"Hi."

Grin. "Vance, this is Nate, he's the nicest person in the entire world! And he's pretty and smart and good and I love him."

Nate shakes his head slightly but he's smiling. "Nice to meet you, Vance. Mica's said a lot of good things about you."

"Good to meet you too. How do you know Mica?"

"He, uh. He hit me in the face with a wing."

"I didn't mean to."

"Cute."

Mica buries his face in his hands.

"Very cute," Nate agrees. "He was really worried he'd hurt me, it was sweet."

"What, didn't you? Stretch your wings some more, get them stronger."

Mica spreads his wings wide--they look much better than they did the first time he went outside.

"I only hit him with the very end."

"Maybe you need better aim, too."

He claps his hands over his mouth and giggles. "That's only if I wanted to hurt him!"

"There you go insisting on making sense. Well, anyway, it's really good to see you happy."

"Did you know he squeaks when he's really happy? It's adorable. He's adorable. An absolute singularity of cuteness."

"Noooooo," Mica protests through his hands.