Re: Callum/Charlie
"You're probably right." Charlie agreed. "But then you usually are."
Charlie nodded, as much as he preferred being on his own, staying with his dragons and getting a sense of calm from them when things got hard, he wouldn't leave his family to deal with this on their own. He hadn't had a choice back at the castle, but he did now.
"I do need you around though." Charlie told him, watching Callum's face. "You know, I thought when we moved to this new reserve everything would get easier. We'd have actual trained keepers, and days off, and people could leave the reserve, and maybe I'd stop being called a tyrant at some point, but even having all of that, nothing has been easier since we made the move."
"I didn't think about all the adjusting we'd have to do working on a real reserve again, and when you brought it up I wasn't prepared for that conversation. And I think we got our wires crossed at some point during all of that, and nothing has been right since then." He continued, "You asked me about getting married, and I didn't even know what to think, and in my hurry to make sure you weren't rushing into something you didn't want, I didn't really make sure you understood me."
"I need you around today, not because you're my friend, or because you're good with the dragons, or that my family seems to like you, but because I love you, and I need the person I love with me today to deal with all of this."