"Cute kid," Akija chuckled warmly, looking after the dragon a moment before focusing back on Cacopheny. "I like him." Cacopheny smiled some in response; he liked Sentio, too, after all.

You like too many people.

Hush. Just... let me be for a while.

The voices subsided to an intelligible murmur, to his relief, especially since Akija was speaking again. "All righty, so you wanna stick to the classes-- more power to ya, then. But seriously, if ya ever get a day where you just don't wanna go, and don't want ta be alone without Sentio, either, you kin just come an' give me a nudge, a'ight?" She flicked a wing at the word "nudge", smiling again, or maybe still, Cacopheny couldn't remember. She always seemed to be smiling. It was... different. Nice.

"Ssank you. Akain. But--" He really should tell her. His mouth turned into a half smile, more of a regretful smirk than anything else, or so he guessed it must look. "--but if I to not vant to ko to ssse classessss. But if. I vill not pe. Vill not be. Propably. Vill not be fit for. For. For." The word stuck in his teeth, but he finally managed to spit it out: "Company." He fixed her with a serious stare and somehow managed, very clearly, to tell her, "I am not normal. At all."

"Well, that's no crime," Akija replied. With a glance up and down the hall, she moved over to the wall beside him and leaned against it, with her wings tucked as out of the way as she could get them. Cacopheny watched her, somewhere between wary and contented; the former he understood, the latter he didn't. But then, he was used to not understanding things-- it just got annoying, after a while.

"Not-- crime," he echoed, trying to find the words to explain, "but-- not koot, eisser. To not untersssssstant mutch, to not act like ossser people, hurt osser people, frighten sssem-- not koot. Peforrrrre-- ven zhe came, ven Ssentchio vas afraid-- vas of me. I--" He shut his eyes, leaning his head back against the wall, and forced out the confession. "I amozt attack't him. Might to it akain. I ton't know."

"The morning when Kenjista had us rush over, you mean," she clarified aloud. A peek through his lashes proved that she was frowning.

Disgusted, of course.

If she is, it's your fault, not mine. I wouldn't have done it if not for you.

If not for us, you wouldn't be here at all!

Since that was true, he didn't try to say anything more. At least she didn't look afraid, or even alarmed. Instead, she looked back at him and asked, "What happened?"

"Zzhadowss. Ssssome. Vorgot, I v-forgot. Who, vat, vy-- jzuzt ssat. Ssat. Vas diff'rent. Coult not ko back. Not ever. Vass... very fright'ningk. Vorgot ssat bontingk vas tchoice, vorgot Ssentchio vas to help me." He shrugged faintly, looking through half-open eyes at the wall across from him. "Only rrrrr'mempered jzuzt in time, ven sse zhadowss let me ko and vere qvuiet akain."

I can't believe I'm talking about this so-- so-- calmly!

Maybe it's just another sign of how mad you are.

Crazy boy.

Crazy dog.

Hush.

"The shadows-- they're more than just voices?" she asked, and he nodded emphatically, then paused, frowning. They were more than just voices, but at the same time they weren't.

"Ssssssssss'art to essplain," he settled on. "Hear sssem, ssometimess in osser people. Not you," he added with a faint smile for her. "Not your. Your mosser, brosser. Fasser, ssome, but sstrangktch. Tragonss, ssey talk ant talk ant talk-- in me, alvays ant more. More. More-- many. Mine arre many, ssey talk, but ssey alzo-- alzo-- can talk. To you, to Ssssentchio, ssrough me, ssometimess. Or ssey tisssssstract. Me. Vorget ssingks, miss ssingks, ssay ssingks, hurt ssingks...." He shivered and fell into his habitual pose, wrapping his arms around himself and hunching his head into his shoulders, as his voice trailed off.

For a moment, there was silence, and Cacopheny understood that, at least. He hardly understood what he'd just said, and he'd been the one to say it; Akija would never be able to puzzle it out without stopping to think about it. He shut his eyes, letting her sift through the hisses and halts and incomprehensible syntax, trying to ignore the unsubtle snickering and muttering in the back of his mind. He was so focused on ignoring that he didn't hear her shift, didn't notice she'd moved, until a set of very long fingers, webbed together with fur that rubbed warmly against the smooth of his tunic and ruffled his hair to one side, slid across his shoulders. He blinked his eyes open, tensed in automatic reaction to an unexpected touch, to stare blankly at the floor in surprise.

She's touching you, moron.

Think it's called a hug.

If you can call it a hug, when it's with a wing.

Or what passes for a wing.

Can you call those things wings?

It took all of his will-power to hold still beneath her wing, to not duck away or swipe at her or turn into her shoulder and bawl or grab the wing-fingers and break them all or-- anything at all. He held very, carefully still, drawing in a slow breath and shutting his eyes again. She wasn't pulling away, he didn't think. Why did she do that? He could imagine it was like Chiya used to do, sometimes, when she was upset that he'd hurt himself or when he was tired and afraid. But he could also imagine that it was Her, drawing him closer so She could bite him or kiss him or anything She wanted to do to him. Chiya was one thing, Rao entirely another, and Akija something else, as well, but he hadn't the faintest idea what.

Well, don't go complaining to us about it.

Wasn't going to....

"It sounds to me," he heard her say softly, "if I'm following you right, at least... that it's not your fault. Not normal, okay, but not your fault, either. And Sentio sure doesn't seem scared anymore... so it sounds like it was an accident, to me."

One hell of an accident!

Cacopheny ignored that. He didn't quite believe her, but it felt good to hear her say it, anyway, as if it might be true. Stalking a young dragon across a bedroom and scaring him half out of his wits-- not entirely out, because he still managed to talk coherently enough to try and talk Cacopheny out of hurting him-- was hardly an accident, but the thought that she might not think so, though wrong, was heartening. He smiled faintly, turning his head just slightly to look at her and managing to make his shoulders relax some under her winged hug, unfamiliar though it was. "Ssank you." She returned the smile, and that seemed to be enough.

"My offer still remains, though," she said then. "Any day you don't want class, but do want company, you can come looking for me. You don't have to take me up on that if you don't want to, but I want you to know that you can."

"Sss'not ssat I vood not vant to, never not vant to," he protested. "I jzuzt vorry. Iss all. Muzt be carevul. Vy I tid not ko to. To sssssssse last night. Last meetingk. Vass a very bat, bat day." He shook his head slightly, remembering.

Maybe because he was still feeling awkward and confused about the whole subject, embarrassed that he'd even had to broach it and pleased but puzzled by her reaction to it, he changed it. Probably too suddenly, but he never said he was good at conversation. In fact, he tended to profess to be very bad at it.

And yet, here you are, holding one.

Who would have thought.

"Vy tid you-- come out?" he asked abruptly, only now thinking to wonder, now that he had the chance to actually think about it. "Ssen. Now. I mean-- rrr. Out off ssere. Affter ussss." He freed up one hand just enough to gesture vaguely at the classroom door before settling it snugly back around his shoulder again.

"Because if that lot in there was going to be all scared of you, I didn't want to be in there with them," Akija said with no little heat and a pronounced frown. Cacopheny blinked at her, surprised, but she went on, "They're all prejudiced, and I hate that. You can't help being part demon, but they'd hold that against you, anyway, just like most dragons are leery of me because I'm a daemon. So if the rest of the class cops any attitude and you or Chario or Sentio, or two or all three of you get chased out for whatever, of course I'm going to follow with the people I actually like." She finally concluded her little rant, and Cacopheny hoped she'd missed his small but involuntary twitch when she'd actually professed to like him.

Not me, he told himself and the shadows. Sentio and Chario, maybe. They were in there, too.

But at the same time, he was puzzled. Dragons didn't like demons; that was constant, that wasn't ever going to change. Sentio didn't even really like him, not even Chiya really liked him. Look at how quickly she and Ketvia left him again-- not that he blamed them, of course. Surely even a full demon couldn't be as trying as he was. Somehow, though, Akija didn't seem to know about that truth, that dragons didn't like demons and, from what he'd managed to pick up on the matter, most demons didn't much like dragons, either. The first time faced with more than Chiya and Ketvia, in fact, even he had been unnerved and defensive. The presence of so much dragon-magic was impossible to ignore even here and now. How did Akija not know? And how in the world could he possibly explain it to her?

"I... sssink it iss more," he offered tentatively. "More ssan ssat. More ssan ssoughts, more ssan-- ssan-- prejzutissss." He tried the unfamiliar word carefully. "Effen Sentchio, even Tcharyo, ask, ask. Ssey know. Effen to hear me speak, hear Her langk-- langk-- Her vords in my mousss." He even smiled, because he understood, and added, "Issssss not sseir vault. Tragons to not like demonss. I know ssiss."

"It's prejudice as far as I care," she retorted dryly, and his smile dried up, as well. "Oh, sure, I know, the whole deal... demons, dragons, opposite ends of the spectrum, natural opposition, conflicting magical nature, yadda yadda yadda," she waved a hand in small circles, "but it's still stupid to me. Natural opposition is for beasts, like cats and dogs. But hey, I'm a daemon, we're outside everything, so what would I know?" Even the faint bitterness in her tone was enough to make him cringe and pull his knees closer to his chest, almost uncomfortably drawing himself up as small as he could manage. He hadn't meant to make her angry-- "So maybe it's natural," she went on, "but it doesn't mean I have to like it. So, if I don't like sitting in a room listening to people make remarks that sound prejudiced to me, about a half-demon that can't exactly help being half-demon, I'm not gonna sit there." Her wing across his shoulder shifted as she shrugged, and he hunched a little more, sure she'd be pulling it away now.

"Sssssorrry," he murmured unhappily, unable to think of a thing more to say to all that. She was right, of course, she had to be, though he didn't understand half of what she said about opposites and beasts and cats and dogs-- what in the world were they? he'd never seen one, and Aedelian Landwerlen's language gift wasn't being helpful at the moment. But he'd always known about dragons and demons, ever since he first knew Ketvia and Chiya for what they really were. Could they both be right? He didn't know, but he knew he didn't want to make Akija angry. It would only convince her that she really didn't like him even faster. And apologizing was the only thing he could think of to do. "Tidn't know," he added for good measure.

"Eh?"

At the surprise in her tone, he risked a glance at her through half-shut eyes and a curtain of hair. She just blinked at him. "You've got nothing to be sorry for, hey now," she said, closing the fingers of her wing around his shoulders and squeezing gently. He shivered a bit in surprise of his own, but at least it wasn't a twitch or a yank away or violence. "Don't mind my ranting, I wasn't aiming it at you."

And again, he hadn't the faintest idea what to say, only worse. "Sorry" didn't apply here. He chewed on his lower lip anxiously with a fang, but she didn't really seem all that angry now-- though he only had her expression to go by; not being able to hear her shadow did have that one drawback. "I-- oh," was all that managed to come out.

To his great surprise, Akija's ears went back, her expression rather like Sentio's after he'd made Cacopheny angry. Minus the fear, though, which was something of a relief. Chagrin, maybe. Apology. He stared through his hair at her as she spoke: "Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't come out here intending to make ya feel bad, honest."

Didn't intend, of course she didn't intend.

She likes you, after all.

But she did, anyway, intended or not.

She doesn't know anything about me, just like the teacher-dragon. That's all it is. An accident, that's all.

"I-- I know." She was, after all, nothing like Her. He finally tugged his gaze away from her and to his knees, still hugged close to him, close enough to rest his chin on should he choose to. Taking in a long, slow breath, he shut his eyes again and tried to make himself relax. How could he explain?

Should you even try?

As if she'd understand, anyway.

And besides, then she wouldn't think she liked me anymore....

The all too obvious sound of the dragons and their bonds, all getting to their feet at once in the classroom across the hall-- and all the unbonded dragons in the other classrooms, as well-- saved him from trying to decide. He shot to his feet, suddenly terrified of being caught there in the open, alone, with all those dragons staring at him and whispering as they passed. His eyes darted over the empty hall, looking for someplace to hide, finding none. Could he get to his room quickly enough to avoid them? Or-- no, Sentio wouldn't need him to talk to the teacher-dragon, would he?

"Hey, 'Coph'ny, easy!" he heard, and then Akija was plucking at his sleeve. He froze, and she continued, "C'mon, go beside our class door-- you kin go in after everyone else's come out."

"But I don't want to go in," he whimpered to himself, in more familiar words than Akija would be able to understand. Even so, he did as she suggested. Maybe, with the door and its shadow to protect him, no one would notice him.

"Hey, either you kin go inside the class when it's clear, or you kin be standin' out here the whole time it takes alla the other kits n'people t'go t'their rooms," she told him briskly, but not without sympathy, as she followed him. He huddled into the shadow of the door as it snapped open, trying to make himself small and insignificant without actually doing so. The vague darkness of the doorway was comforting, but as he tried to relax and let it hide him, the bright voices of dragons and their bonds, vocal and shadow, bore into the false safety. He could feel himself starting to shake, but couldn't stop.

Just go...

Someplace safe, someplace quiet, someplace--

--someplace not here, because if we stay here, then--

--maybe we'll give them a reason to stay quiet around us--

Shut up, shut up, I won't let you!

You can't stop us.

Not while we're so close.

Not while they're so close.

Not while she's so close....

That was the worst. Worse than even threatening Sentio. He wasn't going to stand for that-- he had to get away. Not even sure what he was doing, just that he had to get someplace safe, for himself and everyone else around him, he let the shadow of the door fold around him: cool, comforting, safe. When it drew back a moment later, he was in the darkness of his own room, halfway across the complex, standing in his own personal corner beside the pile of blankets. He sighed with relief and slumped to sit down, right there on the floor, just on the edge of his bed.

And then he realized he wasn't alone. Somehow, Akija had come with him.

"Nonononononono," he exclaimed, panicking all over again. "Not sup-pos't to happ'n. Not sup-pos't. Notnotnot. Nonono."

She was here. She was close. They were close, too. She wasn't supposed to come with him. He didn't know how he'd gotten here, but he didn't really care, either. All he cared about was that he was supposed to be here alone.

"Out," he breathed, scrambling to his feet and trying to shove her towards the door. He only managed to brush her shoulders before jerking back. "Outoutoutout. Pleass. Outout. Pleass out. Not sup-pos'd, notnotnot. Out."

"Out where?" she demanded, turning towards him, rubbing at her arms like she was cold and squinting as if she couldn't see. "I can't see!" Well, all right, maybe she couldn't.... "Where'd we go?"

Stupid, blind infants....

Can't even see in a room like this.

Why, it's hardly dark at all!

"My room, my room. Not sup-pos't. Out. Pleass." He managed a longer touch this time, pressing tentatively on her shoulders again, turning her around towards the door. "Toor, ssere. Aheat. In frrrrrront. Off youyouyou. Jzuzt valk, toor. Toor. Toor ssere." Another touch, trying to start her on her way, before he jumped back again reflexively.

Cacopheny? Where'd you go?

Sentio's bright voice momentarily caused the shadows to roar, and he shook his head vigorously to try and silence them. Akija's voice helped. "Okay, okay, I see, I'm goin', I'm goin'," she drawled. "Keep yer robe on." Since he hadn't even considered taking his robe off, he didn't even take the time to ponder that strange statement. Instead, he hovered behind her, just barely beyond her reach and just barely within his, as she made her slow and careful way towards the door.

His claws were nearly cutting through the flesh of his palms, his hands were clenched so tightly with anxiety, by the time she actually reached it and cracked it open. He flinched back a little from the light as she opened it far enough to slip out, pause, and look back at him. Her expression reminded him of Chiya, but before he could say anything-- reassurance, distraction, soothings, growls, anything at all-- she left, closing the door after her and sending him into darkness again. Relief, disappointment, and the acute sense that he'd done something very stupid all sent him slumping back to the floor again. At least, at the very least, he was alone.

Well, not precisely.

Oh, go tear up a pillow or something.

If you insist.