Since Silverstream had started dating Gallus, she'd managed to break down his defenses almost immediately.
She knew what food he'd be craving when he got out of class, which buckball teams he liked and hated, which records he played alone by himself that he'd never admit to enjoying.
She was an amazing girlfriend.
And also a freeloader!
So Gallus was completely unsurprised when he entered his dorm room, worn from the school day, and immediately spotted a pink ball of fluff laying on his bed, scribbling in a sketchbook.
Those were definitely his leftovers on the floor next to her, too. He didn't care much though, because Silverstream's ADHD had a tendency to make work and fun priorities over food. Any time she remembered to eat was a win.
Her head whipped around a sickening one-eighty degrees, cracking all the little knots in her neck.
"You're back!"
Gallus nodded. He almost felt like a changeling, the way he could feel radiant beams of joy pouring off of her.
"How was class? Good day? Bad day? Mid, but that would be better after a nap day?"
Gallus simply flew over and plopped down on top of her. Silverstream readjusted to be belly up as he lay his head on her chest. They tangled their limbs, and Silverstream could feel his paws rub against her hindquarters. She cradled his head.
"That kind of day?"
He nodded. He listened to her breathe, and it felt like a lullaby. His siren song, pulling him further and further under. Nothing had ever calmed him down the way she did.
Gallus was the softest thing Silverstream had ever held in her care. Sometimes it felt like he might break at the slightest touch.
She traced crop circles in the fur of his cheeks.
With sleepy eyes, he sighed. Maybe they'd laid there for hours, or maybe five minutes.
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Class was good," he mumbled.
She hummed in reply. When she realized he wasn't going to finish his thought, she poked his head. "But?"
He exhaled and the air rippled against Silverstream's skin.
So stubborn, she thought. Even though his resistance was cute, it wouldn't help her fix the problem.
Silverstream scanned the room until her eyes fell on his calendar, marked up with his schedule for the month. Fragments of a conversation from a weeks prior presented themselves.
The family tree project for Professor Applejack's class.
She'd turned hers in weeks ago, so she hadn't thought about it all that much. Though, her lover probably couldn't say the same.
Poor thing, she thought, stroking his head and crown feathers. He purred softly.
Silverstream thought of all the ways she could delicately bring up the project without tugging on the wrong heart strings. She knew he'd been working on it. But instead of a booklet with information about siblings or cousins or parents, it was mostly an informational pamphlet about griffons. Her heart ached.
"Love," she whispered, rousing him from his half-sleep. She sat up against his head board.
He shifted with her, burying his face into her stomach.
Cuteness aggression nearly took over, the hippogriff biting down on her fist instead of ripping his eyes out of his head.
"Gallus," she tried again, scratching his eyebrow, because she knew he liked it when she did that.
The blue griffon lifted his head from his obscenely comfortable hippogriff pillow.
He stared at her quizzically.
You are so much more than some stupid ancestry diagram.
She held his head in her talons and he held her gaze.
You don't have to hide your hurt.
Gallus tilted his head lazily, and she pressed a kiss to his forehead.
"Mmm," he hummed.
"Better now?"
He opened his eyes wide like he was seeing the world in color for the first time.
"Better now."
Gallus began to untangle himself from his favorite set of limbs. Silverstream let him, despite the sudden chill across her midsection.
"I have to finish some homework," he said, stretching and letting his tail flick her beak. She laughed. "Parallel play?"
She nodded and placed her sketchbook down.
Silverstream let her claws do all the work, brain shutting off as her emotions manifested in inked lines and sharp edges.
When she finally locked back in, she smiled at her page. Her feelings blossomed across the paper like flowers in the spring sun.
Gallus seemed to be in the zone too, finishing up his booklet with so much detail and care. It was hilarious to think that he'd ever thought he was too cool for academia—Gallus looked right at home doing his homework.
It warmed Silverstream's heart. She hoped for a thousand more projects and chances to relive this moment over and over and over.
"Can you look over this for me?"
Silverstream brightened—he didn't seem sad at all anymore. She leaned over his place on the floor as he passed the booklet to her.
Blood of the covenant is thicker than water of the womb.
She tipped her head in confusion—she'd never heard the saying phrased in a way that defied its popularized context.
When the hippogriff opened the book, she gasped—each page was dedicated to the creatures that had welcomed him into their lives with open arms since they'd arrived. His friends, his professors. Her. She nearly teared up.
"It's perfect," Silverstream smiled, cheeks warming.
"Yeah? You don't think it's too much of a loophole?"
"Sometimes rules can be amended."
He leaned up to catch her beak against his.
Gallus was bad with words and feelings sometimes. But his heart always led him to the right actions. That's all that ever really mattered.
He knew he had a home in the space between her ribs. In her mouth, in her eyes. He was hers, she was his.
When he pulled away, Silverstream crossed her arms and draped her head across them. Gallus played with her claws.
"Love you," he said quietly. She almost missed it.
She tapped her forehead against his. "Until infinity."
Author's Note
I MISS THEM SO MUCH IT HURTS
