Chapter 9
Sora showed up at the appointed spot for dinner with absolutely no idea how the evening would progress.
Ravi had invited him outside, onto a back-patio area near the greenhouse.
It offered privacy, beauty—the view of the mountains was gorgeous in the setting sun—and had a very date-like feel.
Sora was very happy about that last part.
Ravi was the type to use flirtation as communication, so he hadn’t been able to get a good read on the man.
But the invitation for dinner and drinks tonight was a good indication that Ravi, too, felt the pull of attraction between them.
As he ascended the two steps to the round courtyard, he gave a double take.
Oh, this was definitely a date.
The picnic table had a snowy white tablecloth over it, with enclosed candles bracketing covered dishes, casting the area in a warm glow.
The white dishes were pristine, and the whole thing looked like something out of a romantic comedy.
Sora had never been on a date where someone had gone to this much trouble.
He was, in a word, touched.
Ravi had a minibar set up on the stone wall nearby, but his ears caught Sora’s entrance, and he turned with a wide smile. “There you are, handsome. Did Lisette finally let go of you?”
“It was a near thing. Although, really, it was Tori asking the most questions.”
Sora had a better sense of Tori’s background after a full day with him and the other mages. For someone who was basically self-taught, it was amazing how much Tori knew.
“Oh yeah, I can see that. Well, sit, relax.”
Sora took a seat as he inhaled deeply. “What is that amazing smell?”
“Sauerbraten. It’s a marinated beef roast. I snitched some from the kitchens. We’ve got Rotkohl and Semmelknodel to go with it.”
“I have no idea what any of that is, but it smells delicious.”
Sora was perfectly alright trying things he didn’t recognize. Trying new foods was actually one of his favorite parts about traveling.
Ravi started lifting metal covers from the dishes, revealing dinner in stages.
The first seemed to be a round bread dumpling, which would be fun to eat.
The other, a purple cabbage dish? Or something that looked like it.
Sora took a serving spoon and gave himself a healthy serving of each.
He had eaten lunch on the go, and after a full day of talking and being on his feet, sitting and eating felt like a luxury.
As Ravi served himself food, Sora thought to ask, “How was your day?”
“Oh, just as busy as yours,” Ravi responded lightly.
“We had a lot of paperwork to do in order to settle our new mages in. Some people dropped everything and flew over here to be tested, and now that they’re mages, well, we’ve got to untangle their lives enough for them to stay here.
We’re also trying to balance it out so that the ice dragons get some of the mages, or at least interact enough with them so people are aware they have a choice between clans. ”
Sora had wondered about that. “Surely not every person who was at your gate proved to be a mage?”
“Very few, in fact. Some of them were just wannabes; they had nothing in their family history that made them think they actually were mages. Some of them had the history but didn’t prove to be mages themselves.
We sat and talked longer with them, though, got an idea of who else in the family might be a mage.
We did end up finding two more this morning though.
“Heh, that was actually kind of funny. It was a mother who brought her daughter in for testing, and then we realized the mom was a mage, too. Surprised the hell out of her. But she ended up staying. I would think it would be hard to walk away from your life and start all over, but…surprisingly, all of our mages do it.”
This didn’t surprise Sora. “It’s incredibly fulfilling, magic.
Like no other experience. And there’s something amazing about learning what you’re truly meant to do in life.
What your calling is. There are so many people who never achieve that.
For the mother, I imagine she’d never thought she would have this kind of insight into herself.
Of course she’d feel compelled to stay and see it through. ”
Ravi relaxed on the bench, chocolate brown eyes captivating as he looked at Sora. “Is that what healing magic is for you?”
The seriousness of the question surprised him. Ravi had never regarded him so frankly before. And it meant he truly wanted an answer.
He didn’t have a ready one to give. Sora had to pause and really think about it for a moment.
And he had to think about how to phrase it, how to say it without giving too much away.
These half-truths and evasive answers were starting to wear thin.
Sora’s nature wasn’t to lie, and he wanted, achingly, to be completely truthful with Ravi.
When Ravi himself was so transparent and open, it made him want to respond in kind.
It was difficult to be in this position where he was constrained from doing so.
“My family has always been made up of healers. We are known for it. I think, when I was still too young to really question matters, I learned how to heal because everyone in the family did it. Of course I would do it, too, and I wanted to be just like everyone else. It wasn’t until my late teens that I questioned it, why I was learning and investing so much time in it all.
Eventually, what I found was I like the challenge of it.
And it’s immensely satisfying to look at someone who was once in terrible pain, knowing it was my knowledge and actions that helped them.
That restored them back to the health they once enjoyed. ”
“Oh, having a challenge is something I completely understand. You’d think my job would be pretty routine and boring on a day-to-day basis, and yet things still somehow stay just crazy enough to keep me on my toes.”
Sora snorted. “I think that has less to do with the job and more to do with you.”
Lifting his glass, Ravi toasted him. “You are not wrong. Here, eat, I didn’t mean to keep you talking. You probably didn’t get lunch today.”
“A sandwich, but that was eaten on the run. There was so much to teach.” Sora took a bite of the roast first and moaned in appreciation.
“Good, right?” Ravi asked in a knowing way.
“It’s so tangy, like a bite of sourness chased by sweetness. The flavor is amazing, and the beef is so tender.”
“We marinate the beef for days before cooking it. It’s a favorite here, but we don’t always go to the effort of making it.”
“A pity. I would definitely like to have this more often.” Sora took another bite with a sigh of bliss. So yummy. Maybe he could beg the recipe off someone. This was definitely something he wanted to take home with him. “Are you on a rotation here, in the kitchens?”
“Oh, yes. We all take turns. Gunter, when it’s his turn, he buys everyone dinner. He seriously burns everything. But most of us choose to cook. Do you? Like to cook?”
“I cook more for survival. That said, I’m a decent cook. Whatever I make generally turns out alright. I’m forever frustrated because I’ll come across some cuisine on my travels that I want to duplicate, and I can rarely find all the ingredients for it, so nothing ever comes out quite right.”
Ravi perked up a little. “You travel?”
“All the time. I’m abroad more than I am at home.
The world is full of amazing things, and I really want to see more of it.
I started traveling at eighteen, and it’s become something of an ingrained habit now.
” Like a secret, Sora leaned a little forward and admitted, “Not all of my trips were for leisure. I’d sometimes sneak elements out of storage and head for a disaster area, somewhere in a developing country where I knew help wouldn’t really be coming. ”
Ravi’s expression was shrewd. “For the challenge. Because nothing is challenging for you at home.”
“Nothing at all,” Sora confirmed with a sigh.
“It’s very boring at home. But it doesn’t sit well with me, either.
I have all of this training and knowledge, and the world is in desperate need of what I know.
Why not share it? But, of course, my family is very focused on staying hidden, so it’s not like I can do anything openly. ”
“I understand that, trust me.”
Sora’s head came up. Yes. Yes, this man would truly understand.
“Did it grate on you? Having to remain hidden?”
“Sometimes. Often when I flew.” Ravi turned his head to look at the sky, now touched with purples and golds and oranges as the sun sank steadily below the horizon.
“Because I had to fly in places where no one was around, or wait for foggy days that would cover me. Or only fly at night. It was so incredibly restrictive. I just wanted to fly when the mood struck. But I knew why I had the restrictions, that Alric was barely managing to keep it all together as it was, which is why I never bucked the system. Well, not on purpose.”
“But that’s obviously changed? If your king is willing to step out into the world again.”
“Having Cameron is what changed him. Hoheit no longer feels like he’s shouldering all the responsibility, and Cameron is very much the outgoing sort.
He takes Hoheit’s fears and concerns, and challenges them, turns them on their head.
Before Hoheit really knows what hit him, he’d turned his own opinion inside out.
” Ravi shook his head, an amused smile on his face.
“Mates are amazing. I’ve seen my clanmates, people I’ve known for hundreds of years, become different people because of their mates. ”
“In good ways, I hope.”
“Oh yeah. I mean, totally in the best of ways. It’s fascinating to watch.”
Sora sensed what he really meant by that. “You mean, fun to tease them about.”
Grin in place, Ravi didn’t deny this, just innocently bit into his food.
Sora didn’t challenge this but let his expression say volumes on the subject. Such a mischievous little dragon.
He finished off his plate with a sigh of true satisfaction. But, as he put the fork back down, he couldn’t help but comment, “What is that setup over there, anyway? Is that for us?”
“Oh, the bean bags and the projector? Yeah. The courtyard is mainly used for outdoor movie nights. It’s why I set up out here.” Ravi’s grin stretched from ear to ear even as he waggled a playful finger. “We’re not just doing drinks, no, no. That would be boring.”
“And we can’t possibly be boring,” Sora deadpanned, dry as a martini.
“Of course not. Perish the thought.”
“We’re doing a drinking game, aren’t we?” It wasn’t much of a guess.
“Ding, ding, ding! Someone get the man a cookie.”
Sora should have anticipated this. With a wind dragon in charge of dinner, of course things wouldn’t go normally. This dinner was a lure, a false advertisement. But he didn’t mind it. Time spent with Ravi was never boring.
“And what movie are we watching? What’s the game?”
“We are watching, good sir, Lord of the Rings.”
Sora’s interest perked. He’d only seen the movie once, but he’d also read the books and enjoyed both. He was very much a fan of fantasy, so Ravi’s choice was a good one.
But.
But a drinking game.
To Lord of the Rings.
Sora wasn’t sure how well that would go. “And we’re taking shots to…?”
“Every time the main theme song is played,” Ravi said, ticking each rule off on his fingers, “they do a panoramic view with the camera, or the ring is mentioned.”
As expected. That gut feeling was dead on. “Wait, we’re going to be drunk in fifteen minutes with those rules!”
“Usually takes most people thirty.” Ravi’s grin didn’t abate; rather, he added an outrageous eyebrow waggle. “Unless you’re a lightweight.”
“I am not. But I’m beginning to think you’re going to drink me under the table. You do remember that your metabolism is faster than mine? That you can process alcohol at twice the speed I can?”
Ravi pretended to think about this. “I can give you a handicap.”
That was apparently as good an offer as Sora would get. But he couldn’t back down. He didn’t want to. He wanted to meet the challenge in Ravi’s eyes.
“Alright, dragon, you’re on.”
“That’s the spirit!” Ravi sprung up, a whirling dervish as he went for the bar. “I’ll get drinks, you get comfy.”
Sora headed for the bean bags, oversized that they were, and hoped he’d eaten enough to be able to process the truly ungodly amount of alcohol he was about to consume.
Ravi came to him, handed him a tray with glasses lined up neatly in a row, then deviated long enough to flip on the projector and start the film. Holding the tray off to the side, Sora gave him room to climb in. Of course, it being a bean bag, Ravi ended up close, hip pressed into Sora’s.
In an overexaggerated manner, he cooed, “Ooh-la-la.”
Sora snickered, shaking his head. This man was so incorrigible. “I hope you’re comfortable.”
“I am perfect, thanks for asking. Now, pass the booze.”
Alright, he wasn’t going to let this man lead him around by the nose all evening.
Sora situated the tray first, but then he slid an arm around Ravi’s shoulders, getting them both comfortable.
Ravi leaned into the hold with an almost audible purr, the happy rumble dragons made when blissfully content.
Oh.
Oh, he made Ravi happy, too? That knowledge went straight to his head, swelling it.
Sora usually felt so awkward and out of joint with people on dates. He’d never been on one like this, where he enjoyed his date’s company even as he thrilled at every touch. It was so perfectly fun and enjoyable, with no judgements being made even as he confessed to little sins.
And then there was the way this amazing man looked at him, as if he were delighted to spend time with Sora. It was indeed a very heady feeling. One Sora had never experienced before.
His parents had always bemoaned his lack of partner and asked repeatedly what it was he hoped to find, why he didn’t like the people he’d tried to date.
Sora hadn’t been able to explain it to them.
Just that there was something lacking. Comfort, trust, attraction—usually his date fell short in some way or another.
Tonight, he had no such complaints. This was all too perfect. For once, Sora wasn’t eyeing the door and wondering how to gracefully extract himself. He wanted this night to continue. And a repeat, however soon he could manage it. Which was very telling, as he’d never wanted that before.
Could…Ravi possibly be…?
“Ooh, we have main theme song!” Ravi lifted a drink from the tray. “Bottoms up!”
The thought broke, and Sora blinked back into the present. He took a glass and clinked it against Ravi’s. “Bottoms up.”
Enjoy tonight, he mentally chastised himself. You can always think later. And every moment with Ravi should be enjoyed.
Hopefully he wouldn’t get so drunk he’d forget half the evening. Although, at the rate they were planning to consume alcohol, Sora didn’t give that high odds.