"Yeah, we should," Joe agreed, pleased with his painting even if it wasn't quite what he'd had in his head. Since he worked mostly in pencil, paint and color weren't his strongest skills. The contrast of light and shadow pleased him and Ram's suggestion of the shooting star in the sky gave it a bit of balance. "And after you'll be able to make a wish on my shooting star whenever you want." He, too, had assumed that his painting would stay with Ram. Ram's butterflies would go back to West Point with Joe and this memory of Ram wanting to stay close the whole evening would help when they had to spend nights apart. "You really see the silver lining in everything, don't you?" The optimism was as inspiring as it was unfamiliar to Joe.
Joe started cleaning up his brushes happy to move this date elsewhere. He wondered how much exactly he could tease Ram with goodnight kisses as the front door before reluctantly letting Ram take him inside. "I wonder what happened to Trouble?" he mused, suddenly remembering that they hadn't seen the little furball since he'd strutted away after giving Joe his seal of approval.