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Linh shivered in delight as goosebumps prickled all over her, and she let out a raspy breath.“Yes.”

Nathair grunted as white flickered in his orbs, fighting with his usual orange. He flinched as he pulled back and covered his empty eye holes and bony forehead, then shuddered deeply before letting his arms fall.

He stared at her for longer than was comfortable.

After a small length of silence, Nathair signed, “Did you hear?”

Her lips tightened in sorrow, already missing his charming voice. “No.”

She never expected him to chuckle. Even when he hissed out a breath of pain and dug his fingers into the crown of his skull, the sounds of his amusement continued.

Her eyes widened in disbelief. “You said something important to me, didn’t you? Something that would have been okay if I heard it!”

A loud burst of laughter exploded from him as he nodded.

“That’smean,Nathair!” She stood and placed her hands on her hips, wishing she could tower over him. “Tell me!”

He shook his head to deny her.

“Come on!” she shouted while stamping her foot. “You can’t leave me hanging like that. If you don’t tell me, I-I’ll... tackle you and beat you.”

“I would like to see you t-r-y.”He finger-spelled the last word, as he either didn’t have a sign for it, or hadn’t taught her yet.

With a childish pout, her cheeks ballooning in annoyance, Linh pounced. She shoved at his chest, and he fell to his side – she had a feeling he let her push him over. Then she lightly beat on his chest.

She giggled when he wrapped his arms around her midsection and squeezed tightly while licking at her cheek.

“You’re such a bully,” she exclaimed, her tone dulling in annoyance at his kiss.

He chuckled in return, his orbs flaring bright yellow.

He signed, “I know.”

Tenderness radiated from Nathair’s chest as he caressed the curve of his claw down behind her ear. His fingers poked through black, straight hair as he tangled himself in its lusciousness.

Her hair was tied into two high pigtails that rested on the top of her head, with two additional braids swirling around the tied bases like buns. Every new hair style brought him joy, each one just as lovely as the last.

Linh’s near-black, straight lashes tipped back, and her eyes greeted his orange orbs. The basking sun made the brown of her irises glow amber, and he found them just as mesmerising as the sable of them in the shade.

The round tip of her nose was cute, as were her expressive curved brows. Her rounded, soft cheekbones almost disappeared in the light, but cast in shadows, her jaw sharpened, making its usual gentleness strengthen. Her full pale-pink lips tightened as she looked up at him, but she didn’t ask why he was caressing her thusly, nor did she stop him.

Considering she was seated on the folds of his tail, using himas some sort of beach lounge, he thought he should be allowed just a meagre touch. He kept the sand from dirtying her, and would stop the water from touching her once it finally reached them. Which should be quite some time, as they had not been here long.

A singular small shell rested on her lap, and she fingered it as she looked down at it.

This was all she apparently wanted to do today: just sit in the sun.

She probably feels unnerved constantly being in the darkness of my home.Linh asked to be taken to the beach every day since she’d learned of it, and it had become a pattern of theirs.

She would wake long after dawn, they would come here, and then he would find her more food – whether that be him hunting in the water or helping her forage in the forest surrounding his pond. If there was a spare chance, he would teach her Nathair speak; otherwise, that was a nightly lesson.

He’d only forced her to swim one more time to make sure she truly wouldn’t drown and absorbed learning it. However, she’d grown unwell, as if the cold and damp of his home finally sunk into her bones.

Nathair learned the hard way that taking a ‘cold’ from her rendered him useless. He’d grown so weak he didn’t have a single ounce of mental fortitude to keep his fragments at bay.

She sang for me while I was unwell.She had sung twice for him in the few days since they’d discovered she could vanquish the wretched human memories.I still don’t feel rested.

A few hours of sleep likely wouldn’t soothe the hundreds of years he’d only caught minutes of sleep. It’d take time before he was truly rested, but he did feel... stronger.