By Day Eighty I stopped crawling into his bed after nightmares and just started going to bed there in the first place. They were gonna have to change his sheets instead of mine, because Dain's bed became my bed. It was something of a sea of a bed, a four-poster that could have comfortably bedded down a small family, but Dain wasn't a small man, and at least when he'd been wounded he'd had a tendency to starfish in the center of the mattress.

On Day Sixty-Eight, three months and four days after he'd left, Dain finally came home.

Well. Probably it was Day Sixty-Seven. I wasn't sure of exactly the hour of his return, but sometime after midnight seemed more likely.

I got roused halfway awake by the sound of a door and of familiar footsteps, and then thrown fully into wakefulness when Dain whacked his shin on the coffee table and barked a sharp, "Fuck!"

I'd moved it to serve as a footrest and never moved it back. Oops.

I made some sort of incoherent sound, shoving myself up and staring into the darkness, my heart pounding.

"Leah?" Dain's voice said, a heartbeat later. He sounded breathless, but maybe that was the whole coffee table thing.

"You're home," I said, relief flooding me. My sleepy body sort of wavered, not quite keeping its balance, and I flopped back down onto my bed. Dain's bed. "Come say hi to me."

"Are you... sleeping in my bed?" he asked, sounding incredulous.

"It's a nice bed, and you said I could use your stuff," I replied, smiling up at the ceiling. It was like everything had suddenly been fixed, and even though I knew it wasn't, that feeling of total relief and relaxation was amazing. "The coffee table should be the only thing in a weird spot, so you're safe to walk now that you've found it."

He didn't move for at least thirty seconds, but at last I heard the sound of Dain's footsteps again. "Are you planning on staying there?" he asked from closer by, his voice quiet and a little shaky.

"Way too comfy to move." I couldn't stop smiling, a stupid goofy smile of pure happiness. "Take off whatever armor you've got on and come join me."

"If that's what you want," Dain said, sounding like he was on the verge of tears. I heard the sound of clasps and leather, slowly at first and then almost frantic, like he needed to peel off his armor as quickly as possible. "I smell like horse," he said, panting slightly. It sounded like he was wriggling out of something.

"Dain, if you had to shave your whole body again I would still want you to come here. I do not give one fuck about you smelling like a horse."