the potential of you and me

All at once he realized that this really wasn't about simply sharing a meal at all, but something else entirely. But what was it, then? Corvus wasn't completely ignorant to how Twig made him feel; she made him feel lighter, made him feel as though the world was far less unforgiving than he'd grown to believe. He enjoyed her presence so much that the thought of losing it scared him to the core. Of course, he felt that way about all his family, and largely all of Abaven... but the depth of his adoration for her reached farther than he'd thought possible, deep into the very core of his soul. This meal made him begin to reflect on that, at least to the capacity he could - though his thoughts were hardly very coherent, instead disjointed and confused. Making sense of feelings didn't come very easily for him, it never had, and his thoughts drifted further and further away from food as he chewed on his last bite.

Twig started talking, further disrupting his thoughts. Her tone seemed serious, and he felt his stomach lurch nervously. Was he being awkward? Not saying the right things? He'd expressed gratitude for the meal, but maybe it hadn't been quite enough. Words had never been his forte anyway, but at least Twig spoke and pushed his thoughts away. They made his heart beat a little more quickly, but she cut straight to the point. She liked him. She said he was her best friend. For a moment, he was worried - had he crossed a line with her? Done something against her wishes? The last thing he ever wanted to do was make her uncomfortable. But quickly his worries that she was rejecting him were pushed away as she concluded that she wanted to be with him. His jaw slackened slightly and he struggled to find his words. "I want to be with you too." The weight of his words was obvious in his tone, even if he wasn't sure he knew how to properly convey exactly what he meant. "I love you, Twig." This was love, wasn't it? It had to be. He'd never felt anything quite like it before.