Bonded

Chapter Six

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India

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"Maybe it would be best if we were speak of this in my office... Do you each have a moment?" Master Qiao is gentle in his approach to answering the bonded soldiers asking of me... His words light as they settle into the air around us rescuing me from having to live out this moment in front of all of my peers, too many of them staring at us all as we all try and figure out what exactly is going on... The way the two of them are holding hands suggesting that they are exactly the bonded pair we all can plainly see that they are... Even if their voices and minds seem focused on me instead of each other... Their gazes causing me shivers that I can not seem to explain to myself... "And then maybe you can explain to me just what you mean?"

Master Qiao does not manage to keep his voice as even as it was in the beginning... But I do not see any reason to fault the man... The way that the pair of them steps closer to me making this strange interaction feel more intimate than it should... The one that had been holding me looking as though he might reach out to try and pull me back against him where I would feel so very sheltered against the stiffness of his uniform... A place where I should not want to be but I am not sure I would mind finding myself once more... The heat radiating from my core in my embarrassment over receiving so much unexpected attention rising to my cheeks and staying there, the brightness of my face only growing the longer they keep their eyes on me, even when responding to Master Qiao...

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Kavya

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"W-We have a shift soon...But if you've finished your meal and don't mind entertaining us we would love to head to your office." My voice seems to shake more than I intended to let it, Ronin squeezing my hand to give me comfort... Both of us hopefully hoping that Master Qiao is actually giving consideration to our question and not just pulling us off upstairs to tell us that India already has a suitor is one of the scholars here that intends to never be courted so that they might devote all of themselves to their studies... Both of the options seeming as though they would be an injustice... Though India being as beautiful and intriguing as he is, it would also be tragic if no one in this palace recognized the gem we seem to have found... 

I had tried to express to express to my partner with my eyes that I understand now what he had been trying to tell me earlier... That something about India made his heart falter in such a strange way... In a way that he could not accurately explain to me for fear that speaking it aloud would shatter the odd sensation altogether... I can understand why he did not want this feeling to shatter... I can understand why he had wanted to take the time to come and find this charming beauty to understand fully what exactly it is about him that seems so very alluring... 

I can also understand why Ronin had thought him a girl, his hair longer than even some of the females currently in the room and worn loose down around his shoulders... The gentle wave of it so enchanting in the way that it is darker than the feathers of a raven, a shade that no ink in the world would ever be able to stain my own firey strands... Or maybe the strange way his eyes seem to tremble as he looks back at us... There is simply something about him that I cannot seem to put my finger on that makes me want to draw him back to us so that I might give him the comfort he seems to need... 

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Ronin

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The Master stares at us for but a moment more before nodding to us and turning so that we might follow him, the pupil hanging off his sleeve urged to stay and finish his meal so that Kavya and I might have some privacy discussing this situation with both Master Qiao and India... The way that he keeps letting his eyes wander over his shoulder so that he might look upon us with that stunning flush staining his cheeks and make me hope that the words we are about to exchange are positive ones... And that Kavya means what he's implying as he led the conversation... 

It feels so very strange that either of us should feel drawn to the scholar we had met by chance... That either of us should want to call on him or anyone else when we have already found an intimacy that can never be recreated with anyone else with each other... When we know that the love we share is whole and complete... Or at least... I thought it was... 

And it is not as though I am actually questioning the bond that we share... I don't think either of us are... But I am wondering how it could be that somehow my heart feels larger than it did when I woke up this morning now that I've laid eyes on India and seen him wrapped so tenderly in Kavya's arms... The image of them so pleasing I almost had not been able to control the temperature of the fire trapped in my belly with how happy it had made my beast... With how happy it had made me... 

More than just the answers I need for myself I know that I need answers for my Kavya... I need to know why our hearts both seem so drawn to the scholar we had stumbled upon and how in the world we seem so attached when he's barely spoken at all outside of a few startled squeaks here and there... Why I feel so protective of him in a way that I've only ever been protective of Kavya before... And who better to ask for answers than the Master Scholar himself?