Won't let you get hurt. Somehow.

There's lots of things you were going to do.

Oh, were there?

I think so.

I was going to kiss you, I think that was on the list.

And if she kisses him first?

That counts too.

She still doesn't really feel completely safe but she can forget that for a while.

Yeah, Melkor being alive does that. They do forget it awhile. It's a lovely while.

It is!

"We should at least check in with my friends," she says after.

"Yeah, for sure. Have you been keeping in touch or did we all-but-vanish -"

"Sporadic touch, and I told them I was leaving before we did."

"That's good, then. Going to tell them the world might be ending?"

"...Probably should."

"They'll be sufficiently careful?"

"...About not panicking?"

"About not, like, going to the news or doing something drastic -"

"I don't think it takes carefulness not to do that."

"Okay, maybe the wrong word, but -"

"None of my friends are going to go babbling to anyone about unsubstantiated harbinging."

"Thanks. Sorry, sweetie, we've just gotten so in the habit of being careful -"

"I understand."

So he clings while she goes to visit her friends.

"Are you two a gestalt being yet?" Daphne jokes when she sees them.

"As a biologist, you should know better. Shame, shame," Idaia says, wagging a finger in mock reproval.