Fearful Symmetry Ch 2 Lost Children
A/N: I own nothing.
***
Crap! How much did he...?
"Ryuuzaki!" Light held him and sobbed.
L took in another rasping breath trying to speak.
"Ryuuzaki, what's wrong?"
"Sugar..." he gasped out "I-I need..."
Sugar? Seriously we're stuck out here and he's worried about...
Realization hit him like a ton of bricks.
Of course! It's so obvious! With the amount of sugar he consumes his body would be totally dependent on it! How long has it been since he...? This wasn't like Ryuk doing funny handstands when he didn't have his apples. Withdrawal here meant L's body shutting down. If he didn't find food, didn't find sugar very soon L would die.
The notebook was out of the question considering what it did to him and just looking at L as he lay there in the snow, looking so weak and uncharacteristically passive... his body wouldn't be able to handle the attempt. He could barely handle it. He had to find him REAL food. The nearest sources of sugar would be that bag of supplies that he lost at the bottom of the ravine or... back at the gangster's hideout. Either way he'd never make it in time...
With new urgency, and ignoring the pain Light forced himself onto his feet again. In protest to this treatment his body tried to wretch again even though there was nothing left in his stomach.
"Light-kun..." L croaked. Light quickly got his nausea under control and with strength he didn't know he had left he picked up his ailing companion off the frozen ground, carrying him bridal style. Without even thinking about it L snuggled into the warmth of Light's chest. Light resumed trudging through the coming snowstorm like a wounded beast.
All the while L stared, and though his eyes still seemed heavy and glazed they held a ghost of that hard, accusatory stare the detective always wore. Light's lips quirked up in something like a strained smile. Ryuuzaki must be feeling better.
"What are you doing?" L demanded in scarcely a whisper.
"There's no food here."
L could feel how Light was trembling, his strength failing. "Light-kun..."
"I'm alright."
"You're sick," L observed.
"I'm not sick. I just did something stupid."
"Hmm," L chose not to comment as Light, Kira, continued to work to save his life. It was a struggle for L to just to stay conscious and it wasn't exactly to his advantage to antagonize Light at the moment.
It seemed like ages later Light had to stop to be sick again.
L sagged against Light's shaking frame, continuing to cling to the other for the scant warmth that he offered. Light slumped in the snow, his body racking with pain. Light got up again, still holding and carrying L and began again through the snow, one foot in front of the other. He continued to struggle though it was hopeless... So typical of Kira.
"Light-kun," L groaned into Light's shoulder as Light collapsed again. "You're in no condition to..."
"Shut up!" Light snapped. "You're even worse off than I am!"
No argument there even as Light swayed as he took in another faltering step (and another ragged breath) but... "You'll drop me."
"Then you'd better stay awake then, huh?" Light hissed
A few steps later Light stumbled again.
"You should rest." L murmured. Light shot him a glare. To rest out here was the same thing as lying down and dying.
"We'll worry about that after we find you sugar."
L looked at Light like he was delusional. Now that he was more awake it was becoming a reality. Sugar? Out here? Impossible. They'd never make it. Rescue... Watari wouldn't find them in time. They were going to die...
Light felt how L trembled in his arms. "You okay?"
L looked at Light quizzically, he was sure he detected a note of genuine concern.
"I'm fine..." L hadn't intended to ask but with his head swimming like this his curiosity got the better of him. "Light-kun... why?"
"What?"
"Why are you doing this? As Kira..."
"I'm not Kira," Light answered automatically, turning his face away against the bitter wind.
"But why? You'd make it further on your own..."
"Not true. We actually have a better chance of survival if we stick together. Besides..." Light rattled the chain in reminder. If the cold metal was biting into L's wrist anything like it was his then L shouldn't have forgotten it for a moment. That he did, if he was really that numb to the cold... Light clutched L tighter to his chest.
"Li-Light-kun..." L was taken aback by the killer hugging him.
"Hang in there, Ryuuzaki. We have to make it!"
It felt like hours later when Light staggered and collapsed again. L looked on in concern from his perch on Light's back. Light didn't dare put him down again even to be sick as they would lose precious body heat.
L was left wondered just what "something stupid" Light did that he was still getting sick.
As Light flailed around in the snow, L spied something black being unearthed by the other's movements.
"Light-kun?" L pointed out the dark growths sticking up out of the ground. Light gave one an experimental tug and with much effort the root came out of the frozen ground. It looked like some kind of root. Light gave it an experimental lick. It tasted sweet like... sugar. Light felt his stomach reel again at the very idea of food.
L misinterpreted the look on Light's face. "It's not edible?"
"No it's not that. It's... a sugar beet...?"
L dared to hope. "You're sure?"
"Pretty sure, what do you think?" Light passed L the root. L nibbled at the root and yes...precious, precious sugar.
"H-hey I think they have to be processed somehow..." Light said in alarm as L began to chew on it. L ignored him and continued to eat it raw. Light sighed. "Don't eat too fast you'll get sick."
"Do you want some, Light-kun?"
Light's stomach churned with hunger and nausea. He was still reeling from his earlier ill-thought out experiment. "No thanks, I'm not hungry."
L stared at Light as he continued to search for and pull up more of the roots and stuff them into his pockets. Now that had to be a bald-faced lie. Light turned his attention back to Ryuuzaki to find that he had nearly consumed the entire thing..
"Hold it. If you eat too much now you'll get sick and these have to last for..."
L's burgeoning sense of hope was crushed as he realized, "Too long," especially since they had to ration between the two of them. Even if taken all together this was still only a micron of his usual sugar intake...
"You can have them. You need them more than I do."
L gaped at his mortal enemy in shock. "Why?"
"I couldn't stomach it right now anyway," Light replied though they both knew he hadn't answered the true question.
Light somehow dragged himself to his feet again, his arms, back, and shoulders again taking on the burden of the other man's weight.
"You don't have to carry me," L insisted in almost a whisper. "I think I can walk now..."
Reluctantly Light set him down. L took two steps before being claimed by a dizzy spell. Before he could collapse he was in the other man's arms again.
"You were saying?" Light couldn't help but smile as Ryuuzaki huffed cutely.
***
L groaned as did his stomach. He huddled against Light for warmth as Light continued to carry him through the ever-worsening snow storm. He was so hungry. The little bit of sugar had just made him ravenous for more and his body felt a bone-weary exhaustion he wasn't able to fight without his usual sugar and caffeine. His head pounded as he still reeled from the effects of withdrawal. L tried but he couldn't keep his eyes open.
L dreamed.
L dreamed he was somewhere warm and safe and he had plenty to eat of whatever he wanted. And he was eating something warm and juicy and slightly salty...
"Shit! Ryuuzaki, wake up!"
The chill reality hit in the face as L awoke with a start to discover he had somehow managed to burrow under Light's scarf in his sleep and had begun gnawing at Light's neck. As the blood trickled down L knew that would leave a nasty... hicky behind.
"I'm not edible," Light grumbled but otherwise showed no inclinations of stopping despite the injury as he continued on through the frozen wastes.
"Light-kun won't let me eat him?" L asked innocently.
Light rolled his eyes as he huffed and struggled up another frozen slope. "Either the... cold is beginning... to affect you too... or Misa was right-you are a pervert."
"You're the one who said it," L shot back petulantly.
"Really Ryuuzaki, the taste..." Light took in a deep breath, his exhaustion beginning to become obvious, his lungs struggling to take in the thin, frigid air, "...must have been a tip off," Light continued, chidingly. "I'm not..." Light grunted as he pulled them up a particularly steep incline "...very sweet."
Light crested the peak and they got a panoramic view of the land around them. It was more frozen wastes as far as the eye could see. L shivered and not just from the cold as he was once again reminded they were as good as dead out here.
"I fail to see the rationale behind continuing this, Light-kun. The chances of our survival are..."
"Don't tell me!" Light snapped, he knew full well, but giving up was definitely not an option. "I don't want to hear any more damned percentages!"
"Maybe... we should go back?"
Light shot L an irritated look. "Not a chance... They'll kill us on sight." Light continued on, he knew if he stopped now his exhaustion would catch up with him and if he surrendered to exhaustion out here... they would never wake up.
"Maybe if I bargain with Keehl..." L thought out loud, trying to find some logical answer to their current plight.
Light looked askance at the detective. The cold must have been making him delusional. That guy couldn't be bargained with! And in any case... Light sighed "That's impossible. Keehl's dead."
"What? How?" L demanded suspiciously.
"Oh that's right, you were... unconscious," Light wheezed as he continued plodding up the slope. "He just collapsed... Well him and a bunch of them. That's how we got away... Kira, I imagine."
"I do too... since Light-kun is Kira."
"Really... this again?" Light groaned. "Please, Ryuuzaki I don't... want to waste... the energy... arguing with you on this. Besides... I was tied... to a chair, if you recall. When was I..." Light strained, almost losing his balance for a moment before steadying himself and continued as normal "...s'posed to've killed him?"
L's black eyes bore into his head. "If anyone could have pulled it off it would've been you."
Light blinked in confusion at that. That was almost like a compliment (but to acknowledge it as such would be incriminating.) "I guess... your feeling better. You haven't accused me for... hours that has to be a record."
In truth L wasn't feeling better. Just crankier... that came from feeling the crushing weight of hopelessness and despair, but needling Light made him feel a bit better about it and at this point he was long past caring if he bit the hand that fed.
"But it is puzzling that Kira-kun didn't just kill all of them. Staying at a warm base even if it did belong to criminals makes more sense than freezing to death out here and... hmmm... running away..."
"What?"
"That's what you did. It was merely a statement of fact, Light-kun."
Light glared murderously. Why the hell did he have to say it like that? That was a serious blow to his pride. "Would you have preferred we stick around and get our heads blown off?"
L seemed to seriously consider it. "Perhaps, it would have been more comfortable cause of death then our current option."
Light didn't answer other than to give a frustrated growl as he continued on, unyielding in his losing battle against the snow.
"...And in any case, it's a very un-Kira-like trait. The Kira I know is very confrontational. Or maybe you were counting on me to make that assumption...? Well I suppose you didn't know their names and couldn't kill them... which begs the question on how you killed Keehl and the others... assuming you're telling me the truth, of course... And I suppose even Kira has bad days. After all Kira is not bullet-proof. He's not immortal or some all-powerful God, Kira is ONLY HUMAN..."
Light stumbled and they both fell, face-down, in the snow. Light struggled to get up on shaking limbs only to fall again. The snow gave way and they sunk a few feet down into the icy depths.
"It's pointless, Light-kun."
"Giving up is pointless!" Light shot back, angrily.
"Does Kira-kun think he's too important die?"
"Shut up! You'll die too, asshole!"
That, L thought sadly as they lay next to each other, half-buried in the snow, is a certainty anyway. "Why even bother?"
Light's answer surprised both of them.
"Because there's this one bakery over in Toshima, I swear it's got the best deserts in the world and I can't take you there... if we're dead, now can I?" Light shouted near hysterically.
L was quiet for such a long time that Light thought he had drifted off again or... With sudden panic, Light followed the length of the chain crawling on his hands and knees, every inch gained was sheer torment to his sick, exhausted body. But he managed to cover the few feet that lay between them until he was again sharing his body heat again with the prone detective.
"You were wrong, Light-kun..." Light heard L whisper but didn't dignify that with a response as he continued to struggle just to crawl over to where the detective had fallen. "You are ...sweet."
L's eyes slowly closed and he seemed to sag lifelessly into Light's arms...
"Ryuuzaki! RYUUZAKI! HEY!" Something wet streamed down Light's face as he continued to shake the other man, the tears froze as they fell.
Light's scream was all but lost in the howling wind of the storm.
***
However it didn't go unnoticed by a certain denizen of the frozen land. Ears perked up, the sleeping beast awoke to the primal, one note song of pain, loss, rage, and sorrow...
It was a language which the creature was intimately familiar...
Was some prey injured nearby? (Well, meat was meat...)
The creature emerged from its den to find two very odd creatures had collapsed just outside of the snow-concealed entrance of the cave. They were like hairless apes with tufts of fur on top of their heads. One was fiery shade of brown, almost orange (no stripes though, the creature mused) the other a solid black. They were both obviously weakened by the cold. One was unmoving. The other seemed confused.
The creature's killer instincts were telling her to strike at the weakened prey but the creature wasn't particularly motivated to do so at the moment. She had just hunted earlier and wasn't hungry. It was more out of curiosity that it approached those little ones.
Just then the brown-furred one seemed to sense her approach and locked eyes with her. The creature was surprised. The little thing's eyes were fierce and defiant... almost like one of her people. To her kind staring was a signal of challenge, a threat...
"Go 'way! Leave 'im alone!" The brown one snarled. It was obvious the human was trying to appear threatening, however he was obviously so weak at the moment that all he managed was a kittenish swipe with his fist before he too collapsed in exhaustion. The creature looked amused. The little thing didn't look the least bit threatening to her. On the contrary it was... adorable.
While she wasn't normally inclined to do anything with another species aside from eat it the creature still thought of itself as a mother-despite having lost her own cubs to starvation. But the times had turned around, hunting was good now-but tragically it was not soon enough to save her own cubs. These two strange creatures were like lost children... or rather like the children that she lost.
Just then the dark-haired one groaned in his sleep and snuggled into the brown haired one... they were just too adorable to resist. The decision was clear as instinct. The tigress snagged hold of the convenient metal string that bound the two young human males together and dragged them into her den.
***
Crap! How much did he...?
"Ryuuzaki!" Light held him and sobbed.
L took in another rasping breath trying to speak.
"Ryuuzaki, what's wrong?"
"Sugar..." he gasped out "I-I need..."
Sugar? Seriously we're stuck out here and he's worried about...
Realization hit him like a ton of bricks.
Of course! It's so obvious! With the amount of sugar he consumes his body would be totally dependent on it! How long has it been since he...? This wasn't like Ryuk doing funny handstands when he didn't have his apples. Withdrawal here meant L's body shutting down. If he didn't find food, didn't find sugar very soon L would die.
The notebook was out of the question considering what it did to him and just looking at L as he lay there in the snow, looking so weak and uncharacteristically passive... his body wouldn't be able to handle the attempt. He could barely handle it. He had to find him REAL food. The nearest sources of sugar would be that bag of supplies that he lost at the bottom of the ravine or... back at the gangster's hideout. Either way he'd never make it in time...
With new urgency, and ignoring the pain Light forced himself onto his feet again. In protest to this treatment his body tried to wretch again even though there was nothing left in his stomach.
"Light-kun..." L croaked. Light quickly got his nausea under control and with strength he didn't know he had left he picked up his ailing companion off the frozen ground, carrying him bridal style. Without even thinking about it L snuggled into the warmth of Light's chest. Light resumed trudging through the coming snowstorm like a wounded beast.
All the while L stared, and though his eyes still seemed heavy and glazed they held a ghost of that hard, accusatory stare the detective always wore. Light's lips quirked up in something like a strained smile. Ryuuzaki must be feeling better.
"What are you doing?" L demanded in scarcely a whisper.
"There's no food here."
L could feel how Light was trembling, his strength failing. "Light-kun..."
"I'm alright."
"You're sick," L observed.
"I'm not sick. I just did something stupid."
"Hmm," L chose not to comment as Light, Kira, continued to work to save his life. It was a struggle for L to just to stay conscious and it wasn't exactly to his advantage to antagonize Light at the moment.
It seemed like ages later Light had to stop to be sick again.
L sagged against Light's shaking frame, continuing to cling to the other for the scant warmth that he offered. Light slumped in the snow, his body racking with pain. Light got up again, still holding and carrying L and began again through the snow, one foot in front of the other. He continued to struggle though it was hopeless... So typical of Kira.
"Light-kun," L groaned into Light's shoulder as Light collapsed again. "You're in no condition to..."
"Shut up!" Light snapped. "You're even worse off than I am!"
No argument there even as Light swayed as he took in another faltering step (and another ragged breath) but... "You'll drop me."
"Then you'd better stay awake then, huh?" Light hissed
A few steps later Light stumbled again.
"You should rest." L murmured. Light shot him a glare. To rest out here was the same thing as lying down and dying.
"We'll worry about that after we find you sugar."
L looked at Light like he was delusional. Now that he was more awake it was becoming a reality. Sugar? Out here? Impossible. They'd never make it. Rescue... Watari wouldn't find them in time. They were going to die...
Light felt how L trembled in his arms. "You okay?"
L looked at Light quizzically, he was sure he detected a note of genuine concern.
"I'm fine..." L hadn't intended to ask but with his head swimming like this his curiosity got the better of him. "Light-kun... why?"
"What?"
"Why are you doing this? As Kira..."
"I'm not Kira," Light answered automatically, turning his face away against the bitter wind.
"But why? You'd make it further on your own..."
"Not true. We actually have a better chance of survival if we stick together. Besides..." Light rattled the chain in reminder. If the cold metal was biting into L's wrist anything like it was his then L shouldn't have forgotten it for a moment. That he did, if he was really that numb to the cold... Light clutched L tighter to his chest.
"Li-Light-kun..." L was taken aback by the killer hugging him.
"Hang in there, Ryuuzaki. We have to make it!"
It felt like hours later when Light staggered and collapsed again. L looked on in concern from his perch on Light's back. Light didn't dare put him down again even to be sick as they would lose precious body heat.
L was left wondered just what "something stupid" Light did that he was still getting sick.
As Light flailed around in the snow, L spied something black being unearthed by the other's movements.
"Light-kun?" L pointed out the dark growths sticking up out of the ground. Light gave one an experimental tug and with much effort the root came out of the frozen ground. It looked like some kind of root. Light gave it an experimental lick. It tasted sweet like... sugar. Light felt his stomach reel again at the very idea of food.
L misinterpreted the look on Light's face. "It's not edible?"
"No it's not that. It's... a sugar beet...?"
L dared to hope. "You're sure?"
"Pretty sure, what do you think?" Light passed L the root. L nibbled at the root and yes...precious, precious sugar.
"H-hey I think they have to be processed somehow..." Light said in alarm as L began to chew on it. L ignored him and continued to eat it raw. Light sighed. "Don't eat too fast you'll get sick."
"Do you want some, Light-kun?"
Light's stomach churned with hunger and nausea. He was still reeling from his earlier ill-thought out experiment. "No thanks, I'm not hungry."
L stared at Light as he continued to search for and pull up more of the roots and stuff them into his pockets. Now that had to be a bald-faced lie. Light turned his attention back to Ryuuzaki to find that he had nearly consumed the entire thing..
"Hold it. If you eat too much now you'll get sick and these have to last for..."
L's burgeoning sense of hope was crushed as he realized, "Too long," especially since they had to ration between the two of them. Even if taken all together this was still only a micron of his usual sugar intake...
"You can have them. You need them more than I do."
L gaped at his mortal enemy in shock. "Why?"
"I couldn't stomach it right now anyway," Light replied though they both knew he hadn't answered the true question.
Light somehow dragged himself to his feet again, his arms, back, and shoulders again taking on the burden of the other man's weight.
"You don't have to carry me," L insisted in almost a whisper. "I think I can walk now..."
Reluctantly Light set him down. L took two steps before being claimed by a dizzy spell. Before he could collapse he was in the other man's arms again.
"You were saying?" Light couldn't help but smile as Ryuuzaki huffed cutely.
***
L groaned as did his stomach. He huddled against Light for warmth as Light continued to carry him through the ever-worsening snow storm. He was so hungry. The little bit of sugar had just made him ravenous for more and his body felt a bone-weary exhaustion he wasn't able to fight without his usual sugar and caffeine. His head pounded as he still reeled from the effects of withdrawal. L tried but he couldn't keep his eyes open.
L dreamed.
L dreamed he was somewhere warm and safe and he had plenty to eat of whatever he wanted. And he was eating something warm and juicy and slightly salty...
"Shit! Ryuuzaki, wake up!"
The chill reality hit in the face as L awoke with a start to discover he had somehow managed to burrow under Light's scarf in his sleep and had begun gnawing at Light's neck. As the blood trickled down L knew that would leave a nasty... hicky behind.
"I'm not edible," Light grumbled but otherwise showed no inclinations of stopping despite the injury as he continued on through the frozen wastes.
"Light-kun won't let me eat him?" L asked innocently.
Light rolled his eyes as he huffed and struggled up another frozen slope. "Either the... cold is beginning... to affect you too... or Misa was right-you are a pervert."
"You're the one who said it," L shot back petulantly.
"Really Ryuuzaki, the taste..." Light took in a deep breath, his exhaustion beginning to become obvious, his lungs struggling to take in the thin, frigid air, "...must have been a tip off," Light continued, chidingly. "I'm not..." Light grunted as he pulled them up a particularly steep incline "...very sweet."
Light crested the peak and they got a panoramic view of the land around them. It was more frozen wastes as far as the eye could see. L shivered and not just from the cold as he was once again reminded they were as good as dead out here.
"I fail to see the rationale behind continuing this, Light-kun. The chances of our survival are..."
"Don't tell me!" Light snapped, he knew full well, but giving up was definitely not an option. "I don't want to hear any more damned percentages!"
"Maybe... we should go back?"
Light shot L an irritated look. "Not a chance... They'll kill us on sight." Light continued on, he knew if he stopped now his exhaustion would catch up with him and if he surrendered to exhaustion out here... they would never wake up.
"Maybe if I bargain with Keehl..." L thought out loud, trying to find some logical answer to their current plight.
Light looked askance at the detective. The cold must have been making him delusional. That guy couldn't be bargained with! And in any case... Light sighed "That's impossible. Keehl's dead."
"What? How?" L demanded suspiciously.
"Oh that's right, you were... unconscious," Light wheezed as he continued plodding up the slope. "He just collapsed... Well him and a bunch of them. That's how we got away... Kira, I imagine."
"I do too... since Light-kun is Kira."
"Really... this again?" Light groaned. "Please, Ryuuzaki I don't... want to waste... the energy... arguing with you on this. Besides... I was tied... to a chair, if you recall. When was I..." Light strained, almost losing his balance for a moment before steadying himself and continued as normal "...s'posed to've killed him?"
L's black eyes bore into his head. "If anyone could have pulled it off it would've been you."
Light blinked in confusion at that. That was almost like a compliment (but to acknowledge it as such would be incriminating.) "I guess... your feeling better. You haven't accused me for... hours that has to be a record."
In truth L wasn't feeling better. Just crankier... that came from feeling the crushing weight of hopelessness and despair, but needling Light made him feel a bit better about it and at this point he was long past caring if he bit the hand that fed.
"But it is puzzling that Kira-kun didn't just kill all of them. Staying at a warm base even if it did belong to criminals makes more sense than freezing to death out here and... hmmm... running away..."
"What?"
"That's what you did. It was merely a statement of fact, Light-kun."
Light glared murderously. Why the hell did he have to say it like that? That was a serious blow to his pride. "Would you have preferred we stick around and get our heads blown off?"
L seemed to seriously consider it. "Perhaps, it would have been more comfortable cause of death then our current option."
Light didn't answer other than to give a frustrated growl as he continued on, unyielding in his losing battle against the snow.
"...And in any case, it's a very un-Kira-like trait. The Kira I know is very confrontational. Or maybe you were counting on me to make that assumption...? Well I suppose you didn't know their names and couldn't kill them... which begs the question on how you killed Keehl and the others... assuming you're telling me the truth, of course... And I suppose even Kira has bad days. After all Kira is not bullet-proof. He's not immortal or some all-powerful God, Kira is ONLY HUMAN..."
Light stumbled and they both fell, face-down, in the snow. Light struggled to get up on shaking limbs only to fall again. The snow gave way and they sunk a few feet down into the icy depths.
"It's pointless, Light-kun."
"Giving up is pointless!" Light shot back, angrily.
"Does Kira-kun think he's too important die?"
"Shut up! You'll die too, asshole!"
That, L thought sadly as they lay next to each other, half-buried in the snow, is a certainty anyway. "Why even bother?"
Light's answer surprised both of them.
"Because there's this one bakery over in Toshima, I swear it's got the best deserts in the world and I can't take you there... if we're dead, now can I?" Light shouted near hysterically.
L was quiet for such a long time that Light thought he had drifted off again or... With sudden panic, Light followed the length of the chain crawling on his hands and knees, every inch gained was sheer torment to his sick, exhausted body. But he managed to cover the few feet that lay between them until he was again sharing his body heat again with the prone detective.
"You were wrong, Light-kun..." Light heard L whisper but didn't dignify that with a response as he continued to struggle just to crawl over to where the detective had fallen. "You are ...sweet."
L's eyes slowly closed and he seemed to sag lifelessly into Light's arms...
"Ryuuzaki! RYUUZAKI! HEY!" Something wet streamed down Light's face as he continued to shake the other man, the tears froze as they fell.
Light's scream was all but lost in the howling wind of the storm.
***
However it didn't go unnoticed by a certain denizen of the frozen land. Ears perked up, the sleeping beast awoke to the primal, one note song of pain, loss, rage, and sorrow...
It was a language which the creature was intimately familiar...
Was some prey injured nearby? (Well, meat was meat...)
The creature emerged from its den to find two very odd creatures had collapsed just outside of the snow-concealed entrance of the cave. They were like hairless apes with tufts of fur on top of their heads. One was fiery shade of brown, almost orange (no stripes though, the creature mused) the other a solid black. They were both obviously weakened by the cold. One was unmoving. The other seemed confused.
The creature's killer instincts were telling her to strike at the weakened prey but the creature wasn't particularly motivated to do so at the moment. She had just hunted earlier and wasn't hungry. It was more out of curiosity that it approached those little ones.
Just then the brown-furred one seemed to sense her approach and locked eyes with her. The creature was surprised. The little thing's eyes were fierce and defiant... almost like one of her people. To her kind staring was a signal of challenge, a threat...
"Go 'way! Leave 'im alone!" The brown one snarled. It was obvious the human was trying to appear threatening, however he was obviously so weak at the moment that all he managed was a kittenish swipe with his fist before he too collapsed in exhaustion. The creature looked amused. The little thing didn't look the least bit threatening to her. On the contrary it was... adorable.
While she wasn't normally inclined to do anything with another species aside from eat it the creature still thought of itself as a mother-despite having lost her own cubs to starvation. But the times had turned around, hunting was good now-but tragically it was not soon enough to save her own cubs. These two strange creatures were like lost children... or rather like the children that she lost.
Just then the dark-haired one groaned in his sleep and snuggled into the brown haired one... they were just too adorable to resist. The decision was clear as instinct. The tigress snagged hold of the convenient metal string that bound the two young human males together and dragged them into her den.