#soon to be shifted to full dragon not knowing when or if you can go back due to your situation | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

captain-joongz · 3 months ago

Text

Prove your heart; Dragonheart ch.3

Pairing: OT7 dragon!BTS x knightess!reader

Genre: dragon rider AU, high fantasy, soulmate adjacent, slight enemies to lovers (if you squint), angst, fluff and humour, eventual smut

Chapter summary: The ceremony happens, and since then it just seems like one crisis after another. How much can one human possibly bear?

Word count: cca 26.7k words

Warnings: angsttttt, i'd say near death experience adjacent, drowning, violence, huge emotional turmoil, some hostility and mistrust, the emperor being a weirdo, forced proximity kinda??, i hope that's all

Series masterlist | Previous Part | Next part

Lore | Dictionary | Character studies

A/N: welcome!! it's been a while, i know, but i bring a whole new beast of a chapter! this just kept getting longer and longer haha, hope you enjoy <3 pace is about to pick up from here on out!

If Jungkook wasn’t nervously fidgeting right beside me, I’d feel a lot more embarrassed for the way my fingers endlessly toyed with the silk fabric of my uniform, stretching and smoothing it out, shifting the belt around or righting the jade beads as they swung about my hip. I felt the wild thrum of my heartbeat in my ribcage, the palms of my hands growing clammy as the distant buzz of a banquet roared in the background.

I looked to the young dragon again, and for all his nerves and shifting from foot to foot, the moment he sensed my eyes on him he smiled wide, warmness around him that calmed me a little.

The room behind the wall quietened before a loud chorus of “greetings to our empire” sounded through so fiercely I almost felt the ground shake with the echo. My heart slowed before jumping up into even a faster beat, and I locked my knees to keep me standing upright.

The emperor has arrived. The ritual would soon begin.

The murmurs of other first-years and their chosen bonds caught up to me and I was suddenly aware of Hwa-young’s cheery voice and the quiet rumble of her dragoness Yong, an answering giggle from Siwoo who came in with a tall muscled dragon that didn’t speak much, but had a gentle aura around him. The other three stood a little away from us, stone-faced and firm, their own chosen dragons standing next to them stiffly.

For all of them, life would change tonight, with the ceremony taking place.

The few days before went by almost a little too quickly, almost like it was merely hours since I left the dragons’ house after sitting through an awkward and chillingly quiet meal, the unfriendly gazes drilling into me every time I chose to speak or to stay silent, as if I could never make the right choice. Jungkook either felt oblivious to the tension or naively thought it would pass, because he never floundered by my side, channelling warm energy almost as if pretending everything was okay between the eight of us. As if I wasn’t sitting right next to him, wishing I was anywhere else. Or anyone else.

Maybe it wouldn’t make it a smooth ride, but it would definitely be easier.

The thunder has been quiet, keeping out of our way when I arrived to the banquet hall, but knowing they were present put even more stress onto my shoulders, and I tried to not dig too deeply into how they must be feeling and what they possibly thought of this. Actually, I might even take a page from their book and avoid looking to them all-together, lest I buckle under the strength of the dislike displayed there.

The rush of noise from the hall signalled that the emperor has most likely just finished whatever dreary nonsense he was going on about. From what I remembered from the ceremonies I witnessed before, now they would feast and wait for us to get ready for the ritual.

The bonding ceremony had to take place under the naked sky, on a full moon when there was a spike in the natural magickal energy in the air. Dragons, as beings of nature, drew their life-force and their magick from their connection to such phenomena – whether lunar or solar, whether sea or winds, those forces could be harnessed and turned to their own.

Bonding occurrences, whether platonic or romantic, often took place during such important spikes in the natural flow of energy and this one was no exception – even though now it happened under the imperial supervision and not as organically as it used to, with only the elders and Authorities around to bless the union.

There was a sanctuary for these occurrences, it was built as soon as the need for empire sanctioned bondings arose – it was a little roofless gazebo, all white stone and spindly spires covered in carved vines and blooms, as white and cold as the stone, with a little altar right at the centre. It stood right at the edge of the black cliff in one corner of the royal gardens, hanging over the wild sea beneath the castle and overlooking the dark horizon, almost as an omen more than a sacred place.

I wasn’t very well versed in the old dragon lore, and humans weren’t privy to information about such intimate rituals, therefore I didn’t have much of an idea about how the old ceremony used to look like, though I was pretty sure it wasn’t as pompous or procedural as it was today.

Mating bonds were a whole another thing, and those involved much more… intimate affairs, though by the logic we knew of old dragon rituals, even those took place out in the nature, where the moon or the sun could grace the union with its light.

A thunderous clap broke me out of my zoning out just as someone was tugging on my uniform, pulling me away from the little corner where I was having my little spiral.

Hwa-young’s smile appeared light, though I could see the slight strain on her face. Her own nerves must have been eating her from the inside, the weight of carrying a forbidden surname and yet participating in such a public display was no ordinary feat. Yet, she carried herself no less cheerful, and I had to admire the strength of her spirit for that. In my own little awkward gesture of support I patted her shoulder lightly. Her smile melted slightly, showing a tad more relief, and then she was off towards her dragoness friend.

Wordlessly I followed after her, feeling Jungkook trailing behind me just from the sheer aura he exuded. We had a very different path to follow – whereas the emperor and the attendees dined and drank wine before slowly making their way over to the ceremonial place, we had to cleanse ourselves before the bonding.

When I walked out the little side-room, a woman was standing there. I recognised her immediately upon seeing her face, and how could I not – when she was one of the most recognisable faces of this unit, and one of the most vocal supporters of the empire (though you really couldn’t be anything else, if you wanted to be of high standing). Or at least she appeared so – I highly doubted my father truly cared for the empire or the man running it either, but the violence served his own goals too well not to keep his cushy place at the top.

At the castle one never knew whether they spoke to someone opportunistic or just truly brain-washed – that’s why I hated it here so much. It all felt like one never-ending charade.

General Yan was truly no different. It was hard to see what she thought and what opinions she truly held, but everyone knew of the appetite for blood this woman held. And her dragoness was just as brutal.

Their cruelty was a tale that spread far and wide, and drew distaste even from other supporters of the emperor who found them needlessly barbaric. I myself was a witness to how other lords and madams reacted to their savagery and boundless support of any war.

As long as they could slaughter indiscriminately, they were in favour. The emperor loved her, in a way a cruel master does a particularly rabid dog.

Now standing face to face with her, with her attention drawn to us as her new disciples, I got the chance to take a proper look at her.

She was an older woman, maybe in her late fifties – I imagined she must have been around the same age as my father, maybe they could have even attended the Academy in the same year (it would certainly explain their strong dislike of each other). Her hair was very dark grey, as if the black pigment simply refused to give in to time. She was also quite small and a little stout, though her muscle and strength were visible.

Tonight she stood in front of us without her dragoness, but she was no doubt at the banquet drinking with others and waiting for the ceremony to happen.

The general didn’t speak for quite a while, only looked down on us, even with us all taller than her, her appraising gaze sharp and judging. I saw a spark of true joy as she took in Peacock, and I knew those two would simply love each other. They had the disposition for each other.

“Follow me,” were her first words, her voice brittle and cold, and then she was walking away without a single glance back.

I let the other five pairs go first, wanting to put distance between me and the woman, and not wanting to get myself into the way of some other more ambitious students eager to win her approval as soon out of the gates as possible. Though minutely I did wonder how exactly my father planned on pushing me through when the very woman who led this unit seemed to be affiliated with his opposition.

That would be amusing to watch yet.

Jungkook kept quiet by my side, which was somewhat unusual for him, but I couldn’t blame him, not with the oppressive aura that hung over us. He too must have been out of his element here, with his age, getting his first rider, and with his hyungs all away from him in another room, this was as unknown to him as it was to us. Though I imagined he probably got the rundown of the ritual from his other more experienced mates, unlike me.

All I knew was that my body and soul would come out different, connected to my dragon in a way that would make me a little more than simply human. Altered senses, heightened perception and the ability to speak telepathically with your dragon were some I was sure of, but the full extent, the full scope – that continued to escape me.

We walked in silence for a little while, climbing down staircases lower and lower until smooth bricks turned into hard black stone only roughly chiselled into shapes of walls. I’ve never been this deep into the castle, but seeing all that dark and damp, it wasn’t much to desire.

The room where we were led ended up being a high-ceilinged cave-like space with a single stone basin filled to the brim with water. The floor was smoothed over, carved into the resemblance of stone tiles, and the basin stood perfectly in the middle, a few steps above the room.

To my surprise, the general’s dragoness stood there next to it, expressionless but every bit regal and proud, as always.

Ha-rin was one of the dragons that found joy and purpose in serving the empire – after all, every race had their fair share of bloodthirsty and cruel beasts, and dragons were no exception. She was a born warrior, and her poisonous smoke and acidic vomit made her a formidable and nigh unbeatable force. She was one of those dragons that posed considerable risk even to her own kin, which made her just as power-hungry and conceited as humans could get, which in turn served to raise her higher and higher until she climbed to the very top of the dragon food chain.

I imagined that had she been free, she’d have most probably gone against her own brothers and sisters anyway. She’d have probably gone against anyone, to be perfectly honest. She just had that feel about her.

I wondered how such a prideful woman wasn’t torn up about being a slave to a lesser being like humans were (in some dragons’ eyes anyway). Those two must have been incredibly in sync for this to not have been a problem.

General Yan swiftly walked up those few marble stairs and stood next to her partner, both of them standing by the stone basin filled to the brim. We naturally lined up underneath it, all silent and holding our breaths, waiting for the woman to start addressing us, to give us instructions.

Her eyes once again slid across all of us, cold stare taking us in and calculating, wondering. Then she sighed, which didn’t seem very good.

“You are here to cleanse yourselves,” she spoke suddenly, gesturing towards the water, “these waters are blessed by the High Priest, and with his blessing comes the blessing of the Moon herself.”

The water sparkled as if littered with countless tiny stars, one moment deep blue, one moment black, one moment almost silver, ever changing and never the same – and my treacherous mind escaped to Jimin, to his slick hair and his face littered with silvery shimmering scales, the way his movements were as fluid and smooth as the surface of the blessed water when disturbed by the general’s hands. As the sight transfixed me, I could almost see the elegant swing of his arms and hands, the shimmer of his smooth golden skin- I wondered if I’d ever be able to see the graceful arch of his all-powerful wings.

“Once cleansed, you will don ceremonial robes and the time will come to go take the vows,” her sharp voice broke me out of the sudden forbidden turn I took, and with a bit of a start I banished the thoughts of the dragon that had no business floating around my head from my mind.

Emperor’s ominous words from when he summoned me that morning to ask whether I was looking forward to the ceremony also still floated around my mind, the “things will change now for you” spoken in an almost mischievously teasing voice, until I could taste the appetite for suffering in him and shuddered.

First pair begun climbing the stairs towards the General. I felt Jungkook’s hand nervously sneaking in to clutch onto my sleeve.

I watched breathless as the dark-haired young man whose name I haven’t learnt yet reached the stone tub, and for the first time I saw his face turn with the evident traces of uncertainty and unease. The older woman gestured for him to kneel down with a swift movement of her two fingers, and as soon as he was chest level with the water, her hand slowly made its way into his dark suede hair. I only had a split second to register the way she gripped before his head was yanked down, pushed into the little basin chest deep.

There were several gasps of shock between us, but none dared to move, so we all just stood there and watched as he started to struggle, body jerking and arms wildly pushing at the stone, attempting to force his head back up.

The woman standing over him remained expressionless, but I saw the little pleased curl to her lips as she chided him to stay still.

“The less you struggle, the sooner it will be over,” her cold words rang another distinct pang of pure horror through our hearts, the statement just ambiguous and ominous enough to have any kind of meaning.

To the struggling boy it made no difference, she could have just as been speaking in tongues. His body struggled, jerked around with mighty force, but the older woman held stead-fast, not even breaking sweat over his frenzied movements.

As it kept going, slowly his resistance begun losing its strength, and with creeping dread I watched as his hands helplessly slipped around on the polished stone, wet with all the water splashing around. His fingers flexed on the rim, then unflexed again, and then slowly started going slack.

I chanced a look around and saw Hwa-young’s and Siwoo’s face painted with something very similar to what I felt. Jungkook seemed just as disturbed as well, clammy fingers slipping on the silk of my black sleeve. The other dragons watched on with a solemn kind of resolution, and I realised they had likely gone through this before, most probably even several times.

Peacock and the blonde man stood to the side, and this was the most relaxed I’d seen them since we walked into that little back-room and waited for the banquet to start, even though they kept their faces carefully in check.

Finally the hold the general had on the black-haired boy’s head slackened and his chest swung upwards, head fighting to break the surface and take in a long shuddering breath. His weakened form leaned on the stone, open mouth gaping to get in as much air as possible.

He didn’t get much time to catch his bearings though, as the general already gestured for his chosen dragoness to kneel, and with cold eyes pierced the man until he got the hint and moved away, making space for the other person.

I caught a glimpse of the basin as they changed positions, and to my surprise the water was once more filled to the brim, as if a person hasn’t almost drowned there just moments ago, the surface once more calm and almost inviting. If I didn’t know any better, I’d almost call the waters expecting.

Once the dragoness was in position, this time Ha-rin took it upon herself to ‘cleanse’ her, roughly gripping her hair and pushing her down with almost reckless abandon. I dreaded the moment she’d get a go at Jungkook, and by the nervous inhale by my side, the dragon was most likely thinking much the same.

Unlike her knight, the dragoness stayed perfectly still, only her hands tensing up into fists and unfurling again, knuckles white as her shoulders twitched with suppressing the survival instinct begging her to fight for some air.

Ha-rin pushed her around a little, her face pinched tight into a displeased frown – clearly disappointed there wasn’t more struggle, but it seemed that this dragoness has gone through this before. Her rider stood by and watched on with barely concealed terror written onto his red and still wet face, the darkness in his eyes reflecting just how shaken he was after his sudden brush with death.

Once the dragoness stayed stubbornly still and Ha-rin released her not long after, a sour expression on her face, it became quite clear that the earlier line about not struggling too much wasn’t for any ceremonial reasons – quite simply, if you didn’t struggle, it wasn’t fun for them.

I felt disgust coil around the tightly woven fear in my stomach, the unpleasant concoction of emotions making my hands tremble and shaking me through with uneven breaths.

The first duo was quickly sent off their way, the once cocky man now staring off onto the floor, eyes wild and unseeing. I saw the shakiness of his own hands, and I couldn’t blame him, even through the visceral dislike I held towards him.

The next two pairs were over in a flash it seemed – the blonde held steadily, though even he couldn’t stop himself from gripping the rim of the tub, as if to remind himself to give over easily and go with the motion of the waters as they splashed around him.

When it came to be Peacock’s turn, to all of our surprise, his head got barely held down, and he emerged cool and smirking, like this whole thing was barely an inconvenience to him. I held back my expression of pure repulsion, but thankfully Hwa-young didn’t feel the need to grant him such politeness, and the glare he got from her was enough to turn his face back to steel, though a note of self-assuredness stayed.

I filed the information away for later – one never knew when it could become useful, after all.

As soon as Peacock and his dragon were out of the way, Siwoo dutifully stepped up. Though he looked back towards us with fearful eyes, he held better than anyone yet, not even twitching under the pressure of the general’s hand, fingers balled into a fist and no doubt biting into the skin of his palms. I saw as she momentarily pushed harder, swaying the boy and dunking him further in, but he never broke.

When he emerged, it was with a glint of pride, and I had to respect him for the twitch of General’s face when she gazed upon him to send him away.

But then Hwa-young was next and the queasy feeling returned – because if she’d feel entitled to torture someone, it would be her. And I really didn’t want to witness that.

She climbed the stairs confident enough, and didn’t dignify the older woman with much anything – walked by quickly and knelt before the general had the chance to gesture for her – and I could see already Yan didn’t like that one bit.

Seeing Hwa get ‘cleansed’ was an actual ordeal of will and self-control. She tried her best to not panic, but it was obvious the moment she got submerged that the force of the hand surprised her and sent her into frenzy. I watched on as she desperately tried to keep her cool, but the longer she stayed, the more it took of her until her hands were desperately pushing against cold stone. Her back was tense and her knees locked on the hard ground, but she held on.

Just when I thought I couldn’t handle watching anymore, she was let go and emerged quickly, taking in quick loud breaths in between wracking coughs that sent her entire body jerking. And then Yong was there, holding a warm supporting hand to her shoulder and letting her lean onto her hip.

I felt myself untense as well, as soon as I saw how Hwa leant into the touch, how her muscles immediately gave up the fight for life and recognised safety again, leaving the girl hanging on limply and balancing on shaky beat-up knees.

She didn’t stand again for Yong’s turn, instead kneeling by the basin as well and watching how her dragoness took the humiliation with grace, holding so perfectly still you’d think she wasn’t even constricted under the water. It was obvious Ha-rin lost interest in her rather quickly and released her, and Yong broke the surface of the water like she was simply taking a shower, not even breaking the metaphorical sweat, and I marvelled at her briefly. And wondered – what exactly were Yong’s powers? Was this by chance related to them?

But then time for pondering was over, because Hwa was giving me an encouraging smile tinged with a taste of fear as she left the platform, and I felt the resolute tug of Jungkook setting on his way up the marble stairs.

Woodenly I followed after him, barely paying attention to anything else in the room except for the thrumming beat of my own heart. The walk up was terrifyingly short – the three steps were over in a flash, and before I knew I was faced with General Yan and her cruel smirk. She hasn’t looked this pleased until now, and a bad feeling sat into the pit of my stomach.

I knelt almost on instinct, after seeing the others do it so many times it just felt like the natural progression once I got to the top of the platform. I felt the tug on my sleeve as Jungkook’s fingers slipped free with my movement and he shifted to the side, but I knew his gaze was still firmly planted onto me.

I wanted to look towards him as well, but the calm waters welcomed me, the translucence drawing me in and overwhelming me with that strange eagerness, as if they couldn’t wait to have me choking on them and drowning in them. It sent a shiver through me and I instinctively tried to pull away, yet found myself frozen to the spot.

When rough fingers tangled into my hair, I almost startled at the suddenness, losing sight of the woman and not keeping up with her movements. I took a deep breath in just as the pain of someone yanking my hair spread through me and the world tilted, and then there was nothing but wet all-consuming darkness and a distinct lack of air.

It was hard to keep track of time down here, but I thought quite well of myself in those first few moments. I felt the need to fight and run rush through my body, felt my limbs jerk as the moment of panic took over, but then I willed myself calm and focused on counting the seconds.

But even as I desperately tried to keep count, the time slipped away and melted all into one long string, and when air started running out, suddenly everything felt both too slow and too fast, taking too long and going by too quickly, and I wanted to scream – scream out how it’s already been just as long as the others, that I deserved to get pulled out – but nothing but more darkness greeted me and for the first time I opened my eyes.

There was nothing to see in that dark cold basin – no light penetrated there, as if I was at the bottom of the ocean – and the water did kind of feel endless. It certainly was quite all-encompassing, in a way that left my throat tight with panic as its needy little fingers tried to pry my lips apart to steal the last of the air I had in my lungs.

The realisation that I ran out of breath kicked me like a horse, and I jerked – fully jerked, with my whole body, even as I tried to rationalise that I’d be pulled out soon.

Just as the thought managed to calm my beating heart slightly, I felt the yank on my hair dragging my head up. Filling my heart with hope. Right before I got plunged even deeper, until I felt the edge of the stone tub cutting into my ribs painfully. That was when panic truly took over.

I pushed against the hand, but felt it flex as its grip hardened, and fighting against it was almost like trying to break a wall with your bare hands. Blindly and in panic I felt along the smooth stone, trying to find anything to hold on to so that I could get a bit of leverage.

My body revolted, moving in a one big wave and trying to jerk away from the emotionless appendage, but my heels slipped on the damp marble and I just ended up bashing against the side of the tub, hurting myself even more and gasping out the last of the dying breath I held.

Water rushed in immediately and everything in me was overridden with pure fear of death so strong I could physically feel the adrenaline pump through my veins, but every twitch, every hopeless attempt brought me closer to the edge of my consciousness.

I tried to cry out, but everything was drowned out in the darkness and I barely saw anything. Something in me shouted that I was about to lose my life, my lungs screaming in pain about to burst, the punishing migraine destroying any sane thought I had until nothing but fear was left and the pure unadulterated hopelessness of the endeavour, until it was burned into my aching bones and I knew there was no coming out of this tub and – and then, a caress.

Like flipping a switch, the hungry devouring beast the water was suddenly changed into soft hands and fingers, pushing around and against my skin and cooling the heat of panic down. The fight drained from me, and I suddenly understood – the very first rider that went through this, I understood the moment his fingers slackened, the moment he lost the grip on the tub and gave in – I understood.

‘Water isn’t your enemy, child. You have been blessed by a creature of the sea. Trust it. Trust it.’

The soft feminine murmurs floated around my head, simultaneously coming in from the outside and sounding out from the inside, meshing together, and for the second time that evening Jimin’s face surfaced in the mirror of my mind and calm washed over me.

I was just about to open my mouth to speak back when suddenly I was dragged back up and instead of water air suddenly choked me and sent me into a fit of wheezing coughs. The freezing cold liquid streamed out of my mouth, pushed out of my lungs when I took a first breath in what felt like forever. Everything was hazy and my head spun, staticky fuzz crackling at the edges of my vision while I tried to make sense of where I was.

Slowly everything came back to me, and I realised I was being held by a panicking Jungkook who was desperately trying to get my attention – I registered his and Hwa-young’s voices all the way in the back of my mind while everything was still consumed by hum of blood rushing through my ears. With my hands still weak and uncoordinated, all I managed to do was pat at his shoulder to signal that I was okay, and reluctantly he let me sink down to the floor as I still attempted to fully catch my breath.

I was soaked from head to toe, most probably from the way I thrashed around, and the platform was all wet too. I laid there in the puddle and watched Jungkook gaze at me with fear, all the while the general’s dragoness kept repeating something with an angry expression on her face. I couldn’t hear, I barely even saw, but I figured she probably wanted Jungkook to take the spot to go through the cleansing too.

With the last threads of strength I found in myself I heaved myself up to my knees and shuffled to the side, leaving a nice spot for Jungkook to situate himself in. He was already on his knees from when he dived down to catch me, so he only hesitantly moved a few steps, eyes flicking between my half-dead form and the cruel being about to drown him in sacred waters.

When his head got submerged, I saw the way he jerked, just like I did from the shock of the rough movement, and without thinking I reached for his hand. I squeezed, hard enough to hurt, until I felt him squeeze back and his form relaxed slightly. I leant down on the tub, half lying on it with my hair grazing the water, and waited for him to come up.

And just like the general attempted to do to me, I saw Ha-rin slightly pull him up before plunging him even harder and deeper, just when he’d be about to run out of breath – but Jungkook was different. His hand left mine and quickly grabbed onto the edge of the tub, and when he braced and pushed up – I saw how Ha-rin’s arm clearly buckled, the self-assured expression slipping to a moment of shock and alarm, before she let go and Jungkook emerged with a fiery glint in his eyes.

I almost didn’t recognise him like that – with his wet hair slicked back his face looked much sharper, and the glistening sheen gave him an ethereal glow. Instead of the easy-going smile or a mischievous grin I was used to, his face was tight in a stormy expression, thick eyebrows drawn close and mouth twitching into a scowl. His eyes were dark, and I couldn’t fight back a shiver at seeing the growing anger in them.

That wasn’t the almost adorable and a little clumsy Jungkook, a young man that joked around with me – that was a dragon, centuries old, proud and strong and ready to fight anyone that posed a threat to him.

Ha-rin watched him with an expression I haven’t seen on her face yet that entire evening – and even though she tried to hide it, the trickle of unease and fear was visible in the cracks of her confident mask, and neither she could conceal the way her instincts pushed her to take a step back from the kneeling man.

General Yan watched their exchange in worry before she finally gestured for us to leave and barked a few orders for everyone to change into the prepared robes, all before both her and her bonded stalked off to a corner of the room.

Jungkook helped me stand, and when I looked at him, his face was back to normal. The anger melted away and left behind a kind smile as he wrapped me into a gentle embrace – one arm coiled around my waist held tightly while he helped me down the three steps.

At first I wanted to protest, tell him that I could walk on my own well, but the moment I rose to my shaky legs I realised that my knees wouldn’t be able to support me on the way down, as they were already buckling under the strain of my weight.

Everyone watched us, even when they pretended they weren’t, and I felt their eyes on our forms, the knowledge of them witnessing such a tender moment and seeing my weakness sending unease crawling up my skin. Jungkook didn’t seem to care though, not with how he immediately sat me down the moment we reached the floor and started tugging at my robes to take them off.

I only had a few seconds to register what he was doing to get flustered beyond belief before Hwa-young ran over and knelt next to me.

“Gods, are you okay?” she whispered and frantically looked me over, as if I could be hiding any injuries from her, “For a moment you truly looked dead. You just slumped over and didn’t move at all. Even Yan freaked out before she pulled you up.” I barely listened to her, instead my attention was snatched by trying to fight Jungkook’s hands still stubbornly undoing my robes, but he wouldn’t budge and wouldn’t let me do it myself, so our hands just endlessly bumped into each other while I tried to push them off with burning cheeks.

“I didn’t even lose consciousness,” I told her absent-mindedly, “I think it just looked bad because I panicked right before she spoke to me.” Jungkook’s hands paused momentarily before he resumed, but even before I registered it Hwa-young already spoke again.

“Spoke to you?” she asked, completely confused. Just as she opened her mouth to speak again, a high whistle shot through the room, startling us into twirling around.

“Change! We don’t have the whole night!” Yan’s strong voice berated us, and everyone scurried off to get themselves into the ceremonial robes. I noticed the young knightess’ curious worried glances, but at that moment chose to channel my attention into pushing Jungkook’s hands away – until I finally succeeded and motioned for him to worry about his own clothes.

Everyone worked is silence, the room filled with sounds of rustling fabrics and clinking armour, only soft murmurs carrying through from where Siwoo was whispering about something with his dragon.

Jungkook was watching me like a hawk, like if he let me out of his sight for just a moment I might die, which greatly staggered his own changing speed – an action he seemed to do almost absent-mindedly as his gaze burned into me, and brought both embarrassment and confusion to the fore-front of my mind.

I attempted to ignore him and stripped down to my undergarments, now suddenly noticing others in similar state of undress messing with the robes all flustered and unsure – not one of them had donned them yet, and I woodenly turned to look towards the general.

She was watching us with disdain in her eyes, like we were all a bunch of bumbling idiots, before she gestured for us to strip – completely. A hush fell over the room as we eyed each other, some flustered and embarrassed, some mistrustful and disgusted. I fell somewhere in-between those two categories, depending on who my eye was on at the moment.

Peacock was also watching me quite closely after the cleansing incident, and my skin was crawling with the idea of him watching my naked body, no matter how his gaze reflected nothing but scorn and arrogance. I definitely wasn’t about to strip right in front of him, and especially not with how Jungkook suddenly seemed much more ruffled and started shuffling to situate himself between me and the rest of the room.

Pointedly I didn’t look at him, willing my wildly beating heart to calm down at the dark look in his eyes – telling myself this is nothing more than instincts – instincts that were triggered by him panicking about my safety that now pushed him into a much more protective stance over his chosen rider. Dragons were like that, and that was all that was happening, nothing more.

“Go on, strip,” the general’s grating voice once again rose in the silence, a sound which I already hated with burning passion, “you’re one unit, soldiers need to learn to share everything – nudity shouldn’t be an issue for you. You’ll have bigger problems to tackle.” Her statement was vaguely ominous, but it was right – when it came to life or death, nudity truly was the least of our problems. Changing, shitting, fucking – once on the battlefield, all illusion of privacy was gone and you’d quickly learn to ignore and accept it.

With that in mind, I decided that getting it over with was the only option here and ripped off the band-aid – almost literally, with how forcefully I tore the undergarments off my body, shocking a little noise out of Jungkook’s throat.

With burning cheeks I quickly put the white robe on, and only turned around once it was safely fastened into place. The dragon was watching me with wide eyes, cheeks similarly red. His hair glistened with the wetness, and it really brought out the purple metallic sheen to it, throwing off little pinkish reflections that danced across the grey marble floor. He was shirtless, hands frozen on the knot fastening his trousers, naked feet standing on the freezing floor without a single sign of feeling the biting cold.

As if woken up from trance, Jungkook suddenly turned back into motion, resuming the action of undressing. He didn’t turn away from me, in fact his eyes didn’t even leave mine, as I saw the split second the garment gave way and started slipping before I shot my gaze up, settling on watching the rough stone ceiling right above his shoulder. I couldn’t see into the room around him, but by the sound it was safe to assume everyone was getting on with the task as well.

After that it didn’t take long before we were all standing around in our white robes, some more cocky and some more unsure, but all stepping around like a bunch of lost children.

Yan let us be for a little bit, let the tension and the unease build in the atmosphere. The only ones who were calm were the older dragons – out of the six of them, I could see another one that must have been young enough to not know what was coming, while the other four stood comfortably by their bonded’s sides.

Jungkook was slipping back into his more jittery self, a little smile playing on his face out of nervousness, though I was sure he knew more about what was to come than me – after all, his thunder would surely tell him what to expect. I wished I had the courage to turn to him and ask, wished I had the chance to speak to him before this all happened so he could share his knowledge.

Wished I could have asked his thunder and have them prepare me too. I wanted to know how it felt – I was scared, foolishly so.

Yan finally had enough, or maybe the time just became right for us to move, but she suddenly launched into a march, motioning us into following her with a single gesture thrown over her shoulder. Somehow we’d ended up at the front, with Hwa and Yong right behind us, as we trudged back up those stairs and down winding hallways in this behemoth of a castle.

As we passed by the banquet hall, it was empty – only scattered chairs and tables full of food and drinks left there, as if everyone disappeared within a blink of an eye and this was all that was left of their presence – and for a split second I found myself wishing that was true.

The truth was that they were already waiting outside, gathered around the sanctuary in silence as we walked barefoot on the cold ground, dirt staining our soles and stones digging into them painfully.

I felt myself shiver, the cold wind whipping around us as we walked around the top of the rocks, and the deafening hum of waves crashing against the cliffs under us almost drowned out everything else. Mixed together with the low murmurs of the townsfolk gathered, it was hard to hear anything else.

The way towards the ceremonial sanctuary was lined with flowers, and had I more time and was in the correct headspace, I’d probably name them all. Currently I was too nervous to even pay too much attention to them.

I never thought I’d say that, but I was so grateful for getting the opportunity to meet the emperor before this, because I couldn’t imagine this being my introduction to him. He stood proudly in the little gazebo, dressed in golden ceremonial robes, face tight and regal and eyes almost burning. If I didn’t know any better, with the backdrop of the stormy darkened skies and the wind whipping around his face, I’d almost say he was magick.

Against my better judgement, a shudder ran through me at the image, a semblance of fear gripping me lightly before I shook it off.

He spoke, but his words didn’t quite reach me – lost to the endless whirlwind of noise around us, though I could hear his voice carrying above the elements. His arm rose, beckoning, fiery gaze locking straight onto me before an ugly grin split his face.

There was a push to my back, and suddenly I realised we still stood at the very front of the procession and therefore were the first in line.

Jungkook was already moving, proudly holding his chin high as he set out towards our fate, and I scrambled to follow after him and to keep up. As the distance shortened, my nerves mounted – not in any particularly bad way, but the anticipation of what this meant coursed through me and made my heart beat out of my chest.

I struggled to read the dragon’s face – I wouldn’t say he was expressionless, but the kind smile he wore every time he looked to me was still plastered to his face as he turned to check I was with him. Jungkook looked no different than he always did. Unbothered, unburdened. I let that anchor me as I jogged to catch up to him.

The emperor’s figure was steadily approaching us, the intricate details of his golden embroidered robe became more visible, much as the expression on his face. It was hard to say what it looked like to others, how much attention they were even paying to him, but something deeply unsettled me about the fire burning in his eyes.

Hungry and expectant. Excited, even.

He watched us with the craze of a proud artist looking at his greatest piece. Like an arsonist gazes at a fire.

I didn’t like it.

My gaze shifted and instead I caught the eye of my father who stood near the front, turned so he could watch me walk. His glare was full of warning, disapprovingly jumping between me and the tenderly smiling Jungkook, and I knew exactly what he’d tell me. It was better to not imagine it.

Thus I pulled my focus back and poured it all into Jungkook. There was an innate pull inside of me to reach for his hand again, yearning for that brief but intense contact, but I hesitated to do so in front of so many people.

It wasn’t unusual to fuck your dragons, but affection? That was deemed beneath us.

As I was going through my internal crisis, I didn’t even notice when we crossed the entire distance until I felt the cold ground under my feet transform into the freezing stone. A shudder ran through me, shocking a little gasp out of my mouth, and immediately Jungkook reeled in on the sound. I could see that his instincts were going into overdrive again, eyes darkening like I could be deathly threatened by stone. The wind was whipping his curly hair around and as usual it was all tangled up into his little horns.

Not wanting a repeat of the cave, I ignored him and instead reluctantly looked to the emperor hoping he’d give us instructions on how to proceed.

The gazebo inside felt a lot smaller than it looked from the outside. There really wasn’t much space to move around, especially not with Jungkook’s mass at my side and the emperor’s wide shoulders at the other, but I guess there wasn’t really much reason to have a lot of space. Exactly in the centre of the circular space stood another basin with water, this one tall and thin with a single leg and a small bowl at the top. The altar.

At least no one could drown me in this one, small victories.

I could tell Jungkook was having the same thoughts, his hard stare boring into the side of it like it was a weapon of mass destruction.

But then my attention was once again snatched by the ruler, who slowly walked around us, to stand in the middle and look out into the yard. Me and Jungkook ended up on either side of the little bowl, looking to each other and hoping for any kind of solace offered with soft smiles on unsure lips.

Suddenly Jungkook was holding his hands above the water, fingers twitching and beckoning me to take them. I hesitated a little, the same thought from before shortly surfacing in my mind, but then I realised this was a part of the ritual. The several bonding ceremonies I witnessed before shuffled through my memory, but I could barely remember anything with how my nerves ate me from inside.

I grasped the dragon’s hands quickly, not wanting to be seen stalling to touch him, especially not when I couldn’t explain myself properly, and he gripped me tightly. There was a lot of reassurance in it, but there wasn’t any time to dwell on it.

The emperor draped a thin long strip of embroidered fabric over our joined hands, reminding me of old marriage ceremonies – and though that was a type of bonding too, it still brought a blush to my face. I kept my gaze pointed down, taking in the practiced graceful movements on the man’s golden hands, getting so lost in the showman gestures I jerked when suddenly his voice boomed right by our side.

“Under the vigilant eyes of the Moon Goddess,” the man spoke with a performative lilt to his voice, letting his head fall back as his arms rose up to the sky dramatically, “we humbly ask for a blessing of this sacred bond.”

A shiver wracked through me, strong enough to have me almost stumbling where I stood, and I felt Jungkook do the same. A string of silver moonlight fell through the roof to right where our hands touched, hidden beneath the ceremonial cloth, and it seemed to heat up – almost like we gave off energy just by being touched by it. The fire spread through my veins, and it was just as pleasant as concerning, always on the edge of pain and pouring through my body so quick it didn’t give me time to catch up.

I gasped for a breath, saw Jungkook’s wild eyes jump to me at the sound, and the moment our eyes met everything went fuzzy. Light was dancing over his skin, running in mesmerising patterns and bringing out the honey tone. His hand twitched, almost crushing my own fingers – and then a wave suddenly rose in me – and I realised the light was manifestation of magick.

“Mind to mind, soul to soul,” the emperor’s voice rose with every word, and I wanted to flinch away from him – because it felt like everything was suddenly amplified, grating at my nerves every time his voice boomed in my already sensitive ringing ears.

“Dagger to fang, sword to claw!” the man was screaming now, the winds beating around us and the crashes of the waves below us creating a cacophony that made me want scream too, and I found myself unable to even open my mouth under the strain of the strange energy flowing through me to Jungkook and back.

I felt him under my skin, felt him flowing through my veins. The scent of a smoky wood, maybe sandalwood or cedar, with a metallic iron-like undertone flooded my senses – I could almost taste gunpowder on my tongue with its fiery heaviness. I didn’t know it yet, but it was the scent I would come to know as Jungkook from then on – as my perception heightened.

“Unite them! Unite them under your divine light!” shouted the man, and light burst in front of my eyes.

For a few moments after that I couldn’t feel anything else than the thrum of Jungkook’s blood while his hands crushed mine in a steel grip as the frantic magickal frenzy circulating through our bodies reached its crescendo. Static hummed in my ears, a high whistling sound cutting through and biting painfully into my already hurting head. Then as soon as it started it was over, like an aftermath of a tornado tearing through your house – when the winds started to settle and all that was left was the wreckage. My sight slowly started coming back – and my breath got caught in my throat.

Jungkook was looking at me with wide eager eyes, the magick still crackling around him with little fizzles of light that made his skin glow golden and his hair look like a black lit halo. I felt myself zero in on the young dragon, a pull so strong I felt it jerk me closer to him and I made a little confused sound. That made him jerk closer in return, and we both barrelled into the stone basin.

Later, when my mind was clear, I’d be embarrassed of that little display we put on, but at the moment I couldn’t comprehend or care about anything beyond the way emotions spilled into me – emotions that weren’t mine, but that screamed excitement and hope and pure bottomless love for everything so strong I stumbled under the force of that.

Then Jungkook was side-stepping the altar and gathering me into his arms, effortlessly pulling me off my feet and marching confidently into the castle leaving a shocked silence behind us.

My mind hurt under the extension of the second soul, and every Jungkook’s thought that jumped into my mind just muddled my brain further. I felt the beat of his heart underlining mine, the pattern of his breaths in my own lungs, everywhere we touched was lit on fire and I burned.

I was dizzy. And the dragon was an excited ball of endless chatter – I’ll help you, I’ll care for you, my bonded, I feel you, I see you, my human, mine, mine, mine – all spilling over into me, and I groaned.

An undetermined amount of time later I was set down on a comfortable sofa, and I immediately lied down. Seconds and minutes spilt into each other, and I wasn’t capable of saying how much time passed, or even how fast it was currently passing. The nausea pulled me to the ground and all my limbs jerked and twitched under the current of energy and magick. I’ve never been subjected to raw power like that before, and I had no idea about the kind of effect bonding souls could have on you. Shouldn’t it have been a happy occasion? Why did I feel like a drunk after a particularly wild all-night bender?

Someone was speaking, but all I could hear was Jungkook’s stuttered breathing, his heartbeat quickening in worry and the sick feeling of his fear poured over onto me. I jerked once, then heaved, then jerked again.

Warm glove-clad hands clasped firmly at my shoulders and I was pulled on my back. Someone ran their hand over my forehead, gathering the wet hair (whether from the cleansing or sweat, I had no idea, and I didn’t particularly care) and giving my cheek a soft caress. The tender gesture was unfamiliar to me, but I found myself sinking into that gentle hand, too instinct driven to worry about propriety.

“Jungkook, calm down,” a deep stable voice said, my attention immediately pulled at the mention of my bonded’s name, “You need to keep your emotions stable, you’re making her sick.” A pained whine was an answer, and I jerked in that tender embrace with the instinct to go and help him put the hurt away. Whoever was holding me though didn’t let me move an inch and firmly pushed me back into the furnishing.

My stomach started rolling again and I was suddenly very aware that a steady current of tears was leaking out of my closed eyes. A soft hush, a hum, and then those tears were being wiped away with a warm cloth, and I untensed.

I could still feel Jungkook’s tumultuous emotions warring in him, I could almost see his tense figure standing over me and watching me with those dark intense eyes, but I couldn’t bring myself to actually look with how everything spun the last time I tried.

Shuffling was heard, more soft whispers that I couldn’t discern and then a burningly hot hand clasped around my naked ankle, sending a wave of electricity through my nervous system. The moment I felt Jungkook’s touch it was like everything bad in me quietened.

“…the strength of the connection… the bond is… they will be very heightened… very, very strong it seems…” words floated in and out of my mind, Namjoon’s deep calming drawl working like magick on me and putting me more at ease, though I could barely comprehend what he was saying. Jungkook was responding with little eager chirps and hums, and that was all I cared about in that moment.

Just as I was about to completely wind down, the doors flew open so hard they hit the wall. Chillingly familiar footsteps marched in, and I didn’t even have to open my eyes to see who it was – I’d recognise that fury anywhere. My father’s booming voice sounded through the room, but I couldn’t discern the words through the new over-powering wave of fear and nausea that hit me, this time fully my own.

Not even those firm hands could hold me down as I jerked to the side and threw up all over the floor. Instead they kept me steady and patted my back, and for the first time in long painful years I felt cared for.

Funny what a little benign touch can do to you, really.

The general’s footsteps walked closer again and then a loud hostile growl sounded through the room, making everyone freeze. Jungkook.

“Keep the mutt in his place, dragon,” the human man said, with such disdain in his voice I felt embarrassed on his behalf.

With considerable effort I pulled my eyes open, and though I was still a little dizzy and looked through a haze of pained tears, at least the world stood still over me. Those firm warm hands turned out to be Hoseok’s, and really I should have known with the ease that came to them when handling a sick person, though the dragon himself was watching me with a deeply troubled expression – a huge contrast to the gentle touch.

Seokjin’s face floated above mine, worry etched into it quite openly to my great surprise, as his gloved hands held a little handkerchief clutched in them. Taehyung was also in my field of vision, the second youngest dragon bending over the backrest of the sofa to look closer at me with deep soulful eyes. I shuddered at the look of boundless empathy in them, and turned quickly to locate my bonded.

Jungkook sat crumpled on the floor by my feet, one hand still firmly clasped over my ankle and looking very unapologetic even as Namjoon’s huge hand gripped the back of his neck and kept him immobile. The thunder leader was kneeling right by him, and he must have previously been trying to comfort him so he wouldn’t make me sicker, but now his attention was fully on my father, and he was not happy.

For some reason my instincts called me to locate the last two dragons of the thunder, and I strained my eyes to search for them before I addressed the elephant in the room. It didn’t take me long, thankfully, since both of them stood just a little away from the scene, closer to the corner of the room (which, I didn’t even recognise where we were in the castle, and I really hoped Jungkook didn’t just blindly run into the first lounge he saw). Jimin stood there with fear written in his eyes, and worry too, but they were trained on Jungkook – as if he was completely oblivious to anything else that was happening in the room. His hands were trembling where he held them, and he was a picture of pure despair. Yoongi looked deceptively calm, but I could see the storm brewing under his skin like little shadows dancing – and for once I wasn’t the one his ire was directed at.

My father stood there in the middle of it all, angry and full of hate, gaze burning into me. I knew he had a lot to say, and I knew he wouldn’t wait to let me hear it. And I knew the dragons wouldn’t leave now, not when Jungkook seemed to be in some sort of instinct driven haze, so I just resigned myself to this happening right now in front of everyone.

“What was that about!?” the general hissed out, shaking with barely contained rage and pointing towards Jungkook who already had a beginning of a scowl on his face before Namjoon grabbed his mouth and covered it with his second hand so that nothing else slipped out. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!”

I just blinked at the man and wordlessly tried to push myself into a sitting position even though everything in me protested the notion – especially when it dislodged Jungkook’s hold on me and the dragon jerked and chased any kind of contact. Hoseok didn’t lessen his hold on me, and even pulled my feet closer to him to prevent me from stepping into my own vomit, for which I was endlessly grateful cause I almost managed to hit square into the middle of the puddle.

“Nobody else fucking even blinked! And you make a whole scene?!” the general continued, completely lost in his own world and with face so red he’d blend in perfectly into that awful sitting room the emperor loved so much. “Running out hand in hand like a pair of giggling lovers?! Do you truly wish so hard to embarrass me?! I thought we were over this!”

I pursed my lips and sat there with my head hung low, biding my time knowing well he wasn’t done yet. The dragons seemed to be frozen, casting curious worried glances between me and everyone else in the room, but none of them moved a single inch like they were trying to escape the man’s attention and trick him into forgetting they were there.

From someone who grew up with him – it was a pretty decent strategy when it came to the general’s tantrums.

“I sat there through all other five ceremonies, and everyone walked away on their own two feet! You should have seen the way people snickered and whispered at you! How am I supposed to show my face in the council tomorrow!?”

Then the man started agitatedly walking around the room, hand pressed into his red heated forehead, eyes wild and unseeing. In the moment of silence that followed everyone’s eyes turned to me, curious for my turn.

“How did I wind up with a child like you?” the man muttered suddenly, so vicious I saw Jungkook tremble, and I hoped he wasn’t reacting to the war of emotions currently boiling in my chest.

“Father,” I cut through the tense atmosphere, sensing my opportunity there. I quickly rose to my feet, fighting to stay upright and not lean on Hoseok’s shoulder when a wave of dizziness hit me. The white robe I put on before did nothing to hide me from cold now that all adrenaline drained out of my body, and I started shivering. My father’s eyes speared me right through, and under their careful watch I walked into the middle of the room, still looking only at him.

“Don’t you understand?” I asked softly, not wishing to antagonise him, but trying to play genuineness as long as I could get away with it. I desperately wracked my brain for anything to offer him when the words spoken by Namjoon earlier slammed into me in a quick and sudden revelation, now putting two and two together with my mind clearer and survival instincts pushing to the front. I hated the way my stomach rolled when I realised what I had to do.

“The way me and Jungkook reacted to each other means our bond is exceptionally strong.”

Nervously my eyes shifted to the thunder sitting and standing around the room. All of them cautiously monitored the situation, eyes flitting between me and the volatile angry man still pacing back and forth, looking like a caged tiger about to attack. I saw as Namjoon’s eyes slowly darkened as he caught on what I was saying, and I looked away before it could tear my heart apart.

I swallowed my pride, swallowed my feelings, swallowed the rising bile that my revolting stomach pushed out once more, swallowed my expectations, swallowed my hope, and stood closer to the man to tempt him with the only thing he couldn’t refuse. Power.

“Imagine the potential, father,” I whispered to him, like a siren calling onto his desires, “Imagine the power I will wield with him. I can soar to such heights, father. Gain the emperor’s favour, maybe I could even marry him.” That had the man stopping dead in his tracks.

I knew those words would work on him, because I knew the outlook he held on marriages. I protested against mentions of any arrangements every chance I got, but thankfully with focusing on my military career it wasn’t a topic that was pressing or brought up too often. Insinuating that I would want to marry the emperor though, on my own without him pushing me, those were promises that sounded so sweet to the greedy man. He’d fall for them every time.

In a few steps he was in front of me, firm hand grabbing onto my cheek as he grinned savagely. His touch was meant to serve the same purpose as Hoseok’s earlier, and yet it didn’t hold any of the warmth or tenderness the dragon granted me. His hand was rough with years of labour and fighting, hardened by wielding a sword for most of his life, and it scratched along my face in a way that was deeply unpleasant.

The general’s eyes looked right through me. I could almost see the cogs turning in his head, calculating, planning, counting his gains, and for a moment I felt a biting pang of hurt shoot through my chest knowing that even now, even when I offered him what he wanted from me the most – for our descendants to be of royal blood – he wasn’t really proud of me, not in the way that a parent should. Instead, he thought of himself, always and till the end. I’d always be an afterthought.

Maybe it was because the situation was so volatile, maybe it was because my emotions and my heart felt especially vulnerable after the ceremony and were already running wild, but more than ever I saw how he never thought of us with an ounce of affection, always wielding us like weapons in his chase for power and riches. I always knew, I swore I did. I thought I’d long since passed the days when I hoped for a smile or kind words, that I’ve long given up on caring about his opinions of me – and yet I always found new ways to surprise myself and break my own heart.

Tears sprung up in my eyes as I smiled back at him. I did desperately try to blink them away but my lips still curled in a way so savage and hurt – and he didn’t see me at all.

“I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me, Y/N,” the man said finally, completely turning the page from his earlier outburst, “I expected nothing less of you than utter greatness.” It’s like he never remembered his earlier words, or maybe cared so little he didn’t understand why they’d sting – always just walking away and leaving you standing there with your heart burnt to crisp. And today was no exception. Without any further words he turned on his heel and without sparing anyone a single glance marched out, so pleased with himself it was hard to watch.

I stood there, in the utter silence he left behind, head hung low in shame as I broke apart for the countless time. I couldn’t bear to see what was written on the dragon’s faces, couldn’t bear to see to lose even the last threads of worry they might have shown me. I couldn’t bear the disappointment, and I couldn’t bear the weight of Jungkook’s wide-eye stare.

My chest burned, but I could barely feel any emotion from his side. I wondered what he felt from me. I hoped nothing.

The fresh, sour adrenaline fizzled out of my system and before I knew it, it was like strings on a marionette were cut and I was stumbling, my knees buckling as if my body abruptly realised it couldn’t operate right now. Just as suddenly the whole world dimmed before my eyes and everything caught up to me, the weight of the emotional toll pulling me to the ground. A sharp zap of pain travelled through me, turning everything to static, and then I was falling as my consciousness slowly slipped away at the edges.

I still hoped, but there was no one to break my fall.

I woke up in the infirmary. The place was mostly unfamiliar to me, but it was unmistakable – if not by the surroundings, then by the heavily herbal scent that clung onto the air and permeated everywhere.

It took a moment for reality to catch up to me as I laid there with cotton-filled head and bleary eyes still glued together by the remnants of sleep. My ears seemingly caught up first because all I could focus on were two nurses whispering gossip to each other in the corner of the room, and I was maybe two minutes into listening about her sister’s cheating husband when I realised I shouldn’t even be able to hear them talk.

That had waking me up pretty quickly, my body freezing over in shock – and the realisation that I heard things no human should be able to hear – like the chatter of four knights under the closed windows, or the slow methodical clinking of someone stirring something in a ceramic cup at the other side of the room. Or the steady breathing of someone sitting right by my side.

When I turned my head to the side to look at the visitor, Jungkook’s eyes were already trained on me – and yes, of course, he would have felt me wake up. He must have been waiting for me to become more aware.

The young dragon sat awkwardly straight in his little wooden chair, looking like there was whole books worth of what he wanted to say, but something prevented him from opening his mouth and talking.

My eyes zeroed in on him, and it was like I was seeing him properly for the first time. I could discern the individual lovably messy strands of his purplish black hair, I could see the little imperfections on his skin, I could see that his eyes actually had little specks of silver in them. He was wringing his hands in his lap, and as soon as my gaze dropped down to his tattooed forearms, I was blown away by the detail and the vivid colouring that I’ve never quite seen like that.

Trying to centre myself and pull my attention back, I closed my eyes without saying anything and instead focused on the warm little ball in my chest that I came to recognise as Jungkook’s side of the bond. Briefly I wondered whether he felt the bond the same way I did. How did it manifest for him?

In my mind I gently caressed that fuzzy happy bundle, and in return I was flooded with the young dragon’s careful enthusiasm and worry. He was keeping himself in check, most probably because he didn’t want to overwhelm me with his emotions again, but there was no trace of the anger, betrayal or mistrust I was fearing.

Opening my eyes again I took one long look at his face and then said: “I hear everything, like… absolutely everything. And I see better too.” Jungkook smiled and eagerly shuffled the chair closer to me to lean in like we were trading secrets.

“After the bond takes hold, your senses sharpen slightly to match the dragon’s,” he explained in a cheery voice, winking quickly when he caught my eye, “at least that’s what Namjoon hyung said.”

I vaguely remembered knowing that and thinking about it earlier, but now the information struggled to come up when I reached for it. After waking up with the bond it felt like everything in my brain got scrambled and reshuffled into different places.

It was like I was someone completely new.

“Which reminds me,” Jungkook jumped back into his cheerful little monologue, tearing me out of my confused musings, “that the hyungs are waiting outside. I should let them know you’re up.” At those words icy cold fear poured through my whole body and I jerked with the panic taking a hold in my heart.

“Jungkook, wait-“ I only got a few words out before I heard the door quietly creak open, two pairs of strong footsteps confidently walking in. My bonded sat on the chair and watched me with increasingly more worry when he started clocking in my state of terror, and I cursed how easy it would be for him to read me now.

The man reached for my hand with an apologetic expression just as Hoseok and Namjoon walked into view and moved straight towards us. My frantic eyes flew over their postures and expressions, but I couldn’t read anything from them – they held themselves perfectly collected – perfectly detached just the right amount.

Hoseok only slightly inclined his head in a greeting and went immediately to the side unoccupied by Jungkook to check on my status. When his gloved hands made contact with my skin, I held my breath nervously. He wasn’t rough by any means, but any warmth those magickal hands held before was now all gone, and it hurt me enough to almost make me cry. Jungkook squeezed my wrist gently but didn’t say anything, and I stayed quiet too. Instead I told myself that this sudden emotional attachment simply came with the bond too and pushed it all away.

The nature dragon worked quickly, skilled fingers flying over my forehead, checking my pulse and hovering over my chest to make sure everything was in working order. After a few minutes of tense silence as we all watched him, he finally stepped back and wordlessly nodded at Namjoon before he turned to me with a strained smile.

“Young Miss Kang,” Namjoon then spoke, taking the first chance he could to draw my attention and say his piece, “there’s been some changes in arrangements.” That sentence alone was enough to scare the absolute shit out of me, and paired with the solemn firm expression on the dragon’s face I was fully expecting him to tell me I was no longer welcome to bond Jungkook.

Namjoon’s next words shocked me though.

“I’ve spoken to your father while you were unconscious. He’s met with the emperor and they decided it would be for the best for you to not move into the barracks like others, but instead stay closer to Jungkook,” he got all out in one breath, like he was trying to prevent me from jumping in. I had a lot of experience with staying silent while others were speaking though, so I just looked at him expectantly whether there was more.

The tall man watched me for a few moments, inquisitive eyes burning through me curiously, before he stepped a little closer to Jungkook to put a hand on his shoulder. The younger dragon immediately relaxed and leaned into his thunder leader, though his hand never left mine, even as I felt his heart stutter with love through my own chest.

God, this was starting to weird me out a little.

“We will be able to vacate you a spot in our house,” Namjoon continued after a moment, considerably slower now that he saw I was willing to just listen quietly, “It’s a bit further away from the castle than your house, but the emperor wishes for you to be as close to the thunder as possible.” Much displeasure flickered through his face, and I frowned.

Why would the emperor insist on something like that? I would understand it if it was just Jungkook, but the whole thunder? I couldn’t even make the case that he didn’t want to separate the youngling from his mated pack, because that would be too considerate of the man and he wasn’t capable of such silly things like empathy.

I watched the three dragons with a heavy heart and quickly realised why the two were being so polite and standoffish. They thought I was under full protection of the emperor and any unkindness that would happen to me would be reported and punished. I sighed deeply and looked towards the tall dragon.

“Autho- I mean, Namjoon-ssi,” I stumbled through the words, throat a little drier and sorer than before the men stepped inside the room, “I couldn’t possibly trespass into your thunder’s house, but I thank you for the invitation. I will personally speak with the emperor and petition for a different solution, so your pack can keep their space uninvaded.” I realised that my words definitely didn’t help my case, but when the relationship between me and the rest of the Bangtan thunder was already so rocky, I couldn’t imagine moving onto their property would make it any better.

The Authority gave me a weary look, suddenly looking way more tired and worn down than I’ve ever seen him, with how the power seemed to sap out of him and his shoulders dropped slightly.

“There’s no need to go through the trouble, Young Miss Kang,” he spoke quietly and gave me a resigned smile, though there was nothing friendly about it – quite the opposite it seemed, actually, “The emperor is set on this, and your father readily agrees. With the strength of the bond, they both want you two close so it can solidify.”

Shame and guilt hit me like a whole mountain fell on me, and I froze with my gaze glued to my lap. There it was, those words. The anger. And because I was a coward, I couldn’t bring myself to raise my eyes and look at the man. Instead I stayed curled in on myself, like the spineless rat they probably thought me to be.

I saw Hoseok’s form squirming to my left and Jungkook sitting still to my right, looking to his leader with a soft disapproving expression, and it was so foreign to his face I wanted to kick myself for putting it there. I shouldn’t be putting him into a position where stood against his thunder.

“Very well then,” I whispered finally, deciding it might be best to just go along and hope for the best, “I’ll need to go gather my things and pack up the essentials, but I could meet you by your house in a few hours.”

“There’s no need,” Namjoon’s rumbly voice spoke up the second I closed my mouth, “Your room at your house has already been packed up and moved by your servants. All of your things are waiting for you in our sitting room.”

My gaze flew up in surprise, and I barely clocked the displeased frown residing on the dragon’s face as he spoke to me. “How long have I slept?”

I turned to Jungkook with the question, but it was Hoseok who chimed in with “a little over two days”. It was the first time I heard his voice in what felt like weeks, so the moment I recognised it I was turning to him with surprise written all over my face. Something flickered in my chest, my mind very unhelpfully supplying the memory of his gentle caress, and I shut that down quickly before Jungkook sniffed it out. Then the words sunk in.

“What?!” I yelped out, jumping to sit upright and scaring the absolute shit out of the nature dragon standing by my side, “More than two days!? I thought it was maybe a few hours!” Namjoon was watching the red-headed dragon clutch his chest and calm down with a soft look, while Jungkook turned to me with his sparkling puppy eyes.

“Hobi-hyung said it’s normal,” he told me, and I could see he was now way prouder that he could go back to taking care of me, which brought a slight blush onto my face.

“No, I said it was understandable for the situation,” Hoseok corrected him when he turned back to the two of us, faced also a little flushed, “Usually when the bond is so heavy when settling down, it requires a lot of peace and care for the person to come out well. It was a really stressful situation, so her body shut down to recalibrate on its own.” He gave me an awkward half-smile and then mumbled something about medicine and high-tailed it out of there, leaving us to our uncomfortable little corner.

As he sped away, there was a clinking sound floating around him, and I realised that he had several charms and beads woven around his antler-like horns that created cheerful little sounds as he moved around, quite literally making music out of the tempo and rhythm of his walk. I found that it fit him very well.

“Peace and care,” I mumbled under my breath as my attention turned back to the conversation. My eyes fell on the silent Jungkook watching me something a little sad in his gaze, and it was so obvious he felt everything I did those two days ago in that cursed little lounge I had to avert my eyes in the face of it.

That at least explained why the dragons had suddenly shown me such gentleness. They were trying to make me well because they knew I needed to calm down.

Ignoring the fact that Jungkook now knew more than I was willing to admit to anyone, I looked towards Namjoon and nodded firmly.

“Okay, I’m ready to go.”

The walk from the castle grounds to the dragons’ townhouse was understandably an incredibly awkward affair. Hoseok silently joined us as we were walking down one of the many hallways, hand clutching a satchel containing something in glass bottles, based on how it rang with every movement. The man paid it no mind though, a faraway look in his eyes while he was clearly lost in thought.

Jungkook refused to let go of me, and because I couldn’t bear the weight of holding hands I let him loosely hold onto my wrist, which he did delicately with three of his fingers wrapped around the bony part (the better option, really, because he was capable of trying to persuade me to let him carry me). Namjoon walked in front, unapologetic and firm, not sparing us a single glance. He knew we would follow him.

Now having much more time to look around than the last time I visited, this time I truly took the house in. It was a fairly nice one, though definitely felt too small for seven adult men. There was a little courtyard beyond the gates that lead towards the main entrance inside, and another square courtyard sat inside as the heart of the house. There was a tiny one-room house a little ways away from the main building, sitting alone in a corner. Usually servants would inhabit it, but here it surely wasn’t more than a storage room, or a garden shed.

There were three bedrooms in the house – one bigger one, and two considerably smaller. Namjoon, now joined by Jin by his side, led me to the big room and waved me inside. Even as tidy as it was, it still felt completely stuffed with all kinds of things and trinkets and gadgets and columns of books, not even speaking of the clothes that were popping out of any closet space and any chest they had there. It was painfully small to hold everything in.

“This is my, Yoongi’s and Namjoon’s room,” the oldest dragon spoke, surprisingly gently considering his expression was very neutral, “it might take a few hours, but we’ll have it ready for you by the evening, so you can sleep here.” I was opening my mouth before I even fully processed what he just told me.

“Absolutely not,” it came out of my mouth a little harsher than intended in my haste to disagree, and I felt Namjoon’s disapproving gaze even without seeing him, “I mean- This is the biggest room in the house, and three of you live here. I can’t push you out. I’ll think of something, and I can sleep in the sitting room or even the dining area. I won’t force you out of your bedroom.” My words were met with a tense silence, but at least they weren’t protesting – clearly they were against it too, but felt strong-armed into coddling me out of fear I was a spoilt little brat.

Without waiting for them to speak, I turned and walked back down the stairs taking everything in carefully. The other dragons were home too and I could sense them watching me from every corner of the house, but I was too busy trying to find a little corner where I could hide myself away and not throw their whole household into a disarray. Just because my father felt the need to showcase his power and his standing. What a stupid fucking reason to break apart someone’s life for.

As I was walking towards the main entrance again, I passed by the little backyard – and saw the servant house again.

Footsteps shuffled across the floor and then there was a warm presence by my side, so assuming it was Jungkook I asked without turning: “Do you have anything in there?”

“Hobi-hyung has his gardening things there, but otherwise it’s pretty empty.” The deep honey-like voice shocked me to my core, and I swung around only to come face to face with Taehyung and his blueish grey curious eyes. His curly locks fell around his head in what I would call perfect manner, giving him a crown of dark dark crimson around his perfectly sculpted expressionless face.

The dragon’s aura pressed into me full force from all sides as he tilted his head to continue taking me in, and I blushed with having so much of his attention on me. There was something about him that just pulled you in, and no matter how hard you tried it was almost impossible to tear your gaze away from his eyes. Gentle floral scent pushed into my senses and as soon as I noticed it, it was like my muscles turned to soup and I barely stood on my own two feet.

I felt that if he asked, I’d do anything for him.

Then he was shifting away and the pull suddenly lessened, and I realised – it must have been something related to his magick. A cold current of fear ran through me, but I pushed down the need to shudder because I didn’t want to offend him.

Or anyone else, because by that time the whole thunder was gathered around and watching the interaction. I forced myself to ignore their gazes and turned straight to Hoseok.

“Hoseok-ssi, do you think you’d be able to clear it out for me?” The man watched me for a few more seconds before it seemingly caught up to him that I asked him a question, and then he was quickly nodding, already moving towards the garden before Jin’s hand stopped him.

“Absolutely not,” Jin repeated my earlier words, and I’d almost call the expression on his face cheeky if not for the fact that we were everything except people who teased each other fondly. He was about to speak more, but Namjoon jumped in with a very troubled expression.

“That is absolutely not possible, Young Mistress Kang,” he said seriously, voice firm and not inviting any kind of protests, “that would be incredibly inappropriate. We cannot house a young knight and a daughter from a prominent family in an old servant dwelling. The implications-“

“I know, Authority, but it is the least invasive option,” I jumped into his speech, not wanting to let him spiral unnecessarily, “I will explain it to the emperor if I have to. I will tell him it was my choice and that this is the most appropriate way for me to live here. After all, taking away all else, I am an unmarried woman in a house full of young men, those implications aren’t exactly flattering to the general public either.”

Not that I cared about that, but it definitely came in handy during situations like these.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jungkook and Jimin standing side by side blushing at my words, but my attention was quickly snatched by a very disgruntled Namjoon sporting a stormy expression on his face.

“I do not think you understand, Young Mistress,” he spoke with quiet fierceness, and it was the first time I was on the receiving end of such a tone from him, “I don’t think anything you say to the emperor will change much for us.”

Those words did have me stopping in my tracks as they sunk in. I looked to Namjoon again and this time properly took him in – the storm in his eyes, it spoke of experience. Experience of the sovereign’s unfavourable reactions. Experience that no matter what, they will still likely find a reason to punish the thunder.

For the first time I fully realised just what I was playing with here – and what ramifications my behaviour could have for the dragons, even when they didn’t know of my plans. No matter how much I hated my family name and despised my father, I still walked through life with a shield – a shield that would deflect all the shit from me, but splatter it at those around.

There in that moment I felt like such a child, way in over my head. Juggling with others’ lives without understanding how my game could mess them up.

I swiped my hand over my face, sighing deeply into it as it reached my mouth. I walked around the room a little, needing to push all the sudden adrenaline and nervousness somewhere – because I needed to come up with a way to do it as safely as possible for the dragons, and I needed to do it now. Because whether they liked it or not, this thunder’s well-being was now my concern. At least as long as they were unaware of my ulterior motives and couldn’t decide whether they’d like to take the risk or not.

All the seven dragons present watched me aimlessly float through the room, but I felt Namjoon’s gaze especially – my eyes being drawn to him the moment I thought of the Authority. His expression was still pinched, but he seemed to be waiting on me to speak again.

And pathetically the only thing that I could think of was beating the emperor to the punch. Doing what he’d expect and playing him anyway.

“What if I go there right now? Before I move anywhere,” I threw the suggestion into the room, carefully searching for any kind of negative reactions. When none came, I continued. “He’ll want me to come see him anyway. He always asks about everything. I’ll tell him I came straight from the hospital to thank him for his thoughtfulness.” I wasn’t sure if my voice betrayed anything deeper about what I thought of the man on the throne, but I hoped they at least didn’t think I was actually infatuated with him. Though, I’m sure it wouldn’t be that unusual for people to fake their way into the emperor’s favour.

The dragons stood around for a moment, sharing some glances – most probably communicating through their mind link, before Jin turned to me and simply nodded.

“It could work,” the thunder leader admitted quietly, “but you’ll have to mention it as an off-hand comment. That you moved in there because you think it more appropriate.” I didn’t let it show when I solemnly nodded to his words, but I was definitely surprised at the words of advice. Though he most likely did extend them to me only to make sure his loved ones caught the least amount of flack.

I moved towards the main door immediately, feeling Jungkook step right behind me like he was pulled by an invisible string to wherever I moved. On instinct I checked on the still tender and a little strange manifestation of his bond that dwelled deep in my chest, but all I could detect was worry with a pinch of careful joy.

It seemed that Jungkook was also way more nervous than he let on, so I let a pulse of gratefulness through and basked in the explosion of happiness coming from him.

Not paying attention to anything else than the playful feeling of Jungkook’s beating heart, I almost walked straight into a very unimpressed Namjoon who stood and waited by the main entrance already, looking at me in a manner that I’d definitely call disapproving. Realising I must have been just walking blindly smiling to myself like an idiot, I thought that was probably fair and let it go with slightly pink embarrassed cheeks.

Jungkook was suddenly acting like he turned into an adhesive, always plastered to me or standing just mere centimetres to me, so the moment we stepped out and begun our walk straight back to the castle for the second time that day, his warmth boring into my side was a constant reminder of his presence, together with the pulses of the never silent bond.

Namjoon didn’t look very happy, but even after I searched through my mind, I couldn’t recall a time I saw him calm or truly neutral – he was always tinged with something more, something not very positive, always on the edge of some sort of an abyss that only he knew of and understood. He worried me a lot – because how does one win the trust of a dragon like that? He probably knew all the reasons why he shouldn’t let a human near his thunder, after all that was definitely why Yoongi refused to spare a single glance in my direction too.

‘There’s no reason to worry, I’ll be there with you’. The voice burst in seemingly from inside me, echoing through my mind like a wayward thought, and I flinched in surprise. If I immediately didn’t recognise it as Jungkook’s sweet mellow voice, I’d have thought I had really gone crazy. Instead I outwardly stuttered a little, instinctively wanting to reply with words, which drew Namjoon’s attention. He didn’t turn to me, as he walked in front, but I saw his shoulders move in a slow roll signalling he was now listening to what was happening behind.

I sent a few thoughts out, hoping any of them would reach across the little string tying us together (like throwing mud at a stone wall and hoping that it sticks, more like), but when there continued to be no response, I realised none of them landed.

I turned as much of my attention to it as I could and focused hard, imagining the string as a rope instead – holding onto it as tight as possible and sending a sentence across like a little bird.

‘Stop spying on me’. I had meant to chastise him, but that definitely sounded a lot whinier than I anticipated, which was confirmed when little melodious giggles bounced around my mind in response. I felt my tense muscles ease at the sound, a smile unconsciously tugging at my lips too.

‘Stop being a walking cloud of doom, then’, came Jungkook’s words – and even though he meant them in joke, I still couldn’t help the painful tug at my heart that elicited. Immediately the bitter taste of guilt and regret flooded me, smelling like burnt wood and damp stone. I grew dizzy for a moment and stumbled gently, righting myself almost instantly. The constant up and down of someone else’s emotions was draining me – not to mention my own seemed to uncharacteristically volatile too, and suddenly I found myself dragging my feet more than before, feeling a heavy weight set into my shoulders.

This whole matter was turning more difficult with each day, and so far I’ve actually only been awake for a couple of hours.

Something must have given us away, because it finally caught Namjoon’s attention enough to intervene, and the golden eyed dragon slowed down to walk next to his youngest mate, grasping his shoulder so softly with such care it tanked my mood even further. The onslaught of negative emotions lessened, and only then I caught onto the fact that he was monitoring our interaction through Jungkook this whole time exactly to help out with situations like this.

I felt like a hormonal teenager, every minute going through a different emotion and trying to stabilise myself while everything constantly turned and danced around me, making me dizzy. The cloud of shame and sadness hung over me, and I desperately tried to reel it in as to not drag my bonded down with me, further making me feel like I was losing my mind.

In the split second a wild thought slipped through – that maybe this was all wrong, maybe trying to be closer to Jungkook was a bad idea, because in that moment I wanted nothing more than to turn around and run away from his tender open heart, nothing more than to shut it all out and not feel anything anymore, to tear that bond out of my chest and walk away.

I shunned it as quickly as it appeared, but the damage was done it seemed.

A pang of hurt shot through me hard enough to almost make me keel over – I grunted and fought to bring back my balance – and then there was nothing. Suddenly in the absence of the constant hum of another soul, I felt so terrifyingly empty I almost cried out.

When I realised what happened, I just pushed myself to continue walking and shut it out, ignoring everything in me that screamed to check on the dragon – even as I found myself strangely off kilter, like I suddenly lost a limb.

This was a damn mess, and all I really wanted in that moment was to pass out again and sleep for a whole month.

The rest of the walk was quiet and awkward, the two dragons keeping to themselves a few steps behind me while I trudged on feeling like an exposed nerve, a bleeding open wound, and the biggest piece of shit on this side of the continent.

Never thought I’d see the emperor’s lounge and let out a huge sigh of relief, but by the moment I realised we were almost by the ruby saloon I was so ready for it to be done I basically sprinted towards it. It was a bit of a gamble, just showing up here and hoping for the best, but the two times I saw the sovereign, it was always here so I figured it might be my best bet.

The stripes guarding the door took a single look at our group and one immediately slipped inside with a gentle knock. That was a good sign. The second guard didn’t really spare us any more attention, so we just stood there and waited to be let it, shuffling on our feet nervously.

Like it so often happened, my thoughts started racing around my head the instant I was left with no outward impulse to focus on, speeding around my brain and painfully bouncing off the walls. The whole scene during the bonding, especially my father screaming at me in front of the whole thunder, the feeling of embarrassment at being seen that way, the hurt and betrayal of his lack of care, the fact that the dragons now likely thought I was as much of an enemy as possible, the weight of the new bond and the wildness of my own emotions for the past few hours (days?), the emperor’s expectations and fearing the kind of game he wanted to play with me and the thunder, it all crashed into me in one moment of anxiety and despair. My heart quivered, and my knees and hands shook. All I could do was to force myself to stand there quietly instead of nervously pacing around like a madman.

I was terrified. I wanted to talk to someone, but I couldn’t – those who would understand still thought me an enemy, and those who were friendly didn’t have to understand.

Desperately I wanted to curl into a ball and hide away, I wanted to stand tall and I wanted to crumble, I wanted to fight and I wanted to run. I was closer to the hazy unpolished idea of rebellion I thought of when I was still a stubborn child, and yet I felt weaker and more incompetent than ever.

Everything that could go wrong weighted on me, all I still had to do and accomplish weighted on me, my own shortcomings and faults weighted on me. It was too much.

But I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t give up, even if I died. I had to try.

The door opened very suddenly and tore me out of my troubled thoughts, the knight stepping out and wordlessly gesturing for me to come in. I took one last deep breath to stabilise myself and moved to enter when the guard abruptly shifted forward and threw out an arm.

“No dragons,” he said in a monotone, expression not changing an inch, and I turned around to see both their figures frozen mid step. The awkwardness that hung between us hit me full force again, and I only offered them a tight-lipped smile with a nod before I disappeared inside.

Perhaps not realising how late in the evening it was, I was shocked to see the emperor sitting alone in a completely empty room. Unlike the first time I was brought here with my father, the man was sitting leisurely on his golden red sofa and his eyes were already boring into me with a burning curiosity.

Kicking myself to remember all the proper pleasantries, I stepped to the edge of the carpet and went down to kneel, touching my head to the floor in the politest bow one could make. Squirming under his attention, I swallowed everything down and played my part.

“Greetings, our empire,” my voice was slightly muffled by being bent over like this and I spoke more into the ground than to the man, but I didn’t doubt he heard me – and even if he didn’t, he must have been greeted this way million times by now, “thank you for accepting my humble request for an audience.”

When I straightened again, there was that sleazy smile on the young man’s face I’ve seen a couple times before. I forced down the shudder of disgust that desperately wanted to run through me and took my time to curl my lips into a smile instead. To my boundless shock, instead of sending me to sit at one of the lower set sofas, the man gestured for me to join him on his little platform.

That… felt like a test. A test that could possibly have terrible consequences.

Standing up to my feet, I hesitated. I tried to guess what he wanted me to do from his face, but his expression was frozen in that same cunning grin. When maybe a minute of tense silence sped by, I finally took the step up towards him, and his smile melted into a satisfied smirk. I hated that so much.

Hesitantly and as slowly as I could I walked over to the other end of the sofa he currently occupied and sat down, watching his body language the whole time and trying to discern when I pushed a limit or crossed a line. Nothing happened though, and the young sovereign instead leant forward to offer me a cup of tea.

I took it wordlessly, almost on instinct, still too shocked to really comprehend what was happening here.

“Y/N, I am very pleased with your visit,” he started in a silken smooth voice. I imagined it worked quite well on people, especially women desperate to be noticed by the most powerful man in the empire, but I just felt my skin crawl with disgust. “I was hoping you’d come speak to me about how the situation is going forward.” I plastered a hopefully grateful smile on my face, pretended to be a little shy to avoid looking at him directly. He unsettled me, a lot. But if he wanted to do it this way, I’d match his energy word for word.

“I came to thank you, your majesty,” I spoke softly, just like a polite well-mannered noble daughter would, “I am very grateful for your special request to accommodate me.” I was thinking what more to say, but the man was already opening his mouth to speak more, so I let him. He clearly liked the sound of his own voice, so why ruin it for him?

“A bond like yours deserves special attention,” the honey in his voice was grating on my nerves, so I just played with my cup of tea and timidly sipped on it to stop myself from scowling, “It doesn’t happen very often. I admit, at first I found your behaviour during the ceremony very strange, but when General Kang and the fire dragon came to explain it I thought it was the most exciting news.”

The man fully turned to me and I was forced to look at him, since he clearly commanded my attention. The flickering light of the magick lamps brought out the shadows in his eyes, making him seem like an eager predator when he leant towards me with a sharp smile full of teeth.

“I’d like you to keep me updated on how your relationship with the thunder goes,” his voice turned almost too sweetly and tender, confirming he thought me to be an empty-headed young girl yearning for his approval, so I took it in stride. At least I didn’t really have to fear of going too far with him, he must have been used to people trying to sleaze their way into his favour.

Coyly I tucked some of my unruly hair behind my ear, trying my best to gaze at him with eyes full of stars. My stomach rolled, and my heart beat so fast I was worried I might throw up right into his lap, but I held myself together with the last pieces of sanity I had left.

“It would be my honour, your majesty,” it was all pointless pandering, but the emperor seemed to buy I was genuinely doing that – his expression stayed the same, it didn’t flicker with annoyance or disgust, it didn’t light up, he watched me with the same calculative eyes. I hoped he didn’t see the same mirrored in mine. Or if he did, I hoped he thought I was after a ring on my finger and nothing more.

What else could a woman want, after all.

His strange obsession over me getting closer to the whole thunder also wasn’t lost on me, and as unusual as that was, I had an inkling he’d soon start revealing more of his cards. He clearly had a goal in mind – I saw it all there in him, in the way he watched me. He wouldn’t wait forever for it to be realised, he’d hint at what he expected me to do sooner rather than later.

“As you granted me, I have already moved into the house,” I spoke again after a momentary lull in conversation, keeping my voice sweet and soft, “I took the old servant dwelling, as it of course isn’t appropriate for a young unmarried woman to live with a group of male dragons.” Making sure to put the emphasis on the words young and unmarried, I kept an eye on his reaction, almost holding my breath.

Come on, buy it, don’t ask questions please!!

A shadow passed over his eyes momentarily, but then he was politely chuckling along. “Well, of course, I didn’t even think of that,” he said smoothly, and something in his posture just didn’t seem quite right to me, “How very silly of me, of course a young noblewoman shouldn’t be sharing living quarters with such unruly characters. Dragons cannot be trusted in these matters, after all – they’re wild beasts.”

The smile I kept on my face with sheer force of will twitched at those words, but I immediately leant in to agree, thanking him of thinking of my virtue. For the first time since I walked in the man seemed a little off, and as I watched him he almost looked upset about me not living closer to them. Like he was fully expecting me to just move straight into Jungkook’s room.

Wait a minute.

Every thought in my head screeched to a halt. Could it be that people truly believed we were entangled as more than just a rider and his dragon? Did he think he was doing me a favour with this? We’ve known each other for barely a little over a week, and almost three of those days I lay unconscious in the infirmary!

This time when the sovereign smiled at me, I didn’t even have to fake being a blushing mess, because what the actual fuck. God, what a mess.

“The others have already reported to your superior at the Academy, so I suggest you do that first thing tomorrow morning,” he continued talking, not caring for my embarrassed silence at all, “This year’s novices are in the care of General Wang, so seek him out in the barracks. He’ll give you your uniform and show you around. Tell him they’re my orders, special for the youngest Kang.” A sly grin made itself home on his thin lips, and I felt the hair at the back of my neck rise. He wanted me to swoon, but I couldn’t force myself to sell that properly.

Bowing as much as I could while sitting, I told him in response: “Once again, I offer my humble thanks, your majesty.”

A hand suddenly grasped mine, making me flinch slightly. The emperor chuckled at my reaction, chalking it up to being shy around him, and his grip on me tightened as he leant forward, until all I saw was his beautiful cold face and fiery cruel eyes.

“No need for such formalities between the two of us, please do call me by my name when it’s just us,” the words were whispered almost coquettishly, and for few terrifying moments I feared he might actually be interested in fucking me to get something out of keeping me loyal, “Not many have the honour to do that.”

Keeping my eyes lowered, I felt the pressure behind them, lips almost twisting in a grimace as I simply whispered back “if your majesty insists…”. His hand was still tightly holding mine, and he was so close that when he chuckled this time I felt it hitting my skin.

“Not your majesty,” he playfully chided me, and his skin on mine felt both scalding hot and freezing cold, making me shudder. The instinct to tear out of his hold and put space between us almost made me jerk away. With deep breaths I grounded myself and went along. It was revolting, truly revolting – his touch felt like the worst kind of a brand.

“Yes, K-Kangdae-ssi…” it was hard to get the name through my lips, like every cell in my body knew it was forbidden, but the man let out a pleased hum and finally pulled away. The moment his oppressing aura shifted back, it was like a boulder fell off my shoulders and I straightened in relief.

Yi Kangdae. It was a name everyone in the country knew, but no one said out loud. It was etched into murals around the castle, written into history books and documents, carved into despair and calamities, branded onto his loyal followers. It was left behind in bloody wounds of fallen soldiers and cried out in prayers of grieving mothers and wives. Just like the names of his father, and his father before, and his father before.

It carried a weight with it that had nothing to do with his position of power, and it tasted like ash on my tongue.

The man himself sat unbothered on his half of the sofa we shared and watched me with a sort of lazy satisfaction, like someone that knew whatever they wanted they would get.

“Isn’t that much more comfortable, Y/N-ssi?” he taunts again, darkness spilling into his gaze as if he was subtly warning me, so I quickly bent to his will. Nodding and smiling, playing, acting, selling.

“We’ll see each other a lot anyway,” were his final words, an order hidden between them. Bow to me, worship me, obey me. So I did.

When his hand gestured that I was free to go, I stood up and bowed to him again, keeping myself at ninety degrees for a few moments before I rose again. An acidic lump sat at the bottom of my stomach, searing through the sensitive tissue.

In a daze I walked back, only to be stopped by his voice once I was by the door.

“Y/N. Call in the fire dragon, I want to speak with him.” I half turned with an unsure smile on my face, doing a quick bow once more before walking out.

My stomach was boiling with nervosity as I saw the two dragons leaning on a windowsill directly across the door. Both of them had sombre expressions on their faces and both of them jerked in my direction when they heard the door open and close. Jungkook’s youthful face wasn’t made for the frown that resided on it currently. It felt wrong for him to be anything but his usual happy self, and I couldn’t help myself and beat myself up once again for being so harsh earlier.

His bond was still dead and quiet in my chest, and now that I saw him again I was poignantly aware of the missing piece – of the black empty hole consuming me from the inside.

Before either of the dragons could say anything, I gestured to the door with a troubled look on my face.

“Namjoon-ssi, his majesty wishes to speak to you..” I surprised myself that the words weren’t spoken in a whisper, but they came out wobbly nonetheless – not that the dragon commented on that. He simply nodded and without a word walked to the door, disappearing inside instantly.

When I was left standing there alone with Jungkook, only the stripes guards tensely standing by the entrance into the lounge, I found myself squirming and shuffling from foot to foot. The young dragon’s gaze was trained on me, almost sheepish, as if he feared I wouldn’t take kindly to his attention. Unsure of where he stood now, after what he must have perceived as a sort of a rejection. Giving myself one last mental slap I walked towards him, slinking in like a misbehaving dog.

I felt the questions in his gaze when I leant on the cold stone closer to him than necessary, ignoring all that empty space left behind by the huge fire dragon. I came as close as I could without brushing our arms together, but it was enough to feel the warmth radiating off of him. I found myself enveloped in a heavy scent of burning wood and stone and metal, for the first time taking the time to realise that it was Jungkook’s natural smell – something I had no chance of catching onto before the bonding, but now so aware of it I felt singed with it. He smelt like smoky sandalwood, iron and gunpowder – powerful and heavy, but with a calming tone. It rushed through my lungs like opium smoke, pulling me into a haze like I’ve never felt before.

The gravity of the discovery instinctively pulled me closer until my nose almost bumped into the bewildered dragon’s shoulder so I could take a closer sniff, and with embarrassment colouring my cheeks red I jerked back.

Clearing my throat, I sat straight and kneaded my hands on my thighs to get rid of the sweaty clammy feel.

“Sorry,” I muttered quietly, taking the chance to send an apologetic smile to the dragon, and catching his shy but sparkling eyes. He still hesitated on whether to get close or not, lips pulled down at the corners with emotion only he felt, now that his side of the bond shut down.

“Don’t worry about it,” came his hushed response, though more eager than mine, “your scent is heightened too, now.”

“Oh,” well, that certainly caught my attention, and I turned to him fully, “and what do I smell like?”

He pursed his lips for a moment, the cogs in his head turning so obviously I almost laughed at him as he attempted to come up with a good analogy.

“I don’t really know, haven’t figured it out yet,” the dragon finally admitted, “it changes a lot, but it’s really earthy with a hint of flowers. Maybe like a freshly dug flower bed?”

That was… peculiar. Dirt and flowers? I guess it was quite fitting, but still – not very a ladylike scent, was it?

“Wait… what do you mean it changes? Do I smell differently each day?” I inquired more, trying to subtly take a whiff of my own body odour, but I didn’t really smell anything special. I smelled like the hospital I woke up in, and there was a residue of a sharp tang of magick on me that smelled vaguely like damp moss. That must have been Hoseok. My clothes smelled clean but slept in. Nothing more.

“You can’t really smell your own scent, not like this at least,” Jungkook chuckled as he watched me, “and technically yes, scent changes – but not drastically. It’s usually about the emotions. The heavier the emotion, the heavier the scent. Usually.” I blushed and stopped sniffing my own arms like a maniac, and instead leant in to Jungkook again.

And he was right – this time his scent was much more mellow, more like sandalwood incense with sharp metallic undertones. It was a fascinating mix, so much so that the red hue on my cheeks was now solely due to that.

“When can you smell your own scent?” I tried to distract both of us from my own flustered state, so I inquired more. Jungkook still giggled at me though, and mischief glinted in his eyes – and they were so alive, it robbed me of my breath.

“Uh… well- certain emotions are bigger and stronger than others,” the young dragon started talking, hand on his chin like he was a philosopher, eyebrows pinched together as he seemed to be deliberating on how to present this information to me, though everything about him felt a touch too whimsical to take seriously, “you know, like anger. You can smell your anger, because your scent starts like… soaking into the air around you, I guess? It becomes really heavy and tangible for everyone, basically.”

I hummed in answer, nodding along as what he told me slowly sunk in. We both leant back into the cold stone windowsill, now more comfortable than before – like the ice has been broken with this simple small talk. Jungkook was too forgiving, truly. With my heart squeezing painfully in my chest, I thought to myself that if I didn’t mention the earlier upset, he’d probably just let it go and act normally when I did too.

And that was absolutely unacceptable.

Namjoon was still inside with the emperor, though to us it no doubt felt much longer than it truly was, and the hallway was empty – safe for those two guards. I’d feel too uncomfortable trying to talk this out with him in front of others, not only because I didn’t like the idea of them hearing me discuss such a vulnerable thing with someone, but also because gossip spread like fire and I didn’t want people to start talking even more about the friendship I’d like to start building with him. It wasn’t really customary for humans to be so sweet with dragons, and it drew too much attention when someone broke that unspoken rule. There were already too many eyes on us due to my family’s name, the Bangtan name and the emperor’s involvement, and for now it’d be easier and safer to try and fly under the radar (no pun intended).

So with that in mind I squirmed on my spot to dispel the unpleasant feeling of cold stone seeping into my robes, and reached out to the link binding us together again. It was still too quiet inside me, and no matter how Jungkook’s constant chatter of emotions and thought overwhelmed me at times, in those few hours I’ve had the bond it already sunk its roots into the deepest parts of me.

Now that I knew what rhythm Jungkook’s heart beat to, the absence was even more obviously felt.

The string hummed and quivered under my careful attention, a bit of hopeful warmth spreading in. The dragon shuffled in surprise, but other than turning to me to give me a shy smile he didn’t acknowledge me reaching out to him.

‘Jungkook’. The thought was so loud and clear in my mind, that I’d never doubt it’s ability to cross over, but the slight blush on the man’s face was a nice sign too. ‘I’m sorry… I’m so sorry for before’.

I was given a beautiful blinding smile in return, so bright I felt like I was standing in that gazebo soaking in the moon’s blessed light again. In a swirl the full force of the bond swooped in, million thoughts going around our minds as we shared a conspiratory smile.

‘There’s nothing to apologise for’, came Jungkook’s response, the thought beating to the forefront with the tenacity of his strong heart. I was just about to shake my head when he continued. ‘The hyungs keep telling me I’m overwhelming you, I should be the one saying sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken to you in your mind without a warning’.

My heart squeezed at his earnestness, and I couldn’t quite stop myself from reaching out and grabbing onto his arm gently.

‘No, Jungkook. It’s just… It will take time for me to get used to someone else sensing all of my thoughts and emotions. I’ve never been this open to anyone. I was just… scared’. And Jungkook, as open and easy-going as always, accepted what I offered with no questions asked. It was almost scary how eager he was when it came to any kind of love and affection, and for the first time I fully understood the thunder’s desperate need to shelter him away from all of this. From me, and from the emperor.

‘I don’t even remember what it’s like to not hear and feel my mates, but I understand it’s new to you. Don’t worry Y/N, we’ll get through this together – us, with the thunder.’ I hoped I managed to hide away the note of sourness that tinged my emotions at his boundless optimism, but I had the inkling that he wouldn’t care either way.

Jungkook just seemed like a person that willed things into existence – he expected them to happen a certain way, so of course they would. In the time I’ve known him (and it felt like ages already), he hasn’t expressed a single doubt about any of his ideas not realising in the end.

He wanted me and the thunder to be friendly, a big family, so it would end up coming true – wouldn’t it?

It was quite charming, to tell the truth. He had a way of swaying you into believing it too, like his enthusiasm was irresistibly contagious.

When I failed to respond to him, the dragon took it as a sign to continue soothing my frayed nerves. ‘You’ll come to enjoy the feeling of having the bond with you. And I promise – I never want to pry into you, nor make you uncomfortable, but the bond is there so we can rely on each other. Rely on me. Trust our instincts.’

Our instincts. There was something so incredibly straightforward and simple about that. Us. For me, there’s never been an us. Maybe when I was younger, but that was long gone.

Jungkook had no reason to manipulate me or betray me, but his presence in the deepest parts of my psyche still unnerved me. I’ve never realised the bond would be quite so encompassing – not to the point where I almost felt his life force running through my veins and my chest ached when I couldn’t sense him. And it was just mere hours!

‘Okay. But you need to teach me how to keep my bond under control too. I must be wrecking you too.’

To that Jungkook gave me a toothy grin and bumped our shoulders together. The amicable contact sent a flurry of embers through my body, something heavy flickering in and out of existence in my chest before all at once a soothing calm settled over me.

“W-What is that?” I stuttered out in surprise, cheeks a soft pink colour. The shock of the pleasant sensation pushed me out of our telepathic communication and pushed the words straight out of my mouth.

At least Jungkook was looking similarly flushed, grin lopsided and cheeky but with a bit of shyness. “Hyungs mentioned…,” he started, squirming in his place a little bit, “physical contact helps settle the bond.”

Just like before my interest was piqued – after all, I didn’t know much about the inner workings of the bonds, but just as I was about to open my mouth and fire more questions out, the ruby saloon’s door opened and Namjoon walked out. He looked tired, holding himself straight but with a heavy weight on his shoulders, constantly pulling him down. He took one single look at the two of us sitting close, cheeks rosy, and a very brief flash of something pained crossed his eyes.

I jerked under the load of that, but even then I couldn’t find it in myself to unstick from the young dragon – like everything in me was protesting even the mere idea of being separated from my bonded.

The fire dragon only sighed and slowly trudged towards us before gesturing with his chin to leave. So we did.

Namjoon went first, as he always did, and me and Jungkook fell into a comfortable pace behind him, arms linked at our elbows. The little fuzzy warm ball of light was serenely floating around inside me, almost like a napping lounging cat lazing in the afternoon sun. When I reached in to lightly caress it, it responded with a burst of peaceful hum – the bond hasn’t been this calm in my chest since I woke up – even since it took hold in me.

I still felt Jungkook’s consciousness gently probing along the edges of mind, and even though I could sense my metaphorical hackles of discomfort rising in alarm, our cores buzzed in harmony and felt too tranquil for me to panic too much about it.

‘Jungkook.’ The dragon looked to me questioningly, but inclined his head to signal he was listening.

‘Please promise me, that whatever you feel or see inside me, you won’t ask questions.’

‘Why?’ His gaze was warm and curious, gently inquisitive – youthful. But then it melted away into understanding. ‘I’ll promise not to ask, if you promise you’ll tell me when it’s time to know.’

Namjoon’s tense form moved steadily forward in front of us, shoulders almost all the way up to his ears, and I wondered whether he was monitoring Jungkook’s emotions again. And if he did, I wondered how he felt about the amusement that flooded me when he heard my soft snickering.

‘Fine, that’s unfortunately fair.’

The moment I looked to the side my good spirits evaporated within a moment though. Jungkook immediately pulled me closer to himself, and I could imagine his vigilant gaze tracking across our surroundings, ready to pinpoint any kind of danger I could be reacting to.

That wasn’t what had me on pins and needles though.

We’ve walked over to the side of the castle that left behind dark towering halls and corridors, and opened up into more stone and flower decorated courtyards with roofed walkways. This part was closer to the barracks and the Academy grounds, and scholars and councilmen gave way to uniform-clad knights.

And there, as we were passing by towards the castle gates closer to the dragons’ house, a group of Academy students was walking through the courtyard on the opposite side to us. Their affiliation was very clear even without any other clues – their dark cheolliks embroidered with the likeness of a dragon beast and tied with greenish blue sashes – but I still wouldn’t be able to not recognise the ever so smug smirking man by one of the knights’ sides.

Fucking Peacock.

I didn’t recognise the rest of the students, but they sure did recognise me. The moment they saw me and Jungkook walking arm in arm with Namjoon leading the way, their faces scrunched up in a rich variable of emotions. I saw distaste and envy. I saw mockery. The usual mixture.

My classmate was speaking to a knightess I’ve never seen before, but based on their uniforms they must have been some of the upperclassmen. Those two were leaning close together, their shiny hostile eyes trained onto our moving forms, lips curled into snide smirks.

I’ve long since realised that the only way to get through situations like this was to ignore everything, so I just turned back to my companions ready to leave this behind us. What other people thought of me and what rumours they spread around about me was of no concern to me, and I didn’t care one bit about it.

The dragons seemed to have a different idea though. When I looked back towards them, I saw that even Namjoon’s gaze was locked on the now snickering students as they kept walking away from us. As I could have predicted, Jungkook’s face was coloured with anger and displeasure, but why Namjoon looked so disgruntled was beyond me.

The golden dragon’s ears were twitching, like he was used to them having a different shape, and I realised he most likely heard their conversation.

Which meant… there was a chance I could hear them too.

I wasn’t fully sure what to do – I did remember having heightened senses overwhelmed me slightly in the infirmary, but since then it was like everything went back to normal. Thankfully, our pace slowed down considerably due to the distraction, so I had the mental capacity to really lean into it and focus as hard as I could on trying to catch their venomous whispers.

“…riding too seriously…” A bout of giggles disrupted the sentence and I got lost again. With how quickly they were heading in the other direction, it was harder to listen in.

“…daddy gets his princess what she wants…” There was more laughter, and I rolled my eyes. As if I haven’t heard that one thousand times before. If they only fucking knew what my father was like.

“Didn’t expect her to spread her legs for the whole thunder-“ And with that they rounded the corner and disappeared deeper into the gardens, presumably in the direction of either the barracks or the training grounds.

I looked towards Namjoon with flaming cheeks, but the dragon just seemed very displeased. Even Jungkook looked more angry than embarrassed, which I wasn’t expecting.

For the rest of the journey back to the house no one said anything. I wondered whether Namjoon, now freshly discovering this very unpleasant side-effect of being associated with our family, regretted everything even more. I wondered what Jungkook thought of such rumours being spread around about his loved ones, but he himself gave me no more signs of anything being wrong – didn’t let go of my arm, didn’t shut off his bond again, and didn’t let through even a sliver of displeasure.

The second dinner I’ve had at the dragons’ house was no less uncomfortable and tense than the first one, but it did seem that some of them were a bit more positively minded towards me.

The moment we returned to the townhouse, me and Jungkook jumped into moving my things into the servant’s house with the help of Hoseok – and surprisingly Taehyung, who insisted on assisting us with anything we’d need.

Somewhere along the way Jungkook wormed his way back into my mind, speaking to me constantly in an eager chirp, chatting off about anything that came to mind. I felt a bit bad for the other two dragons who had to watch us as we silently talked about horses and vegetables and whatever else that came to Jungkook’s mind, but they were likely doing the same thing through their own bond. And, unexpectedly, both of them wore quite genuine smiles on their faces as they hauled boxes and chests filled with my essentials.

I don’t know how exactly it happened, but in the time it took us to settle me into that little room, Jungkook managed to persuade me into tagging along with him in some old forgotten tradition his hyungs told him about long time ago. Understandably, I was quite hesitant at first – the thunder leader still winced whenever ‘Authority’ fell out of my mouth, though he tried to hide it, so I wasn’t quite sure it would exactly be appreciated.

But Jungkook was nothing if not excited and impossible to reject, so I ended up caving in just in time for the dinner to start. Damn his beautiful, wet, sparkling eyes.

Just walk in by my side and kneel to Namjoon hyung, he said as he ran off to help Seokjin with dishes. He’ll welcome you into the thunder. Right.

Yeah, well, easier said than done, now that I was actually walking into the room with the jittery excited Jungkook basically vibrating next to me, seeing the whole thunder sitting around the dinner table on their pillows, in the same order as last time. Their gazes were on us, some confused and questioning, some calm and expecting.

When Jungkook kneeled, it was met with soft and fond looks. When I followed him down, the room suddenly felt colder.

Jin sat straight in his spot, a neutral expression on his face. He didn’t seem neither displeased not appeased. Yoongi on the other hand turned his head away from the display as soon as he realised what we were doing. That one stung. But not as much as Namjoon, who was desperately trying to look anywhere but us without making it immediately obvious to the excited Jungkook. When our eyes met, it almost seemed like it hurt him to even see me.

After that I didn’t gather enough courage to look at the others and instead hung my head down low in a proper bow. A few more moments of silence went by, and judging by Jungkook’s warm purring happiness spilling everywhere out of his core, he didn’t interpret the atmosphere to be quite as tense as I did.

“Thank you, sihe,” finally Namjoon’s voice cut through the room, putting everyone involved out of their misery, “Come take a seat at the table and eat.” The word was unfamiliar to me, though there was no doubt it was draconic. It rolled off the dragon’s tongue smoothly, in his deep voice it almost sounded like a purr, and I could see that Jungkook especially liked to hear his leader call me such; so assuming it wasn’t anything bad, I didn’t pry more.

The young dragon rose from his position to sit at the table, chest puffed out and cheeks rosy with some emotion I couldn’t fully discern. I followed after him, significantly more sluggish and ready to call it a day.

This time around when I sat down next to Taehyung, there was no trace of his previous apprehension. When I looked to him, he smiled and gestured towards the spread of food that smelled absolutely delicious. Seokjin also gave me a polite but warm smile and began eating.

When I reached back towards the memory of the first dinner I spent here, merely a week ago, I couldn’t even remember what it was we ate. Tonight a pot full of hearty stew sat in the middle of the table, and I didn’t even know how much I needed it until the first spoonful hit me and spread the pleasant kind of heavy warmth through my being. By the time I ate a whole bowl, I was ready to curl up and fall asleep right there on the floor by the table.

The dragons kept up a sparse but polite chatter, but unlike the last time I didn’t join in. No one spoke to me, and just for that evening I basked in their insistence on ignoring me. For once I found a bit of relief in not getting their attention – because then it meant I wasn’t actively pissing them off either, and I figured all of us needed a break after everything that’s been happening.

When it was all over, I was just about ready to slink off into my little house and sleep for a whole century. Trying to disappear as inconspicuously as possible, I was promptly stopped by Seokjin’s voice calling my name. He said it so softly I almost missed it, but when I whipped around in surprise the pink-haired man was already gesturing for me to follow after him.

Jungkook was running after Namjoon basically as soon as his spoon dropped from his hand, something proud and eager glinting in his eyes, so I rather left them to it and quietly jogged after the eldest dragon. Seokjin swiftly made his way over into the kitchen, which was still covered in mess from when he cooked – utensils and dishes were laid out everywhere, cutoffs from vegetables were sitting in a bowl on a table, the remaining stew sat in a pot in the middle of the room. A few magickal lanterns were fighting to keep the room alight, the shadows flickering around the room with the dying strands of their energy.

Seokjin danced into the room like a storm, immediately grabbing a basket and strutting right out, leaving me stood there in the middle of the room gaping. Just seconds later Taehyung leisurely walked in, taking slow deliberate steps and watching me with deep icy blue eyes.

I thought back to earlier that afternoon, how his gaze locked me into place and penetrated deep into my soul. How I felt drawn to him, and how I almost choked on his flowery scent. As my gaze slid across the man (much like he did to me), I couldn’t help but ponder what exactly his powers entailed.

Unlike the other dragons, I couldn’t outwardly see any draconic features – except for his blueish grey eyes and ethereal beauty. He didn’t have any scales anywhere like Jimin, didn’t have horns like Hoseok, Jungkook or Yoongi, his eyes didn’t even flash silver or glow like Namjoon’s golden ones did. His gaze was always inquisitive and he didn’t speak much, but somehow had an aura of someone who always knew what you were thinking deep down. Or like you’d want to tell him anyway, no matter what – as long as he wanted it.

It was unsettling. Taehyung was putting me kind of on edge, but he was also one of the two dragons who seemed to want to be friendly with me, so whatever it was I was grateful to him anyway.

Even if it seemed slightly sinister.

Taehyung’s stare felt just as weighted on me as the dragon circled around the room seemingly inconspicuously before his neutral cold exterior melted into a cheeky smile and he took a seat by one of the sliding doors leading out into the yard.

I didn’t really even have the chance to feel the thickness of the silence when the pink dragon waltzed back in, basket now full of dirty dishes. Jimin trailed in behind him, pot of uneaten stew in hands. The water dragon didn’t spare me much but an unsure glance, set the stew down on the floor and with a quick snap of his fingers a wooden basin that Seokjin suddenly pulled out of nowhere started filling with water.

For a split second I got pulled into that dark glistening surface – the darkness and calm I felt during that cleansing, the voice speaking to me, the water filling my lungs and constricting my throat, and Jimin there, looking back at me in the mirror of my mind – and then I pulled back again. I wasn’t insane enough to think the Moon Goddess was going to talk to me through the kitchen dish washing tub. Yet.

But I did discreetly shuffle further away from it with my shaking hands seeking support at one of the wooden tables – not that anyone cared. Taehyung has found himself a bag of potatoes and was peeling them all by himself in his corner, not paying attention to anything else. I heard Seokjin’s half-hearted grumbled complaints with which he was teasing the already walking away Jimin. The tub sat on the floor, the water looking at me with a hungry spark.

“Have you never washed the dishes?” Seokjin’s question came at me half serious, half teasing – I mean, even if he did want to play around, in his mind the chances I ever did anything with my own two hands must have been pretty low. I jerked, whipping my eyes into his warm greyish silver ones. His leathery wings were twitching behind his back, probably dying to spread out more, but the man kept them firmly pressed to himself. “You’re watching it like it’s about to eat you.”

Now I felt Taehyung’s curious eyes on me too, though I still heard him as he worked on the vegetables. In two strides I reached the older dragon’s side and grabbed the washing sponge and lavender smelling soap.

“I did,” I answered him simply, shooting him a quick smile, “Even if I missed it at home – which I didn’t – I went through military.” Seokjin pulled two low wooden stools towards us with a quick flick of his wrist, the furniture flying through air with an elegant arch and landing right under me.

“What, they let the general’s daughter dirty her hands?” the pink dragon teased more, a mischievous smile pulling at his lips. He sat down while I still processed the quick magick he showcased, before I slowly slid down and started on the ceramic bowls. Normally jabs like that were the quickest way to anger me, but for some reason I didn’t mind Seokjin’s light joking tone.

He didn’t seem malicious, just interested. And after the fiasco at the dinner, that was better than I was hoping for.

“Well, everybody has to help around the barracks, though you can buy your way around it,” I admitted freely, knowing there’s no reason to lie about such things (my father would never waste money on me like that anyway, so it’s not like I was ever exempt), “but it’s mostly just a popular way to punish someone for minor misdeeds, as were most of the cleaning duties. I spent a lot of time mopping the floors while on the mother base.” A wry smile made its way on my face, the tenseness in my shoulders melting away as we fell into a rhythm.

“A trouble-maker, huh? No wonder you bonded our Kookie,” Seokjin muttered softly in response, eyes locked on his hands. I honestly wasn’t sure if he expected me to respond – if those words were even aimed at me, but the dragon quickly shook the melancholic expression off and smirked again.

“Had my bouts of misbehaving,” I grumbled back, cheeks pink as the older dragon’s eyes glinted with humour. But then he suddenly turned serious, and all my peace was thrown right out the window Taehyung was sitting by.

“The bowing ceremony, tiichir,” the draconic word rolled off Seokjin’s tongue in a similar purr-like hiss like Namjoon did before, and once again I found myself quite enthralled at the language that was so rarely heard anymore. So enthralled in fact, that I almost forgot to shit bricks at the mention of the ceremony. “Did your teacher teach you that as well?”

“Uhh- no, actually,” the confused answer spilled out of me almost unconsciously. Seokjin’s demeanour was so tranquil, the tone of his voice so conversational, and I realised too late it was most likely on purpose so that I felt comfortable talking to him about things he truly wanted to know. I sighed in disappointment a little, but really – what was there to do?

At least he was nice about it.

“Actually, Jungkook told me about it. He said he knows it from your stories and always wanted to do it with his bonded too.” Seokjin’s eyebrow twitched, but otherwise he stayed perfectly inviting. From the corner the sounds of Taehyung peeling vegetables were the only reminders of his presence.

“I see, so he did.” The older dragon’s tone was almost too kindly, and I had a feeling Jungkook would get a huge dressing down later. Though, good luck trying to scold him when he’s looking at you with those begging eyes and talking about how much he loved it. I fell in the same trap and look where it got me.

“Y/N,” the sudden appearance of my name out of Seokjin’s mouth startled me enough to flinch in my spot, “I will come clean, as I dislike not being straightforward. I have to admit, I’m very curious about your teacher – because I’m very curious about the kind of dragon that spends his summers teaching a random human child olden dragon customs. Are you sure his name is Hwan?”

I just stared at him, hands frozen in my spot, clutching onto a half-washed fork. Based on his body language, he didn’t seem to be angry – he looked quite relaxed actually, and there was an open expression on his face. But something about the way he worded the sentence just rubbed me wrong. Maybe it was because I already got Hwan into trouble once by being a tattle-mouth, but I struggled to let go of my fear that there was still a way I could bring ire on his head, even though I didn’t even know where he currently was. Or if he even lived.

“Based on what he taught you, he could have been a zriha once upon a time, but that would make him quite old,” the pink-haired dragon continued, hands still diligently working in the sudd covered tub not caring at all that mine stopped.

“I-I have no idea what that word means,” I absent-mindedly stuttered out in response, clutching onto the first straw I could catch. A sharp grin that sent goosebumps down my back split the handsome man’s face, and it was the first time I saw him look a touch less polite and friendly.

“It’s not yours to know,” a clear warning laced his cheery voice, so I immediately left it alone.

I looked at him for a moment, at his expectant gaze. At the wings stretching and folding continuously behind his back as he tried to make himself comfortable on the little stool. He was a little too tall for it, I belatedly realised. His wide shoulders almost hid Taehyung from me at this angle, but I still saw the way his eyes turned to me every few seconds, waiting.

“He said his name was Hwan. That’s what he went by and that’s how he introduced himself to me,” I said finally, sighing and forcing my hands back into motion. There weren’t many dishes left and I reached for one of the last plates. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Taehyung frowning, gaze clouded with deep thought.

Seokjin sat still for a few seconds, watching me patiently, and I forced myself to look back until he stared his fill and felt satisfied with my answer. Then he nodded and smiled, his usual kindly way, and got up to start putting away the clean wet dishes.

Even though I squirmed in discomfort in my seat, the atmosphere didn’t change after our conversation. There was no heavy tense silence, no mistrustful or hostile glances. Just Seokjin humming to himself while he flitted around the room, wings fluttering with the movement, and Taehyung staring straight down into my soul with wide interested eyes.

Maybe they knew – that I was lying to them. At that point in time, it didn’t really matter.

Once I was let free of the cleaning duty, I ran away from the room as fast as I could get away without actually sprinting out. The ground floor and the courtyard seemed to be quiet and empty, and I aimlessly wandered around for a few moments, unseeing eyes staring off into space.

Seokjin didn’t seem to be the type to just let things go easily, and seeing as he already brought up Hwan twice, it was safe to assume he’d try it again – until he got an answer that satisfied him. The problem was, I didn’t even know what kind of thing was Hwan embroiled in. It was almost twenty years ago, but even my child eyes could see that he and his bonded were running away from Wuyun as fast as they could.

Seokjin was in the capital at the time. For him it probably felt a lot shorter than two decades, and whatever went down here to make a dragon and his knight run away, he’d probably remember it.

But on the other hand – I chose Bangtan for a reason. I chose them knowing I’d have to come to a point where I’d trust them with anything. And Seokjin did seem like a trustworthy choice. But he also could be hiding an anger at his kin – for indulging an enemy too much, teaching them things they had no business knowing. None of the dragons seemed especially thrilled about me having such knowledge, and I did have to wonder whether Hwan broke some unspoken rule by teaching me things dragons didn’t want humans to know.

Until I was sure of where Seokjin’s curiosity came from, I’d hold onto the information just for a little longer.

I looked back towards the kitchen somewhat wistfully. Maybe I was approaching this whole thing from the wrong angle – maybe Seokjin was the answer when it came to my teacher. He must know details of his exile, he might even know where he fled. He might tell me.

But then I thought back to their pained angry eyes when I kneeled with Jungkook, and the memory stopped me.

All in due time. I swore to rely on Jungkook – and I hoped that would be the first step towards stable ground.

Taehyung found many things interesting. He’s always been like that – for as long as he knew Seokjin hyung, he always called him his curious cub. The hyungs always fed his curiosities with books and trinkets, and stories too. He also knew people found him strange.

Taehyung never chose to speak too much in front of others. His mates knew what he thought and felt through their soulties, and no one else really mattered. No one else had to be privy to what he was doing, or what he was thinking. People tended to believe that an absence of words meant absence of thought, but in reality Taehyung was just tired of constantly explaining himself to people who didn’t really care.

And it’s been centuries since he last found something as interesting as Jungkook’s young bonded.

There used to be times when Taehyung hated his gifts. The hearts and souls of living beings rarely showed anything worth seeing, and more often than not pushed the dragon away. Greed, anger, spite, violence. Walking through the banquets and halls and streets, Taehyung sensed all different mixtures of all different unpleasant things. It made him nauseous. It was all too much.

Jinnie-hyung always told him that he had too much of a gentle heart for this world, but Tae wasn’t sure if that was true. Gentle creatures couldn’t toy with others’ minds the way he could.

Though there were uses for his magick, ones that he learnt to appreciate.

And the moment he saw Jungkook’s bonded, he sensed that there was something different about her soul. Brought up by one of the cruellest men Taehyung’s had the displeasure of meeting, moulded into a soldier since a young age, she should have been steeped in the bitter taste of evil.

And she was, in a way. There was an air of violence around her, but just as much suffering.

Taehyung sensed every lie she told, and yet every time he looked at her, she shined with genuineness. She was shifty and suspicious, and yet every fibre of his being told him he could trust her. He’s never before met such an interesting contradiction.

He understood, of course he did, why his hyungs were so worried about everything, but he knew this human woman was right for Jungkook the moment he sensed her bleeding weeping heart breaking after the ceremony with her father.

And when he looked to the young dragon, he knew that Kookie felt the same way. And Jinnie was beginning to grasp it too.

Taehyung spent several days in fear before he met her for the first time. Everyone around him was so shaken, and their turbulent emotions pressed in on him in a way that suffocated him until he choked on the thick rivulets of their dread. During that time he tried consulting the Moon several times, but no visions of her future came to him, and that only spiralled him further.

When She refused him guidance, that’s how Taehyung knew something serious was unfolding right before his eyes. His Wol had humour like that, always gently tugging him along a trail of breadcrumbs but never revealing too much. She liked to see him try.

Taehyung had come to see it as having to prove himself worthy of his gifts – after all, she did bless him with magick heavy and dangerous. It was of utmost importance that he kept his sight clear.

And the first time he did see her, it truly was like everything in his inner eye cleared up. The human that everyone feared – a scared girl with a shining heart. No, there wasn’t a reason for the way Hobi hyung’s chest burned with acidic worry, or the way nauseating disgust rolled off of Yoongi hyung.

Minnie came to him four nights in a row, asking whether he’d already seen something, but then he stopped.

Taehyung didn’t tell him that his first vision came in during the night Jungkook spent with his heart quivering sitting next to an unconscious Y/N in the infirmary, and he woke up with such clarity he saw Hobi hyung watching him with a suspicious gaze for the rest of the day.

She would do something glorious, and the Moon wanted him to trust her.

Namjoon sat down in the study with a heavy sigh, looking at the table buried under mountains of papers, scrolls and old books and wanting nothing more than to bash his head right into it. Yoongi-hyung slinked into the room behind him, but so far the older dragon kept his silence, eyes hazy and far-away.

They ended up sitting there in gloomy silence until Jin-hyung walked in, hands all wrinkly from water, but expression surprisingly relaxed.

“It was Kookie who told her about tiichir, the poor cub was so excited about it he talked her into it,” he said immediately as the door shut behind him and leant against one of the sturdy bookcases.

The two other occupants pursed their lips, but the budding storm died off in their bloodstreams. Namjoon smelled the way Yoongi’s scent evened out, the electric tang dissipating from the room and making it easier to breathe in.

Jungkook had spoken to him just an half hour ago, running after him straight off the dinner table with pride puffing up his chest. Namjoon knew how important it was for the dragon to have a bond with all the proper proceedings, he always hung off of their every word when they spoke of how things used to work before the empire, but he wasn’t sure this was the right person to realise his fantasies with. He just wished the young man was a bit more careful and a bit less trusting.

Namjoon’s protective instincts were flaring up almost constantly these past few days which always left him on edge, pushing him to collect his youngest and pull him away from his foolishness, but the fire dragon himself was quite flabbergasted with Kookie’s behaviour.

Yes, he was someone that approached world and people with the same indiscriminate way of thought. He was friendly, sometimes a little too much. He wanted to trust the best in people, and tended to get a little naïve with certain dragons and young knights. But he’s never been foolish.

Jungkook was the one dragon in the thunder that rivalled Yoongi-hyung’s protectiveness and possessiveness. Those two could get kind of intense when triggered, and they had troubles letting anyone closer to their mates. Jungkook was fiercely competitive, and protected his hoard with almost crazed devotion. He once even bit Taehyung’s leg until it was bleeding because the red dragon thought it would be funny to mess with his gems.

So Namjoon just couldn’t comprehend how he could be so blindly chasing after this bond, completely unquestioningly assimilating this person into their midst and being so happy and satisfied about it. It just didn’t make sense for him.

He caught him almost scenting her outside the emperor’s lounge. That was no light matter.

The dragon sighed again, and this time he did lay his head down forehead first on the hard surface of the dark wood. Yoongi was still eerily quiet, but his heart spoke for him where it wreaked havoc in Namjoon’s own chest.

“The emperor wants us to train her,” Namjoon ended up mumbling. The dark-haired dragon’s head suddenly snapped towards him, as if those were the magic words to bring him out of his stupor.

“What do you mean? Isn’t the Academy there to do that?” Jin-hyung’s remark cut through the stagnant air, “All those teachers and generals there.” The pink-haired man scoffed and leaned back into the furniture.

“She is to attend general classes, but he wants the brunt of her training to be our responsibility,” the thunder leader reiterated, repeating the words he heard earlier that evening from the sovereign himself.

“Why in the hell is he isolating her with us so much?” Yoongi’s question was a valid one, but unfortunately Namjoon didn’t have an answer for it – even though he had an inkling. He only knew that the man was invested in her Qing Long career, and he’d be monitoring their lives very closely.

“Control,” Seokjin ended up biting out bitterly, “It’s about control. We can’t do anything if there’s a human attached to our every step, telling him everything we do.” And yes, Namjoon has been going towards that conclusion too.

“It’s most likely,” the fire dragon admitted, “We have to be very careful about what we do and say from now on. At least where she can see or hear.” Yoongi sighed, but as resigned as the sound was, Namjoon still could see the way his fingers jerked and cramped with barely concealed fury.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Jin-hyung muttered, as if that was supposed to help them calm down, “you know Kangdae has been very snippy lately about us not being monitored enough with the lack of riders in our thunder.” Namjoon looked to his oldest hyung and felt his heart thaw a little. Contrary to what the maknaes believed, he wasn’t fearless – in actuality he was afraid of most of everything, but it always was the light dragon that stood by his side and supported him when he needed it the most. He was no one without his Jin-hyung, and he’d gladly spend the rest of eternity loving the dragon.

But now, here in this room, none of them looked too happy about the circumstances (though nothing could rival the fury in the black-haired dragon’s eyes).

Jin-hyung, on the other hand, seemed to be almost a little too serene. Namjoon knew that concentrated look on his face. There was something brewing in him, something he knew he’d have to wait for the older dragon to share on his own terms.

But he noticed how inclined he seemed to be towards the human now. Same as Taehyung, who seemed to just accept everything that was happening and took it in stride almost terrifyingly easily.

Their safety lay on Namjoon’s shoulders – and he’d tear himself apart to make sure they stayed out of harm's way.

“Well,” finally Yoongi spoke, voice level but strained, “Nothing left for us but to play along. For now. When the opportunity strikes, if it’s necessary – I’ll deal with her.”

Series masterlist | Previous Part | Next part

Taglist pt. 1 (open): @stxrrielle @hobicakess @comicnerd557 @11thenightwemet11 @socksfirst1

@dachshunddame @channiespup @danielle143 @borahaetelevision @kingofbodyrolls

@jungshaking @futuristicenemychaos @ah2002 @tadomikiku @ambsv

@silscintilla @anaspectoflife @shakespeare-in-the-park7 @uniquecutie-puffs @starlight-1010

@authorpj @anjoellamorte @ami7-12bts @foreverddaeng @silscintilla

@canarystwin @ldysmfrst @nikkiordonez12 @mysteriousgeminizone @i-like-puppy-mg

@ttttt1re @xthefuckerysquaredx @crispynutella @asillyduck15 @icouldntcareless22

309 notes · View notes

overtail · 1 year ago

Text

Late Night Brew - Zuko x Reader 🔞

🔥🛀🏻

Jesus, yall are FREAKS for zuko

Summary: After Iroh opens the Jasmine Dragon, he hires a new worker -- a pretty girl, one around Zuko's age. While Iroh is taking a trip to the market for more supplies after work, desperation unfolds.

Trigger Warning: NSFW, Soft Sex, Cussing, Semi-public Sex, Body Worship, and Zuko acting like an awkward turtle duck.

Micheal, I know ur reading this

...

Zuko didn't like the new waitress.

She didn't do anything in particular to get on his bad side, he just couldn't stand her.

He hated how she looked in her apron, how the skirt she wore rode up a little too high on her thighs.

He hated how her hip popped when she was standing still while taking orders.

He hated all her curves, her moles, and her messy hair; how it all made her so beautiful.

And he especially hated that at night, when he laid in bed in that cold apartment, how he couldn't get her face out of his mind. How the image of her body echoed in his head while he reached his hands into his pants.

He wanted her gone.

"Lee, could you help me with the tables?"

Zuko wiped the counters of the bar, groaning at the sound of her voice. He turned around, only to see her back to him.

He watched as her arm worked on a stained table, trying to get a mark from condensation out.

"Can't you just do it yourself?"

He grumbled, shaking his head and turning back around. It's not like he had much to do -- he just didn't want to work so close to her.

"I've got one table left and my shift ends in two minutes. I'd rather not work unpaid overtime."

He heard her say. Even with Zuko's rude attitude, she still had a soft tone with him; she spoke to him like he was a fussy toddler.

Which he sort of was.

Zuko grumbled a few curses under his breath, grabbing the hand towel he was just using to walk over to one of the tables.

He looked at (Y/N), looking at her thighs and her hips. His face flushing red, turning and brushing back his short black hair.

The table he had to clean wasn't the dirtiest. It had a single cup on it, and a few spills here and there. He wanted to get away as soon as possible, so he could just go home and relax.

Well, his version of relaxing.

He palmed his growing erection through his pants, trying to subside it for at least the remaining two minutes.

"Thank you, Lee."

Zuko heard the smile from her voice, face growing red at her kindness. Even if it wasn't his real name, he felt giddy at the way she said Lee.

All he did was nod, grabbing the cup and wiping off the tea from the table. He marched to the sink in the back room. Zuko grabbed the sponge that sat on the wooden counter, already full with soap. He began to scrub, getting the smell of Jasmine tea out from the cup -- even if it was his favorite.

As he did so, (Y/N)'s soft footsteps were sounded from behind him. He let out an exasperated groan, not wanting to stand next to her.

(Y/N) walked up quiet, placing three cups in the sink. One stayed in her hand, grabbing the other. sponge and pouring some soap in the glass.

There was an awkward silence between the two -- at least on his end.

As she was cleaning, her elbow bumped into his side. He didn't say anything, just kept cleaning the cup. The second time though, it started to bother him. And when the third time hit, he was set off.

"Can you stop doing that?"

He yelled, looking at her with angry eyes. She looked up with her mouth still agape, her eyes meeting with him amber ones.

"Oh, I'm sorry. There's just not much space back here.."

Her face flushed red with embarrassment. Zuko rolled his eyes.

"I already don't want to be back here with you, let alone have to be touched by you."

(Y/N)'s eyes widened, eyebrows lifting quickly. She pursed her lips.

"What is your problem Lee? All i've done is try to be friends with you -- and you just treat me like garbage!"

Her voice was raised, and she poked his chest with her thin fingers. She was kind of cute when she was mad; the way her nose scrunched made his stomach flutter.

"Have you considered the fact that i don't want to be friends with the likes of you?"

He bickered, peering his eyes down to her. She gasped slightly, shoulders raising in surprise.

"With the likes of me? What do you mean the likes of me?"

She stepped even closer to him, their chests almost touching.

Zuko scoffed at her words, rolling his eyes.

"I don't associate with peasants."

And his heart stopped.

(Y/N) was from the lower ring of Ba Sing Se. His uncle Iroh had hired her while he watched her get fired from her other job, feeling bad for her.

Zuko didn't mean peasant in that way. He was just thinking like the old Zuko -- the one that hunted the avatar and did anything to regain his honor back. But he was supposed to be Lee now, a traveler, a teenage boy that works in a tea shop, who just happened to be lucky enough to live in a nice apartment.

"Peasant?"

Her words sounded broken. Her voice cracked as she muttered the words, lower than the loud voice she was using before.

"I get you're from the upper ring -- but peasant? Really?"

She shook her head, stepping back. Zuko felt like he was floating away from the lack of closeness from her.

"That's not what i meant."

Zuko said, closing his eyes and sighing.

"It's just -- i have issues."

He never liked admitting he had problems. He was supposed to be Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, prissy and perfect.

"Yeah, you do."

(Y/N) said, looking Zuko up and down. Her eyes winded slightly, cheeks growing even redder than before.

Zuko raised a brow, confused at what she was looking at. He looked down and then realized.

"Wait, it's not what it looks like-"

"Is this.."

She began, looking back up at him.

"..turning you on?"

She said curiously, turning her head.

(Y/N) stepped forward, her hands lying on her hips. She was about the same height as Zuko -- since he was significantly short.

"Is that why you're so mean to me?"

She placed her hand on his chest, causing Zuko to take a deep breath in.

Oh Spirits.

"Because you like me?"

They were too close. Way too close. He was getting harder by the second, not knowing what to do.

So he did the only thing that came to mind.

He reached his hands forward, grabbing her face in his hands. He pulled her forward, placing his chapped lips tenderly on hers. He stayed still for a moment, never having kissed a girl before.

He leaned back awkwardly, still holding her face in his hands.

His index finger brushed a hair from her cheek, tucking it behind her ear.

(Y/N) had never been this close to him before. She was able to admire his face entirely as he focused on the strand of hair, looking at his scar and the light freckles that dotted his pale skin. He had bags under his eyes, and she wondered what caused it.

"You're pretty."

She said, grabbing his face with one hand. He flinched lightly, eyes flickering back to her. He wasn't used to such a touch -- not feeling it since he last saw his mother.

Zuko leaned into it, letting her fingers form around the shape of his jaw. His eye lashed flickered as he blinked, and she admired the entirety of him.

"Thanks.. you too."

He said, not knowing how to respond. He didn't ever get compliments.

"You know, you could have just told me that you liked me."

(Y/N) laughed, causing Zuko to look away.

"I don't like you."

He grumbled, looking at the wall above the sink.

She laughed, turning his head with her palm to look at her. She used her other hand to place it on his crotch, grinning wildly,

"What's this then?"

Zuko looked down, feeling a rush of ecstasy flow through his body. He whimpered softly, his eyes closing from it.

"That's enough to tell me you like me."

...

In the next minute, Zuko's lips were on her neck. She was on the counter next to the sink, legs wrapped around Zuko's torso, Her hand was tangled in his short hair, the other gripping the edge of the counter,

Zuko was holding her waist, his right hand gripping the fat of her thigh. He loved being this close, the agility to breath her in making him feel incredibly hot.

"Lee, I love this as much as you do, but we need to start quickly before Mushi gets back."

Zuko groaned against her neck, removing his lips from her soft skin. He was reluctant, but she was right. Regrettably.

"Yeah, right."

He stepped back, beginning to unbuckle the belt that held up his pants. He look up suddenly, face growing hot,

"Could you uhm, close your eyes,,"

He muttered shyly, getting a smile out of (Y/N). She nodded, closing her eyes. Zuko fully took his pants off, now sliding his boxers from his waist. He was practically in pain from all this, and he needed relief soon. He walked closer, close enough that his member hid under the lip of her skirt. She took this as an okay, opening her eyes only to be met with Zuko's amber ones,

She reached down, pulling her underwear to the side, The cold night air hit her exposed parts, making her shiver.

"Okay. I'm ready, Lee."

Zuko placed one hand on the base of him, lining himself up with (Y/N). She scrunched her eyes at the feeling of his tip entering her, toes curling in her sandals, Zuko then grabbed her hips, looking up at her.

Then he bucked his hips forward.

"Shit!"

(Y/N) squealed, squeazing Zuko's tense shoulders. He groaned, one of his eyes closing shut. She felt so good -- better than he could ever have imagined. The nights he spent awake, whimpering her name as his hand rubbed his length up and down, imaging her bent over the tables of the tes shop, in his bed, and even in the back room.

He fully slid in, letting out a mix of illegible words. All that (Y/N) could make out was her name.

He pulled out before pushing back in again. She moaned, throwing her head back. zzuko got a good look at her neck, the hockey's that he had placed only minutes before.

Soon, they were at a regular place. Out, in. Out, in. The room was filled with soft groans, and Zuko could already feel his arrival coming. It was all too much. His eyes were currently chained to her crotch, watching himself slide in and out. He then looked up, making eye contact with (Y/N).

"Lee.."

She said in an airy voice, palm grazing his clenched jaw. That's what did it for him, the sight of her unraveling beneath him. Ropes of white shot out of him, painting the inside of her white. He kept pounding into her, riding out his orgasm.

...

lwk lost my motivation at the end......

#avatar the last airbender #fandom #fanfic #fluff #smut #zuko #prince zuko #zuko x reader

714 notes · View notes

mrsrookhunt · 2 years ago

Text

What To Expect When Your Lab Experiment Drinks Formula| PT. 3

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Rook Hunt (Part 1)

Part three by popular demand! Malleus, Rook, Floyd, Sebek, Lilia, and Azul with feisty toddlers.

Warnings: angry toddlers, exhausted parents

Note: Every character has more than one child now with the exception of Azul.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Malleus Draconia

The new princes and princesses of Briar Valley are Tiny Little MenacesTM.

You are Malleus are dealing with two wild toddlers, and one extremely fire-loving baby. Fire-loving, as in, the entire room has had to be fully fire proofed, from the walls to the ceiling.

The other children love being outside and playing, which gets them out of your hair while you attempt to feed and care for baby #3, oven mitts and fire-proof gear on.

The only one that your baby won't lease a barrage of firey giggles onto is Great-Grandma Maleficia, who can pick up the child without worry, a blessing in disguise to poor you and Malleus.

Whenever you aren't trying to wrangle the littlest Draconia heir, you and Malleus' time is filled by playing with rambunctious dragon toddlers. Your oldest is still as mischievous as ever, now taking off in full distance flights with your lunch everytime you turn around, and your younger toddler requiring immense amounts of attention.

All three have been deemed the 'wildest children the Draconia bloodline has ever seen', which says a lot. You hope they grow out of it, but the little ones seem stubbornly wild, with no chance of changing anytime soon.

Long training flights with Malleus often leave you watching the skies for their return at dinner time. It's not the life you imagined. But it's the life you never expect that's the one that satisfies you.

Rook Hunt

"HEYYYYYY!!!! PAPAAAA! LOOK WHAT I CAUGHT!" It's always a peaceful evening when the children are outside, until it's not.

Your 3 year old has been regularly running in with things you don't even know how they've caught as a toddler with no weapons.

Today, it's a bird bigger than your toddler's tiny body.

Rook has been diligently teaching your children how to hunt since they could walk, taking them for small hunting trips and shooting targets with children's play-bows.

Only two of your five children are too young to hunt, in his eyes, and even then you have not escaped their sharp, predatory gaze, which has been present since birth. You have no doubts that all of your children will be hunters. It's definitely a given, and as you've seen from Rook's family, seems to run in their blood.

The toddlers go outside and play on your patio every evening when the heat cools down, allowing you and Rook to have some peace and quiet. Rook is very enamored with the family you've created together. He always dreamed of finding beauty in his future, but never knew it would be so soon, and in the form of a domestic life with a spouse and children.

You and Rook are happy with this life you've created, enjoying the ups and downs of parenthood, the thrills of hunting with your whole family, the cuddly movie nights and soft words exchanged between you and your kids every night before bed.

It's a perfect life, one you never expected get, and never to love as much as you do.

Floyd Leech

It's been challenging for Floyd to be away from the sea for so long. You both agreed that it would be easier and more comfortable to live on land for the sake of your family, but it's definitely been a source of tension. Floyd and the children both go out to sea often as a compromise, leaving you all alone with the family pets and the occasional guest.

When they're home, you all spend hours together playing and loving on each other. All seven of your little ones have grown accustomed to Floyd, and have shifted their little spats of dominance to between each other.

It's true, it's practically a full-time job to keep them all from fighting. The youngest ones are the most ruthless, attacking their siblings and destroying their surroundings entirely as they cry and whine, throwing little catty hands at each other as 'fights'. It seems to do more emotional damage than physical.

Then again, are your surroundings ever not destroyed by the 7 restless children? They're so obscenely playful that they make sure that your life is challenging to say the least. Sometimes you're glad for the break you get when they go for day-long dives under the sea. They're probably making some tornadic-like mess of Jade's home, but that's not the end of the world for you.

Your relationship with Floyd is nothing short of magical. There's still as much love there as there was when you started dating, if not more. Your family has its odd little quirks, but what matters is that you're all together, happy and proud of the life you've created. You are especially thrilled that you made your own life work in a world that wasn't even yours. You've made it your home now, and you could never feel more content than you do now.

Sebek Zigvolt

Sebek has grown to love his children very much. After your first began to love on him as often as you, he fell completely into the role of a family man. All three of your children love Sebek immensely, having grown fond of him after he let down his guard around them.

Your littlest one is the perfect carbon copy of Sebek, even at 15 months old. Not only does this child seem to possess no personality traits or features of yours, this little one's very first word was 'Mallie'. Sebek could not be prouder, and more eager to train his children in the path of a royal retainer afterwards.

Your oldest is still the wildest little mini croc you've ever seen. Nothing in the parenting books could have prepared you for your child's defiance and strong will. The other two, though relatively calmer children, seem to eagerly egg on your oldest with nonsense excited baby babble.

Now that your oldest's teeth have grown in fully, Sebek has to watch his limbs carefully. His family is known for their bite power, and this child is no exception by a long shot, seeming to have a stronger bite than even Sebek himself. Though your toddler does love Sebek dearly, they haven't learned that biting isn't a game. And after biting clean through a leg of furniture last month, Sebek has been terrified ever since.

The younger two don't use their teeth to bite people, but toys and furniture are a free-for-all.

Your children are very adept and skilled at squirming out of any situation, physically and verbally. You think to yourself that they will in fact make wonderful guards some day, but you don't ever tell Sebek that for fear that he'll make the poor things train even harder to please both of their parents.

You and Sebek end up on the floor, playing games with your very imaginative children quite often, cuddling and laughing with each other while they all pretend to be royal knights and sometimes, doctors. Sebek won't say it but he thinks his oldest would make a very good doctor and he approves.

You've never been happier, and never more in love with Sebek, as is he, you. It's a perfect fairytale world for the two of you. Who knew that Twisted Wonderland would end up becoming where you were always meant to be?

Lilia Vanrouge

C H A O S.

There's twelve little Vanrouges running around, acting absolutely chaotic and mischievous at all times. Poor you and Lilia. Twelve children under four sounds cute but it's an absolute nightmare, especially when they have the lineage of a certain silly fae.

It's manageable, but only because Silver is there suffering with y'all. And barely. Sometimes you think he's about to run out of the house and cry after some unwitting action that led to a vicious prank from one or more children.

Last week, they cornered him from all sides with sticks while you and Lilia were out, and the oldest threatened to poke him in the eyes.

Some mischief, lots pure evil.

It's only you that can scoop them up and tell them to behave, because they are absolutely remorseless in their merciless bullying of their father. Most of them don't even call him dad. They call him 'oldie'. The ones that are too young to talk still laugh at him.

Lilia doesn't mind too much, scolding them for their rudeness, but rarely punishing them. He claims he's too old to be properly disciplining them, but it's quite obvious that he's reminiscent of himself in these children.

During the good moments, you might be able to convince the children to at least make a father's day card, or get them to agree not to prank Silver on his birthday. Usually this is still done with bribery. But sometimes, the sweetest moments are unprompted. Like the time your daughter sat on Lilia's lap and gave him a hug after he watched a scary movie, because 'Daddy might have nightmares.'

Your family is wholly complete Silver hopes and prays. You and Lilia are happy, and content. Lilia is still overjoyed that he got the chance to have biological children, and you're just happy that you've found a place to settle down in Twisted Wonderland, and be happy.

Azul Ashengrotto

You only have one child still? Yeah. He loves your child dearly, but after much consideration and a lot of diapers changed, you decided one was for the best.

Your baby is three now 'Three n' a HALF', your child insists.

Your little one is pretty well-behaved. Despite being a spoiled only child, little Ashengrotto is very humble, kind, and sweet.

Definitely not like their money hungry father. This child just wants animal crackers and time at the swimming pool.

But your child is sharp-witted, just like Azul. There have been many times when you've said something to your toddler and had it immediately debunked with a smug look on their face.

It makes you laugh. And cry, a little bit. Time flies, and your child seems to mentally age two years for the physical price of one.

Your little one reminds you with a smile and crumb-littered cheeks and askew purple octopus glasses that they're still young, and always here for you. You are enthralled with your life with Azul and your baby, a real true blessing. This was how it was always meant to be, even if it wasn't how you ever thought your life would go.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Unless I write a part 4 by request this is probably the end of the series, but I really loved it! Thank you for coming along!! As always, feel free to request for more.

-Kaori

-July 13th, 2023

@growingupnrealizing , here it is!

1K notes · View notes

charlie-the-ghost64 · 10 months ago

Text

I love Dr.Mario. He’s great. But, I had an idea for another au- details for it are below the cut :]

Main story

Mario and Luigi live together in a separate apartment from their family. They’d originally been working together at the wrecking company when Mario had finally been convinced by Luigi to go to school for his dream job- being a doctor.

Luigi stayed on at the wrecking company, insisting at least one of the two needed a full time job. Mario, not wanting his little brother to miss out on the chance of getting his own dream job, promised Luigi they’d get him into college after he started working. Luigi never got to take him up on that offer, though he wasn’t too sure what he’d chose to study in the first place.

The first year of med school, Mario kept trying to work part time with Luigi. But, this turned out to be a very rough decision. He was struggling to balance work with his classes, not to mention how much he needed to study. It didn’t take long for Luigi to notice his brother struggling, so, Luigi had him quit. Luigi promised his big brother he’d handle the money, he’d just take an extra shift every now and then (almost four times a week).

Luigi takes a lot of night shifts on-top of his already heavy workload in the day. Due to this, he wears a knee brace (bad knees) while at work. Spike is absolutely awful to him. He’d been bad before, but without Mario to give him confidence, he’s quickly become the laughing stock of the team. He’s forced to do any job no one else wants. He’d have quit by now if he could find a job that wouldn’t be a pay cut.

Mario would often use Luigi as a practice dummy or study partner. Study groups are nice, but Mario always got too distracted by wanting to get to know everyone and didn’t have enough time to actually work. Luigi meanwhile is more than happy to help, spite both of them being partially asleep during it. Luigi usually is the one to fall asleep first.

One night the two had been together in the car when Luigi got called in to go check out some strange house. Mario was partially convinced it was a prank, but agreed to stay in the car and wait for his little brother. He ended up going down into the basement himself after the thirty minute mark.

This is where the two (Luigi first, then Mario) had found the warp pipe. He went in, Mushroom Kingdom, scary dragon-turtle-koopa thing, talking mushrooms, ect ect. Since he was fascinated by the world, and cost of living was so much better, the two soon move there.

They do occasionally visit their family, though they try to avoid the subject of their new place. Neither was sure how their parents would react to it. Mario did end up graduating to be a doctor, just for the species they thought. He works in a hospital in the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi’s content being a plumber, but, he did like working with his and his big brother’s karts. Maybe he would look into it someday.

Princess Peach

Both brothers know and care for the princess. Mario’s primary interactions with her include..well, being her primary care doctor.

They’ll do a small bit of catching up during those appointments. And by that, I mean Peach takes complete advantage of being in the presence of someone who isn’t in her court and she can trust not to spread to all corners of The Mushroom Kingdom. Mario mainly just nods his head as he handled the routine things, but he did give his opinions when asked. She liked having his outside perspective. Sometimes she’d have him come to the palace just to talk, spite Mario having told her before that he had sick patients to tend to while on the clock. So instead, he got invited over during his off days. He’d given up on being professional awhile ago.

You could imagine her shock when she discovered her favorite doctor had a brother. She’d insisted the two join her for dinner, having been very curious to know what the brother of what a quiet and calming man would be like. During the dinner, the two hit it off very well after discovering they’d been reading the same books.

Dinners quickly became a weekly event, Mario primarily just enjoying listening to the two discuss random books he’d never read.

Random

Luigi and Mario had met Daisy after living in the Mushroom Kingdom for about a year. Luigi and Daisy’s first conversation had been about sports. More specifically tennis. Luigi had been very nervous when she’d practically demanded to play him so she could give him a challenge. One accidental tennis ball to the face later, the two became good friends.

Both Mario and Luigi are fluent in Italian and often speak it when just talking to the other person. Occasionally one will forget to switch back to English for the rest of the group.

Mario likes to cook breakfast for himself and Luigi when he has a morning shift. He considered it a relaxing way to start the day. Luigi will usually jokingly ask if his start has to involve a full load of dishes.

Luigi continues to wear a knee brace even after he finally quit working for Spike. His knees just never recovered from all the pressure they’d been under. Luckily, he had a good pain tolerance.

Mario tends to be more quiet than others off the clock. He’ll speak if he has to, but he prefers to just sit and listen instead of being the one to talk someone’s head off. If someone (primarily Peach and Luigi) wants to ramble or rant for hours on end? He’ll more than happily be sitting across from them with a soft smile, nodding along as he sipped on some coffee.

Mario has absolutely no fashion sense. Mixing and matching patterns that have no right being together is his favorite. Not exactly because of how he looked, he didn’t really care about that, but because of the way his little brother and Peach would cringe at the sight of him. Peach has amazing fashion sense, of course. Primarily wearing gorgeous dresses that were occasionally her own ideas.

Luigi’s a good middle ground for the two. Sometimes his outfits are questionable, sometimes they’re more fashionable like Peach. He’s fully aware of the fact that sometimes his outfits just aren’t great. He tends to ask Peach for help in that regard once the two had gotten comfortable enough with each other. Surely if she can make her own dresses she can tell him not to overlap patterns.

Mario tends to hang out with Toad when Peach didn’t need him to vent to. The two like going on hikes in the woods together. Mario thought it was refreshing to get outside and exercise, Toad found it fun to adventure into the wilderness.

That’s all! Thank you for reading down to this point! I hope you enjoyed! If you have any suggestions for how to improve my writing or formatting I’d greatly appreciate it!!

149 notes · View notes

undertheorangetree · 2 years ago

Text

The Last of the Dragons

Chapter Five- The Agreement

Summary- Even days have culminated to this moment.

Warnings- MDNI 18+ NSFW. Female Reader. Incest. Pregnancy (we all knew this was coming). Treason. Mention of murder/poisoning. OOC Aemond cuz he’s experiencing joy. Titty sucking. Soft smut.

Author’s Note- and that’s that on that! I genuinely cannot believe how well received this was, I honestly thought I was gonna be writing this entirely for me and didn’t think people would respond to it the way they did. I’m so so glad you all loved it and hopefully that love continues with the final chapter. Full chapter linked below🥰

Morning lets out a curious sound as she follows the reflection of the compact. Her head tilts, the scratch of her claws echoing through the room as she turns them in before she's pouncing on the sunspot, attempting to trap it underfoot. Baela laughs as she shifts her hand, sending the light further into the room, Morning skittering across the flagstones in order to chase it and pulling a laugh from her as well.

Rhaena does not share in their glee, letting out a heavy sigh as she makes her way across the room. "You're so mean to her, you shouldn't tease."

"We're playing," Baela defends, but Rhaena picks Morning up all the same, the young dragon settling into her arms almost immediately. She curls into the warmth of Rhaena's chest, stretching out long where she is cradled, tail falling limp over her arm.

"You'll be lucky if she doesn't bite you," she laughs, making her way over to Rhaena and running her fingers across the pink scales on Morning’s snout.

The little dragon makes a purring noise, pushing up against her fingers and she can't contain her smile. She had never seen Silverwing as a hatchling, claiming her on Dragonstone soon after her family arrived, but she can't deny how sweet Morning is, more akin to a cat than a dragon. Vermax had never been that way, Arrax kinder but capable of the same prickly nature. Tyraxes and Stormcloud seemed closer to Morning than the latter two were but none seemed sweeter than her. Though sweet as she may be, she is still a dragon, capable of violence at any given moment. Particularly if Baela continued to goad her.

Baela looks at her in mock offense, closing the compact pointedly before making her way toward them. "She would never. Far too sweet for such cruelty, aren't you, my love?"

She puts her face far too close to Morning's and though she braces herself to watch her sister lose a chunk of her nose, Baela pulls away before anything can happen, simply rubbing the tip of her nose against Morning’s. There is a degree of longing in her eyes as she backs away and immediately she knows Baela is missing Moondancer. Their bond had been special and the loss had hit her hard, especially when coupled with all the horror that followed, the chains Aegon forced her into, and she feels her heart break for her sister.

"Perhaps we can go riding soon," she offers, coming up to take hold of Baela's elbow. "Silverwing is big enough for two. We can ride however you'd like."

Baela smiles, the corners tinged with sadness, and brings up her hand to take her own, squeezing once. "I would like that."

"And perhaps Morning will join us as well once she's big enough to saddle," she adds, turning back to Rhaena.

Her second sister grins brightly, a laugh escaping her as Morning scrambles up her arm to lounge across her shoulders like a mink fur. She nearly blends into Rhaena's gown, the two pinks far too similar a colour to be pure coincidence, and Baela reaches out a hand to pull their sister closer.

It is moments like this that she has missed the most, moments where the three of them are alone, where they can act as they did as children. There was a brief period, the two years they spent together on Dragonstone before Baela was sent to Driftmark to ward, where they had days just like this. The three of them, joined together at the hip solely because they were girls of the same age. The same septa, the same maester, together always. On occasion, she had found herself missing Helaena, wishing that the four of them had been given the chance to be girls together, wishing that this familial rivalry did not exist. But the night on Driftmark had sealed that fate behind a metal grate forever and Helaena's marriage to Aegon had confirmed it further.

There was to be no shared girlhood for them. Not in this lifetime.

The door to her chambers opens then, pulling her from her thoughts and revealing their grandsire. He stands in the threshold for a moment to take them in, all three chained together by clasped hands, and smiles widely. It makes her stomach drop. "Are we to spend the morning together then?"

"Unfortunately not," she says, face scrunched in sympathy before turning to her sisters. "Would you both give us a moment alone? Council matter, I'm afraid."

"Of course, lovely," Baela assures her. Though there is a clear suspicion there, she still presses a kiss to her cheek all the same.

Rhaena is nodding as well, raising Morning in her arms. "We should find something for this beast to eat before she attempts to devour a few ravens in the rookery."

They say their goodbyes, each pressing a kiss to Corlys's cheek, and she feels her heart clench the moment the door closes behind them, leaving her alone with their grandsire. Corlys looks over at her and smiles, enough to make her guilt feel all consuming before she gestures to her dining table. He takes a seat while she begins rifling through her letter chest, searching for the right seal before pulling it out and joining him at the table.

Read the rest here :)

Taglist- @ammo23 @bellstwd @kckt88 @aemondsbabygirl @shygardengalaxy @duds31 @at-a-rax-ia @ladymarg0t @queenofshinigamis @drakar-i @cl-0-vr @castellomargot @moonlightfoxx @ladybug0095 @marihoneywk @the-common-cowgirl @darylandbethfanforever9 @bunny24sstuff @helaenaluvr @toodlesxcuddles @eternally-passionate @herfantasyworldd @ashovertheriver @hypocritic-trash-baby @heavenly1927 @bunbunbl0gs @divxnee @seabasscevans @madislayyy @jessssica1234 @humanpurposes @strangersunghoon

#Aemond targaryen x reader #Aemond x reader #Aemond targaryen x you #Aemond x you #Aemond targaryen x fem!reader #aemond x fem!reader #Aemond targaryen x niece #aemond x niece!reader #Aemond targaryen smut #Aemond smut #aemond targaryen #hotd #hotd fanfic #hotd x reader #hotd smut #house of the dragon #house of the dragon fanfic #house of the dragon smut

552 notes · View notes

lohotine · 1 year ago

Text

Longan Dragon x Reader

Oneshot

Synopsis: You braid their hair

Warning: Some angst

Being as strong as the Ivory Dragon is, it makes perfect sense that they can have whatever they want. Riches, power, knowledge. Anything really.

And yet, for someone as powerful as they were, the current moment confused them. They were being reduced to that of some mannequin in which you braided thier hair.

"I don't see how this is necessary.." they mumbled, staring off into the distance.

"It's not-" you began, "but it's nice. Right?"

"I suppose."

Time slowly went by, and the once blue skies shifted into an orange and pink. A cool evening breeze swept through the land.

"I'm done," you chimed.

They couldn't see it in the moment, but they knew the braid was nice. Anything you did always turned out that way.

"Thank you," they said, turning their body to face you. The faintest of blush dashing their face.

You smiled at them before laughing and lying down in their lap while covering your face with your arm.

"Why are you laughing?" they questioned, their gaze slowly falling to the ground nearby.

"Sorry sorry-" you took a breath. "I'm just so happy right now." You uncovered your eyes to look at them.

"Did braiding my hair really make you so happy?" They asked.

"Not just that. It's just... you look so relaxed now. You're usually so put together and I'm just glad to see you let loose for once."

Longan had a realization here. A realization that they yearned for you more than they should. They thought they could never come to love anyone. Yet here you were proving them wrong. You and your foolish smile. You and your loud voice. You and your nurturing touch.

A silence followed shortly after that. Not one of the awkward ones that made everything feel heavy. It was a comfortable one that the two of you basked in for a while.

Then you were struck with an idea.

It was very apparent in your expression.

"Longan, do you remember when we used to walk in those flower fields?"

You both often went there in your free times. You'd look around fondly at all of the wild flowers that Longan had already seen plenty of times before. You looked at those plants as if they were ancient treasures, and each time Longan couldn't help but think about how they could give you real treasures.

"I do," they'd explain, nodding their head.

Your expression softened. "Can we go there now?"

The Ivory Dragon had lived for thousands of years. They feared no one and bowed to no one. Yet now, they just couldn't bring themself to say no.

You twirled happily amoung the flowers, spinning without a care in the world. Then you got dizzy and bumped into Longan.

They couldn't help but admire you.

The way the golden light bounced off of your figure stunned them, though it hardly showed on their face. Their expression was always so stoic and unchanging.

Yours on the other hand was quite the opposite.

Your smiles always were so bright. Your frowns always so full of melancholy, and your fury was one that could ignite flames. Your emotions were perfectly human in every way.

That's right. Human.

In the end, you were nothing more than mortal; and Longan was forced to remember that in everything that you did.

How loving you would be like betraying their kin.

Yet their body seemed to move on its own as their hand began to cup your face.

Your face seemed to heat up as they gently brushed a strand of hair behind your ear.

It felt so wrong.

But it was so natural as they inched closer to your face.

As they inched closer to the biggest mistake of their life.

They hadn't even had the time to realize it before you closed the space.

You pulled away soon after.

"Sorry. I don't know why I did that." You'd say softly.

Oh. They hadn't kissed back.

Loving you now meant making you their everything.

Loving you now meant losing everything.

Because you were simply mortal, and Longan would live for thousands of years after your death.

But Longan just couldn't help pulling you closer once again for another kiss.

Because you had slowly become much more than their everything.

...

Being as strong as the Ivory Dragon is, it makes perfect sense that they can have whatever they want.

They thought that meant they could have you too.

Yet here they were; sitting on an empty throne with no one to accompany them.

Forced to realize that they had lost you long ago.

#crob #cookie run: ovenbreak #longan x reader #longan dragon x reader #longan dragon cookie x reader #longan dragon cookie #longan dragon x reader crob #longan dragon x reader angst

281 notes · View notes

cryingpariah · 15 days ago

Note

When Dragon, Dadan, and Kuzan were getting close to setting out on their own, Garp taught them something important.

No matter what, no matter where you were, what you were doing, or what time it was, you could call him. Didn’t matter if you were in trouble. Didn’t matter if you were in different time zones. Didn’t matter if the world was falling down around your ears. You could call him.

One Father’s Day, Dragon calls.

Garp can hear the fussing of a baby- a newborn baby at that- over the line.

Despite his kids being scattered to the winds Garp still got the day off.

It was clearly Sengoku’s doing, to ease some of the pain that stung especially hard on days like since Urpi…wasn’t around, Kuzan was off on missions and Dadan had her hands full. He spent it locked in the old house his old man had gotten him way back way, an ill recieved method of trying to make them a military family that only saw use during visits.

He fiddled through dog-eared pages on cards, crumbling macaroni art pieces and slightly lopsided mugs made by loving small hands. He tugged on his tie, one that was deemed too flashy for work (a note he had ignored with gusto, how could he disregard the work the love of his life had created?). Where had the years gone and what the hell was he doing during it all?

A chirping snail cut through these thoughts and Garp couldn’t be more thankful. As much as he did it know, he really hated the wallowing. He reached for the standard issue one he was given only to find it silent. He paused, his hand hovering listlessly in the air before springing into action and finding his snail, the proper one.

The family line.

The receiver at his lips, he watched the snail more into the tell-tale features he could never forget. The expression was on of panic that sent the vice admiral on high alert. What was wrong? Was he hurt? Did he need backup? Did he anger the celestials and were they raining hellfire upon him?!

The den den shifted, its face losing the dark expression and its eyes widening with a giddy wonder. The bubbling sounds of baby babbles and cooing rang out.

“Tayta…I need help.”

An odd sense of calm washed over the older man. A relieved sigh escaped him as he collapsed back into his chair.

“You scared the living daylights out of yer old man! Thought you had gotten yourself killed.”

A dry laugh rung out as the snail morphed again. “Not yet.”

“Good, you better keep it that way.” The scolding felt hollow given Dragon's age but that had never stopped Garp before. “What'd ya need?”

“I can’t tell you here. Can we meet? Back home maybe?”

It’s not like Garp avoided going back, far from really given his recent trips to see Dadan and Ace but back home…as much as he fixed it up, it still just felt like a house now. Still, it would do.

“'Course. Just give me the time.”

“Alright, three days from now. I’m already en route. I know it’s short notice but it’s really important and—.”

“Don’t go jumping to conclusions, I haven’t said anything yet! Three days is fine. I’ll see ya then.”

A sigh of relief on the other line. “Good. Okay. Thank you. I love you.”

“Love ya too kid, even when you’re giving me a heart attack.”

Dragon laughed, it was little lighter this time which Garp took as a decent enough sign he wasn’t too rusty at this whole thing.

“I have to go now, I’ll see you soon.”

“Safe travels brat.”

“Yeah yeah…Tayta?”

“Yeah?”

“..Happy Father's Day.”

The call ended took quickly for Garp to respond to that last statement. He stared at the now sleeping snail for a second before leaning back in his chair, using every ounce of his will to not let the tears fall.

#if Garp had the time you think he would have Dragon with a ‘you too’?#made myself sad with this one OOF #one piece #monkey d dragon #monkey d garp #monkey d luffy #monkey d urpi #curly dadan #portgas d ace

24 notes · View notes

waitlexist · 29 days ago

Note

MY TURNNNNN 😃😃

How does your OC customize Ramshackle, if they do at all? How do they cope with the state it's in when they first arrive?

Is there anyone your OC sees as family?

What chapter does your OC experience the most character growth, if any?

Are there any characters your OC absolutely does not get along with?

Has your OC ever been sent to Crowley's office for their (mis)conduct in class/on school grounds?

What's your OC's best memory since coming to NRC?

Has your OC ever been blackmailed? Or do they do the blackmailing?

Did they know about the plan to make Ramshackle a second Mostro Lounge location? How did they feel about it? If they didn't know, how did they react afterwards?

What's a hidden talent they have?

How competitive is your OC? How easy is it to rile them up?

Have they ever tasted Lilia's cooking. Did. Did they like it?

Do they stim? What are they and what triggers it? How much do they mask?

If they could go back in time and talk to themselves, what age would they want to talk to? What would they say?

Heheheh you can write as much as you want!! Take your time if you need some! And if you don't have any answers for some questions, it's fine!

taking eighteen days to reply to this:

some of these were answered here and here !

- “Are there any characters your OC absolutely does not get along with?”

Luna HATES Leona. Mostly. He reminds her of herself and it makes her upset and she does not want to relive the feeling of being stuck in a position with no control.

Luna does like Rook— but instinctively she is terrified of him— he has a bow? She died to one of those(she had a panic attack when he “delivers” the SDC tryout information…)! So most people mistake that for dislike, but they get along quite well when not speaking face to face!

Otherwise, she has minor dislikes for a few people, but those all fade FAST.

A. Ruggie, but as soon as she learns he’s a street kid too, dislike immediately shifts into respect.

B. Silver, ONLY when he’s being a baby in Book 7(vague for no spoiler reasons+). Like, dude. You won the orphan lottery.

C. THAT FUCKING OCTOPUS THAT I HATE (related video)

D. Ace, but only through prologue, really

E. Ortho— but only because she has no clue what technology is??? WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE HAS NO BONES??? +

- “Has your OC ever been sent to Crowley’s office for their (mis)conduct in class/on school grounds?”

IT WAS ACE’S FAULT NOT HERS +

^ 90% of the reason she gets sent to the office. Other 10% is to fix another overblot +++

- “Has your OC ever been blackmailed? Or do they do the blackmailing?”

A. Nope!

B. NRC/post NRC? Nope! Pre-NRC…? Ahahhhhhhhhh…. Yeah, no, Luna was a bitch in her old world. If she caught any gossip about any noble and found out it was true? She’d blackmail them just to watch them squirm. Money? No, she doesn’t need money, or companionship, or anything, really— just amusement. <- villainess ahh behavior

- “Did they know about the plan to make Ramshackle a second Mostro Lounge location? How did they feel about it? If they didn’t, how did they react afterwards?”

Luna wasn’t friends with/didn’t know Azul at this point, at MOST she MIGHT know Jade from looking into the Mountain Lovers club— so, she had no clue.

Mostly, she’s annoyed— she never would give up Ramshackle if it wasn’t for Adeuce and Grim. Business is business, though, even if it pisses her off, and Luna can respect the hustle. So, basically— she’s most mad at Adeuce and Grim for being dummies!

- “What’s a hidden talent they have?”

OOH THIS IS A HARD ONE… I think beast taming! More so than other fairies in her kind, Luna gets along quite well with animals. As a kid, she used to sneak into the forest and full on Disney princess it— similar to Silver! Although she’s also able to recruit larger animals— baby Luna’s dream was to have a pet owlbear(owl-bear animal hybrid)or catonis(cat-dragon animal hybrid).

Or maybe her magic, since she keeps it secret(or discreet, for better wording) up until Book 4-5ish. But she’s not very good with it up until then, so I wouldn’t count it. As always, she’s good at sewing and gardening, but Luna makes those obvious.

Perhaps masking her emotions? She’s good at pretending to be “normal”.

- “How competitive is your OC? Is it easy to rile them up?”

A. Luna can be very competitive when it comes to friendly sparring, battles of strength, video games!

B. It’s VERY easy to rile her up if you know where to hit. Insult her “exoticness”, sewing skills, fashion choices, or other people. Insulting her close friends or family is a one way ticket to the bottom of her list, and it’s very hard to come back from that.

- “Have they ever tasted Lilia’s cooking? Did. Did they like it?”

It probably doesn’t happen canon wise until post book 7. BUT in events and vignettes and such—

She has eaten Lilia’s cooking! She ate it with a smile.

Once being a starving orphan, Luna won’t complain about food. Food is food. She will eat literal dog food(or worse, in this case).

No, she most certainly didn’t like it, but she won’t complain about free food.

- “Do they stim? What are they and what triggers it? How much do they mask it?”

LUNA IS BASED OFF OF ME SO LITERALLY YES.

She becomes INSUFFERABLE once introduced to pop culture/memes.

“Uhm, excuse me, what the actual fuck?”

“That fucking bird that I hate…”

She represses a lot of them, though! She’s only comfortable really being herself around a select few(and for once, Riddle and Azul are not included— she can’t embarrass herself in front of them when she stims this…)(all of the first years + Idia + Floyd are the ones she feels comfortable enough to do this kind of stuff around! Especially Epel!appleblossom…)

I really hope among us doesn’t exist in Twisted Wonderland because I still giggle when I see a suspiciously shaped trash can

ANGST WARNING!!!

- “If they could go back in time and talk to themselves, what age would they want to talk to? What would they say?”

Any age from 5-14.

“You’re perfect, and I love you. You’re doing so well.”

#luna yaps #twst #twisted wonderland #+ = silly #twst oc #luna ramshackle #ask #twisted wonderland oc #oc #oc x twst #yuusona #twst yuusona

18 notes · View notes

warlocksass · 8 months ago

Text

Kinktober Part Five

There's no way Jade would let Dragon go through his rut alone.

Heads up: NSFW, Explicit sexual content, M/M, Dragon x Human, Monsterfucking, Double Penetration, Breeding, Belly Bump, Teratophilia. Words: 5,474

Read on AO3

All That Glitters Masterpost

Jade entered the den with excitement and nervousness building in his stomach. Usually when he entered the numerous candles would blaze to life so he could see better, this time only about half illuminated the dark space, making it look more dramatic than it was. He felt more than heard Dragon's deep growl rumbling through the room and knew that if he were anyone else he would already be dead.

He kept walking with no fear, carefully putting the bag of supplies he brought with himself halfway to Dragon's bed. Well, nest. The nest was hidden in a cozy alcove that had a massive mattress stretching from wall to wall. Windows on the surrounding walls usually let Jade watch the city below them on lazy days, but tonight the windows would be hidden under heavy curtains.

Jade approached the nest, wanting to get a glimpse of Dragon before things got out of hand. A pair of white glowing eyes were watching him. In the darkness of the room they looked like a couple of stars in the sky.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jade heard Dragon's voice all around him and shivered in anticipation.

"If you think I'm letting you go through your rut alone you're crazy." Another growl rumbled through the space and Jade stopped a few steps before the nest. He felt Dragon's heated gaze run over his naked body - no sense in ruining good clothes - and waited.

"Treasure, I appreciate your care, but you must know I won't be able to control myself soon enough. Even for you, I'm too much like this."

"That's why I came prepared." Jade tossed two empty potion bottles on the bed. "One will make me stretchy and wet, the other will let me heal faster." Another growl made him smirk. "You can't say you would rather spend your rut alone than with me?"

The mattress shifted and Jade got a glimpse of Dragon's dark form shifting in the alcove, moving off the bed. A few more candles lit up and Jade could see him better as Dragon left his nest.

Jade backed off, giving Dragon enough room to get off the bed fully. He bit his lip as he took in the massive form in front of him.

It wasn't the first time Jade saw Dragon's dragon form, but as always it made excitement burst in his chest. He was magnificent. Standing on all fours Dragon towered over him and Jade had to tilt his head up to look into his glowing slitted eyes. Just his head was half the length of Jade's torso, and his horns made it look taller. His sleek form was covered in obsidian scales that Jade knew were smooth as glass and warm to the touch. Jade also knew they had an iridescent sheen to them under certain lighting, looking like nebulous formations in the sky.

Dragon had his wings out, folded over the muscular body, their leather texture hiding the scales underneath. His massive tail shifted with his movements and Jade wondered how Dragon didn't knock anything down as he slowly approached.

Arousal ran through Jade and he heard Dragon snort in amusement, likely smelling it. Jade wasn't embarrassed about it the first time he saw Dragon's full shift, and he wouldn't be embarrassed about it now. If anything, it would encourage Dragon to let him help with his rut.

"Treasure, do you even know what you're offering?" His mouth didn't move as he talked, his voice settling around Jade instead.

He met Dragon's gaze, unafraid. "I know I can be flippant about sex with you, letting you do anything you want. But I swear I thought about it and know what it implies." He tilted his head to the side, exposing his neck. "Mx. Diamante even gave me books and supplied me with those potions. Your personal assistant is scary sometimes."

"That they are." Dragon chuckled and leaned his head closer to Jade. Jade didn't startle or move away and let Dragon smell him, wondering what he could pick up from his scent. He felt Dragon's hot breath ghosting over his chest, down his torso and hips, then back up before it stopped at his neck. Jade let Dragon take his time with this, patient.

It seemed like Dragon found what he wanted because he let out a desperate growl and then a thick tongue was covering Jade's shoulder and licking up his neck, to his chin. Jade shivered and immediately rested his hands on Dragon's massive jaw, feeling the smooth scales merging into deadly spikes there. He shivered and opened his mouth to moan, only for Dragon to immediately lick into his mouth.

All Jade could do was open his mouth and take it as a massive wet tongue was thrust inside it, reaching his throat. He felt Dragon's hot breath on his face as he closed his eyes and leaned into their kiss. Dragon tilted his head, trying to push deeper inside his mouth and Jade felt his sharp fangs on both sides of his head. Jade could smell the metallic scent of Dragon's last meal as his jaws surrounded Jade's head, close enough to make Jade his next meal. He moaned, loving the breath of danger and sucked on the slick tongue inside his mouth. He pet Dragon's head as he relaxed his throat, feeling that massive tongue going down like it was a cock. His own cock was quickly getting interested in the situation, but Jade ignored it. This wasn't about him.

Well, not entirely.

He knew he would enjoy himself thoroughly until Dragon's rut ran out, but Jade was also aware he might end up begging for mercy and get ignored during this time and he was also okay with that.

Dragon growled and slipped out of Jade's mouth, leaving him dazed, panting, and wet from the thick saliva running down his chin and neck. The slick tongue licked down his neck, teasing a path down to his pierced nipples only to stop and tease him there. Jade shivered at the wet and messy feeling of the thick saliva running down his body, leaving a hot trail. Dragon licked at his nipples incessantly, giving both attention until they were red and straining against the wet touch. He licked over Jade's navel, giving soft bites here and there before finally licking over his straining cock.

Jade jumped and gripped at Dragon's horns for dear life as the wet tongue wrapped around his cock and started moving. Dragon made use of his prehensile tongue to edge Jade, who twitched his hips with the movements and whined his pleasure as the tongue squeezed around him, making him leak into Dragon's mouth. Dragon was unrelenting in his advances and kept a fast and punishing pace, making Jade's mind go numb with pleasure. He looked down at the massive head in front of him, he couldn't even see his cock surrounded by the tongue with massive fangs hanging over it as if Jade needed the reminder that he had his cock in a very dangerous mouth.

Jade felt the tip of the tongue teasing his balls, licking and shifting over them, before it slid down, leaving a wet trail before poking at his tight entrance. Jade couldn't stop himself from fucking into that tight wet heat, twitching into Dragon's tongue curled all the way around him. He gripped the horns and Dragon let him fuck his mouth like he wanted.

Jade whined in pleasure and his hips stuttered, coming on Dragon's tongue. He couldn't stop moving as it kept licking over his unprepared entrance, teasing.

Gasping for breath, Jade finally released his tight grip on Dragon's head and pulled away. Dragon's tongue licked over him as they separated, leaving his cock shiny with spit. Jade whined and sank to his knees as his legs gave out. Dragon leaned his head down and licked into his open mouth, purring. Jade couldn't even taste himself on his tongue, just Dragon.

He sucked on the tongue and kissed back as best he could, but all he could think about was returning the favor and sucking off Dragon in this form. He pulled away with a gasp and his gaze trailed down Dragon's underbelly. He could just barely make out two massive shapes in the shadows under Dragon's belly.

Without thinking about it Jade crawled between Dragon's front legs under his body, reaching his target in a daze. He heard Dragon's growl above him, but didn't mind it as he came face to face with two massive cocks.

Jade was mesmerized by their look - they looked different than in Dragon's half shifted state. Definitely bigger - he wouldn't be able to wrap his fingers around one, let alone both of them. He was very grateful for that stretching potion he took. The shape was far from human - the tips pointed with the head flaring out wide before tapering in and then getting wider again, the girth right at the base was massive and made even thicker by the bumps all along the length of the underside. The bumps started out as just that - small protrusions right under the cock head, but the closer to the base they got the more they stretched and curved until they resembled dull hooks. Jade's hole twitched as he wondered how that would feel inside him.

The cocks - one on top of the other - emerged from a sheath that melded into the rest of the body, with heavy balls hanging down just down below. Dragon's whole body was night black, and the cocks started like that at the base, but then melded into a dusty gray, with the tips shifting into white. As Jade looked his fill he watched a bead of clear slick gather at the tip of one of the cocks and drop onto the floor, leaving a sticky string that only broke right before the drop hit the floor between Jade's parted knees.

Unable to wait any longer Jade reached out with both hands and wrapped each around one cock. Dragon twitched above him and Jade heard the expensive wood floor creak as his claws scratched it. The cocks were slick and hot to the touch, and they twitched and leaked more slick as soon as Jade wrapped his fingers around them. Without thinking about what he was doing Jade licked the bottom tip, gathering the precome with his tongue, before licking up to the other, cleaning it off in one swipe.

The taste was familiar, just more potent - salty and bitter, and somehow with a hint of ozone that followed Dragon's magic. Jade pressed his lips to one of the cock heads, feeling the heat of it, before slowly exploring it with his tongue. The feeling wasn't too different from Dragon's cocks in his half shift, giving Jade confidence in his actions as he sucked the tip between his lips. The cock above it twitched and another drop of precome dripped down before Jade caught it with his palm and used it to slick the movements of his hand on the top cock.

Jade licked around the alien shape of the cock, getting familiar with it while his hands explored the shafts. He moved his hands down to the base, feeling the massive girth there, before slowly dragging his fingers up, squeezing on the cocks, making them leak. Jade swallowed the slick from the cock he was sucking while letting the other cock leak all over his hands and the other cock, making his hand movements slick and easy.

Jade sucked more of the cock in his mouth, enjoying the hot weight on his tongue and the salty-metallic taste of the slick that covered it. He started bobbing his head over the cock, moving his hands in tandem. He made sure to give the top cock more attention with his hand - teasing the tip, swiping his palm over it before dragging his palm to the base and squeezing tight. Dragon was constantly rumbling above him, the sound reverberating through the massive body. His hips twitched, making Jade choke on the cock in his mouth as it spurted globs of precum he wasn't ready for and it ran down his chin.

Jade was a mess - the top cock kept leaking into his hair, on his face as he sucked down the one below as deep as he could, there was slick running down his chest to his hard cock, which was also leaking a steady stream onto the floor. Both of his hands were covered in thick precome, making their slide easy. The sound was obscene - from his slick hands to Dragon making Jade choke by fucking his cock down his throat, the sound of Jade's wet mouth as he sucked on the cock as the other dribbled down the side of his cheek. There was a puddle gathering on the floor below them and Jade couldn't care that they were potentially ruining the very expensive hardwood floor.

He doubled his efforts, bobbing his head and relaxing his throat to take more of Dragon's cock inside him. He only managed less than half so far and felt it like a personal challenge. His body felt warm and relaxed, arousal heating his blood. Jade's ass kept twitching and he could feel himself start to get wet. It was an interesting feeling - something close to when Dragon filled him up with lube with a syringe in order to stretch him dry. His cock twitched in anticipation.

Dragon's cock head pushed into his throat and Jade whined in satisfaction. He was still far from taking the whole thing down his throat - realistically he never would be able to - but this was good enough for now. He swallowed and Dragon groaned above him, his other cock continuously dripping on Jade. Jade pulled off with a satisfying pop and gasped a few deep breaths before sucking the cock down again as he continued to fuck his throat with the massive length. His palm kept petting the underside, making the cock leak directly down his throat, the hot precome sliding down directly into his stomach.

Jade kept moving his hands, teasing and pulling on the cocks, squeezing more liquid out of them. He fastened his pace when he heard Dragon's claws scratching the floor and felt him twitch his hips. The heat coming off Dragon intensified and Jade could feel the massive body above him tense before Dragon came in his mouth and all over his face at the same time. Jade whined as he was covered in wet heat.

Dragon's hot come filled his mouth and spilled through his lips even though Jade tried to swallow as fast as he could. He eventually gave up trying to catch all of it and opened his mouth, tilting his head up, sticking his tongue out. He didn't stop moving his hands on Dragon's cocks, milking them of their come as it hit his face and ran down his neck, covering his chest in sticky heat. Jade licked his lips and swallowed gulp after gulp as Dragon kept coming, his cocks twitching and pulsing in Jade's hands. Dragon's body above him was panting and vibrating with pleasure, his hips twitching in time with the pulsing of his cocks.

Jade sucked on the pulsing head, licking the slit as it spurted a few more drops, the stream finally slowing. He did the same to the top cock, cleaning the twitching cock head of come. The cocks finally stopped twitching, but didn't get soft and Jade licked his messy lips, all he could taste was Dragon's salty come covering his mouth. He was an obscene mess - come in his hair and on his face, running down his body, covering his fingers. His cock twitched as he sucked two of his fingers into his mouth.

Dragon shifted above him and Jade found himself on his back on the bed with a growling beast above him. His legs dangled off the edge as Dragon towered above him - a massive inhuman shadow hidden in the dark with only his eyes glowing and his fangs reflecting the candlelight. Jade's stomach jumped in anticipation. Dragon purred in satisfaction at the sight of him covered in his come. Jade opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out, knowing what a debauched picture he made, and got rewarded by Dragon's tongue filling up his mouth again. He relaxed into the kiss, sucking and licking back as arousal sparked through his body. He felt Dragon's massive clawed hand trail over his torso and arched his back leaning into it.

His breath stuttered at the pinpricks of pain the obsidian claws left on his body. Dragon trailed his claws down his hip and thigh, before hiking Jade's leg up and holding it. He did the same with Jade's other leg, leaving him completely exposed at the edge of the bed. Jade moaned around the tongue fucking his throat and twitched his hips in anticipation.

Dragon broke the kiss and left Jade panting, mouth slack, and dazed as he moved down and settled on the floor in front of Jade's exposed entrance. Jade felt himself twitch and leak a drop of slick right in front of Dragon's watchful gaze. He held his legs up, keeping himself open and exposed.

Like an offering for a mighty beast to do as it wishes.

Jade arched his back as Dragon's tongue licked over his pucker. His fingers tightened on his thighs as Dragon dove in and ate him out like a starving animal, powerful growls vibrating through the room and Jade's body. His tongue was hot and wet, the texture slick and just barely rough to tease Jade's sensitive skin and turn it red. Jade tried to move his hips, fuck himself on that teasing tongue but was stopped by a heavy clawed palm pinning his abdomen to the bed.

Dragon pushed just the tip of his tongue inside Jade and he whined. His body didn't resist at all as Dragon pushed more of his slick tongue inside. It felt incredible. Jade felt his body opening up without problem for Dragon's massive tongue, when they would usually have to get him ready just to take half of it. Jade felt how truly wet he was, the slick running down from his opening down his crack and on the bed couldn't be only Dragon's spit.

Jade's eyes rolled back as Dragon pushed his whole tongue inside of him. He looked down to see Dragon's massive jaws wrapped around his hips, his fangs just barely scraping his pelvis and mewled at the image. He was being voluntarily devoured by this massive creature and Jade couldn't get enough. His cock twitched and leaked on his stomach.

Jade watched as Dragon fucked him with his tongue. He gripped Jade's hips with both hands and started moving him roughly, effectively fucking Jade on his tongue. Jade panted and whined at the feeling of Dragon's tongue penetrating so deep inside him with no resistance. He felt so wet and open, ready to take anything Dragon would give him. Dragon was moving the tongue inside him, pushing on his walls and massaging him from the inside, constantly bullying his prostate and making Jade's cock leak on his stomach. Jade arched his back and wailed in pleasure as he was devoured.

Dragon's fangs and claws kept pricking his skin, leaving tiny pricks of pain before they healed over, driving Jade half mad. His hole kept twitching around Dragon's tongue as it got bullied open by the massive organ. Jade threw his head back as Dragon growled and yanked him on his tongue.

Jade felt the orgasm coming faster than he anticipated and didn't have enough time to warn Dragon before his vision whited out and he wailed, his body writhing as Dragon kept fucking him with his tongue, milking his prostate. His whole body twitched as Dragon prolonged his orgasm until Jade was whining in overstimulation. When Dragon finally let up Jade felt like he was floating. His chest was a mess of both of their come mixing together, his ass a leaking gaping mess and all he could think about was that he wanted more. He whined desperately, hoping that Dragon would understand.

Apparently he did, because Jade was repositioned to lay in the middle of the massive nest, arranged with pillows supporting his body, raising his hips. Dragon's massive form was bracketing him in, he was so big his front legs came down above Jade's head while his hind legs closed in Jade's raised knees. Jade looked down and saw Dragon's cocks drip a hot stream of slick down on his navel and shivered in anticipation.

His stretched hole twitched and leaked a thick drop of slick. Jade shivered at the new sensation as Dragon growled above him. Jade spread his legs as Dragon knelt down, twitching his hips as his cocks rubbed over Jade's hips and navel. Jade gasped as he truly saw the difference in size between his human cock and the two dragon cocks rubbing on him, leaving a wet trail after themselves. Dragon's cocks were massive, reaching above his navel and just one was thicker than anything he had ever taken. By the end of the night, Jade would end up with both of them inside him. He thrust his hips, rubbing his cock on Dragon's, and Dragon grumbled above him. He shifted back, trying to line himself up with Jade's entrance.

Jade shivered as he felt the cockhead of the bottom cock rub between his cheeks, only to miss his entrance. He whined in desperation as it happened again and Dragon growled in frustration. Jade reached down desperately and guided Dragon's cock where they both wanted it and on the next thrust of his hips, Dragon slammed his thick cock inside.

Jade arched off the bed as Dragon immediately pushed his whole cock inside, bullying Jade's hole to mold to the shape of his cock. Jade panted through his open mouth and groaned at being so full. The stretch hurt for a second before his body adjusted and opened up for Dragon, leaking more slick to ease the way. The cock filling him up was unrelenting and pressing on his prostate just by being inside him, it was so hot and pulsing, Jade could feel every shift and twitch with his sensitive walls.

The other cock was steadily adding to the mess on his chest by leaking precome all over him. Jade was hot all over - covered by the intense heat Dragon's massive body was giving off, covered in it by Dragon's leaking cock and had it inside him as Dragon's other cock pierced him and kept twitching inside him. Jade whined, grasping at the sheets. When Dragon bottomed out the top cock reached beyond his navel, almost to the middle of his chest, and pressed his own straining cock to his body in a hot press.

Dragon didn't give him much time to settle before he started up a fast and hard pace, fucking Jade's willing body. Jade was overwhelmed by pleasure, Dragon's cock was so deep inside him he could feel him in his throat, the bumps on the cock caught on his entrance on every thrust, teasing his rim and making Jade see stars. Jade arched his back and moaned, throwing his head back in overwhelming pleasure.

Dragon growled, a deep and satisfied sound as he continued to fuck Jade. "Smell so good. Smell like me, like mine. Going to fill you up so you always smell like this…" His cocks kept twitching and Jade mewled at the dirty words. He moved his hips with Dragon's thrusts, trying to get him deeper still, desperate to be filled to the brim.

"That's right, Treasure, move your hips, take me deeper. Perfect Treasure, like you were made for me." Dragon's words were mostly growls, his rut overtaking him fully. Jade whined in desperation, clawing at Dragon's front legs above his head. "Mine to have, mine to spoil, mine to fuck." Dragon accentuated every word with a rough thrust of his hips, spearing Jade on his massive cock and teasing his sensitive insides. His constant growls were washing over Jade, shooting electricity down his spine on every thrust. Jade nodded his head desperately, too far gone for words.

Dragon's thrusts slowed and got rougher. "Mine. To. Breed." The growls were surrounding Jade on all sides, and he whined desperately as arousal burned through his body, his cock twitching and spurting come. His body tried to tense with his orgasm, but couldn't, staying pliant and soft for Dragon's cock. His cock painted the underside of Dragon's cock with his come and twitched as Dragon kept moving, teasing Jade's overstimulated body.

Jade didn't have time to recover from his orgasm before he was flipped so he was on his hands and knees. He whimpered at the loss of Dragon's cock inside him, he felt so empty.

Jade whined into the sheets and spread his legs in invitation. Dragon's massive front palm settled on his shoulder, pressing his front to the bed as his back arched and his hips stayed up - presenting for Dragon. He could feel his empty hole leak slick and try to tighten around nothing. Jade felt so empty, he mewled at the feeling, desperate to have Dragon inside him again.

"So good for me, presenting so well. Your hole is desperate for me, so nice and wet, take one of my cocks so well." Dragon was rubbing the tip of his cock over Jade's winking entrance, but not pushing inside, driving Jade insane. He arched his back as much as he could, raising his hips in desperation. Dragon growled.

"Don't worry, Treasure, I'll give you everything you want. This desperate hole won't be satisfied with just one cock, isn't that right?" Jade nodded mutely, his whole world narrowed down to Dragon's purring words and his cock head teasing his leaking entrance. "Of course you want both of my cocks. Perfection…" Jade gasped as Dragon shifted and now there were two cock heads rubbing on his entrance.

Dragon slowly pushed both of his cocks inside. Jade panted as Dragon pushed the cockheads inside him and stopped, groaning at the feeling. He could hear Dragon panting above him, the massive body heaving with deep breaths as Dragon filled Jade's body. Jade clawed at the sheets as he whined on every breath, his body adjusting to the massive intrusion. He shivered in pleasure and pain and waited for Dragon to move.

Dragon went much slower this time and Jade got to feel every ridge of his cocks stretching his rim before popping inside. He was constantly moaning as Dragon kept steadily breaching him, the stretch neverending. Jade felt filled to the brim by the time Dragon bottomed out and stilled, a constant deep growl emanating from him.

Jade couldn't concentrate on anything else than how full he was. The massive cocks kept twitching inside him, teasing his sensitive walls and making his body stretch around them. Jade felt like his body would never go back to normal and shivered at the idea of being perfectly molded for Dragon, his body changing just to take his cock better. Dragon's cocks twitched inside him and Jade could feel the hot precome leaking inside of him, the cocks plugging him up so that nothing could leak out of him.

Jade was so full, his body stretched impossibly over the massive cocks. And yet, he wanted more. With a desperate whine, he tilted his head up as much as he could, searching. He found Dragon looking down on him already and met his eyes. "Please, D…" He couldn't find the words to say what he wanted, the cocks inside him frying his brain, but Dragon understood.

Dragon shifted, making them both groan and filled Jade's desperate mouth with his tongue. Jade relaxed and let himself be filled on both sides, floating in pleasure. The tongue inside him distracted him enough that he didn't notice when Dragon shifted again and started pulling his cocks out slowly.

Jade's body desperately clung to them, not wanting to let go. Jade sucked on the tongue inside his mouth and felt Dragon start to fill him again, painfully slowly. The cocks bullied inside Jade's body, making him twitch in pleasure as he relaxed into Dragon's ministrations.

When Dragon broke their kiss so Jade could breathe he settled into the sheets, letting Dragon fuck him how he wanted.

Dragon didn't stay slow and gentle for long and started desperately rutting inside Jade's body again. Dragon's thrusts were hard enough to move Jade's whole body with the force and soon enough Dragon had to press his shoulders into the bed with a heavy hand. Jade kept letting out desperate whines on every thrust, seeing stars every time the hooks at the base of Dragon's cocks hooked on his entrance before pulling out.

"That's right, you're doing so good, my Treasure. Going to breed you up, fill you up with my brood." Jade's eyes rolled back at the dirty words. "Won't stop until it catches, you'll be nice and round just from my come." His thrusts were getting more desperate, his cocks twitching deep in Jade's body. "Going to keep you riding my cocks for a week just to make sure it takes, wouldn't you like that? Always full of my come and cocks, nice and bred." Jade was moving his hips desperately on every thrust, his body moving on its own. There was precome and slick running down his thighs, the sound of their slapping bodies obscene.

"Yes, yes, please, D. Breed me, fill me up, give me your brood." He couldn't recognize his own voice, it was so breathy and desperate. His whole body was alight with pleasure, the cocks constantly rubbing on his prostate. His poor cock was tired, so sensitive it hurt when it slapped against his body with every rough thrust from Dragon, but Jade didn't care.

He moaned as Dragon growled, the sound deafening, and redoubled his efforts in fucking him. Jade couldn't keep up anymore and just let Dragon fuck him. He heard the sheets rip as Dragon sunk his claws into them and the smell of ozone got so strong it was dizzying.

With a few more rough trusts Dragon buried his cocks deep inside Jade and stilled, growling as he filled him up. Jade's tired cock dribbled a few drops of come as he came at the first hot splash of Dragon's spend spilling inside him. He panted and stayed still as Dragon kept growling and grinding his hips in circles as his cocks twitched and filled up Jade.

He could feel the hot come spilling inside him, going deeper and filling up his guts. Jade pressed a palm over his abdomen and whimpered at the bump and hardness there. Dragon's cocks were filling him up so deep, he might actually look pregnant after. Jade bit his lip.

He pressed his palm to his abdomen again, harder, and Dragon growled before his cock twitched and spurted more come inside of Jade. He stayed like that, pressing his palm over Dragon's cocks as he filled him up. Jade floated in the sensation of being filled to the brim, the heat surrounding and filling his body keeping him relaxed and dazed in pleasure. Dragon kept growling above him, a pleased sound as his hips jumped and ground on Jade's backside, shifting his cocks as he finished filling him up.

Dragon's cocks stayed hard and he didn't pull out even after he stopped coming inside Jade. Instead, he purred in satisfaction and shifted them so Jade was lying on his side, with Dragon lying behind him, almost covering him with his body.

Jade ran a hand over his abdomen again, feeling the cocks lodged deep inside him, and shivered at Dragon's pleased growl behind him. He felt dirty covered in so much come it was sticking like a second skin, but knew Dragon would not let him bathe until his rut was done. Some of the come on his body was already drying and flaking off from the heat coming off Dragon, but Jade would be covered in layers of it by the end of it. He didn't mind. Jade turned his face up for another kiss as he waited for another wave of Dragon's rut. He hummed around the slick tongue in his throat.

"You should get me on a breeding bench," Dragon growled and Jade felt the cocks inside him twitch again.

"I have one here somewhere…" Dragon didn't make a move to get up, so Jade just relaxed into the bed, taking the chance to rest before Dragon fucked his brains out again.

Read on AO3

#dragon x human #kinktober #monster x human #smut #monster fucker #terato #monster lover #mlm #m/m #mine #all that glitters

22 notes · View notes

gingervitus · 2 months ago

Text

Crushed or Minced: a Rookanis Post-Canon Drabble

Here is part one of my contribution to @thedissonantverses Writing Challenge Weekend prompt which you can find here.

I watched this tiktok and have been thinking a lot of Ella and Lucanis post-canon lately. So here's what I did (Davrook with Rook talking about another one of her worst jobs coming soon. This was just done first.)

I rolled yellow, rustle, and bottle to start but added a couple other words as well.

The very best part of a job going off without a hitch has always been the celebration. As Rook. As Ella. As a no name orphan from Rivain. It doesn’t matter, never has. Success is meant to be enjoyed in some way or another, so when she receives word from Isabela that the raid on an abandoned castle deep in Nevarra went off without a hitch, she has no choice but to indulge in a bottle of particularly expensive whiskey.

A part of her misses her days with the Lords. Traversing far off lands. Delving into dungeons. Unraveling twisted tales of nobles. Returning artifacts to their rightful places. Following the endless chase for gold and glory. However, as she sips her whiskey, leaning against an open doorway that overlooks Rialto Bay, she can’t say she misses the constant movement and frequent danger that came along with that lifestyle. Semi-retirement seems to suit her just fine.

Consulting from time to time with the various guilds within Thedas is enough these days. Mostly, she corresponds with the Lords through Isabela or Taash, looking to map out a dungeon expedition or strategize weaseling their way into a noble’s inner circle. She has received a request here and there from the Crows. Mostly from Teia and the occasional very begrudging Viago looking to map out a complex infiltration and requiring a second set of eyes. The Threads or Shadow Dragons periodically will write to her to get her thoughts on leads they’ve received through unnamed sources. A Grey Warden (or two… or three) often wants to pick her brain with regard to mapping out a siege of an abandoned village filled with lingering Darkspawn.

She smiles against the rim of her glass, knowing full well this is more than enough for her at this point in her life. A taste of the adventure she’s known for so much of her life will suffice now. Comfort and peace have been waiting in the wings for her for many years, and she is finally able to reap their rewards.

Inside the house, there is a quiet rustle, much like paper crinkling and tearing. “This is a bulb of garlic.” The voice is deep and gentle and familiar, causing her smile to grow and her heart to skip a beat. She glances over her shoulder to find Lucanis standing at the kitchen island, rolling a whole bulb of garlic with the ball of his hand to loosen the cloves. A chubby hand reaches out to grab a flake of discarded skin quicker than he is able to stop his movements. “Ah, ah, que asco!” Before the papery skin can be deposited into a mouth glistening with drool, he catches a tiny wrist. “That is not good to eat, mi cielo.”

Pale blue eyes stare up at him, curious and maybe a bit perturbed at his scolding. Rook watches the pair intently with a set of eyes to match the smaller pair watching Lucanis carefully move the garlic skin out of reach. The baby sits comfortably against his forearm and rests at his hip, adorned in a light yellow cotton dress to give some comfort in the summer haze that has begun to set over Treviso. “This is what we look for,” he continues as he plucks three cloves now loose from the bulb to place on the large cutting board before them. Small neck craning to look up at him, a headful of black curls tosses around as the child shifts against him. “Bellara may tell you mincing is preferable, but we know better.”

Moments go by every now and then where she feels like she’s peering in on an intimate moment she isn’t meant to see. Watching a father and daughter quietly prepare a meal together falls into that category until it quickly dawns on her that, despite everything, she’s supposed to see this. Watching her own family interact is something that she should witness. That he would want her to be seeing. Observing a one-sided conversation that they both worked to create.

“Crushing the garlic allows for more flavor to be released,” he explains while grabbing the handle of a large kitchen knife, resting the blade atop the clove. “Which is exactly what we are looking for.” The palm of his hand lines up and then comes down onto the side of the knife with a thud, an act Rook herself has experienced many times before… much like the mincing versus crushing argument between Lucanis and Bellara. Before she is able to make a comment about the longstanding disagreement between friends, a raucous giggle cuts through the room. Their daughter vibrates with laughter beside him, eyes trained on the knife. He stares back down at her with one brow raised. “Really?”

Resetting with a single hand takes him longer than Rook recalls him prepping to cook. Many times, she would find herself with piles of missives in front of her while she sat at the edge of the table in the dining hall. The rhythmic thud of the knife was therapeutic while she attempted to make her way as a leader against blighted gods. Over and over as he sliced through peppers, onions, mushrooms, whatever they had been able to get their hands on, she wouldn’t even notice when it ceased. Not until a piping hot cup of tea and a plateful of food materialized in front of her at least.

His hand hovers over the knife that now sits upon another clove of garlic. The palm slaps the broad side of the blade once more, though he doesn’t remove his gaze from the baby. Amusement shines bright in the umber of his eyes as another fit of laughter bubbles from the baby’s belly. “Why?” he chuckles. It is less of a question than it is a flabbergasted response. The newly crushed garlic is moved to the far side of the cutting board before placing the last clove onto the surface.

This time, he moves with haste, hand grasping the handle of the knife and then slamming his hand onto the blade. When the child dissolves into a fit of giggles this time around, he joins her, unable to allow her to enjoy the odd humor alone any longer. The corners of his eyes crease with the broad grin that has spread across his lips. Their laughter fills the air all the way to the ceiling and rings out through the open door that Rook watches them from. “You are ridiculous, tontita,” he laughs.

Ridiculous she may be, but he watches the little girl with an adoration he shares with very few. With a joy that many people never thought possible from him.

And Rook, while still observing them silently from the back door, is thrilled to share in such unbridled glee.

I've been laughing about that baby laughing at garlic crushing for the last couple of hours tbh.

#writing #drabble #rookanis #lucanis x rook #lucanis dellamorte #rook laidir #named rook #datv #datv fic #writing challenge #oc: eleanora “rook” laidir

18 notes · View notes

cafecourage · 1 year ago

Note

Idk if requests are open; if they're not, please feel free to ignore this!!!

Okay so uh, I know that the post I'm gonna reference is more than a year old, but I just discovered your blog and I went on a binge and, well...

The Dragon Au Part 2? The one with Sky (along with the other boys, but I'm focusing on Sky)? Where you said that Sky would probably never tell his S/O about him being a dragon despite the trust he has in his S/O?

It's just...so sad! 😭 So, if I may, could I request a fic where Reader (who is, or wants to be, Sky's S/O) finds out that Sky's a dragon?

Maybe he accidentally shifted during battle, or maybe one of the other Links accidentally let slip that all of the Chain (and, therefore, Sky) are dragons? I'm not quite sure about how Reader would find out, but they do; cue them crying to another Link (probably Time, bc he's The Dad™) or even Sun, and Reader admits that they feel like they're a terrible person bc surely they did something to make Sky not trust them, right...? And Reader asks for advice on what they can do to make up for whatever Bad Thing they did, and how to be a better friend to Sky, etc. etc.

I don't like angst if it doesn't have a happy ending, so idk how to end it on a happy note; maybe Sky talks to Reader about it all & they "kiss & make up" (either figuratively or literally lol)?

(Again, feel free to ignore this if requests aren't open!!!)

IVE BEEN WANTING TO WRITE THIS EVER SINCE I TOLD PINKY ABOUT IT.

Typically you were stay away from battles if anything you were learning how to fight. In this battle though your back was towards a cliff and the monsters were blocking your way into the forest which is where you normally hide. Well… This was a particularly bad situation to be in. You duck and tried to weave through but each time you tried to you almost get hit. Luckily Sky was staying by your side for a bit to fight the monsters off. Though the chain was truly outnumbered.

Not to be a downer but you think they might need a miracle.

Then it happened.

A Lizalfos got a fairly lucky shot at you right in the shoulder. The impact knocked you back off your feet and stumble back.

Right.

Off.

The cliff.

It was weird. You didn’t scream. But something did. It was loud and it felt like the air was full of electricity. In a blink of an eye a black plop swooped down heading towards you. When the blur finally crashes into you whatever it was brought you into its arms and pulled up. “Keep your eyes close.” You hear Sky whisper in your ear, you didn’t even know that your eyes had been closed the whole time. It’s not like you’re going to open them now. Especially with a warning like that.

There was a lot of screaming not just from the boys but monsters as well. A few crashes of lightning made you flinch and hold onto Sky tighter. Slowly your curiosity had peaked and you open your eyes and glanced up at Sky.

Sky who was typically the softest person in the world looked monstrous. His eyes were sharper more snake like and Night Sky-esque scales framed his features. Giving his once soft face a fiercer look to it. It could also be the death glare he had on his face. Behind him were two bat like wings and long serpents tail that matched his scales. It would have been breathtaking if you weren’t loosing blood.

Your glaze was met with his now electric blue eyes, “put me down?” You asked as you had to force yourself to look at the others but as soon as you moved the arrow that was lodged into your shoulder made its move. A curses leave your mouth as you slump back in his arms.

Sky was about to speak but Hyrule beat him, “We should find and get camp set up. For now Let me see what I can do.” The team’s medic was in charge now as the battle had been over for a bit now. “Rancher, Champion can you scout out a better, safer place?” He leads Sky with you in his arms to be seated. When settled with you in Sky’s lap and Hyrule helping you through the process of being stitched up.

You had so many questions to ask but you honestly doubt you would get answers too. “I have a question.”

“Yes Darling?” Sky’s voice was a bit more gravely than normal.

“Are you guys…” You had not idea what to say about this situation as you would assume dragons.

“Yes.” Time said before you could find the words.

A beat passes you look up at the token father, “all-“

“All of us yes.”

“Ok…” You lean into Sky’s chest. Before something bothers you again, looking up at Time again you go to ask him something.

He just sighs “yes. I’ll explain later about how our magic work. Just focus on healing.”

#twilight (not lu) speaks #linked universe x reader #luxreader #linkeduniverse x reader #dragon fruit sorbet #gingerbread loaf #I wrote this before getting super demotivated #sorry if it shows #still confused why shenanigans happened

59 notes · View notes

thedragon-and-hisboy · 1 month ago

Note

okay, one more for right now: lycanwing hiccup and bolas >:)

"Get up."

Astrid looked up blearily; she'd just been woken up with the end of a spear prodding her leg. The hunter who'd poked her was glaring into the cage through the unlocked door.

In her lap, Hiccup groaned and shifted as much as he could without moving his injured arm. "Good morning to you, too."

"Up!" the hunter snapped. "Boss wants you moved. Get going!"

Astrid glared at him until he backed up. "What does Viggo want?"

"Can't say." The man smirked. "Not my problem."

Hiccup sat up slowly, wincing and hissing as his arm shifted. "If he's just planning to torture me more, no way."

"Don't have a choice," the hunter grunted. He flipped the spear around to point at the two of them.

Hiccup sighed angrily. "Fine. Back off, we're coming." The hunter retreated and Astrid helped Hiccup exit the cage. Walking was slow; both of them were sore from being caged.

Viggo's tent wasn't far, and the man himself was sitting behind his desk. He smiled widely at his two prisoners as they entered. "Ah, good to see you both. Slept well?"

"Fuck off," Astrid growled.

"Language, Miss Hofferson," Viggo said, shaking his head. "Please, sit."

They did, Hiccup wincing and Astrid clenching her fists til her knuckles were white.

"It occurs to me that since the moon is no longer full, there will be a time when no transformations take place," Viggo said. "As I wish to continue my research, I will be requiring you to stay with us until the moon waxes again. However, I am not unreasonable; guarded lodging will be put at your disposal. It's poor manners to keep humans in cages. Dragons are another story, but I see no obvious dragons here at the moment." He smiled.

"When you say 'until the moon waxes again,'" Hiccup began, trying to sit a little straighter and grimacing, "can we assume you don't mean you'll let us go as soon as the moon's full?"

"Very astute," Viggo said. "Yes, I will indeed be keeping you longer than that. Miss Hofferson is not strictly required, though I imagine she'll want to stay." He didn't flinch as Astrid shot to her feet and slammed her fists on the desk.

"You can try and separate us," she snarled, shaking off the hunter who'd run forward to subdue her. "See what happens, bastard!"

"Hiccup, your lady-friend is not as important to my research as you are. I suggest you keep that in mind, Miss Hofferson." Viggo straightened the papers Astrid had disturbed. "Ogmar, please lead these two to their accommodations. Hiccup, we will talk again soon. Rest and recover."

Astrid felt ready to lunge across the desk and snap the bastard's neck, but Hiccup squeezed her hand. She tamed the inner beast and followed the hunter out of the tent with Hiccup.

The hut was bare and ugly. There was a bed that could comfortably fit one and a dozen barrels shoved up against the walls, suggesting that the space was usually storage. Hiccup sat down stiffly on the bed and hissed in pain; his ribs were still sore.

The hunter slammed the door behind them and Astrid heard the bolts thunk into place. She glared at the door (which lacked a handle on this side) and turned to Hiccup. "How are you feeling?"

He grimaced again. "Bad. Whatever that stuff was yesterday, I think it's still affecting me."

"I'm sorry," Astrid said. She sat next to him and took his uninjured hand. "I had no choice."

"I know."

They lapsed into silence for the rest of the day. Food, meager and bland, was delivered to them. The hut had one narrow window carved into the door, and Astrid could see that they were being guarded on short shifts, one man at a time. Probably just to listen for disturbances.

Evening came. One of the barrels held candles, and there was a lantern with the glass broken out of it in a corner. Astrid managed to get it lit and sat next to Hiccup again.

"You going to be alrght tonight?" she asked. "Is it... hard, the first night of not transforming?"

"A bit," he replied. "I feel all tense waiting for it."

"It'll be okay." Astrid tried to be soothing, but the idea of being trapped in this hut for a month was terrifying.

Her depressed musings were interrupted as Hiccup gasped in pain. In the dim lanternlight, she saw him convulse, gripping the shabby bedsheet in his good hand.

"No!" he gritted out. "Not supposed to--!" He shook again, and to Astrid's horror, began to thrash in pain.

"Hiccup!" she cried. The guard outside had definitely heard the commotion. "What's happening?"

Hiccup yelled in pain as an answer. He writhed and cast a terrified look up to Astrid; his eyes glowed gold.

The transformation took hold as the door banged open behind them. Guards shouted in alarm, and Ryker yelled "By Thor! What's going on?!" The clothes Viggo had generously spared ripped as Hiccup's wings burst forth.

Hiccup howled in pain as his broken wing formed. This would probably have made it worse. Astrid, not waiting for an actual plan to form, sprinted forward and leapt onto Hiccup's back.

"Fire!" she shouted. Hiccup raised his head and blasted the retreating hunters with his red flames. Ryker had dodged and was sounding the alarm. "Even if we can't fly, you can run!" Astrid told Hiccup. "Let's get out of here!"

Smashing through the smoldering remains of the doorway, Hiccup began to charge towards the edge of the base. If they could get away, they could find somewhere to heal, then maybe escape---

Bolas whipped through the air and caught Hiccup around the legs. Astrid cursed as she was flung off. Hiccup wailed in pain and struggled, but between the reinforced ropes and his injuries, couldn't break free. The guards caught up with them, Viggo at the lead.

He knelt down beside Hiccup, avoiding his fangs. "Fascinating. It would appear that my experiments have altered the nature of your transformations, Hiccup. Indeed, they may be every night." He straightened up. "Take the girl, put her in a different storage shed. Bring the boy-- ah, the dragon, to the pens."

#thanks for the ask!!#httyd race to the edge #hiccup!whump #requested prompt #viggo grimborn #lycanwing!hiccup #his own wings

8 notes · View notes

crazy-nerdy · 1 month ago

Text

Arc 1: Fragments of Belonging

Chapter 1

author's note: I had this story in my head since September, I hope you like it.

In Norse mythology, a fylgja is a supernatural being or spirit which accompanies a person in connection to their fate or fortune.

pairing: Hiccup x Oc (Maer)

warnings: none that I could think of, but let me know if you believe I missed something. The warnings and themes of the hall story can be found in the series overview

word count: 9k

masterlist

Waves lapped against the shore, faint moonlight reflecting off the surface. The only source of light in the constant dark of the night.

Maer floated on her back, taking in the sight of the tiny stars pinned on the black, clear sky above her. Her dragon swam lazily around her in circles, making sure she wasn’t swayed to the open sea.

She closed her eyes, her heartbeat beating in her ears as she sank into the water, the moonlight fading more and more.

It should be terrifying. All those stories about the deep, endless, unforgiving sea. Full of the great unknowns, ready to drag you down, especially at night. And yet, no place felt safer, nothing hid her from the world better than this blanket of vast darkness.

She was content to let the seawater lift her back to the surface slowly, let the sea make the weight in her chest feel as weightless as her body for a moment longer but when Riptide’s tail came under her back, gently pushing her up, expediting the process, she understood that the serene moment was shattered.

Someone was here.

“There you are!” Gustav’s voice echoed through the quiet of the night as Maer broke through the surface of the water, breathing deeply through her nose. The noise of her resurfacing notified him of her general position.

“Gustav! You’ve found me. Again…” Maer said with a hint of exasperation, rubbing water drops out of her eyes in vain. “You are a little too good at this.”

“Helga is going to be back soon. You should go before she does.” He informed her, looking towards the area of her voice. “Fanghook, fire up,” He said to his dragon, asking his Monstrous Nightmare companion to light himself aflame in order to see clearer, “please.” He added for good measure, looking towards Maer—who squinted her eyes at the sudden vibrant lightsource—hoping he wouldn't have the ‘companions, not servants,’ talk again.

“I will go in a bit.” She replied blinking a few times, getting used to the light, treading in the water, placing her left hand on Riptide, who had also stopped her circles.

Gustav looked at her, it was much easier to talk to her now that he could actually see her and Riptide. Especially Riptide, the Sand Wraith had a hobby of sneaking up on people and dragons alike.

He considered her words for a moment, “Nope.” He crossed his arms. “If I leave you here now, then you won’t go back until very late, and then Helga and Sveinn will corner you at the door and then—”

The familiar flapping of wings cut his next words as another dragon landed near Fanghook.

Gustav didn’t even have to turn and look to know who it was.

Hiccup dismounted with practised ease, eyes swiping the beach, scanning the area looking for someone. His gaze landed on Maer, lingering briefly before flicking to Gustav.

“Maer. I had a feeling I’d find you here.” Hiccup said casually, but his attention was already focused on the scattered items around her usual resting place.

Gustav rolled his eyes, mouthing the word ‘feeling ’ under his breath, folding his arms and watching Hiccup carefully, weight shifting slightly. The statement sounded dramatic, despite the usual accuracy.

“Well, you know me. Every year before winter comes.” Maer said from her spot in the water, caressing Riptide’s snout.

Hiccup opened his mouth to reply—

“You always do,” Gustav muttered, aiming at Hiccup's earlier comment—not loud, but not exactly under his breath either.

Hiccup glanced at him, raising a brow, but didn’t bite. “You’re both supposed to be back by now.” He ended up saying instead. His voice was calm and unbothered by the not-so-subtle comment.

“I want to head back. She doesn’t.” Gustav shrugged, voice stiff with effort. “Figured I’d stick around.” He paused. “Make sure she doesn’t go swimming until daylight or something.”

There was no humour in the comment, just the edge of someone trying too hard to sound indifferent mixed with the honesty of experience.

Hiccup recalled the few times that had actually happened and the consequences that had followed. He stepped closer to Maer’s belongings, inspecting something briefly as Toothless approached Fanghook, engaging in a ‘conversation’ of their own.

“You should go to sleep Gustav. I got this.” Hiccup ended up saying, turning to face the younger teenager fully.

Gustav huffed, glancing sideways but standing his ground. “I will go when she goes.” He said stubbornly. Chin lifted, looking at Hiccup defiantly, daring him to push him further.

With Fanghook’s fire illuminating behind him, Gustav looked rather impressive, almost imposing—or maybe he would have, if Hiccup didn’t remember that before him stood a fourteen-year-old kid trying too hard to look like a warrior.

Hiccup wasn’t sure if he should be surprised or just laugh. Suppressing a smile, he softened his voice. “I got this Gustav, you can go.” He pressed gently.

Gustav hesitated, his jaw working. He didn’t want to leave; he knew better than to leave those two alone. He didn’t argue, but his eyes darted to Maer—not with mistrust, exactly, but with unease. He was too familiar with their habits to believe that this was going to be resolved fast— which was the point of importance.

“Ffffffffff~ine.” He ended up saying, tone clipped. “But I am not leaving!” He added hurriedly, “I will be right there—” He pointed his finger towards the cliffs overlooking the beach—“Keeping watch!”

He reached into his satchel—“I will drag you back if I have to—” he pulled out the familiar-looking horn, holding it up meaningfully. “Don’t make me use this!”

“You have that? I have been looking for it!” Maer turned her full attention to the horn in Gustav’s hand; it was the one Hiccup and Fishlegs made so she could call on Riptide when they were separated, after realizing that her lungs weren't so strong as to create a call loud enough for her dragon to find her back when she first started training with them.

“You don’t need it anymore, so I am taking it in case I need Riptide.” He argued, signalling to Fanghook that they are taking flight soon, making the dragon stop the fire engulfing his body, which Hiccup took as a signal to make a campfire.

“Why would you need to call on Riptide? You have Fanghook.” Maer said back every word, dripping with disbelief, her hands moving wildly, causing the water to splash.

“In case I have to drag you out of the water!” He shot back, getting on Fanghook, who rumbled softly, the two took off toward the cliff with a quick rush of wings and air, almost like he wanted to run away while he still had the last word.

“You too Haddock! I have my eyes on you !” He added, his voice fading the further Fanghook flew.

Hiccup turned to look at Maer mouth open, his eyes screaming ‘what the fuck’. With Fanghook gone, he could barely make out the exaggerated shrug of her shoulders, meaning ‘I don’t know’.

She shook her head hearing Toothless's distinct laugh-like sounds and Riptide’s own version of a cackle— who had quite literally forced Maer on her back by diving under her and then flying out, taking her with her to the duo on land.

“Don’t laugh at that.” Hiccup said as soon as her feet hit the sand. “We—” He emphasised, gesturing his hand to everyone present— “are above that.” He lectured, earning him a chuckle from Maer, which in turn earned her a playful glare.

Salt was sticking to her skin, and Maer was definitely feeling the chill of the night now that she was out of the water. She was glad she had jumped in with only her undershirt tunic and trousers and not her whole attire. She would have to wait a bit before she put anything else on, lest she risk getting those garments soaked as well. A chill ran down her spine, remembering Sigrid’s many, many lessons on textiles and the like.

“Here you go.” Hiccup draped her cloak over her shoulders at the first notice of a shiver.

“Thank you.” Her fingers tightened around the cloak for a moment, the warmth sinking in as she exhaled more deeply than she realised. Breathing felt easier now—less tight, less forced. She let the warmth of the cloak settle over her like a second skin, running her hand along Riptide's spine as the dragon got comfortable before taking a seat in front of the campfire, leaning her back against her.

There was a brief silence between the two of them. Toothless followed Riptide's example and laid down to rest. Hiccup moved to sit down as well, stretching his legs towards the fire, reaching to Maer’s crossed ones. He could feel the steady thrum of the flames against his chest, like a heartbeat he hadn’t noticed was uneven until now.

“He really doesn’t trust me.” Hiccup chuckled, looking in the direction Gustav said he would be waiting.

“No, he doesn’t,” Maer breathed out, her voice light with amusement.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would say you had a hand in it.” Hiccup remembered the days Gustav would run after him, asking for tips and lessons. It was distracting if a little overbearing. A type of burden he seemed to have been destined to carry by himself as the ‘dragon master’.

Maer’s interference had been a gift from the gods at the time. She had taken the term academy to heart and took Gustav’s training upon herself. Even if, more often than not, she had to ask for help since she was extremely new to the practice of dragon riding as well at the time.

Gustav’s dislike for him had started to show shortly after that.

“Ha. I haven’t said or done anything to deteriorate his opinion of you.” Maer laughed, looking at him.

“Hmmm… You might have told him what your eyes see when you look at me.” He suggested playfully.

“I would never! That stuff is personal.” She replied in mock offence.

“You had no problem sharing Snotlout’s.”

“He had no problem sharing it. He was the only one I told.”

“And me.” Hiccup added in a smug way that was laced with the undertone of ‘I am right’

“Details. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to tell you at the time.” She waved her hand nonchalantly, with a chuckle.

“You still can’t see it?” Hiccup whispered, not looking up from the fire.

She shot a quick glance at Hiccup and then his surroundings before focusing back on the fire. “No… But maybe that’s a good thing.” She answered softly.

Hiccup asked that question often. He knew that. But he couldn’t help it, even though the answer never changed. And Maer never held it against him. Once she even suggested that it might be that her eyes were too weak. And had thrown herself into training to counter that. Until Gothi had informed her that her eyesight won't change just because she learned more things.

Maer was rather dejected by that. Hiccup had a hard time making her feel better after that. In her mind, Maer had failed him in a way.

“I am not sure, I would like to know what it is.” He ended up saying with a light tone.

“I think it’s a dragon. It would be weird if it were something else.” A commonly spoken phrase. That was her firm belief, and nothing anyone said would make her change her mind. To Maer, the kind of Fylgja one had was something she could tell instinctively. But there were occasions where she had been wrong, like with Gustav.

“Maybe it’s a bird.” He countered. A familiar ritual by now, she would remain firm on her belief, and he would suggest differently just to irk her.

“You don’t strike me as a bird.” She shot back with practised ease. This exact conversation was repeated many times between them since they met four years ago.

“No… I strike you as a spirit.” He accused in a teasing manner, jabbing her with his foot.

“Hey! My interpretation is poetic! And if one believes enough, plausible.” Maer laughed, moving her leg out of his reach.

“I will be sure to remember that the next time one of the younger kids asks me if I eat babies.”

“That was not me, and you know it.” She huffed, crossing her arms.

“No… You told them something else, didn’t you?” He pretended to fish around for information Maer had no problem sharing openly with him.

“Only what I think is true. And I made sure to stress that it was my belief and not the obsolete truth.” She replied academically with a smartass kind of expression.

“Of course. Because kids can always tell the difference.” Hiccup rolled his eyes with a laugh.

“Give them some credit. Children are more intuitive than you think. Maybe they reached this conclusion all on their own.” She smiled, her body shivering, water drops tickling down her neck.

The firelight caught in her eyes, turning them the colour of embers—bright, alive. His gaze drifted past her, to Riptide curled behind her, the flickering glow painting her sandy scales in shades of deep orange. Taking in the dragon’s slow, steady breathing.

“You took off her saddle,” Hiccup noted, changing the conversation, mostly intrigued rather than surprised as Maer squeezed water out of her hair.

“Yeah… Thoroughly soaked leather takes a long time to properly dry, as I learned very painfully. Not to mention the weight it adds to her.” She patted Riptide’s leg in acknowledgement.

Hiccup chuckled; he knew that, and had warned her off it many times “So you do listen to me.”

“You know I do. I just don’t always have time to properly act on your advice.” She countered in mock innocence. “But this was mostly because I was tired of Helga—” A beat, an inhale—“Mother’s constant complaining about the water stains on the wood and father’s lectures on proper maintenance didn’t help. ”

Hiccup pursed his lips together at the conscious correction. “You want a new saddle?”

“This one is good. It’s just getting it on and off many times a day that is a bit of a pain." She dismissed that idea with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Aren't you supposed to be flying to Gustav by now?" Hiccup teased lightly, gesturing towards the cliffs with his head.

"Maybe." Maer’s voice was quieter, the bright glow diminishing slightly. Moving her legs, bringing her knees closer to her chest, "But it can wait."

Hiccup frowned slightly. He tilted his head, studying her, taking in the way her shoulders were just a little more slumped than usual, even with the cloak on, the way her fingers traced absently over the fabric of her tunic, eyes focused on that.

"You’ll regret this when you can’t wake up in the morning," he tried again, nudging her with his foot.

Maer finally looked up at him, the bright glow completely gone, expression unreadable.

"Maybe." Maer’s voice was quieter, the bright glow diminishing slightly. Moving her legs, bringing her knees closer to her chest, "But it can wait."

"You’ll regret this when you can’t wake up in the morning," he tried again, nudging her with his foot.

Maer finally looked up at him, the bright glow completely gone, expression unreadable.

“Maybe it’s better that way. I don’t want it to come. I wish I could just sleep through tomorrow. The whole week, if possible.”

Hiccup looked at the night sky for a moment and then back at Maer. “It will be a nice day tomorrow.” He said with a type of certainty that could come only from hope rather than knowledge.

"No, it won’t. Not this time." Maer said, voice distant. "Tomorrow will come to an end and bring another and another. And another fucking tomorrow. Until the end of the week reaches me.” She added the last part with a little more exhaustion. “I don’t want the end of the week to reach me.”

“It will be fine, just like all the other times.” Hiccup said, trying to sound a bit encouraging. “You have done this many times already.

She exhaled sharply, like the air was too heavy to hold. Shaking her head, she leaned backwards against Riptide, looking up. "No. This is different. I’m scared." She breathed the last part.

Hiccup inhaled quietly, as if trying to breathe for her when she couldn’t; his throat felt tight.

He wasn’t sure what to do with that confession other than to let out a barely audible, “Of what?”

It was a fair question for his part, Maer had been talking his ear off about the greatness and the possibilities that would open when this ceremony finally arrived for the last four years. And now that it was here, she seemed to be dreading it.

“I… I don’t know”

Silence settled between them.

His first instinct was to respond—to say something to fill the quiet, to reason with her, to try to ease whatever had twisted inside her to make her sound so… tired .

But he didn’t.

Because he recognised this. The way her hands moved to curl slightly against her knees. The way her eyes looked at the sky with a lost gaze, like she was holding back something too heavy to say aloud.

This wasn’t common, Maer was never scared of tomorrows or ceremonies. But this one was different, this one would be ‘special’ in a way that would define everything moving forward. And that was a terrifying thing to carry. Hiccup knew that.

He looked at her a moment longer, taking in her expression.

She wasn’t looking for reassurance. She wasn’t even looking for comfort.

His throat felt dry, words dying before they could form. He almost— almost —reached for her, his fingers twitching at his sides. His chest ached—not pain, but something hollow, like something was missing—he hesitated, something about the moment felt fragile, like touching it the wrong way might make it shatter.

So instead, he moved, scouched closer to sit beside her. Close enough that their shoulders brushed. Close enough that she knew he was there.

"Okay," he murmured.

And that was all.

And it was enough.

The fire crackled. The waves lapped quietly at the shore.

“Maer! Get over here already!” Gustav’s screams echoed through the silence.

They looked at each other, chuckling as Maer shook her head.

“Honestly, those two.” Gustav grumbled to Fanghook. “And then she asks what I need Riptide’s summoning horn for.” He added, rolling his eyes.

Fanghook, in a rare moment of equal exasperation, let out an agreeing hum.

Tomorrow came, like it always did.

Hiccup was right, Gustav was right. Who would have thought? Waking up was hard, and her arrival the night before was met with a very anxious-looking Helga and a tired, almost solemn Sveinn, followed by a mini lecture on the importance of safety and a proper sleep schedule.

Which she tried to counter with the excuse of the upcoming winter and therefore the lack of swimming she would have to endure. Her parents were not impressed or understanding with her reasoning, and was told to just go to bed before the sun started to rise.

And so she did.

Mornings were a terrible thing; she hated getting out of bed, hated getting dressed, hated the cold morning due. Even Riptide was wary of mornings. Her sensitivity to the sunlight is a constant, definitive factor in their flight schedule. The cold seeped into her bones before she even left the covers. The stiffness in her limbs reminded her she’d fallen asleep curled up again. Mornings weren’t just cruel—they were relentless.

Maer groaned as she turned onto her chest, huddling further in the warmth of her bed. She tugged harshly on her covers, pulling them over her head to muffle the sound of the morning horn.

Every morning she understood Hiccup's question: why didn't their village have a rooster wake them up like other settlements and instead had a madman—that was almost deaf at this point—who loved to blow the damned huge, resonant horn by the Great Hall. Coincidentally, he also decided that at the first indication of the sun rising, it was time to wake up the village—Even if the sky was still so dark, one could easily assume that an eternal night was upon them.

The horn blew, and all at once, the house burst into life, doors slammed open and heavy steps were heard against the wood. Maer did her best to enjoy her last few moments of peace before her fate came for her. Riptide and Sveinn had an unspoken agreement about how they would prompt her out of bed. The word prompt was—of course—used lightly here, nothing about the process was encouraging, it was just and inevitable.

Sveinn would knock on her door–

“Maer wake up! It’s morning!” Cue the knock and his enthusiastic voice, placed in—what she thought was—the most unusual parts of the day.

Maer groaned loudly to let him know that she heard him but was choosing to stay in bed. Not that that would solve anything. Sveinn and Riptide would still force her out of bed.

And right on schedule, Riptide, her beloved dragon and the biggest thorn in her side, moved with ease around her bed and with a nudge that was gentle only by the dragon’s standards, pushed her off the bed. Covers and everything.

“Oof”, she let out a breathy grunt as she went from snuggling on her bed to plummeting down to the floor. There was a time when the shock from the fall would have been enough to jolt her mind awake.

“For fuck’s sake… Every time.” She grumbled, looking at the sharp eyes looming over her as she tried untangling herself from her covers and blankets.

Riptide rumbled excitedly, her claws clicking against the wooden floor as she bounded around Maer, poking her insistently with a paw. “I’m up, I’m up!” Maer laughed, swatting at the dragon’s paw. Riptide’s wings flared as she hopped in circles, the floor creaking –no doubt notifying her parents, and maybe the few people already out and about, that they were now up–, her tail swinging wildly and narrowly missing the chair.

Maer shook her head with a soft chuckle, the dragon’s infectious energy chasing away her morning broodiness. She moved to the chair where her clothes lay, stretching life into her heavy limbs.

She took a moment to look at her arms after taking off her nightshirt. She looked at her scars, tracing her fingers over the one specific bite-shaped one, remembering how she got it and even those she couldn’t remember, those she was more curious about rather than charmed by.

She liked her scars, Helga’s influence, she referred to her own as medals from life, and there was usually something beautiful about scars, if eye-grasping. Maer recalled someone saying something about a lived life.

But the thing she liked the most about her scars was the point they proved.

Another knock on the door, a little louder this time. “Don’t tell me you fell asleep again?” Sveinn teased her through the door.

Maer scoffed loudly in mock-offence. “I am getting dressed.” She said pointedly.

Sveinn told her to hurry up or she would be late, as he walked away.

Her eyes landed on the clothing laid out on the ‘forbidden chest’—Maer’s name for the wooden chest placed at the foot of her bed. The one filled with all the things she was never allowed to touch unless it was for special occasions. Or a seasonal chance. Every fragile, expensive and rare thing she possessed was in that chest, closed off and far away from the chaos of every day.

Maer glared at the clothing as she walked to the chair by her desk, positioned opposite her bed. Helga must have taken them out to air out and wash them before Maer had to wear them later this week.

There was the bitter taste of anxiety in her mouth as she took in the appearance of the long beautiful light blue dress paired with a darker blue hangerock, a woven belt made with white and blue strings and a blue apron the same shade as the dress. All of which was accompanied and fasted with brooches strung with beads and necklaces for decoration.

Most jewellery was stored away with Helga for safekeeping. Maer liked shiny things and would open the ‘forbidden’ chest whenever she remembered it contained anything that sparkled enough under light. Making Helga take them away and hiding them just in case Maer lost them.

Maer grimaced, putting on her normal clothes, letting out a yawn and petting Ripride, who was rubbing her snout on her stomach as soon as she had put her undershirt on.

Helga probably placed the clothes there yesterday night before she came back. She was in such a hurry to get to sleep that she never even saw them.

She sighed, the image of the accursed set of clothing being an unmistakable reminder of her upcoming duties.

Maybe ‘accursed’ wasn’t the right word; she liked the clothes, but currently, she hated what they symbolised.

She swallowed back the nervousness that came with the ocean of possibilities that could go wrong during the ceremony and walked closer to the ‘forbidden’ chest to inspect the clothes.

She doubted she would be wearing the extra apron. She never did. Much to Helga’s general disdain.

Maer finished getting dressed and fastening her belt, putting on the neck ring she had gotten as a gift during her first Snoggletog, apparently, Hiccup had noticed her attraction to shiny things. She still remembered how much Ruffnut and Snotlout had complained about it when they were all giving it to her.

Taking a deep breath and shaking her head, she opened the door of her room and walked down to the main room, followed by her dragon.

She moved deliberately slowly. Helga mentioned -far too many times- that her steps were loud on the stairs. Maer took that personally and made it her goal not to cause an earthquake every time she walked. Her hand glided on the wall to balance her dragon, mimicking her exaggerated caution comically.

“Maer? What are you doing up there?” Helga asked from the bottom of the stairs, looking at her funny.

“I am trying to come down quietly,” Maer answered, her focus remaining on her feet.

Helga shook her head. “Can you two stop this nonsense and come down to eat? You will be late.”

Surprised at the mention of “two”, Maer looked over her shoulder at Riptide, who was creeping along, now frozen in her overly dramatic stealth walk. Left front foot and right back foot tip-toeing while her two other legs were raised as far from the stairs as possible. She narrowed her eyes, sceptical brown meeting pale green as her dragon just feigned ignorance.

“Maer!” Helga's sharp tone broke their little stare game.

“Coming!” She called back, leaping down the remaining stairs with a loud thump . A terrible decision in hindsight, as pain spread through her legs. But she was getting better.

Hurrying to scurry away from her landing spot as Riptide did the same, creating an even bigger sound and even rattling the mugs on the table. So much for not causing an earthquake.

Helga just held on to one of the shaky mugs, her expression resigned.

Maer slid to her seat at the table, mimicking Helga's action with an innocent, sleepy look. She still wasn’t awake enough for this. The sun barely touched the sky, and yet here she was—dodging stairs, dodging dragons, dodging Helga’s disapproving stare.

“Why?” Helga flatly with a deadpan expression.

“Because it's time efficient and fun?” Maer answered innocently, filling her mug with water. The tension from yesterday’s lecture lingered between them, unspoken, as if they’d silently agreed to pretend it hadn’t happened. She took a sip of water, her eyes flicking toward Riptide.

“Doesn't it hurt when you do that?” A voice that should be expected at this point made her choke on her water in surprise.

“Gustav? You are here already? When did you even get up?” She coughed, wiping the water that had spilled from her mouth.

"I didn’t wake up early. You and Riptide just take too long." He replied, taking a sip from his own mug.

“Early bird gets the worm Maer,” Sveinn said, entering the main room with Riptide following him, matching his pace.

“How early of a bird? The horn was blown mere minutes ago.” She mumbled, taking another sip of water, focusing her eyes on Gustav as she drank.

“Clearly early enough to be on time for breakfast before the person who lives here.” Helga pointed out playfully, putting the food on the plates.

“Oh, yeah.” Gustav looked rather proud at the distinction.

“Now eat and go get ready. Or you will be late. The both of you.” She reminded her.

“I am ready,” Maer replied, looking up at her. “Besides, Gothi wakes up late.” She had a love-hate relationship with Gothi’s hut most days.

She had more reasons to hate it than to love it.

She loved it for the wisdom it offered- all the healing techniques and knowledge Gothi had on medicine and botany.

She hated it because of the parade of idiots who wanted treatment instead of needing it. Sveinn always said that describing people as stupid was wrong and a poison of the mind. He was right, probably. She just didn’t know how , exactly. She hated the visitors who would seek Gothi out and scare her for the fun of it. And she hated the feeling of dooming unease whenever she learned and practised any of the ritualistic parts of Gothi’s profession.

“Did you wash your face?” Sveinn asked knowingly just as Helga placed the breakfast he had cooked on the table, taking a seat.

“No….” Maer admitted sheepishly, her leg starting to shake intensely.

“Then eat and wash your face so you can go to Gothi’s,” Sveinn said, caressing her hair with gentle but heavy movement. The kind that, if Maer wasn’t careful about, would move her head back with it.

“Fine…” She agreed in an exasperated voice, picking up a piece of bread, finally deciding to eat.

“Oh, Ms. Larson has some new threads she wants you to take a look at,” Helga remembered. She sounded like she wanted to gag with every word that left her mouth. She petted Riptide's snout, who circled around the table, sniffing at the food without much interest.

Maer’s face cringed at the name, she swallowed a bite of food and the insult at the edge of her tongue “This early?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, eyes drifting to Gustav, who shrugged.

“Certainly not. You can go by her house after you are done with your tasks for the day, if you have time.” Sveinn said, dipping his bread in the stew without looking up. “And what about you Gustav? What’s on your schedule for the day?”

“Oh, probably some flight practice, and I am not sure what else… I will probably get some fighting practice in the pits.” Poor Gustav realised what he had done far too late.

“The pits? There is a whole arena just for training purposes.” Helga said, frowning, turning to Maer.

Maer sighed internally, and Gustav pushed the stew around with his spoon as they got ready for what was to follow. Pity, this could have been a nice, quiet, fast breakfast. Now they are both gonna get lectured. At least they will start their morning in a nice sceptical state with very clear objectives to accomplish.

“You are still not allowed to use the arena?” Sveinn asked in a flat voice, already knowing the answer.

“Well, I tried to ask Hiccup and the other’s but he is usually busy or away flying, and most of the others are not… open to conversation,” Gustav explained, just as frustrated as he did the first time he complained about it.

There was a time when he would happily ignore this and push to be seen, but he knew it was futile, and why try to make them like him anyway? He was pretty well-liked amongst his peers, and he already had a mentor. Still, it stung that they were so obvious about avoiding him, though.

“Maer?” Sveinn addressed her, asking for elaboration. As their friend and one of the original dragon riders, she was the best person to create a clearer picture. Not that there was much to clear up.

“I told the others about it.” She said, looking at Sveinn.

“And?” Helga prompted.

“And the kids are still using the pits, so,” She added in an obvious tone, putting air quotations around the word pits. They weren’t pits exactly, so it wasn't the right term, mostly crudely shaped circles made with small rocks in the grass area in the lower part of the village.

Sveinn frowned. "And you haven't done something about it?" He directed the question to Gustav

"Yeah," Gustav muttered, stabbing at his food. "Because someone —" he shot a look at Maer "—won't talk to the chief."

"Why would I go to the chief?" Maer scoffed, leaning back. "I told you guys to do it yourselves. But you didn’t seem interested"

Silence followed her words, not a sound was made besides Riptide's small groan as she laid down, taking note of the tense atmosphere. Maer sighed and leaned back on her chair, crossing her arms.

"They think it’s snitching," Gustav sighed.

Helga set down her spoon a little too hard. "Then they’re children playing warrior instead of actually learning how to fight."

"Most are too busy to think about it. Astrid is training for the Berk guard, Hiccup is either out flying or working at the forge and Fishlegs is busy teaching. That leaves Snotlout who isn’t familiar with the term sharing—he complains even when the Berk guard uses the arena to train—and the twins who see the arrival of any ‘newcomer’ as a potential victim for their ‘pranks’.” She used a lot of quotations to pass off the right meanings.

“A lot of the younger kids avoid the arena when Gobber isn’t with them since they are scared of the pranks,” Gustav added. A just fear, most of those pranks did cause bodily harm in various degrees.

“And instead of talking to the chief, they prefer to be left with no place to properly train without Gobber, whose method of teaching leaves much to be desired,” Helga grumbled, her own leg starting to shake.

Maer turned her gaze to Gustav’s shoulder, where a deep scar was hiding behind his tunic sleeves, as her fingers traced the straight line etched onto her wrist. Both accidents occurred under Gobber’s watch. And although Helga liked the blacksmith, she had been less appreciative of his ‘learn on the job’ approach since then.

“He probably already knows.” Gustav answered with displeasure as he swallowed his food.

“Stoick is fair. If no one goes to him, then he probably doesn’t think there is a problem.” Helga explained kindly to him.

“Helga is right.” Sveinn spoke. “You should go to the chief and talk to him about this.” He looked at Gustav, “Today.” He added, his voice leaving no room for argument.

“Can’t you do it?” He turned to look around the table, hoping someone would volunteer.

“View this as a lesson, Gustav. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t like. It might be easier to not involve the chief, but there is no point if you end up on the losing end constantly.” Sveinn tried to encourage him.

Maer tapped her fingers against her mug, thinking. If it had to be something they couldn't ignore… She smiled in a way that made her look almost as sinister as her dragon.

"Okay," she started, tilting her head, "so after you talk to the chief..."

Gustav frowned. "What now?"

"...tell the others we’ll be doing combat practice in the arena tomorrow."

His frown deepened. "The arena?"

Maer smirked. "The arena."

“Maer, you can’t force them to join.” Helga tried to argue without any real conviction.

“I won’t be forcing anyone to join.” She said back.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Gustav asked, looking at her.

“Who's gonna stop me?” She shrugged her shoulders.

“Maer.”

“Father”

“You shouldn’t go behind their backs when things don’t go your way.”

“I’m not,” Maer justified. “I’m not trying to trick them, I am just trying to be fair.” She met Sveinn’s eyes. “You always tell me to be fair. So that’s what I’m doing.”

“I might not be as good of a teacher as Fishlegs and Hiccup or Astrid, but the arena is just sitting there! At this point the only ones with regular access are the Berk guard! So what if I use it? If the place is for dragon riders and I am a dragon rider, I am just exercising my rights. I’m also, coincidentally, inviting a couple of kids to come with me.”

“We are more than a couple” Gustav butt in.

“Semantics. I can fight them if it comes down to it.” She lifted her chin. "Not literally—well, maybe literally—but you know what I mean.”

“Maer, don’t get in a fight. Keep it for next week.” Helga said, taking a drink from her mug.

Maer swallowed back the groan and complaints she had about Helga’s concern for this entire week.

“I will try to keep it as an intellectual fight.” She reasoned. “And considering who I will be ‘fighting’, it won’t be that much of a task.” She added smugly.

“Maer,” Sveinn said with clear scolding in his voice.

Now it was Maer’s turn to rethink her words and prepare herself for a lecture that was only meant for her.

Helga laughed along with Gustav while Sveinn sighed, and the tension at the table dispersed.

“Alright then! Everyone ready?” Sveinn asked, full of energy, as he got up and pulled on his cloak. Behind him, Riptide trotted eagerly, excited at the idea of getting out, letting out happy, whiny warbles as she did so.

Maer blinked several times, trying to banish the numbness that came with lecuring out of her head. She shot up off her chair, cracking her neck and stretching her back as she did so.

Maer and Gustav hurried to the door, putting on their own cloaks, preparing for the rough late autumn morning.

“Don’t run!” Helga shouted, still sitting at the table. Unlike everyone else, her day started a little earlier.

“Sorry mom!”

“Sorry Helga!”

Both of them said at the same time. Using the same unapologetic tone.

Maer handed Gustav his saddle before taking her own from the hanger as well, turning it left to right, making sure everything she needed was on it. After Gustav had become a regular part of their morning—and sometimes night—routine, he started leaving his saddle at their house as a precaution. Mrs Larsson had a habit of trading anything and everything in order to get something she wanted, and more often than not, that included Fankhook’s saddle.

Maer had to then help Gustav find something else to exchange it for, since Mrs Larsson never agreed on giving anything else in place of the saddle. That always irked Maer. Gustav’s relationship with the Larssons was one of the reasons she had agreed to help him two winters ago.

“Also! No water!” Helga continued getting out of her seat and gathering the leftover plates and mugs.

“What! Mum!” Maer whined at the ban, wasn’t it enough that she would have to spend an entire winter out of the sea?

“I mean it, Maer. I better not hear that you went to the beach.”

“What about Riptide? She needs to eat!” Maer tried to plead her case, glaring at Gustav, who was snickering.

“Can’t she have fish just for this week?” Helga suggested.

“She never does!”

“Well, the ceremony is this week, and I can’t leave the kitchens to make sure you don’t catch a cold now that it’s getting colder.”

“It will be fine, Helga.” Sveinn reassured his wife. “She hasn’t gotten sick as of yet.”

“Exactly!” Maer agreed.

Helga took a moment to think about what everyone was saying, “Gustav! You are on Maer duty today!” she announced. “Make sure she is kept out of the water!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Gustav tried saluting in response, keeping one arm wrapped around his saddle. Terrible choice really, as the fall of the item that followed was inevitable. The saddle was still too big for him to hold in one arm.

“What? Don’t say yes to that!” Maer said in mock offence, attempting to lift Gustav’s fallen saddle upright with her foot as he scooped to hold it again.

“I have to listen to my elders.” He replied innocently.

“Now you want to listen to your elders?” She said, moving her leg to try and kick him half heartedly while Gustav, with equally little effort, avoided her kicks.

“Maer, stop bothering Gustav.” Sveinn said, gently pushing them both out of the door.

“Can I get your bow?” He asked, eyeing the completely unstrung bow, shaped like perfectly curved yak horns, safely tied in its place on the saddle.

Maer had made a habit of taking her bow with her after Gustav had taken it with him a couple of times in order to get in some practice. A harmless action, in hindsight. She didn’t always need the weapon with her. It became far less harmless when some of the other kids decided to take it away.

“No.”

“Why not?” He whined as he walked outside, tuning to look at Maer, his voice pitching a little higher as the cold morning air hit him.

“Because last time, you got jumped, beaten and had the bow taken from you.” Maer shivered, stretching her hands over her head, trying to keep the saddle as far from him as possible.

Maer was angry with what happened and did little to hide it, from the kids, from her friends, from Gustav, from her parents. Other than the obvious dislike that came with people taking her things, she didn’t like the possible negative impacts that could befall those involved. She had half a mind to tell Gothi just to scare them a little. But she apparently didn't need to, the wind it for her.

“It happened one time!”

“How many more times does it need to happen, then?”

“Come ooooonnnn! I will be careful!”

“No Gustav! Even Gothi said so.” Maer said again.

Gothi ended up stepping in anyway, clearly more displeased with everyone involved—including Maer and Gustav. She demanded a mass meeting between all the concerned parties with Gobber—ever the gossip—enthusiastically translating Gothi’s scribbles, Maer was benched for that one, considering she was also getting lectured.

An unusual event, besides the petty acts of violence and theft, this wasn’t important enough for the village elder to bother herself with this kind of dispute. But perhaps like Maer, she decided it was better to be safe than sorry. Even though the old woman had claimed it was just a bow after all.

After that, Gustav could still use the bow but not borrow it; Maer had to be present from that moment on.

“Time to go, the sun is almost up. Gustav, you and Fanghook want to help me at the workshop today?” Sveinn redirected the conversation.

“Sure!” Since Gustav’s only clear objective was to talk to the chief, and his training got postponed to whenever Gothi deemed Maer finished with her lessons, he had a good chunk of time to spare.

Sveinn was a carpenter, and a picky one at that. As far as Maer knew, he had never taken in an apprentice, but he would teach Gustav whenever he was doing something that he considered easy. Of course, what was easy would vary per person.

He, Sveinn, was in charge of building most houses when the dragon raids were still a thing, and was now focusing more on building the new facilities that were needed with the dragons joining them. Which meant he had to interact with Hiccup very often. Not at first though, in the beginning he was happy to get the plans delivered to him and the rest of the carpenters—usually by Gobber—and get to work but after there was a disagreement about materials and placement of the facility, he decided that working directly with the person designing most of the things they need to build is the wisest choice.

“Great, then go to the stables and get Fanghook and come find me.”

“Okay!”

“Wait, did you say bye to Helga?”

“No…” Gustav said slowly.

“You pushed us out.” Maer added.

“Then go back in and say bye first.”

The flight to Gothi’s hut was a simple affair, she would forever be thankful to Riptide for making the trip no matter the weather.

She and Gustav bid goodbye to Helga and went back outside. The sky was barely a few shades brighter than the usual night sky. And the cold air bit on her skin, making her grimace. But even though it was a terrible thing to wake up at the crack of dawn to help a stubborn old… person with the sick and wounded, she still felt a little bad for Gustav. Dealing with so many carpenters all in one place wasn’t ideal, even with Sveinn there; like most of the village, they liked to gossip. And their favourite topic was usually the absence of Mr Larsson.

She helped Riptide to get the saddle on, double checked the buckle and put the sweet bread that Helga had given her—something she remembered about when Maer and Gustav went back in—in the bag hanging to the side of the saddle before getting on and saying goodbye, leaping into the air.

She always wondered why Gothi built her hut at the highest point of Berk, looking down over the village. Every impractical location, especially considering Gothi’s function as a healer. At first, Maer thought to prevent those faking being sick from going through all the trouble of climbing at the very top. Before the dragons, they even had to pass by Mildew's house, a great displeasure. But that couldn’t have been it since Maer had witnessed a vast amount of people in no need of medical attention. Then she considered it was to avoid the noise of the village, but that couldn’t have been either, if the pack of Terrible Terrors she has adopted are any indication.

Weird old hag. Maer always thought so, ever since she met the woman, many of the things she did made no sense, but who was she to judge that?

The wood thumped and creaked as they landed on the platform in front of the hut, scaring the sleeping pack of Terrible Terrors awake, sending them flying a small circle around the hut before they settled back down, some in Riptide's spot on the platform, and others on the roof.

“Sorry guys,” Maer whispered as she got off Riptide, her boots hitting the wood.

Those tiny menaces had taken an immense liking to her dragon’s makeshift shade spot. They had built it as soon as Fishlegs mentioned the Sand Wraith’s sensitivity to the sunlight. It was covered with an old ship sail. Not the prettiest by far, but it got the job done, and it did fit the hut’s aesthetic, considering that every part of it was made in the likeness of ship parts—like the rest of the village.

At first, Fishlegs was worried that the Terrible Terrors' habit of ‘borrowing’ Riptide's space would create hostility between them, but there was no such thing. It took a while before either species got used to the other, but there was no real aggressiveness. They would even cuddle with Riptide now.

Much like their human—or maybe because of—these Terrible Terrors loved to sleep, and so every morning when Maer would unfortunately wake them up, they would huddle together again as a way of preserving heat and fall asleep again.

A useless endeavour for the next ten minutes.

She dove her hand into the bag looking for something other than the sweet bread she had stuffed in there. “Ah–Ha!” She whispered the exclamation triumphantly, dramatically taking out the shoulder strap she was looking for.

Riptide rolled her eyes at her human’s antics, softly beating her with her tail to make her hurry up.

“Yeah, yeah. I am getting to it.” Maer whispered with her own eye-roll, taking the bag off the saddle and hooking the shoulder strap on, wearing it as a satchel. Sveinn’s idea, so that she didn’t have to carry a lot of things every time she had to go out. She undid the buckles of the saddle and took it off of Riptide, holding it above her head with both hands.

“Have fun hunting.” She whispered, pressing her forehead against her dragon’s snout in goodbye. “Try to be back soon.” She added.

The dragon shook her body and stretched her wings open, and flew off towards the beach to get started on her own breakfast.

Maer looked at the horizon, following the increasingly smaller frame of her dragon, her eyes squinting at the increasing light.

She moved her gaze to the door and took a deep breath, feeling perhaps a little too happy about what she had to do next. She bit her lip —trying and failing— to keep back a grin from forming. The area around them was so serene. Soft air blowing despite the height, the sun steadily rising, the villagers going about their daily lives, creating a kind of lived-in noise.

Really… She shouldn’t be this excited.

“GOOD MORNING!” She kicked in the door, startling every creature in or on the hut. She felt too smug seeing Gothi jolt awake. This single moment made all the wacks she was about to receive absolutely worthy. Maer supposed she was to Gothi what Sveinn was to her in the mornings.

Riptide glided smoothly through the sky, following the familiar route to the beach at the back of the island. She was about to make her descent when a black blur passed by her, moving upwards.

The Sand Wraith let out a small sound of surprise, stilling and hovering in the air, already too familiar with this routine thanks to her human and her companions. This pair in particular liked to make their presence known by disrupting her flight course.

The black blur made a wide curve in the sky, and Riptide took it as her signal to keep moving forward. The Night Fury and his human would have no problem reaching her, and the sun was rising.

The absence of Maer was obvious to Hiccup from the moment he and Toothless started to follow the arched trajectory, which had him sitting upside down.

“Good morning!” Hiccup said as Toothless’s larger body reached Riptide’s side, gliding with her. He could now easily detect the absence of the dragon’s saddle. “Ah, it seems we have interrupted you on your way to breakfast.” He added with a light, almost playful tone.

Riptide’s general refrain for eating fish showed soon after she—and the other dragons—passed her first winter in the village, rather than in the beach. She left her meal untouched and frequently disappeared during mornings and late evenings. No one had noticed it at first because the Sand Wraith would take Maer with her, and other dragons would eat her fish.

The disappearances were attributed to the duo needing to get used to each other, and the lack of knowledge was attributed to their own absence of communication. Maer didn’t think she had to let anyone know, after all, they were the ones teaching her. And as for themselves, no one ever considered that a dragon would eat anything other than fish and meat. They knew what Sand Wraiths were, their ancestors had observed their hunting habits—just not their eating ones.

Fishlegs was so enthusiastic with this discovery that he had to literally be pried away from Maer and Riptide, both of whom looked equally awkward and unable to provide him with answers, even though one of them didn’t have a speech barrier.

Hiccup would smile and let out a tiny laugh every time he found Riptide flying saddleless, remembering the occurrence as well as Fishlegs's many pleadings to Maer to allow him to study her dragon.

“Don’t let us keep you.” Hiccup said pleasantly, gently tagging the metal handles of his saddle backwards to let Toothless know they should go up. “Have fun hunting.” He added as Toothless uttered his own version of a goodbye.

Riptide returned the sentiment and continued her descent to the beach.

The beating of her wings moved, unsettling the sand underneath her as she landed, the soft ground swallowing the sound of the dragon’s footsteps. Riptide moved around sniffing and padding the ground, looking for the right spot.

She folded her wings and aimed them towards the sand, having found the perfect spot. The smaller spikes adorned on the metacarpus of her wings, as well as the wing claws, were of great assistance when she had to burrow in the sand.

Riptide carefully dug herself in the sand, her wings helping her cover her entire body with it. Humans called it hunting, but really it was ambushing, waiting for an unsuspecting creature to come too close.

She let out a satisfied hum.

Now she just had to lie in wait.

Next Chapter →

#httyd #how to train your dragon #httyd fanfiction #hiccup haddock #Hiccup x oc #httyd fanfic #hiccup fanfiction #hiccup horrendous haddock iii #echoes of belonging #httyd oc

10 notes · View notes