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"Yes. Good." This was said rather awkwardly, and with his cloth bag over his shoulder Bereck limped awkwardly over to Berath so that he could change the other side of her. Just before vanishing behind the huge green however he paused and turned to the fluffy haired blonde again. "Alina... you know, you are still quite perfectly beautiful." Flashing a warmer smile he stepped behind Berath, who rumbled deep in her chest at the sudden flutter of warm feelings in his.

It took Bereck a while longer to change than it had Alina; he had to get all of his clothes off first, and then had to dig out and put on the loose dark blue swimming shorts. As he put his clothes safely back into the bag Berath turned her head to him, and Bereck looked through her eyes. Well, no denying he was a mess. Alina wouldn't mind though... he was almost one hundred percent sure she wouldn't. At least ninety five percent sure and that was good enough to consider most hypothesises proven.

His gut twisted with nerves as he looked at the twisted scars.

They wouldn't go away though and if he didn't hurry up Alina would wonder what was keeping him. Long slow breath in through nose, and out through mouth. Think of a calm ocean; rather easy as he was standing next to one. Really his apprehension was preposterous, and recognising that it was time to go.

He went.

"Well then... would you like to eat first, or swim?" Bereck asked with faintly unstable brightness as he stepped back into view, left arm curled unconsciously over the thick scarring on his right side.

She looked... he wasn't sure what she looked like. She was looking though and saying nothing and-

Smiling.

Bereck relaxed a little as she moved over to him and offered affection just as she had a few minutes ago. "Comparatively fit, I'll grant you," he responded with affable gruffness after a moment, his lips showing the ghost of a smile as he looked up at her.

And she wanted to touch the scars.

Well.

"...Here." Uncurling his arm he took hold of her curious hand and brought it gently to the thick scarring on his side. "Just be gentle, they're hypersensitive," he added, breaking eye contact because... well, he had her hand on his bare skin; that was easily excuse enough to feel abruptly shy, or it was in his book anyway.

He was tense at first but relaxed by slow degrees when she was as good as her word. So strange, having somebody ghost fingers over the twisted tissue, strange and... comforting, somehow. It was the wordless acceptance he supposed, his eyes closing as she kissed his cheek.

...Everything.

Bereck's smiled warmed and softened, and he rested his brow on her shoulder. "Love everything about you too, my Star," he murmured softly, sliding his arms around her, enjoying the closeness. He had been right; she didn't care in the least. It was a relief to have that demonstrated, and to hear it said.

Forget the rest of the evening, he could quite happily just stay like this. He could feel her breathing, and her breath against his skin. Comfort and intimacy with nothing more asked, nothing more needed. Today was perfect.

Bereck freed one arm from Alina for long enough to take off his glasses and toss them carelessly aside. Probably a firelizard would catch them, if not they might land on the blanket or just manage to avoid being scratched by the sand. Right now though he didn't care much about glasses, or anything much other than the women running her fingers soothingly down his back.

"It doesn't sound creepy," he replied, snuggling close and pressing his brow against her shoulder again, more comfortably without the glasses. "Thank you." Those two words might have sounded a little lame if not for their genuine tone; he understood her sentiment, and appreciated it. "I'm glad I'm comfortable... and if I could I'd Time back seventeen odd years and tell myself to go and talk to you before you left for Landing. We can't do those things, but we've got now and we're both alive. I'm not going anywhere in a hurry."

As he spoke he felt Berath coiling around his mind, and smiling a little he reached back. He had shut her out too much for so long when he'd been ill, and snapped at her so often since for no good reason. She forgave him though and soaking up that feeling he felt able to forgive himself as well, for the moment at least.

Sitting a little way back from the couple the scarred green smiled as much as a dragon could and her eyes gleamed bluer than the desert skies of Igen in the dying light of evening. Happiness. Peace. He didn't feel those things enough, especially together both at once, and so Berath too enjoyed the quiet moment. Life was good.

"I'd probably ask myself what the shards I'd done to my hair, and then worry about the integrity of space and time. I'm fairly sure you're not supposed to meet yourself when you Time." All of this was murmured absently as Bereck enjoyed the gentle neck rub.

Swimming.

Yes, he had wanted to do that.

"Mmmh, yes." Lifting his head from Alina's shoulder Bereck lent up to kiss her cheek briefly and nodded. "A swim sounds perfect; the water should be nice and warm," he elaborated. He wasn't sure he really wanted to break this embrace though; the moment was perfect.

The moment was then interrupted slightly by Sanguine landing lightly on his shoulder. Giving a friendly 'squeep!' she nuzzled Alina's hand and blinked up at her with soft blue eyes. Apparently taking the dominant flitt's actions as an invitation to approach the pair Vena then landed on Alina's shoulder. Iris meanwhile landed on her head, which Carp took as a cue to land on Bereck's.

Bereck looked up at Alina with as much dignity and seriousness as a man with a firelizard on his head was capable of projecting. "I may need to work on command for situations like this." Firelizards running intimate moments was not something he wanted to become a pattern.

"You're awful," Bereck snorted, waving the firelizards away to go and join Berath. "Awful, and correct," he added with a crooked little smile. The moment might have been slightly interrupted but he didn't really mind, would find it hard to mind anything much at the moment. He felt enlivened, warm, and secure.

"Shall we go then?" the healer asked, making a small gesture to the water before reaching out to request an arm to lean on again.

Leaning on her again was a little easier this time; his good mood cushioned the pang of needing help. "I remember," was the healer's reply, coupled with a squeeze to the starsmith's arm. "And I keep my promises."

The water was as pleasant as he had hoped, both in temperature and just in the familiar feeling of wet sand between his toes and the familiar sighing sound of it. The ocean, and Alina beside him. History did repeat itself, occasionally for the better. "Do you remember when we used to go swimming in the sea at Malvren?" Bereck asked as they moved deeper. "There was one time when I had seaweed on my head for five minutes before I worked out what you were laughing at." The turn or so they had spent together was burned into his memory like elegant pyrography. He'd fallen fast, and hard. He had never believed himself capable of such passion. He'd believed that people who fell so wildly in love in such short periods of time were fools. Perhaps this was true but if so he was, and had been, a very happy fool.