Claws

Reintroduction

Luka's eyes are gray, right? Right? Idek anymore

APOLLO

Two weeks after being handed to Kye, I was getting into the swing of things again. I spent my days practicing obedience, playing with Roomba, and coddling Blizzard.
     At this particular moment, I was nuzzling my mate as I held her in the shade of a mature crape myrtle.
     These days, I didn't think much about Kennedy. I still loved him, but I had so much more to worry about. Namely, a fledgeling.
     Blizzard sighed contently as I wrapped my wings around her and embraced her even tighter. We chatted about meaningless topics and spent the next hour or so enjoying the summer's afternoon.
     Kye and Joan spoke about human things at a picnic table some hundred meters away to give us an inkling of privacy.
     "My Mistress packed us lunch." Bliz hummed, "Can you go get it, Apollo?"
     A kiss planted on her forehead was my answer.  Rising to my feet, I stretched my wings out to their full capacity and yawned. All of my wounds had healed and missing feathers were replaced with shiny, healthy, new ones.
     I could barely pick up the humans' conversations as I walked towards them.
     "Yeah, Luka is doing better. I went to go visit him the other day." Joan confirmed.
     "That's good." Kye replied, "I haven't been able to go see him recently since I've had Apollo."
     "Hey." I greeted the pair as I closed in. "Blizzard said you have lunch for us, Joan?"
     I was wordlessly handed an insulated lunchbox.
     Their conversation continued as I walked back to my mate.
     "He's doing better. Been going to intensive therapy in the city." Joan remarked. "Bless his heart, he's got a lot of fight in him. He told me he's been staying with his dad. I almost didn't believe it when I heard it."
     I tried to keep my mind off of my Master while I fed Blizzard lunch.
     "Ouch!" I exclaimed— she had accidentally nipped my fingers with her fangs.
     A muffled, "Sorry." came through a mouthful of cubed meat.
     Lapping up the red flowing from the small wound, I couldn't help but think about how I had tried to kill Luka not three weeks earlier. Had he really deserved it?
     Yeah. But I still felt bad.
     "Whatcha thinking about?" Blizzard purred from where she laid with her head in my lap.
     I let my head roll back and hit the crape myrtle behind me. "Luka."
     "Makes sense," She hummed, "You should really apologize. And thank him for not killing you."
     "He should be thanking me for not killing him!" I groaned.
     "Hey! Cut the attitude." Blizzard growled, "I'm serious, Joan told me that George talked about slaughtering you."
     "They might as well have." I sighed.
     "Can you please take me seriously for once?" Blizzard's growl grew louder, and this time, she bared her teeth at me. "Apologize to your Master, you freaking knucklehead!"
     "He told me our fledgling is going to be sent to a farm and then he beat the living shit out of me, Blizzard!" I replied haughtily.
     Shock painted my mate's features. "He told you what?"
     My heart broke all over again. A deep breath entered my lungs, and I held it there for a moment before telling her, "He said they're going to send our fledgling to a lionheart farm."
     "I grew up in one of those." Blizzard frowned as she spoke. "Not a great place to be. I don't want that for him."
     "Him?" I asked.
     "It's going to be a boy, I can tell." She hummed. "Maybe I can talk to my Mistress about raising him here. It's got to be possible."
     "I hope so." I murmured.

••••••••••

     Kye was out on an early morning work call, and I was about to do something bad.
     It certainly wasn't the first time I had done something bad in my life, so I wasn't too nervous. Well, I wasn't nervous about doing something bad; I was worried about what my Master would say when I picked up Kye's phone, which he had accidentally left at home with me, and pressed the "call" button on the Luka contact.
    I forced my fingers to mash the button before I could think too much about it. The phone rang once, then twice, then three times, and I was about to hang up, when a familiar voice answered sleepily, "Hey baby, whatcha doing up so early?"
     "Hi." Was all I could muster.
     The line went silent for a few long seconds. Next, a testing, "Apollo?" was said.
     "Master?" I answered cautiously.
     "Did you steal Kye's phone?" Luka sounded thoroughly confused.
     "He left it when he went to work." I revealed, following with a more sheepish, "How are you?"
     "I'm...." There was a substantial pause. "I'm doing better."
     I couldn't help it, my mouth asked quicker than my brain could stop me, "When are you going to bring me home, Luka?"
     "Soon, hun, soon." He reassured me, and a breath that I didn't know I'd been holding left me shakily.
     "Thank god." I murmured, before more clearly continuing, "Master, I have to ask you a very big favor."
     I could almost hear Luka biting back a sarcastic remark. Instead, he chose to say rather bluntly, "What?"
     "Please," I begged, "Please let Blizzard and I keep our fledgling!"
     "Apollo, I—"
     I didn't let him finish. "He's not even close to being born yet, and we already love him so much that I think our hearts would explode if you took him from us. We don't even know his name yet, but we know we want to raise him!"
     My Masted soughed. "I'm sorry, Apollo, we just can't do that."
     My heart felt like a dropped glass shattering against a tile floor.
     "But," Luka continued, "George will be raising them after they hit puberty and metamorphosize. So they'll be on the ranch, and you two can help raise them then."
     "That's not enough." I muttered broken-heartedly.
     "I know it's not." Luka responded, "But it's all that we can do."
     "I have to tell Blizzard...." I lamented, "Jesus Christ, I have to tell Blizzard."
     "Let Joan tell her." My Master suggested.
     I shook my head despite the fact that the human couldn't see me. "I can't do that to her. It's got to be me."
     "Suit yourself." Luka hummed.
     "And...." I began.
     A few seconds passed before Luka pressed, "And?"
     "And I'm really, really sorry I hurt you." I conceded. "Please don't hate me forever."
    The human sighed. I could almost hear a hand running through his hair. "I don't hate you, Apollo. I just.... You were going to kill me. I'm allowed to be upset."
     "I know." I responded.
     The front sound of the front door unlocking grabbed my attention.
     "Uh oh, I have to go. Kye is coming back."
     As I hurried to press the end call button, Luka stopped me with a "Wait! It's fine, Kye doesn't care. I want to talk to you some more."
     "If you say so." I muttered.
     The door opened with a drawn-out creak. Kye and I immediately locked eyes. As soon as he opened his mouth to ask why I had his phone, I screeched, "Lukasaiditwasokay!" 
    "Wait, you're talking to Luka? And Luka's talking to you?" Kye asked with bewilderment.
     Both my Master and I responded with a simultaneous, "Yeah?"
     "I guess you two are fine, then?" Kye continued cautiously.
     "Yes." I replied.
     "Um, no." Luka laughed dryly through his words. "You did try to kill me."
     "You did beat the shit out of me and tell me you were taking my fledgeling." I mimicked him.
     "Hey!" Kye's voice was stern. "None of that!"
     My eyes grew wide. I made Kye mad?
     "Sorry." I mumbled.
     "Why do you respect Kye and not me?" Luka sounded borderline hurt.
     I communicated my emotions fairly and simply, for once. "Kye is really nice to me. He doesn't hurt me."
     "Hun," Luka cooed, "I don't want to hurt you. It's just.... I just...."
It was my turn to press. "You just what?"
My Master sighed. "Everyone was telling me to discipline you. Culture here is to just beat the bad out of the bird, instead of committing to positive reinforcement behavior modification. I'm sorry for hurting you Apollo. I lost my way."
I sat with his apology for what felt like about a minute. My face contorted in tough thorough thought. I went back to every beating I got in Luka's name— a flogging in the barn, a paddling with Chiaki at the agility course, a damnable crotch paddling by Joan, the beating that spurred my attack on Luka, and every tortuous second I spent with Will.
Finally, I let go of a breath filled with stress. A dull hand ran through my hair. Could I forgive my Master, who rehabilitated me and saved me from the Sanctuary?
I guess.
"Okay." I capitulated, "I forgive you."
Kye was dumbfounded. "It's that easy?"
"He's my Master." I rationalized, "I swore to protect and obey him, and I haven't done that. It's more of a question of if he will forgive me."
"It's not a question at all. I forgive you for disobeying me. For trying to kill me.... That's a harder one."
"Right. That's fair." I agreed. "I don't blame you, I guess."
My Master, Kye, and I stayed on the phone together for about an hour. We talked about Luka's recovery, my stay with Kye, and my Will's special treatment of me.
I hadn't realized how much I missed my human.