Bird of a Wing - Chapter 6: Chapter 6

It was late. There was no window in the small room which was Ryraso's cabin, and he could see no light coming through the edges of his door. He had gone to bed alone but there was now someone in the room with him. A shadow straddling his thighs and looming over him with large wings which covered the room. The room was only big enough for a double bed and even then it touched three of the sides of the room. Anyone else would have been scared or yelled for an alarm but Ryraso knew this man.
Ryraso knew his scent, the way his wings folded and the way shadows cast across his face in the dark of the night. He lifted a hand and cupped the man's cheek gently. "Nel'os," he murmured with a gentle smile on his face, still partly asleep. "You're not meant to be here," he scolded teasingly.
"Ry," Nel'os breathed, leaning down to press their foreheads together for a moment. "I missed you," he admitted gently, not letting his voice get too loud. Ryraso wasn't sure if the k'nairi didn't want to break the gentleness of the moment or just didn't want to be caught. Last thing Ryraso remembered, Nel'os had been in the brig.
"I miss you too but I'm not helping you out if Taidra finds out you've slipped his cage," Ryraso chuckled, trying not to let a tear roll, suddenly feeling about to cry. It was a weird sensation to wake up to something he had not felt in a long time.
"Taidra doesn't scare me," Nel'os smirked as he sat back up again. "This room is small," he mused, flexing his wings. "You deserve better."
"It's what room we had. At least I have my own cabin. Most share," Ryraso commented softly, knowing what Nel'os was trying to do here. "Can I sit up?" he asked, unable to move with Nel'os straddling him.
"No," Nel'os said plainly, his hands resting on Ryraso's chest. "I like you like this," he hummed before turning more serious. "I want to talk with you Ryraso. I have something to ask you. Something that has been our mind a lot since you left us." His voice hitched as he said us, making Ryraso's heartache.
"You make it sound like it was personal Nel. It never was, you know that," Ryraso gently pointed out, shifting slightly so he was more comfortable.
"I know," Nel'os breathed. "Still hurt, though. All of us Ryraso. We..." he paused and looked away for a moment. "Even now we would never hurt you. While you leaving was not personal, you did do something which certainly felt like it was Ry."
A tear dropped from Nel'os's face onto Ryraso. Ryraso frowned and reached up again to comfort Nel'os. "Nel..."
Nel'os grabbed his wrist and pinned it above his head. "No Ryraso. You did this, you can live with it a little while," he sneered, the effect ruined slightly as he sniffed. The big bad k'nairi not quite able to pull off being an arrogant jerk. Nel'os was not the type of k'nairi who was about to pin down someone and intimidate someone. Tai'ray and Dyn'ad could and had, but Nel'os was only making Ryraso feel for sorry for the k'nairi. It was almost pitiful.
"What did I do Nel?" Ryraso asked lightly. "What felt personal?"
"You didn't say goodbye," Nel'os croaked. "You said goodbye to Tai'ray and Aw'endo but not us. Me nor Dyn'ad." Nel'os slumped for a moment. "We knew you favoured Tai'ray over us but we would have never let you get as close as you did if we knew..." Nel'os cut himself off, apparently revealing too much. "We thought we were your friends, we thought you cared about us."
Ryraso felt his heart skip a beat as Nel'os reminded him of what had happened. He had forgotten almost, that he had never said goodbye to them.
"I..." Ryraso felt his mouth go dry. Why didn't he say goodbye? He remembered feeling sick after Tai'ray and Aw'endo but was that really a good enough reason? "I'm sorry Nel'os," he breathed.
"That's not an answer Ry," Nel'os said with a dark tone.
The grip pinning Ryraso's wrists grew tighter and Ryraso winced. "Nel'os, you're hurting me," he said calmly, watching Nel'os' expression. The way he seemed to be struggling with something.
"Sorry," Nel'os breathed, before leaning down and kissing him deeply on the lips. Ryraso struggled for a moment before he felt as Nel'os started to hold his wrists with one hand, the other cupping Ryraso's chin. "I don't care at the moment," Nel'os whispered darkly.
Ryraso sat up suddenly as a loud beeping noise woke him up. The person beside him made a complaining noise and curled into a ball and covered his eyes with the pillow Ryraso had been using. Shoulders aching, clearly not quite recovered from the previous day, Ryraso clicked on the intercom and gave a grunt of acknowledgement. As happy as he was to be awakened from that dream, he was not ready to start working again.
"We caught a bird on sweep duty," Sayskel yelled down the comm, the sounds of fighting behind him. "It's a young one and he's putting up a fight. Can you come and scare him into submission?"
Sweep duty was something done after a battle. With the elite of both sides fighting on alchemy ships occasionally, people got downed and needed collecting so both sides had taken to sweeping the battlefield and surrounding areas after fights to look for missing people. It was usually given out as a punishment and hence pranksters like the twins were often given the duty.
"What am I? The k'nairi whisper," Ryraso grumbled unhappily. "Give me 10 minutes. I'm sure even you two can hold a youngling for that long."
Sayskel let out a curse but the intercom cut off. Ryraso sighed, cracking his shoulders. The dream was a recurring one sadly, based on real events which had happened during his second year working on the ship. The ship had been flying for almost four years now, and once the k'nairi had learned he was on board, the royal triad had stepped up their game to try to talk to him.
The only part of the dream which hadn't actually happened was the kiss. Dyn'ad had been badly injured that day and Nel'os had brought him to Ryraso for help. Nel'os had been supposed to stay in the brig but had transported himself to Ryraso where he had pinned him down and demanded an answer to why he had never said goodbye. Two years later and Ryraso still had no real answer for him. Instead of kissing him when he had no answer, Nel'os had actually curled up next to him and slept the rest of the night next to him, which had been a strange experience in its own right.
"Ryraso, do you want me to come too?" his bed partner croaked, still obviously exhausted. The very young face of his apprentice peeked from behind the pillows, looking like he could sleep for another week.
"Go back to sleep Eyeri. I can deal with this," he promised. Eyeri was 16 and was sleeping in the same bed because by the time they had finished working the night before Eyeri hadn't wanted to risk waking up his brothers who had been in the fight. Eyeri had been his apprentice for almost three years now, having started out shortly after S'onon's appearance on the ship.
Eyeri didn't complain at this order and seemed to drop back into sleep pretty instantly. Ryraso smiled fondly as he dragged himself out of bed and pulled some clothes on and pondered why he had been dreaming of Nel'os. Usually, when the dream happened it meant something k'nairi related was going to happen. Ryraso sighed. This looked like whoever Sayskel had wasn't going to mean good things for him.
He wasn't in the mood for this. It had been a long week. The previous battle had been a long one, lasting almost two days on both ground and air. Ryraso had worked around the clock to save those who had been badly hurt. Allies and enemies alike, he worked as efficiently and as fast as he could without risking being sloppy. This battle, he was lucky, he lost no one today. Something he thanked the gods for. Occasionally he did lose one or two men in the rush of it all. He was only one man and even with his apprentice Eyeri helping and the few others who knew battle triage, when a battle got going there simply wasn't enough hands.
Exhaling again in frustration he poured himself a cup of coffee from a kitchenette near his room before heading to the clinic where Sayskel was likely keeping the k'nairi in one place. He wanted this situation over with as soon as possible, his stomach feeling uneasy between the dream and this unknown k'nairi. The situation reminded him of when he had met S'onon again with the way the loud yells and bangs echoed down the corridor and the sounds of wings beating.
Those sounds made him pause and wince. He could already hear that something was wrong from the movements. Those were damaged wings beating. Whoever Sayskel had dragged in had damaged wings and so would be hard to control even if he did know him. He didn't know the voice from the yells either.
Steeling himself to dealing with an injured k'nairi, he opened the door, this time not bothering to shout but instead ducking down as a chair was thrown in his direction. The fighting continued as Ryraso stood back and watched for a moment.
Ryraso couldn't get a good look at his face but he had dark brown hair which had recently been cut short. His skin was sunburnt and his clothes were the standard for a new recruit and still in good condition as well which only made it more certain that this was someone who was still young. The k'nairi's wing was damaged, bent in an unnatural way and half hidden behind him to try to shield it from more harm. The pain was no doubt making the man panic more. Fresh recruit, injured wing and captured by the enemy's elite soldiers, Ryraso felt a little sorry for the little one.
Ryraso moved to help restrain the k'nairi as Sayskel got a grip on the k'nairi's shoulders and sent him flying into the wall beside of Ryraso. The k'nairi snarled and went to leap back at the enemy soldier, but Ryraso was there first, grabbing the collar of the k'nairi's tunic, stopping him in his tracks. The k'nairi twisted to punch Ryraso, but froze as he saw who he was about to attack. Orangey yellow eyes widening on an extremely young face.
"Ryraso?" the k'nairi whispered softly, like he wasn't sure if it was really him.
The twins paused as the man said Ryraso's name. Ryraso's felt like his heart had stopped as he looked into the big eyes, his chest aching painfully. The k'nairi's eyes teared up and Ryraso felt his own do the same.
"Aw'endo?" Ryraso breathed.