The notebook felt heavy. I turned it so she could see.
Laina held both snugglers while I was gone. When I returned, the smaller twin had both paws wrapped around her wrist. Laina didn’t once look like she had somewhere else she’d rather be.
She read while my pulse climbed into my throat.
When she’d finished, I turned it back and kept writing because my hands needed something to do. She watched the pen move.
She speaks to creatures born hours ago like she already knows them.
I held it out again before I could decide if it was too much.
She read it twice. Handed it back. Her fingers trembled, and I felt that tremor deep in my ribs.
The temperature dropped past what the blankets could manage alone.
Laina shifted, drawing her knees up. “It’s getting cold.”
“Yes.” I wanted to offer my warmth, but I couldn’t find the words for it that didn’t sound like I was asking for more than body heat.
She shifted again, her back angling toward me. Not quite touching.
I curved my arm across the space between us slowly enough to make it a question.
She tucked herself back against my chest and pulled my arm the rest of the way around her. “This is warmer.”
“Much warmer,” I said, and felt her laugh against my ribs.
Sofia wormed into the space between our legs, burrowing her head into the blankets.
“She has opinions about this,” Laina said.
“She always has them. She just waits for us to catch up.”
The world outside had gone completely still. No rain now, or wind. Just the cave, the breathing of the animals, and Sofia’s steady warmth against my leg.
“Some nights I wonder if what I am here is enough.” I hadn’t planned to say anything like this, but the dark brought out my soul. “I thought I might be too used to kingdom ways. I search for surface words when the kingdom ones come faster and that makes me feel awkward.”
She ran her fingers across my knuckles.
“You had a name for Cooper before you knew his wing would heal,” she said. “You reorganized the syringes so I could find what I needed. You wash my mug every evening and put it back where I’ll find it in the morning.” She pulled in a breath and released it, her back expanding against my chest. “You wrote down that creatures want to be seen, and then you went and saw all of them. You’re not in the wrong sized room. You built the room to fit who you are.”
Sofia sparked once and resettled.
“I keep thinking about the clinic,” Laina said, after a while. “What I was keeping by staying. Whether I’d stopped growing or just stopped noticing I’d stopped.”
“You carry your father with you everywhere,” I said. “That’s not staying.”
“That’s exactly it,” she said. “I like talking with you, Brovish.”
“Speaking and being with you makes me feel…”
After a pause, she said, “Makes you feel what?”
“Complete.”
“Ah. Yes. Me too.”
Her breathing lengthened after that. Slowed.
