𝔗𝔥𝔢 ℌ𝔞𝔫𝔤𝔪𝔞𝔫'𝔰 𝔚𝔦𝔱𝔠𝔥

19

Y/N spent a lot of time sleeping after they had escaped. Living in a cave was nowhere close to the level of comfort she was normally used to, but it worked out somehow. The nights were cold, but Shouta had packed a bunch of blankets and warm clothes, so it wasn't too bad. They also still had some food, so they didn't need to go out and look for anything just yet. Shouta still went out every day and got some fresh food, so they would have enough over winter.

Y/N wasn't sure whether they'd really have to stay here all winter, but Shouta said that they would need to stay that long. Y/N's injuries needed to heal before they could travel through any neighbouring towns and a bit of time needed to pass until everyone had forgotten about the fire in the prison and about Y/N and him escaping. Shouta had made sure to play things safe, but they could never really know whether anyone was looking for them or not. They'd surely look for Shouta.

Most people would probably assume that Y/N died in the fire that night, but Shouta had gone missing at the same time and everyone knew that they were married. It was kind of obvious that he would have had something to do with the fire. Even if people suspected that they had escaped they were probably counting on them showing up somewhere else where they could either apprehend them or they were some other authorities' problem. And if they suspected them of living out in the wild, then they would probably not bother looking for them after the winter. And that was the whole reason why Y/N and Shouta had to stay in the caves over winter.

But food and the cold weren't really the only problem. Another thing was that Y/N's injuries were very slow to heal. They did get better over time, but it took a long time for them to improve and living outside in a cave definitely didn't help. Shouta did his best to take care of them and Y/N tried her best to rest and keep the wounds clean, but there was only so much they both could do. The healing process was still taking its time, probably also because Y/N had used her arms and legs when they weren't really healed yet, when she was escaping the prison.

Y/N often worried whether anyone might come and look for them out here, or stumble upon them by accident and send someone to kill them, but during the rest of summer and autumn no one came. The caves were quite far away from the town and they didn't really belong to any other town either. That's what Shouta said, anyway. Y/N just hoped that he was right and people wouldn't bother coming this far out into the forest just for the two of them. And the closer winter got, the more unlikely it was that anyone would come looking for them. It would get too dangerous.

The thing was that if it was dangerous for people coming from town to look for them so deep in the forest, it was also incredibly dangerous for Y/N and Shouta to spend the entire winter out there without much protection and with the caves providing the only shelter they could get. It was freezing cold at the best of times and they had to ration whatever food they had to be able to make it through the winter. They also had to ration any medicine that Shouta had taken with him, because there was no way to make more during winter, which didn't help Y/N heal any faster.

At this point she was almost certain that she was going to be left with some permanent damage. She was surprised that her arms were healing better than her legs, so maybe she'd come out of all this with both arms intact and only a bit of a limp. It was probably the best she could hope for at the moment. Things weren't looking too good either way and it was making Y/N nervous. If she wouldn't be able to walk, then how would they make a living, provided they survived the winter?

But no matter how much she worried, Y/N couldn't do anything about what happened about a month into winter. The rationing of food and the cold temperatures and the slow healing wounds were starting to take their toll on her and she started feeling tired a lot. She was getting headaches and a very persistent cough. Her throat was sore and her nose was runny all the time. She was barely able to catch a breath. All of that wouldn't have been too bad, if it had stayed like that.