A/N: I have a present for you guys in the form of my first-ever Kane Chronicles fanfic :) Just to clear it up, it's futurefic and I'm basically taking an idea and letting my imagination run with it. Enjoy!

The firelight glints off his smooth chocolate skin, still beautiful even though it's been marred by too many burns and cuts and bruises to count. You reach over and take his hand.

"What are you thinking about?"

He turns his gaze on you—you flinch at the depth of emotion in his eyes—and gives a slightly insane laugh. "What am I thinking about? What am I thinking about? Hmm, well, let's see—Sadie and Walt are running around gods know where, fighting completely by themselves, Amos is dead, I've got no fuckingidea where the rest of my friends are, and we have no reinforcements here. Nothing to help us."

You're still trailing your fingers over the rough skin of his hand, but you stop once you reach his wedding ring.

"You remember that song we danced to at our wedding, Carter?"

"The one about 'love will keep us alive' or whatever? Of course I do, but how can that help now—oh." It's hard to tell in the firelight, but you think he blushes. "Wow, I'm stupid.

"I'm not even going to respond to that," you say, rolling your eyes.

"You weren't supposed to," he replies in a singsong voice.

"Vous pouvez parfois être si désespérément denses, vous savez qui?"

Carter actually laughs. "That's not very nice, Zia."

"I didn't mean it to be" is all you say as you lean over and press your lips to his.

"Insults. Swearing. This is the closest we will ever come to love," he whispers back once you've both managed to disentangle yourselves. "Ah, well—c'est la vie."