Wasting Time
Chapter Eight: Post-dragonets
Riya fell in beside Andy as they left the meeting room, or hall, or whatever the odd but comforting chamber was called. They were, unfortunately, sharing a room until the bonding ceremony. That meant three days and three nights of close-quarters with someone who hated him and would probably be irritable and miserable in his company. Riya had already promised himself he would take as much of what Andy said in stride as he could and keep his temper under control-- and to not provoke the kid too badly.
Tonight, however, after that encounter with the dragon kits, dragonets they were called, Riya wasn't even thinking about how horrible Andy could be. He wasn't even thinking anymore about all of his worries, which had been in the back of his mind for the past months since the Favorites and himself were first summoned out of their meals-- or, in Riya's case, kitchen duties-- by Captain Mullen's broadly sent psionic order. After everything that had happened because he had been one of the rare few who could hear that summons, Riya could only count himself very, very lucky. Here he was, on some other planet billions of light-years from his own galaxy, walking out of a magically lit, domed chamber into a magically lit, rounded tunnel with a military cadet after having spent the last hour in the company of dragons.
All things considered, feeling like he was walking on air was an understatement. That Andy didn't like him didn't mean a thing; words just bubbled cheerfully out of him as they made their leisurely way back to the dormitory-style room they shared.
"That has gotta be the effin' coolest thing I've ever been to," he started off excitedly. "I mean, never met anything so different from us before! Except Esuro, but he doesn't count, since I never really got to meet him an all. But they were so nice, the ones I met, anyway. Two little Air dragons, a brother and a sister, Evoli and Evola. Evola said their parents didn't have much imagination, and I can kinda agree. I mean, really, who'd name their kids names so close to each other?"
Andy was silent, as if he were either stunned by the uncharacteristic torrent of words or trying to stem them by resolutely ignoring them. Riya chattered on, unperturbed. He'd been keeping himself to simple or snide comments and silence for too long; the discovery of not one, but two friendly faces seemed to have brought out his need to talk again.
"Really fascinating, I think, this whole bonding thing. I mean, I'd thought psionics were a fairy tale, I didn't even think about magic being real. But here we are, with all this magic everywhere and about to get magically bonded to aliens that live all the way up to three hundred years old. And we might end up living that long, too! Though I can't really even think of them as aliens anymore, can you? They're just like little kids, even if they're all furry. Evoli even looked a lot like a cat, sometimes. Arching his back to get petted and everything."
He chuckled at the memory. Andy grunted. They were at their room, and Andy opened the door and went in first. Riya followed, still talking.
"They said-- well, Evola said, actually, Evoli was too busy acting like a very happy cat, because I was petting him at that point; I swear, he looked like he could've been purring-- anyway, Evola said that most everyone will get bonded. That's why there were so many dragonets, you know. Somebody for everybody. I think that's pretty cool, nobody or at least not very many people will feel left out in the end."
Andy, who had tugged off his uniform's jacket and boots, shot him a quelling glare, which had no effect on the flow of words whatsoever, then stomped into the bathroom attached to their room and slammed the door. That didn't effect Riya, either, who was also taking off his boots, his jacket already hung on one of the bedposts. He just raised his voice so Andy would be sure to hear him through the door.
"It's so different here, you know? It feels different. Might just be all the magic and stuff, or that everything's made all big and shit, you know, for dragons. But I dunno, it's got a different feel. Like it's cleaner. Well, that's obvious, they haven't gone and fucked their world up yet, like we did Earth. But it's like people're gonna smile at you instead of glare, or something. Like they're all nicer here than they are back on Earth."
Andy came out of the bathroom looking like he'd had just about enough. Before Riya could say another word, he snapped, "Would you fucking shut up already? Jesus, you sound like a fucking moron."
Riya snapped his mouth shut from the open position it had been in when Andy had cut off his intention to continue talking. He blinked lightly at Andy, then shrugged and scooped up a towel and a smaller bag out of his duffel. "A'right, sorry," he said simply, heading out of the room to take over the bathroom for a while. If Andy wanted to be the one person on this whole planet who wasn't going to be friendlier here than on Earth, Riya couldn't make him change his mind. Besides, he had things he wanted to get done tonight.
It would feel good to look like himself again.