Ocean's Breath Plateau red shell

Each snuffle and sneeze was treasured; the fussy girl earned another long moment of consideration for her efforts, and a single tear on her downy fur that was quickly kissed away. More glimmered in his eyes when his gaze connected with the seal hunter's — but the other man's words drew a reedy, breathless little laugh. Not out of humor, but because the words had struck him like a physical blow and knocked all the air from his lungs.

Moved, Dutch closed the short distance between them to press a kiss to the other man's cheek as well. Chaste and fleeting, but infinitely tender. This was the happiest he'd ever been, he thought — but in a way that made his throat and his chest feel very tight.

"And I with you," he replied, though the words seemed hollow in the face of all his tumultuous thoughts and emotions. "I wished often that I could've gone with you and your sons to the cold sea," he admitted, his gaze drifting back to the rest of their family to linger on Simbelmyne's lovely face. "But things have worked out for the best."

He turned back to Chakliux with a more familiar glimmer in his eyes: mischief instead of nauseating sentiment.

"Perhaps you are a seer," he suggested, though he did not truly think this was the case. "I should not have laughed when you spoke her name to me." But there was laughter in his eyes even now.