And to hear passers by there were OTHERS this big as well.

"We can linger a while if we like. I'm in no hurry now that I have you."

"THIS CITY IS A GRID SYSTEM HOW DID I GET LOST?!"

He'd not fallen in love with anything less than a capable, fierce, and talented woman.

He'd find her, or she'd find her way home.

"There was never any doubts..."

Just a man and a woman scrambling for each other in the dark and trying to make sense of their lives. She'd gotten lost in a search for truth, and he'd lagged behind building something for her to come to...

But he'd not once been afraid.

~

He places soft kisses near her crying eyes, and then placing a tender kiss on her trembling lips.

"Gods only know my mistakes. But you still aren't one of them. The best decision of my life..."

His hands went into the taller woman's hair, finger's trying to straighten and pull it away from her face so he can see her clearly.

"You should not have gone alone. You have made mistakes and missteps... But they weren't crimes. Nothing that even needs to be forgiven. Not by me."

~

His own eyes were tearing up. She'd disappeared from Tokyo so suddenly. He'd been trying to track her down for months...

The pains he took to make an entrance.

Once he was at the top of the tree, he struck the most heroic pose he could manage in the circumstances.

"Hey, Lina!"

He tossed the sandwich, the food spinning and catching the sunlight, heading right for her.

"Long time, no see Dragon Spooker."

was hearing how.

Hunger.

He peeked from around a tree, eyes locked on the crimson headed as he fished a cured fish and maple sandwich from his pack.

Time to look as cool as possible.

He scrambled up the tree, barely able to keep his balance but he did it silently and perfectly.

~

to the absolute rest.

He got married.

Well, they needed to have a proper ceremony and a party but...

Inrin was the light of his life.

But she has her own adventures. And he'd come home to see family.

Lina Inverse had exactly three different wails of despair and the worst one was what he-

~

Zelgadis Greywords was a wanderer. He had the wanderlust - always had and always would. The multiverse didn't change that, instead it had stoked it like a fire in him. He'd left their world entirely. Met the love of his life, fell harder than he'd ever before and put his skills as an adventurer-

~

So the only thing it would ever do from now on is take them back and forth from where he was in Queens back to the ally behind their apartment in Tokyo.

🗡️ Always