**Sorry for the delay. Holiday was hecktic. Hopefully I'll get back on schedule now! Also, thank you Yolieb for the awesome fan cover!**

Besides a thick layer of dust over everything, the cabin is surprisingly clean. Aiden opens the chimney and makes sure there is nothing inside that will catch fire while I pull off sheets from the furniture. I connect to the spring below the house and I run water over all the surfaces until the dust is gone and then I take our bags and begin to unpack.

"That should do it." Aiden stands back as a fire grows in the hearth. He places his hands onto his hips and nods approvingly at the stone fireplace. The door and windows are open to let the fresh air in. It's cold, but once the house is aired out we'll be able to shut the door and hide from the world. The thought makes my heart pound.

"Just make sure the fire outside gets put out...and push the ash away from the steps. I don't want to step in it whenever I go outside."

"I'll do that first and bring in some more wood."

I empty the food into the cupboards and I'm a little discouraged by the amount we have. I try to picture how long the food will last if we divide it up in small rations. I shake my head. We need food. No matter how I look at it or divide it up we will need more than what we've brought if we're to survive the winter. I look out through the open door, it's cold, and I though it hasn't snowed any more. It will and we won't be able to get off the mountain easily.

Aiden returns with wood stacked on his arms. "Is everything alright?" He stacks the wood next to the fireplace and stands up, wiping his hands on his jeans.

"We're not going to last the winter on these supplies," I say.

He frowns and comes over to the open cupboard. "You're right." He nods. "What should we do? I could try to hunt. But I'm not sure there are any deer up here and we both don't know what to do with it even if we did manage to kill one."

I shake my head and pull out the crinkled map. I smooth it out against the table and together we look at it. We look at our current location, or a rough estimate of it, and trail our fingers to the nearest town.

"We'd have to trek back to the truck," Aiden says. "This would be at least a day and a half excursion if we manage not to get lost and if it doesn't snow or anything."

"We don't really have a choice," I tell him. "We won't last two weeks on the rations we have."

"True." He nods. "It's your call."

"We'll stay here for the night." I can imagine leaving this cabin quite yet. "Then we'll head out early in the morning with the empty packs."

We shut the house back up and draw the curtains shut. The cabin smells of pine and wood smoke and I close my eyes and smile. This is the smell of security. This is the scent that drew me across forests and rivers with a man I used to hate. This is the place my parents made for me a safe haven, a home.

Aiden disappears into the bathroom for some time and I sit on the couch and stare into the fire. I watch the way the flames flicker and swirl and pop.

It's not so different from water.

I would like to see what happens if you tried to breathe fire.

Shut up. I'm not stupid.

I let out a sigh and close my eye and lean back against the cushions.

"Is everything alright?"

Aiden stands just outside the bathroom door. His dark jeans hug his waist, his black shirt wraps around his muscles. This is the most skin I've seen Aiden show. And I can't stop staring.

He's covered in scars.

More scars than any human being should ever have to wear. They cover his skin and disappear under his clothes. He looks down at his arms and trails a finger along one of them.

"Do you remember all them?"

I hug my arms close. I remember mine. Each mark on my skin, I remember the bite and sting of each.

"Yes."

"Does it ever go away?"

"No."

"Then how..." I swallow. "How do you live with it?"

Aiden comes and sits next to me. "I've learned to accept the fact that these marks are all apart of who I am. They've helped shape me into who and where I am now."

I shake my head. "That's...bullshit."

Aiden laughs. "Yeah, you think so?"

"Of course I do. You would have been you whether or not someone whipped and burned you. What they did to us-" I shiver. "It was sick. These marks are like garbage along a roadside. They don't belong there, but someone decided to put it there anyway."

Aiden pulls my arm away from my body and pushes the sleeve of my jacket back, exposing the smaller scars along my wrist. "It's still your skin Adie, no one else's. They didn't strip you down and zip you up in another. This was the skin your mother touched. Yes, someone put the marks there, but you're here because of those marks. You've come out the other side stronger. If we simply look back on our lives with fear and anger then there will be no tomorrow to look for."

He drops my hand.

I look into his eyes. They look like the ocean today, the ocean that I drowned in. I'm drowning now. But I'm still breathing.

Aiden sleeps on the couch that night. His legs hang over the armrest and a pillow lays bunch under his neck. It doesn't look comfortable, but he doesn't complain, and he insisted I have the bed. He stares into the fire and I stand in the threshold of the bedroom. "I'm going to leave this door open so I don't freeze."

He nods.

The wooden floor is polished and smooth under my feet but I feel the cold creeping up from below. Aiden doesn't move or say anything else so I retreat to the bed. I slip under the covers and pile pillows around me. From here I can see Aiden's face in the firelight. I pull the covers up further and close my eyes. I take a deep breath, surprised at how much I love the scent of pine and wood smoke.

"Goodnight," Aiden says softly.

I open my eyes.

"Goodnight," I reply.

A small smile touches Aiden's face.

We get up early that morning. Aiden lets the fire die and together we sit at the table and chew on trail mix and lace our shoes. When I finish I look out the window. The world is still white, but the sky is clear. We've picked a good day to make the journey. I just hope we get back before it decides to snow. I'm not sure I'd be able to find the place again through the snow.

"Ready?" Aiden asks.

I nod. "You?"

"As I'll ever be."

We both swing the empty packs onto our shoulders. I carry the bag of trail mix in my hand since it's the only food we'll take and knowing us it'll be gone before we reach the bottom of the first mountain. Aiden shuts the door and I wait as he locks it from the inside. Together we step off the porch and into the snow. I'm shocked at the cold and the way it stabs my lungs at first.

Aiden grabs a handful of trail mix then takes the lead. "I'll cut a path and we'll take turn leading to save energy and if we're lucky it won't snow and we'll be able to use the same path to get back when we have heavier bags."

"Shouldn't we try and be more careful? What if someone finds the trail and follows it back to the cabin?" I look over my shoulder but we've already passed the thick trees that hide our safe haven. Aiden walks between the large boulders and rocks that reach far above our heads. From here I can hear the roar of the river below the cliff.

"I wonder if our spring feeds into that river," I say between breaths.

"Wouldn't surprise me," he replies panting. Both of our breaths swirl out in sharp clouds, we don't talk after that. Silently we take turns leading and cutting through the snow. It's almost up to my ankles, but I can't imagine what it will be like when it's up to our hips or more. We'll really be stuck after that, which why we need to be ready.

We make it back to the truck, and I'm impressed with us both for not getting lost once, despite only having walked this way once before. Aiden pulls the branches off the truck and fishes the keys from his pack. I throw my bag into the bed of the truck.

A few minutes later the truck is pumping out heat and my fingers are against the vents. Aiden slowly makes his way down the mountain, careful to make sure we don't slide off the edge. But the truck says true, and before we know it, Aiden stops at the gate. He reaches for the handle but I stop him. "I want to try," I say.

He raises his eyebrows but he nods anyway. I push the door open and walk to the lock. I pull water to my fingers and see as the water sees. The inside of the lock is confusing but I push the water against the mechanisms and spin it. The lock pops and I look over my shoulder and grin at the figure behind the wheel. He raises his thumb and I push the gate open and lock it behind him once he's pulled through.

"That was easy," I say climbing into the seat.

"Others can be more difficult," He replies, pulling onto the road.

"You're just jealous that I caught on so fast."

"Very jealous."

We both smile.

The drive into town seems to take no time at all, but when we arrive I feel that we've made some great accomplishment, like discovering the lost city of Atlantis. We pull into a parking space on the main street. Aiden hands me a wad of cash. "I'll handle food supplies. You handle anything else we might need up on there. We'll meet back in an hour."

I nod, taking the cash. "Fair enough."

I walk into a thrift shop. The door rings and a girl looks up from the book in her hands. "Hello," she says. She can't be more than a year older than me.

"Hi." I wait a moment while she looks at me, but there is no recognition on her face, just a small welcoming smile.

"Did you need help finding anything?" she asks.

"No, just looking. You can read, I won't tell."

Her smile grows a little bit and she goes back to her book. I head towards the woman's racks and spend the next hour trying to figure out how to best use the money. In the end I end up buying another pair of jeans, a long sleeved shirt, pajamas, and a set of underwear. I even buy Aiden a pair of jeans, a black long sleeved shirt, and some boxers. At least we'll have something clean to wear now when our other set of clothes are drying. I go to the miscellaneous section and find a camping cook set. The pots all stack into one another and it comes with utensils and plates and bowls.

As the girl rings up the items I count out my money. "So I've never seen you before, did you just move here?"

I shake my head and notice she's looking at the men's clothes with curiosity. "I'm just passing through, with my...boyfriend."

"Cool." I grab a package of socks from a little metal basket at the register and add it to the pile for Aiden and me to share.

"We didn't prepare very well," I say.

She just nods and when she tells me the total I fork over the cash. She hands me back two dollars and some pennies and I take the plastic bag.

"Thanks...enjoy the book."

I walk back to the truck and put the stuff in the front seat so nothing gets wet. I look around for Aiden, but I don't see him. Ten minutes later, I start to worry. What if someone recognized him? My heart starts the race and my mouth goes dry. If he's been recognized I should get the hell out of here. I should run back to safe haven and never emerge again.

I can't leave him though. As much as I would have loved to before I can't now. Something has changed between us and even though I'm not sure what it all means. I know this simple truth: we're in it together.

"Adie." I jump.

Aiden has a dozen bags in his hands. I'm not even sure how he's managed to carry all of them. "Aiden, thank God. I was worried that something might have gone wrong." I take two bags from him and place them in the truck bed.

"You were worried?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Silence. "I'll take that as a good thing."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I narrow my eyes.

"It means you care."

I look at the bags.

"Did you get enough food for us?"

He nods." Yes. Can't guarantee we'll eat like kings, but we'll survive. Do you like soup?"

"Yes."

"Good."

I spot a store on the corner and smile.

"Do you have any extra money?" He pulls out two twenties from his pocket.

"Excellent, you're buying lunch." I point to the small restaurant on the corner of the street.

Aiden looks at the restaurant, it takes him a second, but then he looks at me and grins.

"Consider it a date."