CHAPTER SIX
The weather was perfect as Taveris and Caleen left behind the main building and headed out towards the field, with Taveris barely stopping himself from running. It was finally time for what could become his favorite class of all: flying together. There was no teacher with them, just him, Caleen, and the endless skies above them.
And Taveris couldn't wait to fly with his companion. Couldn't wait to show him that part of his world.
Caleen, on the other hand, seemed subdued. He had dragged the breakfast out, wondered whether the weather was good enough, and when Taveris asked if he was feeling alright, there was that moment of hesitation before Caleen said he was fine.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Taveris asked now and got a glare in response. He'd quickly learned Caleen hated being questioned after he answered something already, but he'd also noticed that sometimes it was necessary if he wanted to get to the truth. Caleen had a habit of presenting himself as if he was never tired, never impatient, never down. Most people accepted it at face value, but Taveris wasn't most people. The last thing he wanted was his bonded feeling like he had to pretend in front of him.
"So is it something related to our lesson?" he asked when they got to the spot he'd picked earlier and gestured around with the harness he was holding.
Caleen didn't answer at first, only stared right ahead at the span of open land.
Then, finally, he spoke.
"I've never been up in the air before. I'm not sure—" He shrugged. "I like the idea of flying with you, don't get me wrong. I just don't know what to expect."
Oh. Of course. Taveris should have figured it out. What for him was as natural as walking on the ground, for Caleen was completely new and, although he hadn't called it that, scary.
"How about I just tell you everything that might happen, so you can be prepared? I wasn't planning to just settle you on my back and go off, you know."
There was a blush coloring Caleen's cheeks now, and it took Taveris a second to realize his companion's mind went a little sideways.
He laughed and leaned in for a quick kiss. "Keep that in mind for later and I'll see what I can do," he whispered hotly before pulling back.
Caleen had only gotten more red.
"Why don't we stick with flying for now," he muttered under his breath.
"Whatever you say," Taveris said after a chuckle.
He went on to explain everything he could think of—from putting the harness on and securing the passenger's place in the saddle, to various things that could happen in the air. They also decided on the signals Caleen could use if he needed them to land or if something was wrong.
"I should be able to easily hear you, but just in case." Taveris figured his bonded would feel safer knowing he had different options.
Caleen nodded, but he was staring at the harness now.
"What if it breaks loose?" he asked before sucking his lower lip in.
Taveris circled his arms around Caleen's waist from behind and pressed himself close.
"It won't," he said quietly, right above his ear. "You need to fasten it when you put it on me, and then it's going to be fine. No one in the Academy has ever fallen off of it. But even if," he added, tightening his embrace for a second before relaxing. "Even if, I'd catch you. I'll always catch you."
Caleen turned in his arms and watched him with those bright eyes that made Taveris's heartbeat quicken every time.
"Okay," Caleen finally whispered and pressed a kiss onto his jaw. "Let's go, then."
Taveris grinned at him as he pulled away and stepped back to have enough space to shift. He felt the familiar, comforting stretch of muscles, and then looked down at Caleen from much higher than a second before.
He squatted down, folding his legs under him, and Caleen smiled widely as he moved closer, right up to his snout.
"Hey, beautiful," he whispered and Taveris grumbled, which only made Caleen laugh. "Get used to it. I'm going to say it all the time. Because you are," he added, serious now as he ran a hand over Taveris's snout. "You're the most beautiful being I've ever seen."
Taveris head-butted Caleen gently, hoping he would stop. Embarrassment worked the same in either form, and Taveris was as ill-equipped to handle it in this one, as in the other.
"Fine, fine." Caleen pulled back. "Let's go flying."
Putting the harness on took some time, since Caleen rechecked everything three times, but Taveris waited patiently. The last thing he wanted was to scare his mate off of something he himself loved to do.
Finally, Caleen was in his seat, secure and probably as ready as he was ever going to be. Taveris tilted his head towards him and earned himself a pat on the neck.
"Come on, then," Caleen said. "Show me what you've got."
Well, Taveris didn't need to be told twice. He took a few steps on the ground, to get used to the weight of Caleen on his back and to give him a chance to adjust as well, and then he was off.
He kept to a low height at first, circling the field a few times maybe a wing-length above ground. Then, slowly, he flew higher.
He grinned. There was nothing else like it.
He'd always loved flying, spent hours and hours in the air, so much so that when he'd been a kid, his parents often had to take off after him to bring him back down for a meal or bedtime.
It felt like the epitome of freedom. It was just him, the air, and the strength of his wings.
Now, though… Now he had his mate with him, and sharing the experience made it even better. He reached out through the bond, hoping to connect, somehow—this was the lesson part, after all, to work on their bond communication. They were only in their third week since the bonding, so it was still early, but the flight was supposed to be the best time to forge those initial connections.
And suddenly, between one second and the next, he felt something. The rush of excitement, and wonder, and joy that wasn't his.
He grinned harder and spread his wings even more.
They got this.
* * *
Taveris closed the door behind them and put his backpack to the side to deal with later. He thought he'd managed to stifle a sigh of relief, but from the look Caleen sent him, he wasn't so lucky.
"Listen, I know you hate it." Caleen crossed his arms over his chest after he'd tucked his suitcase next to the closet. "But it's something I have to do."
"I know, you've told me." Repeatedly, Taveris added in his head, but knew better than to say it out loud.
"Well, yes, I've told you, but it doesn't seem to have helped anything."
This time, Taveris didn't even try to hide his sigh. "Helped what?"
"You!" Caleen walked towards the window before turning back to him. "I thought it would help you understand. Sometimes we do things we don't particularly want to do, because we have to do them."
"Obviously," Taveris muttered, dropping onto the chair near the door. He was tired. The road back from the palace had taken longer than usual, and he'd barely slept.
"'Obviously'? What's that supposed to mean?"
"That means you don't have to explain it to me like I'm a child," Taveris said, suddenly fed up. He'd had to keep his mouth shut for two long days, three, if he added the road back. Apparently he hit his limit. "I don't need to be told that there are obligations in life."
"Then what's your problem?" Caleen looked like he wanted to step closer but remained in place, on the other side of the room. "I told you— I told you my life's like this. You knew that from the beginning."
"Well, I don't have to like it, do I?" Taveris spat and immediately regretted it when Caleen recoiled at that.
Hook it all.
He got up and moved towards his companion, but Caleen took a step back, which hurt like a punch in the gut.
"I'm sorry," Taveris said, all the anger bleeding out of him and leaving a dull ache behind. "It came out wrong. Can we start again?"
Caleen shrugged, staring at the floor.
Taveris took a tentative step forward and when Caleen didn't move this time, he took another, and another, until he was right in front of his companion.
He didn't touch him, though.
"I'm sorry," he repeated. "I'm tired and cranky, and I don't want to fight with you."
Caleen lifted his head at that. There was the same gaze Taveris had seen for three days now, the same subdued look. Taveris was so used to seeing him happy and his eyes shining, that it felt wrong to watch him like this.
"I don't want to fight with you, either," Caleen said quietly. "But if you hate what my life's about—"
"No," Taveris cut him off quickly, putting his hands on Caleen's upper arms. "That's not true."
"You just said—"
"It's not what your life's about, Caleen," Taveris told him firmly. "Your life is full of good, happy things. You're brilliant and funny, and you're well-liked here. You already proved that you're not the prince heir first, you are a person first, and people respond to that." He rubbed Caleen's arms a little. "You're not a prince when it's just you and me, either. But even when you are a prince out there, it can be good. People like you, genuinely like you—at least what they know about you. What I hate is to see you hurt. Watching you suffer is awful and I did it for three days straight."
Caleen glanced away. "It wasn't so bad."
"Yes, it was," Taveris whispered. When Caleen met his gaze again, he continued. "I knew your relationship with your father wasn't…the best, but it's different, seeing you out there. It's like you're putting on a mask, either for your family, or for the crowds. I wasn't—" He paused, not knowing what to say. "I wasn't ready, I guess."
He wasn't sure he would ever be ready. Or if he even wanted to be.
Caleen lowered his arms and put his hands on Taveris's hips, staring at them with a frown.
"I don't even notice it anymore," he admitted quietly. "I've been here a few months and you can already— You know me better than anyone, now." He tightened his grip before relaxing it again. "And it's not simply because we're companions. It's because I can be myself with you."
"I don't want you to be anyone else," Taveris told him, resting his forehead against Caleen's. "You're all I want. The real you."
"These masks, though, they're also me. Just—not all of me."
"No," Taveris agreed.
Caleen shrugged. For a while, they stood like that, holding each other in silence.
"I'm sorry I got angry at you," Caleen whispered, raising his head. "I was just afraid that after you saw what my life out there looked like, you wouldn't want any of it."
Taveris kissed him—a hard, almost desperate kiss that felt like it didn't belong in the safety of this room. Their room.
"There's nothing, here or out there, that would make me not want to be with you," he said when they parted. "Nothing. I'm sorry I ever made you doubt that."
Caleen opened his mouth as if he wanted to argue, but whatever he saw on Taveris's face made him close it and nod.
"I hate to see you hurt," Taveris repeated. "That's never going to change. But I'm going to work on getting through those trips better, okay? I want to support you, always, not make you feel even worse."
"You did make it better," Caleen insisted. "You changed my life for the better so much, you don't even know. Maybe that's why this trip was so hard. I was used to living like this, before, presenting a particular front and hiding the rest. Now that I can live more openly and be happy, it's harder to get back to that life. But this is what I have to do," he added, frowning slightly. "There are going to be trips and appearances where I'll have to play my part. It's not all bad, though, I swear."
Taveris hoped so. Because watching his bonded going through this over and over again might make him snap one day and forget himself in front of the king.
"Okay," he said for now, pulling Caleen closer until they were pressed against each other. "Okay."
* * *
Caleen pushed him against the door as soon as they were inside and attacked his mouth as if he wanted to swallow him whole. Taveris went with it for a while, then lifted him until Caleen was straddling his hips and walked them towards the bed.
"Hook," Caleen moaned against his lips. He loved it when Taveris did that and Taveris had no problems exploiting it as often as possible. He stood like this for a while as they kissed, but then he lowered them onto the bed, covering Caleen as soon as he landed on the mattress.
Taveris rolled his hips down and swallowed another moan from his bonded. They were both flying high after passing the final test in yet another class and they deserved a celebration.
"Get naked," Caleen told him between kisses and Taveris pulled back with a smirk.
"As you wish."
They undressed quickly, not caring where their clothes landed, and then Caleen pulled him closer again and attached his lips to the spot under Taveris's jaw that he knew drove him out of his mind.
Taveris swore and reached blindly beneath his pillow for the lube he'd left there this morning. He felt desperate, impatient, desire thrumming under his skin and needing the release.
"What do you want?"
"For you to ride me," Caleen told him, his hands roaming over Taveris's body as if he couldn't get enough.
Yes. Yes.
"Perfect," Taveris murmured and leaned in for another kiss before pulling back to stretch himself. He didn't need much, but since Caleen enjoyed watching him do it, Taveris usually liked to tease him with it for a while.
Not today, though.
As he lowered himself on Caleen's cock, the initial sensation made his breath catch in his chest, same as always.
A second passed, then two, and he could breathe again, so he started moving, leaving a line of sloppy kisses along Caleen's shoulder and neck. As much as they both liked to go slow most of the time, sometimes they needed just this—quick and a little wild, pushing each other until they fell off the cliff together.
And what a fall it was.
The aftershocks were still going off inside him as Taveris rolled them so they were lying face to face, legs tangled and sweat cooling off. Caleen's lips were puffy and red, and there were marks alongside his shoulder where Taveris's mouth had been.
He grinned and Caleen laughed, loud, and open, and beautiful.
"I love you," Taveris told him, because sometimes these words spilled out of him without any control.
He never regretted it, though, especially since it usually earned him that look Caleen was giving him now.
"I love you, too." He reached over to run the back of his hand over Taveris's cheek. His smile softened. "Would you marry me?"
Taveris, whose mind apparently wasn't really back in his body just yet, blinked once and then again.
"You mean, in theory or…"
Caleen snorted and dropped his hand, but Taveris caught it and pulled it against his chest.
"In practice." Caleen's smile slowly disappeared, yet his eyes were still shining bright. "I'm asking you, will you marry me?"
Taveris's heartbeat had barely had enough time to slow down after sex and now it was thundering in his chest again.
Caleen wanted them to get married.
Caleen proposed.
Four years in, and this man could still take Taveris's breath away with a single sentence.
Any hesitation over the practicalities of the idea, any worry, it all faded away in that moment. There was only one answer to give.
"I would love to marry you." He leaned in for a soft kiss before resting his forehead against Caleen's. His heart felt like it was going to explode as his bonded pulled his hand to his lips and kissed his knuckles.
"Then that's what we're going to do," he whispered in the small space between them.
Taveris closed his eyes.