"Are you ready, Wiro?"

At the sound of Zale's voice, Wiro looked up from where she crouched on the tiled ledge and launching platform. Looking at her bond, calm and clean, leaning on the doorframe and looking at her with a warm smile on his face, Wiro again felt like she didn't want to do this, at all. :No,: she said miserably. :Maybe I'll just stay here with you, and it'll just go away.:

You don't mean that, Zale's thoughts told her gently. He pushed up from the archway into his side of the suite, stepping over Cannon, who licked his pant leg in passing, and crossing over to her to scratch her face fondly. You'll go and be the most beautiful dragoness on the station. All those boys will just fall in love with you right then and there.

:They will not,: Wiro protested, but then gave a sigh and heaved herself to her feet. :You're coming, right?:

"Of course," he promised simply and aloud, kissing the end of her muzzle. Now let's get going, before you set the carpet alight with your glowing.

----

None of the suitors for zappy silver Wiro's flight were late. In fact, a number of them were early. Copper dragon Silent Melody, supposedly just a filler chaser for Wiro's benefit, was the first to arrive, ready and quietly waiting. He crouched on the walls of the floor-maze while the rest arrived: first brown, behorned Linelith, a friend of Wiro's and a little nervous about chasing a friend; then serpentine Ghathvain, confident, quietly driven, and gliding winglessly down somehow or another; and stoic Drtwi'Suah, a Midnight Geperna whose emotions were impossible to read, but who was so prompt that he had to have been at least a little interested. Last came Orust, a foreign dragon more metal-covered than even the most ambitious cyborware addict, gliding around the flight deck to bide the time.

Five male dragons, all waiting for one dragoness. Who, unlike her suitors, was late. Just a little bit, though.

Wiro peered down at the gathered dragons from one of the many hatches onto the flight deck. Zale stood beside her, stroking her neck soothingly. Ready, love? he thought at her.

:As ready as I'm going to be,: Wiro sighed. :You're sure you're going to be all right, by yourself up here?:

"Perfectly fine." You're the one with raging hormones, not me. Go on, no need to keep the nice boys waiting; show them what a good aerialist you are. I'll be watching from here.

Wiro ducked her head to nuzzle Zale's chest. :I love you,: she thought-murmured.

"I love you, too." There was a smile in his voice, warming her in an entirely different and much more pleasant manner than the heat of those "raging hormones". Now go, or do I have to push you?

Snorting at the mental image of the puny human pushing her thirty-foot tall, sixty-foot-long body anywhere, Wiro spread her wings and leapt from the hatch. It was a rather dramatic entrance, if she said so herself, and exactly the image every dragoness wanted to portray for her first mating flight: bright, beautiful, confident and agile. Also not at all how she felt. All she wanted was to stay behind with Zale, disappointed bucks or no disappointed bucks. But Zale was encouraging and, he promised, quite content to be happy with her happiness.

There were five of them. Wiro knew them all, had previously spoken with all of them except the brass, antiquely modified Orust, and she was no closer to deciding which of them she liked best now than she had been, before the actual moment of the flight. Well, maybe she'd just let their ability in the air decide for her. Maybe.

At least while she was blooding the inyu-- she took four of them, for her own massive height required a lot of energy to fly-- she didn't have to think about it. By the time she was finished, she almost didn't care anymore: what she cared about, then, was the flight. She'd heard other dragons talking about how wonderful it felt just to fly, for one's mating flight, but she hadn't understood before. Now, launching herself straight into the air and streaking away from her suitors-- nearly sending brass Orust metal nose over metal tail-tip-- she could, and she gloried in her own speed and power.

Wiro led her bucks on a glorious chase. She wove in and out of airlock pylons, making wingtip turns, tail-snapping reversals, rapid rolls-- moves that she constantly yearned to master but she simply couldn't quite manage any other time. Reveling in her agility, she twirled from one side of the flight deck to the other, showing off for her chasers, herself, and her bonded, watching from the hatch and from behind her eyes. Her pleasure in the flight was also his. Her chasers didn't stand a chance.

Orust was the first to flag. He was the smallest of them all, and weighted down with metal plating and heavy, cybornetic parts-- and Wiro never let him get within a wings' beat of distance to her. He fell farther and farther behind before he finally gave up, giving his place to the larger, more natural dragons. Wiro thought it good riddance; she never liked him, anyway.

Next to give up the chase was Drtwi'Suah: first the smallest, then the largest. When Wiro made an ambitious, stooping dive and the four remaining bucks dove to follow, he narrowly avoided colliding with Linelith only to nearly tangle with the levitating, undulating Ghathvain-- again-- and veered off with a low growl. He was giving up; trying to avoid squashing the smaller dragons simply wasn't worth it, pretty dragoness or no pretty dragoness!

The near-miss seemed to have soured Linelith's flight, as well. Wiro cupped her wings, swooped up, and spun on a wingtip again, letting Silent Melody and Gharvain scramble to change their direction-- and as she did, she caught sight of her younger friend winging for the hatch in Drtwi's considerable wake. :Thank you for the chance to chase!: he called to her when he noticed her attention. :You still look beautiful.:

That almost made Wiro sad, watching him go. He was sweet, and a good friend. :You flew well, my friend,: she sent after him, :Come see my children when they hatch!:

There was a smile in his thoughts as he replied, :But of course!:

But before then, there was still a flight to finish, and, at long last, she was getting tired. So she didn't see Linelith landing and disappearing into the passageway, or Drtwi watching from the safety of another hatch, or even Zale, sitting on the lip of the launching pad, eyes fixed on her. There was just Gharthvain and Silent Melody, sinuous and chivalrous in turn, left of her suitors. Of those two, Wiro knew which one was her friend. She could feel Zale smiling; at least he approved!

I just want you to be happy, love, he thought, his mental voice inside her head, warm and loving. And besides: he has ears.

The tease made her giggle, and sealed her decision. He did have ears. 

One more hairpin turn-- almost her last, as her previous, passionate energy was starting to flail-- and Wiro wheeled around, startling both bucks and setting her to grinning as they parted ways instantly to keep from careening into her. Ghathvain's serpentine tail lashed out as he spun away, but Wiro had already turned, her last hairpin turn for the flight, and was closing on Silent Melody. The serpentine dragon had the grace to acquiesce to the lady's choice, and rippled away.

:I thought I was just a place-filler,: the copper dragon sent her with a blink as her shadow fell across him.

:If you were just a place-filler, why did you practice so hard to get used to the flight deck?: Wiro chirped back, soaring a little higher; he rose to match her. :Now you can prove to me that this mating business isn't so bad.:

That embarrassed him-- at any other time, it would have embarrassed her!-- but he wasn't about to say no to the lady.

And he had been right, of course; it wasn't so bad, at all.

Chapter Nine

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