Marinette slowed on her skis for a moment, gazing off the trail into the snow-covered trees that lined both sides of the winding trail. It was peaceful out in the woods, and she was grateful that Alya's parents had taken their free weekend to take her, Alya, Nino and Adrien out of the city to go skiing. The trails were gorgeous, and it was a good way to work off energy. Hawkmoth hadn't been active for several weeks, and Marinette was practically bursting with pent-up energy that would have been dangerous to take out on the slippery, snow-covered rooftops.

All four friends had headed out on the trail together that morning, but it soon became apparent how much their fitness levels varied. As expected, Adrien zipped along on his skis, grinning even as he lost control on curves and was sent flying into snowdrifts. Much to everyone's surprise but her own, Marinette wasn't far behind him. Meanwhile, their friends had been left in the dust. Over an early lunch, they had decided that the two faster skiers would head out on the longest loop so they would be worn out enough to ski with Nino and Alya the following day. Meanwhile, Nino and Alya would take the easier ski trails that kept closer to the warming house. Marinette was glad that she had grown more comfortable with Adrien over the year and a half they had had classes together, because otherwise being alone with him on the incredibly long trail they were on now would have been really awkward.

A flash of movement in front of her caught her eye, and Marinette realized with a jolt just how far ahead of her Adrien had gotten. She sped up, panting a bit as she tried to catch up to the tall blond model. Although she and Adrien were closer athletically compared to Alya and Nino, there was no denying that Adrien had longer legs than Marinette and could therefore ski faster than she could without actually trying much harder.

As he came to the top of a small incline Adrien twisted around and suddenly realized how far Marinette was behind him. He slid to a stop, using his poles to stop himself faster. "You doing okay back there?"

"I'm fine. You're just ridiculously tall."

One of Adrien's eyebrows rose as he gave her a slightly confused look. "And...?"

"And I'm not."

"Okay...?"

"You have long legs because you're tall. Long legs help you go faster." Marinette finally caught up to her skiing partner, sliding to a stop behind him and practically doubling over as she tried to catch her breath. "I'm not trying to be slow and hold you back, but you're racing along like there's an akuma on your tail."

Adrien laughed at that. "Sorry. I'll try to slow down so your stumpy legs can keep up with me."

Marinette swatted at his side and nearly toppled over on her skis when she missed. Adrien snickered. "They are not stumpy."

"If you say so." Adrien grinned. He quickly wiped the cheeky grin off of his face at her playful glare. "So, do you happen to know where we are on the map? I lost track a while back."

Marinette winced and shook her head. "No, sorry. I bet there'll be a map on the next intersection, though."

"If we ever get there." Adrien grinned at the exasperated look on Marinette's face. "Kidding, kidding. We're going pretty fast."

They started skiing again, Adrien making sure he didn't get too far ahead of Marinette. They mostly skied in silence, though occasionally Adrien would throw a teasing jab over his shoulder. By the time they reached a split in the trail, fluffy snow had started to fall.

"You're right, they do mark where we are on here," Adrien said as soon as he slid to a stop in front of the trail sign. He pointed one gloved finger at the map under the glass. "We're pretty far out. Last chance to take the shortcut back, if you're getting tired at all."

Marinette shook her head as she slid up alongside Adrien. "Not at all. Are you?"

"I'm good. Do you still have your granola bars?"

"Yeah, they're right- uh, one moment-" Marinette fumbled for her jacket zipper, since she had tucked the bars in an inner jacket pocket. Her gloves made her fingers clumsy, slipping off of the zipper instead of pulling it down. She let out a small growl and made to pull off the offending glove before Adrien stopped her.

"I still have mine, too. I just wanted to make sure that you weren't going to get hungry."

Marinette beamed up at him. It was easy to remember why she had fallen for Adrien in the first place when he acted like this, caring and kind. "I'm fine, really. I ate a lot before we left."

"Yeah, me too." Adrien took one last look at the map before turning back to Marinette, brushing snowflakes away from his face as he did so. "Are you good to keep going?"

Marinette nodded, and soon they were off again. They were mostly silent as they skied, though occasionally one of them would point something out, like an oddly shaped tree or a bird flitting through the branches. The snow kept falling, steadily covering the groomed trails. Marinette wasn't having any trouble, since she was following in Adrien's tracks, but the blond boy seemed to be slowing down just a bit with the increased friction from the new snow. Making things worse, the wind was picking up and blowing snow across the groomed trail.

"I don't remember there being snow in the forecast," Adrien panted as they clomped their way up a steep hill. "Hopefully it'll let up soon. It's pretty, but it's making it hard to ski. Any deeper and the tracks might be hard to find."

"Did you look at the Paris forecast or the forecast for out here?" Marinette asked. She frowned slightly, her eyebrows furrowing as she tried to remember what she had read on her phone just before they set out. "Because I thought I read something about a little bit of snow, but nothing like this."

Adrien let out a dramatic groan from down the trail. "You're right. I probably completely forgot to change my location on my phone. I'm not even sure I know how to do it, since I'm always in the city."

"I'd check my phone, but I don't think I would get service out here." Marinette glanced up at the thick, heavy clouds. They were looking steadily more ominous, getting thicker and darker as the day went on.

"No internet, that's for sure. Cell reception would probably be spotty too." Adrien started sliding down the hill, knees bent as he focused on staying in the increasingly hidden tracks. Marinette paused at the top, waiting for Adrien to get safely to the bottom. It was something that had been drilled into her head since she started skiing- do not go down a hill directly behind someone, just in case they wipe out and you can't stop. Once Adrien reached the bottom, his voice floated back up. "Maybe we should check out phones next time we stop for water, just in case Nino or Alya texted us."

Marinette nodded for a second before remembering that Adrien couldn't see her. She called an affirmative down the hill before starting the slide, her poles tucked into her sides and her knees slightly bent. Snowflakes stung her eyes and cheeks as she zipped downwards, focusing on staying in Adrien's tracks. They fell into comfortable silence again as they continued down the trail.

Twenty minutes later, they finally stopped for water. Adrien's cheeks were red from the sting of the cold, and Marinette was sure hers were no better. They both struggled to pull off their gloves so they could fish out their phones from inner pockets.

Adrien got to his phone first and winced as he read the flurry of texts that he had gotten from Nino and, to a lesser extent, Alya. "Unexpected snowstorm on the way, sent an hour and thirty-five minutes ago. We probably should have checked our phones when we were near the turnoff, because right now I think we're about as far out as we can get."

Marinette shoved her phone back in her pocket and pulled out the map. Sure enough, the landmarks that they recognized put them in what was possibly the furthest out point from the warming house. It would take just as long to turn around and go back the way they came as it would to keep pushing forward.

"Nino says the worst part is going to hit in just over an hour," Adrien reported, scrolling down to the more recent messages.

"How long ago did he send that?"

"...an hour ago."

Marinette looked at the map again, trying to figure out what they should do. "Does he say what's going to happen? If it's just snow we'll be fine-"

"Increased snow, high winds, dropping temperatures. Full-out blizzard conditions." Adrien glanced up, biting his lip. "We'll need to find shelter of some sort. Even just a lean-to sort of place would be better than being out in the open."

A gust of wind nearly ripped the map out of Marinette's hands as she scanned the page for something that might work. She gripped it tighter, trying to ignore the stinging cold. Then she saw it. By some miracle, there was a park cabin that sometimes was rented out to summer campers.

"There's a cabin not too far ahead, off to the right." Marinette tried to point, but had to grab onto the map again as the wind threatened to rip it away. "It might be locked, but maybe we can break in."

They reached the cabin ten minutes later, and not a moment too soon. The wind was picking up, driving snow everywhere. Adrien could barely see the tracks in the trail anymore.

"On your right, it's right there!" Marinette shouted from somewhere behind him, barely audible over the whistling wind. "And there's a wood pile right off the trail, so maybe we can have a fire!"

Adrien came to a halt next to the wood pile, pausing to take off his skis. "We should probably deal with getting in before we start bringing wood over. There's no padlock on the door, so that's a good sign."

"If you want to check on the door, I can start hauling wood over," Marinette suggested. She froze for a second, then added, "O-or I can check on the door, and you-"

"I'll check on the door," Adrien decided, suddenly remembering the kwami in his inner pocket. Plagg had broken into a safe before; a park cabin should be a piece of cake. "I'll carry your skis over, so your hands are free."

Marinette nodded, unlatching her boots from the skis quickly and handing both skis and poles to Adrien. Gathering both his skis and hers in his arms, Adrien started trudging his way through the snow towards the cabin, hissing Plagg's name. Right as he started up the steps, he could feel the kwami begin to stir in his inner pocket, finally roused from his nap. "Whatdya want?"

"We've gotten caught in a snowstorm, Plagg," Adrien hissed, trying the door. Locked, as expected. "It's turning into a blizzard, and Mari and I need to get inside this cabin but it's locked. Could you-?"

"I'm not a locksmith, kid. And I don't work for free." Plagg squirmed his way up to stick his head out of Adrien's collar before retreating with a yowl. "It's cold!"

"It'll be warmer inside if we can get a fire going." Adrien twisted his head to try to see where Marinette was. She was still uncovering the wood pile, thankfully kept dry under a tarp. "Please, Plagg? I know I don't have a lot of cheese on me, but we could die out here if we don't get inside."

With a groan, Plagg hoisted himself out of Adrien's jacket again and phased straight through the door. A second later, Adrien heard the click of an unlocking door. He tried the knob and grinned when it turned easily. Plagg flew back out shivering, and Adrien quickly tucked the kwami back inside his jacket. He didn't want to risk Plagg getting sick from cold exposure again, especially since they were going to be stuck out here for who-knows-how-long and the chance of Marinette hearing Plagg's sneezes would be ridiculously high. Once Plagg was safely swaddled away from the cold, Adrien pushed the door open, picking up the skis before walking into the small cabin.

It was rustic, for lack of a better word. The cabin had clearly been built using logs, and the plaster between the logs had been patched in several places. The kitchen area only had a few pots. There was only one bed, and the walls partitioning off what Adrien hoped was the bathroom looked like they might be a good source of splinters. It was clean, though, and had a wood stove.

Adrien seriously hoped Marinette knew how to work wood stoves. He was terrified that he would somehow mess up and send smoke gushing into the main room.

"The door was unlocked? Seriously?"

Adrien spun around to see Marinette standing at the door, her cheeks red from the cold and her arms full of wood. "Yeah. It just stuck a bit at first. Whoever was here last must have forgotten to lock it." Next to him, a ski pole started tipping over and Adrien shot over to catch it before it could hit the floor. "That's good for us. I'm betting that they didn't leave any food behind, though."

"At least we have granola bars and an endless source of water." Marinette dumped her armload of wood next to the stove and tromped back out the door. Adrien followed, making sure he closed the door behind him. It wouldn't help them at all if they ended up with a snowdrift inside their cabin.

Ten trips later, the entirety of the wood pile plus the tarp had been moved inside the cabin. Marinette worked on setting up the stove while Adrien searched the cupboards for matches. Thankfully, she had had experience with wood stoves before, since her parents' bakery used to have one.

"Here's some matches!" Adrien announced at last, opening the box and grinning when he saw that there were plenty left. His teeth were really starting to chatter now that they had stopped moving and the warmth of a fire would really be appreciated. "There's some old newspapers, too. No food, though."

Marinette looked up as Adrien brought over his finds. She immediately stuffed a sheet of newspaper inside the stove, rearranging the wood around it. One match and only seconds later, the start of a fire roared to life. Shutting the screen door on the stove, Marinette straightened back up. "We'll survive. We should probably try to text Alya and Nino though."

"I'm not sure my fingers have thawed enough to text," Adrien joked. He wrestled out his phone anyway and opened it with trembling, cold-numbed fingers. "I don't have signal, but I can try to send something."

"Me either." Marinette frowned as she poked at her phone. "The last text I got from Alya was over half an hour ago. We must have skied out of range."

"Either that or the storm is messing with the signal." Adrien tapped out a message to Nino anyway, hitting send and rolling his eyes when the error message popped up. "I'm going to turn my phone off until the storm is over so the battery doesn't wear out."

Marinette nodded in agreement, and they both shut their phones off. She shivered, and Adrien slid over so he was standing behind her before wrapping his friend in his arms. She was small enough to fit perfectly into his hug, especially as she relaxed into him and wrapped her arms around his waist. They huddled like that for a while, standing as close together as possible to share their body heat while the fire slowly warmed the cabin.

"We should drag the chairs over in front of the fire or something," Marinette finally said, sounding less frozen and more normal. "So we can sit. My legs are screaming at me right now."

"Mine are as well. I don't really use the same muscles in my normal day-to-day life, I think." Adrien glanced around the cabin again, not letting go of Marinette. His eyes fell on the bed. "We should try to get the bed over here. We'll have to sleep eventually, and it'll be better if we're sleeping right next to the fire instead of across the room."

Adrien could see a hint of a blush working its way up Marinette's cheeks as soon as he brought it up. They had definitely gotten closer over the past year, but not share-a-bed close. Making things more awkward, Adrien was a cuddler at heart- if they didn't go to sleep curled up together, they would definitely end up that way. He could only hope that she wouldn't smell Plagg's cheese on him, because she'd definitely think he was weird then.

They both headed over to the bed shoved in the far corner. It was noticeably chillier in the corner, and Adrien winced to think what the bathroom would be like.

With his luck, it would be frozen solid and unusable.

"We should probably wear our gloves for this," Adrien pointed out as he eyeballed the bed. It was simple, a stiff plastic mattress on top of a plain wooden frame. Something told him that it wouldn't be anywhere as comfortable as the top-of-the-line mattress he had at home. "I don't want to get a splinter while we're way out here alone."

"Ugh. My gloves are soggy, though." Marinette made a face as she tugged them back on anyway over frozen pink fingers. "Ew."

Together, they lifted the bed up just off the ground, scuttling back over to the fireplace. They set it just about half a meter away, close enough to enjoy the heat coming from the stove but not close enough for it to accidentally catch on fire.

The winds howled outside as the teenagers sat silently in front of the stove, shoulder-to-shoulder as they watched the flames dance. Adrien found himself relaxing as the temperature in the cabin finally started to inch upwards, thawing out his frozen fingers and toes. Next to him, Marinette was digging through her pockets, emptying everything in them onto the stiff plastic mattress next to her.

A map, now damp and a little crumpled. Four granola bars. An extra pair of gloves. Two water bottles, one empty and the other half-gone. The strap for her skis. A packet of tissues. Chapstick. Her phone.

Adrien's pockets turned up pretty much the same things (plus the baggie of cheese for Plagg, which Adrien kept hidden). They clearly hadn't been expecting to get caught out in the middle of a snowstorm.

"We should probably save the granola bars for dinner," Adrien suggested. He winced as his stomach grumbled. "And we should probably go fill the pots with snow to melt down. It looks like we're both getting low on water, and fresh snow should be clean enough to drink."

"Ugh, going outside again," Marinette grumbled, pushing herself to her feet and yanking her hat back down over her head. Her hair stuck out at crazy angles from under the fabric. "I swear, once we get out of here I'll be tempted to curl up at home in a zillion blankets and never come out again."

Adrien laughed at that. "Never? Not even for hot chocolate?"

"Mama or papa would bring some up for me." Marinette took the two pots Adrien offered and headed for the door. "Nice and chocolate-y and full of marshmallows."

"You're making me hungry," Adrien groaned, wincing as Marinette opened the door and the freezing wind stung his face again. He ducked outside right on her heels, scooping up snow into his pots as fast as he could and shoving them back through the door. Marinette followed him back inside, and they both gave a sigh of relief when the door closed, cutting off the wind. It didn't take long for them to set up several of the pots on top of the stove so they could melt the snow down for water.

The wind rattled the cabin's windows as Adrien adjusted the last of the pots on the stovetop and walked back over to join Marinette on the bed. She was watching the flames, gaze faraway and distracted until he curled up next to her.

"I don't think there are any linens in here," Adrien commented, his gaze sweeping around the cabin. The kitchen was the only area with any cabinets and he had already checked every single drawer. "We'll have to sleep on top of our coats when we go to sleep."

"Ugh. It's too early to go to bed. It's like what, five? Six?" Marinette made a face. "We're not going to freeze, but I'm going to be in serious danger of dying of boredom."

"Are you calling me boring?" Adrien teased, poking Marinette's side and grinning when she squirmed away from him. "Ooh! Is someone ticklish!"

"Nope, definitely not at all- ADRIEN!"

"Neither of them have responded yet and the storm is getting really bad," Alya worried aloud. She checked her phone for what felt like the millionth time since she had sent the first messages. "They're probably stuck way out there somewhere, lost and freezing!"

"At least Adrien and Marinette are together," Nino pointed out. "They're both smart. I'm sure they'll figure out some way to keep warm."

Alya's parents were both frowning as they watched Alya and Nino. It had been over two hours since the alert went out that a sudden storm was blowing up and skiers should get off the trails. Alya and Nino had gotten back relatively quickly once they got the text since they were on trails close to the warming house, and they had been waiting for their friends ever since. The warming house had grown steadily emptier as skiers came in and packed up, and now they were the only ones left besides the staff.

"Have you tried texting them again?" Mrs. Cesaire asked, frowning. "I know I'm getting low coverage right now. You can always try calling."

"I tried. It wouldn't go through, and neither would the texts."

All four of them looked up as the door opened. One of the staff members stood there, brushing off snow from his jacket and stomping snow from his boots. He looked up, expression becoming a bit confused as he saw the group sitting in the middle of the room.

"We're closing up early, you know. Conditions are getting unsafe and we don't want to get snowed in. Last time it happened, the plows didn't come for two days. If your car can't drive through this stuff, one of the staff would be happy to drive you to the closest hotel. Our cars are all equipped for driving in this sort of weather."

Mrs. Cesaire frowned, straightening up. "Two members of our party haven't come back yet. We're not leaving them out there."

That got a response out of the warming house employee. His eyes went wide as he hurried over. "There are still people out there? I thought all of the trails had been checked. Which trail did they go out on?"

Nino and Alya frowned, exchanging a glance before consulting a trail map in front of them. "The Outer Rim loop, I think. They both have a lot of energy and endurance, so they were going to do the longest possible trail so they would be tired enough to ski with us tomorrow."

The employee groaned. "Outer Rim? I keep telling the bosses that we need to require people to tell us when they're going out there, clear forecast or no. Barely anyone ever goes out that way, so I don't think we checked it and it's too dangerous to go out now. We'd just as likely hit them in these conditions. I'll go tell my boss."

"They'll be all right, won't they?" Nino asked no one in particular as the man vanished into the office room. "I mean, maybe they would find shelter."

"There is no shelter," Alya grumbled, shoving the map back in her bag. "And we're all city people, Adrien especially. It's not like we've taken some Winter Survival 101 class."

"We probably should have said something to the staff after the first hour of no response," Mr. Cesaire sighed. "It's getting dark now, and I would understand if they didn't want to risk their staff by sending out a snowmobile to look."

They sat in silence for ten minutes, munching on snacks and listening to the muffled sounds of frantic conversation coming from the next room over. Alya's parents debated in quiet voices whether they should try getting in contact with Marinette's parents and Nathalie, before deciding that it would be best to wait for any news before worrying anyone at home.

When the door to the reception area of the warming house swung open, they all turned to look. The employee from earlier entered, followed by a woman with a name tag reading Sara.

"It's too dangerous to head out right now," Sara said as soon as she stepped into the room. "But I've notified our search and rescue team and put them on standby. As soon as the snow lets up for conditions to be safe, they can head out, even if it's in the middle of the night."

"Oh, thank goodness," Mrs. Cesaire said immediately.

"We're going to ask you some questions first, just to try to figure out the most likely location they'll be in." Sara strode over, pulling a clipboard out from under her arm. She sat down in one of the empty chairs at the table. "You said they were out on Outer Rim. When did they leave?"

Nino and Alya exchanged a glance. "Around noon, I think," Alya said. "We all had an early lunch so we could start skiing right away."

Sara wrote it down. "And they went out the normal way? No shortcuts?"

"I think it was the normal way. They skied with us on Sugar Slide until their trail separated." Nino glanced down at his map, double-checking his names.

"Any messages from them?"

"None."

"And they're fast skiers?"

"Decently fast." Alya shrugged when Sara gave her an irritated look. "I mean, they left Nino and I in the dust and they just don't get tired ever, it seems. But they're hardly speed racers either."

Sara sighed and wrote it down. "Okay. And I'll need their cell phone numbers as well as your contact information. If search and rescue does go out in the middle of the night, we can try texting them for an approximate location ourselves. We can also use the Find My Phone app to track them down."

"How does that work?" Alya asked as Nino wrote their friends' contact information down.

"The police do something with the number to unlock the app for that number. I think they might remotely force location services on. I'm not sure." Sara took her clipboard back from Nino and tucked it back under her arm. "There's nothing we can do right now. We'll have one person stay here, just in case your friends manage to make their way back before search and rescue gets here." Sara stood back up, her chair scraping loudly on the floor. "For now, the first round of plows just came through. I would recommend getting to the closest hotel before snow starts piling up again."

With that, she was gone.

The best part of the cabin being small was that it heated up really, really fast. Both Marinette and Adrien had shed their outermost coats only an hour after starting the fire and both were considering taking off another layer.

The worst part was that the water in the cabin was apparently turned off for the winter. They had learned very, very quickly that they had to add water to the tank manually to flush the toilet.

At least there was no lack of snow to be gotten from outside. They had taken turns going out and getting more so that they could fill their water bottles, the plugged sink, and every single one of the pots.

"I bet Alya and Nino are worried about us." Marinette was alternating staring at her dark phone screen and the window. "I hope they didn't call my parents. I don't want to worry them when I'm just fine."

Adrien nodded silently, pulling Marinette closer to his side as he leaned against the bed's headboard. They were both worried more about what their friends must be going through than themselves. After all, they knew they were doing just fine, if only a bit hungry. They both had had a granola bar for dinner, would have another right before going to bed, and then their last in the morning. Both of them were betting on the storm letting up by that time.

If not, they were actually going to be in trouble. They didn't have enough food to stretch for a very long time.

"We should probably try to sleep soon."

Marinette looked up from the fire, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the dark. They had both ended up curled up on the mattress as time went by and Adrien had shifted until he was practically spooning her without her noticing. "What?"

"We should try to sleep. Maybe you could throw one last log in before we go to bed so the cabin doesn't get cold." Adrien scooted over as Marinette hopped off the bed, leaning down to toss another log in the fire. "If we can wake up early and the storm is over, then we should be able to head back and get a real meal sooner."

"Ahh, real food. Music to my ears." Marinette tossed one of their four remaining bars over to Adrien and took one for herself. "I'm not going to be able to eat granola bars for a month after this."

"We haven't had that many of them."

"Maybe, but I still wish I had packed something else. These are just bland." Marinette took a giant bite anyway and chewed. "And dry. Bland and dry and yuck."

Adrien laughed as he finished up his bar and slid off the bed to toss the wrapper in the trash. "Not what you're used to eating, I take it?"

"Not even close. What about you? Do you normally eat granola bars?"

"Surprisingly, yes." Adrien reached over to grab Marinette's empty wrapper and toss it before climbing back onto the bed. "Sometimes I don't have time for meals between school and fencing, or between a photoshoot and some other activity. My personal chef tried making something for me to eat, but it was too much of a hassle to try to keep it cold."

They fell silent as they settled down. They lay on top of Marinette's coat with Adrien's coat draped over both of them. Adrien wrapped an arm around Marinette's waist, pulling her up against him. She offered no resistance, relaxing against his side as both exhausted teens fell asleep.

It was just after sunrise when conditions cleared up enough for search and rescue to start out. The helicopter lifted off from the nearest airport before beelining towards the ski resort's land. In the cockpit, search and rescue leaders punched buttons and set up the equipment that would locate the phones of the missing teenagers. In the back, other crew members checked on their supply on blankets and first aid kits. It wasn't long before they reached their destination and slowed down, turning on their radar and doing a slow circle over the Outer Rim trail.

Nothing.

The helicopter circled over again, hovering as the search and rescue leader tried again to connect to one of the missing teens' phones. Neither was showing up on his radar, which was more than a little concerning. Best case scenario, the phones were off.

Worse case... well. Worse case had both phones and both teens under the snow.

"Still nothing," he reported after a third try on each phone. "We'll have to try something else, maybe the rescue dogs. Someone call headquarters up and get us contact information for the group they were with. We're going to need a scent sample."

The pilot nodded an affirmative and turned the helicopter, flying quickly back to the search and rescue headquarters.

Behind them, unnoticed, the barely visible wisp of smoke rising from a hidden cabin in the trees suddenly strengthened.

Marinette and Adrien were both woken up by a loud whirring noise overhead, which soon faded away. They stared at each other in confusion for a few seconds, still sleepy and confused and just a tad chilly and with their faces far closer than they remembered being.

"The fire burned really low," Adrien noticed once they shook themselves somewhat awake. "It's just coals now."

"I'll start it back up." Marinette sat up, wincing at the cold air. It had been so much more cozy curled up next to Adrien..."It's not that hard, and they have pokers here."

Adrien nodded, sliding out of bed and wincing as his feet hit the cold floor. "I'm going to, ah-" He pointed to the bathroom and Marinette nodded in silent understanding. She could hear his footsteps as he headed over to the sink to grab the pot of water for flushing before heading into the small room. As she stirred up the coals, the buzzing returned. She frowned, still a bit bleary-eyed from sleep.

The noise faded.

"Marinette!"

Marinette jumped in surprise as Tikki came shooting out of her discarded coat on the bed, eyes wide and slightly panicked. "What?"

"I think that was a helicopter looking for you guys!" Tikki exclaimed, spinning around Marinette's head. "You should have gone out to try to get their attention!"

Marinette's mind cleared astonishingly fast. "Oh! But..." she frowned. "They should keep coming back, right? And they would see the smoke from the cabin and figure that we're here." She tossed in a log before stirring the coals again. Slowly but surely, the fire came to life.

The bathroom door practically crashed open as Adrien came dashing back out, looking excited. "It must have been a helicopter, Marinette! They're looking for us!"

"Yeah, I'm hoping they'll see the smoke and come investigate." Marinette gave the fire another poke and it flared up, reheating the small space.

"That would be good. I really wasn't looking forward to skiing through untracked snow all the way back." Adrien washed his hands in the water in the sink before drying them off on his sweater. "So, you ready for breakfast?"

The helicopter didn't come back. Both teens stuck their heads outside to look for it with no success. The sky was completely clear and utterly devoid of any aircraft.

"I guess we will have to ski back." Adrien let out a long sigh at the thought. "Well, we might as well start. Are you ready to go?"

"We should put the fire out first." Marinette's nose was scrunched up as she thought about heading out into the cold again. She accepted the pot Adrien gave her and splashed the water into the stove a little awkwardly. It took three potfuls of water before Marinette was convinced their fire was well and truly out and it wasn't going to resurrect and burn the cabin down the moment they turned their back.

As they stepped out into the early morning chill, both Adrien and Marinette winced at the deep snow. They were going to be ravenous by the time they got back to the warming house.

"So the map said we were as far out as we could get and there's basically no shortcuts back, right?" Adrien let out a grumbly huff. "Of all the trails we could have picked on the day of a snowstorm."

Even with skis, they practically had to wade through the snow. Marinette stayed in Adrien's tracks for the first half hour, listening to the sound of skis over snow and Adrien's breathing. Even half an hour in, he was starting to sound like he was getting tired.

"We should stop for water," Marinette suggested, noticing the sweaty hairs matting the back of Adrien's neck. His normal hairstyle was starting to look more than a little messy and tangled, especially after being stuffed under his hat. "It's harder work skiing with the trails like this."

Adrien nodded, almost immediately sliding to a halt. "I definitely prefer groomed trails. I don't know how long it's going to take for us to get back with conditions like this." He pulled out one of his water bottles, taking a huge gulp. "We were skiing for what, four, four and a half hours yesterday? More?" He groaned. "And conditions are so much worse today. What were we thinking, taking a nine-hour trail?"

Marinette giggled. "You forget, we slowed down to ski the first part with Alya and Nino, plus the trail was getting pretty bad in the last hour yesterday, and that part of the trail had a lot of ups and downs. I think this one is mostly downward. And, if we really want to take out the map-"

"Nah, I'm good."

"-you would see that just because we were at the furthest point out didn't mean that it was the halfway point. It did a lot of winding around near the other trails before shooting out. It's pretty much straight on the way back."

That got a grin on Adrien's face. "So how long do you think the home stretch would have taken on a normal day?"

Marinette bit her lip, considering. "Two hours? It's hard to estimate. I think the trail guide estimate was five to seven hours."

"We should have packed an entire picnic for that monster of a trail. Wouldn't we have gotten back at, like, seven?" Adrien took one last sip of water and started pushing ahead again.

Marinette followed him. "More like between five thirty to six thirty. The snow yesterday slowed us down, and I think we might be counting some of the time we spent moving wood as skiing time."

"Maybe. I really wasn't looking at my watch at the time." Adrien paused, and Marinette pictured the mischievous grin that was probably spreading across his face. "I stand by my comment about packing a picnic, though. I'm a growing teenage boy, I need my food."

At the hotel, Nino and Alya were standing next to Alya's parents, feeling more than a little worried. The attempt to trace Adrien and Marinette's phones had failed, both from a home base and helicopter. Now they had scent dogs sniffing Marinette's flats and Adrien's extra pair of jeans, steely eyed trainers watching carefully. It would be really cool if it wasn't their friends that were missing and possibly dead.

"We can take you up to the warming house with us," the taller of the two trainers informed Mr. and Mrs. Cesaire. "We can get any news back to you faster that way."

They all nodded solemnly, piling into the back of the cars. A plow had been specially requested to come clear the road to the skiing property, so the ride went quickly. All of them were quiet, wondering what the search and rescue team might find.

After all, it had been over ten hours since Marinette and Adrien were last seen.

"Do you want me to lead for a while, Adrien? You're wearing yourself out."

Adrien shook his head stubbornly. He was Chat Noir, damn it. He was in tip-top shape. He should be able to forge the way faster and longer than Marinette could, even if she was in impressively good shape herself.

He could practically hear the frown in her voice. "You're sweating buckets, Adrien. At least let me lead for a while and give yourself a break."

"I'm fine, really. I can rest when we get back."

"We won't get back for hours and it'll take even longer if you burn yourself out." When he didn't respond, she let out a long, loud sigh. "And if you're going to be stubborn about it then maybe I'll just ski next to you instead of using your tracks. Just to be fair."

"That's blackmail, I'll have you know."

"It's really not. Come on, Adrien. Just for a bit."

Adrien bit his lip. Honestly, it was tempting. "Fine. Just for a bit, though."

Marinette tromped around him, shoving through the snow with a scowl. "I'm not going to break if I do a bit of the hard work, honestly."

"I know, I know. Sorry." Adrien watched as Marinette settled herself in front of him before surging forward. He followed, giving a silent prayer of thanks for how much easier it was to ski like this. He could feel his energy start to return already.

"Don't burn yourself out, Mari. Slow and steady is fine."

Marinette snorted. "You're such a hypocrite, I hope you know that."

"Yeah, yeah." Adrien grinned as he watched his friend plow ahead. "It's actually surprisingly pretty outside when I'm not busy shoving my way through knee-high snow."

"Yeah, yeah. Enjoy it while you can."

An hour later, Marinette and Adrien slid to a halt to take a well-deserved breather and consult the map. They had switched off two more times so Marinette was leading again, pressing through the snow with an astounding amount of energy and strength for someone of her size. As she unfolded the map, Adrien angled his skis so they slid between Marinette's feet and let him slide right up behind her.

"We're actually making pretty good time," Marinette commented as Adrien wrapped his arms around her, simultaneously blocking her from the wind and claiming her as his personal heat source. The cold wasn't too noticeable as they skied, but it definitely caught up to them once they stopped and the wind had been picking up all morning, occasionally gusting across the trail and sending snow drifting across the trail. "It shouldn't be more than an hour or so now."

"I should hope so. We've been going for two hours already this morning." Adrien hooked his chin over Marinette's shoulder to look at the map, squinting as he tried to figure out where they were.

"We just passed this overlook, I think. I hope." Marinette bit her lip nervously as she pointed to a spot on the map. "And it's two-thirds of the way between the cabin and the warming house, and-"

"I'm sure you're right, Marinette. I think I remember seeing that sign." Adrien let out a huff. "I can't wait to get back. Food and then hot tub, I think. It's my happy place."

Marinette let out a snort at his words, then laughed harder when Adrien's stomach gave a loud grumble of agreement. He snickered as well, trying to ignore the uncomfortable gurgling in favor of enjoying the moment at least a little.

"Let's keep going," Marinette suggested between her giggles. "You sound like you need to be fed and I don't remember what types of tree bark are edible."

"I'm not that desperate."

The Casaires and Alya sat in the warming house, anxiously watching the section of the search and rescue team that had stayed behind to relay updates and prepare to take care of frostbite and hypothermia...or worse.

"At least the team caught a scent," Mrs. Cesaire said, trying to break the tension at their table. "And they said they were splitting up so they could check further up the trail, remember? So they can find them faster."

"Your friends must have been making good time," a staff member named Fleur commented, watching the dots tracking the search and rescue team's progress on her computer. "They've found the scent further up the trail, so the first team is going to leapfrog over them."

"Do y'think they just kept going once the storm hit? Like maybe they were trying to get all the way back?" Nino asked. "They're both stubborn, Mari especially. If they couldn't find any sort of shelter, they would just keep going."

The woman next to Fleur suddenly perked up, snapping her fingers. "Shelter! There's a cabin out in that direction, isn't there? How close is it to where the teams are now?"

There was a sudden flurry of activity at the table, maps pulled out and consulted as someone fumbled for the satellite phone.

"It's close. Really, really close." A man named Marco pulled out a highlighter and circled the cabin's location on the map before tossing it to Fleur. "It would be locked up, but they might have broken a window to get in."

Fleur was already dialing, pressing the phone to her ear. "Hello? Jason? There's a cabin not even a kilometer from where you are right now. If you can send someone to check that- you've caught the scent? Oh, good- can you just skip ahead to check the cabin? They might have found it."

"Let us listen," Marco urged, leaning forward.

Fleur rolled her eyes but complied, and seconds later the staticky sound of a snowmobile filled the room. A minute later, the engine cut out and they could make out the muffled sound of someone hopping into the snow over the whistling of the wind.

"Nothing looks out of place from the outside," the man on the other end reported. "I'm walking around and all windows are intact."

"Check the door," Marco suggested dryly. "Maybe they picked the lock."

"Door's unlocked!" A pause. "And there's what look like what might be footprints on the porch. It's hard to tell if they're human footprints, though. It's really windy out here, so there's a lot of snow blowing around and obscuring any clues."

Everyone held their breath.

"Empty. The cabin's empty." The man on the other end sounded frustrated. Everyone in the room slumped. "Wait- hold on a second, there's water on the floor. The bed is in front of the stove instead of in the corner."

"Are there fresh coals in the stove?" Fleur prompted.

"Checking. It's cold, but damp. I think they must have stayed here." More footsteps. "And there's six granola bar wrappers in the trashcan. They must have already headed out this morning."

"But you didn't see any tracks in the trail?"

"It's windy out here and there's been a lot of snow drifting. If they left two, three hours ago the tracks would have been pretty covered by now." There was a pause, then the sound of a door closing. "I should hang up and get everyone up here, since it's obvious they got this far."

"Right, yeah. Do that." There was a click, and Fleur folded the phone back up before turning back to their group with a grin. "Well, it sounds like your friends are just fine. They must have stayed there overnight with a nice, toasty fire and a bed and then started out this morning-"

"LOOK!" Marco was suddenly on his feet, pointing out the window as papers and pencils flew everywhere as they were catapulted out of his lap. "Over there, look!"

They looked. Over on the far hill, two very familiar skiers were coming into view. Alya and Nino let out shouts of joy, racing out the door without their coats to greet their friends as Fleur pulled back out her phone to call the rest of their team. The two teens were cold and hungry, but they were all right and that was all that mattered.