#this became so long dlafjklsj

[earthry]

Dragon Secondo & Copia and a Human Reader (OT3 Headcanons)

This is for @copiasjuicebox!

tw: violence, hurt/comfort, angst, fluff, whump, enemies to lovers, secondo and copia are NOT related, not proof read or edited, happy ending, poly relationship, ot3, secondo/copia/reader. more dragon hc content.

Secondo knew you first.

He rubs it in Copia's face every chance he gets, reminding the other dragon that all your firsts belonged to him too.

When you lived in that castle all alone and scared, when you were abandoned by the king to a cruel fate; he was your first protector, your friend friend, your first love.

It was him who held you in his arms during the nights of the first few months (even though at first it was so you would stop that awful crying), when you had trouble adjusting, when you were anxious about knights coming to take you away to a life you didn't want.

Him that showed you kindness despite his prickly behavior, teaching you to cook and take care of yourself. Showing you how to do mundane things you were never taught. He never called you foolish or dumb or stupid or selfish for not knowing these things.

He may have been a little emotionally distant at times, may have been hard to communicate with, but he was all you had and you loved him. He loved you too, but he was always afraid to tell you so he never did.

He should have though. He should have told you every single morning and every single night. He should have held you closer, treasured you more. Should have let you know how much you meant to him instead of letting you guess because he didn't want to be vulnerable.

You were hiding when you first hear those dreaded lies leave his mouth. Confronting more knights, he had been annoyed. Rather than killing them right away, he had tried to turn them away first. He didn't know you weren't in the library anymore, that you had finished your book and gone to search for him.

You didn't know he had felt that way about you. The lies he spun that he never meant for you to hear. That you were pain, that you could barely take care of yourself. That you were a burden. You were undesirable, unwanted. That's why the king sent you so far away after all. Besides, you were used goods. He'd already taken his fill of you and surely these knights wouldn't want the leftovers, would they?

You'd heard of heartbreak, read about it even. But you've never experienced it till now and all this time you'd always thought to yourself: surely it cannot be that bad, can it?

You were wrong. You never knew you could feel like this, never knew that pain like this felt like drowning above water, felt like a growing blackhole in your chest.

Second was right, all your firsts do belong to him. First betrayal, first heartbreak, first deceiver, first realization of how foolish and naive you were.

You lock yourself away in your room for a few days, refusing to come out no matter how much Secondo tries to coax you from your haven.

You decide to leave, unable to stand having to see him everyday and know that he's been lying to you, know that he never loved you, that he thinks the worst of you.

You take off in the middle of the night and try not to take anything that's his, only taking what is yours (which isn't a lot).

When he discovers that you're gone, he practically tears his entire tower to the ground, searching. He calls your name for as long as he can until his voice is a low painful rasp and his lungs can no longer scream.

He's ruthless to anyone he comes by, interrogating and ripping them to shreds. He cannot be consoled for losing his love, his heart, his soulmate. He will never stop looking for you.

---

Copia was the one that found you.

He reminds this to Secondo whenever the man gets too cocksure of himself.

The world is a harsh place and you discover this quickly when you leave the safety of your tower. Money and food and supplies; these are all things you do not have and have no idea how to obtain or earn. Eventually you end up on Copia's doorstep, the entrance of a cave as you attempted to seek shelter as your last shreds of consciousness began to slip away. You were barely hanging in there when he discovered you; half frozen, half starved to death.

He takes you to his tower and slowly nurses you back to health. You don't trust him one bit, especially when you discover that he's a dragon. It hits too close to home, too close to the heart when you had just left yours behind.

He doesn't understand your distrust but he doesn't push and gives you all the time in the world.

When you're healthy again, he asks if you would like to stay. He's been lonely for a while and it would be nice to have someone in the tower to talk to.

You have nowhere to go anyways, so you reluctantly stay. You avoid him at all costs at first, using the rats to send messages to him instead of looking for him and speaking to him directly.

After the first few months with Copia, snow begins to fall and he asks you if you want to go to the surface to see it.

You do, and he takes you to see it. For the first time in a long time, you smile.

From then on, you're a little more trusting and willing to be around Copia. You become friends and learn more about him and find that he's awkward and silly and wonderful company.

You should have known you were falling in love, but you realized it too late. You practically have a panic attack and you avoid him for a whole week. He's concerned but he tries to give you space.

He knows you've had your heart broken before and he vows to never make the same mistake.

It's a struggle and a fight for the two of you but eventually, you fall into each other's arms and you tentatively accept his love.

For a while, it's enough. Even if you don't stop loving Secondo, even if you think about him at least once every day. Even if you miss him like you're missing a part of yourself. It's enough. It has to be enough.

He doesn't want you anyways.

---

The first time Copia and Secondo meet, it's almost a bloodbath. Secondo sees you in Copia's arms and the only thing he sees is red.

You manage to get in between them and they stop, though both are injured in some way. You tell them to stop and you ask why they're fighting.

Secondo's expression softens so much when he addresses you, and he tells you with a low growl at Copia that you are his.

The words feel gutting and you immediately burst into tears. The two dragons let out panicked and surprised noises and immediately try to comfort you.

You tell Secondo you heard every single word of what he had said and he looks horrified. He promise, swears that of it is true. He was only trying to get the knights to turn back. He gets to his knees for you, begs you to believe him. He would never, ever feel that way about you.

After carrying the hurt around for so long, you're not sure if you believe him.

You tell him with a shaky voice that he's never told you that he loves you, that he never shows it. You voice your insecurities and he tells you that he never said anything because he was afraid to. He realizes now how foolish it was of him, and he confesses all his own insecurities to you.

Hearing this, you finally let your heart start to hope just a tiny bit and you collapse into his arms. He holds you so so tight, finally having you back with him is like his heart is whole again. He never ever wants to let you go.

You tell him you missed him too, that you had thought you were unwanted. He gives you all the reassurances and love you need.

When emotions die down, another problem arises.

Copia. He's a good boy, he gave the two of you space to talk and when he returns, he looks uncertain.

He looks like he's bracing himself for you to take off with Secondo and while he says it's okay and that he'll manage, you know too much about heartache to mistake the expression he wears as anything else.

It takes a lot of negotiation but for now, Copia agrees to go with the two of you to Secondo's tower. Secondo hates the idea of Copia being around you, of him touching you or even looking at you, but he knows you love him.

He's hurt you so much already he can't stand the idea of hurting you more.

Co-existence takes time to get used to. Copia and Secondo are always posturing and posting up against each other-- Secondo more than Copia, but as Copia begins to realize that he's not in risk of being thrown away by you he starts standing up for himself more.

They do things to rile each other up on purpose, pulling you in to give you a kiss or press your body flush against their body and whispering things in your ear until you flush the prettiest colors of red.

It's constantly a war between the two of you and while it drives you nuts, they manage to keep it tame enough to live together for a longterm. Eventually Secondo relents to your pleading and tells Copia he can stay longer and bring his rats (but if they get into his things he'll eat them-- you were horrified at first but then he whispered in your ear that he's bluffing because he'd never do anything to upset you like that).

You spend the rest of winter together and soon spring comes and goes and summer is upon the three of you. The heat is oppressive.

You don't realize it has that much of an affect on Secondo until he collapses one day while you are out in the sun. You panic and you call Copia crying.

He comforts you and promises Secondo will be okay-- he takes Secondo and carries him back to the tower with you in tow closely behind.

When Secondo regains consciousness he admits sheepishly that he may have pushed himself too much-- he's the strongest in winter and weakest in the summer. The heat is a little too much for him especially with the summers getting hotter and hotter.

He shouldn't be under direct contact under the sun but he'd wanted to spend more time with you and you were so happy to go out each time. You're a little heartbroken to know he pushed himself for you but he promises you that he's okay.

The only issue is that his body has been strained way too much and he can't really get out of bed that often. Kind of like how animals hibernate, his body begins to shut down little by little to conserve energy and heal. He needs constant cold regulation in the room and you often sit by his bed with a cold towel and icepacks. You're worried but he assures you that it'll only last a few weeks to a month at the most.

For the first time, he has a talk with Copia. A true talk and a show of trust-- he entrusts your care and wellbeing and happiness to Copia while he's still sick and bedridden and Copia swears to him that he will do everything and anything to make sure of it.

This is when things begin to change.

You are not alone in taking care of Secondo-- Copia surprisingly helps a lot. Actually, he takes over a lot of the duties like cooking and making sure the room is cool. Secondo scowls at the first time when Copia comes in with a tub of ice and goes 'what the fuck are you doing?' and Copia just rolls his eyes and tells Secondo he's trying to keep him cool and Secondo just sits there blinking like 'Oh. Uh... thank you I guess?'. He's a little stunned.

Eheheheh anyways here's where he starts crushing on Copia because sudden he gets the 'Copia nursing you back to health' treatment, the 'Copia being gentle and caring and attentive to all your needs' treatment. And it's... it's really nice.

He starts looking forwards to when Copia comes to check on him, looking forwards to hearing Copia's little murmurs and noises that he makes to himself while he tuts around the room.

(He hates it though and will deny it 1000% if you ask him)

Copia doesn't know when taking care of Secondo went from being a thing of obligation and duty to one of care and choice. He can tell that Secondo is getting used to his presence and he thinks it's the funniest (and also a little cute) when Secondo catches himself feeling soft or agreeing with Copia and suddenly scowls and is all grumpy.

Secondo is tentatively back on his feet in two weeks-- he's still a little weak but at least he can move around which he's grateful for since being in bed for so long was driving him nuts.

At first Copia kind of tries to help Secondo a bit but after a few days they begin to fall back into their old dynamic and antics.

However. The first time Secondo tries to make Copia jealous, pulling you to him with his arm around your waist and slotting his leg between yours, leaning in to brush his lips against your ear and whisper things that make you blush-- the first time that happens after Secondo gets better, Copia finds himself not puffing up with jealous, not bitter and huffy. No, he's not jealous.

He's turned on.

He splutters something along the lines of what he'd usually say before taking off. Secondo thinks he's storming away because he's jealous, but in reality Copia just doesn't want either of you to see the tent in his pants.

(You and Secondo think he's gone off to sulk but he's really just gone to find somewhere private to take care of his new problem)

Copia tries to carry on as usual, play his part of their little game. In the evening when Secondo is sitting by the fire and reading, Copia gently pushes you against the couch and kisses you dirtily using so much tongue while his hands come up to ruck up your shirt. You let out a soft moan and Secondo's head shoots up.

His expression is a stony one at first, before he really takes in the scene. And fuck do you and Copia make such a pretty picture. He's surprised to find that he's not jealous, he doesn't feel that red hot anger and rage anymore when he sees the two of you together.

He isn't embarrassed like Copia, so he sets his book to the side to loosen his pants.

Needless to say, while Copia and Secondo don't particularly talk about it, soon their little game against each other turns to mutual moments and 'activities' with the three of you involved at the same time.

Sometimes Secondo will sit back to watch you and Copia together, and sometimes Copia likes to watch you with Secondo.

It all comes to a head one day when intruders flood Secondo's tower and try to grab you. Both him and Copia crush them but not without Copia sustaining a bad injury. You're the first one to rush to him, but Secondo is the one to scoop him up and immediately head to the bedroom-- his own bedroom. He fusses over Copia's wounds and patches him up as much as he can.

That night is spent with the two of you curled around Copia protectively and when Copia wakes in the morning, you're both just as relieved.

Days together begin to turn to years and soon Secondo makes Copia a liar of his own underneath his tower. The three of you still sleep together every night but Copia is ecstatic to have his own space and domain.

There's plenty of space for the three of you and you take care of each other. It's not always easy but you'll always make it work.

Things are good, perfect even and though Secondo and Copia still argue from time to time, they always forgive each other and make up with gentle kisses and warm embraces.