Here's a riddle for you

Harper

He isn't sure he agrees given how lowly he views his company these days, but it's a sweet sentiment that makes him smile all the same. They're an odd pair - both profoundly intimate and ephemeral in nature given where life had taken Maea for so many years - but they make it work. He prays in the half-moment between her words that they'll be good for each other. Teach each other what they need to learn. Even if it never becomes anything else.

Chuckling, he leans in obligingly and takes a bite from the apple in her hand, feeling similarly about how pactlike it feels. The tartness is more his taste than hers even with their shared sweet tooth, but that makes it feel all the more meaningful. They've both indulged in the other's favorite now, emulating the balance and equality they tentatively reach for. "To figuring it out," he cheers around a cheekful of apple, smiling despite the bulge disrupting the normal angle of it.

Standing, he offers both hands to help her up as he swallows. "Why don't you show me where it is so I know where I'm going?" No need to enter or make himself at home, but enough to lend his feet a mental map when they draw him back to her, no matter the time or distance between today and the next time they meet.

I cut my teeth on second-hand sentiments
you can't trust a thing I say