Chapter Text
The curl of his breath in the air jolted him back into awareness.
With a sharp inhale, Reno shoved himself upright, suddenly aware of the temperature drop in the room. He listed sharply when his legs struggled to work after such a long time in that position, leaving him to wobble heavily against the table. Fuck, he’d fallen asleep waiting by the damned radio. Glancing towards the stove had his worst fears confirmed by the red coals within. He’d let the fire wane. And that meant…
Rude.
With a panicked noise he shoved the chair back and stood, taking a step and immediately crashing to the ground when cold legs remained uncoordinated and tangled with the chair. A pained yelp left his lips when the impact jarred his broken arm taking in several sharp, cold breaths to help get his wits about him. Even with haste, he still staggered slowly up from his fall, grabbing the corner of the coffee table for support. Rude had shifted in his sleep, curled slightly under the blanket, eyes tightly closed…lips shivering. Fuck.
His hands scrambled to clamp onto the remaining branches at the stove side, throwing in the smaller bits and scraping one along the coals in an attempt to gather flame once again. It worked after a few minutes of puttering, and with a sigh of relief, he shoved the remaining thick branches into the stove belly, shoulders slowly relaxing down when the temperature started to improve enough to be felt.
It wasn’t over yet, not by a long shot. They needed far more wood for the fire, A glance out the frosty pane showed morning on the rise. Good. He could do a bit better searching then. Last night, his focus had been getting them into shelter, maybe now he could see about making it a habitable shelter.
Shifting his attention, the redhead made his way to his partner’s side, blowing on his hands first before touching him. A quick peek at those bandages showed no fresh blood, and infection hadn’t reared its ugly head so far. The man was cold, but breathing just fine. A few minutes of the hut warming up and he’d be able to breathe a little easier. For now? Time to find some firewood. Or at least see if there was anything usable.
“Gonna be okay partner.” Reno murmured, mostly to himself. His fingers shifted again, running near his cheek and soaking in the relief of feeling his cheek shift with each steady breath. “We always make through, together.”
Stepping out into the cold was like a slap in the face, and he was quick to seal the door. The sunshine was glaring though, and soon once he started walking, it helped thaw his mood. Kinda surprising that it could warm so quick after sunrise, but that was the way of things on a snow bright mountain. The gentle quiet of the night was still present, though now it held an edge, given by the hard freeze to the powder from the night before.
He crunched along the outside of the house as he began his search, bemoaning the sagging log pile and the wet wood settled there. A spool held an old lengthy bit of wet rope, most likely the clothesline, given the clothespins still attached at one end and in a bucket beneath it. Other than that, it was barren. Whoever left the house, they left nothing good aside from the first aid kit.
There was an outhouse he hadn’t spotted last night, hidden under the shelter of a large fir. It was morbid curiosity that drove him to see what was inside, maybe the freshness of the interior would relate to him some form of sign as to when someone had been up here last.
Why. Why on Shiva’s tits was there a rusty axe in the shitter?
Not in the hole, thank fuck, but neatly swung into the toilet lid that greeted him on entry. “Fuckin’ thing. Someone think they were in a god damned video game or some shit?” Reno puffed aloud, brows wrinkled. Honestly, it was almost worrisome where it was placed, though he didn’t dwell. No time to dwell.
It was a horrible job, trying to pull the damned thing free of where it rested. In fact the whole thing landed him on his ass when it finally gave, axe free of the toilet but the lid coming along for the ride. He was damn near tempted to throw it into the fire, but the wood was warped and held a stench. It worried him what sort of smoke something with that varnish would make. Still, he set it to the side of the door when he finally pried it free with help of the tree trunk, turning away with that much more hope.
What he did find was more wet or green than dead, and his hours-long forage left him netted with only a single sack of small logs to bring in. It didn’t help that he was having to travel back in to warm up and throw some of his prize on the fire, nor the sapped energy doing it on an empty stomach caused.
Between checking for wood, he sent out calls on the radio, conserving the battery as much as possible while he pondered his …their fate. Rude had yet to wake again completely, though he’d roused enough a couple more times to steal more water. Reno simply boiled more atop the stove in an old pan he’d found under the broken sink, replacing it into the bottle every time. Two stale granola were all that came from the first aid, along with the only flare left in the kit itself.
Trying to get Rude to eat had been nothing but annoying. Beyond that, even if he’d tried, the stale bars would have probably been too much for him to choke down. Instead he’d wolfed a full one down on his own, and left the other for later if he did manage to wake. Dry as it was, he still felt marginally better for it.
It gave him a second wind, meagre as it was. Shuffling outside, he glanced over the hut itself, worrying his lip while running through their options. He was too tired to go out far for more wood, there was no way he could knock anything serious down with how blunt that axe was and only one handed. The idea of using some of the hut itself as kindling would have been great if the wood wasn’t wet and soft from all the snow and subtle amounts of snowmelt.
They had to hang on until Tseng and the rest pinged the chopper or hailed on the radio, and he had no idea if the tracking in the chopper was even still good, with how dead it had been the night before. Worse yet, there could still be people out there, looking for their wreckage. He’d backtracked a little to the hut as much as he could from short memory, but there was no telling how far from the fight that had been given his burst of speed to get away from the ground fire.
There was an idea, but he didn’t like it one bit.
Unfortunately, it was all he had.
Slowly he moved between the thick fir and various others, cutting down the lower full branches until he had a large supply and his shoulder was shaking from wielding the axe. Dragging them to the side of the wall with the most draft, Reno began stuffing the holes, using the cold clothesline to strap cris cross over the broken boards to hold the fluffy branches in place. It wasn’t as good a fix as the tarp inside, but it was more than enough to allow him to pull it away.
Once his work was done, Reno guesstimated late afternoon by the sun in the sky, his sweat sticking uncomfortable to his skin and shirt. Fuck, it really would have been nice to have his cold weather gear about now. Next time he saw the design engineers, there’d be big talks about storage being shifted away from the damn gas tanks.
Pressing inside, he paused at the sight of his partner, half pushed up, clutching at the blanket and tracking the area. “Hey, whoa now. Ya need to lay back there, yo.” Reno murmured, dropping the axe tot eh side of the door and moving in closer. A gentle hand guided the man to sit back, plying him with water when he coughed out a word and grimaced.
“How long?” He wasn’t one to mince words, and given his condition, Reno was just happy to hear him not slurring and offering up questions.
“Next day, you been out about sixteen altogether.” Reno reported, pulling away the bottle and letting him settle.
“You good?”
“Me? Been out playin’ in the snow, your ass is gonna miss all the fun.” He teased, forcing the weary thread from his voice.
“Sorry I can’t help.” Rude managed that one against all odds, his voice already heavy. Reno pressed him to lay down again, covering him up to his chin while he murmured. “Mn. Reno?”
“Yeh?” Tilting his gaze down, he met solemn and mildly pained eyes, crinkling just at the corners.
“Bet ya had to carry me.” The words brought him back down with startling clarity to a memory, surprising a low snort from him.
“The fuck I did.” A little light returned at that, the fire roiling his tired body. “Dragged your ass. S’ different.” Reno sniffed, watching him drift off with a smile on his face. “Gonna drag you outta this too, fuckin’ watch me.” He whispered, heart in his throat.
Reno waited until he was sure the other man was down before heaving himself upright, energy at least partially restored from the rest and soft murmurs of his partner. There was still quite a bit to do.
Another hour passed before he could safely sag down for a rest, but the work was done. The coffee table had been cut up into chunks and splinters, though it seemed to burn a lot faster than the wood from outside. Which was fine, coals were coals, and it kept the room good enough. Which had changed quite a bit. He’d moved the couch until it was right in front of the stove, just back enough to keep from burning anything if they sat up or moved around.
The fire wasn’t enough to keep them warm through the night, not at all. But maybe it could keep them alive another night, long enough for someone to find them. And that was the risk they were forced to take. With that in mind, he’d set about flaking out the tarp and hanging it up, fashioning a tent around both the couch and the stove. There were areas it didn’t reach, just at the hem, and he had to make sure it didn’t get too close to the stove pipe, for fear of it melting.
Other than that, the change was immediate. Heat still fled through the tarp and out the sides, but the pace was far slower, and that meant he didn’t have to feed the fire as much from their dwindling reserves.
By the time he finished, though, the sky was growing dark, leaving him with the second to last seat of the plan. He dragged out the smoke flare and pitched himself through the door, feeling for the wind. To his relief, the cold twilight was clear, barely a northeastern wind if he could track it. Tugging out the flare from the chopper, he worked at setting it off, fingers already growing cold from the outside. Red light didn’t travel as far as a green would, unfortunately, but this one would probably only last a couple of hours.
With a sharp snap, he brought the stick to life, tilting away from the gout of smoke and bright light as it blared up. He set it on a flat piece of log he’d rolled from the house, letting it billow mostly straight up in the area around them. When that one was done, he’d shuffle out and set off the gun flare from the kit, and hopefully they’d gotten his distress before the crash and would follow the trail.
One more log was settled into the fire before he nestled down on Rude’s legs, curling his hands into his jacket with a shiver. Every time the fire burned low, he’d drop another onto the fire, the time passing on far too slow for his liking.
Rude roused again for a bit more water, denying the food and merely listening to him talk. Another glance and he was out, but he’d seemed far more coherent than even the last time. Perhaps the potion did a better job than he’d expected. His gut twisted at the thought that he might wake just in time to know how bad off they were, but he seemed content to doze again.
As he settled their last true log onto the fire, Reno sighed, prodding the coals once again to bring them back up. Shuffling to the first aid kit, Reno dragged out the old flare gun, checking the ammo one last time. There was no telling if the damned thing would dud from laying dormant for so long, but hell if he wasn’t about to try.
Dragging it out into the frigid night air, he noted the flare was puffing feebly, probably mostly out in a shorter time than he’d expected. Damned bargain bin military grade supplies. Raising the gun up into the air, Reno held his breath and pulled the trigger, shifting his weight with surprise and mild hope as the flare propelled itself upward with a concussive burst.
It surged up in a plume of green and bright light, stopping several stories up and floating near suspended in the air. The parachute would keep it up there quite some time, and maybe using that, if someone was out there, they’d get an answer. Hell, even if the enemy spotted it, he’d be damned happy.
Staggering back into the hut, Reno shuddered from the chill, slinking around the tarp and sighing as it helped warm his bones back up. It wasn’t half as warm as he wanted, and already he could see the warmth fading in the room. Fuck. He mulled over his decision for only a few moments before starting to drop trow. Twitching hands grabbed up Rude’s jacket and draped it around his head as thickly as possible without restricting airflow, moving him back to lie sideways against the back of the couch under the blanket.
Once he was settled, Reno continued to strip, dragging it all under the blanket with him as he settled front to front with the other Turk, using the rest of their clothes as something of nesting material. His heart clogged his throat when morbid thoughts settled into play, wondering why now of all times he finally made a move on his closest friend. It wasn’t important right now for fuck’s sake. Maybe if they made it out he could think about the soft breath pressing along his throat, the smooth skin covered with weals and scars just like him, now settled right against his torso. Just that much closer than he never got...
A sound jolted him back to awareness as it clanged through the room. Hazy eyes shifted towards the stove where it lay, nearly black save for a small glow. Ah, the heat. The sudden change from hot to cold in the pipe must have caused it to bang a little. Enough to rouse him, his shivers audible with his teeth.
Fuck. Rude. He looked so cold, but the worst part was the quiet rattle in his breath. That hadn’t been there before. His heart seized. No. A shaky hand moved up, touching along his cheek, laughing almost at the absurdity of it all. Really? Now? Of all fucking places? “Come on baby, just stay with me, yo.” His voice cracked as he found his thoughts sliding through and settled in closer, numb lips pressing a kiss to each eyelid.
He barely shifted, lashes still low on his cheeks. “Fuckin’ love you too much to lose you now.” They’d come so close, hadn’t they? A couple more hours, and he could have tried to walk further, tried to get more wood, maybe to a lodge. He just had to keep talking, had to keep...
Fuck. Fuck. He couldn’t fail, not right now. “Rude..” Reno rasped out, voice cracking due to both chill and fear. “I’m sorry. I’m so so...sorry baby.” His nose tipped down, chin touching the top of his jacket where it lay wrapped around the other man’s head. Slowly his awareness receded, sliding off as the stove banged again, the cooling pipe rattling far more dramatically than before. It was almost enough to keep him awake. Almost.
Until it wasn't.