The storm seemed to have tossed them aside and fled, as though it were afraid of the two tiny sparkly creatures. Danika wondered how badly ShinZing had wounded the dragon, but she didn't mind the reprieve. They needed time to recover her health and ShinZing's energy.

ShinZing's eyes glowed green and the amount of energy that he'd already regained dropped again, as he used a witchy skill to make the bush they landed beside curl protectively over them. It created a pleasant green bower that suited Hikaru's soft light when the firefly suddenly appeared and circled them.

Danika thought that it was a bit of a pity when the green faded from ShinZing's eyes, since the color suited him. She didn't ask why they weren't just hiding in her stone space, and just brought up her menus. He pulled an energy boosting potion and a handful of berries out of his inventory, and held one of the berries up to her mouth. She thought it probably looked like he was feeding his pet again, but she obediently opened her mouth and ate the berry, and he flashed her a smile.

While she messaged the Smith, she asked aloud, "Even if I can get to the Smith now, how are we going to get the ship out of the dragon?"

"I'm not sure cutting it out is possible," Shinichi replied, as his character pulled the sword that had fallen from his hands earlier out of his inventory and sheathed it. "Even if my sword actually can cut through dragonhide, it's too small to be useful." He looked frustrated as he added, "I couldn't get to you!"

"That's a good thing," she pointed out dryly. "I'm the one with a familiar's health and energy boost now, so you probably would have died."

"I'm still pretty tough," he argued. "But that dragon also zapped me with some kind of energy drain, and my energy still isn't rising half as quickly as it ought to be."

Danika blinked and checked her menus. His energy really wasn't rising as quickly as it should be now. "Well, what if," Danika began.

"I feel like an idiot," Shinichi interrupted.

Danika protested automatically, "You are not! Why?"

Shinichi gave a short laugh and then there was a soft click, and he whispered in an expressive voice that told her he'd switched modes, "You love me."

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"Yes?" she agreed questioningly. She was pretty certain that he couldn't have only just realized that now, even if she didn't say it directly very often.

He flashed a smile and whispered, "I love you for that."

She eyed the wild haired pixie version of him that stood before her, and replied a little warily, "Don't millions of girls supposedly love you?" An unspoken, 'do you love them too?' lingered at the end of her question.

He laughed for real, and told her softly, "It doesn't matter if millions do or don't. The one that matters does, and that's enough."

"You're really making me worry," she complained. She couldn't figure out why he was suddenly bringing it up. Even though he wouldn't be able to feel it, she used up one of her druidic shape shifts and transformed into a pixie so that she could hug him.

"Don't worry," he instructed. As though he was replying to the unspoken part of her question, he added, "I'll always choose you Danika, thanks for choosing me too."

Her wings sparkled pinkly, and she insisted quickly, "I do love you! And I don't know what is wrong, but I'm sure your fans will love seeing you all, even if you're not feeling so hot tonight!"

His open laughter was quickly muffled. "Nothing's wrong. We'll do a good job, you really don't have to worry. I don't even feel that bad now that I've taken all of the suppressant medicines."

A sharp crack added a strange emphasis to his words. Danika pointed to Durandel, at ShinZing's side, when he turned to look around. "It came from your sword I think?" she told him.

He tried to draw the sword to examine it, and stared as the hilt seemed to crumble in his hands. He removed the sheath and tilted it to shake the blade out, and shards scattered across the ground instead. Hikaru buzzed down to examine the bright shards with interest, and its soft light reflected from dozens of small pieces that lay between the two pixies.

"Umm…" Shinichi said uncertainly.

"Now can I worry?" she questioned. "It seems like stabbing it into a dragon was a really bad idea. There was that lightning before too?"

The shards slowly faded away, like a person who had died and resurrected at the nearest shrine to the twins.

"Okay…" Shinichi said slowly. "I don't know what just happened, but I'm running out of time, and Naoki won't stop poking me until I tell you to have MatchlessMinion use that skill that made the crane vomit up the stones on the ship."

Danika raised a hand and covered her face for a moment. "That's why you said…"

"That I feel like an idiot," Shinichi agreed. He flashed her a grin and added, "and then I got distracted."

She dropped her hand and insisted quickly, "I should have thought of that too!"

He reached over and pinched her cheeks, then told her quietly, "Shh, if you say that, Nao will gloat. I'd tell you not to get eaten by anything else tonight, but I don't want to limit your creativity!"

Danika couldn't decide whether to laugh or protest, and he logged out before she reacted. "You…" she complained and pointed at the empty space he left. Hikaru flew up to her fingertip as though it were curious about whether she meant it. "Not you," she told the firefly laughingly.

The little beetle seemed larger than it usually did in proportion to ZipZing's little clawed hands, and she wondered briefly about how she looked beside ShinZing in her pixie form. Its feet tickled against her skin more than they did in her usual fairy dragon shape, and Hikaru's light blinked as though it were talking to her.

Danika grinned and dismissed her transformation before pulling up her menus to send a message to Matchless Minion.