Sawtooth Spire all ashore

Nikai was surprised when Alya shared that she thought they should stay in Easthollow for a while. He hadn't expected her to tell him a different story than she did her parents, because it was so natural for him to tell what was on his mind in front of Valette. Even when he had left and when he knew that it broke her heart to do so Nikai had always told her everything. "Change your mind?" he wondered out loud; it didn't even occur to him that maybe Alya was being conservative in front of her parents and told only him the entire truth. "It sounds good. It'll be nice to be home for a while." Nikai wasn't one for making long term plans, so he didn't really mind. Long term commitments were more his thing, but plans... Plans changed and were inconvenient more often than handy. But he didn't put too much stock into the plans on the long term. He was sure that they would know what to do when the time came to do stuff, and autumn was still far away.

As Alya sliced into the subject of the courtship, Nikai couldn't help but laugh a little. He hadn't given it much thought at the time because he had agreed to it, but in hindsight he supposed Alya had been rather.. forthcoming. Nikai bumped his nose against Alya's cheek and said: "Of course, silly. If I didn't, I would've told you by now." Maybe not in front of her parents, but at the very least once they were out of sight. "I didn't interfere because you weren't deciding anything that I didn't agree with." He felt like the luckiest wolf alive to be able to lay here beneath the stars with Alya, the girl he had loved from the moment he first laid eyes on her.