Plume can hardly remember a time when he had not loved Agetta.
Can hardly remember what it was like to not have his entire being wrapped up and swallowed whole by the presence of the woman before him. Was it strange for him to lose himself in this love once more? To come back to a world for the sole purpose to be grounded by another? He doesn’t give it much thought. Doesn’t consider the fact that he was once the lead of an entire herd and then King of an entire kingdom and now, well, now he’s just Plume. He’s just here for Agetta and the child that she carries.
It’s enough, he thinks, as the shadows within him coil back further.
As they slowly retreat.
He feels nothing but the laughter that bubbles up within him, this impossible joy at being given a second chance. He takes a few steps backward, throwing his head, and grinning before he trots back up to plant a kiss on the edge of her nose. “Together,” he echoes and his brown eyes warm with his smile, his wings folding back up over his back. He leans forward to press his cheek against hers and then rub it against her neck, feeling the friction and the warmth and the perfection that is the two of them together.
“Do you think it’s a boy or a girl?” he asks suddenly, although it doesn’t matter to him—truly. Then, he grows slightly more somber, leaning his cheek against her back, feeling her chest expand with each breath. “Whoever they are, I think Cyprian, Depp, and Rise would have loved them.” His heart twists with the memory of his children and he closes his eyes, breathing against the sorrow that rises in his throat, threatening to choke out the glowing bubble of happiness that encompasses them both.
PLUME
but my heart, it don’t beat, it don’t beat the way it used to