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It was starting to catch up with him. The long days of constant training, the mismatched sleep schedule, the stresses of being tethered to someone that was so foreign to him. A medic was going over what their role in a Rider unit was. How they carried the equipment that would be critical to saving dragons if they got hit.

Hunter already knew all this. He had spent countless hours poring over the first aid portion of the books and him and Em had practiced quite a bit.

His thoughts drifted off again and he felt his eyelids droop as his head leaned into his own hands. He jerked away again and pinched his own thigh hard, desperately trying to stay awake. It was a losing battle.

Despite not having the energy to stay awake, his brain had enough to fill the brief moments of sleep with dreams. Like all dreams, it was incoherent and a jumbled mess of real memories and scenes Hunter was fairly sure were just made up. Or at least they were until his traitor of a brain settled on replaying memories of his last intimate rendezvous.

Admittedly, it had been a while for Hunter. His life had been consumed by training and more training and he couldn't remember the last time he had any modicum of privacy. The dream would cause problems, but Hunter couldn't bring himself to care.

The sounds of class wrapping up rudely interrupted the dream of soft, wandering hands and jolted him back to attention. Hunter took him time rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and packing up the few notes that he had managed to jot down before he began nodding off. Blood finally diverted to all the normal parts of his body and he beat a quick retreat, breathing in the dry, but fresh air.

"Long night, Specialist?" Another wolf approached him.

Hunter gave a quiet woof as he straightened the fur on his snout. "Not particularly. I've never been good at adjusting to time changes." He kept out the rest of his concerns. It was Tree, one of the friendly wolves that he had met in his time here.

"All that exhaustion and not a single fun story that's the cause. That's unfortunate." Tree laughed and patted Hunter on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm not terribly exciting. Just tired." Hunter flattened the fur on his muzzle, trying to make himself look presentable to the looming wolf.

"Tell me about it. I signed up to be a wolf medic, next thing you know I'm expected to learn the anatomy of an entirely different race and be able to patch up any holes they might spring." Someone called out from the distance and Tree turned to face them. A mottled gray dragon was trotting towards them. "Hey, Gray. This is Hunter, our resident sniper. Hunter, this is my dragon Gray, his real name is basically impossible to pronounce."

The dragon politely bowed his head and Hunter returned the gesture. He didn't want to risk embarrassing himself in front of the two of them by trying to usual dragon gesture. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." The roar of an aircraft taking off suddenly muffled the conversation, but Hunter heard him ask about his partner.

"Yeah, I'm partnered with Em!" He practically had to shout over the sound of the engine.

The roar faded into the distance as Gray nodded. "Well, it's nice to finally meet her rider."

"Sorry, Hunter. We gotta go. More classroom instruction for me and Gray here. I'll see you around." The wolf gave him a farewell nod and walked off with his dragon.

"Oh, Tree, I got a question." Hunter caught up to the pair. "Do you happen to have access to anything about female dragons? Medical, cultural... Honestly, anything would help."

"I don't believe so, but I can take a look for you."

"I'd appreciate it." Hunter let the two of them leave and went off to find Em. He still had apologizing to do.

He found her talking to a pair of dragons that he didn't know and it was clear that they had spotted him before he had seen them.

The two unknown dragons glanced over at Hunter, said something and laughed until Em cut them off with a snap of her teeth.

"Good morning, Hunter." The green dragoness shot daggers at the other two.

"Morning, Em." Hunter waved.

"These two miscreants are Tae and Speir." The two dragons nodded at Hunter and both greeted him at the same time.

"Pleasure to meet you two. Sorry if I'm interrupting your conversation." He did his best to hide the sudden self-consciousness he felt. It definitely seemed like they were talking about him well before he had actually shown up.

"Not at all. These two were actually going to go take a flight since what falls out of their mouths are usually not appropriate for polite company."

"Awww, you think you're polite company all of the sudden just because your wolf shows up." Tae, the dull red colored dragon jested, dodging a slap of Em's wing as he chuckled.

"Anyways, Em is right about us needing to go though." Speir stepped between the two and separated them. "It was a pleasure to finally meet you, Hunter. Em talks about you quite a bit."

"Nice to meet you two as well." Before Hunter could finish, the two of them were heading off. More jokes and laughter flying between the two.

"Don't worry about those two. It's safe to assume whatever they were saying was a joke or sexual."

"Good to know. I thought they were talking about me."

'Oh, they were." A silence fell between the two as things that needed to be said were mentally organized.

Hunter wasn't sure which version he preferred, but he gathered himself as best he could and opened his mouth. "I um... I'm sorry, Em. For yesterday." He scratched behind his right ear as he spoke.

He tried to recall the long, prepared apology, but quickly deviated from it. "My entire life has been spent handling situations like that by myself. I've been taunted for my eyes ever since the right one failed to develop properly."

"I find it quite striking." Em glanced between the two of his eyes and smiled.

Hunter instinctively turned his head to the right to hide his blue eye. "I've been called a pup for my whole life. It's the one thing that always gets to me, no matter how much I try." It had been much shorter than he had expected, but at the same time he spilled out more of himself than he had intended.

"And because of that, you feel like people are treating you like a pup whenever they stand up for you." She nodded understandingly. It was hard to tell what was going through her head, but Hunter constantly found himself disarmed by the dragoness.

"Pretty much." He hesitantly made eye contact with her and he forced himself to maintain it, even though she was looking at his blue eye.

"In that case, I should be the one to apologize." A door slid open nearby and a few wolves walked out. "Do you want to take a walk?"

"Yeah, might be for the best." They headed away from people and kept walking as they talked.

"I know your training material has been..."

"Pathetic at best." Hunter laughed. They had spent a lot of time reading the textbooks together and the information wasn't very in-depth.

"Yeah, so I think it's time you get a crash course on dragon culture from a 'ness."

She kept it as brief as possible, but it was still half of a culture that Hunter had to learn about. Their social system was quite different than the wolfen one. Unlike wolves, dragons had pretty significant sexual dimorphism and females were noticeably larger than the males. On top of that, females were born at a lower rate than males.

Females took several mates, creating a small family unit that would collectively help rear hatchlings, but also jealously defend the dragoness. That was why Em's inclusion in a frontline unit was met with significant resistance from the male dragons on base.

That put Em in a situation that was oddly similar to what Hunter was facing. She told him about all the times that males had unnecessarily tried to defend her or propositioned her.

"Well, nobody here has propositioned me, so our positions are still a little different." Hunter laughed and gestured for her to continue.

"Yet." Em smirked, leaving Hunter a little flustered and confused. It seemed dangerously flirtatious.

For Em to be where she was, she had forgone quite a bit. It would have been easy for her to settle down and let a few drakes pamper her, leaving her to live whatever life she would like. She was constantly fending off suitors and the disapproving gazes of more traditional dragons.

"Culturally, other dragons probably see me as having taken you as a mate. Not sexually of course, but as a male that is and will be close to me at all times. It will draw the envy of those who have tried and failed to woo me and sideways glances from those who believe things shouldn't change." She paused and and made eye contact with him again.

His face burned as he forced himself to meet her gaze.

"That is why I defended you so fervently."

It was a lot to process and the long silence meant Em had a lot to think about too. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence aside from the sudden realization that sand was starting to intrude in places it shouldn't be.

"Apology accepted, then. Though I still feel bad about snapping at you." There was a lot about this situation that made Hunter uncomfortable. He wasn't used to apologizing and he certainly wasn't used to the apology ending without a fight.

"I accept your apology as well. As for making it up to me, I'm sure you'll have an opportunity." She gave him a toothy smirk. "Though, I might go extra hard when we fly tomorrow."

It didn't seem right. There was no way first flight was tomorrow already, they still had... Hunter tried to straighten out his timeline and realized she was right.

That information lingered like a sense of impending doom, but with a sprinkling of excitement. Time crawled, but Hunter found himself at the end of the day asking himself how it had passed so quickly.

The atmosphere the next morning was abuzz with riders and non-riders alike talking about it everywhere Hunter went. Riders seemed glued to their dragons and there was an equal amount of fearful and excited looks. Breakfast was intentionally light and when the announcement came, riders and dragons returned to their rooms to fetch their gear before assembling on the ramp.

An odd silence filled the air. For the first time since Hunter had arrived, the base was quiet. No aircraft roared down the runway, there were no shooting drills at the range, and even the usual chatter of off-duty wolves and dragons wasn't present.

"Good morning." Captain River started when everyone had gathered. "Today is the first of several days of flight training. I hope you and your dragon have spent a lot of time training together, because everything we cover today will only help you so much. Get geared up, we'll take this step by step."

The captain did rounds as the rider's donned their armor and harness.

"Is there usually such a large audience, sir?" Hunter asked when the Captain looked him over, giving a few straps a good tug. Every second drew more and more wolves from the base were joining the crowd that were watching from a distance.

"It's pretty normal. First day of flight is like a holiday. Mess even prepared a special meal for it." He gave Hunter a pat on the shoulder. "Looks good, Specialist. It's easy to tell when a rider has been training enough in their free time."

He moved down the line, leaving Hunter to put the bed onto a beaming Em.

"Am I doing good enough to make you look good?" Hunter leaned in a bit and asked in a hushed tone as he pulled one of the straps taut.

"I'd say so. Maybe I won't go too hard on you today." It was unusual to see such raw emotion on Em's face. Maybe he had gotten better at reading her, but it was clear how excited she was for this moment. She kept shifting weight from one side to the other, and Hunter found it oddly adorable.

They finished gearing up before the other pairs, but Hunter went over everything again just to make sure. Part of it was also a guise so that they wouldn't stand out.

"Alright, mount up and get secured." Everyone complied with the Captain's command with varying degrees of success, but after a couple of corrections from the wandering officers, all thirty riders were nestled between the wings of their dragons.

The sound of footsteps and side conversation died down completely as Captain River walked them through the basics of what they would be experiencing in a few moments. Don't tuck your chin, don't grab the wing limbs, don't grab anything on the bed that isn't a handhold, and for the love of god, don't unstrap yourself. It seemed basic, but it was easy to panic and do something very, very dumb.

"Most of the training is learning how your partners handle. Don't fight it when you get jostled, anticipate their wing beats and learn to adapt!" The Captain took his place at the head of the formation and pointed at the sky. "Alci, take 'em up!"

Who is Al-- His thought was cut off as Em took off into a full sprint, snapping her wings open as she went. Wind whipped over him as she flapped her expansive wings, kicking up dust with each powerful stroke.

Then they were up. The thump of her paws hitting the ground no longer reverberated through her body and instead, he could feel the muscles along the entire length of her body move to power her flight. He had to fight himself from tucking his chin as he bounced against her back despite his death grip on the bed.

"Eyes open. You're missing all of it!" Her voice had a strange computerized tone to it as his helmet started to filter out the sound of the rushing wind and amplify what she was saying.

Hunter did his best to comply and pried his eyes open just in time to see them pass just into the altitude where a fall would severely hurt him. His knees already burned as they squeezed against the bed and they complained when he turned himself to watch the other pairs take off behind them.

Without a doubt, he was scared shitless, but beneath all that bubbled a growing excitement. Em banked to the left and he felt his stomach dropped as his brain expected a fall, but his harness held tight.

A howl escaped Hunter's mouth. Primal, scared, excited, and piercing. A few others joined him and from the sounds of it, they were feeling exactly what Hunter was.

They came about and passed over the base and the gathered crowd who hooped and hollered as the riders flew around the base.

Em got progressively more aggressive with her maneuvers, banking harder and proving her speed by zipping past other dragons. Hunter did his best to hold on, but more often than not was saved by the straps.

"Roll!" Em called out. He braced as well as he could and squeezed his eyes shut as he felt himself spin.

His entire body was demanding panic as all of his sensory organs reported things he was unfamiliar with. His heart was pounding and his stomach was doing flips as the wind tried to rip him from the back of the dragoness. He said a jumble of words, but it was incoherent and there was no indication that Em had heard him.

Dives, flips, spirals, verticals. It was all terrifying and it made Hunter regret existing in all three dimensions at once.

By the time she slowed down for a landing, he was basically slumped against her back, putting all his faith in the straps as his hands had gone numb from the deathgrip he had on her bed.

"How do you feel?" Em asked as she trotted to a stop, each step jostling him against her body.

Noises and a few words spilled out of his mouth between panted breaths.

"I did go easy on you." She lowered herself as Hunter fumbled to unbuckle himself.

Hunter ungracefully fell onto the ground, legs wobbling, but managed to stand up before the nearby medics got too concerned. "I don't believe you. In the slightest."

He panted and put all his weight against her side as the world span. There was no way he could trust his own legs to hold him up right now.

"You didn't throw up or black out. I'd call that easy." She stepped away from Hunter and laughed a bit as he toppled over a bit, but caught him before he fell over completely.

As he rested, other pairs started to land. Some riders stayed mounted and others fell off, but they all seemed to be having similar experiences. When they had all landed, a pair of wolves delivered a large, metal container to each dragon and rider.

"Thanks for winning me a bet. A lot of folks thought she'd make you collapse on landing." He laughed, dropped the container, and headed back to the crowd.

"I hate to disappoint!" Hunter called out after the other wolf and read the note that came with the box.

Wolves on Wings is a special day for more than the Riders. The rest of the day is yours as well as this special dinner that is prepared for this day. The dragons have been itching to show you all their favorite spots. Flight restrictions are lifted and the airspace will be clear. Enjoy, and be back before sundown. It was signed by the Captain.

"Smells good. Let's be off." Em put a paw on the container gestured with her head for him to get back on.

Hunter hesitantly obliged, but not without checking the straps half a dozen times. "Seems odd that they are letting us fly around with so little actual practice."

"How many times did you check your harness?" Em asked as she straightened out.

"Probably more than enough." There was no doubt that the other riders had been equally scared by the experience and had checked their equipment thoroughly before the second flight.

"Then I don't see the problem. The rest of the training is flight, you'll get your practice."

Em kept the second flight much smoother, though the take off still jarred him and the feeling of her sinking again put his stomach in his throat. She circled back to snatch up the heavy container with scary precision.

In a matter of minutes, the base was long behind them and the endless desert of Aliquam stretched all around them. Stone towers rose up in the distance, undoubtedly their destination as Em made a beeline towards the tallest one. It's then Hunter realized that his legs were no longer clenching against the bed, probably out of exhaustion. It was easier to anticipate her wingbeats when she wasn't also showing off.

They made their way to the largest of the buttes, a large stone tower that rose up several hundred feet into the air. She skimmed over the top, dropped the container, and looped back around to land dead center of the massive stone pillar. Hunter dismounted and admired the view from a respectable distance from the edge of the massive butte that he found himself on.

"This is where I come when I want to be alone. Nice view, isn't it?" Em went to the crate and shoved it towards him.

The view was beautiful, if a bit samey with all the sand dunes that stretched out to the horizon. The buttes offered a nice break from all the sand. Layers of hard rock worn away over the course of time, leaving an odd tower in the middle of an otherwise sandy desert.

"Yeah, a bit high for my tastes, but gives a heck of a view." Hunter checked out the container. He recognized it as a supply crate specially designed for SCAR Rider units. It was designed for punishment and for dragons to be able to hold them during flight.

He popped the latches and swung the heavy lid off, revealing several containers of food. The theme of it wasn't lost on him as he pulled out cooked wings of several kinds of poultry wings, pancakes, and an assortment of mashed food.

"They have a sense of humor at least." Hunter unpacked the food for Em to examine.

"And more importantly, they gave us enough so that I can eat real food too."

The two of them settled down away from the edge of the butte much to Em's disappointment and set out their expansive meal.

"Why do others call you Alci?" Hunter felt that regardless of the answer, he would feel stupid.

"It's my name. I figured you heard my nickname at some point and was just using that." Yup. Definitely feeling a bit stupid right about now. Hunter thought to himself as a silence came over them. "I also didn't want to correct you on our first meeting."

"Well, it certainly would've saved me from this situation." He let out an awkward chuckle as his face warmed. Rearranging the food containers provided a convenient distraction to avoid eye contact.

"Hunter shows all the remarkable features of a good leader and an incredible sniper, but lets self-doubt cripple him, often leading to others taking the credit for his achievements and actions." She placed a paw on the smaller containers and took away his distraction, forcing him to look up at her. "They gave me a file about you to read before you showed up. I didn't want to start off our partnership by feeding your self-doubt."

It left him speechless and flustered. Without the food to provide a distraction, he was left to rub the back of his head and avert his eyes.

"Alci or Em, I genuinely don't mind either." She lifted her paw and let him open up the food containers.

This damn dragon. She should've been frustrated with him. He had been calling her by the wrong name for entirely too long and the acceptable time to not know something that important had long passed. And yet, she was so calm and not in the least bit annoyed by his mistake. It would've been easier if she was mad. Mad was something Hunter could handle, he had plenty of experience dealing with mad people.

"You're beating yourself up, aren't you?" The green paw returned and stopped him again. "You were handpicked for this unit, I selected you, and the Captain approved. Dragon, green, Em, Alci, you can call me whatever you like, I really don't mind."

Hunter ran his hands down his face, letting them linger over his eyes a bit. "I'm sorry... Alci." It didn't sound quite right. "Do me a favor and correct me next time?"

"I can do that." She relinquished her grip on the food and went about diving it up for the two of them. The mess food wasn't bad, but this meal was certainly a step up from the usual. For starters, there was enough meat for Em - Alci, dammit-- to enjoy some as well as well as the wide assortment. Much to his amusement, he found a small container of nuts he hadn't noticed earlier.

"For a covert unit, they don't do subtle very well." Hunter laughed as he popped a handful of nuts into his mouth.

"If you take offense to it, I'll happily eat it all." She claimed one of his containers and slowly dragged it over to her side. Daring him to do something about it.

"Ohhh no, you don't." He went on the offensive and grabbed the container with one hand and tried to pry her paw off with the other to no avail. Her paw kept it solidly pinned against the rock they sat on. "I don't suppose you're ticklish?"

"Would it be a smart idea to try that?"

"Probably not." Hunter feigned giving up on the container, but as he withdrew, it risked it and tickled underneath her paw. He found the information he was looking for just between her paw digits and was rewarded with her paw lifting off of his container. Before he could declare victory though, she was upon him, pushing him from his sitting position and pinning him under a paw.

"You are correct. Tickling a dragon would usually be a bad idea. You're just lucky I'm not ticklish." She tapped the two claws on either side of his against the rock for emphasis.

"Alright, I give up." He held up his hands and pinned his ears. It amazed him how many preposterous situations he had been in the last few weeks. If his past self had been told that he would be pinned down by a dragoness on top of a rocky butte several hundred feet up in the air while sharing dinner, he would've assumed he was going to be murdered or his sexual preferences had changed. "As is fair and according to our peace treaty, I concede two wings in return for my freedom."

"That seems fair. I accept your terms." Em lifted her paw and let him sit up to resume his meal, but not before he handed over her conquered fortune.

"What else did that file say?" Hunter asked between bites of mash. He wanted to know who wrote it and what they had to say about him.

"I think I'll keep the rest of it to myself." She crunched several of the wings, bone and all.

"Do I need to have more bouts of self-doubt for you to tell me more?"

She glared and crunched through some bones loud enough for him to hear. "I would prefer it if you didn't, but if the information is relevant, maybe I'll mention it."

"You know this is going to be on my mind until you tell me, right?"

She sighed and looked down on him doing his best attempt to look pitiful while eating. "Fine, but only because I don't want your self-doubt ruining you, but I will break you of this one day. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was almost entirely praise. They referenced a few exercises whose success could be directly attributed to you, though you never claimed the credit."

"Unit exercises are exactly that. A unit." Hunter wasn't sure which was worse, the feeling of not knowing or the unexpected compliments.

"It also said you were good with your weapon and didn't cause problems."

"That part sounds right." He had finished up his meal and was busy stacking the containers inside each other.

"Now the bad. It said you were quiet to a fault and a bit awkward in social situations."

Hunter expected her to keep going, but she just met his gaze. "And?"

"And? There's nothing else." She used a paw to slide her empty containers towards him which was the best she could do to help clean up the remnants of their meal.

"I was expecting that list to be longer." He packed away the last of the containers and closed the case.

Hunter stood up and patted away some of the dust on his pants before regarding the dragoness who just kept looking right at him.

"What?" He asked.

She stepped forward and placed her head on his shoulder. It took him by surprise and he couldn't help but recoil a little at the sudden gesture.

"I know I said this already, but I picked you. You might not believe in yourself, but I do. Captain River does." She tilted her head and gently brushed against the side of his. Her warm hide rubbing against his soft, if dusty fur was nice. Unexpected, but nice.

"It's going to take a while to convince myself that you didn't make a mistake." He rubbed her snout with his hand. This was physically the closest they had been outside of riding on her back and Em had never done a wolfish gesture like this before. "Did the file include my marks at the range?"

"No, why?" She lifted her head and sat back to meet his gaze.

"I was easily the worst shot in the platoon." He rubbed his shoulder. She definitely didn't put her whole weight on him, but it was enough to leave a bit of an impression on his already sore muscles.

"I find that hard to believe considering you're a sniper by training."

"I didn't believe in my shoot abilities until I qualified for that. I spent every free minute I had at the range for weeks." It had been endless hours spent at the range, shooting until his trigger finger and shoulder were sore. By the time he qualified on the range, he was comfortable shooting ambidextrously and was surprised to learn that he got the marks to be a marksman.

"You're tenacious. Nothing I say will convince you you've earned this position, just give it some time and you'll see." She turned, almost whacking him with her tail and laid down, craning her neck to look back at him. "Come on, get mounted. Got something else I want to do."

Hunter obliged and carefully stepped over her tail to slide onto the bed, securing the straps as he went.. "What about the crate?"

"We'll come back for it. All set?" Em already knew the answer as she had watched him get secured, but she waited for him to nod before unfurling her wings. "Hang on."

There was no mighty flap or run-up to take off, but instead she just walked off the edge of the butte. Hunter's stomach lurched up into his throat, suddenly unhappy about the meal he had just eaten. Her wings caught the air and gravity finally returned to normal as she glided down, circling around the butte with only a few inches to spare from the tip of her wing and the jagged rock. There was just the sound of the wind as the air parted around Em and whipped at Hunter.

As they neared the ground, she peeled off and aimed for a small rocky outcrop. Her entire body tilted up and caused Hunter to slide down the bed until the straps caught him. A few strong wing beats kicked up some sand and then they thumped down onto the ground.

"I like to sun myself here." She explained as Hunter undid the anchors and slid down her back, barely avoiding tripping over her tail.

"Why here of all places? Why not up there?" He pointed to the top of the butte where they had been a minute ago.

"The rock here radiates heat better. Also the butte protects from most of the sand that's kicked up by the wind, it's why it's not buried." The dragoness claimed her spot, lounging sideways on the rock with her front paws hanging just off the slight drop of the outcropping. "You can sit here if you want."

Em indicated to the spot between her two forelegs. Hunter, careful not to fall off onto the sand below, stepped over he leg and sat down. His legs hung off the edge, but with Em's chest behind him, it was quite a comfortable seat. "Thanks, Alci."

It still didn't sound quite right. Either she ignored the incorrect pronunciation or didn't hear it. She unfurled her wings again to soak up the setting sun and lashed her tail in satisfaction. Though a bit hot for Hunter's taste, he had to admit it was a nice change of pace. There was no roar of engines, or the pop of gunfire, just the wind and the soft shifting of sand.

Hunter turned his head and examined her wings. The soft light made the thin membrane glow, showing the intricate lattice of veins that ran through them. Her head loomed over him, gazing out into the endless sand ocean. She suddenly snorted and looked down at him, spreading her legs a little bit.

"Oh, sorry." He realized too late that his tail had been thumping, kicking up dust, and brushing against her dangling paw. "Wait, I thought you said you weren't ticklish!"

"I was just caught off guard by your wagging tail." Though Hunter saw her place her paw back where his bushy tail couldn't quite get underneath it. She kept watching him wag though. "I think this is a milestone. First time I've seen your tail wagging."

"Damn thing's got a mind of its own." He pinned it with a hand which didn't stop the tip from wiggling frantically. His face was warm from embarrassment and his ears tilted back.

"No, no, sorry, I wasn't trying to embarrass you. I just find it... Fascinating." There was intent behind that last word and Hunter could tell that she had been very careful about what she said.

"It... Definitely makes it easier to tell what people are thinking, that's for sure." He hesitantly lifted his hand and tried not to think about it too much.

They both went silent again, though Hunter could see her steal glimpses of his tail from the corner of her eye. Hunter couldn't help but feel weird. Something was missing and he couldn't put his finger on it. A deep rumble vibrated through his back and at first, he thought it was coming from the ground, but it was coming from the dragon.

Purring. She was purring. It finally clicked for him what was missing. Discomfort. There was no obligation to keep up conversation or to hide his blue eye from her. He didn't need to mind his tail or his ears from betraying him since he didn't care what his body subconsciously revealed to her.

For the first time in a while, Hunter smiled. Not the one that shrouded his dislike of social situations when he was on base, but a genuine, warm smile. He put his hands behind his head and leaned against the dragoness fully.

He didn't comment on the purring, but he could tell that she knew as his tail continued to thump against the ground.

This was nice.