Bonded

Chapter Thirteen

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India

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With how their sound pulls on every part of my body it as though I had had no other choice but to rise and try and dress myself at least partially... My robes being shrugged on just as Jian finds his eyes drawn hesitantly open, a scowl forming on his lips as he moans at me over the serenade floating up through our shared window meant for me... The other pupils that we bed down with all slowly stirring just in time to witness my face flush even more so than it already has at his sleep-muddled words, "I presume this wake-up call is for you, no? "

With his bedding so close to my own and his eyes focused so sternly on me, it is not as though I can pretend that I do not know who he is talking to... Not that I would ever want to his the strange infatuation that Kavya, Ronin, and I seem to have for each other... It would feel wrong to deny the fact that I know very well who's beasts are calling to me so sweetly, their beasts crying out with joy so stunningly over finding me that it is becoming increasingly hard not to throw myself through the corridors until I find myself flung into the garden so that I might find myself in their arms with how brightly the fire in the pit of my belly has been coaxed into burning...

The song itself is entrancing... The way their voices seem to wrap around each other so well hypnotizing almost... Each note and chirp pulling on my body and mind so fondly that it is as if I have found myself pressed up against the wall once more with the two of them sheltering me with their lips pressed against my cheeks as we were last night... Instead of bothering to confirm with Jian that yes, this early morning rousing is indeed meant for me... I find myself simply tying the rest of the ties on the upper half of my outer robe and fling myself as quickly as I can over to our window so that I might look upon the faces of the men who have so joyfully woken me from my sleep so that my own voice might join theirs unrepressed and lifted to the heavens so that everyone might know that I find myself so very moved by the two of them.

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Kavya

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It had been all too easy to let my eyes flutter shut when Ronin had pulled me into his arms... Our positioning similar to how we would sing together down at the river while waiting for the ink to set in my hair... Our voices much louder at the moment than they've ever been down by the water... I know that my eyes should have been turned upwards so that I could take in the sunrise while we wait for our lovely India to wake himself and find that lovely smile he had shared with us last night so many times...

But just as I had assumed he would, my lover alerts me to when my eyelids should lift themselves by giving me a squeeze, my eyes opening only to find themselves looking upward at the window we find ourselves perched under only to find the stunning sight of India greeting me, the radiant smile he gives us putting my memory to shame as we take in his sleep ruffled hair and the multitude of misjoined and mistied ties on his robe...

A sign that we might have flustered the poor delicate thing... Not that I think he minds the flustering with how beautifully he lets loose his voice so that he and his beast might join in our song... His voice smooth and even as he rests his elbows on the edge of the window, almost as if he's trying to fight the urge to reach down his hands to us so that we might take them and join him up in his private quarters just as we both know we shouldn't so soon...

Everything about him is just as rendering and charming as it had been last night... And I find myself even more smitten than I had known I was when my lips had found their way to his supple cheek during our parting... The way his entire face had filled with color... The way he hand leaned after us as if wishing he could follow... All of it had made me feel as though we were each leaving a piece of our hearts behind for him to hold, and all night all I had wanted to do was stare into his stunningly blue eyes and find myself lost in them...

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Ronin

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Having sweet India appear in his window leaves Kavya and I hanging on to each other even more desperately as we find ourselves moved by the brilliant way his voice lends itself so wonderfully to our song...

His voice itself is almost mystifying... The way it seems to float so very lightly in the air... It makes me wonder if that indeed is how his dragon also carries itself... Feather-light and nearly swept away on the wind... It makes me want to see him shift and know what it feels like to have him glide under the shelter of mine and Kavya's wings...

I have a feeling that it would be a glorious feeling... And that if we were to land somewhere to sun ourselves that he would fit so perfectly wedged between us or draped across one of our beast's bellies for comfort... The three of us soaring together with a question of me finding a way to ask him if he would like to the next time Kavya and I find ourselves with an odd day off of duty...

Just the thought makes my voice grow even louder... Our desire to accept India into both of our arms and into our relationship with the title of wife when we do eventually marry a thought that had begun to circle over and over again in my mind as we walked all night... My fixation on him thankfully so shared and embraced by my firey-haired soulmate that there is not a doubt in my mind that Kavya does not feel any differently than I do on the matter... And as we stare up at him and entangle our voices further...

The smile on India's beautifully flushed face makes me hope that he feels the same... Or... At least that he's thought about it at any length...