All around them came the soft sounds of slumber. Snores, sighs, breath in tandem from sixty pairs of bound souls. But not from Theo. Not from Iweth. The pair hadn't even noticed whom they'd "bedded down" beside in the quite nook of a cavern. Their eyes had been only for each other, both bright and glittering, enraptured, enamored...ensorcelled. Silent, but sharing deeper thoughts and words than could be given voice by tongues made thick and slow with wonder.

Theo had sat back, legs let splay before him as if he were a child again, down on the floor with no care for the state of his clothes or dirt he was no doubt gathering with them. Between them curled and posed the glittering dragonet that he still could not quite believe had chosen him. Sensitive harpers' fingers traced the bones of an outstretched wing, testing the sharpness of the claw at the end, measuring the thickness of the membrane, letting well-trimmed nails slip and catch over every minute divot and bump of hide. It was almost as if he was touching himself and not another creature, the dragonet eager to relay the sensations back to the man. Every inch of him was perfect, every inch. How could there ever be a creature so perfect?

He still had moments of terror, to think the hatchling would come to his senses and turn away. They were, invariably, chased away by near hysteric giddiness as every time Iweth simply said, No, you're the only one that's right for me! Thankfully the bronze seemed equally thrilled to be able to say so, over and over in increasingly fantastical fashion. They were both of them starving, and the only food to fill them was the sight and sound and touch of each other. Not even the sleepiness of the bronze hatchling stood up in the face of the nearly electrical current flowing within Theo's body, and through their bond, the hatchling.

"I waited," His voice was hushed, when it did come, a strangled whisper both from hesitance to wake his new peers, and from the gut-wrenching emotions raging behind it. "I waited turns, and I. I didn't think you'd ever—"

I know. But that's the whole point of a good cliffhanger, right? The suspense, the wondering, the, the excitement when it finally comes! The bronze butted his head into the man's hands, folding his wings away from those testing touches to crawl a bit closer, pressing bodily to the man, who instantly clutched at him, arms wrapped snug but gently about. Did I...make you wait too long, Theo?

"Never." He swallowed, a thick lump in his throat. Buried his face in the dragonet's flank, as if the warmth there would mask the flush he felt of his own rising tears. "I never stopped dreaming you'd come. Even when...when I'd..." He'd grown too old, he'd never been searched, been ever denied the chance to even begin to realize that dream. And then, just when he'd been ready to set aside that childish wish, it'd come walking and squawking up the stairs to find him. The little bronze, quite pleased with the memory, hummed and wriggled even closer, claws carefully placed atop his Theo's shoulders, his head coming to rest atop one, cheek to cheek with the man.

Well, that's just how I knew. No one else had waited that long, and still had that much hope. And love. You weren't even bitter at all, or ever more jealous than you were happy for those around you. But I could feel how much you still hoped. And now we get to be the heroes of this new story together. Right?

"Well...I suppose that's right."