History Heartwarming / Temeraire

-->'''Lenton''', about Hollin: "Not a gentleman, I suppose?"\\
'''Laurence''': "No, sir, unless by gentleman you mean a man of honour rather than breeding."

** When marines arrive to arrest Laurence, Granby makes a gesture and ''all'' the members of Temeraire's crew stand between them and Laurence, joining the captain in the black list.

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* The titular short story, ''Golden Age'', takes place in an AlternateContinuity where Laurence did not acquire Temeraire's egg. Instead, the egg winds up on an island inhabited only by feral dragons, and "Celeste" figures out that merchant ships tend to have gold in them and takes up piracy. Laurence, still a respectable sea captain, goes to investigate the robberies. Despite their completely different histories together, Laurence and Temeraire/Celeste still become friends, with Laurence still teaching Temeraire English and reading to him and, like his alternate universe self, finds himself unable to stomach the thought of harming "Celeste" should he be ordered to do so. In the end, Celeste decides that he will join the British Aerial Corps if Laurence will join him, and if the Corps won't take them because he was not hatched to an aviator, he states that he and Laurence will just have to find somewhere else to live together. The two are HeterosexualLifePartners regardless of what universe they're in.

** [[spoiler: Mostly due to the exagerrated, though by no means false, efforts through which the pair claimed victory over the war, Temeraire and Laurence are hailed as heroes, overwriting their reputation as traitors to the Crown. Temeraire even has merchandise of him being sold!]]

* After Temeraire has inadvertently revealed to the amnesiac Laurence his treachery against Britain in ''Empire of Ivory''. Laurence gets a HeroicBSOD, but soon gets over it, and goes to find Temeraire, who has since begun considering the negative impact he's had on the lives of those around him. When they next meet, Temeraire tries to apologise to Laurence for his role in his treachery and the loss of his fortune, but Laurence reassures him that he doesn't care. Temeraire finally offers to let Laurence leave him, feeling he'd be happier if he'd never harnessed him, but Laurence denies this; stating he wouldn't change anything that's happened to him, even if he could.
** After Temeraire revealed Laurence's treachery to amnesiac Laurence, Laurance leaves him to have a HeroicBSOD. He wonders what could have possibly driven him to commit such an act against everything he's ever believed in. While he's gone, Temeraire fears Laurence will leave him permanently and leaves in a fit of guilt, thinking that if he finds the rebels they're supposed to be hunting, perhaps laurence will forgive him and not want to leave him. he runs into trouble and is gone from the camp long enough to cause worry. Despite still not remembering all their time together, Laurence finds himself worried and terrified Temeraire has left ''him''. In that moment, he realizes why he committed treason to help the dragons:
-->''He should not have cared so much as he did; his heart ought not have been bound up so completely, and yet he could not but recognize that it was. There, perhaps, was his answer: loving Temeraire, and seeing in him all dragonkind, he had not been able to take refuge behind some comforting fiction of their being mere beasts. He wondered now that he had ever thought them so. It had outweighed treason, in his heart; he was not sure he had been wrong.''