Honestly, he felt like shit, but he wasn't about to tell her that.
"All good." He lied, smiling tightly. Adeline nodded but he didn't think she believed him.
Draco felt Alexandre's stare across the fire.
"I don't suppose you feel so terribly you need to stay behind." He called, glowering at him. Unlike Adeline, the reflection of the fire only seemed to darken his eyes with a gloomy malignant.
"Don't suppose you'll shut up." He called back, growing irritated by the grating sound of his voice.
"Putrid waste of space," Alexandre muttered darkly, to which Draco responded with a single-fingered hand gesture.
When they all decided it was time to sleep, Adeline volunteered for the first watch.
"I'll wake you up when I need to." She said to him, giving him a reassuring smile and Draco believed it enough to fall into sleep soon after.
Yet when he woke up, the sun was up and so was Adeline. She was standing to pack her things, stretching as she finished.
"I thought you were going to wake me." He said, sitting up from his pack's blanket.
Adeline shrugged. "You needed the rest. Dean took over."
She nodded her head in Dean's direction, seeing him standing by one of the trees in the distance, leaning against it as he waited.
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When they head off, the incline up the mountain only gets worse. It's hours of pushing against falling snow and aching limbs. Throughout it all, Alexandre won't stop his incessant talking. Draco was somewhat close to him as Adeline stood at the back next to Dean. It had grated against Draco for hours, knowing that she was back there with him. So when Alexandre was on his third hour of still talking about himself, he snapped.
"Just do us all a favour and shut the fuck up." He bit out.
Alexandre turned on him, eyes dark with hatred and disgust.
"Don't tell me what to do, you stain on life." He growled, stopping his walking to shout. "I am your superior and you will treat me with that such respect."
"My superior?" Draco gawked. "You're a delusional ghost with a god complex!"
Alexandre snarled at him, fierce and ugly, and then promptly punched Draco in the face.
He groaned, cupping his nose, but before he could retaliate Adeline was pushing them away from each other and demanding they stop acting like children.
From then on, Draco hung back from the rest of the group. He watched Adeline tire over and over, but she never faltered in her step, her eyes shining bright and determined. But he's the first by her side when she slips, bracing her fall with her hand and slicing her palm open. She winces as blood begins to trickle down her wrist.
