Ryker responded by bringing his own necklace close, and locking the two together.

"Eke." he said.

"No matter what happens, remember... we didn't come this far without each other." he told him.

"Now, we've enjoyed MY part of this together." he went on.

"Let's enjoy YOUR part together as well."

"Eke." Ryker said.

"There's no such thing as a 'better' or 'worse' gift." he told him.

"Both our ideas had thought put into them, but yours was also a labour of love and a lot of effort went into it." he said.

"if anything, I feel a little guilty." he then chuckled, before looking in his eyes.

"Seriously. The fact that you remembered, and went through all this trouble to make dinner and dessert? It's worth more than anything physical and monetary in the world." he assured him further.

"Never think otherwise, ok?"

Ryker raised an eyebrow.

"Tired?" he asked.

"Did you have a busy day?" he asked further.

"...not overly..." Aly responded as she got closer.

"Unless the cooking and baking took more out of him than it should." she commented further.

"How tired are you, Eke?" she then asked him.

"All right." Aly replied, still a bit worried.

"....yeah, sure." Ryker said.

'...weird...' he thought.

'Something's not right, you know.' the demon told him.

'I know.' Rkyer responded mentally.

"There's some ice-cold bottles in the back of the fridge." he then told Eke.

Both Aly and Ryker were enjoying the dinner, but froze for a moment when Eke made his suggestion.

"Oh?" Ryker asked, breaking the brief silence.

"Sure." he said.

"I can have some contractors out in the next little bit." he told him.

"Why the sudden change?" he asked.

And they were BOTH curious about the whiplash in tone, from the undead dragon dooming them all, to THIS topic. Or was this nothing more than an attempt to lighten the mood?

"Hm." Ryker muttered.

"Well, for starters, there's no need to feel guilty." he said. "Let's just get that out of the way." he established.

"Secondly, everything else? Makes sense to me." he admitted.

"Before I start work on it, I need to know something, though." he then said.

"What kinda fish?" he asked.

"I know we're not talkin' about some regular koi pond, but what kinda fish do you want in there, in specific, if any?"

Ryker scratched at his chin again, and nodded.

"Fair enough." he said.

"I'll see what I can do." he told him.

"And cake?" he asked.

"I'm ALWAYS ready for cake." he said further with a small smirk.

"My sweet tooth has really developed nicely since meeting you." he chuckled.

Ryker just smiled a little, and sighed quietly.

"Indeed." he replied with.

"At any rate, I'll do what I can to get a pond out back, and a nice big one, at that." he told him.

"Though it may need to be drained in the winter, depending on a variety of factors." he added.

"Should have more details by the end of the week."

"......" Ryker was silent, before shrugging.

"Sure." he said.

"Or at least until the power goes out." he laughed.

"What should we watch?" Aly asked.

"Well, they have some good stuff on that new streaming site." Ryker then commented.

Aly nodded in response.

"Sure thing." she said.

She then left to do so, and Ryker thought for a moment.

"No horror..." he muttered.

"Well, that service has the 'King of the Rings' trilogy." he told Eke.

"Care for some high fantasy?" he asked.