Ryraso wasn't sure how long it took him to get to sleep after the rather rude invasion of his mind. He only knew it was long after the young k'nairi in his arms had drifted to sleep. The thoughts of what Tai'ray had threatened and promised were flying around his head keeping him awake. The fear of what was to come burned bright inside of him, making his stomach ache. Luckily when he finally did fall asleep, he didn't dream; if he had, he was sure they would have been nightmares.
His mind was still in a sleepy haze when he dimly heard his door slide open. Ryraso stirred slightly as he heard the mutterings of people from outside fill the small room. People who were looking at the sight of him curled around a k'nairi with verbally different views.
"That's..." one voice sounding disgusted.
"Adorable!" another squeaked.
"Weird," another muttered.
"Who is that?" another voice, which was considerably more mature than the first three, asked.
"Must be his guest," the second voice chuckled.
"Shut up! You know Ryraso doesn't like it when people gossip about him," a final voice commented, trying to quiet the other voices desperately.
The final voice made something click within Ryraso and wake him up, anger flooding his veins as he realised who it was. It was Eyeri waking him up, which meant the other voices were Eyeri's older brothers.
"What the fuck have I told you about letting your brothers come when you are waking me up?" roared Ryraso as leapt out of bed much to the surprise of the five men. The brothers quickly scrambled for safety, hightailing it out of the room, the door shutting behind them. "Get your asses back here. Now!" he opened the door and yelled after them, knowing they would come back. Eyeri certainly would know he had to come back or the boy would be punished by Ryraso.
While Ryraso trusted Eyeri to wake him up, his brothers weren't as trustworthy. They had a habit of using it as a chance to try to get blackmail. Something they now may have considering they had found him cuddling with a k'nairi. It was innocent blackmail admittedly, not blackmail to gain power over him but to embarrass him. They all knew Isst would personally rip them apart if they tried to blackmail him for anything serious. Isst was extremely protective of Ryraso and had proven it several times when people tried to accuse Ryraso of things.
The former mentioned k'nairi was now awake but feigning sleep to remain where he was. Nice and comfortable wrapped up in Ryraso's blankets. Ryraso got dressed as Eyeri and his brothers slowly filtered back into the room, moving in one by one and lining up in the small space slightly shame faced.
Ryraso pulled Aw'endo off the bed by the scruff of his neck. The k'nairi landed with a loud and painful sounding bang, still half tangled in the sheets..
"Ryraso!" whined Aw'endo, "No fair!" he huffed, the feathers on his wings puffing out. The five young men watched as Ryraso only yawned unconcerned, before sitting on the bed to glare at them. There was only just enough room for the five brothers in a line and A'wendo on the floor, there wasn't room enough for Ryraso to scold them standing up as well.
"You really are still just a kid," Ryraso growled at Aw'endo, stretching as he tried to wake up a little more. Aw'endo only blushed as his wings flapped indignantly. He pouted as he heard some of the strangers laugh, before glaring at them all darkly, getting to his feet as he eyed up the young men who had been allowed into Ryraso's room while the healer had been still asleep.
"Who are they?" he demanded, shaking the blankets and sheets off so he could move better, stance ready to attack.
Ryraso sighed as he watched the k'nairi child study the human boys in front of him for weaknesses. He had not missed how Aw'endo was standing with his wings practically blocking Ryraso from view protective, or how he had completely disregarded Eyeri as a threat. Not that it was a surprise, Eyeri was the youngest on the ship and the meekest to boot. Truthfully he was too young to be even in the army even in a noncombat position, but his unique circumstances had made it, so he was safest on the ship.
The youngest of the Zaman brothers, Eyeri had once been a slave. No one was ever truly free after being a slave. They were still after him. It was the reason to why everyone on the ship was so protective of the boy and also why Eyeri was so meek. It was to protect himself.
Having heard Eyeri's story, Inai had kindly allowed the boy to stay with his oldest brother, Fetmar, on the warship until Ryraso had taken Eyeri as an apprentice. Then Eyeri's well-being and safety had fallen to him and had allowed Inai to promote Fetmar to being the youngest squad commander in the forces.
Soon after joining the crew, Ryraso had noticed the fact the boy didn't do anything on the ship other than observe people with cautious eyes. He had also noticed how bored the boy seemed; Ryraso was sure some of the pranks which had occurred at that time had actually been Eyeri and not one of the other many troublemakers on the ship. Knowing Eyeri as he did now, Eyeri had a strong sense of humour and mischief when he chose to show it.
Then after one battle where all four of his brothers got hurt, Eyeri came to Ryraso and begged him to train him to be a medic. Ryraso could remember his crying face clearly and the young boy's pleas that he didn't want to be useless. It had been the first time Eyeri had spoken to anyone barring his brothers and Inai. Ryraso hadn't the heart to refuse him, and that was how he had ended up with an apprentice.
"The best way to describe would be family," Ryraso drawled, ignoring how the boys preened at that comment. The boys had all spent the three years Ryraso had looked after Eyeri trying to get Ryraso to admit he liked them as well. "You'll learn most of their names later, but the one you need to treat well is Eyeri," Ryraso yawned, knowing the boys wouldn't take too much offence.
Eyeri stepped forward, or rather, Fetmar forced him to move forward to make it obvious who he was. Eyeri looked at his older brother darkly before looking at Aw'endo warily as the k'nairi glared at him challengingly.
"Aw'endo meet my apprentice Eyeri. Eyeri meet Aw'endo. Play nice," Ryraso said, the last comment was more for Aw'endo than Eyeri. K'nairi siblings got jealous easily, and the last thing he needed was Aw'endo to get a brother complex about Eyeri and start to hate him.
"Nice to meet you," Eyeri said, his voice clear, bowing slightly to Aw'endo.
Ryraso grumbled at this; it had been almost four years since the boy had been freed and he still bowed automatically to people as a greeting. Ryraso had been trying to break him of such habits, especially because of the training Ryraso had received with k'nairi. Not that it applied to Eyeri as he would never have to deal with the k'nairi unless the war ended or he was sent to one of the regions that had Namya k'nairi. Either way Ryraso didn't want people walking all over the boy. Whenever there was a k'nairi prisoner who needed healing, Ryraso banned Eyeri from the medical rooms. He didn't need Tai'ray learning he had taken on an apprentice or who that apprentice was.
Aw'endo was different however. The seal blocked him from the link, keeping him from revealing Ryraso's secret at the moment. More importantly, Ryraso was not going to be able to keep the boys apart now that Aw'endo was living with him and he was responsible for Eyeri.
What happened next, no one expected. Aw'endo took one proper look at Eyeri as he bowed before launching himself at the boy, his non-existent talons drawn ready to attack. Eyeri yelled in pain as they collided, the two rolling into the corridor.
Ryraso muttered a curse as he watched Eyeri's brothers jump at the two, all six boys brawling in the corridor. That was not how he had wanted things to go between his two foster sons.
Eyeri crawled out of the brawl, blood running down his neck, Ryraso snagged him by his arm and pulled him back into the room. Locking the door behind him, he knew that by now Inai would have alerted the crew that Aw'endo was staying with him, and Taidra would be calling someone for backup to stop the fight between the siblings and the k'nairi boy.
"Ry..." Eyeri whimpered as Ryraso forced him to sit on his bed. Eyeri had worked for Ryraso for long enough now that he knew his moods and knew Ryraso was between unimpressed and angry. Ryraso had never hurt him, had never shouted at him, but the older man could still worry Eyeri a lot in the wrong mood. Ryraso had taken up a father-like role in Eyeri's life, someone to learn from, to look up to and trust. Ryraso took great pride in Eyeri, and what he could do and Eyeri worked hard to make him proud.
Ryraso growled lightly but kissed the boy on the forehead, stroking his hair fondly. "Give me a moment to clean you up and then we'll talk about him," Ryraso murmured warmly, his hands gentle as he pulled Eyeri's tunic off of him. He grabbed a wipe from the sink hidden in the wall closet and cleaned the blood off Eyeri's neck and shoulders. Ryraso was relieved to only find a few bite marks, all of which were centred on the back of Eyeri's neck.
"Huh," Ryraso murmured in surprise at the markings, knowing the significance of Aw'endo biting Eyeri there of all places. Gently Ryraso put some healing cream on the marks before putting some gauze on worst of them. He kept a medical kit in his room just in case of emergencies when he didn't have time to get one from the medical room so he was well stocked for k'nairi adolescent tantrums.
"Ryraso? What happened? Why did he attack me?" Eyeri asked, tears in his eyes making Ryraso want to hug and coo at the young man as unhelpful at that was. Ryraso was going to have to be careful now, Aw'endo would get jealous if Ryraso was too affectionate with Eyeri and bully him if Ryraso wasn't careful.
"Nothing important kid. Aw'endo won't do it again now he has won against you in a fight," Ryraso reassured the young man, patting his shoulder as he finished up.
Eyeri didn't know it yet but he had just lost his first dominance match with a k'nairi and there would be plenty more given Aw'endo had never had siblings or anyone like a sibling to compete with for attention before. While there would be more fights, there wouldn't be more bites. Not unless Eyeri managed to win a fight, something Ryraso doubted would happen. The boy could defend himself but often froze up when the time came to actually fight.
"But..." Eyeri looked up at Ryraso with scared eyes.
"I thought Inai warned you to behave!" yelled an angry voice from outside the room. "And you four should know better!" Ryraso's left eye twitched. Taidra had sent Isst of all people to deal with the fight.
"Trust me Eyeri; Aw'endo won't harm you. He will be an annoying brat, but all k'nairi younglings are," Ryraso tried to assure the boy with a smile, but it didn't work. Eyeri just looked at him wide eyed with fear. Ryraso smiled weakly. There wasn't a lot he could do to reassure Eyeri, the boy would just have to wait and see.
"Harm? Or hurt? He won't hurt me, will he?" Eyeri asked nervously, used to picking up semantics.
"Well," Ryraso hummed hesitantly. "The k'nairi like to haze new people to their circles and sometimes that can get a little rough," he admitted mostly as a warning. Eyeri looked at him horrified at the non-answer, but before Ryraso could try to assure him more, there was a loud banging at the door.
"Ry! Open up!" Isst bellowed with a dark smugness in his tone that he got after disciplining young soldiers who should know better. "I have five naughty boys out here and I want an explanation!"