“No? I mean, great if that’s how it’s working, but it’s more habit on my part.” Ravi slowed the car to make the next curve, as they were traveling through a steep section of the mountain. “Ever since I was knee-high, I’ve tried to make the clan laugh. They were so depressed after the war, and Hoheit in so much pain, they all needed to laugh. I’ve been cracking jokes for hundreds of years. I don’t always get a good response, but I try.”
“Ah. It makes sense to me, that your nature is so. Wind dragons are notorious pranksters at heart.”
Ravi blinked at this. “Are we really?”
“Oh, yes. We have many wind dragons in the clan. They’re all like you in some way. Quick-tongued pranksters with a tendency to be impulsive. They’re also incredibly light of foot like you are. You didn’t know?”
“Not one bit.”
Ravi thought about the implications of being able to meet a wind dragon. There was a lot that he didn’t know, that he’d figured out on his own. How his wind ability worked, for instance. He turned wistful at the idea of having an hour to ask the many, many questions he harbored.
“You think I can maybe meet a wind dragon from your clan?”
“I’ll make sure it happens.”
“Every time you make me a sweet promise, it makes me want to do naughty things to you.”
“Sounds like incentive to me.” Sora ducked in closer to steal a kiss as Ravi stopped at a crossroad. “I like doing things for you.”
Seriously, this man. Ravi would ask the cosmos what to do with him, but actually, he had too many ideas as it was. He kissed him back quickly before continuing to drive.
“I want to do things for you, too. So far, you’ve been helping me and my clan, and I haven’t been able to do anything in return.”
“Well, the situation rather called for it.”
“I mean, not arguing, but not my point, either.”
“You’re already helping me tremendously by pulling my clan out of hiding.”
Ravi gave a bzzt, like a game show host when a contestant gave the wrong answer. “Try again. Something more personal.”
“Take me flying?”
That wasn’t at all the question Ravi had expected. He blinked a few times, processing that.
“Sure? I mean, I love to fly, I’m all for it if you want to go on a trip with me.”
“It’s not often the dragons of my clan will take one of us flying, unless it’s their mate or there’s some task that requires it.” Sora’s voice turned soft and wistful, a little nostalgic. “But the few times I’ve been up, it was glorious. So liberating, as if gravity’s hold on me had fallen away completely. I loved every second of it.”
Now he was talking Ravi’s language.
“There’s no freedom like sailing through the sky. I hear you there. As soon as we have everyone settled, let’s go for an evening flight, yeah?”
Sora sounded like a child being offered some forbidden treat. “You mean it?”
“Absolutely. I have a harness fitted to me. I’ll strap you in and we’ll take off.” Ravi bounced a bit in his seat in anticipation. “This will be fun.”
“And a reward for hauling grumpy people out of an airport. Most of the clan doesn’t view flying on an airplane well.”
“Ha! Not surprised. My clan only does it out of strict necessity. Wait, didn’t you tell me you travel a lot?”
“I do, but usually alone. It’s not something my family joins me on.”
“Really? But like…isn’t staying in one place all the time boring?”
“I’ve always thought so. There’s so much of the world to see, after all. Why stay in one corner of it?”
“Exactly.”
Sora gave him a nod, both of them firmly on the same page. “Then, you’ll take trips with me?”
“You bet I will. Ooh, where should we go first?”
“Now, that’s a question. It also begs the question—where all have you gone?”
“Uh, that’s my question for you. Where all have you been?”
“I think I asked first,” Sora pointed out, amused.
“Okay, fine, but I’ve been to a lot of places.”
In challenge, Sora threw out, “So have I, dragon.”
“Oh, yeah? Let’s see who’s gone the most places, then.”
Ravi was always up for a challenge. Especially if it meant learning more about Sora.
They started listing off places, Sora keeping track for them both, as Ravi had his hands full with driving. It turned out Sora really had gone many places. Not quite as many as Ravi, but still, damned impressive.
As they talked, a niggling question rose in the back of Ravi’s mind. They both kept using the phrase my clan. It was unconscious, just a clarifying statement. But it drew a line in the sand, and Ravi felt it clearly.
My clan.
Your clan.
Unlike every other mage they’d met in the past year, Sora had an established clan. A wholesome, healthy family and environment he was proud to be a part of. Ravi couldn’t assume that Sora would leave them and join the Burkhards. And doing some kind of long-distance relationship sounded painful. There would be a lot of distance between them if Sora ever chose to go back home.
But that begged the question: If this relationship turned serious, if they chose to become mated, what would happen? Would Sora stay with him? Or would Ravi leave the only family he’d ever known to follow Sora back to the Sodalicium?
Ravi had no ready answer. He didn’t know which part of his heart to follow, only that the idea of leaving either his family or Sora behind pulled at his heartstrings in a painful way.
He kept the doubts to himself and focused instead on the fun car trip. It wasn’t the right time to ask those questions. And they would probably hit soon enough on their own, anyway.
Sora stood next to Ravi in the gleaming Swiss airport, excited nerves starting to twist and bubble in his stomach. He’d already gotten three texts from his mother stating that they’d landed, taxied to a jet bridge, and were now waiting to deplane.
His father had also texted to complain that they’d been trapped in the claustrophobic metal death tube for too long, and they needed to get out, stretch their legs, and breathe real air that didn’t smell like dragon feet.
An even mix of excitement and anxiety bubbled through Sora’s veins. His parents were going to meet Ravi—not that he thought they wouldn’t like him. Of course, it really didn’t matter whether they liked him or not, since Ravi was most definitely his dragon and nothing was going to change that.
But his parents were obviously going to love Ravi because everyone loved Ravi. What was there not to love? Ravi was energetic, sweet, funny, compassionate, and dedicated to the safety and well-being of his clan. What more could a mage hope to find when it came to his dragon?
It also didn’t hurt that he found Ravi absolutely delectable, and Sora wanted to sneak the dragon off somewhere private to kiss and nibble every inch of him.
But that wasn’t the best thought to be entertaining when he was waiting for his parents and the rest of the leaders of the Sodalicium. Greeting his parents with a hard-on would be a bad idea.