PEREGRINE

"Perry, is that a snake?"

Peregrine tensed and looked to where Talon was pointing. An inch wide brown shape curled out from under a bush, seemingly headed straight towards Talon. But Perry didn't need to look closely to see that the "snake" wasn't moving.

"Talon, I think you need a lesson on what snakes look like," Perry said, reaching down towards the object.

"Perry, what are you..." Talon trailed off as he realized his mistake.

"Honestly, how long have you been living in the woods?" Perry asked jokingly as he held up the curved tree branch that Talon had been fretting over just a few moments ago.

Talon stared red-faced at the object before pushing a fake laugh out of him. "You fell for it!" He pranced around Perry but refused to make eye contact.

"I did," Perry said, playing along. He raised his hands in a surrender. He'd save his nephew from the embarrassment today.

He probably would have picked on Talon more, but his mind was off today. The last time he had seen Aria was seven days ago, and that was that beautiful night alone in the woods. The weather was growing too cold for swimming and building the city of Cinder was a constant separator. Perry was beginning to feel as if he were going to lose his mind. Seven days without those big gray eyes and raven-black hair was too long for his comfort. In fact even one day was a struggle.

But he couldn't be selfish when there was an entire city to be built and thousands of citizens to be fed. Perry was gifted with the luxury of being able to hunt with Talon on a daily basis, and he was extremely grateful for that. No Talon and no Aria would have been unbearable.

Perry returned to his home with Talon, both of them carrying rabbits and squirrels. As soon as he stepped out of the trees his eyes went immediately towards the foundation of his home, hoping to see a glimpse of his beautiful Aria. Sure enough, there stood a pale girl with unmistakable flowing black hair.

The only thing Perry cared about at that moment was the beautiful creature his gaze was locked on, the girl he could not live without and had to suffer seven days without seeing once. His bow, quiver, and pile of rodents fell into the dirt as he began sprinting towards Aria. He called her name loudly, not caring that he had what was most likely an idiotic grin plastered on his face. Aria's gentle gray eyes lit with excitement at the sight of him. She broke into a huge smile and opened her arms wide as Perry strode up. He locked his arms around her thin waist and squeezed her tight, lifting her and spinning her around. He buried his face in her neck, breathing in the scent of violets as if it were the oxygen he couldn't live without.

But one whiff had Perry stopping suddenly and setting her down. He pulled back his head and looked at her, wide-eyed.

"Perry, what is it?" Aria asked fearfully, placing a soft hand on the side of his face. He made no response. He couldn't make a response. His thoughts were too busy.

There was something unmistakably different in Aria's scent. It was sweeter, like honey. He leaned in and sniffed her neck again.

Suddenly his eyes lit up in excitement and disbelief and he grinned like a fool.

"Aria!" he exclaimed joyfully. He again wrapped her in a tight embrace and spun her around, somehow happier than he was before. Then he set her back down and kissed her passionately, still smiling against her mouth. When he pulled back he could barely refrain from laughing aloud with joy.

"Perry what is it?" Aria asked. She was also smiling because of him, but she was obviously perplexed.

"Aria, it's your scent," Perry said, struggling to keep from holding her again and never letting go. "You're pregnant."

This time he actually did laugh. Aria's gray eyes grew twice their size in shock. Then she grinned hugely and began laughing along with him.

"I'm pregnant!" she exclaimed, as if it were the punchline to some hilarious joke. "I'm pregnant!" Then she jumped up, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. She clung on to him tightly and he did the same. They laughed and cried together, overcome with joy.

"Oh my goodness," she said. She repeated it a few times, as if what she was told was too good to be true. Then she pulled back her head, resting it against Perry's and messily weaving her fingers through his hair. Her face was a mess of tears and her grin was beautiful. She pushed his hair from his face and kissed him passionately.

"I love you," she said between kisses. She was breathless. As they loved each other she repeated it over and over. Perry was too shocked and joyful to speak.

"No. No way."

A large group of people sat around the center of the large clearing, eating their meals. Since Aria and Perry found out that they were expecting a child, they could not be more than three inches apart at any time. Their grins had not shrunken and their joy had not lessened.

"Mhm," Aria said. She bounced with excitement, her smile stretching across her entire face. Perry watched Roar with the same grin as his best friend received the news. Roar's expression was at first disbelieving and filled with utter shock. Perry had held Aria even tighter as his excitement grew. Then the information seemed to sink in and Roar rose to his feet, mirroring their expressions.

"This is amazing!" he yelled. His voice boomed through the night. He took two long strikes toward Perry and trapped him within his muscular arms. Both of them laughed heartily. Then Aria stood and Roar embraced her roughly as well, looking as if he were going to crush her. Then he let her down and fell back into his seat heavily, shaking his head in amazement while gazing at the two. The smiles spread around the entire group as people shouted, hugged, laughed and even cried. Perry couldn't help but noticing Soren smiling lovingly at Brooke. They met each others gazes and their expressions became serious and deep. Feeling as if he were intruding, Perry looked away.

Then Loren walked up to Aria. They looked at each other without speaking. Loren's face was filled with emotion, with the strongest one being happiness. Then he and Aria embraced tightly. Perry noticed tears in Loren's eyes as he stroked his daughter's hair.

Then he stepped back and looked at Perry skeptically. Perry suddenly felt nervous. He waited anxiously for Loren to say some biting comment when the man's expression softened and he hugged Perry. Perry froze in surprise, but then stiffly returned the embrace.

Loren pulled back and looked at Perry happily.

"Congratulations." Then he sent one more smile to Aria and took his seat again.

Long after the meals were finished, the group sat and spoke. The happiness of the announcement remained bright green at the edge of Perry's vision. He breathed it in and his spirits lifted even higher. Multiple times throughout the night, people would look over at Perry and Aria with admiration; especially Roar, who now was also unable to keep a smile from his face.

Aria had rested her head on Perry's shoulder, and as the moon continued to rise her weight grew heavier and heavier. By the time the moon was straight above the group, she seemed unable to hold herself up anymore. Perry felt himself growing tired.

"Hey," he murmured, leaning his mouth close to Aria's ear. She exhaled heavily through her nose and looked up at Perry. An exhausted smile tugged at her lips as she gazed at him with heavy-lidded eyes. Perry gathered her up in his arms and held her against his chest. He closed his eyes and rested his head on hers, wishing he could stay in that position forever.

"Oh wait!" Aria suddenly exclaimed, startling Perry. She leaned her head back to look at him with giddy excitement. Her eyes were wide and excited, like a child's when playing with new toys. The fire flickered orange lights across her smooth face, illuminating her thick, long eyelashes. Suddenly caught up with her beauty, Perry leaned in to kiss her.

"No no no, not yet," Aria said, leaning back and gently pushing his face away. Perry looked down at her with a seductive smile and raised his eyebrows.

"You sure?" he asked. He cupped her face and rubbed his thumb over her cheek slowly. She closed her eyes and nuzzled into his hand, relaxing. He moved his hand to beneath her chin and slightly raised it. She opened her eyes and gazed at him with warmth and desire.

"No! Stop it!" she scolded, snapping out of her daze. She pulled back and playfully swatted Perry's hand away. "Save it for later. I have something to show you."

Perry couldn't contain his smile. Aria escaped from his embrace and stood, pulling Perry along with her.

"Goodnight!" people said around the fire. Aria grabbed Perry's hand and waved with her free one before pulling him away.

"Your house! It's finished!" Aria explained once they were out of earshot. "I mean, well, our house. Marron and I have been working on it all week to get it done. We even added some special features." Perry sensed Aria's excitement as well as her embarrassment in her use of the term "your house." Perry just chuckled and let Aria pull him closer to the approaching shadow of a building.

They stopped at the doorstep. The wooden house was medium in size and made of rough wood. Clean-cut scratches dug into the top of the doorframe.

"Some of us on the council decided that we should put the residents of the homes' names on the doorframe," Aria explained. She stood up on her tiptoes and pointed to the first set of scratches.

"This says 'Aria,'" she said. Perry stared at the markings, trying but failing to understand what they meant or how they worked. Then she pointed to the second group.

"This is 'Peregrine.'" Perry looked at his own name. He had seen it written before, but never in Aria's handwriting. Before it hadn't meant anything, but now gazing upon it brought a rush of emotions. His name was hers. She had scratched these familiar markings into the wood that belonged to her, but also to him as well. Everything they had now belonged to both of them. Those beautiful markings, the ones that perfectly sat next to each other as Perry and Aria always would, could be permanently set into everything that was theirs. Because that itself, Perry and Aria, was one being, one love, one perfection that couldn't be separated. Perry wasn't Perry without his Aria. Without her, he would only be half himself. He would only half own of his things. And he never wanted that to happen.

"There's mo-"

Aria was interrupted as Perry brought his lips to hers. He held onto her passionately, thinking of how grateful he was to be able to hold something so beautiful as she was. He was gifted, and not because of his Markings. Nobody could ever be as lucky as he was.

Aria pulled back. Both of them breathed heavily. Aria leaned her forehead against Perry's chest, lightly tracing a finger over his stomach as she caught her breath. Perry shivered at her touch. Then Aria looked up humorously.

"What is with you today?" she asked. Perry saw that she was trying to light-heartedly joke, but her temper told him that she felt just as much desire for him and he felt for her. That only fueled him up more, but he refrained from kissing her again. Instead he rested his head against hers and caressed her soft cheek. He sighed, and when he spoke his voice was deeper than usual.

"You're driving me nuts," he murmured. Aria shivered and her desire grew. Perry, aggravated, pulled quickly away and grunted.

"I can't focus on anything when you feel like that. Show me the house before I take you into the woods again."

Aria smiled up at him, seemingly amused. She put her hands on her hips and said,

"You know you're not allowed to do that for nine months, right?"

"Man, this pregnancy thing isn't really sounding that great anymore," he responded with a grin. Aria nudged him playfully and shook her head.

"Such a guy." Then, before Perry could defend himself, Aria grabbed the doorknob and opened the door to their new home.

There was no furniture, but Perry was already in love with it. To the left was a kitchen with an open space for a decent-sized table. To the right was a small living area with large windows. But Perry couldn't pay much attention to the details, because what really caught his eye was loft in the back corner.

A grin quickly spread across Perry's face. He wanted to kiss Aria a million times over. Child-like, he took long strides across the room to the ladder and climbed it quickly.

It was perfect. Contrary to what Perry expected, the loft was small and plain. There was no large bed with fluffy pillows and thick comforters. Instead there was just room enough to fit a regular double mattress, with a low enough ceiling that even Talon couldn't stand without bumping his head.

The ceiling.

Of course, when Perry looked up, he saw a minor mistake in the structure. Right above the pillows was a small crack in the ceiling, opening up the star-filled night sky for Perry to see when he laid his head at night. Well, him and Aria.

But that wasn't it. In one of the walls sat a small window, which held small sculptures along its sill. In the center was a sloppy chunk of wood made by none other than Perry himself, and surrounding it were clean falcon carvings.

Perry had been too busy gazing at his beautiful loft to notice that Aria had climbed up the ladder and knelt beside him. He turned and gently held her face, bringing his lips softly to hers. They shared a tender kiss before Perry pulled back with a smile.

"Thank you," he said.

He laid back on his pillow, looking up through the crack at the starry sky empty of Aether. Aria settled down beside him, resting her head on his chest. He rested his own head against hers, breathing in her scent of violets.

"The room below us was meant for Talon when he grows older and doesn't want to cuddle with his uncle anymore," Aria said after a few moments. "But I guess it can be our baby's room now."

Perry grinned at the words.

"Our baby," he repeated. It sounded perfect, right. He said it again. "We're going to have a baby."

Perry felt tears welling in his eyes. He and Aria were going to have a child together.

He felt Aria's smile against his chest. Then, surprising himself, he brought a hand down to the bottom of her shirt and rested it on her bare stomach. He felt the smooth, flat skin of her belly and gently caressed it. His child was resting beneath that beautiful pale skin. A baby, created by them, for them, and only them, was growing right there. Tears rose in his eyes once again and he kissed the top of Aria's head.

"You're a mother now," he murmured. It really hit him then; the pictures of her teaching their kid how to read, playing peek-a-boo, and most of all, loving the child and snuggling him or her while they fussed and tried squirming away.

"You're a father now," she responded. That hit him even harder. He was a father. He had never thought about what it would be like to be a father. He had to be mature and responsible. He would love his child just as much as Aria did and watch him or her grow up and be proud. He would teach him or her to hunt and play tag and hide-and-seek. But the most important thing was that he wouldn't be like his own father.

Then the picture of him and Aria, growing old, holding hands while watching their child grow up, gazing upon that child with pride and love, filled Perry's mind and made him smile. He fell asleep with that happy thought still lingering in his mind.