“Sir, careful—” Thalias screams and something cracks and at his side Thrawn sucks in a breath and then they are falling, right into the ocean and it can’t be more than negative ten out here and everything Samakro remembers from survival training flashes through his head and—
It’s warm, Samakro realizes. Warm and safe and someone (multiple someones? him?) is purring. There’s soft weight on either side of him. He’s pretty sure he’s in a nest.
Slowly, he opens his eyes. He’d like to say he’s surprised when he sees his sleepmates, but the timbre of the purrs had already identified them. Thrawn and Thalias are pressed up against him, sound asleep. Thalias purrs steadily, but Thrawn’s purrs come in fits and rough, catching starts. Like his own, Samakro realizes, and he’s briefly overwhelmed by the sense-memory of cold heavy water in his lungs, salt burning his throat. He shivers, and Thrawn mumbles some sleepy nonsense and presses closer, tucking his face into the crook of Samakro’s neck. Ridiculous behavior, unbecoming of an officer, really.
“Hey,” someone says, and Samakro startles, eyes flying open. “Hey, woah, it’s just me.”
“...’Troow,” he croaks, and salt floods his mouth again. Blood, he thinks, and cringes.
“Yeah. How are you feeling?” She leans forward from her position kneeling at the edge of the nest and pushes his hair back, pressing her palm to his forehead. “You’re still cold.”
“Like I fell through sea ice,” he grumbles, and Wutroow laughs. “Where are we?”
“Commander’s quarters. You guys have been out of it for a while.”
He wishes he were still out of it, he thinks, blinking heavily. Thrawn and Thalias are warm and he’s tired and he’d rather be sleeping than remembering Thalias’s panicked yell and the stomach-dropping feeling of the ice giving way beneath them. “They okay?” he croaks. Thalias’s hand, resting on his chest, is bandaged, and Thrawn wheezes faintly on every inhale.
Wutroow gives him a lopsided smile, brushing her hand through his hair. “Yeah, they’re okay. Everyone was worried about you, dumbass. Thalias thought you were dead.”
“Had to go back ‘n get th’Commander,” he protests, and Wutroow snorts.
“Yeah, of course you did.” She starts to pull back, but Samakro grabs her arm.
“Stay?” Her eyebrows quirk up. “Please?”
She sighs, already toeing her boots off. “Fine, you menace. Stars, but you’re clingy when you’re sick.”