His mother had told him time after time that Karane would never be a suitable wife. She told him that when they first became a couple. She told him that when they graduated the academy side by side. Pipit, however, never listened. Everything his mother seemed to hate about her, Pipit loved about her.
Until one night, shortly after he'd taken his new status as a night flyer, he needed someone. He needed someone soft and comfortable and warm to help him, and he could think of no one else but his girlfriend.
As he walked up the hill to her place of residence, he could sense he might be pressing his luck here. After all, for all the things he said about Karane… he hadn't had a mental break down in front of her before. Not since they were just friends, and his father died, but this was far more severe. He was walking with tears on his face, just silently telling anyone who might have noticed him in the night that he was, in fact, crying.
It was still pitch dark when he knocked on the door, and she came to it with a blanket wrapped around her tired, confused shoulders. But it seemed like when her eyes landed on him she understood something was wrong, and she asked "Are you alright?"
His response to that was to force himself into her arms, the way he had more than once in their relationship. She wrapped her arms up around his neck in the embrace, subsequently also wrapping her blanket around him too. "What happened?"
"Jay didn't come." He squeaked out, in his very greatest attempt to hold in the tears. When she held him close like that it became far harder to hold it in though. Something about being loved made it easier to cry.
It seemed like when the words spilled out of his mouth that her embrace around him got that much tighter. Jay didn't come. Jay was his bird—his bird that had always caught him without fail. His bird that was the only thing keeping him from falling to his death, like his father.
Suddenly it was clear why he was so upset. "W-what happened?" she repeated, and he bit his lip before bursting into a sob.
"S-something spooked her in the d-dark and she slammed her wing! One of the o-other knights caught me… they said it h-happens to newbies sometimes but…" He'd never been like this to her before. Sobbing and crying all over her neck and shoulders, with his face buried against her hair.
But just like he knew she would, she cooed at him and soothed him and reassured him. He was alive. He wasn't his father. Jay would get used to it soon. This was his dream… he couldn't give up.
He practically fell asleep standing in her arms like that, in the comfort of her embrace. After a few more minutes of sobs wracking his body, she led him into the home so he could sleep off the rest of the event.
When he hit the sheets he pulled her that much closer to him, using her as his own personal teddy bear. Eventually he calmed down and he laid his head comfortably under her chin and sighed quietly. "I promise, no matter what, I'll always come home to you."