Ancient Wings : Book 1 - Aegis

30 - His Resolve

December 19

Cidney woke up slowly.

His body didn't want to move, he didn't even want to wake up. But once he started waking up, there was no going back. He reached down and scratched his leg.

My legs!

He opened his eyes then lifted his foot to examine his leg. It looked good; no scarring, no hideous deformities. Just a normal leg.

He wiggled his toes to make sure they worked. They did.

"Checking to make sure all your toes are there?" Kraten asked quietly.

He smiled as he brought his leg back down. Kraten got off the dresser.

"Maybe," he said innocently.

Kraten chuckled.

Cidney looked up at him, not bothering to move. "Thank you for taking care of me."

Kraten's silver eyes were warm as he smiled.

"I didn't," he said.

Huh?

"Then who...?"

"Khaius took care of you," Kraten said. "He wouldn't leave your side until your legs finished regenerating."

He rubbed his eyes with one hand. "Why... why would he do that? He hates me."

Kraten smirked. "It is what Pairs do," he explained as he moved around to his side of the bed. "And it wasn't hate I saw yesterday."

Before he could ask about that, Kraten took his hands and pulled. Suddenly, Cidney was sitting on the side of the bed.

Kraten's eyes ran over his face. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired. Sore and a little groggy, like I got my legs chopped off," he muttered, deciding to put that new information away for now.

"Good, but I still want a look at your legs to make sure the nerves regenerated correctly," Kraten told him.

He raised an eyebrow.

"That sounds like doctor talk," he pointed out.

Kraten smiled. "Probably, because I am a doctor," he admitted.

"Really?"

"Yes," he assured him. "I graduated in nineteen twenty-five, nineteen fifty, nineteen seventy-six-"

"Alright, alright, you're a doctor. An old one at that," he teased.

"Says the boy who is almost two hundred years old," Kraten chuckled.

He looked up at him.

"Says the two-thousand-year-old man," he countered.

Kraten grinned down at him.

"Respect your elders, child," he told Cidney as he knelt in front of him. Both Kraten's hands took his right foot off the floor.

"Can you wiggle your toes for me?" Kraten asked in a professional voice.

He wiggled his toes for him.

"Good." Kraten put that foot down and lifted the other. "Again?"

He wiggled those toes.

"Good, any pain?"

"Nope," he answered.

Kraten's eyes met his. "I want to check the nerves in your legs," he said.

He nodded. Kraten's examination was made up of tapping on his legs and asking if he could feel it. By the time he was done, Cidney was feeling the need for a shower.

"Everything looks to be in good working order. You're cleared to go back to your normal routine," Kraten said. "And I have some business in the Aether to take care of."

Kraten got up and headed for the door. He paused and turned back to him. "Don't let Khaius scare you off. He needs you more than he knows."

Before he could reply, Kraten left his bedroom, closing the door softly behind him.

Feeling disgusting, he went into his bathroom and took a shower. He was rinsing the shampoo out of his hair when Kraten's words ran through his mind.

Khaius had taken care of him. There was no reason for Kraten to lie to him, so the man must have.

He didn't know what to think of that.

Khaius had stayed after he told him to go, what did that mean?

Did he want to try? Or was it just the Pairing forcing him to stay?

He didn't want to ask. Maybe he really didn't want to know. And what was that about Khaius needing him?

He wasn't going to find answers hiding in there. He quickly finished his shower.

He pulled on a pair of jeans and a teal long-sleeve shirt. He blow dried his hair, left it down and headed out his bedroom door.

Khaius was in the living room. He was looking at the books in the bookcase again. He was his ever-pristine self in a gray suit and a white dress shirt. His hair was perfect, as usual.

Was Kraten wrong?

Khaius seemed perfectly fine. Not knowing what to think, Cidney headed into the kitchen.

He went to the full coffee maker and poured a cup of coffee. He was stirring the cream and sugar when Khaius spoke.

"Cidney, can we speak?" he asked, his voice polite and... nervous?

He turned to him and stopped short.

There were bags under Khaius's eyes, and his mouth was a tight line.

Maybe yesterday had hit a nerve?

"Yes, we should probably talk," he admitted.

He moved into the living room area and sat on the couch. Khaius hesitated only a moment before he walked around the coffee table and sat on it in front of him.

The silence grew longer as he sipped his coffee, waiting for Khaius to start.

Cidney finally looked up at him. Khaius opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again with a grimace.

He waited.

After several more attempts to speak, Khaius growled in frustration before he met his gaze.

"The things I say never quite come out correctly with you," Khaius said, his voice quiet. "I'd like you to enter my mind, so that this time, I can show you."

He blinked at him in shock.

He wanted to give me access to his mind? To everything he is?

He couldn't believe it.

"Do you understand what that means, Khaius?" he asked gently. "Are you prepared for what I might see?"

Khaius's eyes were piercing as he held his gaze.

"You won't look without permission, that much I do know about you," Khaius said.

Cidney weighed the pros and cons. On one hand, he might get a better understanding of Khaius. On the other, he might learn that Khaius hates him.

But all his debating melted away when Khaius spoke again.

"Please?"

"Alright." He set his mug on the floor, then scooted forward a bit more until he was close enough that his arm wouldn't hurt while touching his face.

His knees ended up between Khaius's thighs. He met his gaze again and reached up.

Khaius wrapped his big hand around Cidney's wrist and brought his palm to his face.

Cidney closed his eyes and focused.

He slipped into Khaius's mind gently, like slipping into a lake.