[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Umeme gratefully pressed herself against Muroki, using him to block out the cold. But she could tell that even he won't be enough for the night. "Let's go back to the den," she suggested, "it's going to be warmer there." What's more, she wanted to see how Lina would fare in her first night with Delano back. So before Muroki answered her, she was already getting up to her feet to walk back.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki could also tell that the warmth shared between him and Umeme would not be enough in order to help them shrug off the night's cold breeze, but as long as they were together he could ignore anything, which was why he was somewhat disappointed when Umeme decided they should head back to the den. Still, he followed her without arguing. "I wonder how are Lina and Delano doing..." he said after a short silence, as if reading her mind.

[DGFone]

Umeme walked back quickly, not because she wanted to warm up, but because she wanted to huddle with Muroki as quickly as possible. "We'll see when when we get to the den," she answered Muroki, only to have her teeth start chattering and her body shiver. Umeme slowed down and allowed Muroki to get next to her, and again she began to walk, this time close to him. She grinned slightly when he looked at her, not saying anything. All the cold did was to give her even more reasons why to not leave his side.

Near the den, Delano felt the cold air start to swirl around him and Lina. While he himself could easily ignore it, the past few days being much worse than just a bit of cold, he wrapped as much of Lina as he can, feeling protective of her. After too many nightmares of seeing her get hurt, he wanted to make her as comfortable as possible, tired of arriving too late and not being able to do anything. Now he was with her, and he won't allow anything to make her feel bad, not even the night cold.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki would have probably been able to notice the sound of Umeme's teeth as a result of the cold wind, but the fact that he didn't didn't make him protest when she walked even closer to him. Lina meanwhile began to think that maybe it'll be better if they both went back inside. "Maybe it's time we went back in?" not that she didn't enjoy the way Delano tried to shield her from the wind, but they could do the same thing inside a warm den which sounded a lot nicer.

[DGFone]

Umeme walked next to Muroki, and soon after they came to the den. Delano and Lina were still outside, but Umeme wasn't worried. She saw how Delano was covering Lina, and knew that they were together again. Soon, Lina would soon also go inside, and Delano will go with her, so Umeme wasn't worried about the two of them being out in the cold. She winked at Lina before disappearing inside the den, Muroki right behind her.

Delano looked at Lina before nodding. "Alright, let's go." He got up and followed her to the entrance of the den. But when he looked inside, he was greeted by a black entrance, and he froze right away, afraid to go inside. His legs started shaking as he tried to force himself to get inside, but he wouldn't move from his spot. The blackness was too much, and he couldn't bring himself to walk in. His eyes wandered over to Lina, who was looking at him with concern. "I... I can't..." he stammered, "it's too dark... I can't go inside..."

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina had almost walked inside already when she noticed that Delano was still standing at the entrance. Maybe it was a rather hasty move to think that Delano had recovered already. "You can, this is different." she nuzzled him as reassuringly as she could, "You're not alone anymore." it was quite dark inside but Lina could tell that Umeme and Muroki were looking at them, obviously just as concerned as she was. "I'm here with you, we all are." she wasn't going to force him into the den, but she doubted she could spend a night outside.

[DGFone]

As afraid as Delano was of walking inside the dark den, he didn't want to force Lina to stay outside, and he doubted that he would last outside on his own. He slowly nodded and began walk inside. Even though he willed himself to walk in, his limbs were still shaking furiously, and Delano stumbled over to an the edge of the den before roughly lying down.

He whimpered quietly, already wanting to go back outside. It was too dark in here, and he wasn't ready for it yet. He barely noticed when Lina lay down next to him, although he did move his head towards hers. He wrapped a paw around her, wanting to get close to her, and slowly his whimpering stopped as her presence calmed him down.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina was relieved that Delano walked in without protesting, since she didn't want it to end up with one of them raising his voice at the other again. She lay down beside him and cuddled against him, placing her head on top of his reassuringly like her mother would often do when she was little, which felt a little weird considering the fact that Delano was slightly larger than she was. She kept her head on top of his even after he stopped whimpering, "Everything's alright..." she said softly, nuzzling him as she did.

[DGFone]

Delano snuggled closer to Lina, beginning to feel better with her next to him. Even though she couldn't see it, he smiled slightly and closed his eyes, feeling calm enough to try and sleep in darkness for once. "Lina?" he mumbled quietly, hoping that she could hear him, "I, I just want you to know that... well, thanks." Slowly, he drifted off to sleep.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki nearly let out a sigh of relief when Delano finally calmed down, and a smile appeared on his face when he heard Lina whisper a quiet 'I love you' before falling asleep herself. "Looks like things turned alright." he said quietly to Umeme, nuzzling her gently and holding her close. Now it finally looked like things were going to be normal for a change, and even if it still was quite impossible to grasp he was already looking forward to it. "Goodnight Umeme." he licked her cheek, or at least the part of her face he thought was the cheek, "Love you." he rested his head down next to hers and fell asleep.