"All this, and still no Gandalf. Are you disappointed?"
"Hmm? No, of course not!" A small breeze kicked up around us, and I laughed and pushed a wisp of hair out of my face. "A live legend beats a dead one anyday."
Lius smiled and leaned back next to me. "The very-glad-to-be-live legend thanks you." The hillside was warm against our backs, and he sighed. "It's so nice to be able to relax, to spend an evening just looking at the sunset without thinking that the orcs will be out soon."
"You deserve it," I murmured, and squeezed his hand.
We sat in silence for awhile, watching the golds deepen to pinks and purples. At some point I found my head on his shoulder, and then he began to stroke my hair. I turned up to meet his lips without a word.
The colors flared around us, then slowly died away.
"Are you sure you have to leave?" Lius asked when we finally let go.
I tried another laugh, but this time it didn't quite fit. "Are you sure you have to stay?"
"I can't go yet, not until they're all dead." His somber eyes reproached me. "You know that, Kyriel."
I nodded, then sighed and gently stroked his cheek. "And when they are, do you really think you'll leave then? Let's face it, Lius, you're the only homebody dual in all of R2. You'll be here training your grandson fifty years from now."
"Probably." He threw back his head and smiled helplessly at the sky. "But it would be nice if I didn't have to do it alone."
My thoughts strayed back to the moment I saw him fall. If there had been a time for me to realize I loved him, it would have been then, when I thought I was going to lose him. But as angry as I'd been, as fearful as I'd been, the grief I'd felt was at the thought of losing a friend. I felt almost ashamed of it now.
Of course, even if I had been able to love Lius, that was still no guarantee I'd be willing to stay with him. The lure of the unexplored tugged at me like a magnet.
"Will you come back to visit me?" he asked, not quite managing to hide his pain.
"You know I will," I said, but I wasn't entirely sure--and neither was he.
We walked back to the ranch in silence.
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