Henri gasped for air when they broke through the surface of the water, leaning his head against Claude’s shoulder as the other brought them out of the water. He pushed away from Claude to support himself against the trunk of a tree, his wet curls sticking to his face.

"Let’s never do that again." Henri panted, wiping the water away from his eyes with his hands.

Claude looked back up at the cliff that they had jumped from, a dark look on his face.

"Do you think that’s enough to dissuade them?" Henri asked, following Claude’s gaze. He doubted he could make his legs move right then, if he had to run again, he would run himself through with Claude’s dagger.

Claude moved closer and took Henri’s trembling hands in both of his, "You must be cold, I’ll light a fire."

Henri huffed, he couldn’t help but feel like Claude was paying more attention to him than the threat they had to their lives. He let himself be led to a fallen log not too far from the flowing river nonetheless, wondering just how Claude intended to light a fire without any matchsticks.

Even if he did have any on him, they would be soaked and useless from their little dip in the icy river. Henri clasped his hands tighter, holding them close in a bit to retain his quickly dissipating body heat.

He couldn’t say how Claude started to fire but in a short time, there was a roaring flame right in front of him, warmth seeping in through the cold and wet clothes he had on.

It was completely dark now, the fire the only thing brightening up their immediate surrounding. Henri should probably be on guard even a little bit but all the running that he had done plus the warmth of the fire was making him really sleepy. Besides Claude was on guard, he was also seated on the log right beside Henri so that the Omega could rest his head on his shoulder.

Henri’s hair dried quickly, making it fritz around his face. He tried to focus on the fire to keep himself awake but the swaying flames only lulled him to a doze.

It was odd for Claude to be so quiet, or did all the years they spent apart change him? Did he even know who Claude was anymore? Would they go to being strangers now?

Claude quietly watched Henri struggle to stay awake, a bittersweet smile on his face. He had a lot to say but they were stuck in his throat, there was still a rift between them that he needed to breach but he feared that Henri would never toss him a rope.

It wasn’t really surprising when Henri’s head lolled forward, the sleepy Omega practically falling against him. He didn’t even rouse at this, just getting more comfortable with his upper body laid across Claude’s legs.

Claude picked him up, the log must be so uncomfortable. He sat Henri on his legs instead, propping his body up against him and holding him close while the fire danced hypnotically, sending harsh shadows against the planes of Claude’s face and the trees around.

He settled in to wait, there was no reason to move around until backup came, he knew that Alois would know to handle that. He had cut down the enemy’s numbers enough for them to think twice about trying to attack again.

He really hoped for their sake that they didn’t try to attack again because he was in a very comfortable position and would hate to move, also, he didn’t fancy disrupting Henri’s sleep twice in a single day.

-*-

Valentin woke up groggy, he held his head and squinted his eyes as he sat up. It was dark but he could make out that he was in a sleeping bag inside a tent... Now just how did he get here?

His memories were sluggish and all he could focus on was the campfire that he could kind of see through the cloth of the tent. Did he take a nap while the others were preparing dinner? Odd, he didn’t remember falling asleep...

He pushed open the flap of the tent nonetheless but as he poked his head out, he heard the very last voice he expected to hear.

"Valentin! You’re awake!" A familiar voice called from the group gathered around the campfire.

Errol?

Why was Errol here? Was he dreamin... Oh, ohh... that fucking bastard.

"Where’s Alexander?" He straightened up to ask with anger in his voice, looking through the group of vaguely familiar faces to find the person he was searching for.

Errol had gotten to him by then, Nael following behind him. "He’s at the lake- wait!" He had to grab hold of his younger brother’s hand to stop him from storming off. "Alexander refused to tell us what happened, what’s going on? Why are you both here? Where are the others?"

Valentin blinked in shock, his brain seeming to work overtime at Errol’s questions. "Oh," He mumbled, he didn’t know what he was expecting but he somehow didn’t see this coming.

Now that he had been reminded, the urge to stomp over to Alexander and kick him into the lake faded into the background. "We were attacked," He said softly so that only Errol and Nael would be privy to what he had to say. "They were trying to kill Henri and in the chaos, we got separated."

"Is that why you ended up unconscious?" Nael asked fairly calmly, a stark contrast from Errol who looked horror-stricken.

Valentin’s expression darkened again, "No." Was all he said, he didn’t bother elaborating further.

"Are the others alright? Is Henri okay?" Errol asked in a panic, the only sane one.

Valentin looked into the dark forest, worry furrowing his brows, "I’m sure they are," He said with less certainty than he would have liked.

"Whoa!"

"What’s that?"

"Why are they so many?"

Sounds of murmured surprise alerted the attention of the three Alphas, making them look over to the group by the fire and then up to the sky that had their attention.