She felt warm.

That was the first thing Tali noticed.

Her feet were kissed lightly by the warm sand in which they were half-buried, and the rays of the sun above her warmed her face, but there was something else, as well. A warmth behind her and around her lower torso.

Though she felt so very content to keep her eyes closed, she opened them a little just to get her bearings.

The same oasis met her eyes, same as it always was. But she was already sitting beside the waterfall, this time, instead of further downstream, like usual. Part of her somehow seemed more aware of all the times she had been here in the past, whereas she never had been before.

Casting her eyes down a little, she was both surprised and not surprised to find a pair of hands encircling her waist, and then the warmth behind her, against which she was leaning, made perfect sense.

"John?" she asked quietly, without looking up at him.

"Hey, Tali." He replied in the same way he always did.

"Hey." was all she could say back, a smile coming to her face.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he asked softly, and for a moment she stopped to really look around at her surroundings.

Somehow she knew that, in the past, she had never wanted to acknowledge it for what it was, too focused on other things, but now, warm and tranquil and back in his arms, she had to admit that it really was. She no longer felt that awful disembodied half-dread at the high roar of the waterfall or the soft music of birdsong.

"It is, but I…I feel strange." She managed in response.

"You wanna move?" he teased.

"No, of course not, but still…" she giggled.

"You didn't really think things would keep going the same way they did before, did you?" he asked pointedly.

"Well…no, but this is a big difference." She observed, shifting a little in his embrace.

"Better now?" she could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

"Mm. Better." She cooed.

A long silence fell between them, then, before he spoke up again.

"So why'd you choose the way you did?" he asked her softly.

"I…I thought I had to. I didn't want to let you go, didn't want to forget what you meant to me, what we meant to each other. It just wouldn't have been right, so I chose to keep the memory of you with me, close to my heart."

"Even if it hurts?" he questioned her.

"Even if it hurts. And it will, but…I don't mind. I've made my peace with it, just like I've made my peace with you." She responded.

He seemed to stop to think about it.

"So what is this, then? Why are you here?"

She herself wasn't entirely sure, so she spoke the only thing that came to mind.

"Because I want to be? Because it feels nice?"

He chuckled a little.

"Good enough."

She gave a contented sigh.

This dream was so entirely different to all those she had had before that it filled her with bliss by sheer contrast alone, not to mention that this one was almost so sweet as to be excessive, so perfect as for its flawlessness to be a little jarring. For two years her mind had tortured her, but now that she had finally made her choice, it seemed it would do so no longer.

Another silence fell on them, then, but it was as warm and welcome as she felt in that moment, and she felt no need to fill it with anything else.

He apparently did, however.

"This has been nice, but shouldn't you be waking up now?" he said in an odd tone.

She crooked an eyebrow, even though he could not see it.

"I don't think so. What was it you always told me before? This is my mind. I will do as I please." She said definitively.

But still he pressed.

"No, Tali, you need to wake up." He said, more urgently, his hands coming apart from where they had been clasped at her abdomen to draw back.

She twisted where she sat to look up at him. There was anguish written on his face clear as the water of the pool.

"John, I don't-" she tried.

"Tali, please. You have to wake up." He implored her, reaching out to give her shoulders a shake.

"You have to."

And that same white light from before came rushing over him and all the rest of it.

"-oddamn it, please. Wake up."

Above the throbbing ache in her head, the voice, loud and desperate, rang in her ears. It was quite heavily distorted, though she could not tell why. Something about it seemed vaguely familiar, but her wits were slow in the face of her return to consciousness, and so she could not pin it down, just as she could not seem to pin anything down.

She cracked her eyes open a touch to glance around where she sat. The stale, clean walls of a prefab home greeted them, so she guessed she must still be on Freedom's Progress. Only the one other person seemed to share the room with her, but the voice did not sound like any of her team.

Her team. Alarm filled her at the thought of might have happened to them, but then she thought back to how that massive burst of biotic energy had struck the equally massive mech that had been about to kill her. Anyone capable of that kind of power could surely have helped her team in finishing off the mech.

Whoever this is, they must be from the other team, she thought.

Hearing some rustling across the room, she chanced a glance that way.

And then she saw him, for it was indeed a him, she thought, broad and tall. And it was a human, as well, she gathered from the straightness of his legs. That made much more sense than the other team being some quarian reinforcements, as quarian biotics were a great rarity, owing to their low probability of prenatal eezo exposure.

He was clad in sleek black armor with silver accents, as well as a heavy helmet with an opaque outer visor, and appeared to be fumbling with some kind of first aid kit on the wall, but she could not see what exactly he was doing, his back turned to her as it was.

But that changed rather quickly, as, apparently finding what he had been looking for, he turned quickly back her way to spot her, surprise radiating from him very openly as emotions often did when humans were involved. He took a few long, quick steps toward her.

"Tali! Thank God, I was so scared…" he said.

Who is this man, and how does he know my name, she wondered absently, before she saw it. That logo.

Elongated black hexagon on a white field, banded in orange.

Cerberus.

Rage filled her, then, white-hot. How dare this Cerberus scum take her from her team? For all she knew, he had killed them like he had killed her people aboard the Idenna those months ago.

"Are you feeling alr-" he began before the air was knocked out of his lungs as one of her powerful legs came up to deliver a solid kick straight to his stomach that sent him falling squarely onto his backside, grunting heavily at the blow.

Seizing the moment he took to get up, she scooted herself back until she met the wall, pushing herself to her feet and reaching down to clumsily pull the light pistol from its holster to point at his chest, hands shaking a little as she spoke, hoping she sounded threatening even through the slur her exhaustion and confusion forced her to speak with.

"Get back, Cerberus gen'rosa! What have you done with my team?!" she demanded.

"Tali, ple-" he began, holding his abdomen where she had kicked him.

"Don't call me that! How do you know my name?!" she yelled, jabbing the pistol forward angrily.

The man didn't respond to that, only reached behind him to the back of his neck, seeming to be looking for a release, a sharp hiss filling the quiet room once he found it.

And then he placed both hands upon the sides of the helmet, pulling it up to reveal his features…

No. No way. It can't be.

Icy blue eyes, shiny and piercing, met her incredulous gaze.

"John?" she said hoarsely, lowering the pistol just a touch as her hands went limp.

A weak little smile came to his lips, then.

"Hey, Tali." He said softly.

Her eyes bore into his face, wanting to believe and wanting to reject.

I've gone insane, o-or I'm dreaming, she thought frantically, but I'm not in the oasis…

She brought up a hand to rest against her helmet as her head ached more fiercely than it ever had before.

Her vision was spinning, and for a moment she thought she might fall faint again, but the thoughts were swirling in her mind like a raging tempest, and she found she could not let go again, much as she may want to. But she did try.

I hit my head, that's it. If I just close my eyes, then he'll be gone when I wake up.

She said to herself, taking in a little breath as she squeezed them closed.

This is my mind, she told herself, just a moment more, and he'll be gone.

She wanted to believe, wanted it to be real, but more than that she did not want to have her hopes raised by some new nightmare, some new trick of her psyche, only for them to be dashed against the rocks once reality took hold of her thoughts once more.

Part of her was torn, though. Her mind did not pull tricks on her. She had had the same dream for two years with no change. Painful, but so predictable.

But still she fought. This didn't just have to be a dream, she needed it to be.

She could not do this again.

"Tali?" He said carefully, tearing her from her thoughts.

He was not supposed to say that, not supposed to say anything at all. That meant she wasn't the one in control.

But this had tobe a dream.

"Can you put that gun down for me?"

"No." she choked out. "You're not real. You're not."

He took a step forward, then, and her eyes shot up to meet him. She raised the pistol back up at him, though it shook even worse than it had before.

His hands rose slowly to placate her.

"I am." He said softly.

"You're not. I-! watched you die. You're dead." She said weakly, trying to keep any emotion but conviction from her voice, and failing miserably.

"I was. But Cerberus-" he attempted.

"Cerberus?" she hissed, her voice pure venom as she jabbed the pistol at his head.

"Please. Let me explain." He begged her, taking another step toward her.

She didn't say anything to that, only tried her best to steady her trembling hands and quivering lip.

"I died. You're right. Cerberus found my body after I got spaced, and…they brought me back. Rebuilt me. Took two years, billions of credits, medical tech far beyond what I thought possible…but they did it." He explained, taking another step toward her.

"So…what? You're their…toy soldier? Their attack dog? I should shoot you. I won't let Cerberus defile the memory of the man I lovedlike this, won't let them parade their puppet around with his face!" she spat, finger wavering on the trigger.

In spite of her harsh words and harsher tone, he met her without balking.

"I'm not anyone's puppet, Tali. Said they wanted me exactly as I was, no alterations. They brought me back to investigate a string of disappearances from human colonies. That's why I'm here. And I don't trust them, you know that. Not after what they've done. But it's an important mission they have me on, one no one else will do. Tens of thousands of people have been taken, and the Alliance won't do anything about it. I'd have done it even if they hadn't been the ones that gave me my life back." He said softly, yet firmly.

She was not convinced, and he seemed to sense that.

"I'm no puppet. I'm the same person I was, Tali. I promise."

That set her off.

"You're lying. You're not the same person! You show up here after you died, and the first thing you give me is a 'Hey, Tali' like nothing even happened! Do you have any idea what losing you was like, what carrying you with me for two years was like?!" she yelled, eyes stinging, gun still trained on him.

He met her gaze and her words both, trying his best to seem earnest.

"I don't. Not at all. And I won't claim to. But try to see things from my position. For you it's been two years, but I've been awake a day."

Still she did not relent, but she could feel her resolve wavering.

He took another step forward, and suddenly he was in arm's reach.

"I'm…sorry you had to go through that. I'm sorry that I put you through that. You know I'd have wanted it different. And I can't know what it felt like, but…I'm willing to try. If you'd just trust me a little…" He pleaded, his eyes seeming to glisten a bit.

"I want to. M-more than I could ever describe. I want to trust you but…I don't know. I can't do this again, John. If you're just a nightmare, o-or some Cerberus trick…I can't do it." Despite her best efforts, a tear escaped her eye, not that he could see it, but she knew it carried in her voice.

"I get that, as much as I can from where I stand, but is there anything…anything I can do?"

"I…I just don't know. I've h-had dreams, over and over since you died and…every time I think you're really back with me for a moment, but then you…"

Her voice failed her and her shoulders began to shake a little.

"I'm so sorry. I…I want to understand what that was like, want to make up for all this time I couldn't be here for you. I'll never do either of those things, never, but I'll try with everything I have. Before I can, though, I need you to trust me." He begged again.

She could not speak.

"Do you?"

She stopped to think a moment.

He had never lied to her, not once. She had always felt as though she could trust him, from the moment they had met. As she had said to Vaelar, there was just something about him, some subtle quality which could not be pinpointed, something that told you he was someone who kept his word and who you could put your faith in. And he had always lived up to that faith, even after he died. Not even in her nightmares had he ever lied to her.

She trusted him more than anyone, anything else in existence.

And she realized then that she had already made her choice the moment she saw him.

"I do." She whispered, feather-light.

"Then drop the gun for me."

After a little pause, her hands went limp, and the pistol fell to the ground with a metallic clang. She kept them hanging there, looking down at them as though she didn't quite believe she had really dropped it.

Then suddenly they were enveloped by both of his own in a light grip, the warmth of them easily palpable through the thin fabric of her gloves, so warm she almost couldn't feel his thumbs stroking the top of her hands rhythmically.

A rush of memories filled her, then, the tender touch reminding of her all she had lost and all she had gained once more. All the pain she had endured, all the love she now had to soothe that pain until it may as well have never happened.

With a single squeeze of his hands, she could feel the last two years of stress and grief pour out of her in a unrestrained torrent, and the bliss of the moment was so far beyond description that she did not even try to comprehend it fully.

She had thought that nothing would ever feel better than hearing him say he loved her, and of being able to say the words back despite how shaky her voice was, of being able to free herself from her prison and share herself with him, if only for a night, but here she was, admitting to herself that this was, indeed, better.

Her mind was entirely full in that moment: of memories, of conflicted emotions, and of intentions for what she wanted to do next.

She wanted to hug him, she wanted to hit him, wanted to pull her mask from her face and kiss him until the world ended, wanted to pull her pistol from the ground and turn it on herself for distrusting him for even a moment.

It was this last one she settled on, her self-doubting streak showing itself, but her mouth moved before her mind had caught up to it and her eyes rose to meet his.

"I…I'm-" she stammered hoarsely.

"Shh. It's alright. You don't need to say anything."

His voice was soothing, reassuring, but she fought him in spite of it.

"No, it's not alright. I almost shot you, John!" she yelled.

"But you didn't."

"I-" she tried.

"Tali. You didn't." he said with finality.

She gave up, then, and her eyes fell from his again.

She wasn't sure how to fill the silence which followed, too many things she wanted to do and say all at once, but the choice was made for her as he spoke in a tone which was both cautious and bemused.

"Besides…if getting tossed into space couldn't kill me, do you really think you could do it with this peashooter?"

Her eyes shot up to meet his quick as lightning. That lightness was there, that easy humor, that cheeky little twinkle, but they also looked a bit shinier than usual as a few tears began to pool in them.

She looked at him for a brief second, before all the built-up energy inside her came bubbling up like a geyser, and her legs launched her up in a desperate leap into his arms, her own arms encircling his shoulders and her ankles locking around his waist.

In her enthusiasm, though, the embrace ended up as more of a tackle. Off-balance, he could not bear her weight, falling backwards to the hard floor with a surprised yelp and a grunt as the wind was knocked out of him.

Laying atop him, head pressed hard into his chest, all she could do was cry, a strange noise which came out as half laugh and half sob, the tears she spilt expressing all the relief and joy and pain she felt in that moment.

All that she had gone through these past two years seemed fulfilled in this one clumsy embrace.

She squeezed him so tightly that for a bit she thought she might be hurting him, but she didn't care. He had two years' worth of hugs like this to make up for, and she would not defer their repayment a second longer.

A sound similar to the one she made poured from John's chest, a little more of a laugh than it was a sob, and from where her head lay she could feel the vibrations of it as well as hear them.

"Stupid…you stupid, stupid man." She eventually managed through her cries, "Saying things like that at a time like this."

"Had to be sure you knew it was me." He shot back, before a fresh squeeze of her arms forced the air from him in a bout of grunting laughter.

"Well, it worked. It is you. Only you would be enough of an idiot to make jokes right now."

She said with a weak giggle, before her mood shifted and her tone grew much less playful.

"I…I missed you. So much. Every day." She whispered.

He squeezed her a little tighter before he responded.

"I'm sorry, Tali…I've been away from you a day to my mind and even that was too long for me. Nothing like what you had to go through."

"Doesn't matter what I went through, not now. Nothing matters but this…You're back. You're really back…" The wonder she felt still carried in her voice even now.

"Yeah. Yeah, I am." He said lightly.

A silence fell over them, warm and blissful but much less intense than what had come before. In that quiet, she really felt how exhausted her mind was by all that had happened, and, in conjunction with the light fuzziness that still clouded her thoughts, her eyelids drooped a bit before she fought the admittedly amusing temptation to slip into a restful sleep with him as the bed.

She still had things she needed to ask.

"Did my team make it, John?" she asked gently.

"Most of them, yeah. There were two casualties, one before we got there, one after." He said a little sadly.

"And their leader? His name was-"

"Lieutenant Vaelar, I talked to him. He's fine." He reassured her.

She let out the little breath she had been holding, relieved he had made it.

"Where is he now?"

"Just outside. The lieutenant is resting with your team, helping to treat that kid he said you were looking for, Veetor. Had an infection, apparently, but they had the meds to help him through it. As for…my team, the Cerberus agents that came with me, they're busy parsing through some data Veetor collected, said it was the key to understanding what happened to the people here."

He took a strained breath, then, betraying a bit of his conflictedness.

"It was…a little tense there for a moment. Seems like Cerberus did something to your people? Something bad?"

"Yeah. They did." She said bitterly.

"I'm sorry. But it's like I said. I'm on this mission because it needs doing, not because they told me to do it."

"I believe you, John. If I trusted you when you said you came back from the dead, I can trust you with this." She assured him.

"Yeah, I guess if you can believe the first one, you can believe anything. Next time I need someone to buy in to an investment scam, you'll be the first one I call." He said with a chuckle, but his voice caught a bit on something. She could tell that, underneath the joke, he was touched by the depth of the trust she had in him.

He returned to what he had been saying.

"Anyway…it almost came to a firefight, but I managed to talk Vaelar out of it, and he got the rest of your team to stand down, too."

"After that biotics display you pulled off on the mech, I can't imagine anyone would be too eager to fight you." She teased.

"Yeah…burst out onto that plaza, had no idea what was going on, and then I see you sitting there with a mech about to crush you, so I…I reached deep, lashed out with all I had and managed to knock it away from you, thank God. Gave myself one hell of a nosebleed doing it, and a headache even worse than that, but I'd say it was worth it."

"Always the hero," she said fondly, shifting a little atop him to get more comfortable.

"Not this time, not compared to you. The lieutenant told me what you did." He said pointedly.

She swallowed a little before responding.

"It was nothing." She deflected.

"That's not the way he saw it. Said it was pretty incredible what you pulled off, some real heroics." He prodded.

"Someone had to do it." She said, sounding more like he always did in these situations than she realized.

"That someone was you. You did that."

"Maybe. B-but I thought of you when I did that, of what you would do in that moment, so…it wasn't all me." She explained emphatically.

After a brief pause, he gave her a low chuckle.

"You know, I'm starting to get a sense of how stubborn I must seem to everyone else when they're trying to tell me I did something right. And of how annoying it is."

She gave him back a little giggle in return.

"Well, maybe I picked up more from you than you realize. The annoying parts, specifically." She retorted with a little poke at his ribs in the spot she knew always made him laugh.

He always told her not to touch him there, said he was "ticklish," whatever that meant, but she felt she needed to now. She needed to hear him laugh, to really laugh.

And laugh he did, a deep, rumbling, joyful sound that almost had her crying all over again for how much she had missed it.

She settled for simply joining him instead, adding her higher, softer laughter to his in a lovely harmony sweeter than any music she had ever heard.

Eventually, their laughter fell away until it was naught but a few giggles and sighs, and he drew in and let out a deep, relaxed breath before shifting his tone and speaking again, low and earnest.

"Proud of you."

He didn't seem to know that that was exactly what she had wanted to hear, both then and now.

She pushed herself up somewhat, raising her head so that she could gaze into his eyes.

"Thank you, John." was all she could say, bringing a hand up to caress his cheek gently.

He gave a little smile at that, closing his eyes and leaning into her touch, brushing his stubble against her gloved fingers.

She was about to make some silly half-joke about how he looked almost cute doing that, but before she could, his face twitched a bit at something, and he brought up one of his own hands to lightly grip her wrist, pulling her hand from his cheek and looking it over.

His breath caught in his throat a little, then, and he reached up to one of her fingers, pulling it down until the purple sparkle of the ring caught his eye.

"You kept it." He said softly, seeming a little amazed at the fact.

"Of course I kept it. Why wouldn't I?" She said back, a little incredulously, but she could see where he was going with it.

"I just thought you might've wanted to…you know." He trailed off, but his meaning was obvious.

"W-well…I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered it, but…" she thought for a bit if she wanted to talk about this with him, before deciding that she should, that she needed to, and that he needed to hear it, too.

"What's that human expression you taught me, about feeling like you've been somewhere or seen the same things before?

"Déjà vu?" he offered.

"Yes, that one. I feel that way right now. It was only a few hours ago that I was discussing this same thing. With Vaelar." She explained.

"Yeah…got the impression he knew something about us. Acted pretty strange when I told him who I was. And once he ran his scan and saw you weren't really hurt, just unconscious, he found me this place and left you alone with me. Said you would need to see me when you woke up." He said, his tone a little inquisitive.

"That doesn't surprise me. He can be very…perceptive, very in tune with what people are thinking, what they need emotionally."

"So what were you talking to him about?" he asked her carefully.

She took a little breath before she began.

"I-I said earlier that I had dreams. Dreams about you. More like nightmares, really, but…Vaelar noticed that I had one, and he asked me if I wanted to talk. I didn't, at first, not at all, but then he said he had his own experience with nightmares. He told me what they were and what caused them, and I realized they were a lot like mine. He had someone…someone he loved. Lost her on a mission and kept reliving it in his head. After he told me, I thought it would only be fair for me to tell him about mine, a-and I knew he would understand, as well. So I told him all about it, all about you and what you meant, mean to me." She corrected herself.

He processed her words for a bit.

"Are you alright telling me what your dreams were about? I'd like to know, but only if you want to." He said, not trying to pressure her.

"I want to. It was really just one dream, always the same. I start out in this oasis that I saw in a film shot on my people's homeworld when I was younger. I follow the sound of rushing water, a-and end up in a clearing with a pool. It's beautiful, so beautiful, but I can't focus on it. I see this silhouette, standing beneath a waterfall. I walk a little closer and…it's you." She confessed.

"Me?"

"You. I know, you've never been anywhere near Rannoch, just like me and, well, everyone else, but…dreams are strange. You're there. And we talk a little. I…get angry with you, blame you for leaving me, like it was something you wanted to do. I realize how stupid it is…and then I just want to hold you. But I can't. I can't go to you, and you won't come to me. I ask you why, and you say that I'm the one keeping me apart, that this is my mind and my choice. And I fight it, but…then I realize I've had the dream before, dozens of times, and it all falls apart." Her voice wavered a little, but having discussed the same subject so recently meant it was easier, as well as the fact that she was talking about it with him specifically.

He took a long moment to digest what she had said before he replied.

"So the dream wasn't about me dying…it was about you not knowing how to deal with me dying."

She gave a little nod in response.

His tone was hesitant as he spoke the next.

"But how bad you said it hurt…I think you should have let me go." He said softly.

"Well, I didn't." she said evenly.

His eyes drifted away from her a little, and she decided to continue.

"But I could've. When I told Vaelar about how I felt, h-he thought I needed closure, needed to do something to feel better about the cause of the nightmares. He asked me if I had anything you had given me, and I showed him the ring. Looked it over a bit, then he…grabbed a blowtorch and held it close. I thought he was going to destroy it, but he tried to give me the decision. Said I had to make a choice, right then and there. Counted down from three before he was going to make it for me. I begged him not to, begged him for more time, but he didn't listen and…I made my choice."

She finished, thumb coming up to fiddle with the ring a little.

"I chose you, chose not to forget you and all that you were to me. And even though I had never been… completely certain about my decision until then, I had been living it for two years by that point. No matter how bad it hurt, I didn't let you go. It wouldn't have been right." She said, her voice soft yet full of conviction.

His eyes had a distant, somewhat bewildered look to them, and he gave a little shake of his head before he spoke, low and hoarse.

"Two years of that kind of pain…Tali, why?"

She let out a little exasperated sigh.

He already knew why, but that was fine to her. She needed to say it as much as he apparently needed to hear it.

"Because I love you, John. And I never stopped. Not for one moment."

He just stared at her for a while, eyes filled with so many things, and she met his gaze, hoping that the act would truly show what she felt if her words could not. Eventually, though, a small tear escaped his right eye and his lips curled into a smile, before he brought her hand up to them and pressed a light kiss to the finger that held the ring.

After collecting himself a bit, he spoke.

"I think I'm perhaps the luckiest man to ever live. And the luckiest to die, too." He said, voice light and full.

That drew a soft giggle from her throat, and she ran a thumb across the bristly hair of his jaw.

"Mm. You are." She cooed.

He leaned into her touch again before he pulled back, now more serious.

"If we're being honest…I really don't know what I did to earn such devotion, but…it means more than I can say, means everything to me…I only wish you hadn't had to hurt so much to show it."

His tone betrayed the guilt he felt, guilt at having caused her such pain, when it had been her choice to feel it, so she pushed back on it.

"I'd do it again, you know."

"I know you would, but I still don't-" he attempted.

"You're worth it, John. You are. What I went through…it was all totally worth it." She interrupted him, not willing to let him devalue himself further.

She had intended for what she said to be serious and meaningful, a last reassurance that he was worth the pain she had endured, that it was all made up for now that he was here.

But it seemed he didn't see it that way, as a more devilish smirk came to his lips.

"Funny. Seem to recall you saying something similar after we-"

Again, she didn't let him finish, giving him a light slap on the shoulder as a flush rose to her cheeks.

"Oh, shut up. After all this, do you really want me to shoot you?" She said playfully.

He let out a light chuckle at that, and then he just looked down at her with that twinkle in his eyes before his face shifted to be a little more earnest again.

"I love you. And I'll never leave you again."

"Promise?" she whispered.

"Promise."

Her breath caught in her throat and new tears rose to the corners of her eyes at his words, but it seemed that even after such a heartfelt statement he could not resist making a joke.

"Not like I seem to have a choice in the matter. If death itself couldn't get me out of your hair, nothing will, so it looks like you're stuck with me."

"I think I can live with that." She breathed contentedly, cuddling up against him and lowering her head back down to his chest.

Her eyelids began to droop again in the long, soft silence which followed, soothed as she was by the rhythmic rise-and-fall of his breathing and the steady thumping of his heart that reminded her all over again that he was alive and back with her, back where he should be.

Her own heart felt so light and airy and tranquil that even another YMIR mech wouldn't be able to pull her from where she lay.

His words threatened to, though.

"Our teams are probably worried for us. We should get back to them at some point." He said almost regretfully.

"Mm, at some point. But not now. Can't we just lay here for a while?" She whispered in a pleading tone.

He paused a moment, then let out another satisfied sigh.

"For as long as you'd like."