"You stayed alive." His voice was a soft static, cracking with the shivering of his body. He let out a shuddering breath as she rubbed over his chest. The edges of his shoulders and down his pant legs were beginning to frost over. He knew in the logical part of his brain that he needed to get warm and dry, but in the, currently overwhelmed, emotional part of his brain he couldn't move from the spot he was in. "For me." He closed his eyes again and pressed his forehead to hers, and was almost shocked at its warmth contrasted to the numbness that coated him.
Give it to me. Let me carry the burden. He pleaded over the bond, the tears that had welled in his eyes upon seeing her now taking fall over his thick lashes. Noah, too, had once run from a fight he couldn't win. When a dragon and a shakram chased him down, he had fought only enough to draw them away from the Citadel and to get himself to equal safety. Halo had not hated him. It could be argued that the circumstances were different, but Noah wouldn't -- couldn't -- see it that way.
Noah
the sentinel of the north
