Hegsih woke hours before dawn, the urgent need for a bathroom driving him from the thermal bag, and realized he had a serious problem.

First, it was still freezing outside. Second, he had no clothing.

He cast his eyes about the shelter, trying to figure out how to solve this conundrum before his bladder exploded, and saw something amazing.

A small flap in the floor, with a clear graphic explaining its use, served the exact purpose he needed. As he took care of business, he considered the unreality he was experiencing as he finished.

His memory of… before… was fuzzy. He knew who he was, of course, but remembering was like looking at a photo album or a slightly out of focus home movie. What he remembered vividly was a flash of blue-white light. And then cold. So fucking cold.

And then warmth.

And then heat.

My God. What he had experienced… mating… with Blake had been shocking. He hadn't slept with many women in his young life, but his few experiences had been nothing like that. Not only had he been completely unprepared psychologically going from nearly freezing to death to being… propositioned, the act itself… nothing had prepared him for that. After getting over the initial disbelief, he had intended to take his time, provide her the relief she said she needed while drawing out the experience as long as possible. But instead she had taken control and driven them both relentlessly to completion despite his best efforts.

He sighed and smiled as the memories caused a predictable physical reaction.

And turned to find a pair of amber eyes appraising him.

"Hi there," she said quietly. There was no desire in her gaze, just… consideration.

He had the urge to hide, then shook his head and laughed quietly, scratching his jaw. "Hi yourself." I'm not embarrassed. I have nothing to be embarrassed about. We were going at each other like bunnies a couple hours ago, she's done more than see me naked.

He saw her eyes travel down his form. He stood still under the scrutiny, smiling uncertainly.

He's not…unattractive. Dark curly hair, dark brown skin, golden-brown eyes. Lean build, but there was muscle. His aura… her eyes narrowed. She couldn't sense an aura, and filed that away for later.

She remembered that naked form had felt like against hers, and felt a gentle warmth inside. It wasn't heat again, that fire had been quenched. It wasn't quite desire either.

Her eyes returned to his face. He had a slight smile, and seemed completely shameless about his condition.

It was a kind face, full of patience and a hint of humor.

"Whatcha thinking, Blake?"

What am I thinking? I'm thinking that I've just mated with someone, and what I remember was very very nice, and he's right here in front of me, and now I'm wondering what it would be like to experience that without being driven by mind-bending desperation… and whether that would just make things weirder than they already are.

"I'm… trying to decide the pros and cons of returning a favor," She glanced down at his condition meaningfully and back up to his face, "now that I actually can decide."

His smile widened. It really was a nice smile. "Favor, eh? I, uh, don't think I'm quite in the same condition as you were. I mean, I'm not going to die in the next half hour if I don't mate with someone."

Blake quirked an eyebrow. "You aren't helping your case any."

He paused. Then his face fell in mock horror. "Oh. I mean. Oh. Oh God. The pain. The painnnnnn." He scrunched up his eyes, then cracked one open.

Blake laughed. It was a nice, honest, throaty kind of laugh.

Oh yeah. I'm definitely going to return the favor.

Blake woke again, just after sunrise.

Gods, my whole body aches.

But it was a really, really nice kind of ache. It had been years since she'd felt this… languid. There's a word for the ages. Languid. It rolled off the tongue.

She sighed as memory rolled in like the tide. Memory of many little moments that ran together. She looked at the criminal mastermind that had plundered her body and quirked a smile.

Then she realized what the dim light filtering in through the tent meant, and her smile faded. Yesterday evening had started out a nightmare, and ended up a romantic fantasy that would put the most lascivious scene in Ninjas of Love to shame. But now… now it was time to deal with the real world.

She sighed, slipped out of the thermal bag. Scanning the tent, she began taking stock of the discarded clothing strewn across the shelter floor, and the extra items in her pack, mentally comparing their size, flexibility, and functionality to the still-sleeping human male snoring gently with the satisfied smile of someone who has been well-mated.

Hegsih woke to the smell of a miracle.

"My God. Is that… is that coffee?"

His eyes peeled open, finding Blake, dressed in some sort of form-fitting outfit, hovering over a steaming metal container perched atop a heating element of some sort. She smirked at him. "Ah, so your people do have civilization. Yes, there was a packet in the ration kit. It's instant I'm afraid, and there's no milk."

"Black is best," he smiled. Blake shook her head. Weiss would approve. "Any sugar?" he asked.

Blake's smile widened, "And culture too. No sugar, but there's some honey packets."

"That'll work too. Gimme!"

Blake poured the coffee into two smaller containers, squeezing the small packet of sweetener into it, and watched in appreciation as he worshipped the dark liquid he was provided. Personally I would have preferred tea, but apparently Schnees believe coffee is the true emergency beverage. "We have some work to do today. How do you feel?"

"Sore," he grinned, "but otherwise full of vim, vigor, and vitality." His face grew more serious. "What kind of work?"

"Well," Blake's ears shifted, drawing his attention. God that is adorably distracting. He determined to learn to read those little movements. "We have to figure out how to keep you from freezing to death… again. At least long enough to ride the snowmobile back to the cabin. Then I need to call my Team so they know I'm okay. And then," she took a deep breath, "we need to have a long conversation about what we both experienced leading up to today, and what we are going to do about it now."

Hegsih went quiet, contemplating his coffee for a minute. "Yeah. That's a lot to chew on." He took a deep sip and sighed. "So. There's a cabin, huh? And a 'Team'?

"There's a lot of things." She huffed and held onto her upper bicep with the other hand, cocking a hip. "But one thing at a time, please." She nodded to a pile of clothing. "See if you can put together something out of that, that will make sure you don't turn back into popsicle-man on a four hour ride, and won't cut off all the circulation in your arms and legs."

She turned back to packing up everything else in the shelter as he fussed, grumbled, and muttered. Until she heard him make a dissatisfied noise. "I'm done as it gets," he muttered.

She turned and barked a laugh before she could stop herself, covering her mouth. "I'm sorry, you…"

"I look as ridiculous as I feel," he said sourly. "But it's the best we can do, right?" He considered what she was wearing. "Yeah, no way I'm stealing any of that."

"Thank Gods there are no cameras out here. Ruby would be immortalizing this and never let you live it down. Nora… Nora would make… comments." Her face went from amused, to serious, to pensive very fast as her ears drooped.

More names. And a lot of emotions there. The curiosity was eating at him, but he expected her answer would be to wait. "Take more than that to embarrass me."

Blake hmphed at that, and they finished packing the contents of the shelter before exiting into the cold morning air. Outside, Blake watched as Hegsih got his first conscious view of the world. His breath fogged as he turned slowly in a circle.

"Man, this is gorgeous." He pointed north. "Do you see that glacier? And those mountains?"

"Yeah, they are something." She smiled. Definitely something.

"You don't get this mix of biomes back home. Unless it was a steep mountain canyon, you'd have tundra here with a glacier that size so close, not taiga."

"Tundra? Taiga?"

"Oh. Sorry, that's…"

"For later. Right."

Blake bent down, and pulled a couple of cords, and the shelter quickly collapsed into a foldable form. "Wow. That's impressively compact."

"Yeah. Saved your bacon."

Gathering the last of the items, she headed to the snowmobile, catching her companion looking thoughtfully at a deep, graded pit in the snow. He looked back at her. "You pulled me out of that? You're stronger than you look. I'm not light."

Eyes narrowed and ears twitched. "With some help." She nodded toward the rope still tied to the machine. "And I know you aren't light. I almost dislocated a shoulder getting you into the thermal bag."

"Ah. Clever girl." He giggled a bit, which made him look even more ridiculous in his current outfit, and shifted eyes left and right rapidly.

"Uhhh…"

His face darkened. "Ah, bad reference. Dumb reference. Forget it." He mumbled some more under his breath, as he trudged back over to the machine she was fiddling with. He stopped to appraise it.

"That's… an impressive piece of technology." It was sleek, with no visible exhaust. "What kind of engine does it have?"

Blake gave him a look. Then peered at it. "Honestly, I have no idea. I just know 'push button', 'press lever', 'twist handle', 'vroom vroom'."

He chuckled. "Fair enough." She slid onto the seat, and he straddled it behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist automatically as she fired it up. It wasn't nearly as loud as he expected it to be. Somewhere between an electrical whine and a rumbling exhaust sound. She twisted the throttle, and he tightened against her, which did all sorts of interesting things. "Hey… this is nicccee."

Blake turned her head enough to give him one baleful eye. "Settle down, stud. It's going to be a long ride."

"Sure, sure."

A/N

Well things are starting to move, and the pace is going to be picking up a bit as things reach civilization and more people become involved. And in case you weren't aware, I really would love feedback either via review or PM.