His smile widened by a fraction and he huffed out a sound dangerously close to laughter as she sent the little creature on its way.

At her touch, he ought to have startled, but it felt nothing more than an extension of the bond tethered between them.

"I think you might be alone in that," he said, though he thought again of his mother, the warmth of her love, and how much easier it had been to smile when she was near him.