The flight back to the Airstation was blissfully uneventful; though in theory they could still work on the day's lesson, both of them were in agreement that certain things needed to be taken care of first. Cho didn't really want to find out the hard way what else Gwynt might be able to do when she could just ask, and Gwynt didn't really want to risk another demonstration until he was more sure of where he stood with her. He didn't think any of the other emergency techniques would be a problem - but then, he hadn't thought the spin training would be a problem either, and it had turned into quite a big one. It was better to solve one problem at a time. He was still fighting off guilt over not having killed her.

She made no mention of anything particularly unusual when the plane was returned to the Hangar, only that there had been a precautionary landing on rough ground and therefore the mechanics should check the landing gear for possible damage. On the matter of the bent control wheel, while she admitted that Gwynt was responsible she was also clear that he hadn't frozen - a lethal response in a pilot. There was some concern that he had been so panicked as to actually damage a plane, but such reactions were not unknown during emergencies, which is why the Airstation tried to expose students to high-stress scenarios during training - so they could learn to control their fear and channel it into effective action. Nonetheless, on another level Kakeru seemed relieved about that; pilots who were always calm, cool, and collected sometimes froze badly when finally pushed into panic - it was a relief to know that even if Gwynt was out of control enough to bend the control wheel, he wasn't so out of control as to bend the wheel into uselessness or freeze in a tense situation. It raised Gwynt's opinion of her; for the most part even nobles with pilot's licences and certifications on the wall weren't regarded as pilots by other pilots. They were regarded as rich people with planes they were legally allowed to fly. But Cho acted in all ways as a pilot, and that was worth a great deal.

Enough so that he wasn't actually entirely sure how the rest of the day would go. Female pilots were generally married and therefore off Gwynt's radar; Cho was not only single, but already aware of his power. It threw quite a wrench into all of his preconceptions of how such an encounter was supposed to go. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Well...hell," he said at last. "I've got till..." he paused, running over his mental schedule, "eight tonight free, so that's eight hours." Eight hours in someone else's constant company. It sounded like a recipe for disaster, when his stomach rumbled - reminding him that he'd used rather a lot of power, had quite a stressful morning, and the last thing he'd eaten was a liberated nutrobar about twelve hours ago. Well, nobles had money didn't they? "Do nobles eat lunch?" he asked. "Swear I've never seen a fat one, even Monomochi's a rail."

Cho blinked, and displayed a small grin. "I won't presume to speak for the lot. Personally, I'm hungry enough to eat a torama, tail and all." She hesitated a moment, then shrugged. "My treat?"

Gwynt grinned back. "Sounds good. All I could do would be to beat a fruit bar out of the snack machine." Or lots of fruit bars. He'd not used his power in some time, with his schedule, and had forgotten how ravenous it could make him. But she could find that out later. He shrugged. "I know bars, not restaurants, and it's your treat anyway, so wherever you wanna go."

"How about the Iron Giant, then?" Cho offered. "They're not far, and the prices are decent."

Gwynt just shrugged again. He'd passed the place on his way to other places, but he'd never been inside. He let Cho lead the way, feeling a bit naked without his sunglasses. He'd never actually been in a restaurant before, that he knew of. Bars yes, plenty, but never restaurants. He was a month shy of twenty one years old, though he knew he didn't look it, and he'd never been in a restaurant. Torturers could have pulled out his toenails before he'd admit to the cause of his nervousness. Though the staff of the Iron Giant turned out to be familiar with Cho, and quickly seated them at a table near the windows, where he could clearly see planes from the Airstation.

Cho seemed to note his unease and ordered first - for Gwynt's part, everything looked good. He ordered food enough for three, covering a good swath of what the restaurant offered and most of it food he had either never tried or only vaguely remembered from Rinoa's cooking in eternity. Cho, apparently nervous herself, didn't comment on it - though the waitress' eyebrows went up at the quantity.

Gwynt, however, wasn't going to apologize. She had offered to treat, knowing he was different. Once the waitress had gone, he asked, "You had questions?" in a half-defiant, cheeky tone.

"Lots," replied Cho dryly. She leaned back with a small sigh. "And no idea where to start. Really flying.... " she trailed off wistfully.

Gwynt sighed. She might be willing to feed him to fly, but it was still annoying to be thought of as a power more than a person. "I can't take you flying that way by yourself, you know," he said firmly. "You'd fall, and you'd die - just like if you got caught in a hurricane. You'd have to be hangin' on to me."

"It'd almost be worth the dying," Cho replied quietly. "A few seconds of free fall without falling, just spread your arms and fly ..." She smiled a small smile. "What a way to go." She cocked her head at him then, and the smile turned impish. "But you tell me to hang on, I'll hang on. You're the instructor now."

Gwynt snorted. "I'm no teacher. I'm the only one in the world can do what I do. Who'd I teach?" And lady, if you want to die in a hurricane that's your affair. Really. Ain't gonna help at all with that.

Her smile faded then. "Hyne must have smiled on your birth, to be that lucky," she commented softly.

"Hyne?" Gwynt blinked. His father had never really explained how he and his siblings had the powers they did. It was possible it was Hyne, but Gwynt couldn't wrap his head around that idea at all. No, for his money it was something a lot closer to earth than Hyne was supposed to be. "Nah, I doubt it was Hyne. If it was Hyne I wouldn't have the family I do."

"They can't be worse than mine," Cho replied with a small grin. "Though you didn't hear me say that." She shook her head. "Maybe Pandemona, then. To give you the winds and the sky..." She studied him, thinking. "You must really love it, to go through all the fuss with the planes when you don't need to."

Gwynt simply stared. Of course he loved it. That was what made him what he was, or would be soon. "Don't you?" he blinked. "Instructor, I can fly, yeah. But not as fast or as far as I can in a plane. I can't carry as much alone as I can in a plane."

"Functionality," Cho shrugged. "Choose your plane for what you need it to do, but any way you turn it you're still trapped in a cockpit looking out at the world from a window..." Her smile turned wry. "But you're right. Anything is better than being on the ground."

The food arrived then, and Gwynt paid strict attention to business for a while after that. Power to pull the plane out of spin, to land it, and then to get it airborne again with the absolute minimum of stress on the plane, all on one nutrobar about twelve hours ago - he'd pushed himself quite a bit farther than he should have, pulled on reserves he didn't actually have, and the imbalance had to be corrected. He'd gone through the first of three different platters before Cho had finished her fries.

He didn't lose the thread of conversation, though, mulling the problem over in his mind as he carved his way through a rather large steak. "Ever fly one of the old open-cockpit models?" he asked after a while. "Biplane, or triplane?"

Cho grinned. "Wind in your face and inhaling more fumes than anyone needs to?"

Gwynt blinked. "I wouldn't think the prop planes would be that bad unless the engine was on fire, but okay."

"They're all right," laughed Cho. "And on a clear day they're more than worth it."

Gwynt sighed. This girl was younger than himself, though not by much, and he deeply envied her experience with planes. "I have to be up there," he admitted. "I've lost track of the jobs I do just to pay for it all. Must be nice, not having to do all that to fly."

Cho cocked her head. "I'm not playing instructor as a hobby. It keeps me in room and board and, incidentally, up in the air."

Gwynt mulled that over. She had to own that Aerobat, but if she'd cut ties after getting the expensive stuff... "Room and board?" he asked. "On an Instructor's pay?" Couldn't be anything fancy. Even a specialist Instructor couldn't make that much cash.

"A place of my own and I'm not starving," Cho returned wryly, indicating the quite massive amounts of food Gwynt was still putting away. "It's not a half bad way to make a living."

Gwynt shrugged, taking his time over a side dish involving some sort of plant that tasted decent and was therefore edible. "Not arguing. But what do you do when it's raining or otherwise determinedly crappy?"

Cho grinned. "Ever hear the phrase 'saving for a rainy day'? Take it literally."

Gwynt blinked. Obviously Cho had 'free time' somewhere, a thing Gwynt had long since come to regard as mythical. "Madame Instructor, at the moment I have maybe enough Gil after that lesson to cover a glass of water. Time and money pretty much run my life until I get that license."

"They'll run it afterwards, too, but maybe not quite so much." Cho shrugged, then reached out to tap the table. "And you don't need to be so formal. My name's Cho."

"Yeah," replied Gwynt with a half grin. "I remember you said that before, but Kakeru'd have my ears for bein' informal without permission and I don't need the Hangar-master gettin' pissy at me." He sighed, staring upward at the unfamiliar ceiling of the restaurant. Why on earth was he here? "The whole day's gone haywire. I oughta be workin' with the mechanics, or finishing that damn boring textbook. Or working on that thrice-damned dissertation."

Cho cocked her head, somewhat surprised. "Stopping long enough to eat something won't kill you, though that schedule sounds like it's going to try. Afterwards..." She paused, visibly torn, then shrugged. "If you need to be doing other things, I won't keep you."

Gwynt regarded the mass of empty dishes. She probably hadn't meant being willing to contribute to a store of energy for flying when she'd offered to treat him to lunch, but he'd needed it. "Good stuff, this," he said, by way of thanks, and cocked his head. Well - you never knew till you tried. "I don't need to be anywhere until eight," he offered. "Night watchman duty at the Hangar, eight to four in the morning. I can do my reading and writing then, easy enough. Not too many people try makin' off with a plane in the middle of the night."

Cho smiled. "No, I suppose not." Her smile faded then. "Could we... fly?" she asked, quietly earnest.

Gwynt blinked. "Right now?" Was that all she was after? Well - admittedly it was a pretty cool all, but two could play that game.

"Oh, no," replied Cho hastily. "I mean... whenever would be convenient for you... or..." she trailed into silence, bright red. "I'm sorry. That didn't sound very good, did it?"

Gwynt just watched her, almost but not quite smiling. What an odd question - 'convenient for him'. Nothing was ever convenient but flying. Everything else, you made time for because you had to. How confusing she was - both exactly what he would expect, and a complete surprise. It made him want to prod at her, to see what she would say or do. "You have any idea when the last time someone asked me what would be convenient for me was?"

Cho was blushing fiercely, but apparently trying to get it under control. She spoke under her breath, so that he couldn't be sure if he was meant to hear. "'s just common courtesy. Shouldn't be demanding things - it's rude."

Shouldn't be demanding things? She shouldn't? Or he shouldn't? He blinked. How else did you get what you wanted, if you didn't push for it? "How the hell do you survive in the Hangar, Cho?" he asked incredulously. The pilots would walk all over someone who took that attitude. And then he realized - he spent all his time with the pilots. Every minute he could wrangle - and he'd never seen her before. "Oh, no, wait. You don't hang out with the pilots, do you? I'd've seen you before if you did...."

Cho pursed her lips, looking disgusted. "Oh yes... hang out with pilots." She affected a fussy, disapproving accent - a dead ringer for what Gwynt knew to be the standard speech pattern used by nobles. "Bad enough you obsess over those ridiculous planes..."

He tipped his glass at her in acknowledgment of a well-done imitation. "Okay, that had to be your folks. Sounded just like Monomochi's wife when she comes in to drag him home by the ear."

"Right on the first try," agreed Cho sourly, then grinned impishly. "I'd live in a cockpit if they wouldn't disown me on the spot."

Gwynt cocked his head, curious. "Why not let 'em disown you then? You already live on your own, you've got your license..."

Cho sighed and shrugged. "They're still my family, even if neither of us like to admit it."

Gwynt just watched her. "An' that means they own you, does it?" Good grief, if he'd had that attitude around Daear, his half-sister would've turned him into a carpet.

Cho tilted her head, apparently surprised at the comment. "No. It means we compromise." She studied him a moment, then asked, "Would you walk out on your family?"

Gwynt blinked. It wasn't something he'd admit to, but part of the reason he pushed himself as hard as he did was for his family. He was the only one with the power and the Gift that would facilitate travel, and he knew that once his siblings knew he could be the go-between he'd be kept very busy just with that. It was something only Taran knew about just yet - that he would be the courier, that he would fly between their homes with news, because Gwynt didn't want to get anyone's hopes up if something went wrong and he couldn't. He'd never lived without them this long in his life, and though he pushed himself hard and exhausted himself whenever he could, sometimes it still felt strange to wake in the night and not have even one of his half-siblings within the range of his voice. Not bad - certainly he could go several more years before the urge to see Daear might strike - but without question odd. It hit him then that he actually missed the sound of Taran's music and Nodwydd's stories, the smell of Cariad's flowers and Chwaer's feather collection. Daear he didn't miss at all, but the others...it would be good to see them again.

But what he said was, "Not sure I can. Not safe to." Pandemona's tail, what Seifer would do to Cariad if he got his hands on her...but then there was always Daear. "My sister, yes, in a heartbeat, with a big fat grin. The others?" He shrugged. Telling this girl all about his family didn't sound like the smartest idea. They certainly hadn't demanded he be their courier. And only Daear had ever tried to ground him. "Sorta depends. None of 'em want to run my life, 'cept Taran, so it works out all right."

Cho thought that over for a bit. "They let me fly. They don't understand - they can't - but they let me fly. If they grounded me, I'd walk out in a heartbeat and never come back... but they haven't."

Gwynt's response was wry. It was a sure bet that Cho wasn't talking as literally as he was. "The main reason my sister's such a pain is she's the only one who can ground me. I just make sure it's in her best interests not to."

"How big of a family do you have?" Cho asked, then frowned. "Or should I not ask?"

Gwynt felt a little like a spider in a web. This girl, this woman, wanted him to take her flying. Wanted it so badly she was promising more than she should, and Gwynt could never resist a solid gamble. And she was beautiful, and intriguing, and he couldn't yet decide if she was seeing him as a person or as a sort of humanoid monster that would let her fly. It was worth finding out, but not here. He looked around the restaurant - no, not here. "If we're talking that, I'd rather not talk where other people can take lots of notes."

Cho nodded. "Right. Well..." she mulled the question over, hesitating briefly, then gave a half shrug as if she'd just argued with herself and lost. "We could go to my place, if you like."

Gwynt shrugged, affecting nonchalance, though she had now keenly sparked his interest. Not a park, not a motel or hotel. Her home. Either she trusted him, or she just didn't grasp basic self-preservation. Possibly both. "Works for me. Haven't got one myself, so you don' need to worry about me makin' off with anything 'cos I wouldn't have anywhere to take it to." He grinned wickedly, and threw out a theory. "'Sides, it'd drive your folks nuts."

Cho grinned right back, confirming part of his theory that he was a way for her to rebel. "Sounds like a good plan to me."

* * * * * *

Cho's home, as it turned out, was a compact and organized studio apartment, every piece of furniture recognizably multi functional. What saved it from being the typical rather sad sort of apartment he would have associated with college students (and, since he was taking courses, Gwynt had actually seen quite a few such flats) was the quality of such furniture as there was. None of it showed the half-broken, liberated-from-the-curb look typical to single college students; all of it was heavy, rich hardwood, in dark stains, and the fabrics were heavy but not inexpensive. The sort of furniture that could be a year old, or fifty years old, or a hundred years old - so well cared for it was impossible to say for certain.

Gwynt realized he was in a home. That is, a place where someone lived, had lived, would continue to live. It had nothing of transience about it. It made him realize he hadn't actually been in a home since he'd been ten years old in Deling - Griever's realm was by its very nature transient and mutable, and since then he'd not actually had anything like a permanent residence. Just a locked chest that held what little he actually owned, stashed in a quiet corner of the Airstation offices. It made him reluctant to sit down, made him nervy in a way he couldn't quite define.

"Take a seat," said Cho, waving a hand at the futon. "Would you like a drink?"

Gwynt took refuge in teasing incredulity, and blinked. "Drink? No way do you drink."

Cho just started ticking off options on her fingers. "Beer in the cooler, there's a bottle of wine somewhere in the kitchen, I think there's a half a bottle of rum in the cabinet..."

"Rum," said Gwynt quickly. He wasn't flying anywhere tomorrow, and rum tasted much better than the other options.

"All right," Cho replied, and walked over to the section that plainly served as a kitchen, opening cabinets for the rum and glasses. Gwynt took advantage of her occupation to take what he hoped was a relaxed seat on the futon - for some reason he had an unreasonable urge to bolt for the door. This place was small. Of course it would have to be - Instructors didn't make that much money, even specialist Instructors, and she didn't go for cheap decor, but it still felt...small. Cho quickly returned, handing him one glass and keeping another for herself - by the smell, a soda. He nodded to himself; of course, she'd be flying tomorrow.

He regarded her as he though, sipping occasionally at his drink. Family. Well - she'd brought him here. And this was her home - the scent of her was everywhere. And, oddly, no one else. No one at all? He inhaled, concentrating as he breathed, and let Cho assume he was just relaxing - no. No one had been here at all recently but Cho herself. Winter wasn't long past, and scents would hang in the air. So whatever she wanted of him, this wasn't typical of her. That decided him - she was already acting strangely for her, apparently. Might as well push a bit farther and see what came loose. "Right, family," he began. "That'd be five besides me, then." He grinned. "Or four siblings and one bitch, which is how I gen'rally prefer to look at it."

Cho grinned back. "There's always one in every family?"

Gwynt blinked. "What, bitches? Like Daear? Shit, I hope not. One o' her is plenty." Good grief. A world full of Daears, one in every family, didn't bear thinking about.

"Do you all fly?" asked Cho, wide eyed and curious.

Gwynt was surprised, though he quickly realized he shouldn't be. To have them all the same was easier to believe than all of them different, unless that was what you were used to. "Oh, hell no. Just me. We're all..." he shrugged, finding no better word for it, "different. Just not all in the same way." He thought about it, and decided it was probably all right to tell her. He knew he could snap her neck before she got to a phone, depressing as the idea was. And he wanted to see how truth would hit her. He wanted...well, really, he didn't know what he wanted. He was just going to throw the dice and see what numbers came up, and make his decisions then. "I was gonna go hunt 'em down, you know, when I get my license and can get paid to fly instead of always the other way 'round. I know what cities or general parts of the world they're in but nothin' more specific."

Cho looked startled. Actually startled. "But... don't you keep in touch?"

Gwynt's lips quirked. He'd already told her enough to make her Seifer's new best buddy if he found her. But where she got these ideas.. "Yeah," he admitted, "an' no." He eyeshifted then, letting the mad purple-yellow glowing swirls stare into her face - as much to see whether she was hiding a reaction as to see whether the strangeness would itself provoke one. "Cho, we're all different but we've all got quirks like this in common. Any way you can think of to talk to somebody...it can be monitored. We can't be found, none of us. Shit, Taran'd have my head for talkin' to you like this." Which was putting it mildly. Taran didn't take risks like this - but as far as Gwynt could see Cho already knew all she needed to to hand him over to Seifer. Knowing the rest couldn't really hurt, and might help.

Cho didn't look away, meeting the swirling colors head on. "So you're all hiding," she summarized quietly.

Gwynt nodded. "Have to. Look, Cho...all I want to do with my power is fly. That's it. Just fly. But all you have to do is check the tornado damages in Deling and Dollet this time o' year to know that ain't all I can do with it if I want to." He shrugged, but took a long swallow of his rum. Seifer would get a big kick out of having him blow things down, he was sure, and the idea left a sour taste in his mouth. "An' there's one or two people'd like to have me playin' big bad wolf an' blowin' people's houses down if they can find me." Probably just one. I hope just one. But maybe he's got others by now.

Cho considered that in silence for a while, just looking at him, then sighed and tried for a small smile. "There's always idiots in the world."

That was supposed to be reassuring? "An' they're generally in charge," he agreed sourly, then laughed. He had no grounds to be calling the rest of the world idiots. He was handing this girl chains enough to keep him from ever seeing the sunlight, on nothing better than a hunch she might be trustworthy. "An' here I am tellin' everything to you and I just met you this morning," he told her, voicing his thought.

She gave a half shrug, but her tone was serious. "I won't repeat a word of it anywhere." She smiled then, aware of the irony. "Though I suppose you'll just have to take that on trust."

Gwynt just watched her, the corner of his mouth twitching very slightly. He was watching her with shifted eyes - people's faces tended to change temperature slightly when they lied or were hiding something, and eyeshifted he could watch the heat in her face and eyes. But nothing in her face or eyes changed as she spoke, not the tiniest bit, and that meant either she was the best liar he'd ever seen or she was telling the truth. It was exhilarating in a way, to ride the wave of chaos to see which way it would crash, but he hadn't lost all caution. His expression was cast into a pose of serious doubt, just to prod her.

It worked. She shrugged again, spreading her hands. "You can threaten. You could even carry out the threats. My promise will be as good, with or without them." She grew very serious. "I wouldn't ground you, Gwynt."

He didn't look away. She was telling the literal truth as she saw it - he was sure of it. Even the best liars couldn't possibly pull off such convincing performances repeatedly. He sighed a little. "Look. I'm fine with a brawl, and if somebody gets their head knocked too hard I don't lose sleep over it. If morons try to jump me somewhere, I'll bust 'em down and they can live or die and I don't give a rat's ass as long as they don't bug me again. But you're a pilot. I've seen you fly..." He sighed again, looking down at his glass. Like it or not, she was one of his own. He didn't have it in him to kill her, and he couldn't avoid that knowledge any longer. At least it looked as though he wouldn't have to, but to trust her, just like that... "I ain't no goddamn leader. I didn't think I'd lose it up there - I mean, I've flown, I've fallen, just never with a ton of anchor wrapped around my ass."

Cho's grin was small, but present. "Just think of it as a challenge."

Gwynt looked up, his expression clearly challenging. To hell with it. He'd live, or he'd die, and moping about it wouldn't do a damn thing now. "An' what do you think of it as?"

"Which 'it'?" asked Cho calmly. "Flying with a plane? Flying without one? If you mean the 'falling with a ton of anchor wrapped around your ass' part..." she paused, then grinned cheekily. "I call it fun."

Oh, challenge for challenge. Don't try to out-bet me, pretty girl. He gave her a very direct look, brown-black human eyes decidedly piercing. "You ever call anything else fun?" he asked, pitching his voice at a low, growling level that he'd found quite useful in the past. Of course, on those occasions the women in question hadn't known quite what they were taking to bed - it would be interesting to see whether the knowledge daunted Cho.

She leaned back, meeting the look squarely. "Yes."

He cocked his head, letting his eyes shift again, deliberately, to see if it would unnerve her. Shifting back might be a problem, though - this sort of game set anticipation tingling all through him, cat and mouse with neither player quite sure who was the cat and who the mouse. The idea of being accepted for who he was, all that he was, was one he'd never even attempted to entertain before. "Like what?"

Cho's reply was teasing. "Ooooh... barrel rolls. Dog fights. Sonic booms." She paused, then added in her quiet, serious tone, "Finding someone who understands."

Was that all she wanted? Gwynt realized he'd lucked out. Big time. Any pilot would understand Cho's feelings and situation - any pilot at all. But Cho had kept away from the other pilots, probably would have kept away from him if he hadn't scared the daylights out of her and jolted her out of her usual role. She didn't realize just how ordinary he was, aside from his power. He felt a bit like one of those princes in fairy tales Rinoa used to tell him and his siblings to get them to sleep - the prince that got the girl simply because he was there, and she was there, and the girl didn't have the experience to be choosy.

Well, Gwynt knew enough to be choosy, even if Cho didn't. And what he chiefly knew was that this was the sort of chance that required jumping on with both hands and both feet and even his teeth if he could get a good grip, because it damn sure wouldn't come around again and he'd kick himself for the rest of his life for not wringing as much out of the chance as he could while he had it.

So thinking, he said - a bit carefully, but very clearly, and his shifted eyes watched her carefully as he spoke, "You know...if you wanted to wait for your flyin' trip until I'm off shift...a couple of robes could be mighty comfy flyin' gear at night."

Cho froze for a moment, her eyes going wide and a dark red blush coloring her face, and for a moment he thought he'd misjudged. But she didn't look away, and replied in an equally careful tone. "....Really?"

Gwynt's eyebrows went up at the blush - was she so innocent as to not know an invitation when she heard it? Scratch that - given what he'd already guessed, the answer was entirely likely to be 'yes'. But now she was thinking about it, and it was a heady thing to know he could affect her this way - even with all she now knew about him. He pushed a little more. "We-ell...there's always somethin' people want to try. 'S'not like I could take just anybody flyin' with me, y'know, unless they already knew about it."

If anything, Cho's blush grew even brighter to his shifted eyes, but she still didn't look away. Indeed, she raised her chin and took a somewhat defiant stance, as if daring him to comment on her embarrassment, though her fingers knotted themselves in her lap. "We could both try something new."

Gwynt grinned wickedly. Oh, no, hon. You fly with me and there's only one pilot for that trip. He called a light breeze, sending it past Cho's face. "Here," he offered, teasing. You're lookin' a bit...overheated, there."

Cho, caught somewhere between blushing even harder and audibly squeaking in embarrassment, cried, "Oh!", grabbed the nearest pillow, and threw it at him. Gwynt just laughed and ducked as the tension between them evaporated.

"Hey now," he teased, "you don't want rum on your pretty things do you?"

"Wouldn't be the first time," Cho replied defiantly, but Gwynt rather doubted that. She took a deep breath, the blush fading a little. Serious again, she asked, "You mean it?"

Gwynt blinked, surprised. "I never say anything I don't mean," he told her. "Shit, my father'd probably cut my throat if I even tried ." Even Daear had never tried to lie. Squall took a monumentally dim view of that sort of thing, and angering their father was one thing Gwynt and all his siblings agreed to be a Bad Thing. He'd never even tried it. A lot of other things, yes, but never lying.

Cho cocked her head slightly, considering, then swallowed and nodded, as though agreeing to something frightening. "All right."

Gwynt's shifted eyes narrowed. What did she think he was going to do, force her? "Cho, I ain't gonna bite, yeesh. And it's not like you have to. I'd just kick myself for the next year and a half if I didn't make the offer, that's all."

Cho flushed, but grinned. "And I'd kick myself for the next year and a half if I didn't accept," she told him. "You just surprised me, and it's been a day of surprises already."

Gwynt grinned back, and decided to up the stakes. "Could always practice onna ground first," he offered, looking around the apartment. "Find a place bare enough, could probably even manage to fly indoors..." The furniture looked heavy, but maybe not that heavy...unless he called the winds really tightly...

Cho raised an eyebrow, then made a show of checking her watch. "Well, as your instructor I should encourage you to practice in your free time..."

Riding the edge, Gwynt couldn't un-shift his eyes, so Cho couldn't see him sending a long-suffering gaze skyward. "Free time. That'd be...right now, basic'ly." He took a deep breath and held out his hand, abandoning any show of bravado. In its way it would be as frightening for him as for her, though he'd let himself be pulled apart by wild horses before admitting to it. He'd never thought to have a partner who knew who and what he was, one he could fly with on the wind. "Wherever you feel up to it, I guess," he said quietly.

Cho hesitated just a fraction more, still faintly blushing, then got up and took the offered hand.