"Wildwing?" He felt a gentle touch on his shoulder, and started. "Sorry," Lila appologized as he turned. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay," he smiled, "I should be more alert." Lila gave him a disaproving look.

"You should remember to stop being the leader every once in a while and just be Wildwing." She touched the trigger that shifted him from battle gear to street clothes, and stepped back as the white armor disappeared in a flash, leaving him in his bodysuit and jacket.

"You should talk," he grumbled, gently tapping the Healers' headband that she removed only in sleep.

"Puckworld law," she folded her arms. "I have to wear it, on duty or no."

"We're not on Puckwolrd," he reminded her quietly.

"Consider it an act of love, then," she lifted her shoulders in a graceful shrug.

"For whom?" he asked rhetorically, shoving his hands in his pockets as he turned back to the window. "Your art, your home, or the people you help?"

"All of the above," she answered, coming up beside him. "And then some."

He was quiet for a moment. "Do you think there's anything left worth fighting for?"

She touched his face. "There's you. And me. And Dive, and Duke, and Tanya, and Mallory. All of this--" she waved a hand toward the window, "And countless other worlds like it. There's families on hundreds of worlds that Dragaunus would move onto after this one. It's hard to think of them as that important, because they're so distant, and we're so tired of the fighting. But somewhere, two people who love each other could be staring out a window together, enjoying one moment of peace in their hectic lives. Knowing how precious those moments are to us, would you really rob them of that?"

He looked at her. "If we win the fight, and go home to find that everything we knew has been destroyed anyway?"

"Then we will grieve," she said softly, "And we will find a new home, and know that thanks to us, Dragaunus will never cause that kind of pain to anyone again." She smiled comfort. "Faint comfort, I know, but tended carefully enough it would grow, and we would survive. And not alone, not while we have each other."

Wildwing turned his eyes back to the window for a moment, as if thinking it over. Then he silently took her hand, and they stood there together, enjoying their brief reprieve.

***