The point of the spear gleamed threateningly in front of me, the light catching the tip in a way that made it seem sharper than the rest of the curved blade mounted on the handle. It was a pale colour, the cool shade of amber reminding me of hot coals, making me sweat as I watched its tip come closer and closer to me.

"Levi, for the love of God, stop playing with that! You're going to hurt someone!" the high-pitched voice sounded from somewhere beside me, and I blinked, letting out a sigh of relief as the spear left the vicinity of my face. "Don't get me wrong, marriage is painful, but why do you feel the need to point a fishing spear at your husband?"

"If I don't constantly remind him who's boss he's going to think he can start doing things; like getting ideas or thinking," Levi commented, propping the fishing spear up against the wall where he had found it. I scoffed at his comment, making my way over to a much smaller tool and examining it closely, liking the lighter feel of it much more.

I heard the red-headed woman approach me from behind, turning to see Petra carrying a few more spear selections toward us. She placed them on the wooden counter, slapping Levi's hand away as he reached for one of the larger ones, enforcing the 'look but don't touch' sign she had displayed a the front of her shop.

"These are some of my better quality ones I keep out the back. Part of my 'Scouting Legion members only' collection," she announced proudly as I came closer to the few spears she had lined up for us.

Levi and I had spent the morning trying to fish with rods, and then feeling utterly humiliated as we hiked back to the house empty handed. Apparently, building up your fishing skill was a lot harder than we had first anticipated, and after finding out it would be a few weeks before we caught anything large enough to cook, we decided to take a different approach. With Levi's precision and speed, my ability to read movements and fast reflexes, we decided spear fishing was the best course of action.

Making our way back to Floor Forty-Two had been difficult, as it held nothing but harsh and disheartening memories for me. Levi understood this, and didn't feel like returning as much as I did, but felt it would be too unfair to ask Petra to make a house call. I had suggested finding another weaponry shop closer to us, but Levi explained he got massive discounts as a high-ranking officer of the Scouting Legion.

It had made me sick to my stomach at first, and the thought of seeing Petra again hadn't made me feel any better about the whole ordeal, but upon first entering her shop, she had been nothing but pleasant, if not a little guarded. I was starting to pick up on her true relationship with Levi, how much he meant to her, and it took me a moment to remember that Levi had others who cared about him just like I had a sister and friends who cared about me. It had just been him and I for so long, it was hard to remember there were other people around us that affected our lives.

I guess it was never easy seeing your best friend marry another person, especially if you didn't know them. So, for Levi's sake, and my own, I had tried to make good with Petra, and a mutual understanding meant she was doing the same. It would only make the transition into the Scouting Legion a lot simpler this way.

"I'm tempted to make you pay full-price, Levi, as payback for not inviting me to your wedding," Petra was saying, hands on her hips as she frowned at him. Levi was pre-occupied with testing the sharpness of a black-coloured tip on his finger.

I yanked it away from him before he could hurt himself.

"If it makes you feel any better," I replied to her, "we didn't invite anyone. It was a spur of the moment thing."

"Marriage in SAO is simple. You don't need to take blood tests, have a marriage license or even be of age. Six year olds could do it," Levi drawled, picking up another spear and testing it on his finger again. I yanked it off him, scowling at him, telling him to test the spears some other way.

"You could have at least sent an announcement to us once you were done."

"I did."

"Taking a leave of absence because, and I quote, 'for marital reasons' is not an official announcement!"

I started to walk around the rest of the shop, eyeing a few of the blades Petra had on display, wondering if I was special enough to see the ones she might keep in her 'Scouting Legion members only' collection, admiring the fine work along the ridges of the blades and the craftsmanship that had gone into the hilts. I could still hear Levi and Petra bickering behind me, thinking they sounded like a married couple far more than Levi and I ever did. I chuckled as Petra conceded and simply let Levi test the spears in whichever way he wanted, a disgruntled 'I told you so' leaving her lips as he sliced his finger.

I turned to watch as Levi pretended to be mad at Petra for being mad at him for not listening to her. I watched as he waved his finger at her, the red on his finger receding quickly, soon he was pointing nothing at her but the tip of his glove. I watched as she put her hands on her hips again, scolding him for being a drama queen, Levi arguing he was nothing, if not a drama king.

As I watched this all unfold in front of me, I started to see how familiar it was for the both of them. How their movements and quick jibes at each other came easy and smoothly, as if they had done it a thousand times before. I started to see how easy it was for Petra to scold Levi, anybody else always clamming up, scared of saying the wrong thing in front of such a respected player.

"…irresponsible asshole!" Petra was shouting, completely fed-up with Levi's antics. "And another thing; why didn't you reply to any of my messages?"

"See, this is why I'm gay. Guys don't have nearly as much of a problem if I take a few days to reply to a message. Girls freak out if I don't reply within thirty seconds," Levi was looking at another spear, pretending to stab his heart, floundering around for a bit before collapsing to the floor in a heap. I could only smile, walking over to take the third spear from him today, stepping on his chest to keep him grounded.

"Sexist pig!" Petra spat, yanking the spear from my grip.

"Levi, I've heard from the commander that you're married. But you wouldn't do that without telling me first, right?" Levi's voice had taken on a higher note, as he mockingly tried to imitate Petra's voice from his place on the floor. "I didn't realise I had to ask your permission before I tied the knot. It's been months since I last saw you. The thing with Oluo was a misunderstanding. Message me when you get this. 'Misunderstanding' my ass. He'll be lucky if he doesn't get his own sword stabbed through him the next time I see him. I'm making something special tonight for some people from the legion. Please tell me you'll be attending dinner. Aaron is more than welcome. How could you forget Eren's name? You had dinner with him!"

I decided to not remind Levi that both him and Petra had spent the better half of the night talking about me like I wasn't there and I don't think Petra had ever even spoken my name the entire time I was in her house. Levi continued to quote some of the messages Petra had obviously been bothering him with, a snide comment following each one.

Petra held out the spear from before to me, still glaring down at Levi.

"I yield. Please feel free to stab him. No charge necessary," she said, hissing as she did. I took the spear from her, but took my foot off Levi so he could finally stand up, watching as he brushed off his clothes.

Levi said something about wanting to look at commission prices and walked away to the front desk where they were displayed, leaving me and a disgruntled Petra alone together. I handed back the spear to her.

"Did you really send all those messages to him?" I asked softly, honestly feeling bad that Levi hadn't taken at least some time to tell her he was alright, despite how mad the both of us had been at the time.

She turned to look directly at my face, eyeing me to see if I was mocking her, asking out of spite or was truly concerned. Her face relaxed as she realised it was the latter, happy that things between us were finally settling down so we could start a real friendship out of all of this. Then again, I wasn't sure if I wanted to be friends with Petra, but she certainly didn't seem as bad as I had first thought she was, and a truce would at least hold the peace we had built together.

"I know I don't seem like a good person to you, but I honestly do worry about Levi. I couldn't stop thinking about him after what had happened between Oluo and the rest of us. I'm sorry to say I never worried about your wellbeing, but I was more worried about how Levi was handling the whole thing and if he would recover from it. He's had a lot of setbacks in his life. He doesn't need them here as well."

I bristled at the thought of her thinking about Levi, despite knowing it had nothing to do with any sort of romantic feelings she might have. As she continued talking, I realised Petra had feelings for Levi akin to that a mother will have for her son. She worried about him over anyone else, and even though she didn't mention it, I know she was worried about their relationship as well as Levi's mental health.

I softened more and more as I looked at her face, starting to understand her hostility towards me when we had first met, beginning to know why it had been so hard to get on her good side. Suddenly, I found myself respecting Petra a lot more than I ever would have thought. She had cared for Levi long before I had, and I needed to respect that as well, needed to respect that there would be a tie between her and him that wouldn't be severed because of a few fights over what may have happened to me. I found myself relieved at this thought.

"He's different," she was suddenly saying. I eyed her, raising an eyebrow at what she had just said. "Don't you see it too? He's not nearly as stiff as he used to be. He's more relaxed now, not as guarded. His movements come easier to him. It's like he's let go of something that had been keeping him grounded all this time, and now he can finally spread his wings and fly."

I ignored the cheesy metaphor, looking over to see Levi completely engrossed in Petra's catalogue, obviously fascinated with the new editions she had added since he last saw her. I didn't see it. Levi was still Levi to me, just as he had always been. The same grumpy, quick-witted, fast-to-act man I had first met, and the same brazened, confident and cold man I had fallen in love with. But Petra had seen Levi in more situations than I had, and I guess she could see it more clearly after having been apart from him for so long, where as I had spent almost every moment with him since we had met.

"He's still Levi to me," I told her.

"Of course he's still Levi. But he's a Levi that's a lot more pleasant to be around."

I took her word for it.

"Are you two talking about me?" Levi was coming across to us, having found nothing he wanted over at Petra's rapiers.

"'About' you, not 'to' you!" Petra scoffed.

Levi came right up to me, looping his arms around my waist and resting his hands on my hip, pulling me to him. I leant against him, slipping an arm around his own waist. It always surprised me how happy I suddenly felt when Levi was holding me, how my heart started to beat faster and how my face still heated up, his fingers splayed across my hip reminding me of his fingers splayed across other parts of my body.

We went to spent the money from Bertholdt and Reiner on a fishing spear each, but Petra wouldn't take it, claiming the spears were both engagement and wedding presents. We each picked a spear with a high durability so it wouldn't break so easily, but still had enough speed to match our own abilities and set of skills. Petra and Levi bantered a bit more before she finally conceded and let us leave to go have dinner. The sun was already low in the sky as we walked to the door, Levi's hair standing on end from when Petra had tackled him to the ground after he had made a snide comment about her flat chest.

"I'll see you soon, Eren," Petra called to me. I gave her another quizzical look. "You'll have to come back to get a customised blade once you've joined the legion," she explained.

"I already have a blade," I commented, not really arguing, but not seeing the point in getting a whole new one when mine still worked perfectly fine for my level.

"Everyone gets a customised weapon after joining our ranks. Nobody in the legion has a weapon made by anyone else but me!"

That was rather impressive, considering the numbers I knew the legion was made of.

"My blade still works fine for me and it's a rare item so I'd feel bad not using it."

"But if you save it for special occasions it makes it even rarer. You can use a blade made by me the rest of the time."

"Carrying around two blades seems like a waste of inventory space."

"You used to carry a shield around, didn't you?"

"Yes, but it had a practical use. Two blades-"

"Forget it, Eren; you're getting a new blade. Don't fight her on this. Believe me, I've tried," Levi interjected, yanking me out the door. "Her weapons are always better anyway, whether you want to believe it or not."

"Damn right they are!" I heard Petra shout as the shop door shut behind us.

Walking back towards the town's gate, I thought back over what Petra had said about Levi, studying him more closely, trying to compare the Levi in front of me to the Levi of back then. I still couldn't see the difference she was talking about, and wondered if she had just said it to seem wiser to me. Though it seemed unlikely; Petra wasn't arrogant. Motherly and stubborn, but not arrogant. I don't think she would say something like that if it wasn't true.

I'm sorry to say I never worried about your wellbeing, but I was more worried about how Levi was handling the whole thing and if he would recover from it. He's had a lot of setbacks in his life. He doesn't need them here as well.

Need them here? Wait a second…

"Levi, do you know Petra outside of Sword Art Online?"

"Hmm?" Levi had obviously been lost in thought, contemplating what he wanted for dinner, probably forgetting I was even following him. It was just habit to expect that from me now, and he had stopped looking over his shoulder to see if I was keeping up long ago. "Yes. She's the assistant I was talking about."

I gaped at his back as he continued to walk, as if what he had just revealed wasn't important. I tried to think it wasn't, as Levi didn't say anything more on the subject, but I couldn't see how it wasn't. I had assumed, just like I always had, that Levi and Petra had met while together in the Scouting Legion, had teamed up and had become friends over time. I thought Petra's motherly instincts were just natural for her, that maybe she had children back home and was a gamer in her spare time. But now that I realised her feelings stemmed from years of helping Levi through his days, I understood exactly where she had been coming from when she had told me Levi was now different. If anyone would notice such a thing, it would be her.

Just as we had suspected, spear fishing was the perfect way for Levi and I to catch our dinner. We took it in turns chasing the hordes of fish that swam at our shores towards the other one who was ready with the spear in hand. Soon, we started competitions to see who could catch the most in one go. I held the record at four fish, and after that, Levi started sabotaging my spearing technique so I would stop winning.

After the third time he had 'slipped' and fell on me so I went crashing into the water, I simply picked him up and headed to deeper waters, smirking as Levi struggled to escape my arms before I got to the point where he wouldn't be able to stand. I ended up diving underneath the surface, still holding him to me, carefully making sure he wasn't too afraid of being so deep under. Locking my lips with his seemed to calm him down a fair bit, and soon we were gasping for breath while I treaded water and kept us both afloat.

I managed to teach Levi how to float on his back, and soon we were both comfortably lying under the sun, our chests and knees grazing the top of the water, our hands interlocked carefully.

"Is there anybody else I've met that you know outside of SAO?" I asked him at one point, not wanting it to be such a surprise the next time I discovered Levi had a relationship with someone I already knew.

"Just Oluo." Somehow, I wasn't surprised. "He's been trying to win Petra for years so he puts up with me for her sake. I think he only started playing because of her as well. I guess that's a common theme in this game."

I chuckled, thinking back to how irritated Oluo seemed to be at seeing Levi again, and how much more irritated he seemed when Petra was defensive of him. I squeezed Levi's fingers with my own, feeling him clench his fingers around mine.

Something had been bothering me, in the back of my mind, since Levi had confirmed his true relationship with Petra. I hadn't wanted to bring it up, as it involved life outside this game, and even though Levi had said he no longer wanted to stay inside Aincrad's walls, I was still hesitant to broach the subject around him. Yet here, lying under the sun, the waves tossing us closer to the shore, talking about outside relationships already, I didn't think I'd find a better time to ask.

"What happens to Petra once we finish this game?" I said it carefully, making sure there was no hostility in my voice, as I wasn't asking because I wanted to be rid of her; I was just intensely curious.

"She'll return to real life just as we will. She'll go about her life, achieve her dreams, probably never touch another game so long as she lives. Why would you need to ask?"

I took a deep breath before trying again.

"I meant what happens to her once we find each other?" The air was thick as Levi realised what I had been implying. "I'm not saying she'll be obsolete, but with me in the picture, she won't need to be around as often as she was. I'll be your eyes, the one taking care of you."

I didn't know whether Levi was frowning at my question; I couldn't turn my head to check. But his fingers didn't loosen around mine, and I took that as a good sign. I felt relieved when I heard Levi let out a short and muttered laugh, finding it amusing that I'd have to ask, despite how curious I was for his answer.

"I guess you're right. I won't need her as my assistant anymore." His fingers even tightened around mine. "I'll have you to banter about when it's safe to cross the street and to argue over whether I've had enough eggs during the week."

I pouted at the thought of all the bickering Levi and I were sure to do.

"I don't like eggs so I don't really care," I offered. Levi snorted.

"I guess Petra will finally have time to go out and find a husband and have those kids she's always talking about."

"Petra wants kids?"

"You didn't pick up on that from the way she mothers me? I kept telling her when I first hired her she doesn't need to scold me, but she adopted the instinct early from taking care of her siblings all the time when she was younger. Even that never deterred her wish for her own kids."

It surprised me how much depth there was to Petra. I didn't know why I found it so surprising that of course she had dreams, ambitions, a goal, a past that affected all of that and who she was today. She wasn't a NPC. She had a mind of her own, just like Levi, just like me. I had been happily encased in my little bubble for so long, Levi right by my side, the rest of the world never daring to bother us, that I had forgotten it wasn't just the two of us. There were up to six thousand players still in this game, each with a past and dreams of their own. All of them people. All of their lives holding as much value as mine did.

"I'll still see her," Levi was saying now. "She's my friend. I don't act like it, but I'd definitely miss her if she wasn't around. I've just been with her for so long, and neither of us realised I'd get my eyesight back once I entered the game. It was nice having an excuse not to be around her all the time."

I could see where Levi was coming from.

"It's sort of funny," he continued. "She was the reason I was on Floor Fifteen all those months ago."

I adjusted at that, placing my body in the water, floating beside my husband so I could look at his face as he spoke.

"I couldn't shake her for a long time, so I went down as low as I dared to, guessing she'd never find me there. It was so peaceful on that floor without her, that I sat down under a tree to admire the quiet, and fell asleep. The next thing I know, I'm being woken up by a boy's voice and a sword at my throat."

I had never really thought about why Levi was there when he was, why he had been on a floor so far below when he could have been on a much higher floor. I had never considered the chain of events that had led us to meet, that had led us to making that deal, that had led us to falling in love. Maybe I should have, because it still scared me to think of where I would be if I had never met Levi, if I might still have been stuck down on that floor still.

Levi righted himself as well, holding my shoulders as he shook the water out of his ears, then hugging me tightly, his mouth pressed against my shoulder, my own arms holding him closely, rubbing my cheek against his hair.

"I'm glad it was you who saved me," he spoke honestly. "If it had been anybody else, maybe someone smarter who would have recognised who I was," I chose to ignore the obvious taunt in what he was saying, "they would have taken advantage of my position. But you asked for the smallest thing I could think of. I never understood why, and after a while, I stopped caring."

I held Levi tightly, placing kisses on his neck and on his face, cupping his jaw while he held onto me, kissing his eyelids and worshipping his lips. He was soft, warm, small and fragile. But he was firm and heated, built for battle and his own version of strong. I held him carefully, careful he'd break if I adjusted my fingers wrong. But I gripped him hard, because even though the water in my hands had now turned to ice, something I could hold and feel with conviction, I was scared he would melt if I left him alone for too long.

"You read slow."

"I read at my own pace."

"Which is slow."

"I told you to bring your own book."

"But I wanted to read this one."

"Are you sure Petra didn't need to act like your mother? You sure as hell act four!"

Levi poked his tongue out at me, and I caught it between my lips, deepening the touch into a loving kiss where I held him tightly around his waist and Levi leaned into me more heavily. His weight caused the chair to tip back, the curved wood underneath its legs sending us forward again. I had never understood why Levi had been insistent on buying a rocking chair with our new home, but with his warmth on my lap and the gentle swaying motion as we kissed, I couldn't really argue that it had its uses.

Heavy boots on wood alerted us to another presence, and we parted to watch a man in the familiar robes of the Scouting Legion approach us. He held a sullen expression, his eyes blank and his lips drawn down in a way that told me he only had bad news. Levi got up, approaching the man. I could see his face was guarded, picking up on the tense air as well.

"Gunther? What are you doing here?"

I'm guessing he wasn't here to bring Levi back; his expression didn't hold firmness like Oluo's had when I had first met him, just pain and grief.

"You know we had a dungeon raid today, right?" The man named Gunther asked. It wasn't in an incriminating way, suggesting Levi missed it on purpose. The brunt of why he was here was still to come.

"Right, you were scoping out the dungeon leading to Floor Seventy-Four's boss." Levi had known about the raid, but was careful as he continued to eye Gunther, waiting for him to continue. "What happened?"

"We lost some of our men. The minor-boss fights leading up to the floor's boss room were more powerful than we had anticipated. Nothing we couldn't handle once we knew, but…some were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"This isn't news to me," Levi was cold now, putting up the front he still adopted when he was angry or upset, trying to retreat back into the cage Petra had told me he had escaped from. "We lose people all the time. Why did you come all the way here just to tell me that?"

He knew why. I knew why. But denial came before the grieving even started, and made it impossible to accept what we were about to hear.

"One of the people who died was Petra Ral."

Quiet. That's all it was. Quiet. Except for that goddamn grandfather clock. It was in the living room, but we hadn't shut the bedroom door, and I could hear it tick, tick, ticking away in the other room. I wanted it to stop. The loud, insistent noise reminding me over and over again that another second had passed. I found myself counting them, and soon I knew another minute had passed. Thirty-nine of them to be precise, at least since I had started counting.

The chiming noise came unexpectedly, the bells inside its casing ringing to a tune I didn't know. It played the tune then started to chime; one, two, three, four…all the way up to ten. It was ten o'clock at night. The chiming ceased and the ticking continued. I gritted my teeth, trying not to start counting the hour all over again.

Levi was still and silent beside me. I couldn't even see his back moving as his lungs expanded inside him, didn't know if he was still breathing. Of course he was; because he was still here. Just like everything else in Sword Art Online, once something reaches its end, it disappears. Even when a player's life drains to zero, even when the health bar is empty and transparent, they shatter too, just like a sandwich would if I dropped it on the ground or a piece of paper would if I ripped it in half.

I found that disgusting.

It was one thing for litter and waste to disappear, they were just items. Used items. But for a person to disappear too, what kind of sick bastard programmed it that way? A person wasn't a used item. They had a life and a story to tell. They had memories and dreams. A face. A purpose. An energy; and all of that disappeared off the face of this game simply because someone 'had been in the wrong place at the wrong time'.

We didn't even have a body to bury, not until we got home at least; and what then? She would be long gone by the time we got home, her family receiving the news and grieving over her grave as she was sent six feet under. They wouldn't know how. They wouldn't know why. I bet they even though it was some kind of joke; this life and death game. I bet they thought it could never happen to her, because she was smart and clever and she would escape easily enough.

Fuck. I didn't know if she was smart or clever. What kind of shit am I saying? I didn't know her. I pretended like I did and I didn't.

I wanted to hold Levi. I wanted to make him feel better. But I felt like if I touched him he'd only start shouting at me; simply because he was too angry at himself. I didn't want him to blame himself like she had before. I didn't want him to feel responsible.

"I don't feel responsible for what happened." I heard his voice, and it took me a moment to register what he had said. I couldn't help but smile, despite the situation we were in. It was familiar. Levi reading my mind though I had tried to tell myself over and over again he was only reading my face. It told me he was still here, still sane.

"Good," was all I could say.

"Even though she wouldn't have been here if it wasn't for me."

I could only continue to stare at his back. He couldn't see my confused expression, but he didn't need to.

"Even though she told me not to come. That finding my way blind in real life is different to finding my way blind in a virtual reality. Even though we fought for months over whether I would be allowed to play or not. Even though she made me promise I would be able to play only if she was to play too," his voice was thick, and I could feel it coming. I quickly wrapped my arms over him, holding him to me tight, trying to keep together whatever small shards of Levi were about to come undone. I felt Levi grip my arm that was wound around his chest, could feel him holding on for dear life. "Even though I made her play, even knowing she hated video games."

And then the tears came.

His body shook uncontrollably as he sobbed into his pillow, gripping my arm, begging me silently not to let go until he was done. Even then, I wouldn't release him, not until I was sure myself that he wouldn't need to hold onto an anchor anymore. The ticking of the grandfather clock was drowned out by Levi's pained gasps and grieving cries, and I suddenly felt like the ticking hadn't been so bad after all.

For hours we laid like that, me trying to draw enough strength to hold Levi together as he let himself fall apart, and he only became quiet when the chiming only rang once. He was quiet, but he hadn't fallen asleep. I think he had just run out of tears to shed. I pressed kisses to the back of his neck, ignoring the flinches he first gave me, continuing until he gave way to pure relief as he turned over and buried his face in the fabric of my shirt.

"I need to go back."

I stroked his back carefully, my fingers laced in his hair, letting him talk out whatever was on his mind.

"It's not my fault those people died, but I've been away for too long. I need to go back to the front lines. I can't sit back and watch while more of my world falls away."

"Okay," I said softly into his hair, holding him closer, telling him I understood exactly what he meant, exactly what he was trying to say.

Levi had been a soldier, first and foremost. He had taken a leave of absence too late for it to matter, and had used his time away to recover a life he thought he had lost for good. But it was common knowledge that once a soldier left the battlefield, it meant they had left another part of themselves behind. They may not have wanted to, but it was hard to take with you the part of yourself that had put your entire being into fighting for the safety of those back home.

Sword Art Online was no different.

Levi couldn't recover what he had left on the battlefield, but he sure as hell could take with him the part of himself he had gained while he was away. He could take me, and if he didn't want to, it was a good thing I had a mind of my own and a strong will to follow.

"I'll go with you," I told him, the following silence neither a denial nor an agreement. "I won't leave you to face all of that alone. I won't stay here, waiting for you to come home, hoping and praying it wasn't you that lost your life this time. I said I'd always remain by your side, and now I have a solid foundation for that promise. A vow, a contract, and a ring around my finger."

Levi nodded against my chest, and I don't think he could have denied me even if he had truly wanted to. Being away from each other was too painful now, we had grown attached to each other's presence, life force and way of moving. Moving through my days without Levi would be like trying to find my way through a maze that didn't have an exit, only made up of dead ends, making me confused and frustrated until I simply sat down and waited for the exit to come to me.

"I'm not afraid of you being on the front lines," Levi admitted, his voice muffled by my shirt. "Because I'll be there. I'll be there to protect you, just like I promised, just like I am bound to do, by my vow, my contract and my ring."