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𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 : 𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞

Eris was in limbo; floating through an endless stream of air and space as nothing made sense. Ironically enough the only thing that did make sense was the fact that nothing made sense. She would have laughed at it, but she wasn't fully conscious in this inhuman realm of existence, and so she let herself be carried on in silence.

It wasn't until the lighter tones of her ocean of flowing air were interrupted by black ink spots. At first there weren't many, but soon they seemed to grow exponentially, clawing their splattering way through every peaceful light around her, until their tentacles surrounded her limbs, absorbing her in their looming darkness.

Eris was so cold.

That was the first and only thing she could think about as she clutched her hands against her chest, trying to keep any form of heath to herself, but unfortunately for her, it didn't do anything.

Eris was also completely drenched in liquid coldness that stuck to her skin uncomfortably. She started to shiver, eyes still closed tightly shut.

The trembling movement made the position she was in change. It was only then she could kind of anchor herself down to reality, but not fully, something was off.

She slowly started to make out the feeling of arms placed around her legs and back, accompanied by the rapidly rising and falling chest that supported her back and side. Somehow, it seemed like she fell through the chest every so often, she didn't know how to explain it.

Cold. So fucking cold.

Her jaws started to tremble involuntarily, apparently alerting the person who held her, as they seemed to press her closer to their chest.

The movement made Eris dare open her eyes momentarily. The blinding lights burned the brunette's senses, creating an excruciating headache that made her groan. She quickly shut her eyes again, but not before momentarily meeting the greens she had seen before.

"Shit." The owner of the eyes mumbled for an, to Eris, unknown reason. The voice set the girl off, as it was far too familiar, but in her preoccupied mindset, she couldn't place a name to the voice for the life of her.

Instead, she opted to try and reserve any warmth she could, instinctively leaning closer to the chest that felt more like a radiator to her.

"Hey," The voice suddenly started, sounding rough in it's low tone, "You have to stay awake."

She ignored the words, but somehow understood that it was probably better, even if sleeping sounded pretty good to her right now. So instead, she leaned her ear against the radiator, listening to its heartbeat to keep her tied to the conscious world.

Some time went by like that, listening to the rhythmic pace while preserving any warmth in her body, which was not much.

It wasn't until the arms around her tensed and the sound of a door opening was heard, that she couldn't focus on the heartbeat anymore.

More voices were heard than the one before.

"What the fuck happened?"

"What did you do?"

The voices were distant, foggy, but still they were present.

"She fell into the river." The closer voice spoke, an uncertainty apparent in his voice, "She's freezing."

A hand was placed on her forehead. The warmth that came with the hand was unexpected, sending a particularly harsh shiver down her body. Then the hand was gone again, and with that the heat, leaving her to clutch her hands against her chest once more.

"She's burning up." A lighter voice spoke, closer than before, softer than before.

"George, what the fuck do I need to do to fix that?" The closest voice spoke frantically, with slight agitation laced through it.

"She needs to warm up, and quickly by the looks of it." George replied, growing slightly more distant as he spoke, "She needs to lie down somewhere and she needs dry clothes."

Eris was moved again. Things made less and less sense to her, the confusion pushing against her brain, she groaned quietly while still keeping her eyes shut, appearing almost unconscious to the visible world.

"No," The closest voice spoke after some time of movement, vibrations running through his chest, "She can stay in my room; it's the only one with a fireplace in it."

No verbal reply was heard until she was put down on something soft. Daring to open her eyes again, she found two dark brown eyes staring at her with a worried look placed in them.

The light still hurt her eyes but it was significantly darker than before.

"Dream, she needs dry clothes." George spoke lowly, eyeing to the side of Eris, "She's soaked, it will only make things worse."

"Okay," The closest voice replied and Eris averted her eyes to the speaker, finding two black dots to stare back at her as she continued to shiver, "Can you grab some clothing then? I'll light the fire."

George nodded and left the room, leaving her and the masked man behind.

"I'm cold." Eris whispered, looking up at the black dots again. She could have sworn they were green before.

Dream chuckled dryly, glancing at her quickly before returning his attention to the logs in front of him, "It would be a problem if you weren't."

Eris' vision swayed as she looked around her. She was placed on a clothed chair, next to a cozy-looking bed with an amateurishly woven quilt spread displayed over the white bedsheets. It looked homely.

Silence overtook the room as Eris' mind was occupied by the freezing cold that pressed against every cell of her body and Dream's mind by the matches he held in his hands, trying to light the fire in the cobblestone fireplace in front of him.

That silence was only interrupted when George entered the room again, dark clothing placed in his hands, "I couldn't find any good jumpers, so I took one of yours. I also brought a towel."

Dream turned to face the brunet, standing up from his kneeling position, "It's fine. Give them to me."

George handed over the clothes, before leaving the room again, muttering something indecipherable under his breath as he did so.

Eris looked up at the dots in front of her, her throat became dryer. Maybe it was only now that she noticed.

"You need to take off those wet clothes," Dream said, keeping any expression that usually flowed through his voice to a minimum.

Eris shook her head, lips trembling, "No. Too cold."
"You can't warm up if you're still wearing those clothes," The man insisted.

Eris sighed shakily, rubbing her hands together before reaching over and accepting the pile of clothes.

Dream handed them over and sighed in some sort of relief, before clearing his throat, "I'll turn around."
And he did.

Setting down the clothes onto the bed, she reached over to pull herself up on the sides of the chair, groaning as she did. Every limb in her body seemed to ache, screaming for her to stop moving all together, but as usual, she wasn't one to listen to the desires of anyone, not even her own body.

She quickly unbuttoned her trousers, scraping them off her shaking knees, before letting them drop to the ground, with an awkwardly squishy tud.

The air that slammed against her bruised and scarred legs made her breath hitch, "Fucking hell."

Drying herself off as quickly as she possibly could, she dried her legs with the towel, careful to avoid several bruises, before quickly putting on a pair of joggers that were slightly too big for her.

Then she moved on to her next task. Slowly, she started to unbutton her shirt that stuck to her skin with trembling fingers.. It took her some effort, but eventually she peeled it off her body as well, leaving her in her sport's bra. She never felt the need to put on anything better, it did the job and it was practical- it wasn't like she had much to protect anyways.

As she stood in the cold again, she realised she had stopped shivering.

A hitchy breath left her lips as her head began to feel stuffy, like rotting pieces of cotton candy were fluffed on every side of her mind.

Raising her left hand, she placed it against her forehead; she didn't feel good. The skin was slightly on the warmer side and when she retrieved her hand, it came back glistening with either sweat or the remains of the rain.

Her lungs tightened, refusing to let out any air and her vision started to flatten, the outlined objects in the small room turning into shapes, just like Dream's figure who was kneeled in front of the fire.

Stubborn as she was she reached over to the towel that laid on the bed again, but was stopped as her knees buckled underneath the building pressure of her body, sending her to the ground with a thud.

Dream immediately turned around, panic hidden behind his covered eyes, as he quickly rushed over, kneeling in front of the brunette and lifting her from the ground, turning her to him.

Eris blinked slowly as she couldn't seem to focus on anything that happened around her, the dots in front of her multiplying and disappearing occasionally.

"Eris?" Dream asked, trying to let his voice be a guide to get her back to reality as she clearly was out of it. He lifted the back of his hand against her forehead, just as she had done a moment earlier, quite shocked at the intense heat of it, "Shit. George!"

It took a moment before the called brunet bursted through the door, "What?"

"What do you mean what?" Dream replied sarcastically, masking the panic that he felt, "She fucking collapsed and her forehead feels like it could light itself on fire any second."

"Get her in the bed, dumbass." George replied, quickly making his way over to a closet that stood on the opposite of the room, retrieving multiple quilts spreads, furs and blankets, "She needs to warm up."

Dream followed his instructions, picking up the brunette and laying her down on his bed, before placing the bed sheets over her.

George placed the rest of the blankets over her as well, her face barely visible between the furs and woolen blankets.

Then he checked her forehead also, "She's running a bad fever."

He wanted to add something to his words before he seemed to notice something.

He looked up at the masked man in front of him,

"She stopped shivering."

"Is that bad?"

"Yes, that's bad." George confirmed leaning over to look at the girl's flushed cheeks, "She has hypothermia, by the looks of it, pretty bad hypothermia. I need you to get something hot, like tea. But make sure she can drink it right away. She needs everything so she can warm up, because if she doesn't she could die."

Dream froze slightly in his place, looking at the brunette in front of him, who now had her eyes tightly shut.

"Now, Dream." George repeated, eyeing the man with questioning eyes, until he started to make his way out of the door, "You also need to change your clothes. I don't want to take care of you both."

He only got a huff in reply but that was all he needed. He reverted his attention to the girl in front of him, a slight look of empathy in his dark eyes, "How do you even manage this."

The softly spoken words were heard by Eris, but ignored as a piercing headache split through her skull and every bone in her body ached, leaving her to lie incredibly still with tensed up arms placed against her chest. The only allowed movement was the inevitable rising of her chest that still felt too tight for comfort.

The only good thing about the situation was that she didn't feel as cold anymore, instead the multiple blankets placed around her started to feel slightly uncomfortable.

She opened her eyes again to scan the room around her, but had to stop quickly as the movement hurt her eyes, her sight fell onto George, whose dark eyes looked at her with a worried glance. His features and posture shifted, glowing hazy and blurred.

Until the eyes shone golden and a pink scar placed over his lips, all the way up to his cheekbone.
Instinctively she opened her mouth, before trying to swallow the dryness of it away. The golden eyes looked disappointed; disappointed in a way they would look at a misbehaving child.

The brunette felt small under the gaze, mustering her confidence to find to speak, "I left the compass at home."

The golden eyes changed back to dark brown hues as their brows lowered into a frown.

George stared worriedly into Eris' dilated pupils, surrounded by the icy blue that seemed to resemble her current situation.

The words she spoke were incoherent mutters, leaving George confused to say the least. He was given no real time to process however as dream entered the room again, door slamming against the wall, making Eris open her eyes again before quickly shitting them in distant agony.

"How's she doing?"

"Since when do you care?"

A short silence.

"I don't feel like taking care of a body."

Another silence.

"Sure.."

A particularly bad squeeze in Eris' lungs made her wheeze, jaws clenching afterwards. The two noticed.

Slowly but surely the freezing cold Eris had felt, started to melt like snow in the blasting sun, replacing itself with a smoldering heat.

She needed fresh air, now.

Moving from her tensed up position, she started to slowly push away the blankets that were placed around, desperate for cold air.

She was burning and on fire and everything felt so, so wrong. Mind clouded in an ever ending fog, she pushed as her limbs ached. Even when two sets of arms tried to put her back in place, she continued to try and remove every layer that was placed on her glistening skin.

"Eris, stop." Dream asked, trying to push the girl back into a lying position, which proved to be less difficult than thought, "What are you doing?"

"I'm hot." Eris muttered frantically, trying to rid herself of the hands that prevented the flow of air under their handprints, "Let go off me."

The slurred words alerted Dream and he questioningly looked at George, who had his eyes narrowed in thought.

"That's bad. I've read about hypothermia, and this is bad." George whispered, his hands still pressed against Eris' shoulder, stopping her from moving.

"How can she be hot when she has hypothermia?"
Dream questioned, confusion still woven through his vowels.

George was quiet for a moment, trying to remember the things he had read, before speaking up again, "It's like this thing where you suddenly get really hot-, what's it called again-, paradoxical undressing. I can't remember why but it's bad and she can't do that. It speeds up the process of hypothermia-,"

"What do I need to do?" Dream interrupted George in his rambling. Looking at him with focused eyes while still keeping one of his arms on Eris' shoulder.

The words were far away to Eris who was still far too hot, but her body failed her struggle against the touches against her skin, to her utter grievance.

A ringing sound overtook the room and the brunette could only hear the voices of the two people present in the room in a distant, blurred out tone. Like they were behind a glass wall.

Then something pulled her upright and put something even warmers over her. She tried to protest to no avail, eyes opening slightly to frown at whatever was happening to her, but nothing made sense.

The heat was overwhelming.

She tried to pull the warmth around her off her but was stopped as something suddenly trapped her in her place. She protested the weight around her shoulders but soon stopped as her head and shoulders were pulled back against a soft wall.

The heat reached its peak, leaving her to pull against the warmth around her skin once more before she finally started to cool off again slowly.

Eris let out a sigh of relief, which was repeated slowly against her neck. Soon she realised the weight around the shoulders to be arms and the soft wall to be a chest that shielded her head and neck from any threatening cold that loomed in the air.

She wasn't able to think much of it, her mind too fogged up. But the situation reminded her of something she had experienced before, something she couldn't remember quite well, but a safe feeling of protection seemed to reminisce.

Then a hoarse voice whispered behind her softly, "Don't die on me."

Soon Eris started to shiver again slightly before drifting off into a dreamful sleep

____
A/N:

consist uploading?? couldn't be me - seriously tho i hope that i can upload every 3 days or so

also - bc of my uploading schedule i'm working on- please leave a comment or two or just vote - it really helps me get more people to read this weird boom of mine :]

(writing this while walking to my volleyball tryouts- but there might be some spacing issues bc i copy pasted this chapter from my google docs to wattpad sp sprry ab rhat!)

love you all,
Blue