[ the look of surprise gets its due consideration from kabru, and though both concerned and nursing a sinking feeling, he listens to the former captain's explanation without interruption. he nods, watching mithrun's face closely, a crease forming in his brow as the story goes on. those three and a half months were— vital, for mithrun. for mithrun and for himself. they grew closer. mithrun stayed.

but you and i are lucky, marcille had parroted to kabru once, copying mithrun's monotone after the former dungeon masters' support group, we have people around us whose love can fill the hole that was left by the demon. love?, kabru had repeated, eyes wide. faint heart that kabru is, he'd assumed platonic love— in his gut, he'd known differently; an elf doesn't forsake his homeland for some fair-weather friendship. marcille had watched his reaction, and then she'd smiled, and refused to tell kabru the reason for it. that woman and her romance novels, he'd thought, simmering.

—the fact remains that those three months are not theirs anymore. kabru's, but not mithrun's.

kabru's kind of torn up about it, but also he's going to fake his way to the top. there's a laugh from him, and he sits back, doesn't touch mithrun again. ] Hah, that's going to be a little awkward, right? A lot of things happened in those three months. It was a really good time. The best, I think.

[ a flurry of activity, yes— but there were banquets and balls, feasts for the summertime festival, and the end of spring.

blue eyes meet mithrun's, and kabru offers the elf a smile. ]

We spent a lot of time together, after things cleared up. You and Pattadol stayed in Merini. And the prisoners went back to the Elven continent, so. But, it was you and me after that.