#falling through ice

[nature-wants-you-dead]

Today I'm thinking about the craziness of spring weather. Especially melting ice and snow melt runoff.

Imagine you've been walking across the same frozen lake or river for months and then all of a sudden you're slipping through the ice.

Or you need to cross a river which is normally easy to do but it's flooded with snow melt and now you're being swept away.

Spring brings all kinds of fun environmental whump ideas!

[thoughtsonhurtandcomfort]

you know what The Most Midwinter Whump TM trope is? Falling through ice.

ABSOLUTELY. Right into that ice cold water~

[a-reader-and-a-writer]

Break the Ice

Day 7: Falling Through Ice

Fandom: DC, The Suicide Squad, Rick Flag

Word Count: 1423

TW: Hypothermia, Language

Thanks to @lacontroller1991 for the request!

@amonthofwhump

One minute you were skating circles around him, and the next Rick watched as you plunged into the freezing water below the ice. You must have hit a thin spot or your continuous skating in that area just weakened it. But the why ultimately didn’t matter. All that mattered was that you were his best friend, you were in trouble, and Rick wasn’t going to let anything happen to you.

As he approached the break, Rick couldn’t see the faintest trace of you. It was like you had been sucked into a black hole. Flinging off his heavy, cumbersome skates, he slammed his bare heel into the ice around the edge of the chasm, widening it slightly. Then, he dove into the gaping abyss.

The icy water hit him like a sledgehammer, causing an involuntary gasp that released half of his precious air reserves. But he tried his best to ignore the biting chill as he swam down deeper into the darkness. He couldn’t see any sign of you as he frantically lashed out his arms while he swam, hoping he would get lucky and brush up against you.

Finally, just as he was on his last few seconds of oxygen, he felt a strand of your hair brush over his hand. His fingers were so numb, it almost didn’t register, but as he surged forward, he crashed into your shoulder. Grasping a large handful of your jacket, Rick swam as hard as he could to the surface. A miniscule dot of light was his only indication of where to head, but the world grew brighter the closer he got to freedom. And just as black dots began dancing in front of his vision, Rick’s head burst through the hole that had already begun to frost over.

Dragging your head out of the water, his heart stopped as he noticed you weren’t breathing. But he had partially expected this, and now was not the time to shut down. After a lot of maneuvering, Rick managed to lift you onto the solid ice. He then heaved himself up beside you.

Rolling quickly to his knees, he began chest compressions, exactly as he had been taught back at boot camp many years ago. It was second nature at this point. He only hesitated for a moment when it came time to perform mouth to mouth. For as many years as the two of you had known each other, you had never crossed this line. Yet, for how long had he imagined pressing his lips against yours? Dreamed about what they would feel like, taste like? But he never imagined this would be how he found out. Ramming his mouth into your icy, blue lips, he breathed heavily into you, forcing air back into your still lungs. But nothing happened. Two more times he repeated the cycle but…. nothing.

“Come on, darlin’, don’t do this to me! Wake up! Please, just fucking, wake up!” With the last pound to your chest, you jerked straight up, spewing water from your mouth as you coughed and gagged. Rick didn’t think he had ever felt so relieved in his life.

Once you managed to catch your breath, you fell back onto the ice as you curled into a tight ball. “R-r-r-r-i-i-” You couldn’t even get his entire name past your lips as your teeth chattered furiously.

Rick scooped you up tightly into his strong arms. He murmured softly in your ear, trying to keep his own teeth from clacking together, “I know, darlin’, I-I know. But I’ve got ya. You’re sa-safe now.”

As quickly as he could in just his thick socks, he hurried across the ice towards his truck. He could feel your hair stiffening into icy strands as the water still clinging to it began to freeze in the wind. You were still quivering violently in his arms, but you seemed to have slipped into unconsciousness. He had to get you warm and dry and soon.

As soon as he opened the door to his truck, he realized a sobering fact. Both of your clothes were still wet, with much of the water on your outer layer already hardening into a frosty coating, which meant….

Rick fumbled with frozen fingers at the zippers and buttons on your clothes as he removed layer after sopping layer. When you were left in just your undergarments, he considered leaving them on but he knew he needed to keep you as dry and as warm as possible. So, averting his eyes as much as he could, he removed your remaining clothes and quickly covered your naked form with one of the blankets he had in the back seat.

Once you were snuggly tucked in, Rick draped your dry jacket over you for added warmth. Luckily, you had left your heaviest one in the truck, stating the two of you were going to be working up a sweat on the ice and you wouldn’t need it. Then he began to strip, the pile of wet clothes soon doubling in size. When he was completely naked, he wrapped the other blanket around himself the best he could. Then he lifted you up and climbed into the front of the truck. He turned all the heaters to low as he pulled you in close to his chest.

As you began to stir, your hand weakly clawed at the heater knob, trying to twist it all the way up but Rick stopped you. “I know you want that heat, darlin’, but warmin’ up too fast is just as dangerous as not warmin’ up at all. We need to do this a little at a time.”

You nodded furiously but because of your shivering, once you started, you didn’t seem to be able to stop. Your head just continued shaking up and down like a bobble-head doll. Placing one hand gently on your cheek, Rick pressed your face tighter against his chest. After a few minutes, the bobbing stopped.

“That’s the last time I let you talk me into going ice skating.” Rick said with a chuckle.

“Sh-shu-shut up. We were ha-hav-having f-fun be-before this hap-pened. Be-besides…nev-er get t-to see yo-you an-anymore.” You mumbled softly through blue tinted lips. It pained Rick to hear the intense tremor in your voice, but at least you were coherent enough to speak.

He brushed some of your damp hair off of your face. “I know. And I’m sorry. Work’s been really busy lately. You know how it is.”

“I-I know. B-but I mi-miss you.” You snuggle your face deeper into him.

“I know…I miss you too.” Rick smoothed his hand across the blanket covering your back. Another shiver ran down your spine. “Ah, come on, darlin’. It’s not that cold.”

“Ya, know… It’s-s a s-sc-scientiffic fact that… larger, more mus-s-scular people’s bo-odies run warmer. I gu-guess I lucked out. You’re my own personal sp-space heater. You’ve al-always be-en incredibly hot.”

Rick smiled. “Is that so? Well, just for future knowledge, there are easier ways to get me out of my clothes.” He regretted the words the second they left his mouth. While it was true, he had been dreaming for years about holding you like this, bodies pressed together in a tender embrace, he knew this was not the way he wanted it to happen. Also, he was sure you had to be mortified about the situation as it was. Two thin blankets were the only things that separated your naked bodies, and though he had tried his best not to look, you had to know he had gotten a pretty good glimpse of your breathtaking figure.

But instead of getting mad or embarrassed, you just chuckled. “I don’t know, Flag. I’ve be-en trying for ages and no-nothing else seem-ed to be working. Call this my l-last resort.”

He looked down at you in surprise. “Are you serious?”

You shrugged, a coy smile on your lips. “I mean, no, I didn’t fall through the ice on purpose, but also… yeah… I like you. A lot. I have for years. I thought you knew that?”

“No…. I thought I was the only one who felt that way.”

Your smile widens as you get a slightly devious gleam in your eyes. “Well…. I might have stopped shaking, but I’m still really cold. I seem to remember reading something about increasing the core temperature and blood flow to treat hypothermia. Do you think you could help me with that?”

Rick’s smile now rivaled your own. “Well, darlin’, it would be my pleasure.”

[fruitcoops]

Hi Eve! firstly love your writing so much! I was wondering if you could write a part 3 to the falling through the ice fic maybe with more comfort and cuddles and just lingering anxiety about loops being too cold and cap just constantly hugging him because " i've gotta keep you warm mon loup" and loops just melting? thanks!

Parts one and two linked here for anyone who's not caught up! Thanks for your patience on this one, y'all--it's been a hell of a week, so here's some fluff to round it out. Combined with an ask for Lyall being a little starstruck in reference to the most recent headcanon list. SW credit goes to @lumosinlove!

TW for mentioned past injury

Hushed voices floated from the living room as Sirius unloaded the dishwasher, wincing whenever a too-hot glass singed his fingertips. His skin was still recovering from the prior day’s pond fiasco—anything much warmer than room temperature made his nerves tingle uncomfortably. Perhaps taking his gloves off to get a better grip on his stick when he pulled Remus out had been a bad idea.

“—just Sirius, dad,” Remus said from the other side of the wall with no small amount of exasperation, louder than he had been before. “What, you think it’s weird?”

Sirius froze with his arm halfway to the cupboard. Weird. Lyall Lupin, the father of the love of his life, thought his relationship with Remus was weird. He set the plate down on the counter with utmost care, straining his ears to hear more as his pulse picked up.

“Oh, come on,” Lyall scoffed. There was a light thwap, followed by Remus’ quiet snickering. “You know I don’t think that.”

“Then why are you being so awkward about this?” There was laughter in Remus’ voice; a good sign, in Sirius’ book. If Lyall had a problem with them being together, Remus’ tone certainly wouldn’t be so light. He took a small step toward the door.

“I’m not being awkward!”

“You are!”

“Shh.” There was a pause before Lyall said something too quiet for Sirius to hear. He scrunched his nose and edged even closer.

Remus snorted, though he kept his voice low. “What, you want me to ask for his autograph or something?”

“Alright, smartass, laugh it up,” Lyall grumbled with another affectionate swatting sound. “Making fun of your dear old dad like you didn’t do the exact same thing.”

“I just think it’s funny you have an even bigger crush on him than I did.”

“I do not!” Sirius smiled to himself as he rolled the clean glass between his hands. “It just takes me by surprise to see the captain of the Gryffindor Lions taking a nap on my couch.”

So it was about me, he thought, feeling his face heat with mild embarrassment and no small amount of pride. Hope and Lyall had done nothing but make him feel welcome in their home, though it had to be a pretty abrupt change for them. They didn’t have the same timeline as he and Remus did, after all.

“Would it make you feel better if he took a nap in my bedroom, instead?” Remus asked with an audible grin.

“Oh my—” Lyall huffed. “You just can’t cut me a break on this one, can you?”

“I’m just giving you grief, don’t worry,” Remus assured him. Sirius abandoned the dishes entirely to tiptoe right up to the corner of the wall for prime eavesdropping. “To be honest, I bet he hasn’t even noticed.”

“Noticed what?”

“That you two are still, y’know, starstruck.”

“He can probably hear us right now. The walls in this damn house are like parchment paper.”

“You’ve been saying that since I was six.”

“And it’s still true.”

Sirius stifled a laugh, keeping his ear near the open doorway. They worked in silence, save for the sounds of whatever football game Lyall had put on for background noise. “He really likes you,” Remus said after a minute or two.

“Who, Sirius?”

“Yeah.” Shut up, Sirius thought fervently. He wondered if there was a way he could quickly end their conversation before Remus spilled all his secrets without giving away that he had been listening, but the little fucker kept on talking before an answer sprang to mind. “He thinks you’re cool. Don’t know where he got that idea from, but—”

“You should never have aged past eight,” Lyall mused as Remus laughed under his breath. “You were a cute kid. It all went downhill from there.”

“Seriously, dad, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Lyall sighed as one of the teams scored a touchdown and the crowd nearly covered their conversation with applause. “I just don’t want to embarrass you.”

“What?” Remus’ voice had lost its teasing edge and gone soft; Sirius bit his lip against a smile as he scooted closer. “You’d never embarrass me.”

“He’s a celebrity, Re. I have his damn jersey in my closet. Eighteen months ago we weren’t anything but fans in a crowd.” He paused, and a shuffling sound muffled his next words. “I know it’s stupid, but it still feels unreal sometimes that the Sirius Black is just…here. He’s in my janky little house and he’s having breakfast with us and he’s kissing my son and I don’t know what the hell to say. There are a thousand cooler people who can talk about more interesting things with the greatest hockey player of your generation, and he’s stuck sitting next to your dad.”

“My dad is the best person I can think of to talk with my boyfriend,” Remus said firmly, still keeping his voice low. “My dad doesn’t ask about his stats, or the next game, or make him feel like he has to keep on being the captain when he just wants to eat breakfast. Sirius likes you. I promise he does. And if he didn’t like you because you didn’t worship the ground he walked on, I would’ve told him to fuck off a while ago.”

Lyall’s laugh was a little choked up; there was another thump, like he had given Remus one of his classic shoulder-slaps. Sirius blew out a slow breath. Hitting the nail on the head once again, Lupin, he thought. You and your powers of mind-reading. “He’s a good kid,” Lyall said after a moment. Sirius felt his heart clench. “He’s good for you. Couldn’t be happier for you both, bud.”

Remus hummed. “If you ever do want an autograph, though—”

“Alright, go find your mother or traumatize your brother or whatever else,” Lyall interrupted with exasperation dripping from every word. “Get outta here.”

Sirius hurried back to the dishwasher as Remus’ laughter drew closer to the doorway, fumbling for the first object he could find. A familiar hand patted his hip and he leaned down to knock their temples together, smiling at the kiss on the cheek he received in return. “How much of that did you hear?” Remus murmured with obvious amusement.

Sirius’ ears burned. “How much of what?”

“You’re putting a cup on the plate shelf, baby.”

“Is it supposed to go somewhere else?” he asked, praying Remus would fall for his false innocence.

Judging by his raised eyebrows, it didn’t work. “You’d make a shit spy,” Remus informed him with a swat to his rear as he took the cup and set it on the lowest shelf. “You’re great at eavesdropping, but godawful at hiding things.”

“I hid you for three months. And I was in the closet for twelve years.”

“I stand by the fact that our friends are just oblivious.”

Sirius kissed his forehead and set aside a plate to wrap him in a hug, ignoring Remus’ playful protest at the manhandling. He smelled good, like the jasmine oils Hope put in her dryer balls. His hands were dry from the wind and callused on Sirius’ lower back. “Are you warm enough?” he asked, nuzzling into the soft hair that fluffed out over his ear.

“Nice and toasty.”

“You sure?”

Remus narrowed his eyes, but didn’t stop tracing light patterns over Sirius’ spine. “You worry about me more than both my parents combined.”

Only because I almost lost you. Sirius closed his eyes, feeling the steady rise and fall of Remus’ chest against him. It was deep, unhurried—nothing like the shallow, uneven shivering from before. His cheek was warm even through Sirius’ shirt.

“Baby?” he asked quietly. Sirius hummed in acknowledgement. The pet name still sent a flood of butterflies through his stomach. “Everything okay?”

“I love your parents. I love you.”

Remus’ back relaxed under his touch. “They were worried about you yesterday.”

“They were worried about you,” he corrected.

Remus pulled back just enough to cup his face in one hand, skimming a thumb under his eye. Slight worry shadowed his expression; it mirrored how he had looked as Sirius wrapped an extra scarf around his neck before he went to get the paper that morning, when a panicky feeling had flashed through him at the thought of Remus going out in the snow. “They can be worried about both of us at the same time, Sirius. Yesterday was…a lot. Are you sure you’re okay?”

An instinctive yes hung suspended on the tip of his tongue, but Sirius hesitated and rested their foreheads together. “I will be,” he said instead. The memory of a four-foot hole emptying into dark, icy water was still burned in his mind. Of Remus’ purple lips and glazed eyes, of the tears striping Jules’ cheeks. “Not right now, but I’ll be alright.”

Remus kissed him, the sweet kind Sirius could feel all the way in his toes, then stepped back and pressed a plate into his hand with the slicker of a teasing smile. “D’accord. Do you know where this goes, or do you need me to show you again?”

[dont-touch-my-soup]

“He won’t make it”

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Throwback to Kell’s time at the General’s. This was so much fun writing!

For Day 7 of @amonthofwhump 12 Days of Whumpmas: Falling Through Ice

CW: war, slavery, captivity (please tell me if I missed anything)  

“He won’t make it”, Durian said.

Aya smiled. “Two bucks say he won’t even get to the centre”, she said.

Eagerly they stared out at the frozen river, where a small figure was running away from them, towards the saving remains of Tharlia. The last piece of land, still resisting. The last area they had not yet conquered. But that was only a matter of time. Their resistance was merely an inconvenience.

Dim lights pierced through the grey winter fog. The small city on the other side of the river, embedded between lofty mountains, was called Soria. But it wouldn’t be long before they would invade it and change its name.

The boy was slipping over the smooth ice. Again and again, he fell. But the ice hold.

He was tough for a scrawny boy his age. Durian started to think he could win the bet. He could really use two bucks. He was saving all his money for his proposal. As soon as he would see his girlfriend again, he would propose to her. Butterflies danced around his stomach at the mere thought of it. He had planned it all out. He would cook her favourite meal (pigeon breast with peas) and buy her favourite flowers (lilies). He imagined how she would tell him yes. He would spin her around, hold her, kiss her. He missed her soft lips and her vanilla scent. He missed how she wrinkled her nose when she laughed. He would kiss every single one of her beautiful freckles and then …

“Shouldn’t we recapture him?”, a younger guard said nervously and interrupted his thoughts. Disgruntled, he glanced to his side. He had forgotten the young guards name again. He was such a pain in the ass. Always worrying, always sweating. He made everyone around him nervous as well. It was annoying and really not helpful in the middle of a war.

“Just relax. Nature will do our job today”, Aya said without looking at either of them. Her eyes were fixed on the running Tharlian as if she could trip him with her thoughts alone.

“But won’t the General be angry with us, when …”

“As long as we bring him back in one piece, he won’t even notice”, Durian said irritated. But the young guard had a point. The Tharlian was the Generals latest plaything. None of them knew why he was bothering with him this long. Sure it was great to have him around to translate that barbaric language for them. But there were other Tharlians who could do that too and wouldn’t be as straining. Durian hated to watch over him. Sometimes it felt like babysitting a toddler. He hoped his own children wouldn’t exhaust him like that. He always wanted to have kids. He would gift them tiny wooden swords and teach them how to fight, just like his own father had, when he was little ...

“And what will we do if …”, the young guard started, interrupting his thoughts once again.

“Shut up!”, Aya and Durian said in unison.

In the same moment the Tharlian boy gave a high-pitch scream as he broke through the ice. The crack of the ice echoed back from the mountains, sending a flock of birds scattering from the trees nearby.

Wordlessly Aya put out her hand. Durian grudgingly dropped the money into it.

“Let’s fish that idiot out of the water before he drowns”, Durian sighed and reached for his demon power. The young guard gasped as he saw Durian’s eyes turning black. Durian couldn’t help but smile. Not every Varsennan was strong and brave enough to tame a demon. And not everyone succeeded. He was proud of his power. He had trained hard to get so far. And it was a very handy power as well. Especially this far in the north. When he stepped on the ice it immediately got thicker and carried him without even the quietest creak.

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Tag List: @whumpzone @jo-doe-seeking-inspo @whump-cravings

[bloodsweatandpotato]

12 days of whumpmas day 7: falling through ice

[chaoticdumbassrogue]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Day 6: Hypothermia

Hera falls through the ice.

[nature-wants-you-dead]

WWEvent Day 18: Huddling for Warmth

Help was on the way. Sarah knew it would only take her mom twenty minutes or so to get to them but she wished her mom could get there faster.

Sarah and Hana had been playing at the river when the ice broke and they both fell in. Luckily it was shallow. Luckily the current was almost still in that part of the river.

But they were sopping wet and shivering. Sarah felt like her hair was freezing and she didn't like how much Hana was shaking in her arms.

"Mom's almost here," Sarah said. Almost needed to be faster.