A snow covered L'Renouille was always a magnificent sight, even at so far a distance. Culgan guessed that they still had an hour or so of riding until they reached the castle.

In the dead of winter, he thought, even the bright lights and heat of Hell would seem more inviting than the cold, empty loneliness of the road between Sajah and the Castle in the capital.

He snuck a glance sideways to his companion. As always, Seed and Culgan were together, to go to Sajah and hunt through the inn there, to quell the rumours that Daisuke, the Gaidens' leader, was in hiding there.

Seed's head was hung low, but his eyes were open so that they could make out the road through the harsh wind and bitingly cold snow. His breath was coming in sharp gasps; little puffs of air highlighted each one, drifting lazily away into nothingness.

"S-stupid Jowy," Seed managed through chattering teeth, "why couldn't we j-just have waited until the snow h-had died d-down?"

Abandoning the reigns of his horse for a second, knowing that it wouldn't try to run away with him barely in the saddle, he pulled the collar of his uniform jacket up over his ears, and pulled the neck of his sweater over his mouth.

Culgan smiled internally. "Because he knew that, had Daisuke been holed up there, he would have been waiting until the thaw came, too, and in the time it would have taken us to-"

"Okay, old man, I g-get it-it," Seed said as he sighed. "I know why he wanted us t-to go n-now, but it doesn't mean I like it."

Culgan pulled at Midnight's reigns, slowing down to a trot. "Seed," he called as his redheaded lover continued at a gallop.

Seed whipped his head around and pulled on Selenay's reigns, running back towards Culgan. "Why'd you stop all of a sudden like that?" He turned back around with a flip of his wrist, watching the small company trotting along at a distance behind them.

Culgan reached down into the pack on the horses' haunches and pulled out a thick white blanket. "Take off your jacket, put this on, and put your jacket back on, making sure all your buttons are done up," he told Seed, who complied despite baring his arms to the biting cold.

Soon enough, Seed's teeth had stopped chattering together as they rode, and a smile had even appeared on his face.

"Not so far left to go now," he said aloud, but mostly to himself, as the lights of L'Renouille drew closer and closer.

"Not so far at all," Culgan agreed, and a rare smile crossed his face as, five minutes later, they entered into the giant front gates of L'Renouille, and rode along into the stables.

Dismounting, and gingerly trying to rub some feeling into the numb stack of flesh and bone he usually called legs, he handed the reigns to a stable hand.

Culgan, on the other hand, tended to Midnight by himself, surreptitiously warming her, feeding her, and brushing her as Seed watched bemusedly from the door of the stable.

"Are you coming to report to Lord Luca, Culgan?" Seed asked, his arms and legs crossed as he leant against the wall of the stable, waiting for the rest of the soldiers to finish entering the front gates, watching as they all handed their horses to a stable boy and made their way home, wishing the two generals a "Happy Holidays!" as they passed. Seed returned the gesture with a smile, nod, and a "you too."

"I'll be finished in a second, Seed. I just need to make sure she's happy." Culgan finally replied as he fixed the blanket over her back, tying it at her belly.

"You know, she'd be just as happy with a stable-hand," Seed said, eyebrow raised.

Culgan looked back at the redhead, and sighed. "Yes, I do suppose you're right. But I know that you're hungry, impatient, and want to spend at least an hour in a bath after dinner is finished, am I right?"

Seed's face broke into a true grin. "Damn right. I forget what it feels like to be clean and warm all at once."

Culgan shook his head, but a small grin found purchase on his face, too. "Then I'll leave this," he said, walking to a stable hand that was busy turning the straw, "to you." He then whispered a few words to the stable hand that Seed couldn't hear, although Seed was almost sure that Culgan was telling him exactly which way to brush the dark horse's mane or something. Then he walked back to the fiery redhead's side. "Shall we go?"

With a wide smile that showed off almost all of Seed's straight white teeth, he clapped Culgan on the shoulder and said, "I thought you'd never ask!" before running for the castle entrance, through the now heavy snow, Culgan jogging along behind.

Steam rose from the surface of the bath water as Seed sunk in to his neck, sighing out blissfully in the shocking heat of the water.

He hated reporting to Luca, especially after they'd found nothing. He always made it seems as though it was somehow their fault that Daisuke hadn't been hiding in Sajah.

'Royalty be damned,' he thought as he held his breath and ducked underwater. 'Snotty bastards.'

Breaking the surface and wiping the water from his eyes before slicking his hair out of his face, he smiled when he saw his silver-haired lover under the rush of one of the showers, washing his short hair.

Straightening up in the water, Seed watched as the muscles on Culgan's back, arms and shoulders rippled as the man massaged the shampoo into his head.

Seed smiled to himself and got out of the bath, walking cat-like towards Culgan's shower, turning each of them on as he went. Steam filled the room and the rhythm of the gushing water pounded Seed's ears until he spoke.

"You look at your best when you're naked, Culgan," he spoke; more like a purr, into Culgan's ear as he pressed himself against the man, slip-sliding his arms around the taught stomach and holding on there.

"I would say the same about you, Seed," Culgan said, rinsing the last of the shampoo suds from his hair and taking advantage of the lubrication to turn in Seed's arms and drape his own over the pale, but strong shoulders before him, "but I can barely see you for all this steam."

Seed shrugged and pushed himself even closer to Culgan, feeling as though every nook and cranny had been designed just for him. 'And,' he thought, ' some of mine built with Culgan specifically in mind.'

He gave a great smile, looking up through the steam so that he could see Culgan's face at least a little. "Well, there are other things," he purred at the older man, "for instance: body language."

And with that, he leaned, almost on the tips of his toes, and enticed his lover into a soft kiss.

His eyes slid shut and his lips started to seek out Culgan's lower one and nibbled there briefly before teasing them both apart.

Culgan obliged, of course, losing himself in the feel of Seed; he privately agreed that they had been created with other in mind, and they'd spoken of it many times: he was yet to meet somebody whose body felt so right curled next to his own, whose lips just fit against his.

And it was the only thing he knew that he enjoyed, the only thing that made him truly happy.

Putting more force into his kiss, Culgan dropped his arms from Seed's shoulders to his waist, and tightened his grip as he turned them both so that Seed's back was against the wall of the shower.

Their kiss reached fever pitch, with Seed kissing so deeply and feverishly that Culgan was afraid he'd draw blood.

And, much to Culgan's disbelief, Seed was the one to break off the kiss, whispering with barely restrained passion into Culgan's ear," Take me. Now."

Those words always managed to light that spark within Culgan, the one where he feared he's lose control.

Of course, he never did, but that's not the point.

Their faces barely inches apart, Seed's chest heaving in his laboured breathing, his lips slightly parted and expelling little puffs of air, Culgan closed the distance without hesitation, pushing Seed hard against the wall and pulling one leg up around his waist. He broke the kiss and watched Seed's eyes as they followed his hand; followed his fingers as he sucked on two of them, and followed then as they went out of sight.

Culgan waited a moment, until Seed's eyes had come back to his own, needy, desperate, before pushing the two fingers beyond the tight ring of muscle and into Seed.

He watched as Seed's eyes glazed over and his eyelids dropped, and he could feel the tract fluttering around his fingers as he slowly pushed them in, out again, scissoring them gently.

A guttural sort of half-formed growl in the back of Seed's throat accompanied the hands climbing to his shoulders and the nails that dug in there.

The pain was welcome; an old memory, a friend... the mark of loving and of having been loved.

"Now," Seed growled, and Culgan leaned in to kiss him, replacing the invading fingers with his own erection, and Seed actually seemed all the more ready to accept this than the preciously invading digits.

The glazed over look in Seed's eyes disappeared, only to be replaced with a feral hunger that seemed to make Seed's wine-red eyes burn with fire, and he let out that half-growl, half-whimper as he was lowered onto Culgan's member.

Unflinching to the pain in his back, Culgan took a hold of Seed's hip and helped him. With one foot on the floor and another resting on the back of Culgan's thigh, it wasn't exactly the most accessible – or comfortable – position in the world, but it would last just now.

Slowly, Culgan's hand grasped Seed firmly enough to make the skin around the fingers go ghostly white as he was pushed upwards, and Seed's toes did as they were instructed and raised, carefully, gently, and the feeling within Seed drove him crazy.

For Culgan, the feeling was entirely different, yet certainly not lacking in ecstasy. The friction involved in moving Seed upon himself drove him to distraction; the tightness and fluttering tract and the panting breath and fingers digging into his skin...

It all made him feel alive, invigorating him and warmed him all over.

And then the door to the baths opened, and an eerie silence followed when neither man spoke or seemingly breathed.

"I-is anyone in here?" the small voice from beyond the steam created by the shower said, and Seed quickly unwrapped and removed himself from Culgan.

The silver-haired man ran a hand across his lover's stomach, and called back, turning off the pulsing water, "I'm here."

"Is that... Sir Culgan?"

"And Seed," Culgan called back. "Is that Klaus?"

The teeny voice replied, and Culgan went along, turning off the showers as he did so. "Y-yes. Is everything okay, sirs? I can barely see a thing for all this steam."

Seed followed Culgan, cursing his bad luck and giving the pretty strategist a half-smile as his youthful face came into focus through the steam. "Sir Seed was just playing a prank on me, Klaus," Culgan said as he walked to the baths and sunk down deep in the water, watching the pretty redhead follow him.

"Are you sure everything is okay? I thought I heard whimpering as I approached. Neither of the two of you is hurt?" Klaus inquired, worried eyes sweeping over them and avoiding specific areas.

Seed grinned as he sat down next to Culgan, resting a hand gently on his thigh as high as it could possibly be without touching erection.

"We are fine," he said. "Won't you join us?"

Klaus nodded and slipped off his towel, stepping into the hot water.

Seed and Culgan sighed, resigning themselves to a long boring night, purely of bathing and nothing else.