so i really love this scene but this chapter is TOO LONG and something has to go, and I hate to say it but it serves no purpose to the plot, and is literally just there bc I'm touch starved and write cuddling scenes to cope. Anyway, hopefully it can live on in this book lol

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If it weren't for the ice covering every surface, only half-melted by the sun, it would almost be a pretty afternoon--sun glittering off the scratched-up icy mess that is the Great Diamond right now, glinting off broken planks of wood, the frozen relics if another time.

"Honey?" Clearsight mumbles--damn it, I was trying not to wake her up.

I turn back to her, close up the curtains, and tap my snout to hers. "Shh. It's early. Go back to sleep."

"What are you doing?" she groans, throwing her wing over her face and shifting around in the blankets. "Come back, I'm getting all cold..."

I pull the comforter up over her shoulder. "I have an early appointment--today is gonna be really busy, so this was the only time I could fit it in. It's, like, three in the afternoon."

"Oh. Right. Okay." She lets her eyes slip closed. "Have a good appointment. I guess. Ugh, you are so loud, do you have to knock over everything? It's like you're trying to wake me up..." It's hard to take her seriously when she looks so cute, half-asleep and curled up into a little ball.

I glance at the big clock I convinced her to put up on the wall. I've got fifteen minutes, and I can be a little late, I am the king after all, I can just say there was a tribe-wide emergency and nod sagely if he questions it. (And Solstice will probably appreciate it if anything, right? Right.)

"Mmm. I love you, you know that?" I climb back into bed with her, unable to resist. I scoop her up in my wings, peppering her face with little sleepy kisses. "I love you I love you I love you..."

"Hey!" She protests tiredly, trying to keep her eyes closed. She's warm and soft and really pretty in the daylight, and oh three moons, I just want to stay with her forever. "First you wake me up, and then you act all cute and lovey-dovey. I don't know how to feel about this!"

I grab her cloak off the floor--the one enchanted to keep her perfectly warm, and drape it over top of her. "I love you here, and here, and here..." I touch my snout to her forehead, her shoulder, her chest. "I love you everywhere!"

"And you're gonna be late to your appointment, honey," Clearsight says wryly.

"What do you want for breakfast? I'm gonna go order you breakfast." The cloak's warmth seeps in through our four other blankets that we had to layer on top of our normal comforter to try and fight off the icy cold, and now that I've felt it, I kind of never want to leave.

"You're gonna go to your appointment," she corrects. "And some coffee would be nice. Ooo, do we have any pancakes? Could you get me pancakes? With strawberries and, like, whipped cream?"

"I don't think that would work within ration guidelines," I point out. "I can work on the coffee though. Maybe." We're having to ration that too. "How would you feel about herbal tea?"

"That would be fine. Thank you, handsome," she says fondly, giving me a little peck on the snout, which really isn't helping motivate me to leave our bedroom any time soon. "You're my hero. I could not have possibly solved this problem on my own."

"You're very welcome," I say, pleased with myself. "Any other issues I can solve for you, my fair lady?"

"Going to your appointment and letting me go back to sleep?"

"But you're warm, and out there is cold..." I complain.

"And you're half-IceWing!" She swats at me, laughing. "Go!"

I sigh, begrudgingly climbing out of our warm sanctuary into the much more unpleasant outside world. "Ugh, you're no fun."

She closes her eyes, adjusts her pillow, and curls back up to sleep.

I close each of the curtains of the four-poster bed, grab my keys, crown, satchel, I slip out our bedroom door, and lock it behind me--just to be safe.