This part was rather long, so I've split it in two for those people who can't seem to read more than 8000 words. ;D
Characters belong to their respective owners. Ragnarok © Gravity.
Yuki had, in fact, collected all the balloons from where they had been scattered about the room and tied them all to a very long red ribbon, and had wrapped the whole thing around Kiba, who was swearing colourfully as Yuki darted around him, laughing.
"... Hm" said Keiran, observing the bubbly, brightly coloured post that was Kiba, "Yuki, I think he needs another green one right about here." He pushed Kiba in the chest, and he fell over backwards onto a couch with a loud BANG as the balloons on his rear burst. Shrieking, the more sensitive people leapt for cover.
"You know what, Keiran? Fuck you." Kiba growled, trying to stop a pink balloon from repeatedly hitting him in the face whenever he moved. Yuki rushed forward, a green balloon in hand, followed by a sniggling Chakii, who had procured a large bag of hot pink balloons from somewhere.
"Language~" Keiran trilled, wandering away to join Saphira on a faded green couch. He was welcomed with open arms and he gratefully slid in front of her as she twisted to sit with her legs on either side of him. He sighed.
"How's Darius?" Saphira said quietly in his ear, massaging his shoulders. Mmm massage...
He sighed again, relaxing, and nodded in Darius' direction. "Take a look."
Darius was sprawled on the couch by the window, his new book open in one hand while the other gesticulated in the air, a smile on his face as Astarte listened with her usual intent expression that always made Keiran think she wasn't just asking questions of his books to make conversation, but actually cared for the answers.
"He looks fine now." Saphira said ponderously, her thumbs digging into Keiran's shoulder blades.
"Oh shit, there. Yes. Aaah..." Keiran groaned, leaning into the pressure. "Yeah he's alright, he was just..." How much should he tell her? It wasn't for him to say, really... "Trying to prove himself to his dad."
Saphira somehow understood immediately and nodded.
"Lower..." Keiran sighed happily as she obliged. "Where did you learn how to give massages? Seriously, you're amazing."
"My mum taught me. She said I couldn't be sure of what job the man I married would be, but if he were a warrior, he would always appreciate a good shoulder rub when he finished work for the day."
"Your mum sounds like a very wise lady." Keiran said blissfully as Saphira went back to loosening his shoulders.
"She is. Maybe you can meet her and my dad sometime."
"Meet the parents already, huh?" He tilted his head back to wink at her, and she kissed him, moving her hands down his chest.
"... That looks uncomfortable." Match commented from where he sat the floor, leaning against the couch. Blank's arm was resting limply on his shoulder as the other boy snoozed, taking up the whole of the couch with his lanky form.
Blank had come out (or more to the point hadn't denied accusations), and everyone that knew anything now knew he was gay, and was with Match. Match didn't seem as comfortable with this as Blank did, and tended to blush whenever their relationship came up in conversations and constantly told Blank off for trying to touch him in public. Keiran almost felt sorry for him; he most certainly wouldn't want to be with Blank himself. There was nothing wrong with him as a person, and he was actually quite fun to be around if you could overlook the swearing, but he was so controlling ... Poor Match would never get any time to himself; especially since they shared a room... Thank God for stone walls was all Keiran could think, feeling slightly nauseated at the thought of what they could possibly be doing on the opposite side of the wall while everyone was trying to sleep.
Keiran pulled away from Saphira, rubbing the back of his neck where it had cramped up, and looked over at Match. "It does get a little painful after a while, yeah..."
Saphira shooed his hands away and took over, her slim fingers running over his neck lightly before increasing in pressure.
"But when you have an expert masseuse for a girlfriend, it doesn't matter." Keiran said lightly, closing his eyes in pleasure.
"..." said Match, turning back to his magazine.
"Anyway..." Keiran said, his eyes still shut, "Party tonight?"
Saphira giggled into his hair. "I thought Darius didn't want a party?"
"Well no, he doesn't. But if we have a party and just pretend it's a normal party and not one for him, then he'll never know."
"Good plan, except I heard it all." Darius' voice said from above him.
Keiran opened his eyes to see Darius looking down at him with raised eyebrows. "Oh poo."
"See, you really don't listen." Darius sighed, helping himself to a slice of his birthday cake, then cut slices for everyone else too. "Thank you, I appreciate the thought, but I really don't want to be a nuisance," he said, handing a plate with a large slice to Yuki, who dropped his balloons and fell upon the cake greedily.
"But I want to. Why don't you get it?" Keiran wailed, taking the plate he was offered. "It's mean to keep denying me my fun all the time!"
"... Alright then, if you're so keen, you can have your party."
"It's not my party, it's yours. But YAY!" Keiran exclaimed loudly, causing Blank to jerk awake and smack Match in the face in his haste to sit up.
"Fuck, sorry." Blank said, quickly patting Match's jaw bone in what was probably supposed to be a comforting manner; Match waved him away. "... Keiran, why, when I was having the most fucking amusing dream ever, did I hear your bloody obnoxious voice yelling 'yay'?"
"You only swore twice in that sentence!" Keiran exclaimed, covering his mouth in mock horror. "And you actually used my name!"
"Oh, did I? Well fuck me." Blank rolled his eyes. "Next time I'll remember not to, alright, retard?"
"Much better." Keiran said, opening his mouth for Saphira to feed him cake, as he'd finished what Darius had given him already.
"Oi, so what was so freaking 'yay' that you had to wake me up?"
"I didn't wake you up. 's not my fault you're a light sleeper."
"...fuck off."
"We're having a party~~~~" Keiran said loudly, so even Chris and Shiz stopped playing their game of ping pong to listen.
"When?" Chris asked curiously.
"Tonight!"
"Short notice." He snorted, retrieving the ball from under one of the coffee tables.
"Well we're so fucking so-rry. No one asked you morons to come," Blank said and kidnapped Match's magazine. Match sighed and took another from the pile.
"So what, we're not invited?" Shiz asked, looking a little sulky.
"Course you are, 'can hardly keep you from coming into your own common room, can I?" said Keiran. He didn't really want Chris and Shiz to go, but like he said, there wasn't much he could do to stop them aside from barring the door. "Arthuuuuuur~?" he called.
Arthur looked up from where he had been doodling very absent-mindedly on the whiteboard that a Crusader insisted they had so as to write important dates and the like on. So far all it had was a very bad drawing of a person with an arrow sticking out of their head; there was an arrow pointing to it saying 'KIBA', written in Blank's block handwriting, which had been crossed out and replaced with 'Blank is a fag'. 'Fag' had also been scribbled out and replaced with the word 'LEGEND'. Around this delightful illustration and its enlightening message were Chaku's drawings of lunatics, flowers and other such pretty things, and she was a much better artist and her creations actually resembled the monsters they were supposed to be. Here and there people had scribbled their own comments, such as 'DariusKeiran is n00b'; this had been changed by Astarte, not Darius. It was doubtful Darius even knew it had been written. Also written in Match's tiny, neat hand – 'Mirror shield: 2mil. Wind element sword: 700k. Warp to seals; 2k. Having your Reflect Shield kick in when that sinx tries to Soul Break you; priceless. Some things zeny can't buy, for everything else, there's Blank's storage account.' Followed by Blank's storage account number which had been scribbled out, very aggressively.
Anyway.
"Yeah?" Arthur said, blinking at the picture he had drawn, which looked to be a stick figure riding a duck, or maybe it was a goose...?
Keiran tore his eyes away from it. "Can you please write something on there for me?"
"Yeah?"
"Party, tonight, 7pm, here. Just rub out Kiba, he won't mind."
"It's not me, it's Blank!" Kiba shouted, now covered in pink balloons. Keiran wondered briefly why he was allowing himself to be tortured so – although the pink did go quite nicely with his silver hair...
Arthur wrote it up exactly as Keiran had said it, commas and all, but left Kiba's portrait alone, instead writing the notice between it and 'Saphira 3's Keiran'.
Yule flounced over in a pair of tiny denim shorts which drew all eyes, regardless of gender and sexual orientation, to her very long, very slim, very sexy legs. "Are we drinking at said party?"
Keiran prised his eyes off her legs and raised them higher, where they came to rest on her ample chest, which was threatening to leave her white tie-shirt (was she going for the blacksmith look?). "... Could you, you know, put some clothes on?"
"Hypocrite." She snorted at him, eyeing up his bare chest, his shirt having been removed by Saphira some time during his massage. Keiran felt Saphira tense behind him and he gave her knee a comforting squeeze and took his eyes off Yule completely.
"Alcohol, yes? No?" Yule demanded impatiently; having lost Keiran's interest she floated over to Kiba, who was still gaping at her legs, and began unwinding the ballooned ribbon.
"Yeesssss." Keiran said, rearranging himself so he could cuddle the still-bristling Saphira, pulling her close to his chest. Saphira shot Yule a last warning glare over Keiran's arm before sighing and relaxing against him. "I was gonna go nick some booze from the kitchens later. I'm sure no one'll mind..."
"Or more to the point, no one will notice." Match contributed, extracting Blank's hand from his shirt. "I'll come with you when you go." Blank's hand became a claw and was dragged up Match's breastbone, his face was turned towards the back of the coach so his expression was hidden, but Match seemed to understand this message. "... And Blank will come too."
Keiran grinned. "Cheers." Wow everyone's so possessive today.... Although he didn't blame them; he too had found his lip curling and a snarl rising in his throat when he had caught Chris checking out Saphira's behind when she left after breakfast. Chris' nervous grin when he had caught Keiran's expression had been most amusing…
Mating season~
Speaking of which… Him and Saphira had been together for what, 3 and a bit months now? Was that too short a time? She had never shown any inclination to wanting more from their relationship… Whereas he certainly did – it was almost getting to the point where her every touch was heavenly torture. … But... What if it totally ruined their relationship? Was it really worth it? YES, screamed the voice in his head. No! I must endure! One more month, at least! Come on, Keiran, you've gone longer than 4 months without sex before! Well… 6 months actually, now that he thought about it…
"I'd watch out, Saph," said Kiba, snapping Keiran from his ponderings, "Keiran's looking at you like he'd like to take your clothes off."
Saphira blinked and look up at Keiran, who quickly rearranged his face into one of puzzlement with practiced ease, cursing Kiba inwardly.
"Hm?" he said curiously, hoping he sounded clueless.
Kiba snorted.
"What?" Keiran spluttered at him then looked at Saphira; she was watching him carefully, her expression unreadable. "What did I do?"
"Oh, nothing." Saphira said with an easy smile, snuggling up to him again.
Freed from her watchful eye, Keiran glowered at Kiba and mouthed 'like you can talk, fucker.' Kiba, now balloon-free, gave him an evil smirk in reply and draped an arm casually around Yule's slim shoulders; she raised her eyebrows briefly and crossed her legs, leaning back against him. Kiba's smirk widened and he mouthed something back at Keiran, shooting a meaningful glance at Yule's chest.
How depressing, he's gonna get laid before me… Keiran thought sorrowfully. No, I can't think like that. It's not a race. I'm gonna be good and take this at Saphira's pace – When she's ready, I'm ready, even if it doesn't happen for six years. ..By which time I'll have gone insane. No, shut up, I can do this. He nodded to himself determinedly and pulled Saphira closer, planting a kiss on the top of her head and trying hard to ignore the desire that leapt up in him as she ran her hand along his thigh softly.
Looking around for a distraction, Keiran's eyes came to rest on Yuki, who was now playing a board game with Chaku, Natalie and Chakii on yet another couch. Kuronosu had been overly generous in the decorating the room – there were a total of 8 couches of various shapes and sizes now lining the walls, surrounding the ping pong table and several coffee tables that were piled high with magazines. The book shelves had been put to use and sported a wide range of second-hand books, from educational ones to novels, much to Darius' delight. On the few days it had been cold, it had been very cosy in there, and even in the unending sun, the stone walls helped keep the heat out and the cool in. All in all, it was perfect.
There was even a stereo.
"Anyone object if I put some music on?" he asked the room at large. From Darius' lack of activity, it didn't look like they were going anywhere today, not that Keiran minded – it was far too hot outside.
There was a general murmur of 'no', so Keiran extracted himself reluctantly from under Saphira and trudged over to flick through the giant pile of CDs that Kuronosu had also given them.
"…Oh wow" he muttered after rejecting several CDs on the pretext of being 'boring'. He inserted the one he had found into the player and hit play.
Blanco!
"…" said Darius, who had followed him over to make sure he didn't choose anything inappropriate. "What is this?"
"This, my friend, is rap music from my homeland." Keiran said, smiling widely.
"I thought you were from Prontera."
"I am, but you really think I get this skin and my high cheekbones from my Pronteran father?" Keiran leaned back on his arms. "No way, my mum's from Rachel."
Darius blinked in surprise. "Rachel?"
"Yep, Rachel. You know, desert town up north, tends to produce profs?"
"… Can you speak the language?" Darius asked, interested.
"Si, poco." At Darius' astounded look, Keiran laughed. "I don't know enough to have a decent conversation in it, but I can read it and understand when it's spoken to me."
"How did you manage to keep that a secret?"
"Yeah, I'd have thought you'd be bursting to show off the fact you speak two languages." Astarte said. "Anyway, Chakii says to put something different on 'cause it's giving her a headache."
Keiran pulled a face.
"You can put it back on later. Put something quieter on for now."
"I have some-" Darius started.
"No. No. And no" said Keiran forcefully, shaking his head. "Your music is boring as hell. It has no singing and you can't dance to it."
"Actually, you can dance to it."
"I don't care. The answer is still no."
In the end Keiran found a compilation of rock music, all in English, which seemed to meet everyone's approval so long as it wasn't too loud, and he settled himself back down with Saphira again with a book on the theory of Swordsman skills.
An hour later, Keiran was starting to lose his concentration due to Yuki, who had insisted on joining him and Saphira on their couch, and as Keiran liked to take up as much room as humanly possible, Yuki was cramping his style, so to speak.
Then there was a knock on the door.
"Come in?" Keiran said curiously. No one ever bothered to knock usually; it was a common room after all, not someone's bedroom...
It was Xin. He let himself in and bowed. "Sir Keiran, may I please speak with you?"
"You're a Sir?" Yuki exclaimed excitedly, suddenly in Keiran's face.
"No, I'm not." Keiran gently shooed him out of the way and got to his feet with a sigh. "Look, Xin. Could you just call me Keiran? I really don't need the sir."
Xin peered up at him with a slight frown. "... Keiran."
"Yeah..." He ran a hand through his hair tiredly. "What did you want to talk to me about?" The quicker he was gone, the better. Everyone was staring, despite knowing all about Keiran's fan boy - Xin having come charging up to Keiran at all hours of the day with various gifts to present to him on bended knee. Not that Keiran himself minded the staring, but surely it got to Xin? ... Or maybe not. Did he even have a personality?
"I have something to show you, Sir." Xin said, a smile lighting his face, "if I could be so bold as to take you from your friends for an hour...?"
This was different... Keiran raised an eyebrow, glancing over his shoulder at everyone watching them. Saphira was smiling in a way that suggested she didn't mind him going, and Darius hadn't more than glanced up from his book. "I guess...?"
"Of course, the young Lords Ishikawa are welcome to come also," Xin said, bowing to Yuki and Darius. Yuki immediately jumped to Keiran's side, looking indecently eager, and Darius didn't move until Keiran attacked him with a cushion, when he put his book down carefully and heaved himself upright with a dramatic sigh.
As they followed Xin out the door, Keiran could hear Kiba complaining about being left out. Don't worry, Kiba, Keiran thought, you won't be missing much... he's probably just cleaned the bathroom or something...
However, they didn't go to the bathroom, or anywhere inside the castle for that matter. No, instead, Xin led them outside to the stables, which in the heat smelled delightful, down the rows of stables with their occupants honking at them hopefully, and through the back door into another section of the stables. The stalls in here were bigger, with thicker beds of straw and there wasn't a male peco peco in sight.
"This is the nursery." Xin said helpfully as they gazed around. "I must ask you to keep your voices down while you're here."
In nearly every stall was a female peco peco sitting in the hay looking very bored, but determined.
Xin led them to the very end stall, where a peco peco was standing, watching someone who was bent over, poking something in the straw. As they approached, the person straightened and turned to face them.
"Hey," said Hikari, raising a hand in greeting. "Come to see my babies?"
"Babies?" Keiran asked in shock.
"Come over here." Hikari beckoned them closer with a grin on his face.
Keiran leaned on the rails and peered into the stall. There, snuggled up together in the hay were three baby peco pecos – fuzzy and yellow, just like ducklings, but the size of a fully grown duck.
"Oh my God." said Keiran. "They're so cute."
Yuki nodded fervently in agreement, standing on the bottom rail of the fence to see better.
As they watched, one of the chicks lifted its head and looked up at them with curious eyes, emitting a strange squeaking noise; the mother peco made a noise in her throat, and the baby stood up and fluttered his tiny, tiny wings.
Keiran was hit by a sudden thought. "... Will these be our pecos?" he asked Hikari.
"Not these little guys, no. They won't be old enough to ride when you become Crusaders." Hikari looked down at the chicks fondly. "They will be given to guild members who are close to retiring their pecos from work, to be trained as their second bird."
"Can I hold one?" Yuki asked. Darius shh'd him, but Hikari smiled and scooped up the chick that had woken up and had been tugging at a piece of hay with his beak, handing it to Yuki. The mother peco watched him warily.
"Just keep him where Iris can see him." Hikari said, rearranging Yuki's arms so the baby was cradled comfortably. It didn't seem bothered by its abduction, and with a happy squeak, started nibbling at Yuki's hair.
"Do you guys want to hold one too?"
Keiran nodded eagerly, holding out his hands for the next chick – a female, Hikari said – she was just as soft and cuddly as she looked, Keiran thought, resisting the urge to bury his face in the baby feathers as she pecked hopefully at Keiran's fingernail. "I want one!" he wailed.
Hikari laughed, handing the last chick to Darius, who looked thrilled. "All in good time."
Smiling, Xin let himself into the pen with Hikari and went to talk to the mother peco; she greeted him with a nudge.
"How old are they?" Darius asked, stroking the little bird's head.
"One day-" Hikari checked his watch, "exactly, to the hour."
Darius nodded, then looked thoughtfully from one chick to another. "Don't peco peco's usually only lay two eggs?"
"Aaah, you know your stuff," said Hikari delightedly. "That's correct. However, we do get cases where a mother will stop sitting on her eggs for whatever reason. If that happens we give the eggs to other broody pecos to hatch, as they don't seem affected by an extra chick at all, and it's always hard to leave a fertilised egg for dead."
"... Can you eat peco eggs?" Keiran asked suddenly. They were birds - like giant chickens, so why not?
"No. Well, humans can't eat them – makes us sick." Hikari said casually. He didn't seem to be offended that Keiran was considering eating one of his precious peco eggs.
"Oh..."
"How long do pecos live for?" Yuki asked, his chick now burrowing into the sleeve of his shirt.
"Around 30 years."
Keiran whistled in surprise.
"But they only stay in heavy work – as a battle or adventuring peco until they're 17, then they're retired, but their owner can still ride them casually until the peco becomes unwilling, or too old to go out anymore, which usually is around 25 years. Then they're retired permanently."
They digested this slowly.
"When do they start training? How long before these guys are ready to ride?" Keiran asked, hoping Hikari wasn't getting fed up with all the questions. He didn't seem fazed however, and leaning easily on the fence he said;
"They've begun their training already." he nodded to Darius, who was persuading his chick to stop chewing his shirt by waving a bit of straw in front of its face. "Everything we do with them affects what sort of bird they'll turn into. Of course, they already have their own personalities, but at this stage it's a little hard to tell what they are. They formally begin their training when they're a year old, when we start teaching them to accept a saddle and to respect their handlers, if they haven't already been taught to do so. When they're two years old, they're officially 'broken in' and can begin their careers as crusader mounts."
Keiran pondered this. 15 years with one peco... If he became a Crusader in the January exams... He'd be 19... 19+15 = 34. Wow. Being 34 years old seemed like a long way away.... He wouldn't get his own chick for ages. "...Is there any way to... you know, have two pecos?"
Hikari raised an eyebrow.
"I mean, like, have one for riding, and raise a chick alongside." Keiran said, trying to clarify, while trying not to laugh as the chick pecked madly at his crucifix.
"Ah... You can't have two pecos yourself unless your first one is retired... But what you can do is help out in here during nesting seasons." In the background Xin nodded. "We usually end up adopting a mother as our own, and when her eggs hatch, we adopt her chicks too. Iris here, for example, is under Xin's care this season. As a swordsman, you don't really have enough time, but later you'll have enough to share between everything."
Xin moved over to Hikari and whispered something in his ear, shooting an apologetic glance at Keiran. Hikari looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded.
"Xin's just asked if he can show you the yearlings – the pecos that will become yours, if you're interested..?"
"I'd love to!" Keiran exclaimed eagerly; Yuki and Darius nodded, their expressions just as keen, despite Yuki not actually being even a Novice yet.
Hikari grinned. "Good-o. If you'll just give me Iris' chicks back..."
After making sure the babies were safely back with mum, Hikari and Xin exited the stall and led them outside into the sun.
"Fwaah it's hot" Hikari observed, squinting up at the cloudless sky as he strolled through the grass towards one of the expansive peco paddocks, where a mob of pecos were snoozing with their heads under their wings, trying to pass the heat of the day. Then he whistled.
Every head came up to look at them, and as one the flock began moving towards the fence where the humans were standing.
"One, two, three- four..." Yuki counted, then made a frustrated noise and started again.
"Twenty," Hikari informed him kindly.
As the pecos approached, Keiran could see that they weren't fully grown yet; their legs too long for their bodies, their heads too big and their markings not yet visible against their dull orange plumage.
"How do we get assigned one?" Keiran asked. Was there a better way of phrasing that question?
"That depends." Hikari said, vaulting the fence to pat the nearest yearling on the beak. "Come in, come in. They won't hurt you."
Soon they were completely surrounded by honking, whistling pecos, all of which seemed intent on standing as close to the boys as possible, though they kept a respectable distance from Xin and Hikari. Keiran suspected it came with training.
"Sometimes, while you're out here, you'll end up forming a simple bond with one certain peco, and if you're both willing he will become your mount. We try to encourage all new Crusaders to spend half an hour every day out here with them; to encourage natural bonds. Look- Keiran, you have a friend." Hikari pointed over Keiran's shoulder.
He turned to see one particular peco with the beginning of a crest on his fine head standing right behind him wearing a curious expression. The other pecos had meandered off to harass Yuki.
"Hullo." Keiran said to the peco, who tilted his head to one side.
"That one's a male." said Hikari helpfully. Keiran, facing the other way, didn't see his knowing smile.
"Does he have a name?"
"No, they aren't named until they have a partner to name them."
We get to name them ourselves, yay! Keiran thought happily, running his hand up the peco's grey-blue beak.
"How would you like to be my friend?" he asked the peco quietly as it blinked its intelligent grey eyes at him. "I assure you we'll have lots of fun together."
The peco grunted, and then lifted his head suddenly to gaze off into the distance. Keiran found himself following the gaze, but saw nothing but grass and trees.
Slowly, the peco dropped his head again, and began grazing. Keiran watched thoughtfully as the peco tilted its head to seize the grass in its powerful beak, then would jerked his head sideways and up and the grass was gone, presumably swallowed whole.
"Keiran, we should be heading back." Darius said from behind him somewhere.
The flock had moved off slightly, now all grazing; every now and then one would lift his head to look over at the humans, or into the distance.
"Oh yeah, sure." Keiran replied, giving the peco a last affectionate pat on the shoulder. His hand hit something metallic, and he paused. Upon not seeing anything, he ran his hand back across the feathers he had been touching and there it was again. "..." Carefully he lifted the feathers just above the peco's wing; there, above the topmost joint was a metal bracelet, wrapped loosely around the bone. On it was carved a date, a long number, and two names, one he didn't recognise, but the other – Labyrinth.
"Hikari!" he called, smoothing the peco's feathers back into place gently.
"Yup?" Hikari said, dropping a peco's leg from where he had been examining its claws.
"This peco's tag has Labyrinth's name on it. Is he related?"
"Labyrinth is his father, yes," he replied offhandedly, moving towards the fence again. "He fathers around 50% of every season's chicks at the moment. He's the perfect sire – fast, sturdy, intelligent and kind; we're very lucky to have him."
Keiran followed him slowly. This peco breeding business seemed to have a lot more to it than letting two pecos mates... Maybe he'd be able to understand it all later in life, when he didn't have a crusader exam to study for... Which reminds me! We were supposed to practice magnum break. Feck.
After a last cuddle with the peco chicks, Keiran and the brothers bid Xin and Hikari farewell and made their way back to the heavenly cool of the common room, where they were bombarded with questions by Kiba. Luckily for Keiran, Yuki was more than happy to tell the full story, and so he pulled Saphira ('you smell like pecopeco') close and drowsed.