Fancy Rained Like Grace; Chapter Eight
Title: Fancy Rained Like Grace; Chapter Eight
Pairings: Jensen/Jared, Drew Nelson/Sandy McCoy, Misha Collins/Rachel Miner
Word Count: 3047
Rating: PG
Beta: lexicale
Warnings: see masterpost for complete list thus far
Author’s Note: A fill for this prompt on spn_hardcore
Summary: Orphaned as a child and heatless, therefore mateless, at twenty-seven, Jared has spent most of his life feeling unloved and unwanted. Jensen is the Dominus of the Ramiel Flight, strong, courageous and everything anyone could want in a mate, everything that Jared was sure he’d never have or deserve. Jensen is hell-bent on proving him wrong. But nothing is ever easy when love is involved.
Extra Little Note: Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
Masterpost
Chapter Seven
The journey back to the Ramiel’s grounds was, for the most part, uneventful.
While the morning breeze had been chilled with dew, the new summer sun quickly dried up much of the precipitation, leaving the air pleasantly warm, even at their high flying altitude.
The bite mark on Jared’s shoulder burned as his wings pumped steadily, their motion smooth and uninterrupted. He was smaller than Jensen and by all rights should have been faster because of it, but Jensen’s wings were larger, taking on bigger gusts of air with every downstroke. Jared found it difficult to keep up, especially with his shoulder hurting, but he was determined to follow his mate as closely as possible. He didn’t want Jensen to be hindered by his discomfort, especially not if his mate had important business to attend to back with the wing. The pain was bearable; he just had to work through it.
The flight back home felt much longer than the journey to the mating grounds had. The mark on his shoulder made flying difficult, but more than that, his entire body felt worn out, strained. Jared ached all over, the last vestiges of the heat draining from his system and leaving him sore, and his belly felt too heavy, weighed down by the meal they’d eaten before beginning their journey. It only made the ache that much worse.
His mind kept wandering back to his nest, trying to remember if it had had any flaws in it that would have made Jensen reluctant to stay, but he couldn’t think of any. He wasn’t being vain; he’d just been so careful, so meticulous, and nothing about his nest came to mind that would have repulsed his mate in some way. Perhaps the flowers hadn’t been to his liking but Jensen was a kind, understanding leader, and Jared was sure that that would translate into their mateship.
Maybe Jensen really did just need to take care of some urgent business back with the flight. If that was the case, Jared hoped it was nothing too dangerous. Maybe the meat stores were just running low or something.
A fresh gust of wind pulled Jared up, yanking at his wings -- which subsequently pulled at the bite on his shoulder, and Jared gasped at the sudden, burning pain.
Jensen glanced back at him then, immediately angling his wings to lose the draft they had been riding. It meant Jensen had to pump his wings more, but it slowed him up, too. He pulled back to drift just beneath Jared.
“Are you all right?” the Dominus asked, looking up at him.
Jared smiled down at him reassuringly.
“I’m fine.”
Jensen’s brow was furrowed, and he angled up a little, stretching his long, graceful neck up to Jared.
Jared flushed, felt himself smiling as he lowered his head down to meet Jensen’s, letting his mate nuzzle against his cheeks and snout, crooning comfortingly.
Jared’s heart warmed at the gesture. It had been a long, long time since anyone but the hatchlings and juveniles had cuddled close to him. Other does cared about his well being, sure. It was in their nature, after all. But the love and care of a drake... Jared could barely even remember his own father caring for him this way, holding him close when he was hurting. The Arael drakes were too proud for such things.
But Jensen was Ramiel, and it felt good, wonderful even, to have the strength and love of a drake like Jensen after so long without it.
Jared purred back at him, a demonstration of how pleased he was, how wonderful and amazing he thought his mate was for trying to take care of him.
They couldn’t stay like that long, needing to maintain their straight posture to steer correctly, not to mention having to watch where they were going. When Jensen pulled away, he was smiling as much as this form allowed.
Jared’s heart melted all over again, and his face softened.
This must have been what the mated does spoke about when they told their love stories around Midsummer’s bonfires, the first celebration after Beltane, when all the pregnancies were confirmed, announced and cooed over.
Jared had always wondered what it would be like to fall in love with his mate. He’d never understood how it was done, how it could even be possible to fall in love after being mated, as so many of the does had sworn doing. There were, of course, some does and drakes who had fallen in love previously, though they’d had to remain discreet about it to follow tradition, but it was the does that had fallen in love after their mating that always seemed to have the best love stories. They were the does that had been fought for and won, after all.
He’d always hoped for that, always longed to have this experience for himself. Jensen hadn’t fought for him, but Jared hadn’t been in love with him before, either, not any moreso than any other single doe in their flight had been.
And here he was, flying home with his mate, and he found his heart fluttering for him, his tummy swooping excitedly just at having Jensen smile up at him. This had to be what falling in love was like.
“You’re sure you’re all right?” Jensen asked again, though he didn’t sound as concerned as he had been before.
Jared nodded.
“I’m fine,” as an afterthought, he added, “Jensen,” with a blush.
Jensen offered him one last smile and hummed his assent as he rose back into their wind drift. He stayed closer to Jared this time, their wings brushing against each other. Every time the smooth, warm webbing of Jensen’s wings touched his, Jared’s heart jumped again.
Surely, this was what falling in love felt like.
***
They made it back to the nesting grounds in the afternoon, the sun hanging orange and heavy in the sky. By that time, Jared was exhausted and starving again, more than ready to either drop into his nest or eat whatever was put in front of him, whichever came first.
His cave was on the outskirts of their grounds, so as soon as they crossed the river at the border, Jared breathed a relieved sigh. The journey was finally over, and only a few meters separated him from his nest and sleep.
But he was following Jensen rather than flying the route he usually took to get back to his cave, and it took a long time before he realized that they weren’t going to his cave at all. They were flying too deep into the Ramiel’s territory to even be taking the scenic route.
And then Jared realized that they weren’t going to his cave. They’d never been heading for his cave.
They were going to Jensen’s.
His stomach flipped at the thought, his cheeks blooming hotly. He was going to be sharing a cave with Jensen. More importantly, he was going to be sharing a nest with Jensen.
And it seemed like such a silly thing to get worked up about, especially now. They’d just spent the entire previous night mating and Jared was pregnant with their eggs. But those things had occurred when Jared was in heat. All of this, everything that came with being mates, it was all new, and it would all be done without the strong, instinctual drives of Beltane to guide him through it.
He swallowed when the opening to Jensen’s cave came into view, nestled deep within the rocks beneath the main house. It was the traditional home of the Ramiel’s Dominus, both symbolic and practical in placement. The main house was the gathering place of the flight. It was used for important meetings, the does and juveniles there gathered during Beltane and the orphans taken in by the Ramiel lived there. During the eight sabbats, most of the dragons gathered around the main house to build bonfires and socialize.
The main house was a symbol of the flight as a unit and the Dominus’s job, above all else, was to protect the flight. The Dominus’s home, positioned beneath the flight’s gathering place, was representative of that, in addition to being easy for anyone to access quickly whenever the need arose.
The entrance had a wide landing ledge that extended out from the mountainside, worn smooth and solid by generations of dragon paws that had touched down upon that strip. The entrance itself was large enough to easily allow two dragons standing side by side in at once, but it wasn’t the biggest opening of the Ramiel’s caves either.
Jensen landed first, lighting on the ledge and tucking his wings against his back as he looked up at Jared, waiting for him to do the same.
Jared’s paws touched the earth as lightly and gracefully as he could, but he was too tired, too sore, and he managed to trip over his own feet. He didn’t fall but he did blush furiously, thoroughly embarrassed. He was twenty seven, for heaven’s sake. He should know how to land.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Jensen asked, alarm evident in his voice.
Jared nodded, face hot.
“I’m fine. Just... clumsy.”
Jensen hummed and nuzzled Jared’s cheek softly before jerking his head toward the cave.
“Come on. I know it’s pretty chilly this high up, but it’ll be warm inside.”
Jared nodded, following behind Jensen, his stomach rolling nervously. He’d never had a reason to visit the Dominus’s home himself, so this was the first time he would see his new home, the place that they would raise their hatchlings.
A few meters into the mountain, the entryway passage suddenly flared out into a dark chamber.
Jensen stepped forward, shifting forms and reaching into the darkness to light an oil lamp. The room was instantly washed with a golden light.
Jared gasped. The room was large, larger, even, than the main house’s parlor. It wasn’t as lavishly decorated as some dragons’ caves were, but pedestals with various objects rested on them surrounded the edges of the room. A clay vase with a scene painted in red along its side rested on one, and an intricate statuette of Draconis, the first dragon, wrapped half in scales and half in flesh topped a second, and similar ornaments adorned the others. Jared had a distinct feeling that each piece was very old and very important to their people.
The only actual furniture in the room was a long, highly polished bench with various ancient shapes and knots etched into it and similarly decorated end tables on either side. Cushions lined the bench’s seat and books scattered over each of the tables.
The actual craftsmanship of the walls, floor and ceiling, how smooth their surfaces were, told of how delicately this cave had been made. Some shelves had been carved out of the rock near the front of the room and centered between two of the shelves, the large, swooping symbol of the Ramiel Flight had been deeply inscribed into the walls.
This was no common cave, either found naturally in the side of the mountain or dug out with sharp dragon claws. This cave had taken a great deal of time and care in its making.
This was the home of the Ramiel Dominus.
Several of the shelves were filled with robes and a few more held nothing but old, leatherbound books. Jensen pulled down one of the robes, unfolding it and holding it open for Jared.
Nerves coiled in Jared’s stomach before he shifted as well, already sure that he was going to be taller than Jensen. He was taller than pretty much everyone in this form, and that was even worse than in his scaled one, when he was just taller than most of the other does.
He couldn’t help but be relieved to see that, while he was an inch or two taller, it wasn’t a huge difference, and even if he was taller, he was also slighter in build.
Jensen didn’t comment on their height disparity either way, just slid in behind Jared and helped him into the robe.
“There.” Jensen’s breath was warm against the back of Jared’s neck. Jared shuddered, biting his lip as he tied the robe closed. “This will keep you warm until you can bring your own clothes over, and our nest will be even warmer, if you’re still cold.”
Jared nodded, ducking his head, his hands coming up to self-consciously curl around the edges of his robe.
“Thank you.”
Jensen smiled softly at him then, gently slipping his hand over Jared’s and squeezing.
“There are two chambers that branch off from this one, a store room that holds overflow from the main house and, of course, our nesting room.” The Dominus’s hand rose, fingers curling beneath Jared’s chin to tilt his head up, guiding him to look at Jensen.
And then Jensen was leaning in, his mouth soft and warm against Jared’s.
Jared made a soft little sigh of a noise as Jensen drew away again, the kiss too brief for his liking.
Jensen smiled.
“I’ve got to go to the wing now, but I’ll be home soon, Jared. Feel free to bring anything you think you’ll need from your old nest. Make yourself comfortable.”
Jared smiled shyly in return, stomach flipping, heart instantly warmed.
“Okay, Jensen.”
His mate shifted, suddenly much larger than Jared. He dipped his head down, nuzzling against Jared’s cheek, and Jared timidly raised a hand to Jensen’s nose, sinking into the feeling of his smooth scales as Jensen bid him goodbye one last time.
And then it was just Jared, left alone in this completely foreign cave.
It felt huge compared to his old, single chamber nest. He was sure he could fit everything he owned into this one front room and still have space to spare.
He opened his palm, looking down into it at the small, wilted flower that he’d been clinging to for hours.
Jared pulled a book from the shelf, hoping Jensen wouldn’t mind too much as he slipped the flower between the pages, pressing it flat.
***
Jared didn’t remember his home being quite so small when he returned to it, but compared to Jensen’s cave, it was nothing. Just a bed and a couple of shelves for clothes, extra blankets and little odds and ends that he’d found over the years.
Everything he had just seemed so... small. Insignificant, compared to Jensen’s cave.
It made Jared wonder why Jensen was interested in someone like him at all. He could’ve had anyone else in the entire flight--or even in the other flights, if he’d asked. Inter-flight mateships weren’t so common, but if Jensen had wanted to, he was sure any flight would have allowed him to participate in their Beltane with them. He was a Dominus, after all, the Dominus of the largest of the five flights, and Jared didn’t doubt that any flight would be proud to have such a strong connection with the Ramiel.
But he hadn’t.
That thought made Jared smile softly. Jensen had chosen him. Jared didn’t know why, but he found that with each passing hour he cared less and less about the reasoning.
They had only been mated for a day or so, but Jensen seemed to be a good mate and Jared knew him to be a kind leader.
He just hoped that Jensen was as happy and excited with their mateship as Jared was, because as awkward as he felt in Jensen’s presence, Jared was quickly finding that he liked being Jensen’s mate.
Jensen didn’t shy away from physical affection like more traditional dragons did and Jared had always been a very tactile dragon. It was part of the reason he worked so well with the hatchlings and juveniles: he never pushed them away when they wanted to be held, never told them to find some other unlucky dragon to climb all over. Instead, he invited them in and they loved him for it.
So the fact that Jensen seemed to like touching Jared, kissing him, made Jared feel like they could be a good match for one another.
But his cave was so simple in comparison with Jensen’s--with their’s. The walls of this cave were scratched out roughly and it bent at an awkward angle at its deepest end. It had been one of the few abandoned caves on the Ramiel’s grounds when Jared finally moved out of the main house several years ago. Most of the other juveniles left when they came of age, but he’d finally left at twenty two, resigning himself, after six years without his heat, that it would never come for him.
This cave had worked fairly well for him, even if it let in cold drafts during the winter sometimes.
His new cave, though, dwarfed this one by comparison and Jared was sure that it hadn’t felt a cold drift in its nesting area.
He reached up on the bookshelf, fingers smoothing over the shining surfaces of colored stones he had found in the river, ruffling through the soft feathers that he’d collected over the years, pressing into the hard ridges of the various teeth he’d gathered from the forest when he was out playing with the juveniles.
They were beautiful to him but they weren’t worth much, so unlike the ancient relics that had been placed on the pillars in Jensen’s cave. Worse, they weren’t even useful as Jensen’s books were, just little trinkets that had caught Jared’s eye.
He shook his head. Jensen didn’t need things like that cluttering up his beautiful cave.
Jared slid a leather satchel over his neck and shoulder, adjusting the knot in the strap to be long enough that he could shift with it on. He tucked his clothes inside of it, then grabbed the quilt from his bed.
The quilt was the one thing he couldn’t do without. His mother had made it for him when he was barely more than a hatchling. It was the last connection he had to her.
He just hoped that Jensen wouldn’t mind him keeping it.
Chapter Nine
Pairings: Jensen/Jared, Drew Nelson/Sandy McCoy, Misha Collins/Rachel Miner
Word Count: 3047
Rating: PG
Beta: lexicale
Warnings: see masterpost for complete list thus far
Author’s Note: A fill for this prompt on spn_hardcore
Summary: Orphaned as a child and heatless, therefore mateless, at twenty-seven, Jared has spent most of his life feeling unloved and unwanted. Jensen is the Dominus of the Ramiel Flight, strong, courageous and everything anyone could want in a mate, everything that Jared was sure he’d never have or deserve. Jensen is hell-bent on proving him wrong. But nothing is ever easy when love is involved.
Extra Little Note: Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
Masterpost
Chapter Seven
The journey back to the Ramiel’s grounds was, for the most part, uneventful.
While the morning breeze had been chilled with dew, the new summer sun quickly dried up much of the precipitation, leaving the air pleasantly warm, even at their high flying altitude.
The bite mark on Jared’s shoulder burned as his wings pumped steadily, their motion smooth and uninterrupted. He was smaller than Jensen and by all rights should have been faster because of it, but Jensen’s wings were larger, taking on bigger gusts of air with every downstroke. Jared found it difficult to keep up, especially with his shoulder hurting, but he was determined to follow his mate as closely as possible. He didn’t want Jensen to be hindered by his discomfort, especially not if his mate had important business to attend to back with the wing. The pain was bearable; he just had to work through it.
The flight back home felt much longer than the journey to the mating grounds had. The mark on his shoulder made flying difficult, but more than that, his entire body felt worn out, strained. Jared ached all over, the last vestiges of the heat draining from his system and leaving him sore, and his belly felt too heavy, weighed down by the meal they’d eaten before beginning their journey. It only made the ache that much worse.
His mind kept wandering back to his nest, trying to remember if it had had any flaws in it that would have made Jensen reluctant to stay, but he couldn’t think of any. He wasn’t being vain; he’d just been so careful, so meticulous, and nothing about his nest came to mind that would have repulsed his mate in some way. Perhaps the flowers hadn’t been to his liking but Jensen was a kind, understanding leader, and Jared was sure that that would translate into their mateship.
Maybe Jensen really did just need to take care of some urgent business back with the flight. If that was the case, Jared hoped it was nothing too dangerous. Maybe the meat stores were just running low or something.
A fresh gust of wind pulled Jared up, yanking at his wings -- which subsequently pulled at the bite on his shoulder, and Jared gasped at the sudden, burning pain.
Jensen glanced back at him then, immediately angling his wings to lose the draft they had been riding. It meant Jensen had to pump his wings more, but it slowed him up, too. He pulled back to drift just beneath Jared.
“Are you all right?” the Dominus asked, looking up at him.
Jared smiled down at him reassuringly.
“I’m fine.”
Jensen’s brow was furrowed, and he angled up a little, stretching his long, graceful neck up to Jared.
Jared flushed, felt himself smiling as he lowered his head down to meet Jensen’s, letting his mate nuzzle against his cheeks and snout, crooning comfortingly.
Jared’s heart warmed at the gesture. It had been a long, long time since anyone but the hatchlings and juveniles had cuddled close to him. Other does cared about his well being, sure. It was in their nature, after all. But the love and care of a drake... Jared could barely even remember his own father caring for him this way, holding him close when he was hurting. The Arael drakes were too proud for such things.
But Jensen was Ramiel, and it felt good, wonderful even, to have the strength and love of a drake like Jensen after so long without it.
Jared purred back at him, a demonstration of how pleased he was, how wonderful and amazing he thought his mate was for trying to take care of him.
They couldn’t stay like that long, needing to maintain their straight posture to steer correctly, not to mention having to watch where they were going. When Jensen pulled away, he was smiling as much as this form allowed.
Jared’s heart melted all over again, and his face softened.
This must have been what the mated does spoke about when they told their love stories around Midsummer’s bonfires, the first celebration after Beltane, when all the pregnancies were confirmed, announced and cooed over.
Jared had always wondered what it would be like to fall in love with his mate. He’d never understood how it was done, how it could even be possible to fall in love after being mated, as so many of the does had sworn doing. There were, of course, some does and drakes who had fallen in love previously, though they’d had to remain discreet about it to follow tradition, but it was the does that had fallen in love after their mating that always seemed to have the best love stories. They were the does that had been fought for and won, after all.
He’d always hoped for that, always longed to have this experience for himself. Jensen hadn’t fought for him, but Jared hadn’t been in love with him before, either, not any moreso than any other single doe in their flight had been.
And here he was, flying home with his mate, and he found his heart fluttering for him, his tummy swooping excitedly just at having Jensen smile up at him. This had to be what falling in love was like.
“You’re sure you’re all right?” Jensen asked again, though he didn’t sound as concerned as he had been before.
Jared nodded.
“I’m fine,” as an afterthought, he added, “Jensen,” with a blush.
Jensen offered him one last smile and hummed his assent as he rose back into their wind drift. He stayed closer to Jared this time, their wings brushing against each other. Every time the smooth, warm webbing of Jensen’s wings touched his, Jared’s heart jumped again.
Surely, this was what falling in love felt like.
***
They made it back to the nesting grounds in the afternoon, the sun hanging orange and heavy in the sky. By that time, Jared was exhausted and starving again, more than ready to either drop into his nest or eat whatever was put in front of him, whichever came first.
His cave was on the outskirts of their grounds, so as soon as they crossed the river at the border, Jared breathed a relieved sigh. The journey was finally over, and only a few meters separated him from his nest and sleep.
But he was following Jensen rather than flying the route he usually took to get back to his cave, and it took a long time before he realized that they weren’t going to his cave at all. They were flying too deep into the Ramiel’s territory to even be taking the scenic route.
And then Jared realized that they weren’t going to his cave. They’d never been heading for his cave.
They were going to Jensen’s.
His stomach flipped at the thought, his cheeks blooming hotly. He was going to be sharing a cave with Jensen. More importantly, he was going to be sharing a nest with Jensen.
And it seemed like such a silly thing to get worked up about, especially now. They’d just spent the entire previous night mating and Jared was pregnant with their eggs. But those things had occurred when Jared was in heat. All of this, everything that came with being mates, it was all new, and it would all be done without the strong, instinctual drives of Beltane to guide him through it.
He swallowed when the opening to Jensen’s cave came into view, nestled deep within the rocks beneath the main house. It was the traditional home of the Ramiel’s Dominus, both symbolic and practical in placement. The main house was the gathering place of the flight. It was used for important meetings, the does and juveniles there gathered during Beltane and the orphans taken in by the Ramiel lived there. During the eight sabbats, most of the dragons gathered around the main house to build bonfires and socialize.
The main house was a symbol of the flight as a unit and the Dominus’s job, above all else, was to protect the flight. The Dominus’s home, positioned beneath the flight’s gathering place, was representative of that, in addition to being easy for anyone to access quickly whenever the need arose.
The entrance had a wide landing ledge that extended out from the mountainside, worn smooth and solid by generations of dragon paws that had touched down upon that strip. The entrance itself was large enough to easily allow two dragons standing side by side in at once, but it wasn’t the biggest opening of the Ramiel’s caves either.
Jensen landed first, lighting on the ledge and tucking his wings against his back as he looked up at Jared, waiting for him to do the same.
Jared’s paws touched the earth as lightly and gracefully as he could, but he was too tired, too sore, and he managed to trip over his own feet. He didn’t fall but he did blush furiously, thoroughly embarrassed. He was twenty seven, for heaven’s sake. He should know how to land.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Jensen asked, alarm evident in his voice.
Jared nodded, face hot.
“I’m fine. Just... clumsy.”
Jensen hummed and nuzzled Jared’s cheek softly before jerking his head toward the cave.
“Come on. I know it’s pretty chilly this high up, but it’ll be warm inside.”
Jared nodded, following behind Jensen, his stomach rolling nervously. He’d never had a reason to visit the Dominus’s home himself, so this was the first time he would see his new home, the place that they would raise their hatchlings.
A few meters into the mountain, the entryway passage suddenly flared out into a dark chamber.
Jensen stepped forward, shifting forms and reaching into the darkness to light an oil lamp. The room was instantly washed with a golden light.
Jared gasped. The room was large, larger, even, than the main house’s parlor. It wasn’t as lavishly decorated as some dragons’ caves were, but pedestals with various objects rested on them surrounded the edges of the room. A clay vase with a scene painted in red along its side rested on one, and an intricate statuette of Draconis, the first dragon, wrapped half in scales and half in flesh topped a second, and similar ornaments adorned the others. Jared had a distinct feeling that each piece was very old and very important to their people.
The only actual furniture in the room was a long, highly polished bench with various ancient shapes and knots etched into it and similarly decorated end tables on either side. Cushions lined the bench’s seat and books scattered over each of the tables.
The actual craftsmanship of the walls, floor and ceiling, how smooth their surfaces were, told of how delicately this cave had been made. Some shelves had been carved out of the rock near the front of the room and centered between two of the shelves, the large, swooping symbol of the Ramiel Flight had been deeply inscribed into the walls.
This was no common cave, either found naturally in the side of the mountain or dug out with sharp dragon claws. This cave had taken a great deal of time and care in its making.
This was the home of the Ramiel Dominus.
Several of the shelves were filled with robes and a few more held nothing but old, leatherbound books. Jensen pulled down one of the robes, unfolding it and holding it open for Jared.
Nerves coiled in Jared’s stomach before he shifted as well, already sure that he was going to be taller than Jensen. He was taller than pretty much everyone in this form, and that was even worse than in his scaled one, when he was just taller than most of the other does.
He couldn’t help but be relieved to see that, while he was an inch or two taller, it wasn’t a huge difference, and even if he was taller, he was also slighter in build.
Jensen didn’t comment on their height disparity either way, just slid in behind Jared and helped him into the robe.
“There.” Jensen’s breath was warm against the back of Jared’s neck. Jared shuddered, biting his lip as he tied the robe closed. “This will keep you warm until you can bring your own clothes over, and our nest will be even warmer, if you’re still cold.”
Jared nodded, ducking his head, his hands coming up to self-consciously curl around the edges of his robe.
“Thank you.”
Jensen smiled softly at him then, gently slipping his hand over Jared’s and squeezing.
“There are two chambers that branch off from this one, a store room that holds overflow from the main house and, of course, our nesting room.” The Dominus’s hand rose, fingers curling beneath Jared’s chin to tilt his head up, guiding him to look at Jensen.
And then Jensen was leaning in, his mouth soft and warm against Jared’s.
Jared made a soft little sigh of a noise as Jensen drew away again, the kiss too brief for his liking.
Jensen smiled.
“I’ve got to go to the wing now, but I’ll be home soon, Jared. Feel free to bring anything you think you’ll need from your old nest. Make yourself comfortable.”
Jared smiled shyly in return, stomach flipping, heart instantly warmed.
“Okay, Jensen.”
His mate shifted, suddenly much larger than Jared. He dipped his head down, nuzzling against Jared’s cheek, and Jared timidly raised a hand to Jensen’s nose, sinking into the feeling of his smooth scales as Jensen bid him goodbye one last time.
And then it was just Jared, left alone in this completely foreign cave.
It felt huge compared to his old, single chamber nest. He was sure he could fit everything he owned into this one front room and still have space to spare.
He opened his palm, looking down into it at the small, wilted flower that he’d been clinging to for hours.
Jared pulled a book from the shelf, hoping Jensen wouldn’t mind too much as he slipped the flower between the pages, pressing it flat.
***
Jared didn’t remember his home being quite so small when he returned to it, but compared to Jensen’s cave, it was nothing. Just a bed and a couple of shelves for clothes, extra blankets and little odds and ends that he’d found over the years.
Everything he had just seemed so... small. Insignificant, compared to Jensen’s cave.
It made Jared wonder why Jensen was interested in someone like him at all. He could’ve had anyone else in the entire flight--or even in the other flights, if he’d asked. Inter-flight mateships weren’t so common, but if Jensen had wanted to, he was sure any flight would have allowed him to participate in their Beltane with them. He was a Dominus, after all, the Dominus of the largest of the five flights, and Jared didn’t doubt that any flight would be proud to have such a strong connection with the Ramiel.
But he hadn’t.
That thought made Jared smile softly. Jensen had chosen him. Jared didn’t know why, but he found that with each passing hour he cared less and less about the reasoning.
They had only been mated for a day or so, but Jensen seemed to be a good mate and Jared knew him to be a kind leader.
He just hoped that Jensen was as happy and excited with their mateship as Jared was, because as awkward as he felt in Jensen’s presence, Jared was quickly finding that he liked being Jensen’s mate.
Jensen didn’t shy away from physical affection like more traditional dragons did and Jared had always been a very tactile dragon. It was part of the reason he worked so well with the hatchlings and juveniles: he never pushed them away when they wanted to be held, never told them to find some other unlucky dragon to climb all over. Instead, he invited them in and they loved him for it.
So the fact that Jensen seemed to like touching Jared, kissing him, made Jared feel like they could be a good match for one another.
But his cave was so simple in comparison with Jensen’s--with their’s. The walls of this cave were scratched out roughly and it bent at an awkward angle at its deepest end. It had been one of the few abandoned caves on the Ramiel’s grounds when Jared finally moved out of the main house several years ago. Most of the other juveniles left when they came of age, but he’d finally left at twenty two, resigning himself, after six years without his heat, that it would never come for him.
This cave had worked fairly well for him, even if it let in cold drafts during the winter sometimes.
His new cave, though, dwarfed this one by comparison and Jared was sure that it hadn’t felt a cold drift in its nesting area.
He reached up on the bookshelf, fingers smoothing over the shining surfaces of colored stones he had found in the river, ruffling through the soft feathers that he’d collected over the years, pressing into the hard ridges of the various teeth he’d gathered from the forest when he was out playing with the juveniles.
They were beautiful to him but they weren’t worth much, so unlike the ancient relics that had been placed on the pillars in Jensen’s cave. Worse, they weren’t even useful as Jensen’s books were, just little trinkets that had caught Jared’s eye.
He shook his head. Jensen didn’t need things like that cluttering up his beautiful cave.
Jared slid a leather satchel over his neck and shoulder, adjusting the knot in the strap to be long enough that he could shift with it on. He tucked his clothes inside of it, then grabbed the quilt from his bed.
The quilt was the one thing he couldn’t do without. His mother had made it for him when he was barely more than a hatchling. It was the last connection he had to her.
He just hoped that Jensen wouldn’t mind him keeping it.
Chapter Nine