I'm coming back again
I want to live tonight

He had stayed only long enough to wish her luck after he had spotted the dark Prince in the canyons. There had been the children to escort and settle into the golden woodlands, the last touches to the cave he had claimed for himself that had been the perfect size for their growing (hopefully) family. The twins run off to explore (something he is still not entirely comfortable with) but this is their home now.

After today, all the time they had been forced apart would be worth it.

Any minute now, she would be here.

He wanders the cold forest, breathing in the lichen and looking at the burnt orange leaves with new appreciation. This had always been a dark place but they may still breath some light into it yet. There is a rustling from behind him and he turns to find her there. He barely has a moment to register the look on her face or her tears but she quickly falls into him and he wraps himself protectively around her.

Her sobs shudder into him and he runs his muzzle soothingly across her backside, gently smoothing her windswept mane. He had loved Loess because he loved Oceane but to her it was her entire life. She had loved and lost and loved again in those canyons. Had lived a whole life before him in those walls. While he had never had a feeling for a place like that before, he does understand loss. He understands grief. He understands that some things can’t be put into simple words but the tears against his neck speak volumes to how hard it had been to step away from something you cared about so much.

He is quiet as her tears begin to fade and her breathing becomes something more steady. He pulls back only so that he can bring her face to his, brushing gently against her cheekbone. She attempts to joke and he smiles in good humor, seeing her attempt at grasping the buoy and eager to throw it in her reach.  “Me? Worried? Never?” He responds with a wry grin, his gold-flecked eye looking at her apologetically. He gathers her close to him, placing a kiss to her opalescent brow, as he murmurs to her softly. “We can always go back Oceane. We don’t have to stay here.”

"Just as long as I'm with you"
He doesn't say but it hangs unspoken between them. He's sure she already knows that he would willingly follow her anywhere.

Ledger

I'm coming back again
I want to live tonight

She is home.

No wonder he had felt like a man drowning at sea without her. No wonder he had held that ache in his beating heart all those months apart. Now that she is here curled up against him, all those doubts and anxiety fade away. There is a hurt in her regarding Loess that he can never fully understand. He has never loved anywhere as much as Oceane had loved her kingdom but he will try… Try his best… To see her through this. Just as she had done for him when she had found him living the life of a hermit in the meadow.

When she giggles, his smile comes naturally and he is relieved to see tears no longer falling. Gently, he brushes his muzzle against her cheeks to wipe away the lingering dampness. When he mentions returning to Loess, he can see the struggle there. Its one he holds as well and part of him is hoping that she will say yes. Perhaps Sylva wasn’t as bad as he had made it out to be. The Hippogriff of these woods (his hippogriff reminds those threads around his heart) wasn’t nearly the monster he had expected to find here. Still, he cannot help but shake those natural suspicions that something was off about the beautiful autumn forest.

He still didn’t quite trust this place.

She loosens a breath and he can see the way she resolves herself as she remains committed to her plans. He understands why, why she doesn’t want to go back just yet. For a moment he thinks of suggesting somewhere else to live. Somewhere else like Ischia with Beyza and her daughters and her magical dolphins. But as she turns from him and faces the forest, he knows he cannot ask her to leave the South. She would never agree… Even for a tropical paradise. So, instead, he takes a few steps out from the cave towards the golden canopy that awaits them. “Favorite places? Those we will find together.” He says with a grin, looking over his shoulder at her with his good eye. “I think the children have adapted just fine, as they do, but these woods are still very quiet.” Too quiet, he thinks as he looks back out, a frown now flickering over his mouth. “Besides my hippogriff, there seems to be only us and her.”

He pauses as he turns back to her. She is just as beautiful here as she had been in the desert cliffs of Loess. The auburn setting only makes her twilight figure all the more striking. He moves towards her, unable to help himself as his lips find the curve of her neck. “I can show you. Or we could stay here a little longer…” He murmurs suggestively against the softness of her skin.

Ledger