By the light of the moon

Aleyn hoped that maybe the moonlight wouldn't show how much he was blushing. "Yeah...something." He hesitated, then pressed on in a rush. "I, um... I was really young, and probably by some definition he took advantage of me, but it didn't really seem like that at the time..."

"Ahhh..." He squeezed Aleyn's hand back. "Well, it probably is just coincidence, but it's got to feel a little odd."

"Yeah, pretty weird," said Aleyn. "He seemed... nice, I guess, the only time I met him. I learned a lot. Mostly not about Turathi history," he added with a shy smile. "Learning that the disaster was in some way his fault... well, it's just sort of hard to take, even though I didn't know him well. It kind of makes me wish I'd gone back to see him again sometime, but I didn't know what to say and I was scared he'd just send me away, I guess."

"That good, was he?" He smiled to show he was teasing, thinking about what little they knew about Damakos at all. "Well, it might be small consolation, but we still don't really know what went wrong. At least we've ruled out that it was intentional on his part."

"I didn't have anyone to compare him to at that point in my life, so... yeah, just about anything would have seemed amazing," Aleyn said, giving a shy little smile back. "But I guess I'm glad to hear that you guys don't think the disaster was intentional on his part. It's sort of been weighing on me, and that's a relief to hear."

"Well, I'm glad, then." He shoved aside thoughts of Damakos and the disaster for now. content just to sit and enjoy the closeness and company while his brain was giving him something like a reprieve.

Aleyn stretched his legs out, letting them rest alongside Vedran's, feeling better about his troubles and also remarkably lucky right at that moment. "Thanks for this," he said softly. He lifted Vedran's hand to his mouth to give it a little kiss, and then looked up at the moon, giving thanks again.