you're my sunshine
and i want you to know
that my feelings are true
i really love you

She came in a billow of confused canopy material, and Nayati whirled to meet her with joy shining from every pore. It had been ages since she'd last seen her mother, and she is only partially amused to see that for once, she is taller. It reminded her of how long it has been, partially her own fault, for she had despaired when Resplendence had disappeared and taken to traveling the wilds far more often. But for once, those melancholy thoughts could find no hold on the sheer glass walls of her happiness, and as her mother breathed out an endearment she gave a pitifully adorable squeak and ran for her. Her flowers bloom at triple the rate, swamping the garden in a full rainbow of color.

Rathunax calls down at Valiance from the skies, enticing the younger red into an acrobatic celebration of their own. Meanwhile, Nayati happily leaned into her mother's touch, returning it with a soft kiss of her muzzle to the soft, flat plane of Resplendence's cheek. Her insides feel as if butterflies have nested there and are suddenly all together in flight, and she feels as if she could take on the entire world and never know the meaning of fear again.

Her mother bids her to speak, and for a moment Nayati is wordless, because the sheer magnitude of her own excitement is too large to adequately place in the context of words. Instead she breathes out in one long whoosh of sound, and her knees tremble visibly as she whispers out an answer, as if even the words must be quieted beneath the weight of her revelation.

"I met a boy," she breathed. Then her face turned hot and she shuffled her hooves, feeling ridiculous. "Well, I met him a while ago, before the wraiths. He kept me safe. His name is Vadim," she admitted shyly, ducking her head and glancing up at her mother with rose eyes fully bloomed beneath the demure caress of pale lashes. And then her excitement was back, and she could hardly stand still, hooves dancing and swaying in place.

"Oh mother, he's amazing! He's so very quiet, which makes me want to talk, but he's so calm and so attentive, I know he'll never mock me," all at once she's rushing through the words, because it is still new to her, still fresh and brilliant in her mind. Nayati had never really been a talker, so the fact she'd mentioned it would shed light of its importance on Resplendence. "He cares for me. I was wading in the water too late at night, when it was too cold, and...and he asked Rath to make a fire, and then he held me," and this time she was dazed, as if she was going to fall over at the slightest breath. And still, she hurried onward.

"And his companion, Vlasi, she's so adorable! And they both lay beside me until I was warm," Nayati's voice dropped to a soft murmur, expressing how much that had touched her to experience. Lifting her eyes slowly, she smiled brilliantly, as if to outshine every star in existence. "I...I don't feel afraid, when I'm with him. I feel strong. I feel whole. I didn't realize until Rath showed me, but he gives me peace, and comfort." Her breath left her in a dizzying whoosh of confession, and she stared at her mother in a daze, happier than she'd ever been in her entire life.

"Mother...I think I might love him."

you're my best friend


Nayati & Vadim