Chapter Text
John has got to be the laziest dragon alive but it might actually just be you in this one instance. You never did sleep well and you were so used to getting up early to do shit for food that sleeping in was not an easy thing for you. So when you wake up two hours before Kanaya is supposed to show up with your uniforms you are hard pressed to find something to do to occupy your free time. John is fast asleep in his bed, snoring lightly and fidgeting around in the covers. Funny, he never used to fidget.
You walk into the bathroom and take a long, hot bath, reveling in the luxury. You waste about forty-five minutes in the bathroom playing with all the soaps and bubbles and putting some effort into brushing your hair. When you finish you actually look civil and your hair is no longer a mess of skewed angles. By the time you walk back into your room John is staring at your bed, confused. His eyes spring up to you and a sleepy smile crosses his face.
“What are you doing up?” You sneer. You only have a towel around your waist because you don’t feel like getting dressed only to do it again when Kanaya gets here.
“Couldn’t sleep.” He yawns and stretches before falling back onto the bed. Unfortunately for him, he misses the bed and tumbles to the floor dragging half of the sheets with him. Fucking genius.
“Bullshit,” you spit out, going over to help him up despite your tone. “You were dead to the world over here half an hour ago.”
“You left.” He says like it’s the most obvious thing. It isn’t. You have no idea what that is supposed to prove or mean so you just drop it because you know from past experience that a sleepy John makes less sense than an awake John. “What were you doing?” He asks once he’s on his feet again.
“I was taking a bath. You should too by the way. Come on.” You drag him to the bathroom and explain how the work the shower and what to do with the soaps and then abscond because you did not want another run in with his weird downstairs situation. You start fixing the bed because there isn’t anything else to. You bend down to scoop up the soft, navy blue comforters from the ground—the beds were really the only splash of color in the otherwise boring room, probably a way to avoid offending different blood castes—when you hear the water in the bathroom start and a delighted squeal when John figures out hot water. He’s babbling about it, grammar going to shit in his excitement and you can hear muffled mentions of you name through the door so you just call out “yeah”s every now and then in response. After twenty or so minutes, the room is clean and you knock on the door.
“Come on, John. Time to get out.” You hear a muted groan and after a few more frustrated knocks the water stops. “Good, now wrap a towel around your waist.”
“Okay,” he says after a minute and you walk in. He’s still dripping—fucker didn’t dry himself off first— and looks at you expectantly. You tell him to sit and he obeys, taking a seat in the small vanity stool poised in front of the counter and wall to wall mirror. You brush his hair because he refuses to do it. He doesn’t like the way they pull at the tangles in his hair so you force it on him. He whimpers and curses you the whole time and it doesn’t help when you take time to slap him or yell. You don’t realize how long it’s been until you hear a soft rapping from the room door during a quiet period when John has chosen to scorn you instead of argue.
“Come in, Kanaya.” You call, hoping that’s who it is and you didn’t just invite Dave and Terezi into your room while you’re essentially naked. For some reason, even if she does meddle a bit, you don’t mind it so much when it’s Kanaya.
“Karkat, you should really start opening the door for guests. It’s polite.” She speaks as she enters, taking no time to find you in the bathroom. The door was open so it wasn’t too hard. She looks highly amused to see a fuming John having his hair brushed. Rose comes in behind her rider with two wrapped bundles stacked in her arms.
“I was kind of busy.” John makes a snide remark under his breath and you pinch him. He yelps. “Anyway, thanks. Now get the hell out so I can change. Unless you’d like a full show, but I charge for those.” Rose rolls your eyes and Kanaya quickly drags her away and out of the room. You chuckle and toss John the package that has his name carefully scrawled on it in black ink. The two packages are covered in a thick, brown paper and tied of with thin string. After closing the bathroom door with a command to John to change, you pull the string and open up the paper to reveal five identical sets of the school uniform. The burgundy tie and shoe laces catch your focus. You notice four pairs of riding boots near your door and get dressed quickly.
All the while, muffled sounds of dissent can be heard from the bathroom before finally you hear, “Karkaaaat! I need help.” Great… you are unwilling to do it but you drag yourself to the bathroom and open it, fearing the worse.
“What do I do?” John asks pathetically and you laugh. Right in his face and he scowls. John looks absolutely ridiculous. Thankfully, he has his pants on correctly but his shirt and jacket are buttoned improperly and you should have known he wouldn’t know how to tie a tie because he tried to tie it around his waist like his blue sash which now rest at the foot of his bed along with his other clothes. After choking for air and gripping the counter for support, you regain control and John looks like he could hit you. You raise an eyebrow in challenge and he lightly taps you. This almost makes you laugh again because he’s obviously afraid you’ll hit him but he’s so pissed he touched you just to prove he could. It’s almost cute.
With little objection from you idiot dragon, you redress his upper half with little incident and help him into the boots you decided to lace out of boredom.
“Well you two took your time.” Rose huffs impatiently and you flick her off. Kanaya frowns and you shrug, okay, so riders were a bit defensive over their dragons. Note taken.
“John couldn’t figure out that ties go here, instead of down here.” You explain, gesturing to the proper anatomy. John crosses his arms and tells Rose to take him to the dining hall for breakfast. You watch as they speed off through the halls—Rose only hurrying because John was stalking away quickly. You bet he didn’t even know where he was going. Kanaya opens her mouth to questions but you wave it off. “He’s just upset because I laughed at him and I brushed his hair. But really. He should be grateful. It actually looks half decent now! Don’t worry. By the time we eat he’ll be over it.”
“If you say so. You know him better than I do.”
“I really don’t. He’s been a bit weird this morning. He was restless in his sleep and then he said he didn’t sleep well and his excuse was because I left.” At this, Kanaya breaks out into a pleased hum. “Care to share, Kanaya?” You prompt, she obviously knows what’s up.
“If this keeps up, I wouldn’t be surprised if you two actually formed a Bond. Though I’ve never heard of it before with a dragon and someone other than who hatched it, John is definitely acting the way Rose and many dragons behave after making a Bond with their partner. He probably woke up because you left the room and he couldn’t feel your presence as strongly. Newly partnered dragons are often extremely clingy in nature. If this is, in fact, the case then there is nothing to worry about. John should grow out of it soon enough.” Kanaya still looks very pleased when you enter the dining hall. You really doubt that. He was always a bit clingy and you might have spoiled him a bit too. Just your luck.
Breakfast is good, Terezi joins you halfway through and when asked where Dave was, she answered simply that he wasn’t a morning person. You run into Feferi and Jade in the hall on the way to class, she was accompanied by another sea-troll and a yellow blood with red and blue glasses who seemed to be arguing. Their dragons reminded you, oddly enough, of Rose and Dave, though they looked older. Feferi offered your group a quick wave before trying to auspitize between the two boys—“Sheesh, Sollux! No fin-pulling! We’re going to be late to class. Mr. Scratch is going to krill us.”—and taking off in the opposite direction.
“What was that all about?” John asks.
“Quadrants, John.” You say and he shuts up immedietly. You’d learned very quickly that he didn’t understand your difficult and detailed way of romance so John tended to stay away from the subject.
Outside, the sun burns brightly but offers no heat as the cold winds make you all shiver. The grass is lush and green and a trampled path shows where students have chosen to walk instead of on the stone walkway. The path bends around the front and side of the school and you get another view of the fountain in the courtyard. The egg-shaped stone in the center of the fountain almost blinds you with its multicolored light show. From Terezi’s description yesterday you guess that it is supposed to be a Dragon’s egg. Once out of sight of the bright refractions of light you stare in awe at the track set up as your class for today.
As you saw yesterday, it’s a large dirt oval that covers a great expanse of the field. A little ways away from it are what you assume to be stables and storeroom. The door is sung open and a man stands in the opening, looking irritable.
“Looks like we’re doing an obstacle course today.” Rose muses as you get closer and you look, noticing for the first time all kinds of elevated obstacles set up. Nets, pillars, large boards with dragon-sized holes cut out, and a few others are set up around the track. John is buzzing with energy and like you predicted, he’s forgotten to be upset with you and is hugging your arm. There are already students there when you get there but from the intolerant way the man you assumed was your teacher was tapping his foot you figured there were still a few stragglers.
One of the students already present was Dave, hair slightly ruffled on one side and he didn’t look much more relaxed than your teacher did. Not a morning person indeed. John finally lets go of your arm and hurries over to Dave, who groans once the excited boy starts talking. John frowns and pokes Dave’s sides. This causes an abrupt reaction from the other dragon and John notices right away and assaults Dave’s exposed sides with wiggling fingers. You can hear Dave’s curses from here and Terezi howls with laughter.
--
“Alright, as you assholes can obviously see in front of you, today we are going to be avoiding shit. Now go get your damn gear and get ready. I’ll give you ten minutes before I start deducting points from your grade.” Spades Slick, your teacher, growls before making an obscure gesture and sending the class off to the stables where the riding gear was kept. Each compartment of gear is labeled with a number in a specific color—blood color—and you see the number 21 painted in a dark red at the very end. Well not really the end, there were several other stalls after 21 but they were all empty. You go to the stall and look around, no one else seems to care about it and the slight nod from Kanaya tells you this must be your assigned gear. Wow, this school worked fast on getting you settled.
Once outside again, you notice John was the only dragon that had gone into the stables and remains to be the only dragon that is… well that doesn’t look like a dragon. Dave, Rose and the others in the class have all changed. Rose, a bright orange and yellow number, catches your attention right away. She is smaller than Dave and is a bit thinner than John. Even in this form, she seems to hold herself with a certain elegance. Dave, however, is a large red dragon and an underbelly colored to match your false blood color. His back is lined with boney ridges that remind you of gears that rise up from the base of this neck and to the end of his tail which is considerably shorter than John’s. Aforementioned dragon having caught on to what he was supposed to be doing and changing forms stands close to your side as trolls make their way to their partners.
Now comes the hard part. Unfortunately, when John had been equipped with riding gear the other day you had not been paying attention and now had no idea what the fuck you should be doing. You try sneaking glances at Kanaya and even Terezi—how the fuck did a blind troll manage to do this better than you even if it was your first try?!—for hints on where things clicked and belted and how to set it all up. And John, despite how genuinely you are trying to do this, is being the little shit you’ve grown to tolerate. If you do something wrong, which is fairly often, he’ll flinch and wiggle around and basically fuck up all of your previous effort. You end up yelling at him more than once which causes its fair share of staring. You’re pretty sure riders didn’t yell at their partners. You’re also pretty sure that because of the bond formed through the hatching that partners had a deep understanding of each other and could do simple things like this with ease. But you were also pretty fucking positive no one else had to deal with John so they could all go and happily fuck themselves.
You’re so busy arguing with John that you don’t notice that everyone else is done and is waiting on you. Spades apparently has had enough and storms over to you and smacks your hands away from the harness you’ve been trying to shove onto John’s face.
“Dammit kid, I’d like to get this class started sometime this sweep.” The man puffs himself up and normally people didn’t scare you but your teacher looked like he stabbed strangers for fun. John noticed you start to cower as he moved towards you so most of Spades Slick’s statement was drowned out by John’s harsh warning growl. You could Rose stiffen and a few more students do a double take. John stares daggers at Spades as he carefully steps away.
“Shut that shit up, John.” You growl out to your big, blue idiot. The sound coming from his jaws diminishes until it’s only a slightly threatening rumble in his throat. That’s probably as good as it would get. “S-sorry.” You mutter. Everything is quiet until Spades dismisses everyone to the track to get started on the lesson.
“Listen here, you little fuck, you need to keep a better hold on him.” Spades jabs a finger bitterly at John. “You can’t have him acting like that. Now pick up the fucking harness.” Spades snaps and you do as he says as he and John glower at each other. He then proceeds to explain exactly how to set everything out. John always seems to act better when under close watch as if to show them how good he can be for you. But even that causes a few problems because he thinks being good for you is not moving so you have to tug and pull to get him in the right positions for what you need. It takes about twenty minutes of careful—if not hateful—explanation and finally John is ready.
“Okay, John. You’ve embarrassed me enough this morning. Please try to behave.” You groan as you slide into the seat placed snugly on John’s back. He makes a whining sound and you imagine him rolling his eyes with some sarcastic comment and snort. You tell him to shut the fuck up and get started.
It is immediately apparent that the two of you are not on the same page on the whole flying thing. You still remember the basics of steering from Xerxes’ explanation of it yesterday so that isn’t really the problem. The problem stems from the fact that you and John have different ideas of avoiding the obstacles. You come to a minefield of tall wooden pillars that plague a good portion of the track. You and John fight on how to avoid them—“No, dammit! Right, you nook-humping imbecile!”—and even though John never hits anything he stutters and stops midair to argue with you through growls and snapping, barked noises. After that isn’t much different, struggling for control over what movements to make and when, John hits his wing while going through the hole into the large bored blocking the path.
You are the last to make it back to the class and you wish you hadn’t. Mr. Slick can hardly contain the obvious disdain he feels towards you and shows it snidely.
“Well, well, well. Is your intention to hinder this class completely or are you trying to blow us all away with how amazing you can handle your ‘partner’ tomorrow? I’m dying to know which it is, Vantas.” You don’t answer because you’re caught between blowing up at him and submitting to the verbal abuse. “Just get the fuck out of my class because I’d like to actually teach today.” You can feel John vibrate with the beginnings of a snarl but kick him before sliding off. “Don’t come back until you’re ready to not fuck everyone over with your incompetence.” You take the gear off of John and he shifts almost immediately as Spades goes back to talking to the others. Terezi, Kanaya, Dave, and Rose are all sending you sympathetic glances while some others snicker or shake their head. You throw the riding gear down into your stall and stalk away from the class and into the building, John at your heels.
You are both silent as you wonder around the school until John fucks it up.
Shocker.
“Karkat? Um…where are we going?”
“Nowhere.” John flinches at your curt tone and nods. After another minute of silence he tries again.
“Can we go somewhere?” You sigh and turn to face him tersely, causing him to run into you. He takes a step back.
“Where? Where the fuck do you want to go, John? Take me there if you want to go somewhere so badly.” You snap and you know you shouldn’t be getting so upset with him but fucking hell, he can’t even leave you to mope in peace!
“Okay.” John seems to brighten up a bit, still timid but hopeful and starts off in another direction. A deep sigh fills the empty hall and you follow him. You follow him down several corridors and even fallowing him back down some of the same ones as he loses his way and then picks up the trail again. He stops in front of a heavy-looking set of double doors. A sign hung above them telling you what lies beyond. Your eyes flick over to John and he smiles brightly. “You like books right? You had a bunch back home. Rose said the library had a bunch more than you did. So I thought…” John trails off, looking at his feet before finishing. “It might cheer you up.”
You don’t answer him; instead, you sweep past him and enter the library. It’s empty sans a few students that must be in higher levels than you. John trots in after you, not saying a word. The room is huge, two stories with the same number of staircases leading up to the upper landing, one on each side of the library. The walls are lined with dark wood shelves and each shelf is packed with books, old and new. Bookcases create rows on the first floor only to open up in the center that has tables spread out for students to read at. A few trolls and dragons occupy the tables with books piled on the table, studying, or lazily reading for pleasure.
You walk around and through the rows of books, picking out a thick book every now and then. All the while, John is following after you, unsure if you’ve forgiven him or not. You let him know when you go to a secluded part of the library and pull up a chair right next to you and motion for him to sit. He does and the second you are seated he is clinging to you in a hug. You roll your eyes and sigh.
“John,” You are careful to remove him and make sure he is looking at you. “We need to come to an understanding. Got it? No repeats of today.” John nods slowly, paying full attention. “Good. You need to realize, I am your rider. I control the reigns so I decide where we go and when. Got it?” This time it takes a minute for John to agree. He scowls but, upon seeing how serious you are, relents. He nods hesitantly and you let him go. “Good. Now leave me alone. I’m not making a fool out myself again tomorrow.”
John takes a look at the book Karkat picked up and started reading, expecting it to be just like the ones he’d had in Lopah but he was a bit surprised to see it wasn’t. You see John look at the other books piled in front of him. All books about riding and dragons and shit like that. It wasn’t anywhere close to getting hands on experience but it was ten times better than going in blind tomorrow. John watches you read for a good thirty minutes before getting bored and scooting his chair closer. John cuddles up into your side, resting his head next to your elbows as you lean over the table to read. He’s practically sitting in your chair and he’s a bit too close for comfort but he seems too content so you leave him be. It’d almost be cute if he weren’t such an annoying prick all the damn time… but even then it still makes you smile a bit as you read.
--
“Karkat?” Kanaya asks as you sit down at the table that is already occupied by your friends. You hum absently, letting her know you heard. The jade-blood clears her throat before continuing. “I am well aware of your prideful nature but I would like to offer myself as a tutor of sorts. To help you in your classes, flying especially.”
“Really?” Your head snaps up and anyone at your table who wasn’t already watching the exchange is now paying attention. John wiggles next to you, not completely comfortable but you don’t know why. It may be because of all the staring and shocked gazes at your hopeful tone or it might be because of that territorial thing that John seemed to feel recently at all the attention you were getting.
“Well yes,” Kanaya recovers for a moment and you can’t really blame them, all you’ve ever been around them is surly and irate. You’ve had yet to show them that you aren’t as much of an asshole as you like to think you are. Right now your eyes are wide and flitting over Kanaya’s pretty face in search of any deception. You don’t find any. Wow, you really weren’t expecting anyone to offer to help you. Reading those books and having that talk with John surly helped a lot but that was nowhere close to actually having someone help you. Kanaya is the perfect one to do it too; patient, kind, and she always seems up to deal with your bullshit moods. “I wouldn’t offer if I weren’t serious.”
“Wow… thanks Kanaya. That’d be a big help.” You smirk and nudge her with your shoulder affectionately. She seems to like this and smiles brightly. The moment was almost pale if it weren’t for the jealous little prick that was scooting closer to you and whining about how he was tired. “John, I don’t think you understand. I don’t care. Go up to the room if you’re tired. I’m hungry so I’m going to eat before I even think of going to bed.”
“Hmph.” John huffs but he doesn’t make a move to get up from the table and instead starts talking to Dave.
“Karkat, how would feel about a lesson of sorts tomorrow during after classes?”
“Sounds great, Kanaya.” You nod and turn to your food because you weren’t lying. You really were hungry from being cooped up in the library all day. You’d unfortunately skipped lunch due to the fact that you’d dozed off for an hour at some point, no help from John seeing as he’d fallen asleep long before you had.
You wake up the next morning and get dressed with much less hassle from John, who now knows how to put on his uniform correctly, and leave for breakfast early. You are later joined by Terezi, Feferi, and Jade.
“Well you’re here early.” Terezi waves at you before sitting down, not even fumbling with the seat. How the hell did she do that? You shrug in response and go back to eating.
“John! I had this wicked dream last night!” Jade plops down next to him and you try to ignore the conversation but the effort crumbles when Jade starts telling him about the dream.
“It was really weird. A Horrorterror attacked the school and no one was there except all of us. We had to fight it but I woke up before I got to the end so I don’t know if we won or not.” Jade seems to deflate at the thought of having a dream end on such a cliffhanger.
“Don’t worry Jade. I’m sure we win.” John enthuses.
“Won. Past tense, John.” You correct suddenly. John just nods and you can see him repeat the sentence correctly even if he isn’t turned towards you. Jade gives you a strange look but lets the topic go as Terezi goes into a dream she had about overseeing a trial with Dave, saying it was the perfect intimidation method during an interrogation and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it earlier. Kanaya and Rose join you halfway through and soon enough Feferi and Jade are leaving for their classes while you and the rest of the first levels head outside. By the looks of the track you are still on the obstacle course. Upon your arrival, Spades practically growls at you but doesn’t say anything.
“Alright, glad you could all make it today.” Spades starts the class a few minutes later. He puts a snide emphasis on the word “all” and you know it’s directed at you. “We’re doing the same shit as yesterday so I expect to see improvement.” Once again, shooting straight for you but you know you’re going to do better. At least you really, really hope you do. Spades dismisses you all to the stables and John stays outside with the rest of the dragons though you can tell he wants to follow. You come back out with the gear and take a deep breath.
John is transformed and being perfectly still for you. Although it isn’t as helpful as he thinks it is, it’s a lot better than him squirming with your every mistake. Which you still make a lot of by the way and you are still, by far, the last one to finish. But you didn’t need any help and you are positive everything is in its proper place based on the look of pride Kanaya beams at you.
“What are you all waiting for? Get going!” Spades blows his whistle and everyone is off in the instant it sounds. John on the other hand seems committed to listening to you and only you so you have to tell him to go before he actually moves.
Powerful beats on bright blue wings send you up into the air and towards the first obstacle. With the way things are now, it’s hard to imagine you ever getting used to the feeling of flying; it’s simply amazing every time you take off. Three times and you were already hooked. You lean forward gently and stroke the base of John’s neck reassuringly.
“Ok buddy, we’re coming up to those pillars. Let me lead here. Got it?” John doesn’t nod but he makes a sound that you interpret as an okay. “Good.” You enter the minefield and begin swerving left and right; however, it doesn’t take long to figure out that the course isn’t the same as it was yesterday. Thick, horizontal planks of strong wood blocked your path at varying heights and from the looks of it they kept going throughout the rest of this part of the track. “Well fuck.” You curse before maneuvering John to go left and above a tight spot. That choice was a mistake because there is practically a wall of pillars in front of you that you have to yanks John to the side to avoid, causing his tail to slam against one. He whimpers softly and you start to murmur out apologies.
It takes you a while to get out of that part of the course because you start trying to look ahead to avoid getting stuck like that again but you finally clear that part and get on with the rest of it. This time around, everything is a little harder than last time but you manage to make it through in one piece. At least John hadn’t gotten hurt again. That was a plus.
When you land, everyone else is already there but you don’t think you took as long as yesterday. John wasn’t fighting against you and your judgment; instead he was pliable and easy to work with so that should have worked in your favor. Still Spades Slick comes stomping up to you once you land.
“Do you like wasting my time, Vantas? Because you do it a hell of a lot,” He sneers and you can feel John tense under you. “We’re running the course again so try not to take so long. Could you do that for me?” Spades turns on his heel and blows his whistle. It’s a reflex when your foot nudges John into flight because you are in a daze. Spades didn’t kick you out of class. Today is already leagues better. Now that you already have a loose feel for the track you actually don’t fall to far behind. Of course you’re still last but Spades actually doesn’t even yell at you this time and instead snaps at someone about getting caught in the net.
--
“What are we doing first?” John asks Kanaya as she leads the small group of four to the track. The course is still set up so you have a feeling you’ll be doing that.
“Karkat is going fly with you.” Kanaya says as if it were obvious, which it is. John smiles despite the glare you send his way.
“That sounds fun! I like flying. Can we not do the net? I don’t like that one.”
“Don’t worry, John, you won’t do the net.” Kanaya doesn’t stop at the stables and strides right in and to her stall. Rose stays outside and quickly shifts. John follows her lead as you retrieve your gear from your stall. The first half hour consists of tediously arranging the gear on John and then taking it back off only to set it up again.
“Kanaya,” You drawl in a whine. “Come on. I’ve done this five times already.”
“Karkat, before you learn to walk, you have to crawl. You aren’t even ready to crawl. We need to fine tune your motor skills. Which means, suck it up and do it five more times.” Kanaya cocks her hips and narrows her eyes at you threateningly. You freeze and even John looks over at her. You go back to taking the riding gear off of John’s body, fully chastised, when Kanaya speaks up again, tone still sharp and commanding. “John, you can’t be so still. It makes it harder for Karkat. You need to follow his motions and move with him.” John clicks his jaws together and makes a snapping noise and Rose, although still a dragon, looks thoroughly amused by whatever he must have said.
After another half hour, you are ready to fucking throw the gear on the ground and storm off. Since John had actually started helping while you put on the gear you could now do it faster but that meant more repetitions of putting the shit on and then taking it off. The last strap is clicked into place and the gear is once again properly placed and your hands go to undo it because to be honest, you’ve been working on autopilot the last few minutes.
“That’s enough.” Kanaya’s voice snaps you out of it before you can fully undo you work and you turn to her.
“Huh?” Is your intelligent response.
“You can stop. It’s time to fly. Now, get on.” Kanaya smiles and gracefully sweeps herself onto Rose and if it were anyone other than her, you’d be embarrassed on how you basically scramble into the seat snuggly fit on John.
“So are we running the course?” You look over to the jade-blood who shakes her head.
“No. That’s walking. You still need to crawl. Just follow my lead.” She flashes a smile and Rose takes off without hesitation. You and John follow her up and they take off high above the pillars and nets.
“You hear her, John.” You say and steer him after Kanaya. You fly straight for a while, still in awe over the sensation of being so high in the air, until Rose gently swerves to the right and rights herself immediately. You attempt the same and its then that you realize what Kanaya is talking about. Rose’s movements had been smooth and controlled as opposed to John’s jerky flight pattern. He’s still not used to letting you control and you aren’t the best at steering. Add those two together and you were a wreck waiting to happen. Your hand finds warm blue scales and you rub them lazily and immediately John relaxes.
You keep copying Kanaya’s movements and they aren’t as controlled but they aren’t as erratic and unsure as they were. That’s how you spend an hour, flying at a leisurely pace above the track. And not once do you get bored or frustrated. It’s almost saddening when Rose’s golden orange figure slips from the sky to land on the ground. You nudge John and he takes the hint and transitions downward. As the wind swirls around you, you feel something change in John. You notice he picks up speed and holds his wings closer to his body as he flies. The winds start whipping in your face and the ground is coming faster and faster.
“John?” You hesitate but he doesn’t stop. You grip the reigns as he lands and although it was smooth by all accounts—you’re a bit surprised that John managed to not jar your eyes out of their sockets with how fast he’d been going. Honestly, that was the best landing yet—he decides to be an ass and shakes you off from his back. Air escapes your mouth in a woosh as you fall to the ground. You throw a rock and a glare John’s way the second you sit up and he must be laughing because his whole body is vibrating and his eyes are alight and he’s giving you an expression akin to a smile—doesn’t work well with all those teeth though.
“Shut the hell up!” You throw another rock and storm off, leaving him stuck in the gear.