Ouroboros Spine raptor wrangler

oh, wow, oh wow, oh, wow!
were things supposed to feel like this? could he hear her heart beating, racing so fast, as if her ribcage were a staccato racetrack —
this was a first! was this how ani had felt about stratos? eyes of warm ice or something.
but the firsthunter's own eyes were soft like the edge of a harvest moon, nothing icy about them. only a nervousness she felt in her own belly, and a feeling returned that she hadn't known was growing inside her chest till now.
she was thinking of kivaluk and antigone and mama and dwin, dwin. would she hate this? surely it suggested chickadee was never coming home; oh goodness, oh god, she was getting so ahead of herself —!
"yes," she breathed out toward his handsome face, ears splaying as she shyly sought and held his eyes. "yes. you can."