Frostbitten

He couldn’t sleep.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw those people, their
waxen dead faces, made of ice and ash, crumpling. Horror reflected in their
glass-like eyes, as if they’d been staring into the bowels of Hell itself
before they died.

Kurt gingerly rolled onto his stomach, the bandages pulled
at his fur, the smell of the antiseptic was harsh, and every part of him was
sore.

Every
part.

He hadn’t told Hank about that. About the sting with every
step, about the soreness in his thighs, about how he’d had cramps for about
fifteen minutes after he’d tried to lay down. class=GramE>About the blood.

Maybe he was in shock.

But he wasn’t…whatever he should be. After something like style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>that.

So, Kurt lay on his stomach in the dark, keenly aware of his
body, every ache, every sting, emotionless. He studied
his right wrist. He’d been doing this a long time, and it wasn’t the first time
he’d found himself tied up. The cuts that circled his
wrists were partially healed.

Twenty-two minutes.

He started to drift off, his eyes still fixed on the missing
time that was burned into his wrists, as just as he was slipping into that
twilight between sleep and wakefulness, a hush fell over the room. He wasn’t
alone. Not being watched, just not alone. The air moved around him, above him,
and it was wet. Heavy with cool humidity. Something
touched him, softer than a breeze, but it felt like a kiss…everywhere at once.
He watched in a sort of dreamy daze as frost laced around his wrist, gentle,
cold but not biting, and then the wetness and cold brushed his back, he could
feel the bandages just slid off. Again, that cold kiss,
soothing…tender. The frost that dusted the fur of wrist suddenly melted,
evaporating into nothing. Nothing but the wet air that Kurt inhaled sharply,
filling his lungs with it, it seemed to spread through him, with every beat of
his heart, soaking into his blood.

Where the frost had touched, the wounds were gone.

And the mist in the air settled over him, a cool cloud,
easing the ache away from his muscles. From his thoughts.

And wrapped in the haze of water and cool air, he fell asleep.

And didn’t dream at all.