Her laughter welcomes him, a blanket that wraps itself about his ears and warms his soul as he stands beneath the wind and sky with the Queen, easing into a hum that mimics a song he has never heard. It reminds him of trees and soil, the rippling course of the river, and it seeps into him as he lays the harness in the swaying grass, eager blue eyes glistening as he searches her features for a reaction.

She is surprised, ever the modest lady, her happiness overridden only by her confusion at his statement, her thanks paired with a gentle touch so common to her; it still rapes his nerves, leaves him nearly trembling beneath the electric kiss of her lips, and for a moment he is left smiling stupidly in reply to her enjoyment of his gift. That she doesn’t have an immediate gleam of recognition of what she has done for him is mildly worrying; he forgets that he shares so little with those he has come to need so desperately, but it eases as she gathers the harness from the ground and slips herself into it.

A sigh of relief breaks from his mouth as it rests perfectly against her curves, the electric kiss of her lips still sending thrills and rushes through him that leaves him unable to reply to anything she says for a good while, the simple man smiling foolishly at the ruler of the mists and the woman who had done so much to soften his heart. He nods as she concludes her words, realizing after a few seconds that she expects him to lead the conversation, for once.

Oh, dear.

Heart rate, please cue speed increase of 20 beats per minute. Heart… don’t explode.

"I’m glad you like it," he says, smile soft and revealing of just how true that statement truly is, eyes sparkling as he admires how perfectly it rests against her, a mirror image of that which he had created the object with in the first place. The sunlight catches in the beads and refract light across her pelt, illuminating the white of her flesh to such a degree that she almost glows there, alongside the sea. He can smell the brine against the earthy scent of their home, the feminine and delightful radiance that is Kahlua; it is filed away, with every second of every time he had ever been near her, this alabaster and ebonite damsel who had stolen his composure piece by piece with each bat of her dark lashes.

"It’s the least I can do for you, and not enough," he says quietly, looking back out towards the Edge, his resolve weakening beneath the frantic pace of his heart, "Kahlua… I…" The trembling of his knees stops only when he forces the joints to lock, a sharp pinch of the lining of his cheek from flat molars stiffening his tongue. "When Mirage brought me here the first time, I was afraid. I thought I would never fit in, that nothing could be as Mirage had said it would, that our pasts and our paths were set in stone and immovable. All peace and friendship, happy endings and compassion, forgiveness and selflessness, things I thought were unattainable." He weaves his words carefully, trying to explain how much the woman has helped him grow within himself without revealing the dark secrets he has worked so long to hide from her, the very reasons he had strove so hard to improve the inner workings of his heart.
"But I was wrong. The World’s Edge is truly a place as magical as she said, and you…" he looks back at her, crystal blue eyes twinkling faintly with tears that refuse to fall, drops that burn and scald his sight in memory of the Queen that Kahlua had replaced, "no one helped me see it as clearly as you, not even the Queen of Dragons. No one else shines so brightly in this dark world as you."

He smiles, his emotions a murky lake that he bobs adrift on, the sea breeze tossing his hair about playfully despite the pained way his eyes gleam. ”Not a single soul."