Look, I am capable of sensitivity! Too much so, in fact. This is slightly embarassing. I don't think I will ever tire of MartinxRose. (So who won that MxR contest anyway…?)

03/29/08 edit - fixed retarded positioning and whatnot, changed last few lines. Warning, ffnet likes to screw up spacing and delete words for no reason.

Enjoy.

There wasn't a lot to him, she thought as she surveyed the young mouse growling at the shrew s. There was a flat image of a multi-dimensional being on grated parchment. He didn't say much, unless it came to threats to Dinjer or exhausted comments to his companions. And he barely said anything to her.

Maybe this is what was bothering her, she thought. This apparent disregard. There was nothing between them save for a long shared gaze (possibly two days ago, but those days stretched so), an awkward introduction (she had giggled at his state, covered in dirt and mindless of dear Grumm behind him), and shouted commands between mouthfuls of sand and water (they had nearly died! Surely this was a bond of survival between them?).

He was out of his element here, in this responsibility of kindness and a gentleness he must not have known long, if his trained personality and composure proved anything. The yelling part, and the cursing part, and the keeping in line part, that he was good at. But the constant smiling made him look delinquently eerie, like a falcon with prey in its claws and the knowledge that that prey wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. It gave Rose the chills, seeing the furious storm in his eyes but the calmness on his face.

But he was interesting, and Rose could never stop herself from a sidelong glance at the mouse when putting the devilish shrew s to bed. She wanted to talk to him. She wanted to find out more. She wanted to see if he could manage real smile.

She rose and noiselessly made her way outside of the cave to join her elusive new companions.

There was too much to him to hold down, his very self overwhelmed his physical body and if she had to write about it there would never be enough parchment. He spoke gently to her, and hardly to anybeast else. There was a flicker in his eyes that made her breath hitch in her throat and blindly reach for his paw.

But what bothered Rose what lay ahead. Polleekin's ominous warning had not failed her, and although she had no way to be sure she was suspicious that she would not live to accomplish what her heart desired most. And how she wanted it! His selfless offered paw (senseless squirrels thundering behind them), his amused but affectionate gaze (she sang with all her might of a great beauty), his arm pulling her closer (no beast else knew what innocence happened on that boat, that flight to water), her heart ached to be without them.

He had grown in terms of softness. He understood her and he strove to understand her ways. He was still rough, still very much brutal, but he was capable of much more. And if it was he that drove her to destruction, she would take it, because she couldn't not take anything he offered her when he smiled.

Rose turned her head to watch him rest beside her, lying down on the soft grass of the other side of the valley, away from the noise of the festivities, away from the other companions she knew better than herself. He must have felt her dark amber eyes on him, for he opened his own but said nothing, instead reaching a paw to brush the flower in her hair back in place.

Rose got up, and offered him her paw. "Come. There is something I want you to know."

He took it and they silently continued their journey.

She was buried with lavish grace, a procession almost as beautiful as she. Her face was peaceful, cherishing some hidden knowledge, a gleeful secret she knew none else knew. This child, this woman, she was a mystery to all who knew her for she had changed so. She now sung a tune none had heard before and saw things in a way very few did. And if anybeast noticed the silver band on her right paw underneath her left, nobeast said anything.

"Oh, marry me," she whispered breathlessly between his neck and collarbone.

The arms encircled about her tightened. "Why that's funny, If you had waited until tomorrow, I would have asked you the same thing."

It was impossible for a heart to sing with such love and joy, beating of majesty within her veins. Rising, they stared at the storms in their eyes.

"That way we'll be together forever."

Martin kissed her eyelids and joined their paws.

"Yes."