He didn't stand a chance of saying no to that. It almost terrified him, because every preconceived notion he had about himself was peeling out of his grip. He hated training with others, and yet he found nothing more pleasing than the idea of taking her to one of his secret places where no one would find them so they could make fools of themselves flapping about like clipped chickens.

Because that's what they ended up doing. He led her to the small rocky beach that could only be reached by climbing about a cliff during low tide. He didn't even have a shirt on, as he didn't feel too inclined to dismembering one of Tyson's shirts to accommodate his wings, and all his own clothes were still in the dryer. Their trench coats, Ayah's being Grandpa Granger's off-white monstrosity, were draped over a nearby rock, leaving them bare and winged in the early autumn breeze and ocean spray. He even, covertly as possible, slipped out his tail feathers, though the riding of Tyson's sweats beneath his tail wasn't exactly pleasant. Constant aviary wedgie.

Ayah's reaction to the sight of his long, graceful tail feathers, however, was worth it.

"They're so beautiful!" she cried, clapping her hands together. "And the gray at the end matches your hair!"

And then the flapping. She said she had practiced in Tyson's backyard, but it was obvious from the start that she hadn't the sort of insane drive that Kai had in achieving excellence—though it didn't really matter because they both ended up on their faces on the first try to get off the ground. A few fluffs of white and scarlet downy fluttered about them.

She spat out a mouthful of sand. "Ow."

"I think if we make sure we keep our heads up," he said. Forget training with others, this wasn't even training. He was so use to being a leader that he had forgotten what it was like to not have any idea of what he was doing.

"Yeah, I was definitely looking down at the ground that time. You trying to tell if you're feet leave the ground too, right?"

"...This is weird."

She laughed a curious high, trilling thing. It was unlike any sound he had ever heard her make.

"We're weird!" she cried. "Come on! On three, we'll try again."

"How about one of us tries on our own and the other watches? For suggestions."

"Yeah! How about you first? I can still remember what it looked like to see my parents flying, so maybe I can use that."

This gave him pause as he lifted his wings. He wanted to ask, but she was already waiting, eyes bright with delighted expectation.

He crouched down first. Then, with all his strength, he jumped, flapping down at the same time. More downy feathers flew. He feared he'd hit the ground with his wings, fluttered, teetered, and with a burn of pectoral and dorsal muscles, managed to keep himself airborne for a precious few seconds before dropping back down. He couldn't help but be ridiculously pleased by the fact that he managed to land on his feet rather than his face this time.

She looked rightly impressed. "Wow. You actually almost had it. I think you're not reaching high enough, though. With your wings, that is. I think my dad said once you have to scoop up as much air as possible."

Again, he was curious. He wanted to ask about her parents and her siblings. Though, since he knew they were killed, he worried he'd touch some nerve and end up having to deal with her sobbing or revisiting unpleasant memories. He didn't do the whole comforting thing well.

"Try one more time. Then I'll take a turn."

He nodded, already beginning to feel the heat building up from exertion. He didn't sweat, however, as he had found rather early on in his practice that it took much more exertion on his part to actually work up a sweat, as his body could handle heat. He had even seen the air ripple about him from his own breaths a few times. Best he warn her of that if it should ever get to that point.

The second time up, he did his best to add her notes and actually managed to start climbing higher before his muscles started to shriek in protest and he had to come back down with a loud 'thump' of feet against damp sand. Ayah cheered and clapped her hands, which made him blush. It wasn't that big of a deal.

The air started to ripple where he breathed. "Best you keep your distance."

She stopped clapping, concerned. "Why?"

"When I, uh, exert myself, I get hot—I mean, I give off heat. I don't want to burn you." Ah, god, did he really sound like that? When did he ever say 'uh'?

"Oh." She cocked her head to the side. "So I guess I wasn't just seeing things. I thought I saw your breath sort of..."

"Yeah."

She just looked at him for a moment, expression unreadable, as he caught his breath and sweated heat. Then she blinked hard and seem to come to.

"Okay, my turn."

He found himself inwardly chortling at her comical expression of concentration as she lifted her wings as high as they could go, her forefeathers stretched out like fingers and her tail feathers, short and utilitarian, spread out wide.

She managed to get off the ground, but since her endurance was poorer than Kai's, didn't manage to get any higher.

He did his best to give notes, but didn't have much to add. The only time he'd seen anyone fly was with Cain, and he had had other things on his mind.

Kai didn't manage to get any higher after that, as his muscles seemed to have given up for the day. This annoyed him, and he made even more fervent plans to get fit. Then he wondered when learning to fly had gotten so important. It wasn't like he could do anything with it that would fix any of his current problems.

He did, however, manage to get higher than Ayah on every jump.

"Maybe you're going higher because of the heat," she said breathlessly. "You know, hot air goes up."

He highly doubted that, but he didn't mention that. "What, you want me to breathe fire under you?"

He had meant it sarcastically, but she actually lit up as though he had caught on to something brilliant.

"No," he said.

"You don't have to breathe fire, just get some of that wavery heat around you over here. I mean, you should see you, you're like a furnace. I can feel you from here."

"How? You going to try and launch off of my shoulders?"

Her eyes darted to his shoulders then back, and he thought, with some smugness, that perhaps she wasn't immune to the fact that he was shirtless like he had thought. "Okay, maybe not such a great idea. Maybe we should find somewhere to jump off of."

"Forget it. Practice is all we need."

"Gliding is easy though! That's how birds learn how to do it. They just, you know, jump out of the nest and sort of glide down—"

"We're not birds."

She blinked hard at his interruption, then narrowed her eyes as she examined his face. He looked away, unnerved by the attention.

"Are you afraid?"

He snorted. "Are you trying to bait me? I'm not a child."

She smirked. "Thought so. If you were trying to hide it, you best be quiet. Voice gives away everything." She tapped her ear. "Remember? Come on. You should know a way up to the top of this...cliff thing, right? And there's trees and stuff up there, so we should be fairly hidden."

He groaned, all sorts of uncomfortable. Her hearing really did get on his nerves. Inwardly swearing to keep his mouth closed more often around her, he folded up his wings and went round to the opposite end of the beach. After poking his feet around to get a feel for his balance, he started to climb, remembering a narrow, steep walkway of sorts weaving up the rocks on the other side. It was naturally made, and the little spurt of rock top that Ayah referred to wasn't worth getting to, but he had taken it a time or two to think. There wasn't enough space for practicing since the grand three trees took up all the space, so he hadn't used it for much else.

They were more like weather beaten bushes than trees, he thought, as he clambered the last few feet of stone and gravel and grabbed on to one of the trunks.

"How you doing?" he asked over his shoulder. He couldn't only make out the white hump of her wings.

"Fine."

Her voice wavered a bit, on the high side, and he frowned, but busied himself with pulling himself up enough to turn and reach out his hand.

"Ayah."

She looked up, face flushed with exertion, saw his hand, and took hold of it. Even cold, dirty, and sweaty, the feel of her slim fingers being swallowed by his larger hand sent little dancing thrills up his back.

There was just enough room for them within the scraggily trees to sit and catch their breath.

"If I knew what I was asking for..." she started, slumping back on one of the three trunks and letting her wings hang out on either side.

He pulled back the corners of his mouth in chagrin. "Looks like gliding will be our only way down now. I can see your legs shaking."

"How come yours aren't? Are you just buff like that?"

"...Yeah."

"Ugh, you're just making it hotter. You're going to catch the trees on fire or something."

"Guess I'll go first, then." Using the last two trees, he pulled himself to his feet and crouched over the edge of the rock, taking a moment to take in what he was in for. The ocean spread out before him, metallic and bright in the sunlight, and their little gravely beach wasn't as far down as he would like. He needed to get enough air to fill up his wings, right? What if it wasn't a far enough drop to give the air time to slow him down and he ended up breaking his new, lighter bones? What if Ayah did?

He straightened. The trees were in the way. He'd have to drop first before opening his wings. That didn't help him feel any better.

"You can do it!" said Ayah.

"I don't need your encouragement."

"I think you do."

"Well I don't, so stop."

Luckily, she didn't say anything after that. Sensing her smiling gave him the irritation he needed to push through the last bit of his fear and jump.

For a nanosecond of time, he was surrounded by only air, once more just a normal, pre-Ayah Kai. The rocks, gravel, and water waited to smash him. He knew he was going to die. He knew he had just done the most idiotic thing ever.

And then he thought of Dranzer. Where had she gone? Had she really just become a part of him?

Then his wings snapped open.

The earth swooped beneath him. He didn't just go down—he went out, straight for the wide expanse of ocean, the bones of his wings locking into place, every muscle along his back straining with the sudden weight of his entire body. Air licked at him, cold, salty, fresh, and filling him whole to the brim.

And the Kai he knew blew away. He could feel the sky above him running its toes through his feathers like sand. He forgot about blading. He forgot about the nightmares, the stone Abbey, the hidden blood Tyson would never know about, his coming expenses, and his broad, unknowable, empty future.

He drifted out like that, paralyzed by euphoria, until the first splash of ocean spray woke him back up to the fact he was still sinking. He flapped desperately for the last few feet, longing to be back out in the freedom, knowing reality waited for him in the cold water, but the moment the first taste of ocean jumped to his feathers, he was down.

He had swam in the ocean countless times before. Back in the Abbey they had even forced them into the icy waters during the winter to train them in endurance. The summer waters of Japan were practically a warm bath compared to that.

Something had happened to him since Dranzer's fire had swallowed him, though. While the cold didn't knock him out with pain as it had on the ship, it still made his head spun and he found himself crawling to the surface with the desperate fury of a cat. He wanted out—he wanted out right now.

"Kai!"

He looked up just in time to see Ayah soaring above him, white pony-tail streaming out behind her and cheeks balled up from her smile. Sunlight backlighted her, making her glow like a cloud after the storm.

Then she snapped her wings close and dived in next to him, much like a seagull.

He was in no mood to frolic, however. The moment her head popped out of the water he was on his way back to shore. At least this weird, mutant body of his could still swim.

Luckily, they hadn't fallen as far as they could have. Kai had to go back and drag Ayah out of the surf, as her limbs seemed to have given out, after which they collapsed on the warm, gravely sand, spent.

But happy. More happy than he thought possible.