Peace was all he could feel. It was in in the way the raindrops felt cold as they slipped over his skin. It was in the constant, powerful claps of thunder that rumbled and the way they seemed to make the world shake. It was in the way the forest was bathed in a pale, haunting glow. Mostly, he felt it every time he caught that timeless look in her big, hazel eyes─the one that couldn't be described by words. The one that he interpreted with his instinct; the one that stole his breath and caused his heart to flutter. Did she even know it was there, or what it meant? He couldn't read her mind, and she might have been predictable to others, but to him everything about Kite was a deepening mystery. The more he got to know her, the more he became lost in his infatuation.
But...Mirren knew that whatever this was, with her, was so much more than just that.
He watched her closely as she slipped into their secluded little hole, following behind her as she settled into the dirt. Water ran off the jagged edges of the old tree and its gnarled roots in steady streams, and the rain drops splattered on the wood just hard enough to create the strangest hollow echo. It resounded in the back of his mind like the sound of her breathing did in the forefront of it. Just as he'd promised, Mirren slid to his belly behind her, curling the length of his body around her delicate back. Their tawny forms fit perfectly together, and, as it always did, her warmth was like sunshine seeping into him. The time passed slowly and silently, and Kite eventually began to drift away into the deepest sleep; Mirren didn't budge an inch as her body jumped here and there, all the while listening to the rain as he watched his companion dream. In the shadows where they laid intertwined, his eyes traced over the dark silhouette of Kite's face, his muzzle roving slowly between the blades of her shoulders. This was and would always be the best part of his day─the point at which the day faded away and left the two of them to face the night together.
More and more she was becoming part of him, becoming the best part of him, and as her heartbeat pulsed against his chest, he welcomed the flood of overpowering emotion that flowed unchecked through every fiber of his body. It had become crystal clear now that there would never be another capable of making him feel like this. Kite was his one and only.
{end}