“You know, I watch a lot of anime, I know what that means.”
Snickering, he kissed him again. “I’m glad you do.”
Wrapping both arms around him, Ravi hugged Sora tightly, that rumbling noise dragons made when perfectly happy pouring out of him.
Sora held him back just as strongly, just as happy. Upset he couldn’t purr, too, because for the first time in his life, he wanted to. “You are the blessing I always wished for and was worried I’d never find.”
“I’d mostly given up on finding you, to be honest. It wasn’t until this past year that I allowed myself to hope that maybe I’d find someone to love, after all.”
“I’m glad our hopes came true. It pains me that you hesitated in telling me, though. I want you to be honest with your feelings. I don’t want you to censure yourself like this again.”
Ravi pulled back enough to look up into his eyes. “I know mages sometimes struggle to realize they’re with the right person. You don’t have a dragon in your ear telling you that you’ve found your mate. I didn’t want to scare you by rushing.”
“I understand why you hesitated, but please, don’t do it again. Even if I don’t feel the same way about something, I don’t want you suffering in silence.”
Nodding, Ravi looked down and away for a second. “Then let me say this. Sora, what are we going to do? We’re from two different clans. We’ve got multiple countries between us.”
It was something Sora had asked himself several times. He still had no ready answer. “I can’t take you from this clan.”
“Well, technically, you can. Alric already said he’d release me from my duties if I felt I should go with you. It’s just…” Ravi trailed off, biting at his lower lip.
This felt like the wrong decision. Sora shook his head slowly. “Burkhard is shorthanded as it is. Even with my clan coming to help you, that wouldn’t be my first choice. But I think this is something we need to thoroughly weigh out and discuss before coming to a conclusion. Either way, I promise you, we’ll come up with the right answer. We might end up living here, or with my clan, or on Mars—”
Ravi startled, then grinned. “Mars? Really?”
“We’ll be the first mage and dragon in outer space. But regardless of what we decide, I’m not separating from you. That is what I’m standing firm on.”
Ravi’s eyes flashed gold for a moment. “No. I won’t lose you. We’ll figure this out.”
With both of them determined, Sora had faith they would.
“Can’t believe you two,” Sora’s mother fussed as she sat at the small table. “Leaving me out like that. I fully intended to examine King Alric myself, you know. I just hadn’t gotten to it, yet.”
“You were slow,” her husband teased, then dodged her as she reached over to smack him.
Sora rolled his eyes. They were meeting in his sitting room, ostensibly to discuss how many healers the Burkhard Clan needed, who would be a good choice to send here, and for how long. It was supposed to be a serious conversation, but, of course, his father couldn’t resist getting a dig in, and his mother, predictably, was irritated that she hadn’t been invited to join the party.
“We’ll need to leave someone here who has excellent surgical skills,” Ryu informed his wife. “It will take multiple surgeries to correct the damage.”
“I expected as much, what with his condition sitting like this for five hundred years.” Her expression became pinched, a little ashamed. “I wish our founders had thought it through and at least notified the other clans about where they were going. Checked to see if they were alright before leaving.”
Both men grunted in agreement. Sora’s parents hadn’t been alive during the great migration, of course. They were far too young for that. Sora tried not to judge anyone who’d had to make hard decisions in the heat of the moment. He had only an intellectual understanding of the pressures and heartbreak they’d faced at that time. It must have been beyond difficult to figure out the best course of action. Still, when he looked at King Alric and his own sweet Ravi, it was hard to not find fault with the way things had been handled.
“At least we can make up for it now.” His father settled his small travel laptop on the table and opened the lid, booting it up. “Right. Who all should come?”
Sora had already thought about this. “Before you start listing off people, one of the Burkhards here is very keen on learning more medicine. Tori. Have you met him?”
His father shrugged, but his mother nodded.
“Oh, yes, he’s very kind. And keen on herbology. I bumped into him at the greenhouse, and we had this wonderful discussion about everything he’s growing.” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “You say he wants to learn more of the medical trade?”
“Yes, he told me so himself. He’s apparently very interested, but has had no real way to study, aside from reading books. He’s been innovative with potions since his arrival here.”
Sora was torn about offering to teach Tori himself. His foray into teaching had gone well, so far, and the idea of teaching someone did excite him. Especially if it was an eager student, and he had a feeling Tori fell into that category. But he didn’t consider himself experienced enough to do a good job.
“That’s excellent news. Really, we can’t lend people to this clan indefinitely. We need to get their healing skills up, even if it’s by one person.”
Sora almost instinctively objected to this. It wouldn’t be just one person. Including himself, it would be two.
He almost said this aloud. Then realized what had just raced through his mind and paused, mouth chewing on words he couldn’t quite form.
Why had he automatically put himself at Burkhard Castle?
It was true that he’d been thinking long and hard on this, about what would be best. To stay here with Ravi or bring Ravi back to his own clan. There were pros and cons for either decision. He and Ravi had been up most of the night discussing it, trying to figure out the best course of action. Sora felt guilty for even suggesting Ravi leave, which had hampered the discussion some.
Ravi was so incredibly invested in and important to this clan. Ravi was also very hesitant about the idea of leaving his clan behind while they were still in danger.
Sora’s father seemed to sense his conflict, his heavy eyebrows lifting. “What? You’ve got a funny look on your face.”
Sora decided to voice his thoughts. He’d always been able to speak candidly with his parents, and it might be better to put the thought out there, instead of letting it ping-pong around in his head.
“Why do you assume that you’ll need to train someone here?”
His parents shared a baffled look, as if they didn’t understand the question.
“Well, they need a healer, don’t they?” His mother looked at him as if he’d lost a few marbles.
“Why do you assume I won’t be that healer?” Sora clarified.
“Ah, that’s what you meant.” His father opened his mouth, shot his wife another indecipherable look, then obviously reconsidered what he had been about to say. “Are you thinking you’ll stay here?”