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It was one of those nights when Ethari kept stirring awake due to the slightest sounds. Usually it’d end up with him lying wide awake and staring at the ceiling emptily, but now… now he had Runaan back. And that allowed him to simply turn a bit in his bed, look at his husband, touch him, calm down and return to sleep.

Until he turned to the side and instinctively reached to wrap his arm around the curled form of the sleeping assassin, but he found nothing there.

His eyes immediately shot wide open and he felt cold dread settle in his stomach. He got dizzy and nauseous all of a sudden.

“Runaan!” He shouted out and gripped his head. No, no, no, this couldn't be happening!

The past few days were too good to be true, of course they were. How could he fall for it again? Runaan was gone, he was permanently gone and Ethari completely lost his mind. He hallucinated his return, Rayla's return, everything… and in reality he was alone as ever. 

He clutched his hair and pulled on it, his breathing became ragged as he gasped and sobbed, and then…

Then he felt a pair of soft hands on his cheeks, tilting his face up, and he saw him, alive, and real, and with Ethari. Runaan’s face wore a worried frown, his messy hair was falling onto his face. He wiped a stray tear on Ethari's cheek.

“Hey, Ethari, I'm here, are you…?”

He couldn't finish. Ethari immediately pulled him into his lap, his arms snaked around his body and pressed him tightly against himself. He buried his face in his husband’s hair.

“Never do this again” he muttered out without thinking.

“Ah, well…” Runaan sighed. “I had to go to the bathroom… I'm sorry”

“No” Ethari quickly shook his head. “ I'm sorry. Shouldn't have said that. It's not your fault. I just… I'm so scared that this isn't real. That somehow, I just… made it all up.”

Runaan exhaled and tilted his head up to kiss Ethari's jaw.

“I understand. And I wish I could always be there when you get worried about that, but that's… impossible, I'm afraid.”

There was silence between them for a minute, but then Runaan stirred and gently crawled off of Ethari before reaching his bedside table. He rummaged through the drawer before pulling something out with a proud smile.

“Okay, i got an idea!” He crawled back towards Ethari and rested his back on his arm. He raised his hands, which held the string that his moon opal necklace used to be on. “Remember this? When you gave me the necklace, you said…”

“My love will be with you even when the moon is not” Ethari murmured and kissed Runaan's cheek. “Mhm. How could I ever forget?”

Runaan nodded.

“Well, the most important part of it is gone, but this string remains, and I don't know, I want to…” he went silent and messed around with the string. He gently grabbed Ethari's wrist and slipped the makeshift bracelet onto it. “I want you to look at this whenever you're worried my return wasn't real, and then you'll know that everything did happen, and that I'm alive and I will come back soon.”

He looked at Ethari with uncertainty on his face, like he wasn't sure his idea was good or not. Ethari chuckled and pulled him in to kiss his lips. They separated and he nuzzled his neck.

“It's a wonderful idea. Thank you, my heart.”

Runaan exhaled with relief and nuzzled as well.

“Anything for you, my guiding moon.”