, tending to the fire.

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"Then you woke up," Allie said. "And all that stuff."

I was stunned. I thought there would be some turning point near the end, but it just kept repeating itself.

"So," I said casually, laying down again. "You thought it wise to tell me about your inner feelings in that telling?"

Allie shrugged. "My opinions haven't changed since, if that's what you're asking."

We were both purposely avoiding the subject. I decided to sit up for good, positioning myself cross-legged.

"You're not going to ask," I asked carefully, "What my thoughts are on the subject?"

"As I said, it would be illogical to make any move," Allie said, and I could tell her throat was tight. She tried to fix it in a conspicuous coughing fit.

I smiled. "Letting logic rule over your emotions will simply make you a very cold person."

"Then I'll have to ignore my emotions to the best of my ability."

I thought silently, and knew what decision I needed to make.

"You overestimate yourself in saying you can do that," I said, "And you underestimate yourself in thinking that I don't want that. That I don't want a relationship."

"A-Aren't you saying… Aren't you going; to say that you don't, though?"

"No," I said. "I think you need a hug."

Crying, and smiling, Allie was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She leaned in and flung her arms around me, and I tilted her jaw towards mine to thank her. To thank her for everything.