Sleep hadn't come to him. He'd spent much of the night watching her as she lay, his body curled around her as the storm carried on in the darkness. As worn out as he was after days of criss-crossing all of the north and especially after their failed attempt to race through the mud, Mirren felt exhausted and he should have been. But where his body felt worn, his mind was not─just the opposite, it had been racing.

So much had changed, not just in his life but within him. Retrospectively, he'd left his blood family in search of Copper Rock Creek, found it, lost Nios, survived a merciless winter, lost his only friend for reasons yet to be seen, and then he'd stumbled upon this girl. At first sight, the honey and sienna hues of her thick coat, the shades of blue and green and brown in her bright, wild eyes, and the way her lissome body had moved through the hills of the blackberry field had tethered him to her. They'd spend days and nights on end experiencing the world together, and for him it had been less like seeing the same world in a different perspective than seeing a brand new world through the same eyes; his eyes, the ones that saw the beauty in all things, the potential of each new sunrise, and the optimism that there was so much more to his life left to be uncovered. It was like, for the first time in what felt like a lifetime he was finally remembering who he was. Not who he should be, not who he could have been, not who he was to Nios, or his family, or anyone. Mirren finally felt like himself again, and at the same time he'd become better. Less cynical. Less critical. Stronger. Smarter. Patient. On the cusp of his second year of life, the tawny wolf felt his boyhood slowly slipping away, and it was good. And it was all because of her.

When the rain had relented and the twilight before the dawn had bathed the forest in the purest glow, glistening off the wet earth like thousands of tiny diamonds, Mirren was met with an anagnorisis that was not so unexpected: she was it. Kite was the one. Looking back at it, he'd known it from the first time she'd spoken, he'd seen it in her eyes even when he didn't know what it was that he was looking at. What was significant wasn't what he'd been looking at, but what he'd been looking for. For change, for hope, for life, for a sign. He'd found it in the most unexpected place, but Kite brought her light and her love and all the hope either of them could ever need with her from the plains of her birth, right to his doorstep. The moments the unsuspecting pair had shared─of laughter, of camaraderie, of affection, of reciprocity─had woven the threads of their fate intricately together. There was no going back now. No more second guessing. No more doubt. No more disappointment. There was only the life that they were making together.

By the time the girl had roused from her dreams, the morning sun was cast down upon their world in soft, warm rays. It danced upon the forest floor between the shadows cast by the canopy's branches and budding leaves, in the background behind her stirring form. Every little move Kite made sent heat pulsing through every inch of his body─like wind stirring up the nation of butterflies that lived permanently in his belly. A low growl rumbled somewhere down there as he reached to nibble on one of her ears, blowing his breath softly into the hollow of her rounded ear. Mirren leaned in closer, as tightly as was possible, and roved the point of Kite's delicate shoulder with a cold nose. He wondered if she knew that this morning was different, too. He wondered if she could feel what was blazing in his heart like wildfire, all because of her. All for only her. He could have murmured something sweet or clever to wake her, but no words could do all that was going on here any justice.

So he laid quietly, his amber eyes cast upon the form of the girl who he was going to spend the rest of his life with. Forever, Kite. We're gonna be together forever.

Perhaps it was his gentle touch that roused her, or maybe it was the way his heart beat hard and slow now, but as the tawny girl began to wake he met her sleepy, one-eyed look with the subtlest grin. It tugged at a single corner of his mouth, pulling his dark lip up in a way that revealed the look of contentment otherwise masked by his stoical features. When she yawned, his fluffy, ink-tipped tail beat softly against the dirt where they lay as he took in the string of saliva strewn between her ivory canines. Even cuter than ever! How was it even possible for one person to be so perfect?─in the day, on the hunt, during play, in affection, before bed and in the morning. Every passing minute spend with her heralded new wonders, and Mirren was simply amazed.

"IswearIdon'talwayssleepin." The humor he found in her cuteness escaped him in a shallow huff. Even if she didn't always sleep in, and even if he couldn't, he would sleep all day if it meant being with her like this. He probed the angle of her jaw with his snout after received her kiss, which for a split second made his eyes wide with...with...joy, and the butterflies fluttered. When she continued to offer herself up as the big spoon tonight, he felt a moment of guilt as he remembered his promise to spoon on her for a week while, at the same time, lighting up at the possibility of feeling her body and warmth nestled around his own.

"I'll sleep forever if it means being like this, and..." he murmured as the dim dawn light danced on the forest floor behind him, "...I'll let 'ya be the big spoon just as soon as I keep my promise, pretty girl." Mirren wanted to do everything right for her, with her. Even if it meant missing out on little-spoon action, he would always keep his promises to the one he knew deserved at least that much from him.

Mirren watched quietly as Kite's hazel eyes fluttered sleepily, taking in the world and him in it before leaning back to look him over as he spoke. It dawned on him as he considered the curve of her body and the look in her eyes that he didn't feel so...young anymore. In fact, despite their days of play and the generally carefree way in which they'd been gallivanting about much of Relic Lore, the dynamic between the yearlings struck him as something more serious. Something that shouldn't be made light of. Something that he felt he could be (and truly was) proud of, and something he would protect and nurture for all foreseeable time. What he and Kite shared felt...well...sacred. And that was something scary and riveting all the same.

Abashed by his compliment, the tawny girl looked away for a moment in Kite fashion before coming back at the boy with a play of her own. The best, she'd said. In the past he would have accepted such a statement as fact and would have most likely basked in the way it would have ballooned his shameless ego. Mirren had never been shy about that, or himself, or his abilities. But coming from her now, being the 'best' wasn't so much a fact or compliment or anything in relation to his pride at all. Being the best now meant that he was doing his duty to her─whether that meant keeping her healthy or happy or hopeful. His contented expression didn't so much as flinch, his bright amber eyes burning with recognition and all the things he knew and wanted to say to her, but couldn't because the words to express them didn't exist or weren't good enough.

For a moment he wondered what to say to that as an easy breeze rustled through their secluded little piece of heaven. "Only for you," the words slipped so easily from his tongue, as true as the sky was blue. "...What do you think about...breakfast?" was what came next. It could easily be said that breakfast was his favorite meal of the day (and through the winter, the meal he missed having the most), and there wasn't a morning that came to pass where the growing brute of a Tainn didn't wake with much of anything else on his mind (until he'd met Kite, of course). Surely Kite was hungry, too, and he knew just the place where they could spend the morning.

The feel of her body molded into his was intoxicating, and she was so close that he could feel the beating of her heart through the wall of his own chest. Lub dub, lub dub, lub dub. Hers beat, his beat, hers beat, his beat. And he was fully aware that, right now, the rest of the world didn't exist; she was all he could see.

Kite's soft, tawny fur tickled his side as she rolled to her back, and the boy accepted her kiss with grace. A low rumble purred in his throat and his body felt like it might float away. Sensations of warmth and affection and something more primal rolled over him like an ocean's waves on a faraway beach. In their time together, he'd seen Kite as a stranger, as a cute stranger, as a friend, as a companion, and─as she lay pressed into him, sleep still visible in her big, beautiful eyes─as the one he didn't want to ever be without. Mirren was old enough to know what mateship was, to know that belonging to someone for life meant more than just loving them─forever is more than just a word. As the thought crossed his mind, he returned Kite's affection with a kiss of his own, a tender one upon her narrow, creamy chin. For a moment the Tainn would search the depth of her hazel stare and he wondered if she, too, realized what doing all of these things, feeling all of these remarkable ways, really meant. He drew in a shallow breath, prepared to tell her just what he thought about it all and forgetting about breakfast altogether, but before he could turn his thoughts into words she answered.

Naturally, breakfast was her favorite. Why wouldn't it be? She was so perfect.

Where his brows had nearly pulled together in an expression of his concern for their future, they arched instead, his satisfaction that they had yet another thing in common written across his face. Mirren smiled at Kite as she rolled back over to her belly. "Of course it is," he nipped her nose, "and what I think is that it's my favorite, too."

But he just couldn't let it go. It was now or never.

"Kite," his voice was low and soft, strong and steady. He should have been nervous but he wasn't, because in his heart, in every fiber of his being, he already knew how this story ended. "I know we came out of nowhere, and that we've had our share of laughs and jokes and misadventures. An' I know that I say a lot of things, but..." Oh boy. "...but I want you to know that you're the most beautiful thing that's ever happened to me, that you came into my life and changed everything about it, and that I'll never be the same because you make me better than I ever was. I can't imagine living a day without you in it, and every single time I say 'forever,' I mean it." Mirren paused for a moment only to make sure she was hearing him. "When I dream at night, it's of my children's faces as they look at me from across the creek in the summer, and Kite, they have your eyes..."

"I want you in my life. I want you at my side. I want this until the end of time." It slipped from him like wind through the leaves. "Kite,"

"Will you marry me?"

KIRREN FOREVER

Time seemed to freeze in the seconds between his proposal to the girl of his dreams and her answer. It wasn't until his words had actually came out that his gut hitched and his mouth went dry. Mirren's eyes were glued to Kite's face, watching, waiting, anticipating her reaction, which he knew would make them or inevitably break his heart. His heart skipped a beat and began to pound...

But before he could grasp onto even a shred of doubt, she said yes! His tail drummed against the dirt as pride swelled in his chest like plume of storm clouds, his eyes wide and as bright as the sun, and it was electric. "Yes, forever," Kite affirmed, and in that moment Mirren embraced what could only be a timeless love for her, his mate. And as a matter of fact, yes, it did mean that she was now Kite Tainn, and he liked the way that sounded. "Forever," he echoed in the best disbelief, attempting to process the amazing weight of what had just happened.

The two of them were so close that he didn't have to reach as he sought out the curve of her cheek, gingerly roving his nose beneath her fur as he breathed her in. His lips found her ear, his breath warm as he whispered, "You're always gonna be Kite Tainn, pretty girl." Suddenly he felt like a leaf blowing in the wind, absolutely weightless, as honeymooners go. The momentous nature of the event─and the morning as a whole─would have been overwhelming, maybe, but just as it was before they'd sealed the deal, with Kite he could handle anything. He could certainly handle her, and now...Now he always would. He was smitten.

A coy grin tugged at a corner of his lips. He could have laid with her and basked in this until the next life, but he couldn't let his new bride celebrate her wedding day without her favorite thing. "...What would you like for breakfast, Mrs. Tainn?"