Catame woke up slowly, buried under blankets and feeling comfortably warm. He tried to rub at his eyes sleepily, but found his arms wrapped securely around a furry neck and shoulder that rose and fell evenly with sleeping breathing. His eyes popped open in surprise, blinking a few times at the slight shimmer of iridescent white fur in the dim dorm room. Then they drooped half-shut again and he settled back into his pillow, remembering.

Tantra.

He freed one hand to stroke the short, soft fur of her neck. He hadn't really touched her during the meetings, and he was too dazed and tired last night to really pay attention, but her fur was really very soft. Even the sails of her wings, folded close to her sides and rising and falling with her breathing, bore a thin coating of fur. He didn't think her horn did, but she'd curled around so, with her head tucked under her wing like a bird or a cat, that he couldn't reach it to make sure.

Vaguely he remembered Daynoren and Kaur putting them both, exhausted, to bed. Somehow they'd both ended up sharing a bed, despite the narrowness of the mattresses, not wanting to be parted just yet. Now that he thought about it, he could feel her presence as more than just her magic-- and that didn't even overwhelm him, like it might have before if she'd been this close, curled up against him and taking up more of the bed than he did. He could feel her, not just her magic, as a bright spirit sleeping and full of dreams. He smiled and stroked her neck again.

She stirred a bit, her wing twitching and her curl tightening. Catame held his breath, afraid he'd woken her-- then certain he had, as tendrils of curious, sleepy thought uncurled from her. She felt his apology, and he felt her-- panic. She let out a little shriek of confused, half-asleep fear and thrashed herself right off the bed, landing with a heavy thump on the floor in a pile of blankets, wings, and tangled tail-plume. Catame scrambled to the edge of the bed, her own panic infecting him, on top of his fear that she might have hurt herself, and found himself staring into her blinking, golden eyes, slowly filling with shame and fear as she realized what had happened. It was actually alarming how deeply both touched her, as Catame could suddenly feel like a tug at his spirit. He swallowed against a lump in his throat that wasn't from his own sorrow.

"Catame?" Daynoren asked sleepily from his own bed. Catame glanced over at him, propped up on his elbows, hair falling across his face, obscuring one eye. "Cat, whas going on?"

"Tantra just fell off the bed," Catame answered quietly, hoping not to wake Frux or Kaur, but it was too late.

"Mph," Kaur mumbled from where she lay on the floor across the door. "What is all that noise...."

"I'm sorry," Tantra whispered, looking mortified, feeling mortified. Her emotions flooded him through their new bond, though she didn't seem to realize it. She thought she'd somehow offended him, hurt him, that he must think she rejected him by being afraid, or that she didn't want him anymore. And because of that, she was afraid, certain even, that he wouldn't want her anymore. A tear slid down her muzzle, and she looked away from him, her spirit feeling like a black well that echoed with self-hatred. Catame shuddered and found himself on the floor next to her, wrapping his arms around her neck and hugging her head close to his chest.

"Nonono," he murmured, trying reassure all the doubts flooding into him through their bond. "It's okay. You were just scared, that's all. There's nothing wrong with that."

But there is, her thoughts told him as she shuddered and leaned into him, her eyes squeezed firmly shut but tears leaking out, anyway. I shouldn't have been afraid of you, you're my bond, but I was and it's all wrong, I'm all wrong--

No, you aren't, his thoughts interrupted her, shaky in the face of the emptiness in her, but he tried to fill that hole with all the reassurance and affection he could muster, pouring feeling from himself and magic from everywhere. You're my dragon-bond, and I'm your human-bond, and-- and that's that, right? I couldn't not have you if I wanted to.

"But what if you wanted to," she whispered. The thought came so readily that Catame had to stare at her in surprise. Not even he, with his nervousness and shyness, would jump to that conclusion so quickly. 

"But I don't want to," he promised after a moment of genuine confusion. He didn't know why she felt so badly, and it frightened him, but he didn't want her to feel badly. "Please, it's all right... don't be so sad...."

She sniffed, looking at him through tear-bright eyes, and nodded faintly. I'll try, her thoughts said quietly.

That's all you need to do, Catame answered. Nobody could do more than try, and nobody could be happy all the time-- just as long as she didn't feel that awful, gnawing blackness again, especially not just because she'd been so surprised she'd fallen off a bed!

"You'll just have to get a bigger bed next time."

Dragonet and boy looked up in surprise at Frux, who was peering around the foot of the bed at them and smirking faintly, and Kaur, who though she hadn't spoken, was watching with obvious concern. Catame had forgotten about the others in the room, and from Tantra's shocked embarrassment, so had she. He stroked her shoulder and wing insistently, to make sure she knew he was there and that she had just promised not to feel bad, or to try not to feel bad, anyway.

"That's a good idea," Catame agreed, nodding hurriedly. "Then you can't fall out of it. It really was too small for both of us, anyway."

Tantra sniffed, rubbing at her muzzle with her claw-less hand-paw, then managed a watery smile for Frux. "Yeah," she whispered. "We'll get a bigger bed."

"You can't stay here, anyway," Frux continued. "You're bonded now, not candidates. Are you going to take up your aunt on staying at an apartment in the city?"

Catame remembered, now, all that had happened the night before, with Dana and Aloia. "Oh, do I have do?" he sighed. "She was so mean about it... but I guess we have to, since we don't really have anywhere else to go." At a silence from the dragons, Catame looked between them. "Do we?"

"You do have two other options," Frux said.

"Mother said you could stay with us," Tantra admitted. "If you want to." Tantra didn't really want to, though, so Catame shrugged. He wanted her to be happy; he could probably make due with just about anything. 

"Or you could move to the weyr," Frux continued.

"The what?" That was Daynoren, who had decided it was safe to join the conversation now.

"The weyr," Frux repeated calmly, curling his tail around his paw primly. "That's what they call places where dragons and humans who are bonded live together. They started one here at Avengaea recently, and they are looking for dragon pairs from on and off-world to fill it." He sounded quite pleased with himself for knowing about it, actually. Rather like Daynoren. The resemblence was uncanny.

"And who are they?" Kaur rumbled suspiciously.

"Other dragons and their bonds," Frux said casually. "From the experimental phase of the bonding project, and from off-world. There are even some half-breeds there, half Avengaean-dragon, half off-world dragon. I've never actually met them, but I hear they're quite interesting."

"How much does it cost?" Kaur demanded. "Will they be taken care of? They are only children, after all, and Catame at least has never had to fend for himself. And there are still classes here in the city, so it should not be too far."

"Oh, I'm sure things could be arranged," Frux assured her. "Tantra's mother would be glad to take us there to see, wouldn't she, Tantra?"

"Oh," Tantra said, blinking as she remembered something. "Yes, she would. Catame, we're supposed to meet her today, for lunch. So she can meet you." Or to take me home, if I hadn't bonded, her thoughts added, but before she could think too much about that, Catame distracted her with a hug around her neck.

"Then we'll meet her," he decided. "Is she nice?"

"She's very nice."

"Well, good," Daynoren broke in, brushing back his hair lightly. "Then perhaps we should all get ready for breakfast. I don't know about you, but I am starving." He gave the room at large another of his charming smiles, and Catame giggled.

"Yeah, I'm hungry, too," he admitted, then scrambled the rest of the way to his feet. "Dibs on the shower!"

"Cat, no fair," Dayoren started to protest, but Catame had already gotten in.

Wait for me, I'll be quick! he promised Tantra. Or Day will come in after me!

He was rewarded with an actual giggle, and that was enough.