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He wouldn't tell her how worried he had been--torn between glad that she had returned to her circle of friends and her duty, but also missing her terribly. He had had her in his life for such a short period, that it was surprising to him how deeply he felt her loss.

"Only to the tent, beloved." He turned his head quickly after he said that word, aloud for the first time. Uh. He'll be right back and by then perhaps the hot rush of color will have faded from his cheeks.

Beloved? Melinoë felt her own cheeks flush with heat, her eyes wide as she tracked his movements to the tent. By the time he returned her gaze had softened into something fonder, however; a small smile on her lips.

He returned, and no, the flush hadn't fully faded from his cheeks, or it relit upon seeing her, her body gilded by the fire. He knelt beside her, tucking pillows around her, doting over trying to get her propped up comfortably, pausing to tuck an errant strand of her hair behind her ear.

"I had despaired of ever seeing your beautiful face again."

She let him do as he pleased, shifting only to accommodate him in the process of getting comfortable upon the pillows and blankets. Melinoë looked up, mismatched eyes filled with adoration and a quiet, unspoken longing. Her fingertips of her flesh arm grazed his bicep. "That is quite unlike you." She murmured fondly. "The Fates have offered me the chance to return, so you need not despair any longer... beloved."

Uh. "In your absence I came to realize. It was like the sun had gone away, replaced by only a pallid light." Everything seemed without color, somehow. "I want to hear all you want to tell me, if only to hear your voice again." After a moment of hesitation, he leaned in to kiss her again, as though tasting heaven on her lips.

That was the sweetest and perhaps funniest thing she had ever heard — funny only because of her place in life as a goddess of nightmares and spirits.

"You are sweet, Gadriel." She whispered just as their lips met. Leaned back against the pillows, she grasped his arm and urged him to join her so she could cuddle up against his side and pull one of the blankets over the both of them.

"My duty... has been completed." Was the simple version.

No one said he was normal. She had brought so much color and depth to his life--he had no idea how better to express it. She could laugh at him if she wanted. It would be good to hear her laugh, whatever the reason.

He took the invitation to slide next to her, wrapping one arm underneath her, and he had been settling in when she said that. He propped himself back onto his elbow. "You did?" He sounded excited. "You defeated him?"

She cuddled in close, enjoying the warmth of him against her. Between him, the fire, and the plethora of blankets, she was as cozy as she could ever be against the chill in the air.

"Not in the way you may think." Nor in the way she assumed she would. "I moved through dreams to speak with my brother in the past and requested his aid. Instead of slaying our grandfather as requested... he managed to speak with him and offered an alternative: a timeline where he was simply... our grandfather, who we grew up with, who loved us. I met this altered version in my time, and while I did not initially believe it true; it seems to have worked."

He had missed feeling her against him--her gem had been a poor substitute to sleep curled up against.

He nodded, watching the fire for a long moment before responding. "The Codex says that if one has exhausted one approach, it is only wisdom to try other avenues." So Codex Approved...if a little heretical in methods--dreams? sorcery? SIGH. "So your friends and you are all...happy now?" What...what does someone do without fighting?!

She fought for so long, and it only took her brother speaking to him once to change the entire course of Chronos' life. Alas, she was not made for such diplomacy.

"More or less. But our duty is never truly done. I decided to remain with the Unseen — headmistress Hecate, Selene, Artemis," her Silver Sisters, "and protect my family from the shadows still, should they need it. Things are just... not so dire now, and I have my family returned."

But she had still initiated things. Sometimes a general doesn't get to stride the field of battle set in motion by their words. It was still a victory.

And if she's not made for diplomacy, he is even less so.

There's another long pause, but he pulls her closer as he stays silent, so that when he speaks, his voice rumbles against her. "I cannot imagine what that would feel like: one's duty completed." His kind die in war, that is their duty. The idea of an end to it was almost impossible.

She leaned into him, eyes shut, arms around him to nestle in as close as possible.

"It is a strange feeling. One I barely know how to comprehend myself." She admitted. "Perhaps one day you will. Especially if you consider what you do here a part of that duty."

"Perhaps one day." But that day is a long time off and in a different world. And she is right here, and right now, warm and beautiful. "Tell me more of your time back in your world?" He makes a soft chirp and Elion comes padding over, because he sees a fire and a warm lap and his favorite lady person, who clearly has a kitty biscuit deprivation. He will fix it.

"There is much to tell — and yet so little. It was much the same for most of my time there — fighting, on the surface and the underworld. I did finally get to meet my mother and father, however." She paused to look to Elion, arms open for him. "Elion. I missed you, too."

Toula appeared nearby and curled up. Melinoë laughed. "It is good to be home." Oh. She didn't even realize what she said there.

"You met your parents?" That's...a lot. He can barely remember his, and they're long dead anyway. "I hope they were proud of you and all you did for them." If not, he's gonna Kool Aid man through the universe and convince them.

Elion walks into the hug like he was the main event, pausing to boop his nose against hers. If she needed a space heater against the cool night air, he was on the case!

She might not have caught the word, but he did, and he remembered his conversation with Nina at the bake sale. He speaks slowly, because it's a big deal. "This could be your home, permanently." Just...you know...sliding that out there.

"They were." Her father expressed it less openly than her mother did, but she understood regardless. "It was nice to spend time with them, even if it was only for a little while. I eventually decided to return to the Crossroads with my Unseen sisters to continue my work from the shadows."

She looked up at him, her expression softening slightly. "Could it?" Would she be able to do that? "My brother is here, but there is much to do still. I — I will have to think about it. Do you want to stay?"

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