Uryuu breathes out a sigh and slowly pulls away from the black pegasi, savoring the feel of connection settling into his magic, tiny wisps of other brushing his awareness like faint breezes against his skin.

With time and effort their connection will deepen, will grow strong and powerful as a gale, but for now…

For now, he savors what he never expected to have, thrilling in every sensation, every wisp of proof that he’s done it, he’s bonded pegasi just like his mother.

The sound of approaching footsteps snaps him from his thoughts, and he turns around just in time to see the Pegasi Master reach the entrance of the large box stall. Her gaze is sharp as she takes him and the two pegasi in, and then she nods with a tiny, pleased smile and says, “Neatly done. Remember to return at least once a day to continue building your magical bond and to start working with these two as your mounts.”

“Yes, of course,” Uryuu says automatically, still a bit surprised by her lack of judgment: either she’s better at hiding her opinion of him than most others are or she doesn’t care.

(He knows which one he prefers it to be, but he’s not going to ask.)

(Because if it’s the first, he doesn’t want to know.)

“Have Shiro-sama send me the schedule of when you plan to train with them, so I can be present at least the first few times,” she continues, as if the Pegasi Master watching his training is somehow ordinary. She must read something in his expression that amuses her, because her smile twitches wider and she says, “We both came from the mounted knights, unlike most of the trainers here, and being a mounted knight creates some habits that aren’t useful or safe as a pegasus knight. So I prefer to personally train anyone who comes over like I did, so I keep as many people as possible from making my rather painful mistakes.”

Uryuu nods slowly and says, “I suppose that makes sense.”

She snorts and plants her hands on her hips, giving him a narrow look as she bluntly declares, “Look, enough of this dancing around the wyvern in the room: I don’t care what tripe people are muttering about you. Master Regaris was a hidebound rumormonger, perfectly willing to believe her ears over her common sense, and there’s a reason Shiro-sama forced her to retire years ago.” She nods towards the two pegasi behind him and adds, “That right there is proof enough that you’re not — and have never been — magic-less. Not that I needed any proof: there was no chance you were born without magic given that your mother was a pegasus knight. That just doesn’t happen.”

“I… see,” Uryuu murmurs, though he doesn’t quite know if he believes her word just yet. That she brought up his mother instead of his much more famous father is interesting though, and leaves him more inclined to like her.

Honestly, he hadn’t even realized the old Pegasi Master had been forced to retire until just now; he’d always assumed that the old one was still ruling the stables with an iron fist, and had never bothered to visit after his first run-in with her.

(‘Hidebound rumormonger’ is certainly a polite way to put it.)

(‘Asshole’ is closer to what he’d experienced.)

“Right then, I’ll show you the stalls I set up for these two, and where their tack is stored,” the Pegasi Master says as she turns and beckons for him to follow. “The stalls and tack are marked with their nicknames — IceStorm for the white and WindShadow for the black — but feel free to come up with your own names, most people do. Just let me know so I can have an engraver set their new names in place.”

Uryuu follows her out of the box stall and down the stable hallway, the two pegasi following along without prompting. She leads him nearly to the other end before stopping and gesturing to two stalls next to each other.

“Here they are,” she says with a gesture towards the two empty spots. “IceStorm on the right and WindShadow on the left. Until you settle your bond enough to call them, they’ll be brought to these stalls by either myself or a stablehand an hour or two before you’re set to train with them.”

It’s easy enough to coax the two pegasi into their stalls — WindShadow goes without fuss, and IceStorm gives him a look but concedes with a snort — and then he’s closing their stalls and following the Pegasi Master to the tack room, listening to her explanations as they go.

All in all, Uryuu decides as he’s shown around the tack room and then off to other parts of the stable, the pegasi stables are run very similarly to the horse stables. The main difference is how intelligent the pegasi are, letting them take shortcuts or make assumptions that would never be possible — or safe — with horses. It’s familiar in all the right ways, and what isn’t familiar he’s sure he’ll pick up soon enough.

Once she’s satisfied with his familiarity of the stable, she flashes him a smile and says, “Feel free to stay as long as you want, you seem to have a good head on your shoulders. I need to get moving before someone hunts me down to solve their latest problem, though, so I’ll see you later.”

Uryuu watches her stride off, then curses softly as he realizes he never actually asked her name nor had she offered it; he’ll have to ask Shiro later, before he has to interact with her again.

(He really doesn’t want to admit that he doesn’t know who she is!)

(She’s technically one of his superiors now, not knowing her name is unacceptable!)

He huffs a sigh and runs a hand through his hair, debating what he should do next; part of him wants to just return to the stalls he was assigned and just… revel in the fact that IceStorm and WindShadow are his, and part of him wants to return to Shiro and thank him for the chance, and he also needs to speak with Urahara, and figure out what to do about his horses, and—

(There’s so much he wants to do, so much he needs to do!)

(Breathe.)

(He needs to breathe.)

(He needs to focus.)

Uryuu swallows and scrubs at his face, squeezing his eyes shut against the tears threatening to fall.

He’s happy. He’s happy. He is. So why is he crying?

He takes a shuddering breath, digs the heels of his hands into his face, and makes up his mind.

He’s going to go back to his pegasi and he’s going to bury his face in WindShadow’s shoulder and just… be for a while.

(Maybe then he’ll start to believe that this is all real.)

(Stars but he hopes his emotions will settle soon.)

(He really does.)