Merri weakly smiled when he felt the captain's lips on his cheek, only slightly assured by his words. On the beach, there had been very little he could have done to help protect Aspel from her injuries, and he did not have powerful enough spells to fight the serpent effectively. Perhaps he should have left it to the black mages, the geomancers, the blue mages, all the classes that were generally more powerful than red mages including, especially, himself. Perhaps he should have better fought off the iguions and the crabs instead. Perhaps he should have been with the captain himself, and perhaps he should have spent more time practicing and learning new spells rather than on anything, everything else... but it was with that thought his heart twinged.
No. He would not give up the captain, or his friends, for anything.
When he felt the captain's hands on him, he gently placed his hands upon it and twisted around to kiss him. "Yeah," he agreed. "Next time." Though he hoped there would be no next time, but he worried that it might not be the case, given everything that had happened and there being no answers. But that was a thought he didn't want to dwell on now, so he closed the distance between their faces once again, trying to adjust himself into a more comfortable position as best as he could.