"You are being very reasonably paranoid," he says, hugging back. "You are delightfully reasonable and I'm worried for your safety."
"Well, are you going to think of a better way to conduct the test in the next few days, or should we go do it now?"
Isabella lays her hand on his cheek. "I will probably be fine."
"... Alright. Then - then now, I guess. Or I will stew and slowly get more and more worried."
She stands on her tiptoes to kiss him, and then collects Ranata, who brings her own cloud-pine and packed lunches and leaves Castarilan perched on one of Kesathi's ears.
Adarin is antsy the entire time.
Isabella gestures illustratively at the house to Ranata, and then says to Adarin, "After you."
Isabella is possibly in danger, and he can't think of a valid reason to get her out of it.
She comes through the portal -
And Path glides after her, and lands neatly on the tail of her branch.
"Isabella? Isabella, are you alright?" he says, a hint of worry and panic in his tone.
That was - that was scary.
"You're absolutely certain? Nothing - no weirdness, no after-effects...?" asks Adarin, hovering. Literally, but also emotionally.
"It didn't feel like anything. We're fine," she says, hugging him back.
Because he loves her.
... And if something had gone wrong there, she never would have known. Hell, they're in New Kystle, the land of his nightmares, with the group of people collectively responsible for making most of his life suck. Something could go wrong here.
"I love you," he whispers.
Isabella squeezes him a little harder.
"I love you too," she murmurs back.
"Good, because if you didn't I would have launched into an entire awkward 'It's okay you don't have to respond in kind right now, I just thought you should know with no demands attached' conversation."
Hugs. Just - hugs.
"Well, I had a while to think about it, you actually said it this morning while you were all groggy."
"Yeah, you woke up, you were like, 'morning, beautiful, mumble mumble, love you' and went back to sleep."
"That's - that's... I don't even remember, that's rather upsetting. I'd been trying to wait for a proper moment or something and... I don't know. Be romantic about it."
"You have a bit of a leg up on me, I quietly decided it night before last and decided to make you say it first," she says a little sheepishly.
He giggles, more. "I realized it abruptly and choked when I tried to tell you. Did you notice?"
"If someone had told me I would be in love with someone three days after kissing her for the first time I would have thought they were insane," he laughs.