Stavanger Bay as if anyone could wait for you

did she?
the thought leapt unbidden to velen's mind, surprising him. did it matter? would it matter? desperately pulling his thoughts from that particular track, he focused them upon what dalia had told him a while ago: that she could not return to drageda. effectively, the girl before him did not have a family.
she did, however, have the mayfair-cairns, and the chestnut-eyed boy grew warmed through at the idea that he could be dalia's family now. "mine already love you," he murmured, unable to keep the halfway stupid grin from his face. 
did he?
velen wanted to joke, to laugh, to do anything that would dispel the rapidly creeping feeling of seriousness that was overcoming the pair of them. but he could not, for once more was he hopelessly entangled in dalia's gaze, and the hope that she felt something similar for him.