Max

10

A/N: It's a day late, but happy birthday, Ripley10.

Sang was caught in a blizzard. Everything was blindingly white. With the swirling snowflakes and dense fog, she couldn't even see her own hands, swollen stiff, waving in front of her face. Harsh and biting wind whipped her hair around to smack against her cheeks and stick to the snot running out of her nostrils. The dripping fluid from her nose was already half frozen.

She yelled out, calling, crying for help. She was going to freeze to death. The wind and snow swallowed her voice.

***

"Sang," Nathan's voice woke her from her nightmare. Even as her eyes cracked open, she was still shivering.

"Nathan?" she croaked, voice scratchy from sleep.

"Jesus, Peanut. You're as cold as ice." His hands rubbed vigorously over the bare skin of her arms, eliciting goosebumps.

As awareness slowly crept into her, Sang realized she was lying atop Nathan in his bed. Their legs were tangled together. She curled herself against his bare chest, nestling a knee high up in between his legs, to try and syphon some of his body heat into herself.

Nathan grunted and pushed lightly at her thigh, guiding her leg to not cuddle quite so close. "As much as I like having a Sang-blanket to keep my toasty, where did the real blanket go?" he asked.

"You must have kicked it off," Sang replied while rolling off of him. She clutched his bicep as she did so, trying to get him to roll with her. It was Nathan's turn to be the blanket. She wanted to be sandwiched between the mattress and him to trap the heat all to herself.

Nathan chuckled sleepily as he draped himself over her tiny frame. "I'm not the one who steals blankets. That's you."

"Nuh uh," she whined through a yawn. "You have me mistaken for someone else."

"You're right," Nathan said as he buried his face into the crook of her neck. His voice came out muffled through her hair. "Luke is the one who does that."

"Why does everyone always blame Luke?" Sang asked.

Nathan didn't answer. Instead, he planted a loud and sloppy kiss on her pulse point before shoving himself into a pushup. In the blink of an eye, he was on his knees and looking around his darkened bedroom.

Sang's teeth chattered as her skin became exposed to the cold, nighttime air again.

"My blanket is gone," Nathan said.

Sang rolled over once more toward the edge of the bed and peered over the side. There was just enough illumination from twilight outside to show an empty floor.

Nathan leaned over the other side, then the foot of the bed to continue the search. "It's not here."

Where could it have gone? Blankets didn't just walk away in the middle of the night. Maybe Luke snuck in while they were sleeping and played a joke.

Sang rolled her eyes at her thoughts. Now she was blaming Luke for things that probably weren't his fault.

"We need to check on Max," Nathan said in a firm and serious tone. He had switched to protective Academy mode in an instant.

Sang had forgotten about Max until Nathan mentioned the dog-person's name. The night prior, they tucked Max in to Nathan's dad's bed in the master bedroom. They both made sure Max understood he was to wake them if he needed anything.