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Hayes took Nikki's growling in stride; he was more focused on setting up the campsite than her personal remarks. They were starting to become background noise anyway, or he was just that tired.

"Get in line," he tossed over his shoulder as he measured out the area. "I think half the base wants to do that."

This was fresh snow - thick, fluffy, and completely unsuitable for laying a tarp over. Hayes started to tamp it down with his boots, then looked over at the Charizard. "I don't suppose you'd stomp on over here and help," he muffled. It was a rhetorical question.

"s**t!" Too tired to jump, Hayes stumbled back, but there was the smell of burning rubber, the toes of his boots looked distinctly melted, and the nylon uppers flickered with flame until the Rocket slapped snow over them. The blast of fire had missed the tent poles and tarp, but it's an ill wind that brings no good - the snow was melted too in a large area, right down to the dead grass.

Hayes looked down at the patch of meltwater and said nothing.

He set up the tent in silence, working with the mechanical, heavy-limbed motions of someone who will collapse if they stop, while water seeped through the insulation of his boots. The end result was a dome-shaped enclosure which the tent manufacturer claimed to fit three people, but more accurately fit one and a half.

"Here. Get in," the blond gestured tiredly, after he'd rolled out his sleeping bag inside for Nikki. "Leave your boots out here, take the heat packs with you."

He turned his back on the both of them and started unpacking the portable stove.

Hayes didn't appear to hear Nikki's muttering, because he didn't reply until the little gas-powered stove was blazing away beneath a pot of something, sheltered from the wind by a low wall of snow.

He called without looking back as he was pouring the contents. "What's the alternative? Leaving you to freeze?" The blond sounded almost scornful of the idea. He rose, half-stumbling to the tent, and offered Nikki a mug of soup thick with reconstituted vegetables, beef and noodles.

Once she took it (or threw it in his face) the Rocket thoroughly brushed his boots off, frowning faintly at the exposed lining. Once inside, the door zipped and secured against the elements, he pulled off his snow goggles and gave his partner a straightforward look and a fatigued half-smile.

"I'm protecting my own interests here too, you know."

He set about exchanging his soaked socks for a dry pair from his pack and drew his knees to his chest as much as his bulky clothing would allow.

Hayes was focused on his soup - he didn't so much care how it tasted as that he absorbed the warmth of it and fueled himself with its calories. The blond's eyes were half-closed against the steam, straggly strands of wet hair slicked over his forehead.

He managed to glance at Nikki and mumble "Not done yet," before the combination of warmth, a chance to sit, and a body that needed to rest hours ago got the better of him. His eyes closed and his head drifted forward, glasses making a quiet 'tink' off the rim of his empty mug.

The blue light that filtered through the tent was starting to wane. Outside the wind picked up, making a hollow wailing sound as it passed through the trees. There may or may not have been a faint snuffling around the back of the tent and a shadow that moved against the bending of the pines in the drafts.

If Hayes had been awake, he probably would have sworn again, but he wasn't. The blond was asleep, or more accurately, unconscious. There was nothing comfortable about his sleeping position; he'd just collapsed, dead to the world within his layers of insulation.

No help from him now.

The scratching from outside came louder, and it was definite this time - the sound of a paw sliding down nylon. And again, more insistent. A small black nose pressed against the tent, visible through the fabric.

A delicate muzzle pushed its way through the opening, forcing it wider, and something slipped past Nikki into the tent and rounded to face her in a graceful movement, tail waving: a Glaceon, nearly the color of the twilit drifts outside.

It stopped near her sleeping partner and nosed at the hand that had fallen to his side. Hayes' fingers twitched, but he didn't stir.

The creature turned an almond-eyed gaze the color of old lake ice on the girl for a long moment. Then it was in motion again, herding her back toward the sleeping bag.

Other than an eye briefly turned as a hand came close to one diamond-shaped ear, the Glaceon didn't seem to notice the protests. It shepherded her until her feet were back in the bag, whereupon it wheeled toward the door and leaped, snagging the door's zipper on one tooth and pulling it closed. A little smattering of snow that had blown in was left at the entrance.

The Pokemon turned and nosed at Hayes again. The blond uttered a 'mmf,' which seemed to be good enough, because the ice-type turned and approached Nikki, coming up close to her side. It looked up at her face for a moment, and then it was burrowing down into the sleeping bag, its progress marked by a lumpy, moving hummock.