#pred!wels

“Are we there yet?” Hypno asked, his small, fragile wings fluttering behind him to keep him off the ground.

“Not yet,” Wels replied, glancing down at the little bee hybrid as he shivered in the cold. The sun was shining down on them, but the snow coating the surrounding landscape was brighter, and Wels had to squint if he wanted to look further than a few paces ahead of himself.

"Really?" Hypno complained, a small pout crossing his face as he hugged himself, his bare hands digging into his heavy jacket. “But... it's so cold... we’ve been walking for so long...”

“You haven't even been walking,” Wels pointed out, pulling his shoulders up to his ears as slight shivers ran through his body. He pressed his hands over his ears in an attempt to warm them up, but now that his hands were away from his body, they were getting colder, and his ears weren’t much warmer than before.

“Yeah, but... I can’t touch the ground,” Hypno muttered, and Wels' expression softened as he watched Hypno's body trembling in the cold. Wels pulled his hands back against his body, feeling them getting even colder against his freezing armor.

“Fair point,” Wels answered, keeping a close eye on Hypno as the shivering only got worse. There was only so much his small body could handle, not to mention that neither of them were even close to being dressed for the weather. It wasn’t like they had planned to walk through the snow, but they couldn’t find a way through the mountains.

"Cold..." Hypno murmured, slowly sinking towards the ground as his wings fluttered, attempting to lift him back up into the air. Wels' eyes widened, and he reached out, taking Hypno in his hands, making sure to be gentle. Hypno didn’t protest, instead settling into his grip with a soft, incomprehensible murmur. Wels stopped walking for a moment as he focused on the still-shivering form in his cupped palms.

Hypno curled up in his hands, shivers wracking his body violently. His wings settled, and when Wels took a closer look at them, he saw they were slightly off color, and seemed more veiny than they were before?

The realization hit him like a brick wall a moment later. There was ice forming over his wings.

Wels let out a low hiss, and he picked up his pace, pulling Hypno closer to his body. Hypno let out a grumble of complaint as Wels' hand closed around him, and Wels quickly loosened his grip, worry that he had accidentally hurt the other shooting through him.

“Are you okay?!” He asked hurriedly, uncurling his hands and looking down at Hypno.

“Cold,” Hypno replied tiredly, before mumbling something Wels couldn't hear under his breath. The response wasn't any different from what Wels had gotten just before, but he was panicking now. If Hypno stayed in the cold any longer, his wings could be damaged - or worse, and Wels couldn't warm him up.

“Sorry for taking the scenic route,” Wels apologized weakly. It was his fault that they hadn’t brought their elytra - he wanted to spend a little time adventuring with Hypno.

“Mm?” Hypno mumbled, an eye cracking open to look up at Wels. “Tired,” he commented after a moment, his eyes closing again. No, no, damnit! He wasn't this weak five minutes ago, he went downhill so fast-

Calm down. You're the only one who can help him right now, Wels reminded himself, taking a deep breath. There was still one option he hadn't tried.

Wels murmured a soft, “Sorry,” before he placed Hypno gently in his mouth. He could hear Hypno make a soft, confused sound, but Wels wasted no more time in swallowing Hypno. Wels was tense as he felt Hypno slip down his throat, but he relaxed slightly when he felt Hypno's weight settle just under the left side of his ribcage. He hadn't messed up. Hypno was fine. Wels took in another slow breath, and started walking again, taking extra care of where he stepped as the ground started to slope down beneath his feet.

Hypno had stopped protesting fairly quickly, which made Wels' life much easier; he was more able to focus on where he was going.

Wels wasn't sure how far he walked, but he made his way to a spot where the snow had melted, and in another couple hundred metres, he stumbled into a sparse forest. Beams of sunlight shone through the leaves, patterning the ground with small spots. Wels let out a sigh of relief, and, on now-shaky legs, he found a large tree and collapsed at the base. His armor pressed into his back, his clothes thankfully shielding him from the freezing metal, but the ridges along it were uncomfortable. He reached up to his ears and shivered as he ran his fingers along the slightly pointed tips. They were numb; he just had to hope that he hadn't gotten frostbite.

Wels felt a light stirring from inside him - probably because he had sat down.

“Sorry,” he apologized softly, crossing his arms over his midsection, but he was careful to not press against Hypno resting in his brood pouch.

Wels could've sworn that he heard a soft mumble of "warm,” from Hypno, but he definitely felt a pair of hands press against the wall of his pouch, which caused Wels to let out a soft sound of surprise.

“Warm, hm?" Wels asked, "You feeling okay?"

“M-hm. Warm,” Hypno repeated, louder and more insistently.

Wels felt the hands press harder into him, and he let out a quiet squeak, “What are you doing?”

“Feels nice,” Hypno answered simply, and Wels could feel him starting to work his fingers into the walls of his pouch, causing Wels to let out a slightly flustered noise. “You okay?" Hypno asked when Wels didn't say anything more, too caught off-guard at the feeling to form words.

“Tired. Still cold, but okay,” Wels answered after a moment, biting his lip as he felt Hypno pressing his hands into him a little harder as he kneaded the wall closest to him, but an involuntary purr still escaped him. Hypno must've heard it, because he started pressing even more firmly. God, that felt good.