Ouroboros Spine Twinkle twinkle, little star

Valiant missed it desperately. He'd missed so much of his girls' younger days, and he wished he could go back and do it again. Once for them, and then six more times just for him. The idea of adding more little lives to his spiritual footprint was a daunting one, but, if he was honest with himself?

"Yeah," he agreed, his voice quiet. A secret between them. "If I had the chance. But..."

But Vaïre was gone.

But Raindrop was waiting on someone, wasn't she?

Wasn't she?

He looked over at her and felt his heart lurch in his chest. The night was just too velvet dark, and the stars just shone too brightly, and her face just looked too pretty — he credited all that to why he didn't turn away. It was gravity, it seemed, that wanted to pull his face toward hers.

"Tell me if I've got this all wrong," he breathed into the space between them.