Bonded

Chapter Twelve

...

Kavya

...

"Do... Do you really think he'll still be awake right now, Ronin?" My future husband never ceases to find different ways to amaze me... The fact that he had somehow managed to figure out which window belonged to India's chambers during our patrolling astounding to me in just the simple fact that I had not noticed him looking for it all night long... I had simply followed him faithfully like I usually do when it was his turn to take the lead...

"Even if he's not... I do not think it would be much longer until he wakes... The scholars rise early... And what better way for him to wake than to be greeted by both the kiss of the sun's warmth upon his face and the sound of our beasts serenading him... To repay him for all of those beautiful chirps he gifted us..." In all honesty, it sounds more like Ronin himself cannot stand to stay away from our new acquaintance, not that I myself do not understand the draw...

It had been harder than I had ever imagined walking away from India earlier this evening... But somehow we had both managed to do it and to make it through our entire shift without focusing all of our conversations solely on the sweet way he blushes and how the gentle scent of the roses from the gardens that surround the palace clings to his hair and rolls off of him in waves every time he moves hinting st just how much time he must spend outside walking his way through the winding trails and footpaths that are open to all of us who dwell here...

It had been hard keeping our minds off of him with how wonderfully charming he is... And how sorrowful he had seemed over our departure no matter how nervous he had been when we had first approached him... By the end of our time together at the start of the evening, I fear that Ronin and I may have already started falling in love with the charming creature that is India...

...

Ronin

...

"You... Are a mad man... But oh, how I love you...What if he does not take kindly to our serenade?" Kavya's worry is so sweet that it almost causes me to pause so close to our goal while guiding him so that I might take a moment to pull my lover into my arms and tell him just how much I hope India hears our call and finds himself smiling when his stunning blue eyes flutter open and that he feels called upon to sing back to us... For what better a way for us to announce to the entire palace that new love has filled the air than with a crisp early morning song from two lovesick fools and the most beautiful scholar this world has ever seen?

All sets of ears around us would feel so very lucky to get the chance to hear India sing back to us from his window to let us know that he hears us and that he appreciates that we are here... That he would do absolutely anything to be able to come down to us early even though we all know we three would be greeted with a line of very stern Master scholars upon returning to the palace so that India might break his fast after the early morning dew had evaporated and our jubilant song subsides...

"I think... That India will be glad to have heard us... And that if we are gentle enough he might actually sing back to us... Though we would have to listen carefully to hear him." My answer is careful as we close in on the spot right under the balcony that I know belongs to India and the other pupils he beds down with and I cannot help but fear that the knots currently bundled in my stomach may very well keep my voice from being heard properly...

It turns out though that I do not need to worry so very much about being the one who starts our intertwined song, for Kavya relieves me of the duty, his voice ringing out so very softly at first and then building up so very beautifully that I cannot help but lift my voice up to join him... The two of us forgetting where we are as our beasts rise up and sing of the new draw that they feel towards the blue-eyed beauty who spends his nights tucked away and slumbering in the chambers we are currently aiming our voices at... Our joy so very present as we give the sunrise the happiest most love sore greeting that it ever has received...

...

India

...

By the time I find myself opening my eyes, I think that it cannot possibly be time yet for the sunlight to be throwing itself at my eyelids so very aggressively... But when my eyes creep open I realize that it is not the sun that wakes me... Not really...

But the sound of two very elated dragons somewhere underneath our opened window... The blending of voices so very harmonious that I am almost not sure where one voice stops and the other begins, chirps trying to bubble their way up and out of my chest as my beast tries to lend its voice to the ones filling the air... My instincts telling me that if I were to rise from my bed and look out onto the garden below us that I would find the very same set of soldiers that Jian and I stayed up half the night talking about and discussing trying to figure out what the two of them could ever see in me and why they would be so very interested in courting me...

We could not figure out exactly why... But in the end, we both decided that it mattered not... Just the fact that even after they left I could not banish the smile they had placed upon my face... And now here they are again... Their beasts calling out to mine and singing a song so very sweet that I almost find myself sick with how much I long to run to them and find myself in their arms once more like I had been when pinned in the hallway... I want to feel their kisses once more upon my cheeks and I want to end the day falling asleep just as I had last night... Smiling like a fool while starting to understand what everyone is speaking of when they use the word love...

Smiling because I am beginning to understand that the warmth blossoming inside of my stomach as one chirp after another begins to push itself from my tongue... That it means that I shall finally know what it means to be loved and to love...