"Don't worry, Azura. She won't hurt you." Reina smiles broadly. Azura swallows and nods as she extends her hand toward the kinshi's beak. The beast closes its eyes and hums as Azura strokes it, and Azura laughs a little hysterically.
Reina comes up next to her and looks deep into her mount's eyes. "I want to teach Azura to fly, and she needs to get on your back. Can she do that?"
The beast - Sora, Azura remembered - seemed to think about this for a moment, then made a chirping noise almost like the whinnies of Hinoka's Pegasus. Reina smiles and strokes Sora's beak herself, more decisively than Azura. "Thank you, Sora, much obliged."
Reina hops into the saddle with a swift, graceful movement, then pats the spot in front of her. "Up here, Azura. Sora says it's okay!"
Azura hesitantly climbs onto the saddle, having to grab Reina's hand at one point in order to be hoisted up. She sits in front of Reina, riding astride, gripping the reins. "A-aren't you supposed to be in front?" She can't keep the nervous stutter from her voice. She hates herself for agreeing to this, hates her dumb crush on Reina that gives her chicken skin when Reina speaks and her voice is right in her ear.
"I'll be able to better guide you like this, Azura. You won't learn a thing with me in front, occasionally turning and screaming at you. And we'll likely crash if I did it like that." She laughs, and all of Azura's tense muscles relax.
"Now, give the reins a good snap, that's Sora's cue to take off. I'll give you more directions after that." Reina's hair is brushing Azura's cheek - kinshi are more slender than pegasi, and the saddle is very small. Azura nods, thankful that Reina doesn't feel, or notice at all, her blush.
She snaps the reins - she knows this much - and Sora spreads her wings and takes a few steps like Reina said she would and then they are flying, they are so far above the palace. Azura makes a sound a bit like a whoop but much more of a scream. Then Reina puts her hands on Azura's hips and Azura feels her heart skip a dozen beats.
"Now, riding a kinshi, or any flying animal, is just like riding a horse in that steering is all in your legs." Reina says, and Azura nods but her legs are very small and skinny and she doesn't have the courage to tell Reina that maybe this wasn't he best idea.
"Tilt your body left, we'll do a circle around the courtyard and touch down." Reina says. "Save the loop-de-loops and flips for another day, probably." Azura can't see her face but she knows Reina winks.
Azura tilts herself and Sora turns. Azura suspects it's because she is a very old kinshi and has done this warm up more times than can be counted, but she still feels a surge of pride. She does the circle with minimal guidance - it really is easier than she had thought it - before Reina's hands return to her hips to guide her landing.
Azura's feet touch the ground and she isn't sure how to tell Reina that she left her heart up in the clouds. Lucky that Reina brushed a piece of Azura's hair out of her face and smiles broadly, simultaneously leaping into the sky and retrieving it for her.
Azura thought she had long abandoned her youthful crush on Mikoto's retainer - but the feeling like her heart has been forcefully ripped from her chest when she discovers Reina's chamber empty after the scene at the square with Mikoto's death said otherwise.
Empty, save for a note.
"Don't look for me."
A wretched sob falls from Azura's mouth before she walks calmly and quietly from the room, leaving the scrap of paper behind.
She would have liked to say goodbye to Sora.