DragonBonds

Secrets

It had been quite a long time since his ceremony, since he started school again, that Cloud chose to actively participate again. Most of the time, he was just going through the motions, dealing with his Drake, dealing with his stormy feelings, it was a mess his first month back at school. However, once the second month rolled around, and he was able to learn more about his Drake and his powers, his confidence at school started to come back.

The calico had been spending some time with his friends; Connor, a usually serious hare who plays football on the high school team; Vickie, a Kitsune, the artist of the crew, a ray of sunshine wherever she goes and the group's optimist; Khloe, a proud and chivalrous bat with a knack for chess to the extent that she became the youngest president of the Chess Club; and Andi, Cloud's best friend and the local occult aficionado, and a ring-tailed cat. The four had been hanging out in the lunch room, talking about nothing and anything. The current topic of conversation had moved to conspiracy theories on video games- Connor's favorite topic. He could honestly rattle off as many conspiracy theories as he has heard and every fact behind them.

"Okay, but like... Would you not be curious?" Khloe chimed in, leaning her head onto her elbow.

"I'm just saying, if I saw an unlabeled Pokemon game in a box for donation at a yard sale, I simply wouldn't pick it up," Connor said matter-of-factly. "RIP to the kid in that story but I'm different."

As the group of friends chattered on, Cloud had sunk down to laying on his arms on the table, face hidden in the crook of his makeshift pillow. Andi scooted closer to him and laid their head on the cat, their tail curling up and over to rest on his lap.

"Everything alright?" they whispered to him, placing a paw on his shoulder. Cloud shrugged and took a deep breath before lifting his head up again. His quaff of hair stuck up in a few places, so Andi took the time to flatten it down with a paw and gave him a pat on the head. That made the calico purr a little bit, but he sighed.

"Yeah, I'm just tired. Don't worry," he gave them a small smile, but Andi was certainly not convinced it was just "being tired". It hurt to know that their best friend might be hiding something from them, but they let it go and laid their head on his anyway.

Cloud couldn't stop thinking about the information his parents gave him from their trip. It ran around in his head often, and because... Because they shared a body, it was only logical that He knew that he knew. And that scared him. Cloud had to be on guard more often to make sure the Drake never took control of him ever again. He couldn't do it.

"Alright," the ring-tail finally said after a moment of laying their head on his quietly. "Just making sure you know you don't have to hide things from me. You're my best friend, you know."

The sentiment sent heat directly to the cat's face and it made him dizzy. Him and Andi had been friends for a very long time, since elementary school he figured, and having them by his side through this whole thing added so much meaning to his new life. It... Felt wrong to put all of his issues, his trouble, onto them, because it felt scummy to him to repay their kindness and friendship by burdening them with issues that he can manage alone just fine.

He didn't want to put all of that stress and fear on his own friends. What mattered to them is he made it out okay, and what mattered to him is that they believed it was a tricky bond and nothing more.

The truth sucks a whole lot more.

--

The truth would come out eventually on a walk the five of them would take together. Connor was chatting with Khloe, the two of them bickering about the right way to play Super Smash Bros. Connor was adamant about strategies and being clever about the moves to use, while Khloe... prefers to button mash. So they had been talking about their opposing views while they walked. Vickie was taking pictures of anything interesting or inspiring, such as a weirdly shaped cloud, a leaf, some flowers, items like that. Cloud and Andi were walking a bit behind, looking at memes on Reddit, like they do usually. Cloud liked to send gushy text posts to Andi as well, and Andi would do the same back, but they were totally just friends.