July: Since when do blood mages have to be scary?

July waltzed inside the apartment happily-- literally waltzed, as he had a three-quarter time song stuck in his head, and he was in a good enough mood that he didn't mind a little dancing for no reason-- after work that day. Life was good, and soon to get better, because they were going on vacation tomorrow. Well, an odd sort of vacation to an odd sort of place, for odd sorts of reasons, but July was still looking at it like a vacation.

Ielta, who had been coming into the room from the hall beyond, stopped short at the sight of him. He stopped, too, and grinned at her.

"Hello, babe!" he said. "Have a nice day? No randomness to speak of?"

"There's always randomness," she told him, and continued in, settling down on the low couch.

July danced across the room to flop down at her feet, one wing open over her back and his head leaned back on her forepaws. "Well, I'm here now, I'll chase it all away!" he promised.

Ielta smiled warmly at him and nuzzled his mane. "I know."

"So you're coming with, tomorrow, right?" July asked.

"I don't know," Ielta admitted. "I want to be with everyone, but I think it sounds sort of scary.... The Twisted Fate? All those strange species? Zabeth clutching?"

"Well, Zabby's hardly got blood of ice, now, does she?" July laughed. "Even though she might seem it, sometimes! Really, I expect the rest is more scary."

"Yes. Zabeth clutching is just weird. But the place she's going scares me...."

"Well, I'll be going," July pointed out. "Nothing's so scary when I'm around, right?"

Though he knew he only sometimes made a difference in Ielta's hallucinations, he found that his confidence that he would in the future made more of a difference. Ielta had very little confidence when it came to her own slightly twisted nature and her ability to be unaffected by strange or frightening things, but someone else's confidence went a long way to bolster her own.

"Yes," Ielta said fondly. "I know you will. But I don't know if that will be enough...." She trailed off, and for a moment July was sure he'd lost her, that she was listening to something else that he couldn't hear, or her mind just shut off for a moment. It did that, sometimes. He could recognize that distant gaze, and he reached up with the tuft of his tail to brush her nose. She sneezed in surprise and refocused again. "Sorry, did you say something?"

"No, you were just drifting off again."

"Sorry," Ielta said, ears going back embarrassedly. She kept getting embarrassed at things she didn't need to be! "Are you sure you won't just stay here with me?" she asked plaintively.

"Very sure," July told her. He wasn't about to give up his vacation, no matter how weird it was! After all, he'd already told his workplace he'd be gone for a while. "I have a very good reason to go, after all!"

"You do?" Ielta blinked at him. "Zabeth wouldn't mind if you stayed here with me.... Faamaal isn't going, either, after all, and Se'muan said he'd rather die than set foot on that ship."

"Ah, but I'm not going just for Zabeth!" he grinned at her.

"Whatever other reason could you be going?"

"I'm going to chase!"

Ielta gaped at him.

"Really!" he laughed. "It's not that odd a thing to think. I do like girls, you know."

"But, July... you're too big."

"Eh?" His brain blanked for a moment. Too big for what? "Oh. Oh! No, no, not Zabeth. Gods, yuck, too old for me. That pretty blue mutt who's going to be sharing the same clutching cavern. Senyen, her name is." He remembered her, having seen her once or twice around the station, in passing. She was quite pretty, actually, though he didn't really know her very well. Or, well, at all. They'd never exchanged words.

"You should have said something!" Ielta scolded him, and he ducked her swat so closely that her fingers brushed his ear.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't think about it!" he laughed. "But I told you now, right? So I have to go-- thus, so do you!"

"I guess so," Ielta said, sounding vaguely surprised. "I'll have two friends who have clutches!"

"Now, now, I have to catch the pretty lady, first!" July tsked. "Don't go making me a father before it actually happens."

"Have you talked to her? Does she like you? Didn't your father sign up for that, too? What will he think? Will you stay together after the flight? What about your children? July, you have to tell me everything!"

"Patience, babe, patience!" July said hastily, reaching up to clamp a forepaw over her muzzle. "All in due time, all right? A man's got to have some privacy!"

"Oh July!" Ielta grumbled at him, and he patted her forehead teasingly. "You'd better tell me...."

"Patience," he repeated, smirking. "I'll tell you before the flight, I promise. Maybe even tomorrow, when we get to that big ole ship."

"Well... all right."

"Thank you."

Once he could get away again, with the excuse of going to pick up dinner, July hurriedly went in search of Zabeth. He had some work to do, after all, and it all started with finding out just how one signed up for those flight things!

After that, well, anything could happen.