They made a good team, he decided.
One ruthless and determined, scarred and reforged by war and tears and pain. One naive, but softening the blows of the world with a graceful smile and tilt of head despite the screaming of his heart.
Using the Ring proved a deterrent to their synergy. As they grew to know each other, the less they used the cursed relic.
They didn't need it. Not when their hearts communed so well it sometimes became hard to distinguish themselves from each other.
In the shoddy little apartment they were forced to call home, they crafted their sanctuary.
Neither of them would give it up for the world. Each scrap of peeling paint, each scuffle of commotion from one neighbor or another, each chip on enameled porcelain tiles… it brought them a piece of mind rarely seen in the outside world.
The world was theirs to conquer. And so they did, their little world of Domino with kings and holy men and scrap fighters vying for purchase amongst the denizens.
A thieving hand latched them creature comforts - a soft rug for their weary feet from a long day, pictures of beloved lands long lost and well-cherished to hang on paint-thin walls, cutlery and pots and pans to sustain them when money could be rarely found.
Just as careful and sly of hands procured clothing soft enough to soothe and breathe deeply into for comfort, food for cheerful reminiscing, pillars of candles to pay respects to those gone and bereaved.
It was a balance. Both admitted it was fragile and delicate - neither presumed this new-found, unusual, partnership to last.
… And yet they did.
Waking up in the softly-lit dawn where their home was hushed and sleepy-eyed, to make and preserve those careful grooves of a whistling teapot, sizzling stove, rushing waterfall of a shared shower was a precious commodity.
In the end they tacitly agreed upon simple goals, ones they were never able to achieve before - to live upon their own terms
Their humor and peace-in-heart and mischievousness radiated outward to the others that glimpsed them; diffused even into the most unbalanced of persons with their unabashed, rough presentation to the world.
So to the end, even the dear lady Fate chose to leave them - not an abandonment, no, not ever.
For how could you abandon people who hewed their own path?