Page 124 of Ruby
He’s staring at me, eyes wide, and I suddenly understand how Eli feels as English words tumble out of my mouth to fill the void. “I didn’t know I could start over,” I rush to say. “Not like this.”
“You did not need to start over,” he says gently in English, ever ready to follow my lead. “You continued.”
I huff a small laugh. “That’s very poetic.”
“It is accurate.”
My fingers slide along one of his upper arms, feeling the strength there. Familiar now, known.
“When you thought about leaving,” I say quietly, “I was terrified you would.”
He doesn’t look away. “I know.”
“And I didn’t know how to ask you to stay without sounding like I was trying to own you.”
“You were not trying to trap me,” he says immediately. “You were afraid.”
“Yes. But not just of you leaving, but of you thinking of me as a mission you had from Ree.”
He shifts, propping himself slightly over me, one hand braced near my shoulder so he doesn’t press his full weight down. His other hand cups the side of my face.
“I do not stay from obligation,” he says.“I stay because I choose to.”
There it is again. Choice.
“You and your structural decision-making,” I murmur.
A faint smile touches his mouth, driving home just how much he has changed by being around me.
“I have been refining my phrasing,” he says, sass in his tone.
It makes me smile. I study him in the dim light, the steady calm of him, the way he looks at me like I am not a performance or a project or a temporary alignment of survival.
Just me.
“I love you,” I say again.
The words feel softer in English. Not dramatic. Not urgent. Just true.
One of his knuckles brushes just under my eye.
“I love you,” he sings, switching to his language so I can feel the resonance in my bones.
Each thrum telling me how much he means it. No hesitation. No qualification.
The nest creaks softly as he settles us into a more comfortable position, pulling me into him. I tuck my head beneath his huge chin, my wings settling instinctively around us like a shield.
His breath is slow and steady against my ear.
“You are my chosen permanence,” he murmurs into my hair, back to English again.
I smile against his skin.
“Good,” I whisper. “Because you’re mine.”
The wind moves through the leaves above us, and the treehouse sways gently in its cradle of branches.
Held, just like we hold each other
