<<< Off The Beaten Path, [Ice-Man]

[Basswave]

December 25th
Midday

The sun seemed almost too-bright, even filtered through the canopy. It was a byproduct of the cloudless skies, the Savage Land a world untouched by the corruption of man. It was clean, clear, and, with the exception of the Utopia complex, completely free of anything industrial, and you couldn't even really count Utopia as that. No, the X-Men were really dedicated to preserving this place as best they could.

A splash sounded as she dropped a few feet down into a shallow brook. She took a few steps forward, steadying herself with the stripped down branch she'd picked up after they'd left the Utopia safety fence. Her leg still gave her issues, and if she had a bit of a limp after everything that she'd gone through in the last twelve months, she was perfectly fine with it. At least she was still breathing. Stopping in the center of the brook, she climbed up on a large rock that split the flow in two and held up her compass, unfolding the laminated map printout with her free hand and checking her position.

She'd been an X-Man in training once, and years of travelling through some of the most backwater countries on the globe leant credence to her survival skills; Hartley Lindwall may not have been a warrior but she wasn't a wimp either.

She folded the map up and slid it into the cargo pocket on her shorts, compass along with, and hitched the survival pack on her back up before pressing a finger to her ear. Bobby wouldn't be all that far off but it was better than shouting; they hadn't seen anything carnivorous so far but that could change quickly.

"We're not all that far out yet. This place is dynamite."

Her voice was filled with mirth. This was a real treat, once in-a-lifetime. It pained her that when she went home, she wouldn't be able to brag about it. This place was a well-kept secret. She knew about it only through Bobby, and none of those at X-Corp, save for Edmund and Dead-Girl, knew her true whereabouts. She was simply on hiatus for a few weeks if anyone asked, and thanks to this place's Uncanny wi-fi hookup, she was able to keep on top of any thunderous developments with the impending global merger. This was a perfect place to get lost.

She skipped across the rest of the stream, turning around to look back across for any sign of Bobby. "Hey, Iceman, you there? Hurry up before somethin' eats me!"

This was a hell of a way to spend Christmas Day.

[Bobby Drake]

Christmas Day, what a day. Hiking with his girl. He never let her out of his sight, sure he fell behind a couple of times, who would have thought the one who took a couple of bullets to the leg would be faster than her. That and just plain watching her was distracting him enough to slowing him down, and it wasn’t a bad view.

“Dynamite, ey? Far out!” He watched her as she used a stick to hop across the stream, he was pretty well hidden at that point. She called out to him, asking where he was, and to hurry up before something ate her. Bobby moved quietly so he could sneak closer to her. When he back was turned to face him he zipped over and picked her up. Before she could make any protest and to put her down, he kissed her.

He kept his body temperature warm, it sort of killed the mood to have your girlfriend shiver as you held her. The Iceman, was warm, toasty, and if it was anyone else, he would have complained and whined about it. But not with Hart, never with her. After he kissed her, several times, he moved slightly away from her, still being very close and spoke, “Like I’d let that happen.”

He smiled and kissed her again, for another moment. “Point the way, babe. I’m carrying you.” He smiled his boyish smile at her and kept a good solid grip on her so she didn’t fall.

[Basswave]

"Bobby?" She looked around on the bank. And suddenly, silence. Even the babbling of the little stream seemed to go silent. "Bobby? You there?" She spoke into the commslink hopefully. "Iceman?"

Nothing.

"Bobby!" She hollered across the stream. "Are you okay!? Bobby!?"

Suddenly frightened, she made a move to step back towards the stream, to go back and look for him, but her scream had to have been audible as she was swept off her feet and suddenly swept in kisses.

'Like I'd let that happen.'

His boastful words were met with a series of smacks at his shoulder, first out of startled surprise and then out of furious indignation. "You jerk!" She said, half laughing, face twisted into what could almost be called an anger-filled grin. "You selfish little... jerkhole!" She managed a few more annoyed lovetaps against his shoulder before finally giving in to his charms.

Not used to be carried around like this, at least not in a amiable situation, she half snorted. "Bobby you don't have to..." her protestation trailed into further laughter as he carried her up the embankment leading away from the river.

“Point the way, babe. I’m carrying you.”, he said, and she leaned against him, closing her eyes, letting the sun paint them in checkered shadow and light through the ceiling of the jungle. It had a nice smell out here, relaxing and clean, and for a moment she thought of camping in the Appalachians with her family as a child. This felt different but the same all at once. Sure, instead of the occasional curious black-bear you'd get a Tyrannosaur but she'd yet to see that and thinking about it would just spoil the moment.

As they crested a hill, she opened her eyes and looked forward, the treeline stopped at the windfall side of the hill, and as she focused through the trees, she saw it, down in a relatively small valley, a pool at the bottom, the mouth of the creek; it must have wound around further up and fed into the valley itself.

"Holy crap put me down!" She half-whispered, slapping him on the arm gently.

Feet hitting the dirt, she stepped over a bit, slack-jawed. In the clearing ahead was a gaggle of bear-sized, stumpy legged lizards, each with a bed of flat plates on their backs, spade shaped heads dipping idly into the collecting water.

"Boom."

[Bobby Drake]

Her reaction to his sneaking around was priceless. He only flinched slightly and laughed as he held her close and she hit him. "Careful now, few more times of that and I claim 'battered boyfriend' syndrome or worse, I drop ya. And we all know I'd- Ow. Okay that last one hurt."

He rolled the shoulder she hit, making sure he didn't drop her. He couldn't help but keep his smile though. As he carried her she laid her head on him. He could smell her perfume, or hell it could have even been sunscreen it didn't matter to Bobby. Just as they reached the top of the hill his spoke aloud, "Wow..."

She opened her eyes and took a look at the scene below. She smacked him again and told him to put her down. "As you wish." The iced mutant spoke in awe as she was. After you see one dinosaur, it never got old to see more. Hart spoke and he replied, "Big boom."

He looked at her, the way the sunlight shined in her face and the look of wow on her face. He decided to show off his dino knowledge, "Ankylosaurus. Late Cretaceous." He nodded and folded his arms, what looked like dino smarts, was actually remembered from the last time they all went out. He asked Rahne.

She was all about teaching kids which dino was which. He nodded as he looked down at the creatures. After a moment of silence Bobby turned his head to look at Hart, "Wanna go down there and pet one?"

[Basswave]

She stood there a moment, both of them in quiet reverie as they looked down on the hydrating dinosaurs. Were they really dinosaurs? Mutant lizards that looked like them? Who knew, who cared? This was fantastic. And as they stood there, Bobby began reciting what he knew. She remembered that name, from school, from childhood. There was something irrevocably "childhood" about dinosaurs, and now getting to see them. She was ten again, and determined to be a real life Ellie Satler or Alan Grant, ready to dig up bones for a living. She hadn't ever made it in that career, never expected to, but somehow, seeing this now, it made it all come back through the floodgates, and she just leaned back into Bobby and savored the moment.

He asked if she wanted to meet them.

"I'm not entirely sure we should..." she said, first focusing on them down there and then cocking her head towards him, still leaning back into his grasp.

"I think I'm good right here for now. Don't want to risk anything you know?" She'd watched one too many NatGeo specials and seen far too many lions dive out at waterholes to take down whatever had stopped for a drink to even want to think about going near that pool.

"Besides, it's nice and quiet up here, don't you think?" She tilted her head around to kiss him on the cheek. "Peaceful. Nice. New York can bite it I'm staying here. Out here forever."

She turned around for a second. "If things ever go south."

She bit at the inside of her cheek apprehensively. "Bobby..." She stepped forward out of his grasp. "You know, when I leave here, when I go back to the world, it's going to get even harder. I'm going to be on the move a lot. Like, a lot a lot."

She put her arms around his shoulders and set the side of her head on his chest, looking off into nowhere, into the woods. "It's gonna be a whole lot harder for us to find time... I want to make sure you know that."

[Bobby Drake]

Hart rejected the Iceman’s offer to go down and see the dinosaurs up close. She leaned into him and he was more than to take it. She told him she didn’t want to risk anything and that it was nice and quiet where they were, “Yeah yeah. We’ll stay up here. Grass is soft enough up here that we could just lay in the sunlight together. Can’t ever say I didn’t give ya a romantic setting.”

He kept his wide smile. Even as she turned to kiss him and said that New York could bite it. He chuckled as she said that, but stopped and simply smiled when she said she was staying. Bobby had his arms around her when she turned and continued to talk. He looked at her when she said his name and stepped away from him. His smile faded when she talked about how things were going to be harder.

That she was going to be on the move, a lot. He looked at her and kept a small smile. Hartley then got back to being close to him and wrapped her arms around the icy mutants shoulders. Bobby held her close as she rested her head on his chest. She finished with telling him it was going to be harder to find time and that she wanted to make sure he knew that. He did.

It was why he avoided the entire topic. “I know. Don’t worry ‘bout it, babe. We’ll get through it. One of lifes hurdles and whatever.” The iced mutant held her close and lightly rubbed his thumb across her back as he kept the rest of his hand still. For a few moments he lost his smile.

Looking out at the Savage Land with a blank face. After those few moments he blinked several times and let the smile return to his face. Keeping his voice and tone light he started to hum something to her. Until the right part of the song he was humming came up.

“Lying close to you feeling your heart beating
And I'm wondering what you're dreaming
Wonderin' if it's me you're seeing
Then I kiss your eyes
And thank God we're together
I just want to stay with you in this moment forever
Forever and ever.”

He moved his hand to her chin to lift it and meet his eyes. After he did, he kissed her. For a good while too. When he separated from her lips he didn’t move too far away from them, keeping his forehead against hers, his eyes closed, and trying not to breathe too much so he could feel her breathe on his face.

“Let’s not think about you leaving until you gotta leave. I’d be fine with freezing us in moments like these.” Bobby moved his lips mere millimeters away from hers once again and spoke again, “I love you.”

[Basswave]

She stayed close to him, taking in the scene around them as her head sat sideways against his frame. The jungle, the trees, the leaves and tangled roots and ferny shrubs that littered the ground. The hill leading down to a mirrored-pool surrounded by massive but at the same time majestic creatures the likes of which she'd likely never see again. It all sort of congealed into a single beautiful moment, punctuated by the young boy who just wanted her to get some time to herself, who months back just wanted to give her a laugh and ended up giving her so much more.

"We'll get through it" He said.

"We will." She replied, shutting her eyes.

The moment sank in, she relished it, relished the peace and the quiet, relished the peace, the lack of blaring car horns and angry shouting citizens, the lack of the mechanical whirring that seemed ever present in Utopia, a byproduct of that outpost's frontiersman nature. It was quiet, the moment filled only with his breathing and his heartbeats, with birdsong and the occasional low groan from the animals down below.

And then...

She looked up to him, with a quirk in her brow. Was he...

He was! She had to shake her head and try so hard not to crack a grin, to smile and laugh, and while at first she avoided laughing, the smile was a losing battle, and in the end she couldn't hold it, couldn't let that go any more.

"Bobby you're such a cornb-"

And he lifted her head and they shared a kiss, and all was right in the world, if only for a moment. She reciprocated it, returned it with her own fervor.

When they finally broke away, she kept her own eyes locked on his, and in that brief instant, they shone a brilliant green, grip on her powers lost in the moment, and in her mind's eye Hartley saw the splendor of the forest broadcast to her, every tiny creature and every fern and every palm, and she felt a sort of unity. Drawing in all that her eyes faded back to their boring brown, and she kept her smile on him.

"I love you." He said.

"You know what?" She asked. "I think I love you too."

She kissed him again, immediately aware then that she still had two weeks here, still had fourteen days of blissful ignorance from the rest of the world. It brought an even bigger smile to her face, and as she turned away from his smile for the first time in a while now, she looked out towards the pack of saurians sitting around the waterhole.

"Suddenly, Bobby. It doesn't seem like such a waste, you know. All of it."She gave him another brief look before turning back to just watch, to take it all in again. "I do, Bobby. I love you." And suddenly, he wasn't that prankster kid from school any more. He was hers. She was his.

[Bobby Drake]

Hart returned his kiss with her own passion. Bobby smiled at her when she did. Took a great talent, well not so much, to smile while kissing. She asked him [i]”You know what?”[i] He quickly replied, “What?” Then she finished her thought. The iced mutant paused in surprise and shock, he hadn’t heard her say those words since the attack on X-Corps.

Her kiss brought him out of the near shock. She turned to face the dinosaurs again and he wrapped his arms around her. Still holding her from behind. “I had a feeling you did.” He said with a smug smile. She spoke about how it all didn’t seem like such a waste. She looked back at him before looking out on the horizon once again. He nuzzled close to her neck when she validated her words with more definite ones.

"It was never a waste. And worth the long wait to hear you say that. Well, at least while you were conscious." With all the crap that happened in Bobby’s life, KICK, Angie, all of it really, it all seemed to have been for this moment. Moments with Hart. Every time he took a breath in, he could smell her perfume.

When he closed his eyes, all he saw was her. Ah amore. Despite his ‘ladies’ man’ demeanor, The Iceman was truly a one woman man, and for the right girl, he’d do anything for her. After a few moments of silence and standing with Hart, he sighed and put his head on her shoulder, “Damnit…”

Keeping his head on her shoulder he paused briefly to continue on, “Now I got that song stuck in my head…” He kept his head still for a few moments before he raised his head and shook it back and forth. Feigning his upset, he spoke again, “That’s what I get for setting the mood. Curse my cool charm. Babe, what will I do!?”

[Basswave]

She focused on the scene below as he spoke, the two of them seemingly stuck in a moment out of time, where nothing mattered save for the two of them. A grin spread across her features. Suddenly everything was so perfect. She didn’t want to go back to New York. Didn’t want to go back to the rat race, the daily grind of work. The merger, the future of X-Corp, it was all so distant, such a far flung thing that it just simply didn’t register anymore. His hands around her waist, she put her hands on his bringing them up to her mouth for a peck.

”Babe, what will I do?”

“I think you’ll live.” She said, words laced with quiet laughter. “But if you’re really lost you could just stand here forever with me.” Her eyes lifted up to the sky, so free of clouds, so blue, not a skyscraper in sight, no airplanes, no smog, no haze that was so common back in the real world. The fresh air she was getting was making up for the past year and a half of city living, of that much she was sure. “Bobby, when we were kids, well… when we were younger, you ever imagine you’d be here? To see all of this?”

It was a stupid question; of course he hadn’t. None of them probably had. The sheer implausibility of this place ensured that. It was more of a philosophical question, a contemplation on all that had happened in the past few years.

His answer would have to wait though, because her face screwed up in a grimace as something moved all too fast on the edge of her psionic periphery. “Oh, no.” Her radar flared up, coating the area in a wave of invisible energy that rebounded back to her, giving her a better image, and then her head inexplicably canted over, staring at the edge of the watering hole as a trio of large cats, each one the size of a grizzly, stalked out of the treeline, eyes focused on the stump-legged dinosaurs that had been their guests in this private moment.

“Bobby we gotta do something.”

She shook off the glow of the moment. “Wait, no, nevermind… we should probably head back…” After all, it was nature, and that was one thing the X-Men had been committed to here, not interfering. “Before they think we’ll make a good dessert. Either way I don’t wanna watch.”

And then she noticed something else approaching the hunting circle. “Holy Sh-“
The rest of her exclamation was drowned out by the thunderous approach, across the pool at the bottom of the valley, the trees could be seen shaking as whatever it was made its way through the jungle. The cats below seemed to scatter, heading directly away from it, their free meal running with them. It was all or nothing as the massive lizard came crashing through the trees.

Her eyes bolted wide open as she realized this massive storm of prehistoric rage was coming straight for them she pulled on Bobby’s arm, bolting away as the creatures all of them mounted the hill.

"Uh yeah getting out of here is definitely priority one!”

[Bobby Drake]

She told him she'd think he'll live. He let out a fake whimper and kept holding onto Hart. She asked him if he ever imagined they'd be there to see all they were seeing. "Yep. Sure did." He spoke plainly and with light teasing in his voice, but in a playful way. "The dinos are a surprise but, hey, I'm flexible."

He closed his eyes, letting the sun blare in his face, him being the Iceman he would have been annoyed by it, but with holding Hart close it was something he easily forgot. Until she cried out. He shot his eyes open and looked at the scene below. She wanted to go and help the dinosaurs. He stood there and she was quit to drop it. Bobby watched as the big cats encroached closer to their prey.

Hart cursed and he was soon able to see what she saw. A bigger dinosaur chasing the others off and bee lining it for the two mutants. Not just a bigger dinosaur, but one of the biggest of all, a T-Rex. Hart started pulling at his arm and told him that leaving the area was priority one. It took a couple of tugs for him to fully run with her. The massive dinosaur roared and kept at the two.

The Iceman moved quick to position Hart on his back, carrying her on his back. "Hold tight, babe." He shot forward a stream of ice and hopped on it, sliding on a beam of ice with Hartley grasping around his neck. They wouldn't have been able to outrun that beast, not with Hartley's leg. And no way was he going to let some prehistoric jerk trample his girl!

The T-Rex roared again and tried to smash the ice beam to bits behind them. The iced mutant used one hand to shoot the ice in front of him to make the beam and his other hand was used to balance him and Hartley. Bobby looked back and saw the Rex was still close by. “Shit!!” He had to move faster, “Hold onto tightly, Hart! I’m gonna go faster.”

He angled the ice beam upward a little bit, which put the two in a convenient biting area for the Rex, and it slowed them down so the beast caught up with them. But after the Iceman made the hump and zoomed downward, the two shot forward with incredible speed. Bobsled fast. Careening downward they were moving faster and it looked like they were going to lose the Rex.

Bobby took a quick back glance and called out, “Ha! That’s what ya get for trying to ice the Icema-aaaah!!!!” He looked back in time to see a huge heard of Triceratops in front of them. The iced mutant tried to avoid them but was thrown off balance. He moved quickly to grab Hart before she flew away from him and got hurt.

Bobby stretched his hand out after he caught her and made a curved wall of ice for them to glide on. Continuing the stream of ice so that they could simply glide in a cup of ice. True Bobby landed on his back and Hartley landed on him, and it hurt like hell but at least they could only own up to a few scraps and bruises. Before the triceratops could be angered by the two mutants, the T-Rex caught up with them.

Soon it was a battle time forgot between the Triceratops and the Tyrannosaurus Rex. After a small groan the Iceman sat up and looked at the fight for a moment before turning to his girl, “Hart? Hart, you okay?”

They didn’t have time to wait for her to reply, he helped her up and spoke again, “Come on girl, we gotta run.” He’d carry her on her back if he had to, but they needed to get moving before any one of the two won the fight. And Bobby didn’t want to be there for either ones’ victory.

[Basswave]

'Does everything have to be a calamity with me?!'

Those were the words cycling through Hartley's head on a loop as she rocketed off, clinging to Bobby's back as he sprayed out an iceslide before them, the speed only just barely able to keep them out of biting range. She didn't open her eyes, just let her ears fill with the ravenous trudging of the Tyrannosaur, the skittering thuds of the smaller ones as they too fled for their lives, each one threatening to send Bobby's mode of transport shattering to pieces with one stray to the left or right.

They were getting further off course, away from Utopia, but that didn't really matter, if Hartley was good for one thing, it was for finding her way around. She had a keen eye for details, and thus as her mind pried over the surrounding area, she picked out various landmarks that she could use to guide them back onto the beaten path once they got out of this.

If they got out of this.

Bobby turned back only briefly, his need to quip taking the better of him, and again Hartley just clung around his shoulders for dear life, eyes clothed and teeth chattering at the sudden frigid air surrounding her boyfriend as he expedited their evacuation.

That quip had been costly, too, and the two of them were soon careening through the air into the center of a herd of massive, three horned lizards, skidding about as her formed a dome of ice to catch them in, the thing spinning as she landed on something soft that she quickly realized was Iceman himself.

"Uhnn." She said as the thing tipped end over end, dumping them out and then rolling a few more yards, crashing into the side of a now-irate Triceratops.

The world around her was spinning, the whole trip something of a whirlwind adventure in more than one way. Closing her eyes, she focused on her powers, negating the effects of dizziness as she tried to pick bobby out of the green skeletal outlines that now flooded her mind's eye.

And then it was in front of her, and as she opened her eyes there stood an angry lizard, staring her down, ready to charge. It wasn't for her, however, and their pursuer crashed through the trees into the clearing, the herd of Ankylosaurs following as the new herd scattered as well. The Rex landed a vicious bite on the three-horn as she dove out of the way, scrambling over to Bobby as the now-distracted lizard commenced in a duel of nature.

Adrenaline flowing like Niagra, she grabbed at his hand, unaware of where her walking stick and, to be quite frank, relatively uncaring, running as he said they should.

The T-Rex was no longer much of a problem, it had it's prey, but now they were navigating a field of enraged leaf-eating natural battletanks. The roar was deafening. She could barely make out Bobby's word as the creatures thundered all around them. Most of the saurians were filtering out through a narrow but clear path in the jungle. If they were to have any hope, they'd have to hit the treeline, find a cave where they and nobody else (at least dino-sized) could fit.

Follow me! She said, unaware of the pain building in her leg as she lead them through the stampede of herbivores, taking careful measure to move them both where her powers ensured they'd be safe.

Working slowly across the harrowing minefield where explosions were replaced with death-by-prehistoric-trampling was frightening, and she issued forth many a frightened yelp as they neared the tree-line. Hartley didn't have to look back at the titanic battle behind her, her mutation showed her everything.

At the edge of the trees, she pulled him along as she dove into a bush, sending the two of them tumbling down a somewhat steady incline until they buffeted to a stop on the leaf-and-moss covered ground below.

"We need to find a cave or something, head back when this is all calmed down. Who knows what that woke up in these woods."

She realized she was on top of him, and a nervous laugh escaped her.

Then the adrenaline started to wind down, and almost immediately she felt the rigors of their flight. Pulling herself up, she dusted off the front of her, looking around wildly as her eyes pulsed with faint green, her powers hard at work looking for somewhere they could hide and ride this out.

[Bobby Drake]

Hart was quick to grab his hand, the two ran for dear sweet life. Occasionally Bobby turned to throw icy obstacles for the dinosaurs. Ice walls to block, which were shattered, ice clumps to throw at the dinosaurs, which were shrugged off. Hart guided the two of them through the herd.

Until Hart had the them dive into a bush. But it caused them to roll down a hill. Every tumble made the Iceman groaned, especially when his elbow hit a rock. When they stopped tumbling Hartley landed on top of him, her eyes glowing green from her power. She told him that they needed to hide. All Bobby could do to respond was say, "Okay I know we're being chased by crazed dinos right now, but you are so damn hot, babe."

She stood up and he wasn't too far behind. She looked around and it seemed like she couldn't see anything close by. The Iceman looked and could hear the dinosaurs approaching. Looking over to the side he tried to look help her look, but they were running out of time. The iced mutant felt he had no choice but to make a place for them to hide.

He saw a small rock formation and grabbed Hart's hand, "Now you get to follow me." He dashed for the rock formation and lead Hart in towards the middle of the formation first. With Bobby close behind he placed them in the middle, some of the rocks were bigger than the two, others were to their waist. He looked at Hart and said, "Get down, babe."

He rose his hand into the air and unleashed his power. The ice formed a sort of dome around the two. Concentrating on the direction the Triceratops were going to pass. The iced mutant left a weak point where his back was, it would take minimal effort to break through and escape. It was a temporary means to a situation that they found themselves cornered in. The only problem with the plan, trying to keep Hartley warm enough.

The icy mutant finished the dome and lowered himself down next to his girl. The ice wasn't so translucent that they could clearly see through it, but it was enough to see big, blotchy items moving around. In a low whisper he spoke to her, "We'll be alright, Hart. No one can break through the Iceman's dome... Well, Logan probably could... and the TK mutants... super strength mutants."

Bobby turned to her and smiled. He wasn't panicked. He figured the dinosaurs would give up looking eventually. But how Hart would take the chill was what worried him the most. "You're not too cold are you, babe?" He spoke with new worry in his voice. She was very important, and he didn't want to see her frozen to death, let alone trampled.

[Basswave]

It had been her powers that had led them out of the stampede, and her own frantic flight that had lead them down into this ravine, the bottom of which was covered in dying fern fronds and tendrilous roots creeping in and about the whole of the forest floor. Rocks were scattered, and she wondered for a moment about the size of some of these boulders. Had this been some old boneyard or quarry?

Exploration would have to wait, of course. The cataclysm of giant predator and gargantuan prey still raged on above and behind them, threatening to spill over at any moment.

Bobby pulled her into the droop of a ridge of hefty, large stones, and set to work, making quickly a small but sturdy fortress of ice for them to cower in as the first vestiges of the prehistoric conflict on the plateau above them spilled down into the trees.

Almost immediately it became a dull roar inside the small hut, and her breath materialized in front of her face as she rubbed at her shoulders and arms. She gave a nervous, short laugh at his assurances (of which he didn't sound exactly sure himself), shaking her head.

When he asked if she was cold, she gave a shrug, shivering though she was. "Me? Cold? I live in New York." She whispered. "I've seen worse." Despite her claims, she was chilly, but she'd troop through, it beat being eaten. As the beasts outside thundered away, she sat there, green flooding her eyes, she shut them as the world outside of their little bubble sprawled out across her mind, a two-hundred yard wide map of the surrounding area.

She continued whispering. "Well, we're definitely far away from where we were, though I'm not exactly sure we went the right way. None of this looks familiar at all." Her eyes opened and that dull green rapidly faded, Hartley pulling the map out of her rucksack, one strap of which was torn to uselessness. Comparing the topography in her head with that of the map, she squinted heavily as she tried to synch the two up, eyes casuall glancing to the side as the ground shook beneath them, the hulking bodies thankfully skipping over their icy shelter.

"Ahah!" she exclaimed as quietly as one could do so, jamming her finger on the map. "You got us a few miles off course in that chase but I know where we are now. Just have to wait for the party outside to end."

Her words were staggered between chatters, and after folding the map up she pulled her field blanket out of the top of the roll on her pack, flinging it at herself. "So, were stuck here for a bit... whaddayawannado?" She scooted up close to him despite his chill.

[Bobby Drake]

He could hear her shiver. He frowned and made sure his body temperature was at a normal one. The cold coming off of the ice around them felt good on the normal, body temperature, ice mutant, but hopefully it’d help to warm her a little bit. She told him that he got them off a few miles off course.

“Whoa, why’s it my fault? I didn’t attract the dinos to chase us.” He held no implication it was her fault or his own in his tone, but still he added, “If anything they saw you and were all ‘Iwant!’ and that’s why they chased us.” He smiled his boyish smile. Still he could hear the chattering of her teeth and it caused him to frown once again.

After Hart pulled the blanket around her she asked what he wanted to do. She scooted closer to him and he wrapped his arm around her, trying to warm her up. “I’m sorry babe. I’m really not trying to have you freeze to death on me.” He quirked his eyebrows upward and formed a small smirk on the side of his lips. “Well, ya know what they say is the best way to survive in the cold…”

His smirk was forming more and more with each passing millisecond. “And you got a blanket...” He looked at her and winked. “Give ya three guesses.”

[Basswave]

"Cool your jets, Frosty, I wasn't blaming you." She huffed, a puff of her breath swirling out in their little protective dome. "I was just saying we're off course. Didn't mean to offend your tender sensibilities huh?" She nudged him with an elbow under the blanket. The ground hadn't had a chance to cool with the use of his powers yet, and under the blanket it managed to still feel sunbaked and warm. That was a plus.

She shook her head at his suggestion.

"Three guesses? I don't see how building a blanket fort is going to keep me any warming than just huddling under one. Unless of course you're talkin about..."

She snorted out a laugh before immediately clapping her hand over her mouth, eyes shooting to the thick ice around them as if something would come crashing through at her momentary lapse in discretion.

"Bobby!" She hissed in a whisper. Now is not the time for that!"

She shook her head, teeth chittering less now that she was getting a handle on the cold. "I don't think they'll hang around much longer. Should we head back to Utopia or find a tree to climb up in for the night?"

She huddled up even more, resting her head on his shoulder, watching the giant reptilian shadows sulk and creep through the barrier in front of them. Turning her head, she planted a kiss on his cheek.

"You know though. This is the most alone time we've had since before all that crap in New York last summer. It's... it's kinda nice. Threat of being eaten alive midsentence nonwithstanding, of course."