The laughter, his old, mocking moniker so lovingly delivered--it startles tears back into Tuo's eyes, and he needs a moment as Dain speaks to look away, to fetch out a cloth to blot the tears away before they can fall.

Dain is right, of course. Perhaps that is what makes his heart ache so: knowing that he will do the unkind thing again, one day.

"Tell me the reason, then," he says at last, and reaches across the space between them to find his old friend's hand and clasp it firmly. That touch, and the earnestness of his gaze, communicate clearly what he doesn't say aloud: I missed you, too.