"Aww." Kiss. "I liked it too. Let's do that again."

"Yes."

He snuggles into bed with her.

She is so so so happy.

"Mmmmm it's so good when you're happy," he sighs, nuzzling her shoulder.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Cozy snuggles. Eventual sleep.

Mmm.

She wakes first and keeps snuggling him again.

Yawn. Nuzzle.

"Good morning." Kiss.

"G'morning." Kiss. "Love you."

"Love you."

Sleepy snuggle.

Snuggle.

"Did this mountain have a different name before you started torturing people on it?"

He laughs. "Probably, but I didn't look it up before I moved here."

"Do you think the answer might be in any of your books?"

"Maybe, why?"

"In the culture I was born into, your surname is the name of the place where you grew up. I'm Elodea Crescentlake because I grew up by a crescent lake and nobody thought to name it anything else. I want to do the same for my daughter but I don't really want to give her Howlingmountain for a surname."

"Well, I at least know where I'd look it up if I was going to—"

He sits up. A book materializes in his hand. He flips through, looking for the mountain.

She reads over his shoulder.

Maps of the Ansati Empire back when there was an Ansati Empire. There was a lot of it, when it existed.

"—oh," he says when he reaches the right page. The mountain is labeled Alava Narafena - Mt. Narafena, in Ansati. He stares at it, slowly lowering the book into his lap, like he doesn't want to be holding it anymore.

"...You okay?"

"My best friend, before I fucked everything up - her name was Halieve Narafaer. She was... I don't know. At the time I wouldn't have admitted I cared about her, and in hindsight she definitely didn't care about me."

Hug.

Hug.

"...maybe the best way I can describe what she was like is - you remember when we had that - thing - with me accidentally coming off like I was messing with your head - at the time, once you explained, the way I thought of it was 'okay, I should remember not to act like Hali around you'."