Put back together

64. Upon cold white burn purple flames

Logan stood still as he watched the mass of snow roll down the neighbouring mountain and mow down trees on its way.
It was the second avalanche they'd witnessed in three days.

Emile blew a signal into his pipe, the loud noise echoing through the valley.
From what little Logan understood about the signals he had likely let other people in the area know where the avalanche had come down and that they wouldn't be able to help.

According to Emile and Patton they were almost on the other side of the mountains by now. Logan had no idea how they knew, every mountain looked the same to him, but he hoped they were right.
Around here it was freezing.

They had been forced to make fires just to unfreeze their water to be able to drink for two days now. Simply eating snow was also too cold. They couldn't afford to let their bodies cool down like that with no reliable way to warm up again.

Logan stumbled over something buried deep in the snow and barely managed to catch himself from falling.

He was shivering uncontrollably and sneezed into the crook of his elbow for what felt like the thousandth time.

Roman took a hold of his hand and Logan wished they could take of the gloves to have actually skin contact.

"Hey!" Patton suddenly called over the howling wind. "I think there is something!"

Logan followed his gaze.

A lantern bopped steadily towards them, the flame a bright purple colour.

He squinted trying to get a better look at it.

It seemed awfully familiar.

The realisation where he knew it from felt like a boulder dropping into his stomach.

"No way..."

"What is it?" Roman asked.

Right, the others probably could barely make out the light if anything at all.

"That's Virgil's lantern," Logan yelled to make sure they could hear him.

Even with the cloth covering most of it Logan could tell that Roman's face fell.

Logan watched Virgil come closer as they walked on.

He was limping and using the lantern as a improvised crutch.

The wind stilled suddenly, leaving the snowflakes it had been whipping around hanging in the air, awkwardly tumbling around themselves with no guide to show them where to go.

Virgil was just a few feet away now and stopped as he saw them.

"Hello," he broke the tense silence. "It's been a while."

Logan moved a little closer to Roman.

"I heard you're dating now."

Even more silence followed his words.

"You're alive," Roman finally said. Logan couldn't tell if he was relieved or disappointed. Or perhaps afraid.

"Surprise, bitch. I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me," Virgil stepped down to them, putting most of his weight on the lantern, without breaking eye contact.

"My husband likes that phrase," Emile said.

Virgil turned to him, confusion written over his face.

"What-?"

"My husband. He's a mage too. Have you been using a lot of magic? You seem pretty far gone already."

Logan watched the two of them cautiously. It made sense that MiM got worse the more someone used magic but as far as he could tell Virgil looked fully aware of what was happening around him.

The Mage opened and closed his mouth a few times.

"There's a hole in my stomach," he finally said and pointed at Roman. "Because he stabbed me. But it's fine. I had it coming. And Remus tried to eat them to avenge me."

Emile just nodded in understanding.

"Wait!" Patton interrupted. "How do you know about that? And how did you know we were dating?"

Virgil didn't react as if he hadn't even heard him.

A small gust of wind swirled up a few snow flakes.

"There'll be hail soon," Virgil said looking up at the grey sky. "There's a cave a bit further up. I think I'll go there. If you want to you can join me."

With that he turned around and went back towards where he'd come from.

"Should we follow him?" Logan asked. "If he's right and it's really going to be hailing we should definitely seek shelter."

"I agree," Emile said, nodding. "And he doesn't really seem as angry as you'd expect from someone you tried to kill. I'd know. Remy showed me Kill Bill."

"Okay," Patton shrugged and turned to Roman. "Are you coming?"

Roman glared at Virgil's retreating back.

"Fine," he finally agreed.

The cave Virgil had mentioned had a slim entrance, barely visible from the outside.
Inside the air was warmer and the bright glow of the snow outside wasn't bright enough to sting in Logan's eyes anymore.

Virgil's lantern shone softly on the ragged stone walls, the bunny skeleton and the hibernating bear.

"Come in," he said. "Have a seat. Don't mind Lady Hasting. She really enjoys her gossip."

Maybe Emile was right about the MiM.

Patton watched the bear warily but sat down.
Logan took a seat next to him and Patton leaned against his shoulder with a sigh.
Roman sat on Logan's other side and put an arm around him.

Logan let his eyes slip shut for a moment before he forced himself to open them again.
He didn't want to risk falling asleep in a cave with a bear.
If they weren't lucky it'd wake up for a little to eat. Then they'd be the nearest possible food.

He doubted Virgil's magic was of any use right now and he had no idea if either Roman or Patton could kill a fully grown bear.

From what he had read about them, Patton's arrows would probably just make it angry.

He heard Virgil gasp and looked up.

"They shared a bed?" the mage whispered.

Logan frowned before deciding that he was probably hallucinating.

"Are we even sure it'll hail?" Roman asked quietly. "We might be in here for nothing."

Emile shrugged.

"We might as well use this for a break," Logan said. "I believe we all need it. We'll go on later."

Roman still didn't look to happy but didn't disagree.

He simply shuffled closer to Logan and leaned against him.

Logan took his hand and gave it a light squeeze as Patton nuzzled his head against his shoulder.

Again his eyes wanted to drift shut and he fought against it for maybe twenty minutes before they become too heavy and he gave himself over to unconsciousness.

"They didn't," was the last thing he heard Virgil say before he finally fell asleep.

So... this sure took a while. Sorry for making you all wait.
I can't promise anything but I'll try to bring the next one out faster.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this!

Fun fact: Roman's mother has cheated on her husband a lot more than he on her and sometimes even managed to pass her illegitimate children as legitimate.

As always feel free to comment, ask questions or roast me for spelling errors!

Have a nice (gay) day!