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When Atsushi met the dragon in the woods while searching for food, the dragon nearly ate him.
He’d been picking peaches, eager to escape from under the cold eye of the orphanage headmaster as much as he could, when he heard the low, pained growls that shook the trees themselves. Atsushi knew that he should’ve run away at the very first sound that made even his blood still at how it vibrated through the earth, but he couldn’t help himself. Carrying a small basket of peaches, he followed the growls deeper into the forest. Soon, he found a trail of blood that led even further in.
Bleeding into the grass, Atsushi found a dragon with black scales that glowed red in the sunlight.
The growls were mixed with rumbling whimpers of pain, cradling a bleeding wing close to its side and licking at wounds on its front legs. The pain had to have been overbearing, for the dragon didn’t notice Atsushi’s approach until Atsushi came to stand in front of the dragon.
He didn’t know why he made the first step, but seeing the dragon in so much pain—
Slit gray eyes outlined with deep red looked at him.
“Let me help you.”
Why dragons were so feared was made all too clear when the dragon pinned Atsushi to a nearby boulder, despite the blood trickling to the ground below, and snarled in his face. The fangs were nearly as large as Atsushi’s head, and those stormy eyes burned into him with anger. Its claws didn’t pierce flesh, but stabbed the rock that Atsushi was pressed against. Even through his own fear, in the dragon’s eyes, he saw anger and—
It’s afraid.
Just like me.
“Please,” Atsushi whispered.
The dragon’s eyes never left his face as Atsushi raised a hand to press it against a razor sharp black claw.
“I just want to help you, so let me.”
Dragon and human stared at each other in silence, Atsushi’s heart racing in his ears as he prepared for what he thought was the inevitable. The dragon growled softly and it surrounded him, and though Atsushi was terrified, he raised his chin and his stare did not waver. Even if he were to die here, he’d die with his eyes open and defiant.
Better to die by the fangs of a dragon than in that awful, awful place.
The dragon continued to look at him, as if trying to see right through flesh and bone, seeing through him and Atsushi’s blood thrummed in his ears as he waited for the inevitable.
Instead, the dragon closed its eyes and huffed a hot breath into Atsushi’s face.
Then, the dragon pulled back.
Atsushi watched in astonishment as the dragon retreated back its former spot and lowered its large head on its front claws. It stared at him expectantly as it laid its wing flat on the ground and exposed the gaping wounds on its body. Its body was relaxed and open.
Standing on shaky feet, Atsushi smiled and walked towards the dragon.
Calendula coated the dragon’s wounds and Atsushi didn’t cease until its wounds were cleaned and the bleeding had stopped. The dragon’s breathing grew less labored and pained, and Atsushi sat with the dragon all night, watching over it. When dawn came, Atsushi placed new calendula flowers and yarrow over the wounds and stood up to return to the orphanage before the headmaster began looking for him.
“I’ll be back,” Atsushi promised.
The dragon stared and then lifted its head. The dragon nudged it’s snout against Atsushi’s palm, and closed its eyes.
Breath hitching, Atsushi beamed and gently ran his hand along the dragon’s snout in a gentle stroke.
In his place, Atsushi left behind peaches for the dragon to eat and fish from the nearby river that he’d caught for the dragon. All throughout the day, the dragon rested and waited. Come that evening, Atsushi came to the dragon with a basket full of herbs and sat beneath the dragon’s wing, tending to its wounds.
Every day for nearly three weeks, Atsushi finished his chores early, avoiding the hand of the Headmaster as much as he could, and came to the black dragon in the forest of redwoods.
Atsushi would clean and redress the dragon’s wounds, and occasionally, he would talk to the dragon; about the antics of young children in the village and at the orphanage who’d yet to be broken by the cruel hands of those who ran the orphanage, the strange little endearing quirks of those who lived in the village, and the books that he read. Sometimes he spoke of silly things, and sometimes he would sing. Just a hum under his breath, or soft lullabies that seemed to soothe the dragon when a particular wound stung. As the flesh healed, Atsushi admired the new scales that grew in place.
They were such a beautiful color; a black dragon was an omen of evil and destruction, but Atsushi couldn’t help but find the creature beautiful.
When Atsushi offered the dragon mandarin oranges for a snack, the dragon sniffed and recoiled, growling at the fruit as if it offended him. Atsushi then gave the dragon figs, and the dragon nudged his hands, looking for more after he’d devoured them.
Dragons were said to be mindless beasts that only brought death and fire to everything in their wake, and that all humans should stay as far away as they could. Even the bravest dragon hunter would think twice before attempting to give food to an injured dragon, nearly healed. But there was intelligence in the dragon’s eyes that no mindless beast should have. Everything Atsushi told him, the dragon understood.
Atsushi quickly grew to love spending his days with the dragon.
When the dragon’s wounds were healed, Astushi was elated and sad at the same time. He ran his palms over where the wounds had been, the dragon’s head lifted up as he watched the human run his fingers over the newly grown scales. There were older scars on the dragon’s body (caused by humans or hostile dragons, Atsushi could only wonder), but he was relieved that there were no new ones.
Atsushi slowly dragged his fingers along the dragon’s side, admiring how smooth the scales felt against the pads of his fingers.
“…You’re all better to fly, now, aren’t you?”
The dragon’s head tilted and made a soft noise, almost confused.
Atsushi smiled sadly.
“Isn’t it awful of me that I wish you could stay?” He laughed. “I know, you probably have a home to go to, but, if you were to stay.. I’d want to keep seeing you. I like being around you… you’re, probably the closest thing to a friend that I have.”
The back of Atsushi’s eyes burned and he hid them behind his arm. The dragon was still and unmoving, not making a sound. Atsushi bit his bottom lip hard and sucked in a breath, trying to keep himself from suddenly crying like a fool.
He felt warm breath on his forehead and his breath caught when the dragon’s snout pressed against his forehead.
The dragon made a noise that sounded like a deep, rumbling purr and it filled Atsushi with warmth.
Atsushi raised his arms (bruised and hurting from various punishments that he faced at the orphanage, where no one would dare to stick up for one another for the sake of saving their own skin, his own scars few but hideous) and wrapped them around the dragon’s neck in an embrace. The dragon’s wing covered him, shading him from the sunset.
Atsushi had never felt such a protective, warm hold before in his life. It surrounded him wholly and he adored it.
Three nights later, just before the moon was to turn full, Atsushi returned to the same place where he’d found the dragon, expecting the hollow to be empty. The black dragon was still there, waiting with a pile of fish, untouched, by his front claws.
One fortnight later, Atsushi returned to the hollow and the dragon was not there.
In the dragon’s place was a man with dark hair that turned white at the tips, skin as pale as the moon, and eyes as intense and gray as a storm.
“Who are you?” Atsushi asked.
The man scoffed, the corner of his mouth turning upward.
“Must you ask such a foolish question?”
Those gray eyes met his, and Atsushi needed to ask no more.
He smiled.
“..You’re right, that’s a stupid question. I already know who you are. But, I don’t have your name yet, you know.”
The man told him that his name, the closest equivalent that he could translate into a language that Atsushi understood, was ‘Ryuunosuke.’ Atsushi thought it was a lovely, fitting name.
Ryuunosuke held out his hand and said, “Will you leave here with me?”
Atsushi didn’t have to think twice.
He took Ryuunosuke’s hand and felt the fire in the dragon’s bones.
Fingers curled tightly around his own and he felt warmth spread into every single pore of his body, like a blanket covering him completely. Atsushi’s stomach clenched tightly and his heart fluttered. He couldn't fight the smile on his lips as Ryuunosuke drew him in closer. He felt the warmth hovering off of his body, just inches away. He could sink into it. Never had he felt so safe.
He knew exactly what he wanted, what Ryuunosuke wanted, without words needing to be said.
It hadn’t been necessary before, and it wasn’t necessary now.
“Yes.”