The sizable bubble drifted away from Leviathan once again.

Where her chin rested over Arius’s shoulder, Val squinted her eyes through the murky haze. Still, she could not glimpse the full size of Leviathan. Hypothetically, if she were to try to run around it, she would suspect that her legs would tire before managing the feat—which was saying something given how she had run around Tavras’s Paradise each and every morning for training.

Upon Leviathan’s cavernous skin, darker patches bulged outward almost like scales. Val had no reason to dwell on its appearance more than that, so she assumed that it had blotchy sections of scales across its otherwise smooth and lumpy flesh.

While Val would prefer to stay in Arius’s arms, he was the one to pull away. “Could we talk about something else while we’re on the topic?”

“Sure.” It was not like she could deny him that, given how they had all the time in the world until Tavras rescued them.

From when he had drawn away, Arius kept his hands on either side of Val’s shoulders. One hand fell away with his loosening grip. As always, he took his time in finding the words to say.

“Just because I did something wrong, it doesn’t mean that you were entirely right,” Arius said with a twinge of loathing. His clenched jaw turned on her so that he did not have to look at Val anymore.

She shifted in discomfort, glad that Arius did not launch into a scathing explanation right away. “I-I understand better why you were so upset before,” Val began. “Tavras already berated me.”

“He berated you?” Arius echoed.

“Yeah. When I told him the full story of what happened leading up to you attacking me, he took your side. Can you believe that?”

Arius ducked his head and stuck one hand to the bridge of his nose as he laughed. “Gods, that’s hilarious. I can’t believe that Tavras would take my side on anything, least of all when I messed up like that!”

“Well, he did,” Val said with a huff and regretted informing Arius of this point at once.

The opposite way, she cast her gaze to avoid him. Neither Arius nor Tavras understood her very well, and that exacerbated her hurt feelings. In spite of everything, Val believed that she should get to associate with whomever she pleased.

“So, can we agree that I was not the only one in the wrong—?”

Her pulse elevated in a rush at the implication. “It’s not my fault that you snapped at me!” Val refused to let herself slip into thinking that she had somehow deserved Arius’s temper.

“I wasn’t saying that!” Arius dialed back quickly. “Just, never mind.”

Oh no, she thought. Her defense had just made him close himself off again. This was not good at all, the two of them having such difficulty in talking to each other.

“You have a hard time expressing yourself in a healthy way,” Val stated simply, going for a psychoanalysis of what little she knew about Arius. “Rather than actually discussing why my connection to Tavras is so important, you exploded at me.”

“I did tell you why, and if you saw the parts of the past like you told me, then you should have already understood!” Arius’s anger flared and directed back onto her with a swivel of his head.

Her eyelids fell closed as she took in a deep, calming breath. “Arius,” she whispered and reached out to him with Keep the Peace. This reminded her of how, between him and her, anger issues should not even be a problem given her power.

His impenetrable Mind Shield kept him far away from her influence. No matter how she tried to prod at him, he would not let her in. She literally tried to transmit the solution to their problems into his mind, yet he refused to accept it now just like he had back then.

“Why did you not respond to Keep the Peace when you put a knife to my neck?”

The tension evaporated as Arius let himself slouch back. “You’re trying to use Keep the Peace on me right now, aren’t you?” His Mind Shield slipped away to let her soothing energy flow into him. The relaxation that entered his muscles reflected the progression of her power over him. “Honestly,” he mumbled, “I reflexively put up my Mind Shield when I’m mad, and you’re too weak for me to notice.”

Val blinked a few times and wanted to swear at him. Was she really that pathetically weak compared to him that he could not even notice?

“I’m sorry,” he rushed out to say, grasping at her hands once again. “I can help you strengthen Keep the Peace, all right?”

“Okay.” She sat with both of her hands clasped in Arius’s hands. Meanwhile, her power reached into his mind to assuage his irritation. “I think this whole thing is a symptom of the larger issue. You are quick to close yourself off to me if I don’t magically understand and agree with you.”

“I’ve been nothing but open and honest with you,” Arius countered.

Twisted in concern, Val gave him a wry, skeptical look. “My Past Insight isn’t a substitute to you actually talking about why things matter to you, though.” It seemed like they had yet another disconnect because while Arius acted genuine in his interactions, something was missing.

Although he might think himself open and honest, he lacked true vulnerability with her. Maybe Arius the Ravager did not have a vulnerable, soft side to him, but the way that he had come so desperate to apologize clearly demonstrated otherwise.

“I just wanted to say that you expect to be understood, but you don’t actually give me a proper chance to do that.”

“And this was sort of what I was trying to get at before you turned this back around on me!” Arius pulled fully away and leaned against the wall of the bubble, tense enough to support their weight no matter which way they arranged themselves.

Blinking a few times, Val realized that she did just turn their error in miscommunication back onto him. Really, Arius had been trying to point out a simple thing: Val was not perfect either.

“You’re a hard person to talk to, especially when you won’t budge on your unreasonable demands! If you want me to be more ‘sensitive’,” he said with derision, “perhaps you should be more receptive. You’re supposed to be my soulmate, and I didn’t want my soulmate living with another man. That’s all—nothing to talk about beyond that.”

Her teeth gritted together, as they had come full circle, back to the original topic of contention. Val felt stuck in her stance, not wanting to admit any fault so as not to act like she had deserved his abuse.

She gazed on at Arius who slouched into himself, wallowing in the frustration that she had caused.

When he put it that way, he made it sound a lot simpler than it actually was.

“We both know there’s a lot more to it than that.” The simple fact was that she did not try to closely associate with a random man, but Tavras—a god who meant different things to both Val and Arius.

“But,” Val began anew, “I’m sorry that I came across as stubborn as I did back then.” Painfully awkward, she slid herself across the bubble and spun around so that she could nestle at Arius’s side. “I can work on that too, being someone who is easier to talk to. Can you forgive me too?”

Physical touch seemed to help him throughout their conversation, so she employed that again with a hand to his chest.

Broad and muscled as he was, his chest also sank inward with a sigh. “Yeah, Val, I forgive you too. Um, thanks.” Arius placed his hand over the back of hers on his chest and offered her hand a squeeze. In a mutter, he added on, “You’re right that I haven’t felt particularly comfortable around you, but that’s the reason why.”

A small smile curled onto her lips. Now that she recognized this issue, she could put in a little effort to make sure that Arius always felt comfortable in talking to her. Just now, they actually did a good job addressing the deficits in their communication.

Val and Arius’s eyes met for a long moment of consideration, intermitted by their blinks. Upon careful observation of him, only now did she realize how he trembled slightly. The tentative tremor in his chest could be felt through her palm.

“Are you shaking?” she asked with a rising note of alarm.

“I’m shivering,” he corrected her. “I’m just cold.” Arius diverted his gaze downward while he continued to crouch into himself, likely trying to conserve heat.

Even Val did not feel chilly enough to start shivering, though she too felt the discomfort of the cold. “Are you not able to make yourself any warmer?”

“Not without making you colder. My power is maxed right now.”

Rapid blinks did not help Val process that any faster. How cold did that make Leviathan’s Cradle? The surrounding water constantly bit at them with its subzero temperatures. Though the bubble provided them with air, it provided relatively little in the way of warmth save for a dry reservoir in this watery realm.

“I don’t know if you realized this, but physics is fucked here. We should be in a godsdamn block of ice. I could boil a pond if I wanted to but can’t feel warm here. Sorry,” Arius amended quickly, “that is the least of our concerns. I’m just not used to feeling cold, really at all.” Pushing away her hand, he shifted so that he could wrap his arms around himself.

A realization crashed over Val that marked Arius as even more considerate than she had thought. “You gave me a larger chunk of your power, didn’t you?”

“Of course. You’re a small woman, so I’m assuming you feel cold easier—”

“Take more of it back,” she said hastily. “I’m not as cold as you.”

While it was a kind gesture, his attempt at equalizing their effective body temperatures made no sense. The natural heat that their bodies provided was negligible out here, and Arius had the bigger body which required more energy to heat.

If he did take back a smidgen of his power, Val suspected that she would start shivering like him, but she did not want him to feel cold. Living his life with an affinity for fire, he probably was not accustomed to feeling cold ever.

“It’s probably worse for you, besides, it’s your power.”

The temperature of her body was unchanging just like Arius’s mind. “I’m fine,” he said.

“No, you’re cold.”

That did nothing to sway him nor did it make him laugh. “It’s about to get a lot colder again,” Arius replied instead.

The thinning air told them it was time to find a fresh bubble of Leviathan’s exhalation.

This time, when Val let Arius hold her close to travel to a new bubble, she fully intended to stay this way with him. If not to pass the time cuddling just for fun, Val planned to use him being cold as an excuse.