A/N: Wow summer did not go as planned and it took me way longer than expected to return to this story! Here we are again, I'm hoping to get back to a regularly updating schedule soon.

"Yukino, Yukino, foolish, gullible Yukino," her sister's voice rang in her ear. Yukino squeezed her eyes shut tight. It was so cold, it was always so cold. She felt as if she was being dragged, she couldn't move her arms and legs. Her foot throbbed with pain. The ground suddenly dropped out from beneath her and returned violently, slamming her body down so hard it hurt her bones.

"You've learned nothing and now you're letting an untrustworthy man drag you to your death. Was my death for nothing? Love is not real, he will choke you with it. You should have stabbed him in his sleep. All men are good for is making my soup. Imagine the knives you could have made with those bones . . ." Sorano continued and Yukino frowned. Something sounded wrong in her sister's voice, it sounded harder, stranger than she remembered.

"No," Yukino moaned, hoping to stop the cruel voice in her head.

"If he doesn't toss you when he's done with you, you'll be nothing more than a slave. They'll work you like a dog during the day and use you like a whore during the night. Stupid, naive girl. . ."

"No!" Yukino cried. Tears began to slide down her face. At first they felt warm against the frigid wind, but they quickly dried and began pulling uncomfortably at the skin around her eyes.

The world around her stopped moving."Yukino?"

Yukino tried to push away from the voice, but her arms wouldn't move. "No!" She cried, turning her face away into her hood.

Cloth covered hands touched her cheeks. "Yukino!"

"It's not true, it's not true. . ." she cried.

There was a shuffle and warm uncovered fingers wiped the tears from her eyes. "Yukino, please look at me. You're worrying me."

Yukino blinked. The world was white but as she slowly turned her head Sting's face came into focus. He visibly sagged with relief when her eyes met his and he kissed her forehead. "Are you alright? You were shouting."

"Where are we?" Yukino asked. She tried to glance around them but all she could see was white. She felt foggy and disoriented. Her mouth was too dry, she clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth in an effort to wet it.

Sting reached into his jacket and pulled out a water bottle. He fumbled with the lid and after pulling away the scarf from her mouth, he held it to her lips. "Here, take a sip first."

She welcomed the tiny splashes he dripped into her mouth. The water was warm from being held close to his chest. When he took it away, it felt too soon.

"We're still about half a day's walk from the house. Do you remember getting up? You were having trouble getting moving. You said it was okay if I strapped you to the sled like this and pulled it with Polaris. Are you still alright?" His face reddened and he stared down at his hands. "You weren't making a whole lot of sense. . .I didn't know what else to do."

Yukino smiled. She wished she could reach out and touch him but she was bundled too tightly. "I'm sorry, I don't really remember this morning, but thank you for pulling me, it must be very taxing for you."

He looked up and grinned. "Nah, I'm happy to help. I'd carry you on my back if I could. Polaris has done most of the work anyway, you trained him well."

"So we'll get there by tonight?" Yukino asked.

Sting grimaced. "It will be dark soon. I'm afraid we're gonna have to hunker down in the snow for one more night. I think Polaris needs a break."

Yukino's bottom lip dropped. "This is my fault isn't it. You could have made it home if it wasn't for me."

Sting shook his head and attempted to give her a reassuring grin, "No, no. It's just that in snowshoes it's hard, it's slow going. I would have been this slow either way."

Yukino knew he was lying. She walked with him the entire first day and she had struggled to keep up. Normally it would have been no trouble for her but her foot protested with every step and as the day went on she kept feeling unbearably hot and then freezing cold. She hid it well, Sting even seemed unaware of her struggle when they were lying wrapped up in their sleeping bag but she couldn't hide the way her body wouldn't let her get up that morning.

"Yukino. . ." Sting held her face gently, forcing her to look him in the eye. "It's okay, we'll be there by midday tomorrow. Then we'll get you a warm meal and a bath. Just focus on that, okay?"

Yukino nodded, biting her lip to hold in the sudden burst of sadness over her ineptness. Sting lowered his head and kissed her. His warmth and affection seemed to thaw her just enough to lose her feeling of hopelessness.

She smiled at him, "Will you at least let me help when we set up camp?"

He grinned back and ran a rough thumb across her cheek. "Of course." Then he gently put her scarfs back in place on her face. She watched him put his face mask back in place as well and rewrap his fingers. Then with a wink he stood and disappeared into the white. She heard him call to Polaris again and suddenly she jerked forward. She tried to stay awake, she worried if she didn't he would handle setting up the tent all by himself. Eventually she couldn't fight it anymore and she drifted back to sleep.

It was a cold day but Rogue could barely feel the frigid breeze as he trudged through the snow. It was his turn to patrol. The urge to wander off and look for Sting was strong but he thought of Frosh back at the house and knew he couldn't. Sting wasn't there anymore, so without Rogue there would be no one to help Frosh and Lector get through the hard everyday of Sabertooth. He imagined it wouldn't be long before Jiemma sent them on their way if Rogue wasn't there to protect them.

Lector was taking patrol more seriously than usual. He investigated every sound and every strange shape in the snow. Rogue knew the boy was even more desperate than he was to find Sting. Rogue didn't have the heart to tell the boy Sting probably wasn't coming home. Rogue couldn't say it because if he did then it was real. He didn't want it to be real. This first snow had been deep and the snow coming would be worse, it always was. If Sting didn't get back soon he could be stuck out there for weeks and with so little food Rogue couldn't see how Sting could make it.

The house was cold and silent without Sting around to lighten the mood. Rogue could tell that everyones' spirits were down, he could also see that Jiemma was reveling in it. Rogue was starting to question whether the decision to follow Jiemma all those years ago had been the right one. What kind of leader wanted his subordinates to be at odds with each other? What kind of leader wanted those who relied on him to feel absolute hopelessness? They should all be working together to survive out here, they should be family, not competitors. The woods that surrounded the house were cold enough, it seemed wrong to let that chill seep into the house as well.

In the distance Rogue heard the sound of a dog's bark and he froze. Lector froze as well, then slowly turned his face back to Rogue with eyes wide as saucers. Knowing the boy's impetuous tendencies, Rogue attempted to warn, "It's a dog Lector you don't even know if it's friendly. Be careful when. . ." But Lector was already sprinting away toward the sound.

With a curse Rogue sprinted after him, lumbering awkwardly through the deep snow. When he heard the joyous cry of "Sting!" he thought he might be hallucinating, but he circled the tree towards the sound and there his friend was with a dog, pulling a heavy loaded sled. Overjoyed, he took off and practically slammed into Sting with a tight hug.

To his surprise Sting didn't smile, or even look very pleased. Instead he clung desperately to Rogue's jacket. "You have to help me man, we've got to hurry and get her into the house!"

"Get who into the house?" Rogue asked.

He looked over to where Lector was picking at the sled and realized that there was a person strapped to the top. "Who's this Sting?" Lector asked, putting his face right up to the person's eyes.

"Yukino, we have to get her in. I don't know what's wrong. . ." Sting rasped.

Rogue's eyes went wide with sudden understanding. He turned slowly towards Sting. "What have you done?" he whispered.

Sting's eyes cut over to Lector. "Please Rogue, let's just get her in. I promise I'll tell you what happened. I promise." Rogue glanced back at the person strapped to the makeshift sled and was surprised by the pitiful way that Sting repeated, "Please."

Rogue nodded and then started untying the rope from the clearly exhausted dog. "Let's head to the back entrance. We can clean you two up before Jiemma gets back." Then he started pulling towards the house. Sting followed after, allowing Lector to bare some of his weight.

"Isn't that lucky Sting? He took Orga to check the South traps. We'll have you looking like you came home from a nice nap before he's even on his way back," Lector said excitedly.

It made Rogue's heart warm to hear Sting say, "What do ya mean? I could face him now. I look great! The cold was nothing."

Rogue snorted, "Sure, that's why your nose looks like you have rug burn."

"I knew you would make it back. Minerva was being ya know. . .Minerva about it, but I told her she was wrong. Nothing could ever bring you down," Lector said proudly.

Sting chuckled, "You got that right."

Rogue looked back at the girl resting in the sled. She had to be the thief, Rogue could just tell. What was Sting thinking? Why was he so desperate to get her in the house and well. He really hoped she was worth it, because there was no way Jiemma would go easy on her or Sting, or any of the people Sting cared about. Rogue looked at Sting one last time and noticed an expression of pain slip out from beneath his mask of strength. Rogue looked forward again and tried to increase his pace. The girl was clearly important to Sting and that meant she was important to Rogue as well.

Thanks kccb16 for looking things over!

Thanks for reading and a huge thanks to those of you who were kind enough to return!