At the question, a silly sort of smile came over Hawk's face. Teige seized on it, elbowing him with delight. "Eh?! What's t'at stupid grin?? You're in love."

"Yeah. I am," Hawk admitted. Teige clapped a hand on his arm.

"C'mere t'me now," he said conspiratorially, as they trotted through the leaves and the light and the long shadows. "Is he...the one??"

"I think he's the one."

"Ha!"

"Mebbe it's too early t' say that," Hawk added, still grinning, "but I can't help it."

"So say it t'en," Teige invited.

"He told me I love you t' other day," Hawk confided. "Y'know, like, he said it, kinda out of nowhere but..."

Something, then, made one of Teige's ears flick back towards the way they'd come. He whipped around to look, and the night suddenly sharpened into clarity. He hadn't heard anything, but something made him look anyway, through the archway into the quiet gallery beyond, where a small waterfall splashed into a pool. Shadows crouched unmoving; there was nothing there but the leaves and the little lights drifting above them.

He looked for a long moment, but gradually the night blurred at the edges again, and he turned away. Hawk hadn't noticed.

"...he told me, 'I realized I gotta say it out loud, cos I can see you love me, but you can't see me, how I see you' y'know..."