"If it means I get to hear it again," he murmurs, "then I've never heard it before in my life."

More importantly, chasing the joke with another little kiss, he adds, "I love you, Vex'ahlia. Sometimes I think I always have."

Even when she's been a pain in the ass. Even when she was a stranger at the bars of his cell, willing to trust him without more than his word to go on. And now - especially now, talking over the future and the past with him, her every touch gentle. The world has shrunk down to the two of them, and the life they're building together.