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Em stared at Summit sprawled on the floor, her breath still caught in her throat. Summit had come, he'd found her.

Why? Why had he come to her? She'd told him. She didn't deserve him. He shouldn't be here.

Em pushed back the tears she felt beginning to pool in her eyes, and instead climbed out of bed with her blanket still wrapped delicately around her, dragging on the floor behind her as she slowly approached Summit.

Finally, she stopped a few paces away from him. "What are you doing here?" she asked, fighting back the choke in her voice. She wanted to get closer to him, she wanted to hug him, but she couldn't bring herself to get any nearer.

"Em," Summit said, pulling himself to his talons, trying to explain himself, "I know what you said, I know you don't think you're worth it, but I couldn't leave you like that. I couldn't leave you thinking you were like that."

Embryo couldn't keep the cracking out of her voice now, it was all she could do not to cry, "You don't understand, I am like that! Look at me? What do you see? That's all I am! This is all I am!" Em wanted to go on about all she'd done, how she'd betrayed the whole continent, but she couldn't, she couldn't go on explaining without breaking.

"Em," begged Summit, looking at her, "Please..." He didn't know what else to say, he knew there was something deep inside him, some truth he knew about Embryo that he had to get out, to make her understand, but he couldn't find the words to say it. "Listen," he said finally, "Maybe this is all there is to you, but it's still you."

"But what does that mean?" Em flustered, "It doesn't mean anything; how could it? Summit, please, look at me, how could you see anything special in this? Summit... Please... Why can't you just see me for what I am?"

Summit looked at her, what did he see? Why did he see her the way he did? "I don't know," He admitted finally, "I don't know what I see in you, but I see it all the same, I can't not see it, no matter how hard I try. When I look at you, I see you, and I can't help but love you."

Em went silent. She knew he meant it; he did love her. But why? "I know you love me," Em admitted out loud, "But why? How could you see all this in me and still love me?"

"I don't know. I don't know." Summit bowed his head before looking back up at her with renewed assurance, "But I do. You're the one I wanted to see the world with, you're the one I want at my side for the rest of my life. You're the one I'd want to be with to settle down and start a family with..."

Summit stopped, noticing Em's face drop. He realized his mistake too late.

"I understand." Em took a slow step back. What little hope she had sparked in her heart instantly died out.

"No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." Summit stopped, he didn't know what he meant, did he really...

"No, it's okay, I understand." Embryo looked away; she didn't know why she should have expected anything else from someone who liked her. "You want to choose me, you want to start a family together - it's an honor, really - you just don't realize the hard job you'll never have to understand. You only see the beauty of laying eggs, you don't realize how lucky you are to be you."

Summit looked at her; he knew he'd messed up, but he couldn't leave it there, he had to continue. "Em, I mean, I do love you... And it's true I want to spend the rest of my life with you... I mean, I'd love to start a family..." Summit, he held his breath, trying to find the next words... "but I also want you to be happy. If you never want to have another egg in your entire life, I want to support you."

"I can't not lay eggs even if I wanted to," Em said finally, "that's not how I work." Embryo seethed her blanket with her talons, trying to let herself feel it's comforting texture, the only comfort she dared to hope for at this point. "You might as well take it, that's what I have to offer."

Summit took a deep breath, he had to say this right, he needed Em to understand. "Em, I know I can't tell you you'll never lay eggs again; you may never be able to change it; you may lay eggs for throughout the rest of your life... But just because Egg Laying is something you do, but doesn't mean it's the fullestness of who you are... Or stuff..." He paused. He figured it wasn't the time to fix his typo right now; he had to go on. "It doesn't mean it's your lot in life. You are so much more. And not just for me or yourself, but the world."

"Of course I'm not more," Em burst into despair, "you said so yourself, you said you love me because I 'experience things'. Well, any dragon can do that, Summit. You just chose me because you haven't been with anyone else... Because you have a crush on girls, and... and I was the first one you really spent a lot of time with..." Em felt herself cracking; all that beautiful love Summit had for her... It wasn't real. He wanted it to be, but it could have been for anyone else; she wasn't special. Embryo gave a shuttering sigh. "...But that's all I am, a girl, an Egg Layer, I'll never be anything but an egg layer."

Summit looked at her. Gently, he took a step closer. "But that's not it. That's not all you are." A breath. "Who you are... that's... you." Slowly, Summit was starting to see it, starting to understand; he just he had to form the words. "I know I once said you were all pretty and stuff, and I still mean that... But now I know... I don't just think you're pretty on the outside... It's your heart and... and your Soul that's beautiful too. From the first moment I saw you, I liked you... and yes, I know just thinking the word girl always makes me feel crushy... But then... I got to know you, an... I realized... That's not truly why you're beautiful. It's everything inside you that's beautiful... Because that's you... Everything... Everything you love, everything you think, everything you experience, that's who you are." He held up a talon to her. "You are the smile you make when feel the flowers in your talons, the laugh you make when you find something funny, the air you breathe rolling over the fields-"

Suddenly, Em pulled away, "The pain I feel when laying an egg, the screams I cry as I try to writhe free of my body." The pain inside her just speaking of it was too much. "Face it, no matter what I do, who I become, I will always be an Egg Layer."

"And that hurts me more than anything." Summit said, his voice cracking with the suppressed pain of having to watch her lay her egg, "Maybe I don't experience one drop of pain... but to see you... suffer... It hurts me worse than anything in the world." Summit tried to suppress the tears welling in his from remembering what he'd witnessed.

"But why should it matter?" Em said, "You'll never have to worry about knowing what it's like to be me. Maybe it's true, maybe you do want to spend your life with me, but you could never understand what it's like to be me. The Embryo you once knew is gone; she could have never comprehended what it feels like to be me now. You're a guy, you'll never have to understand what I've gone through. This is my pain, not yours, why can't you just leave it be? Why can't you leave me to suffer my girl problems on my own?"

Summit stood still, not quite sure how to respond. Finally, "I know I'm a guy, I know I'll never be able to truly understand what you've been through, but should I stop being there for you just because I'll never know what it's like to have... girl problems- or stuff?"

"But there are so many other dragons out there," Em said, "Why should you care about me when "me" is so...?"

"Because other dragons aren't you," Summit said, his words suddenly finding themselves with confidence, "I know there are other dragons out there, that they too experience things, but only you can experience things as Embryo. It's you who feels things for yourself, you don't have a choice, because that's who you are. And maybe I do have a choice on whether to feel things for you, but you're the one I feel things for. Even when it has nothing to do with me, I feel for you... I don't want you to suffer, I don't want you to be in that kind of pain..." Summit swallowed, "And that's why that's why I stayed with you, that's why I followed you... Because that's the Embryo I fell in love with, the one who experiences things as you, the one who will always experience things as you, because you will always be you. I could love anybody else, but then you wouldn't be loved by me. And if you weren't loved by me, then who would you have to love you as much as I do?"

Embryo said nothing, Summit looked at her, forcing himself to say what he had to say next. "If you want me to leave, truly want me to leave, then I will - I know it's weird that I have a crush on you, that I even... felt crushiness while you were laying..." Summit felt himself cracking with guilt even admitting it, but Em had to know. But she just glanced away, too far past her own self-consciousness it to feel much about it at this point. So Summit went on, "but please, don't send me away if you don't really want to. You're hurting, and I want to be there for you, don't turn me away because you think you don't deserve to be loved, because to me, you do."

"Well, it's not like you can leave, they've locked you in here too..." Em's eyes clouded, this was beside the point, she just didn't want to address it straight on... "But you shouldn't have come here, you don't belong here, this isn't your... I'm just not..." Em caught her breath, she couldn't continue, couldn't go on, she wanted so desperately to let Summit in, begging herself to let go, but didn't know how; her face was filled with such heartbreak and pain, holding back the tears built up inside from her lack of self-love.

And in an instant, Summit was there, throwing his wings around her...

And then she felt it, unlike anything she'd felt before. Love pouring into her. Into every ounce of her being it filled her; every aspect of who she was and every hollow space in between, his love embraced her, until everything she was was surrounded by his love. When Summit had first told Em that what he loved about her was that she "experienced things", she'd thought it meant nothing, but now Em began to understand. He didn't love her for anything she'd done, it wasn't just because she was a girl, not for anything more than she was - everything she was was still the same to him - Summit loved her because she was Embryo, and now Embryo felt it. It was a love beyond all romance, beyond all crushiness, it was a pure and wholesome love that went beyond anything he felt for himself. She simply just existed, and for Summit, that's all she ever needed to be. Not Embryo of the OmletWings, not Embryo the Cute Girl, but just Embryo, nothing more, nothing less.

And as Em stood there, in the warmth of his wings, feeling his heart beat next to hers, his gentle tears falling softly onto her head, she let the blanket slip from her grasp, and burst into tears, sobbing deep and uncontrollable breaths into him. She threw her wings around him, and she just sobbed, letting all her emotions, all her fear and insecurities, all her sadness and pain be washed away by his love. And he just held her, being there for her. And she just sobbed, tears upon tears, where she could no longer tell if they were tears of grief or comfort, nor did she care; never had she ever felt anything more beautiful, then here in Summit's embrace - his love - and right now that was all that she needed.

Finally, Em's heart began to calm. She looked at him, then burst out crying again, here she was, being made to be so vulnerable and embarrassing because of her girly weirdness, and here was Summit, so willing to put up with this. "I'm sorry I'm being so weak and helpless because I'm a girl, and I have to have you stand here as my support as a guy and hold me because I'm so weak. I screamed, and I acted so stupid..."

"You're not weak because you're a girl, you're weak because you've just gone through something hard; something I could never understand, and you don't know who you are anymore," Summit's breath shuddered, he couldn't imagine the sheer horror it must have been to be there, going through such pain like she had. "Anybody would have acted like that in your situation, that's nothing to be ashamed of. I don't know why just girls have to go through that, but that doesn't make you weak."

Em gave a deep breath of relief, letting her head rest against him once again. "Thank you Summit, thank you."

And, so there Em stood, just letting herself remain there in the comfort of his embrace, both finally together. And there they remained for a very long time.

And for once, Summit didn't even feel a bit of crushiness; he only felt Em.