119 Contentmen

Despite the fact that she had slept in a weird position that had made her back ache, Dawn felt incredibly happy when she woke up.

It was hard not to be when she got what she had been longing for. Waking up in her husband's embrace was something she had been looking forward to doing again.

He was already awake. And had pulled her gently into his lap while she had been still asleep and just held her there. It had been so very nice to just wake up like that.

She tilted her head back and looked up at his face. Her husband was not really looking at her. Instead he was gazing off into the distance while absentmindedly twirling her hair around his fingers.

"Morning love," She smiled at him. She did not really mind that he had not been looking at her, but she wondered what he had been thinking about.

His eyes at the sound of her voice instantly went to her face and his smile seemed to grow just a little bit wider. "Good morning to you to, my dearest queen. How did you sleep?"

She stretched up to kiss his lips softly, and then nestled back into his arms, "Pretty well. It helps a lot when I have my sweet husband near me."

He was quiet for a bit, just stared down at her and then he decked his head against hers and just stayed like that. She could feel his smile against her forehead as he nestled her close. Then his voice came out just a little thickly, "Since when did you learn how to be this sweet…? I'm so not used to this."

She laughed at his semi-teasing words and kissed him wholeheartedly. Before she could flirt with her husband any more, they were interrupted.

Their companions had woken up now, and come out of the tents. The noise of idle chatter made Dawn look over at them and she sighed before standing up.

Her husband scrambled up as well, still looking at her with those adoring eyes. It made her feel self-conscious. But she kinda liked the fact that he found it so difficult to tear his gaze away.

But now she focused her attention on getting ready to leave this glade and went to help their companions pack up. It was slower going today, everyone seemed not to be in all that much of a hurry.

It was something to do with their surroundings. The pervading sense of peace and even the stillness of time made it hard to actually want to leave. But they needed to in order to get home.

Regeas sent them off happily, and told them they were welcome anytime. Something they all appreciated but were pretty sure they would never get the opportunity to take advantage of.

This time they decided to go around the desert, as Regeas had given them directions of the shortest route to avoid the barren wasteland. Dawn was pretty sure that everyone was more than okay with avoiding going back that route.

As they rode, Dawn engaged her husband in lighthearted conversation. Most of it was fairly inane and meaningless. But, despite how pointless the conversation was, Dawn still enjoyed it – if just because she loved hearing the sound of her husband's voice. It helped, too, that it was sprinkled heavily with his flirting and compliments.

Arrion kept her pinned close in his arms the entire day as he refused to release her. To the point it did start getting annoying. But she did not have the heart to push him away. Instead she just resigned herself to her fate of being effectively restrained. Even so, she still was not really upset at him, especially with how sweet these restraints were. Besides she was sure if she really fought him he would release her – these strong arms of his would not keep her against her will.

She tried to tamp down the annoyance as well, and mostly succeeded. It helped that she really did find him sweet so... yeah, he could hold her and kiss her and act like the beloved husband he was to his heart's content. She could handle it.