She can't help but smile at that, despite the aching fatigue, despite her nerves, despite the glow that seems to sink into their skin, gilding bone and vein and tendon where the cords lay against their hands. It's not poetic, but poetry's never something she's asked of him. The sentiment is more than enough.

"I love you too," she says quietly. The tether may not be, in itself, romantic. That doesn't make the bonds they already have any less relevant.

"And Steven's pretty remarkable himself."