Her words turned his head slowly. He took her in, in all her bronze-gold and blue light. The foolish organ in his chest sped up, ached, ached, burned and ached. None of it burst through the quiet in his clear blue eyes, but he felt it radiate through him all the same.
Loved ones.
He could name a few - most of them family, even if they weren't born to his line. Duncan Idaho, Stilgar. The woman who raised him and his sister as her own. He'd never had friends, not in the true sense. All the ones around him were bound to him by blood or duty or honor. But Oswin...
He took a breath.
"It would be an honor," he said at last, the words coming soft and vulnerable.