Remembered

The autumn wind stirred up the dry leaves at the feet of the two dragons, one black and one grey. The sky hung a rich purple over their heads, a product of the setting sun.

The black one thought back a long while, to the last time he had been with this other dragon in such a setting. It had been many adventures ago, when she had been quite uncertain and he charged with helping her along. Things had been very different back then indeed.

The grey one looked over to him, a smile resting on her long face. "What is it?" she asked.

He chuckled, shaking his head a little. She was getting good at catching him like this, seeing his emotions just beneath the surface. Not so long ago in dragon years she had been quite oblivious to it.

"Thinking," he replied truthfully.

"What about?" she asked, leaning against him a little bit. She was always eager to pick his brain, it seemed.

"Oh, the past," he replied as he opened a wing and put it across her back. She seemed to like that, relaxing a little beneath it. "Your past and mine, at least."

"I never knew you were one to think about the past," she replied with a bit of a grin.

She told the truth, to an extent. He'd never really given much thought to where he'd come from before she had come along. There hadn't really been anything to look back fondly on. True, there'd not been anything to regret either. He had just always been. But, looking back now, there were things to treasure wrapped up in the journey it had taken to get here. Even though a dead friend and a vanquished foe lurked amongst them, the simple love that the path had been followed for outweighed all that.

"I have reason to now," he replied, a smile of his own forming on his face. He leaned over and nuzzled her softly. Her own smile widened at this, and she returned the gesture. He thought that moment lasted as long as the time it had taken to get to it, or so it seemed. However it really was, that didn't matter to him.

"I love you, Venom," she said to him, her eyes closed in contentment.

He took a deep breath. On any other occasion, he might have simply nodded, or replied with something along the lines of, "I know." But not on this evening. It was too deep an evening for him to be evasive. And they had both come too far for him to keep such things from her anymore.

"I love you too, Kiss," he replied.