Slowly, she began to relax.
She remembered the early days with her mother, before things got really bad. The way they'd eat dinner with their neighbors, laughing and sharing stories. This felt like that. Like a family.
The crew continued their banter, occasionally pulling her into the conversation. Each time, she responded a little more confidently, a little more comfortably.
After a while, she even laughed.
He watchedLira as she laughed, the sound light and tinkling, like chimes catching the wind. It was a stark contrast to the boisterous cackles and guffaws of the rest of the crew, but it fit somehow.
Shefit.
He’d known she would, but still, seeing it made his chest ache in the best possible way.
He thought back to when he’d first taken her from Vargot, how small and fragile she’d seemed. How beat down. The woman sitting beside him now was still delicate, still bore the scars of her past, but there was a new strength in her. A resilience.
Peering around the mess, he took in the familiar faces, the camaraderie, the sense of belonging that filled the room. These people were his family—dysfunctional though they may be—and now Lira was a part of that. A part of him.
He squeezed her thigh under the table, a silent gesture of pride and encouragement. She looked up at him, green eyes sparkling with a happiness that was once so distant, and something else—an emotion he couldn’t quite name but knew he shared.
Something deeper than love, more profound than gratitude.
“Welcome home, my love.”
He thought about his life before her: the endless contracts, the unrelenting violence, the cold detachment. He’d thought he was doing fine. That he didn’t need anyone.
He’d been right, in a way.
He hadn’t needed anyone. He neededher.
His beautiful, delicate, unbreakable little bird was the only one who’d been fearless enough to try and touch his heart.
And she was the only one who ever would.
The End