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"Just remember that I'll tell you if you do something wrong." Her lips quirked, Alina finally letting herself relax again. Bereck stopped talking horrible things and being doubtful, she could stop thinking things started to spiral about two weeks into a relationship they had going on. Alina squeezed his hand when their fingers intertwined, thumb rubbing along the ridges of his knuckles. "We talked about a picnic in Ista."

The agreement barely passed her lips when Bereck started to list his plans and ask his questions, offering out... well, it sounded as if he were offering out his heart. Alina blinked a few times and adjusted her glasses, head craning so she could look back up at him. Unshed tears gone, if her eyes looked rimmed in red, she blamed the lack of sleep.

"You might not be perfect, but I think you're perfect for me." She smiled, just a little, and flopped against him as much as she could without thinking she would kill the poor man. "We're both going to make mistakes. It's what we do. Scientists make mistakes and we make note and keep going." Another squeeze of his hand. "We'll go all those places and I've not seen them, except Landing. You make me feel loved and that's been... that's been a really long time I've felt that. We're going to do this, even if we yo-yo back and forth. Nothing is going to break."

Alina pushed herself up further so she didn't just have her face pressed against his chest. One arm went back behind his shoulders and curved up into that candy cane hair for a stroke; her other hand, the one wrapped up with his fingers, pulled so Berecks arm wrapped around her waist. Slowly, carefully, the hand in his hair tugged so that Bereck could press his face to her neck if he let himself or wanted to while still remaining wrapped in her arms.

"It's alright, dear," She murmured, leaning in to kiss his hair, his forehead, anywhere she could reach. "We are alright, we'll be alright. We're both going to mess things up but it's not going to ruin anything or break us up. You're going to overthink things, I'm going to be awkward, but everything will end up the way we want it to just this minute."

Alina squeezed him, his hand, his shoulders, and continued to pet. "Talk to me, Ber. Tell me why you felt guilty for letting me feel you up in the romantic ways I've wanted to for the last two decades."

Oh.

Oh, all of that made so much more sense.

Her arms tightened and Alina let him lean in further against her. Her fingers dipped from his hair to his neck, rubbing gently at the muscles there. Her poor healer.

"This is temporary." Alina kissed the top of his head again, letting out a long, slow sigh. "All of it. Your legs work - you'll be able to stand again, and walk. The situation isn't a permanent one and even if it were, I wouldn't care. But... I just... Look, you had me freaking out at you for almost half a turn. You had to drug me, darling, and hold me and keep quiet and calm." Until the baby. But not the recovery. That was alone.

She hugged him again. "And yes, I can grasp that. You aren't a thing, you are Masterhealer Bereck, you are still smart and sharp. Your hands don't shake. No one judges you as harshly as you do because I can promise you that no one thinks of you as weak. An annoying tit of a patient, maybe, you're a grumpy cuss, but not weak."

"Please. I'm sure with a screaming newborn your first thought wasn't going to be 'should probably check up on Alina'." Alina snorted, her head shaking slightly.

"When you get back on your feet, darling, I'm reserving the right to sing 'I told you so' at you in the most loving way possible. You're being told for the sake of fairness."

She rubbed gently at his neck still, expression softening. "I love you, however you come."

She fell quiet for a few long minutes. Alina's hold never loosened on him but she pressed her face against him as much as she could.

"I thought you didn't want me anymore, that you'd been nice to me for as long as you did because I was pregnant," She said at last, sighing. "Even though logically, you were busy with a baby and I knew that. We were broken up, you had a screaming infant and a dragon and a Craft, and I didn't want to see that screaming infant. Logic's not always what you listen to when you're upset and sick. 'M pretty sure you're not listening to it. I'm just paying attention to the present."

She shrugged her free shoulder and cuddled closer. "Say it as often as you want, my love. I like to hear it and I've missed your voice. No matter how you are physically, you always have such a lovely voice."

"We aren't mind readers, not a one of us. Being linked to a dragon doesn't meant you're any better at it than any of the rest of us." She cracked a smile, fingers ghosting over his neck to the curve of his shoulder, gaze affectionate. "Although if you don't want to hear about how fast we're moving we best not go to Landing. Nikkel's likely to go off and call us slower than a dying star."

They had that discussion a few times. Before the end of their marriage, Nikkel knew quite where he stood and realized before Alina did that she still held a flame for the green rider.

"How about we talk and try not to assume the worst? That seems to be our problem. We talk, assume everything is still alright, and keep talking. Sounds like a plan, don't you think? Then of course, stars and lights, my love."

She patted his shoulder gently to comfort.

"We're both socially awkward, dear, that's all there is to it."

This time when he moved away, she flopped against the pillow with typical gracelessness and none of the earlier silent fear. Aleck didn't totally hate her, Bereck started his explination on why he pulled away, she had a good job and a soon to hatch firelizard. Things were okay. They had to be.

Then he started rubbing.

Alina made a rather soft, obscene noise, her eyes drooping shut with the dip of her chin. Even the slight touch had her very-sore-from-writing palm feeling delightful.

"Nngh." She said in ay of agreement.