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Two years. Two years since you first met Xaden Riorson. You were close to him but ever since Violet came around, you haven’t seen him in over three weeks. Your heart ached to see your friend again but you weren’t going to force him to talk to you and have him pretend in front of you.
Of course, you knew their dragons were mated and that they had to spend a lot of time together but to stop talking to you altogether seems like it was purposeful. You chewed your lip as you made your way down the corridor. Worry squeezed your lungs to the point of your chest hurting.
That’s when you spot him. He was walking in your direction and when his eyes landed on yours, a smile appeared on his face. You wanted to believe that beautiful smile was meant for you but how could it be when he ignored you for three full weeks. A small smile graced your lips as you approached him.
“Hey, Y/N. How are you?” The gentleness in his voice made your knees wobble. No one but him had ever talked to you with so much kindness and he usually isn’t the one for being soft.
“Fine, you?” You cursed yourself mentally as his smile fell downward. You were doing your best not to throw your arms around him and never let go, but it was hard when all you wanted was his warmth.
“Something is wrong,” he said matter-of-factly and cupped your face into his palms. You looked into his warm brown eyes and swore you saw worry dancing in them. Your heart betrayed you and did flips as furrowed his brows.
“I’m fine, Xaden.”
“No, you’re not. Please talk to me,” his frown deepened and you couldn’t take it anymore. You wanted to know what you did wrong for him to ignore you like he did. You go to open your mouth but a voice sliced through the air, breaking both of you apart.
Violet stood there with confusion written on her face. “I’m sorry, am I interrupting something?”
“No. It’s fine, Cadet Sorrengail.” Quickly, you moved away from Xaden before you said something stupid in front of the person he cared for. He obviously cared a lot for her and you didn’t want to argue in front of her. Not when she was involved. “Have a good day.”
Another three days passed and you were applying salve to someone when a familiar face came into your view. Xaden. He didn’t look too good. You dipped your chin to a cot for him to sit on until you were done with the current patient.
Once you cleared the rider, you looked to the wingleader. You motioned him over and he sat down. Your eyes met once again, and shivers slithered down your spine. His eyes burned into yours and it seemed as if he shared the same thought process because when you spoke, so did he. “How can I help–”
“I don’t know what I did–” Both of you talked in unison before snapping your lips shut. He nodded to you, signaling that you could go ahead.
“What did you do to get yourself here, wingleader?” You asked as you tore your eyes from his, looking at the bruising on his arm. It really had to have hurt because of the deep purple it was turning.
“I did a challenge to teach Violet a lesson, and well, as you can see, she left a mark.” You nodded and grabbed the salve from your side and placed some on his bruise.
Before you could say anything, he dipped his head to meet your eyes. “Please tell me what I did so I can try to rectify it,” he said with a sadness you hadn’t heard from him before. You sat the salve down and took a deep breath. You were going to do it.
“Three weeks went by and you didn’t try to reach out to me. So, I figured that you just…moved on.” His face fell as you said the last part of your sentence.
“How could I ever move on from you?” Those words sent chills down your spine and you furrowed your brows. What did he mean by that? He must’ve seen your confusion because he sighed and grabbed the nape of your neck, slamming his lips into yours. Sparks ran through your entire body as you melted into the kiss.
He pulled you closer and you were practically on his lap by the end of the kiss. Someone cleared their throat and you realized then that you two were in the infirmary and not in a closed quarter. You scrambled away from Xaden and looked up at your professor, heat blossomed in your cheeks as he gave you a look of disappointment.
Whoops.
When your professor left with a shake of his head, you turned back to Xaden. He gave you a panty-dropping grin as he leaned in again. Heat burned your cheeks once more and you let him place a soft kiss on the corner of your mouth. You gave him a pointed look but he smiled at your attempt to be angry.
“Why did you avoid me for so long?”
“It wasn’t that I was avoiding you but more like I got caught up in what I was doing. Also, about that, I wanted to talk to you about taking a ride with me.”
Your eyes widened. “I thought no one else could ride a dragon if it’s not their rider?”
“It took some convincing on her end but she agreed.”
You hesitated for a moment but then nodded, “Okay, I’ll go on a ride with you.” That grin returned and you nearly caved and kissed him again.
“Tonight?”
“Tonight.”